These are worship resources for The Second Sunday of Lent, 2021. 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.

Read

The readings appointed for the Second Sunday of Lent are Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16, Psalm 22:22-30, Romans 4:13-25, and Mark 8:31-38.

In the Anglican Church of St Thomas, Crete, we are observing Easter on the Orthodox date – thus February 28 is for us the Third Sunday before Lent, and the readings are 2 Corinthians 4.5-12, Psalm 139.1-5,12-18, and Mark 2.23 – 3.6.

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Please join us by clicking this link or by entering the following into your Zoom application: Meeting ID: 850 4483 9927 Passcode: 010209. This will be a Zoom-only service — we may start having Zoomed service in the church in the next few weeks, involving the leaders in the church with three or four congregants, and the rest of you joining in remotely on your computers.

The Order of Service for the Third Sunday Before Lent can be downloaded here:

Reflect

Here is a sermon for the Second Sunday of Lent, riffing off of the Genesis reading, by the Very Reverend Sam Candler, the Dean of Georgia and Rector of the Cathedral of St Philip, Atlanta.

This is a sermon for February 28, 2021 by Fr Leonard Doolan, the priest at the Anglican Church of St Paul, Athens. He uses the same gospel as we will use, Mark 2.23 – 3.6, but for the first reading he is using 1 Samuel 3.1-10.

Pray

Collect
Almighty God,
you show to those who are in error the light of your truth,
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
grant to all those who are admitted
into the fellowship of Christ’s religion,
that they may reject those things
that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

(or)

Almighty God,
by the prayer and discipline of Lent
may we enter into the mystery of Christ’s sufferings,
and by following in his Way
come to share in his glory;
through 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;
• we remember our beloved in Christ in other denominations, especially the leadership in:
  • The Orthodox Church: Vartholomaĩos, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople; and Irinaios Athanasiadis, Archbishop of Crete; and the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece in Athens;
  • The Roman Catholic Church, especially Pope Francis, and the bishop for Crete, Petros Stefanou;
  • our relationship of full communion with the churches of the Porvoo agreement, especially The Church of Sweden, the Rev. Björn Kling, and Thomas Petersson, Bishop of Visby with oversight of the Church of Sweden Abroad;
  • the Greek Evangelical Church, the independent Greek Pentecostal churches, and the various Lutheran, Reformed, and other Protestant churches ministering to foreign populations;
• we pray especially for congregations that have been obliged to cease in-person services, and give thanks that we are able to gather over the internet;
• for the churches and peoples of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands (World Council of Churches Ecumenical Prayer Cycle);
• in the Anglican Communion, we pray for Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America (Anglican Cycle of Prayer);
• (from the Prayer Diary of the Diocese in Europe) pray:
  • the Church of Norway, with whom we are in communion through the Porvoo Agreement;
  • our fellowship with the French Lutheran and Reformed Churches (Reuilly Common Statement);
  • and our partnership with the Church Mission Society (“CMS”).

I bid your prayers for the leaders and people 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 the United Nations and its work, and its Secretary General, António Guterres;
• For the peoples of the United States, and for their new President, Joe Biden and their new Vice-President, Kamala Harris; the Congress and the federal courts; and the state governors, legislatures, and state court systems;
• the peoples of Myanmar, Belarus, Hong Kong, Russia, Sudan, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Bolivia, Nigeria, Brazil, and Thailand as they continue to demonstrate for democracy and justice;
• for the maintaining of peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and between Russia and Ukraine, North and South Korea, and for a final, just resolution to their conflicts;
• for peace and justice between Palestinians and Israelis;
• 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 Uygers being held in detention in China;
• the over 79.5 million refugees and nearly 4 million stateless person, remembering especially the crucial situation of Greece, and the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (“UNHCR”);
• for a lessening of tensions between Turkey and Greece; and
• for peace in Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, and Ethiopia.

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

• remembering the nearly twenty-one million active cases of the novel coronavirus, giving thanks that this number has begun to go down; but mourning with the families of the over 2.51 million who have died in the pandemic;
• for the 1.3 million people in the UK with active cases of covid-19, the over 122,000 who have died of it there, and the 14,964 active cases here in Greece, and the families of the over 6410 dead here;
• remembering those ill with other diseases, and those whose operations have been postponed;
• all those having issues with mental health;
• those suffering from addiction, and those in recovery;
• those who have been affected severely by the economic effects of the pandemic, especially in food services and tourism;
• and giving thanks for the efforts of researchers in finding vaccines, and for the rollout of vaccines across the world.

Intercession
We come before the Son of God, crucified and risen,
who eternally intercedes for us to the Father, saying:
turn our hearts again.

Son of God, you came into the world to save sinners:
All  turn our hearts again.

You became poor that we might become rich:
All  turn our hearts again.

You have taken on yourself all our sufferings:
All  turn our hearts again.

You loved the Church and gave yourself for her:
All  turn our hearts again.

For the joy which was set before you,
you endured the cross:
All  turn our hearts again.

King of the ages, you brought us the gift of life
and opened the way to unending joy:
All  turn our hearts again.

Sing

In love you summon, in love I follow,
living today for your tomorrow,
Christ to release me, Christ to enfold me,
Christ to restrain me, Christ to uphold me.