Candlemas
This Sunday we celebrate Candlemas, The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. It wraps up the full celebration of Jesus’ infancy narratives from Christmas through the season of Epiphany. The presentation of Jesus in the Temple is the final epiphany (revelation) of Jesus being our saviour the “light for revelation to the Gentiles” (Luke 2:32).
Candlemas is one of the oldest Feast Days from the ancient Christian Church, dating back to at least the fourth century (The pilgrim Egeria recorded its celebration in Jerusalem in the 380s...)
Here at St. Mark’s we intend to offer “Being With” which is a course that has been developed by Rev Sam Wells the vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, in London. “There’s lots of good courses out there which are focussed on getting a good understanding and knowledge of Christ, but the intention of “Being With” is to enable a gut feeling and response, an embodied understanding. The course is based on our belief that God wants to be with us and God is seeking to do this and has been since day one.”
“When God said, I want to be with you, there was an incarnation. The method of ‘being with’ was the message. And we want to model that in a Being With course. ” (“Being With” website) “Being With” is a 10 week course of 90 minute sessions.
For us to be able to run this course we need two or three trained “hosts”. This will be co-ordinated by Gareth (Theology House) with any other parishes interested. We are hoping to use Lay Training Fund grants to fund the course. You can sign up for a free account at https://being-with.org/become-a-host/ to see more details - and if you’re interested to be trained as a host... let’s have a chat.
God Bless you
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From the Vicar
