Christ the King Sunday
November 19th, 2021
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Greetings on this last Sunday after Pentecost, the great Feast of Christ the King.
At this pre-recorded Eucharist from St Paul’s Cathedral, Sale, Dean Susanna preaches and presides for the final time in the context of these online services that have been such a feature of the ministry from St Paul’s for much of the last two years.
It is a typically thought-provoking sermon from Susanna on the nature of truth, in response to the gospel passage from the trial of Jesus before Pilate.
On behalf of the literally thousands of viewers of such offerings that Susanna has helped to plan and lead from both St Paul’s and the Chapel of Bishopscourt since early 2020, I extend our deep and sincere gratitude to her and the team at the Cathedral Parish for this liturgical leadership and service, along with a number of others who have preached and/or assisted in other ways, including of course Susanna’s husband, The Revd Nikolai Blaskow.
We will continue to pre-record worship for Advent and Christmas, and then in January review this online ministry in terms of what shape it might take in 2022 and beyond.
In the meantime, may you be blessed once more by the Dean’s preaching and presiding.
As always, at the point of the reception of Holy Communion, I invite you to the use the following prayer:
O Lord Jesus Christ, through your tender mercy grant that as the hem of your garment, touched in faith, healed the woman who could not touch your body, so the soul of this your servant may be healed by like faith in you, whom I cannot now sacramentally receive. In union with the faithful at every altar-table in your Church I desire to be united with you, and pray that you will come spiritually into my heart. Let nothing ever separate me from your love, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Grace and peace, +Richard