Contact us at:
St. Stephen's Church
St. Stephen's Street
Worcester WR3 7HS
Please do not send important correspondance to the church as we have no postal box, please email for alternative address if required.
Please note that these are all personal phone numbers.
There is no phone in the church.
Reverend Lindsey Coulthard
Priest in Charge
Tel: 07879 366294
Email: revlindseyc@gmail.com
Ruth Scotson
Churchwarden
Tel: 07971 430758
Email: ruth.scotson@gmail.com
Kevin Maltby
Churchwarden
Tel: 07891 386063
Email: kevinmaltby@hotmail.com
Michelle Walsh
Parish Administrator
Tel: 07961 097497
Email: mwalsh.ststephens@outlook.com
a
Monday
God of
compassion,
whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary,
shared the life of a home in Nazareth,
and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself:
strengthen us in our daily living
that in joy and in sorrow
we may know the power of your presence
to bind together and to heal;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
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Bishop John has called on all in our diocese to pray for the people of Ukraine and for peace, and for the leaders of the West as they deliberate on how to respond to the terrible unprovoked aggression of Russia. He has invited people to use this prayer from the Dean for public worship and private intercession:
Lord of all the earth, be present with the people of Ukraine at this time of danger, fear, and conflict. Grant that wise and peaceable counsels may yet prevail, and give to all suffering nations the freedom they desire and deserve. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A Prayer for Peace
Most holy God and Father,
we pray for all who strive for peace
and all who fight for justice.
Help us, who today remember the cost of war,
to work for a better tomorrow; and,
as we commend to you lives lost in terror and conflict,
bring us all, in the end, to the peace of your
presence; through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
(churchofengland.org)
A Prayer in Time of Crisis
A Prayer in Time of Crisis
Jesus, light of the world you promised to be always with us.
Be with our sisters and brothers now, dispelling the darkness of this crisis.
Compel us to be with them too in thought, prayer and solidarity, responding to their suffering with the same compassion you have shown us.
We make this prayer in the firm faith that your light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.
Amen.
(CAFOD.org)
This can also be watched from our Facebook page by following this link:
God’s Bathrobe by Michael Coffey
(As used in Linsdey Coulthard's Reflection - Sunday 30th May)
God sat Sunday in her Adirondack deck chair
reading the New York Times and sipping strawberry lemonade
her pink robe flowing down to the ground
the garment hem was fluff and frill
and it spilled holiness down into the sanctuary
into the cup and the nostrils of the singing people
one thread trickled loveliness into a funeral rite
as the mourners looked in the face of death
and heard the story of a life truer than goodness
a torn piece of the robe’s edge flopped onto
a war in southern Sudan and caused heartbeats
to skip and soldiers looked into themselves deeply
one threadbare strand of the divine belt
almost knocked over a polar bear floating
on a loose berg in the warming sea
one silky string wove its way through Jesus’ cross
and tied itself to desert-parched immigrants with swollen tongues
and a woman with ovarian cancer and two young sons
you won’t believe this, but a single hair-thin fiber
floated onto the yacht of a rich man and he gasped
when he saw everything as it really was
the hem fell to and fro across the universe
filling space and time and gaps between the sub-atomic world
with the effervescent presence of the one who is the is
and even in the slight space between lovers in bed
the holiness flows and wakes up the body
to feel beyond the feeling and know beyond the knowing
and even as we monotheize and trinitize
and speculate and doubt even our doubting
the threads of holiness trickle into our lives
and the seraphim keep singing "holy, holy, holy"
and flapping their wings like baby birds
and God says: give it a rest a while
and God takes another sip of her summertime drink
and smiles at the way you are reading this filament now
and hums: It’s a good day to be God
If you know people who are ill
Merciful God,
we entrust to your tender care
those who are ill or in pain,
knowing that whenever danger threatens
your everlasting arms are there to hold them safe.
Especially we hold before you (N…. and N….).
Comfort and heal
them,
and restore them to health and strength;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
A version of the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, you are in heaven
and your name is special and wonderful.
May your plans become reality,
and all you desire happen in our world and in yours.
Please give us all we need to get through today.
Forgive us for all we have got wrong,
and help us to do the same for those who hurt us.
Keep us from doing things that are wrong,
and protect us in these hard times.
Everything in heaven and on earth is made by you and belongs to you,
and that’s the way it will be …. Always. Amen
A bedtime prayer
Loving God, you are
always with me.
You are with me in the day and in the night.
You are with me when I’m happy and when I’m sad.
You are with me when I’m healthy and when I am ill.
You are with me when I am peaceful and when I am worried.
Today I am feeling (name how you are feeling) because (reasons you are
feeling this way).
Tonight, I
especially want to ask you to look after (name the people you want God to help).
Help me to remember that you love me and are with me in everything tonight and
always.
Amen.