St. Albans and Welwyn Methodist Circuit Service for Sunday 23rd July 2023
A Service prepared by the Rev Andrew Prout
‘O Lord you search me and you know me’
The service that follows can also be accessed together with an audio recording of the hymns via the Circuit Web-site www.stalbansalbansandwelwyncircuit.org.uk/ with thanks to Chris Hancock our Circuit administrator. This Sunday marks my last but one in the St. Albans and Welwyn Circuit nine years after my arrival in 2014. On Sunday evening everyone is warmly invited to attend my Circuit Farewell Service which will take place at Hatfield Road Methodist Church at 7.00pm. The following opening hymn is one from which I regularly draw inspiration and is among my most favoured hymns of Charles Wesley:
Hymn STF 134 (Charles Wesley 1707-1788 / Tune: Heathlands)
- Christ, whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true, the only Light,
Sun of Righteousness, arise,
triumph o’er the shades of night;
Day-spring from on high, be near;
Day-star, in my heart appear. - Dark and cheerless is the morn
unaccompanied by thee;
joyless is the day’s return,
till thy mercy’s beams I see,
till they inward light impart,
glad my eyes, and warm my heart.
3 Visit then this soul of mine;
pierce the gloom of sin and grief;
fill me, radiancy divine;
scatter all my unbelief;
more and more thyself display,
shining to the perfect day.
Opening Prayers
Collect for Purity (An Ancient Christian Prayer)
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Your Holy Spirit that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your Holy Name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let us confess our sins to God
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought and word and deed.
We have not always loved you with our whole heart.
We have not always loved our neighbours as ourselves.
Forgive what we have been, help us to amend what we are, and direct what we shall be;
That we may delight in your will and walk in your ways,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins,
And cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Amen. Thanks be to God.
The Collect
Gracious God,
whose love for the world is revealed in your Son our Saviour:
grant that He may live in our hearts by faith,
and be proclaimed in our lives by love;
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be glory and praise now and for ever. Amen
Old Testament Reading: Psalm 139: 1-12, 23-24 (NRSV)
O God you search me and you know me
To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.
7 Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night’,
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
24 See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Hymn STF 470 (Timothy Dudley-Smith b.1926 / Tune: Lord for the years)
Old Testament Reading Genesis 28: 10-19a– Jacob’s dream at Bethel
10 Jacob left Beersheba and went towards Haran. 11He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; 14and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. 15Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ 16Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ 17And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ 18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
Address: ‘O God you search me and you know me’:
The Psalmist reminds us that God is always there. He is the inescapable God who will be with us wherever we travel or wherever we settle. He is, as Jacob was reminded at Bethel, the God of our past, present and future. As I approach the final days of my ministry in St. Albans I find myself reflecting both on past and future, and finding assurance and comfort in such knowledge. As I look back I recall not only my time here in the St. Albans and Welwyn Circuit, but also in each of my previous appointments.
In my first appointment in Launceston I treasured my engagement with a rural farming community as I looked after seven small chapels. I recall one – Downicary where I would often have a congregation of beasts as well as people as some of the cows would wonder up to the Chapel after milking intrigued by the sound of the organ and stare through the windows! I shall never forget one of my first meetings with a Farmer and Local Preacher, a man called David who worked a farm with his wife Christine. David took me around his farm and showed me his herd. I pointed out one which I thought was lame, and David ever gracious said to me … ‘You know no one ever sees the 99 cows that are in good health’. It is a story that ever reminds me of the importance to celebrate and cherish the good, not least in our Churches. All too often we can find ourselves focussing only upon that which isn’t going as well, and failing to account for all the good things that we are doing.
In my second appointment in Bristol I had responsibility for two Churches. One of those Hanham Methodist Church was just a stone throw away from a World Methodist Heritage site – Hanham Mount. It was here in 1739 that John Wesley first witnessed open air preaching, and though it was contrary to his conviction and the perceived traditions and propriety at the time, not least in the established Church, he determined that he too needed to embrace this method of field preaching to reach the unchurched. In Bristol, in the same year, Wesley also established the New Room, a Meeting House where people could gather to sing hymns and hear the Gospel, and a centre out of which support could be given to the poor and needy. This secondary work which was deemed an integral part of the mission included the distribution of medicine, visitation of prisoners, and schooling of the illiterate. Such a history reminds me how Wesley got it right in reminding us that the Christian life, the holy life, and the life of the Church is one whose focus must be both on the saving of souls and the saving of society. Everything we do can not only be about what is within our hearts and Churches, but also about what is out there in the world.
Then my time here in St. Albans. What shall I remember? As always it will be centred on the people I have met. I shall ever cherish an appointment that has given me opportunity to engage with people of different cultural heritage. Wesley once said ‘The world is my parish’ and it certainly has been my lived experience in St. Albans. I shall further cherish being able to lead the 125th anniversary celebrations at both Hatfield Road and Marlborough Road, the 50th anniversary celebrations at Radlett, and being able to discover the rich heritage of Shenley in my four years as their minister. I shall also never forget the time I sat down to a meal with some Syrian Refugees at Hatfield Road who had just flown into Stanstead having been evacuated from Homs and Aleppo. Never have I felt more keenly the words of Jesus ‘As much as you do this for one of the least of these you do it unto me’.
Then of course we all shared the difficult years of the Covid-19 pandemic. There were some very difficult moments yet we discovered new ways to support each other and keep in contact. I remember being deeply moved and weeping in the midst of the first lockdown, and following several difficult funerals at which only a handful of people were permitted to attend, listening to a beautiful sung arrangement of the ancient blessing ‘The Lord bless you and keep you’. Each part was recorded by a musician and singer in their own home. Jesus words came to mind ‘Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest’.
All these experiences remind us that there is much work for us still to do, and every reason for us to pursue it. For God’s plan, as the Scriptures remind us, is always to give both to His people and to the world ‘hope and a future’ (Jeremiah 29:11). And underpinning all is a God who invites us to dream dreams, a Saviour who lifts up the broken and gives strength to the weary, and a Spirit who leads us out into the world to announce and live out the Gospel of liberty, life and grace. So, as I prepare to move for a fourth time in my ministry and head to Frome in the Somerset Mendip Circuit, and once again find myself surrounded by boxes, I give thanks to God for each and every one of you, and find myself being stirred by the words of St. Paul … ‘Faith, hope and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love’ (1 Corinthians 13:13). Thanks be to God. Amen
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Let us in silence give glory to God who watches over each of us in all our travels in life…
Lord of our past, our present, our future. Let our hope and strength be in you
Let us in silence give thanks to God for those people with whom we have shared any part of the journey and to whom we are grateful for their encouragement, love and support…
Lord of our past, our present, our future. Let our hope and strength be in you
Let us in silence pray both for the Church and for the world…
Lord of our past, our present, our future. Let our hope and strength be in you
Let us in silence pray for any who we know who have need…
Lord of our past, our present, our future. Let our hope and strength be in you
Let us in silence pray for ourselves that we may know Gods strength and blessing through all the unchanging scenes of life… Lord of our past, our present, our future. Let our hope and strength be in you
And because we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God, who draw inspiration from all who have gone before, we say together… Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name …
Hymn STF 610 (Andrew Pratt b.1948 / Tune: Chapel Brae)
The Blessing and Dismissal (Written by Tim Baker from ‘The Vine’ resource)
We shall go out with joy, and be sent forth with peace,
May the God of joy and love, and hope and peace go with us,
Lifting our hearts in times of pain, and dancing with us in times of laughter.
We go in peace to serve the Lord working for the day when all have life in abundance.
And the blessing of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon and remain with us, and all whom we hold in our hearts and prayers, now and forever. Amen
The UK Blessing — Churches sing ‘The Blessing’ over the UK – YouTube
