These are resources for the Last Sunday after Trinity on Sunday, October 25, 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.

A Note on Lectionaries
This coming Sunday is the Last Sunday after Trinity, according to the Lectionary of Common Worship in The Church of England. In The Episcopal Church in the USA and in the Anglican Church of Canada it is The Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost, and The Last Sunday after Pentecost is not marked until November 22. That said, the readings in both lectionaries are both the same – the names are just different. From November 1 (All Saints) to November 22 the Church of England observes the Sundays before Advent because, I guess, the season of Advent can go by really fast. The readings are more or less the same as in the Revised Common Lectionary, used by TEC and ACoC.

The Sunday is also known as Bible Sunday, and in congregations where the dedication date of the church building is not known, the Dedication Festival may be held. In both cases the readings are different.

Read

The readings appointed by the Church of England in Common Worship for this Sunday, and which we will use at St Thomas Kefalas, are Deuteronomy 34.1-12, Psalm 90.1-6, 13-17, and Matthew 22.34-46.

Share

It was a long-awaited pleasure to share the Lord’s Supper with over twenty of our members last Sunday, and God willing, we will continue to be able to meet in the Tabernacle of The Anglican Church of St Thomas the Apostle, Kefalas. So please join us, if you can, at 11:00 am this Sunday, October 25, 2020.

If you cannot join in person you can participate on Zoom. Click this link, or enter the information at right into your Zoom app: Meeting ID: 850 4483 9927 Password: 010209. My thanks to Frances Bryant-Scott for being the Zoom host last week.

Of course, you can also throw your own service together with the materials on this page – read the readings, pray the prayers, and sing with the hymns.

Reflect

As I prepare these resources I suspect that I will be preaching on the Psalm. Psalm 90 has the ascription “A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.” Psalm 90 is also the source of the great old hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”, so I will probably reflect on that connection. I will post the sermon after I have preached it. Last week’s sermon is here.

Pray

Collect
Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

(or)

Merciful God,
teach us to be faithful in change and uncertainty,
that trusting in your word and obeying your will
we may enter the unfailing joy of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Biddings
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 Canada and the United States of America (World Council of Churches Ecumenical Prayer Cycle);
• in the Anglican Communion, we remember the Church in Wales and The Most Revd John Davies, the Archbishop of Wales & Bishop of Swansea & Brecon (Anglican Cycle of Prayer); and
• (from the Prayer Diary of the Diocese in Europe) give thanks for:
  • the Spanish Episcopal Reformed Church, Bishop Carlos López-Lozano.
  • for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland;
  • in the Diocesan Office in London, for the Safeguarding team: Grace Fagan, Lisa Welch, Bridgett Fenton, Laura O’Brien, Majean Griffith, Katherine Harris and for our care for children and vulnerable adults.

I bid your prayers for the leaders of the nations; especially

• Katerini Sakellaropoulou, President of Greece, and
  • Kyriakos Mitsotakis the Prime Minister of Greece;
• Elizabeth, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and her other realms, and also in her role as Governor of the Church of England;
  • and Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of her British government;
• In the European Union,
  • Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission;
  • Charles Michel, President of the European Council; and
  • Josep Borrell, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy;
• For negotiations around Brexit;
• the peoples of Belarus and Thailand as they continue to demonstrate for democracy;
• for peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia;
• for the peoples of the United States as they enter the last two weeks before their elections;
• for advocates of Indigenous rights and the adoption and implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
• prisoners and captives, especially the over one million Uigers being held in detention in China;
• for a lessening of tensions between Turkey and Greece; and
• for peace in Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, and between Palestinians and Israelis.

I bid your prayers for the sick and suffering and all who minister to their needs;

• remembering the over 9.3 million active cases of the novel coronavirus, and mourning with the families of the over 1.1 million who have died in the pandemic;
• for the estimated 336,500 people in the UK with covid-19, the 44,000 who have died of it there, and the 16,000 active cases here in Greece, and the families of the over 528 dead here;
• and also remembering those ill with other diseases, and those whose operations have been postponed;
• the over 79.5 million refugees and nearly 4 million stateless person, remembering especially the crucial situation of Greece.

Intercession
That this day may be holy, good and joyful:
All  we pray to you, O Lord.

That we may offer to you our worship and our work:
All  we pray to you, O Lord.

That we may strive for the well-being of all creation:
All  we pray to you, O Lord.

That in the pleasures and pains of life,
we may know the love of Christ and be thankful:
All  we pray to you, O Lord.

That we may be bound together by your Holy Spirit,
in communion with Thomas, our patron,
Mary of Magdala, who first proclaimed
the good news of the resurrection, and all your saints,
Mary, the Mother of God, and with all your saints,
entrusting one another and all our life to Christ:
All  we pray to you, O Lord.

Let us commend ourselves, and all for whom we pray,
to the mercy and protection of God.

Sing