Small Children are welcome to play in St Thomas's Chapel, near the porch
Baptised Communicants of other Churches are encouraged to receive communion
Children and other non-communicants are invited to come to the altar for a blessing
The Ministry of Healing is offered in the Chapel, after Communion is given

Welcome to Rev Ann Clarridge, celebrant and preacher today.  Father Bob is away.

Processional Hymn

Collect of the Day

O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers of your people who call upon you; and grant that they may both perceive and know    what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfill them; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

First Reading                 Esther 7.1-6,9-10; 9.20-22               (p.686)

1The king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. 2On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, ‘What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.’ 3Then Queen Esther answered, ‘If I have won your favour, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me – that is my petition – and the lives of my people – that is my request. 4For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.’ 5Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, ‘Who is he, and where is he, who presumed to do this?’ 6Esther said, ‘A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!’ Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. 9Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, ‘Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.’ And the king said, ‘Hang him on that.’ 10So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated. 20Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year, 22as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.

Gradual Hymn

GOSPEL                         Mark 9.38-50                                       (p.692)

38John said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’ 39But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. 40Whoever is not against us is for us. 41For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.  42If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.  49For everyone will be salted with fire. 50Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’

INTERCESSIONS

Please pray for
- The sick and suffering: especially Felix Okike, Lucilda Bernard, Joan Andrew, Elizabeth Dorsett, Clive Heywood, Ron & Ivy Smith, Susie Leach, Norbert Edwards, Brother Paul Anthony, Sylvia Steed, John Asbridge, Caroline Nevill, Ruth and Tracey Davies.

Offertory Hymn                           

Post Communion Prayer

Almighty God, you have taught us through your Son that love is the fulfilling of the law: grant that we may love you with our whole heart and our neighbours as ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Recessional Hymn                    

Coffee in Church after the service

Some material included in this service is copyright: ©  1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ, USA. Some material included in this service is copyright: ©  The Archbishops' Council 2000. Collect (16th after Trinity) ©  The Crown/Cambridge University Press: The Book of Common Prayer (1662)

NOTICES

THIS WEEK:

THIS MONTH

Mon 2nd October - youth event at St Barnabas, Kensington
Sunday 15 October - youth mass at St Michael & All Angels, Bedford Park followed by lunch

NEXT SUNDAY:    8 October 2006    Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

10 am SUNG EUCHARIST
Celebrant and Preacher – The Reverend Dr Bob Mayo
Job 1.1; 2.1-10  (p 693), Mark 10.2-16  (p 698)

Home Communion – Available to any unable to come on a Sunday.  Talk to Father Bob (8743 3166) if you or anyone else might be interested.

Any enquiries about pastoral concerns, baptisms, weddings or funerals please get in touch with either Bob Mayo, the vicar, or Sarah Archer, the Associate-Vicar at St Michaels. The only time that Bob will be unavailable is between Friday pm and Sunday am.

For Parish Hall enquiries please contact the Parish Secretary, Jill Wigney. on 020 8740 9879 or email ststephensw12@london.anglican.org

Visit the church web site at www.ststephensw12.org