These are resources for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost) on Sunday, July 26, 2020. The resources are gathered from a variety of sources and, while assembled mainly for The Anglican Church of St Thomas the Apostle, Kefalas, on the island of Crete in Greece, others may find them useful.

Laban Greets Jacob (1655) by Rembrandt van Rijn 1606 – 1669, from Museum Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.

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You can join us via Zoom by clicking the link below, or enter the information at right into your Zoom app: Meeting ID: 850 4483 9927 Password: 010209:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85044839927?pwd=TkQ1cHEzNUNjSjVCNTNJVUJwSkZaQT09. Things went well last Sunday with no technical problems!

If you are unable to join us in person, or cannot join us via Zoom, then you can simply do it all yourself – read the lessons and pray the prayers below, as well as listen to the recorded sermon, and intersperse it all by clicking on the links to the hymns.

If you are in Crete you can join us in person. We meet this coming Sunday, July 19, 2020 at 11:00 am EEST at the Tabernacle of the Church of St Thomas, Kefalas.Here are some protocols, for your information:

We are now seeing the return of tourists, residents, and part-timers.  We would hate to see anyone become infected after so many sacrifices at controlling the pandemic. Here are some protocols we will follow at St Thomas’s.

• If a visitor or a part-timer comes, they will be asked if they have been in quarantine since arriving in Greece, or if they have been tested for Covid-19 since arriving. If they have not been in quarantine for two weeks, or they have not been tested (and presumably found uninfected), we respectfully ask them to wear a mask and to stand outside the Tabernacle, and stay a minimum of 1.5 metres from anybody else. They should, of course, also wash their hands in the lavatory or use hand sanitizer.
• We request that everyone either wash their hands in the lavatory or use hand sanitizer when entering into the Tabernacle or Chapel.
• I will continue to wear a mask.
• When singing hymns, we will do so quietly, and not in the direction of anyone else.
• At coffee time we should approach the serving table one at a time (or a family at a time), and not get bunched up.
• Communion for the congregation will continue in one species only, the bread. I will take communion to the people.
• The wearing of masks is encouraged but not obligatory.
• The Tabernacle may only have eighteen persons in it, and at least 1.5 metre from each other (families, of course, may sit together).
• Persons seated outside the Tabernacle should stay away from any visitors or recently returned residents or part-timers.
• If anyone is ill they should stay home.

Read

The Common Worship/Revised Common Lectionary has Genesis 29:15-28, Psalm 105:1-11, 45b or Psalm 128, Romans 8:26-39and Matthew 13:31-33,44-52 as the appointed readings; we will be using the readings from Genesis and Matthew, and Psalm 128 at St Thomas’s.

Reflect

Our Curate and Deacon, the Rev. Julia Bradshaw, will be preaching on this Sunday. Later this week I will be posting a brief meditation on the term “kingdom” as used in the parables.

Pray

Collect
Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

(or)

Generous God,
you give us gifts and make them grow:
though our faith is small as mustard seed,
make it grow to your glory
and the flourishing of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Intercession (From Litany 32)
Show us your mercy, O Lord;
and grant us your salvation.

O Lord, save the President;
And teach her counsellors wisdom.

Let your priests be clothed with righteousness;
let your faithful people sing with joy.

Let your ways be known upon earth;
your saving health among all nations.

Give your people the blessing of peace;
and may all the earth be filled with your glory.

Create in us clean hearts, O God,
and renew a right spirit within us.

I bid your prayers for the Church.

• For Robert Innes & David Hamid, our bishops;
• for Justin Welby our archbishop, Stephen Cottrell the Archbishop of York, and the General Synod of the Church of England;
• for the churches and peoples of Republic of Congo, Gabon, and Sao Tome & Principe(World Council of Churches Ecumenical Prayer Cycle);
• for the team responsible for preparing the Lambeth Conference, which was due to be taking place now – please pray for them as they consider the implications of its postponement in light of the Covid-19 pandemic (Anglican Cycle of Prayer); and
• (from the Prayer Diary of the Diocese in Europe) give thanks for:
  • the Spanish Episcopal Reformed Church, and its bishop, Carlos López-Lozano.
  • the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland; 
  • at the Diocesan Office in London: the Safeguarding team and their leadership in our care for children and vulnerable adults: Grace Fagan, Lisa Welch, Bridgett Fenton, Laura O’Brien, Majean Griffith, Katherine Harris.

I bid your prayers for those in leadership:

• • For Katerini Sakellaropoulou, President of Greece, and
    • Kyriakos Mitsotakis the Prime Minister of Greece;
  • for Elizabeth, Governor of the Church of England,
    • and Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of her British government;
  • for the leaders of all the nations, and for all in authority.
• I bid your prayers for this village of Kefalas and all the villages and homes in the Demos of Apokoronas here on the island of Crete;
  and for the cities, towns, and villages from which we come.

I bid your prayers for the safety, health and salvation of:

• those who travel by land, air, or water,
  and for all medical staff testing and tracing tourists;
• the sick and the suffering,
  remembering the approximately 5.3 million active cases of the novel coronavirus;
• prisoners and captives,
  especially the over one million Uigers being held in detention in China; and
• refugees and migrants,
  especially those on Lesvos and in other camps in Greece.

Sing