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

This Sunday we bid ‘God Bless and goodbye’ To Laura who has lived in England for 47 years and has worshipped at St Stephens for 35 years. She is going home to Grenada and we will all miss her. There will be a 'bring-and-share' lunch after the service for her to which all are invited.

This Sunday is Pia’s baptism. She has been a part of our congregation for the last year and wants to mark her commitment to the church through this public act of baptism. I have appreciated the warmth and friendliness she and Naomi have shown to me since I came to Shepherds Bush and I am thrilled at her baptism today.

Some of you will have been away and not heard the news about Alex Kasim and Felix. Alex was away with the church at Walsingham. He had an asthma attack and tragically did not recover. His funeral was last Friday. Your prayers are asked for the rest of the family – Olu, Christine, Rachel and Michael. Felix who was one of our servers and had worshipped with us for a while was deported back to Ghana at short notice. He was picked up by the police and was gone in 48 hours.

This Wednesday at 7pm we have ‘church-lite’. This will be a meeting in the church for an informal conversation to carry on some of the ideas raised in the sermon.

Processional Hymn

Collect of the Day
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray and to give more than either we desire or deserve: pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask but through the merits and mediation of 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.

Reading                             Song of Solomon 2.8-13                        (p.662)
8The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills. 9My beloved is like a gazelle or young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice. 10My beloved speaks and says to me: ‘Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; 11for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. 12The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land. 13The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.’

Gradual Hymn
                           
GOSPEL                           Mark 7.1-8,14-15,21-23                          (p.666)
1When the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, 2they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ 6He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 7in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.”’  14Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’ 21For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

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
                          
Communion Hymn
              
Post Communion Prayer
God of all mercy, in this eucharist you have set aside our sins and given us your healing: grant that we who are made whole in Christ may bring that healing to this broken world, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Recessional Hymn

Coffee in church after the service

Post Communion (12th after Trinity) ©  1985 Anglican Church of Canada: The Book of Alternative Services.  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 (12th after Trinity) ©  The Crown/Cambridge University Press: The Book of Common Prayer (1662)

NOTICES

THIS WEEK:

THIS MONTH

29th September - Peace Week concert by Bush City Youth.

NEXT SUNDAY:          10 September 2006    Thirteenth after Trinity

10 am SUNG EUCHARIST
Celebrant and Preacher – The Reverend Dr Bob Mayo
Proverbs 22.1-2,8-9,22-23 (p 667), Mark 7.24-37(p 671)
Start of new term for the Sunday School and Sunday Youth

ARE YOU ON THE EMAIL DISTRIBUTION LIST?
We are setting up an email distribution list to keep members of St Stephen’s in touch with a weekly prayer and much more.  If you would like to be included on this list, please email the Parish Secretary at ststephensw12@london.anglican.org

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