The holy communion service held on Sunday, 19th Sunday after Trinity, was celebrated by the Rev Andrew Stevenson, priest-in-charge, who in his sermon said that the readings for today are a real challenge.

What we are effectively asked to consider is the value we place on our faith and the part that we are prepared to play in the wider task of building up God’s kingdom. As Christians we have a duty to work together for the furtherance of the Kingdom. What today’s gospel challenges us to do is quantify whether what we contribute is merely what we ought to be doing, or whether we are going the “extra mile” and putting ourselves out for the sake of the gospel.

That is challenging stuff. Effectively we are asked to assess whether we are building our lives around our faith or fitting our faith in around our lives. Are we placing our Christian duty at the forefront of our lives? Or is it second or even third best. Only we and our maker will know the answer to that but we do need to make the value judgement with honesty and integrity.

The Old Testament lesson taken from Habakkuk chapter 1 v 1-4 and chapter 2 v 1-4, was read by Rob Grave and the New Testament lesson, taken from 2 Timothy chapter 1 v 1–14, was read by Mary Grave. The gospel reading from Luke chapter 17 v 5–10, was read by Andrew before his sermon. The organist and keyboard player was Joan Treloar and Mary Stevenson sang and led the singing during communion At the end of the service Andrew thanked everyone who supported and helped at the Harvest Supper held on Wednesday, October 2 in the church hall. He also thanked the “three Js”: James Stevenson for his singing, Joan Treloar for accompanying him on the keyboard and John Ollerenshaw who read two monologues about Sam Small, composed by Stanley Holloway.

The auction of the harvest produce raised £117 towards the church’s current charity.