Church

Church services

Sunday, June 27 9.30am: St Peter’s Shaftesbury Parish Communion 9.30am: Motcombe Parish Communion 11.15am: Melbury Abbas Parish Communion 6pm: St James’ Shaftesbury Reflective Evening Communion 9am:Fifehead Neville Morning Prayer 11.15am: Hazelbury Bryan Parish Communion 6.30 pm: Woolland Evening Prayer 10am Holy Communion at St Mary’s, Gillingham 10:30am Holy Communion at St Simon & St Jude, Milton on Stour Sunday, July 4 9.30am: St Peter’s Shaftesbury Family Service 9.30am: St James’ Shaftesbury Parish Communion 11.15am: Enmore Green Family Service 11.15am: Margaret Marsh Matins 6pm: Motcombe Reflective Evening Communion 9am Mappowder Holy Communion 10.30am Hazelbury Bryan Morning Prayer 11am Ibberton Holy Communion 6.30pm Belchalwell Evening Prayer St. Mary's, Stalbridge Regular services: 1st Sunday Holy Communion at 10am, 2nd Sunday Evensong at 4pm, 3rd Sunday Morning Worship at 10am. Everyone welcome facebook.com/StalbridgeChu rch Blandford Methodist Church You are warmly invited to our Sunday services that start at 10.45am with Covid-19 restrictions of mask wearing, no singing and sitting two metres apart, in place. Please pre-book your seat on 01258 577 030.

HOLNEST CHURCH DT9 5PU: Open Air ‘Thanksgiving Songs of Praise’ in the churchyard to celebrate the completion of repair & conservation work and launch of summer programme of events & activities. Please join us at 4pm on Sunday, 27 June You may bring a chair for you own comfort. Covid restrictions at the prevailing time will be adhered to

If we want to be great, we must be servants of everyone

Vicar in the Vale

with the Rev Richard Priest, of Stour Vale Benefice How often have you wished you could be someone else? Maybe someone who has influence or is in a position of power, how about someone who is in the news and seems to be respected by others? Could it be that you want to be a politician or a celebrity, or do you want to reflect in the glory of another? This is just what was wanted for James and John as they asked to be at either side of Jesus in heaven. We are told that this was the desire of their mother but it could also be their wish as well. They wanted to stand at the right and left hand of Jesus in his kingdom. They wanted to share in the glory that they believed was due to Jesus. They believed He was about to enter into Jerusalem and be crowned king and they wanted some of that power. I wonder is this reminds you of anyone today? Certainly there are those who are in the limelight that believe they should rule over everyone without thought of the responsibilities that power brings. There are the pop stars and sportsmen and women who behave as if they were above anyone else and fail to remember that they are only in that position because of the people who are prepared to pay to watch them. There are the politicians who milk the system for every penny they can get and forget that they are there to serve their constituents and not just themselves, or how about the business tycoons or bosses who prosper at the expense of the workers on whom they rely? This self-centeredness occurs in every walk of life and seems to be part of the culture in which we live and yet one has to ask must it be like this? Jesus tells James and John and of course us that this is not the way to live. He says, “Whoever wishes to be great among you must also be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first must be your slave.” At my ordination a few weeks ago the Bishop told me: “Deacons are called to work with the Bishop and the priests with whom they serve.” He also said: “You are to serve the community in which you are set.” The church has obviously remembered those words of Jesus from today’s Gospel but the implication is that all of us here today, whether ordained or lay, must also act upon those ideas. Although Jesus said this to his disciples the words were meant for all who were to follow him. If we are to be great among our neighbours then we must be their servants and if we wish to be first then we must be their slaves. This is a huge change that Jesus is asking of us and yet he believes that we are capable of doing it. As usual with the sayings of Jesus he wishes us to turn on its head the norms of humanity. Human nature is to remember self and to try to improve self at the expense of others but what Christ wants from us is to improve others at the expense of ourselves. He is asking us to give away our own possessions so that others may benefit, he is telling us that we must always put others first and to think before we act. We have to contemplate carefully before we undertake actions than can affect others. If we constantly buy new things because we can afford them what are the consequences to those who have little or nothing? If we continue to use the resources of the planet at a greater rate than they can be replenished, who are we condemning to a life of poverty because of climate change or the rise in sea levels? If we continue to strive to be richer or more powerful, to have more influence or to get our own way then who is going to suffer so that we may be great in our own eyes or even the eyes of others. Yet if we truly want to be great, and as Christians that can only mean being great in the eyes of God, then we must be the servant, or indeed the slave of all others and only then can we truly be great. Jesus believes we can do it and if we truly believe in him then we can!