Dear Friends,

In our worship this week (readings below) we commemorate Holy Cross Day, a feast in the calendar of the church which calls us to pause and reflect on the very heart of our faith: the cross of Jesus Christ. For Christians the cross is more than a symbol; it is the place where divine love and human suffering meet. It is where God’s ultimate act of redemption was revealed, turning an instrument of shame and death into a sign of hope and life.

Our readings invite us deeper into this mystery. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul speaks of the humility of Christ, who, though he was in the very form of God, ‘emptied himself’ and took on human flesh. He went further still, humbling himself to the point of death—even death on a cross. Because of this self-giving love, God exalted him and gave him the name above every name. This is the pattern of the Christian life: humility leading to glory, surrender leading to victory.

In  our Gospel from John 3, we hear Jesus speak of being ‘lifted up’ just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. His being lifted up on the cross is not only an act of suffering but also an act of salvation. ‘For God so loved the world’ we are reminded, ‘that he gave his only Son’. The cross is not a sign of condemnation, but of God’s boundless love, offered for the healing of the world.

Holy Cross Day also invites us to look honestly at our own lives and at the world’s brokenness, and then to lift our eyes to the cross, where that brokenness is met by God’s mercy. As we worship this week, may we see in the cross not only the depth of Christ’s sacrifice, but also the height of God’s love—and may that love transform us to follow in his way.

Yours in Christ,

Ian

Worship this Sunday

Readings & Collect

Philippians 2: 6-11

John 3: 13-17

Almighty God,

who in the passion of your blessed Son

made an instrument of painful death

to be for us the means of life and peace:

grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ

that we may gladly suffer for his sake;

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

BCP Collect:

O God, who by the passion of thy blessed Son

didst make an instrument of shameful death

to be unto us the means of life:

Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ,

that we may gladly suffer shame and loss

for the sake of thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ;

who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

For your prayers

O God, we thank you for the mystery of the cross. For the sign of your love that turns death into life and despair into hope. We pray for the Church throughout the world, that it may faithfully proclaim the message of Christ crucified and risen. Strengthen all bishops, priests, deacons, and lay leaders, that in their words and actions they may lift high the cross and draw people to your saving love.

We pray for this world that you so love. Where there is conflict, bring peace; where there is injustice, bring righteousness; where there is suffering, bring relief. We hold before you nations torn apart by war, communities divided by hatred, and all who live in fear. May the cross, once a sign of oppression, become a sign of reconciliation and new beginnings.

We pray for those who carry heavy burdens … the sick, the lonely, the grieving, and the oppressed. As your Son was lifted up for our healing, may your love be lifted up in their lives today.

We give thanks for those who have gone before us in faith, who have borne witness to the power of the cross in their lives. May we, like them, take up our cross and follow you each day. Bring us, with them, to the fullness of your kingdom, where Christ reigns in glory.

Contact

Revd Dr Ian Mills, Rector & Area Dean

The Rectory

4 Parsonage Lane

Winford  

BS40 8DG

Telephone: (01275) 474504 

chewvalleywest@gmail.com

Revd Fran Smettem, Curate

Telephone: (01934) 340682 

curatechewvalleywest@gmail.com