Visit the church web site at www.ststephensw12.org. You can read all the latest news about the parish. You can also read the sermons which are posted each week

Barry (Clarke) and I went down to the Felbury Centre where we will be holding the first (ever!) St Stephens Parish Residential. The idea is for 45 people from the church to spend one night away together. This will be on Friday September 7th. There will be a coach leaving St Stephens at 5pm. Otherwise people can drive straight there (near Guildford) for a barbeque on the Friday evening. It will not be a religious type occasion but a chance to have some time together to relax and get to know each other better. There will be a glass of wine provided with the meal but all the other rum and brandy that people drink will need to be brought individually. The cost for the night away is £50.

St Stephens is twinned with St Michaels on the White City. Together we make one single parish. There is a new vicar at St Michaels who is due to be licensed this week on Thursday 14th June at 7.30. It would be good to see as many of us as are able there to support him.

Marjorie Bedasse was licensed as the Church Warden last week. Thank you Marjorie – you are the best Church Warden in the world – a dream for any vicar! However we do need someone to work with Marjorie as the Deputy Church Warden. There are meant to be two and she can’t do it all on her own.

Processional Hymn                    418
Collect of the Day
O God, the strength of all those who put their trust in you, mercifully accept our prayers and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without you, grant us the help of your grace, that in the keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; 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                 1 Kings 17.8-16                                (p. 901)
Then the word of the LORD came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”  “As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread – only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it – and die.”  Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.’”  She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.  Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”  “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”  The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”  Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”

Gradual Hymn                              202

GOSPEL                         Matthew 7: 21 – 29                             (p. 96)
Jesus said: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”  When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

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, Esmay Young, Roger Cox.

Offertory Hymn                            563

Communion Hymn                     594

Post Communion Prayer
Eternal Father, we thank you for nourishing us with these heavenly gifts: may our communion strengthen us in faith, build us up in hope, and make us grow in love; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Recessional Hymn                     433

Coffee in Church after the service

1 Kings 17.8-16(17-24) ©  1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Pub. Hodder & Stoughton. 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 (1st after Trinity) ©  The Crown/Cambridge University Press: The Book of Common Prayer (1662)

NOTICES

THIS WEEK:

NEXT SUNDAY:        17 June 2007       Second Sunday after Trinity

10 am SUNG EUCHARIST
Celebrant and Preacher – The Reverend Dr Bob Mayo
1 Kings 21.1b-10, 15-21 (p 907), Luke 7.36 - 8.3 (p 914)

What about today’s Gospel?

Friday/Saturday 7/8 September – Parish Residential Event – Felbury Centre, Dorking.  Please see Barry or Liz Clarke, or visit the church web site, for further information.
Refugee Week 18-24 June – www.refugeeweek.org.uk
ALMA Sunday, 15 July – www.almalink.org
Back to Church Sunday, 30 September www.backtochurch.co.uk

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 Father Bob. The only time that Bob will be unavailable is between Friday pm and Sunday am.