The Peace Which Jesus Gives

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Phil 1:1-5).

I thank God for this faith community which is full of faithful, loving, prayerful people. I’m grateful for our Pastoral Care team and your loving care for one-another. I’m thankful we can gather to pray for Ukraine on Thursday June 2nd, and I’m thankful for all your prayers for me, for each other, and for our Parish Council as we continue to work on our Mission Action Plan. We are currently discussing worship services and music selection and I want to apologise that some of my music selections haven’t been great recently. I appreciate your grace and patience, and also appreciate you letting me know some of your favourite songs to sing in Church. 

This coming Sunday we will be looking at John 14:23-29, and pondering the peace which Jesus gives us (verse 27). I heard the Archbishop give a talk on this passage on Tuesday evening at the clergy conference I attended and was surprised to learn he had been held up at gun point when he was serving as a parish priest. I think we have all been in situations that make us feel afraid or anxious, and managing these feelings with the Lord and receiving his peace makes all the difference.

May we each be encouraged to live by faith, not fear, when our sense of peace is challenged.

Every blessing to you in Christ, 

Rev. Tanya