- Introduction to the Season
- Sunday 31st May
- Sunday 7th June
- Sunday 14th June
- Sunday 21st June
- Sunday 28th June
- Sunday 5th July
Introduction to the Season
Resources for our summer season from Trinity Sunday until the beginning of July is about Sabbath. Entitled ‘The Good Life’ it draws on the Sunday Gospel week by week, alongside other readings that service leaders choose.
- Sabbath in the Trinity — Sabbath is the renewal and restoration of God’s company, drawing us into the life of the Trinity.
- Sabbath is a good meal — Sabbath is like a shared table where those once excluded find welcome, mercy, and restored life.
- Sabbath is a good opportunity — Sabbath frees us to notice the needs around us and discover that helping others gives life rather than drains it.
- Sabbath is a good place to stand — Sabbath steadies us against fear and pressure by reminding us that our lives are held in God’s care.
- Sabbath is good hospitality — Sabbath opens our lives so that giving and receiving become a shared life in which no one is a stranger.
- Sabbath is a good rest — Sabbath is the moment we stop, bring our weariness to Jesus, and let him carry what is heavy with us.
- Introduction to the Season
- Sunday 31st May
- Sunday 7th June
- Sunday 14th June
- Sunday 21st June
- Sunday 28th June
- Sunday 5th July
Sunday 31st May
The Good Life 1 of 6
Sabbath in the Trinity
10.30 Christ Church shared communion Rev Sarah & team
The links below will go live as materials are uploaded
- Trinity Sunday Plus service draft outline 17/4
- Rev Sarah’s Sunday sermon
- Suggested intercessions
- The Weekly Link for St Wulstans
- Stepping Stones questions sheet
Isaiah 40.27-31
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God’? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Matthew 28:16-20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
Common Worship Additional Collect
Holy God, faithful and unchanging: enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth, and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love, that we may truly worship you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Prayers for an Inclusive Church Collect
Trinity of love, deposing the powers of hate and isolation, gathering creation into bonds of mutual care: through the waters of baptism may our relatedness be born in justice, mercy and peace, through Jesus Christ who is with us always.
Amen.
1. What stands out? Imagine the passage from Isaiah in a high-quality documentary. Whose voice as narrator would do it justice?
2. What does it mean? In these closing moments of Matthew’s Gospel, what does Jesus tell them and what does he tell them to do?
3. How does it connect? In Isaiah people receive strength; in Matthew the disciples are sent. How do those two things belong together?
4. What are the deeper questions? What is bigger than ever before about the way Jesus sends the disciples?
5. What challenges you? This season is about Sabbath, and how it is the Good Life to which we are invited in the Trinity. What draws you and what unsettles you as you hear that?
6. How will you respond? Over the coming week, pay attention each day to the things that bring you Sabbath, and to the things that draw you away from it. You might like to keep a notebook to jot things down.
- Introduction to the Season
- Sunday 31st May
- Sunday 7th June
- Sunday 14th June
- Sunday 21st June
- Sunday 28th June
- Sunday 5th July
Sunday 7th June
THE GOOD LIFE 2 OF 6
Sabbath is a good meal
The links below will go live as materials are uploaded
- St Barnabas service outline
- St Wulstans service outline
- Rev Sarah’s Sunday sermon
- Suggested intercessions
- The Weekly Link for St Wulstans
- Stepping Stones questions sheet
Matthew 9.9–13, 18–26
Jesus calls Matthew out of a life marked by judgement and exclusion and sits down to eat with people others avoid. The meal itself becomes the sign of what God wants: mercy rather than sacrifice. Around that table, the boundaries that normally separate people are set aside and those who were pushed out are welcomed in. The stories that follow show what that mercy does. The woman is restored after years of suffering, and the girl is raised back to life. In Mark and Luke, Jesus tells them to give the girl something to eat. Life restored returns to the table. Sabbath is like that; a good meal where people who were left out find they belong again.
- Introduction to the Season
- Sunday 31st May
- Sunday 7th June
- Sunday 14th June
- Sunday 21st June
- Sunday 28th June
- Sunday 5th July
Sunday 14th June
THE GOOD LIFE 3 OF 6
Sabbath is a good opportunity
The links below will go live as materials are uploaded
- St Barnabas service outline
- St Wulstans service outline
- Rev Sarah’s Sunday sermon
- Suggested intercessions
- The Weekly Link for St Wulstans
- Stepping Stones questions sheet
Matthew 9.35–10.8
Jesus sends his followers out to heal, restore, and announce that God’s kingdom is near. What might sound like demanding work turns out to be life-giving. As they step into the needs around them, they discover that helping others does them good as well. Mission is what happens when we open our eyes to other people. Sabbath is like that. It gives us the freedom to notice what is needed and to get involved without fear of being drained. It becomes a good opportunity to take part in God’s work and find life in it.
- Introduction to the Season
- Sunday 31st May
- Sunday 7th June
- Sunday 14th June
- Sunday 21st June
- Sunday 28th June
- Sunday 5th July
Sunday 21st June
THE GOOD LIFE 4 OF 6
Sabbath is a good place to stand
The links below will go live as materials are uploaded
- St Barnabas service outline
- St Wulstans service outline
- Rev Sarah’s Sunday sermon
- Suggested intercessions
- The Weekly Link for St Wulstans
- Stepping Stones questions sheet
Matthew 10.24–39
Jesus speaks about the pressures that pull at our lives — fear, reputation, family expectation, and the instinct to protect ourselves. These forces can easily push us around. But then he points to something small and easily overlooked: the sparrow. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father knowing. If God’s care reaches even there, then our lives are not at the mercy of fear or pressure. Sabbath is like that. It gives us a place to stand, where we remember that we are held in God’s care, and where we can face life without being pushed around by anxiety.
- Introduction to the Season
- Sunday 31st May
- Sunday 7th June
- Sunday 14th June
- Sunday 21st June
- Sunday 28th June
- Sunday 5th July
Sunday 28th June
THE GOOD LIFE 5 OF 6
Sabbath is good hospitality
The links below will go live as materials are uploaded
- St Barnabas service outline
- St Wulstans service outline
- Rev Sarah’s Sunday sermon
- Suggested intercessions
- The Weekly Link for St Wulstans
- Stepping Stones questions sheet
Matthew 10.40–42
Jesus speaks about welcome. When his followers are received, he says, it is not only they who are welcomed but Christ himself, and the One who sent him. Even the smallest kindness matters. But the point is not that we must limit ourselves to the smallest thing we can give. The cup of water simply shows that even the simplest generosity counts. Sometimes we are the ones who offer it, and sometimes we are the ones who need it. Sabbath is like that. It opens our lives to one another, so that giving and receiving become part of the same shared life. In such moments people are no longer strangers but guests together at God’s table.
- Introduction to the Season
- Sunday 31st May
- Sunday 7th June
- Sunday 14th June
- Sunday 21st June
- Sunday 28th June
- Sunday 5th July
Sunday 5th July
THE GOOD LIFE 6 OF 6
Sabbath is a good rest
The links below will go live as materials are uploaded
- St Barnabas service outline
- St Wulstans service outline
- Rev Sarah’s Sunday sermon
- Suggested intercessions
- The Weekly Link for St Wulstans
- Stepping Stones questions sheet
Matthew 11.16–19, 25–30
Jesus speaks to people who are tired of trying to get life right. Arguments, expectations, and constant demands leave them weary. Into that weariness he offers a simple invitation: come to me. To take his yoke is to learn his way of living, gentle and unhurried rather than pressured and frantic. Sabbath is like that. It is the moment when we stop for a while, put down what we are carrying, and come to him in prayer. We sit with him, we tell him what is heavy, and we let him carry it with us. That is how true rest begins.
Eight Points of the Compass 