A Worshipping People!

From Father Iain, All Saints Chiang Mai

Olive’s View of All Saints!

Click here to join the Service this Sunday!

Dear Friends,

This wonderful picture was drawn by Olive Degler, one of the youngest people at All Saints!  She was asked to draw a picture of her church and this is what she produced!  It shows that we are a worshiping community – centred on the Eucharist – although I’m not sure whose dog that is!  I am told the man sleeping on the left-hand side is Mark Crawford!!!

How do you see All Saints?  Last week we sang the hymn The Church’s One Foundation, that clearly states that the church’s foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.  In our Gospel reading this Sunday Jesus promises to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit. We worship a God with community at the centre of God’s being.

The children of the Youth Charity Foundation are part of our community too, and it is great that we have been able to send them over THB 30,000 from church funds and individual donations to help some of their families.

This video shows what they have bought. 

Donations can still be given – see the information below!

We will meet again this Sunday at 6 p.m. in Thailand, to worship together.  (7 a.m. in New York, midday in the U.K., and 1 p.m. in Europe and Egypt!)

Click here to join the Service this Sunday!

If you missed it, last week’s service can be see here.

Our scripture readings for this Sunday will be Genesis 9:8-17, Acts 17:22-31, and John 14:15-21, and we will be singing the hymns Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty, Love Divine, O Love that will not Let Me Go, and Christ Be Our Light!

Our service will consist of our usual Eucharistic worship!  All are welcome to join in the prayers and liturgy, to listen to the readings and sermon, and to receive virtual communion if they feel comfortable.

If you want to receive virtual communion then have a small piece of bread and a small glass of wine or grape juice prepared.

The words of this Sunday’s bulletin is pasted below at the end of this email, or you can download it as a pdf to view or print from this link.

You can then read and join in the liturgy if you wish.

Caring for All – YCF Families

Most of the children at the Youth Charity Foundation come from poor hill-tribe villages.  Some are orphans, and others have families who are too poor or unable to care for them.

At this time of crisis, many of the children’s families are in severe financial difficulty.  Many make a small income by selling their produce in local markets, but now this is totally impossible and they are destitute.

We asked Khun Tasnee at YCF how we can help.  They have proposed that they journey to some of the children’s villages to provide food parcels for some of the families.  They have identified ten families who are especially in need and we will provide a food parcel worth THB 3,000 to each family.

YCF Kids in our Sunday Service

Some of the younger YCF girls

Older YCF girls preparing food

We will provide money for this project directly from church funds, as we commit to give 10% of our yearly surplus away, but any extra donations will mean we can do more and perhaps help on an ongoing basis.

Please give if you can!  You can use any of the methods detailed below and email me to say it is for the YCF Families.

You can read details of the individual families we are planning to help by clicking here.

Weekly Discussion Group

We will continue our discussion group this Thursday at 8 p.m.  Just click on this link to join.  The meeting ID is 829-4307-6518.  Today we will be discussing the ideas in Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation for the 6th May, A Community for All, which can be read here.  He writes of what a Christian community should really be like.  All are welcome to join – it is a chance just to be together!

Weekly Offering to All Saints

Although we are not meeting together face-to-face, the expenses of All Saints remain – indeed, they may increase as we seek to support those in need!

Although there is no basket being passed around in our service, you can still give your offering.  People in Thailand can transfer directly to the church bank account.  (Which is in my name, but managed by our treasurer, Don Williams.)  Thanks to all those who have already given – we are receiving approximately our normal monthly offering!

The details are:

Account Name: Iain Girvin Baxter
Bank: Krungsri Bank
Account Number: 7181-05586-5
SWIFT Code: AYUDTHBK

Those in the UK, or with UK banking, can donate via All Saints Chiang Mai Mission.  Their account details are:

Bank: Coop Bank
Account Name:  All Saints Chiang Mai Mission
Account Number: 65877142
Sort Code:  08-92-99

Alternatively, you can donate with PayPal or with any debit or credit card via the All Saints Website on the Donate Page.

Please email me if you would like a receipt.

Keeping in Touch

At this time of isolation it is important that we keep in touch with each other.  We have an All Saints church directory with a list of many people’s phone numbers, so if you would like a copy please email me, on iain@AllSaintsChiangMai.com and I will send it to you.

Please feel free to share this email.  People may be feeling especially alone and vulnerable at this time.  Let them know that we are there for them and that God is with us!

God bless,

Father Iain

            .
Alleluia. Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

Hymn:
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!

The Greeting

The Lord be with you!
And also with you!

Words of welcome

Christ yesterday and today,
the beginning and the end,

Alpha and Omega,
all time belongs to him, and all ages;
to him be glory and power,
through every age and for ever.
Amen.
….

Lord our God,
we have avoided your call.
Our love for you
is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes away early.
Have mercy on us;
deliver us from judgement;
bind up our wounds
and revive us;
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Gloria – Mass of Gregory the Great

The Collect

The First Reading:
Genesis 9:8-17

This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Alleluia, Alleluia,
give thanks to the risen Lord,
Alleluia, Alleluia,
give praise to his name!

Psalm 66

Bless our God, O you peoples;
make the voice
of his praise to be heard
Who holds our souls in life
and suffers not our feet to slip.
For you, O God, have proved us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.

Come and listen,
all you who fear God,
and I will tell you
what he has done for my soul.

I called out to him with my mouth
and his praise was on my tongue.
If I had nursed evil in my heart,
the Lord would not have heard me,
But in truth God has heard me;
he has heeded
the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God,
who has not rejected my prayer,
nor withheld
his loving mercy from me.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
And to the Holy Ghost,
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be
World without end, Amen

The Second Reading:
Acts 17:22-31

This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Alleluia, Alleluia,
give thanks to the risen Lord,
Alleluia, Alleluia,
give praise to his name!

Gospel Reading

Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
Alleluia. 
He has defeated the powers of death.
Alleluia.
Jesus turns our sorrow into dancing.
Alleluia.
He has the words of eternal life.
Alleluia.

Hear the Gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ
according to John.
Glory to you, O Lord.

The Gospel Reading:
John 14:15-21

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.

Alleluia, Alleluia,
give thanks to the risen Lord,
Alleluia, Alleluia,
give praise to his name!

Sermon

The Apostles’ Creed            

I trust in God,
the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I trust in Jesus Christ,
his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived
by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated
at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again
to judge the living and the dead.

I trust in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of the saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.  

Hymn:
Love Divine

Prayers of Intercession

Response:     
Lord, it is in you we live
and move and have our being:
In your mercy,
hear our prayer.

Through the resurrection
of your son, O God,
you destroy the power of death.
By the power of the Spirit,
raise us to life,
and seat us at the paschal feast,
that we may rejoice
in the gift of salvation
Jesus has won for us.  Amen.

The Peace

Then were they glad
when they saw the Lord.
Alleluia. Alleluia.

The peace of the risen Christ
be always with you
And also with you. Alleluia.

Offering and
Preparation of the Table

Hymn:
O Love that will not let me go

The Eucharistic Prayer

The Lord is here.
God’s Spirit is with us.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks
to the Lord our God.                          
It is right to give
thanks and praise.
….

And so, in the joy of this Passover,
earth and heaven
resound with gladness,
while angels and archangels
and the powers of all creation
sing for ever the hymn of your glory:

Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
heaven and earth
are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he
who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest. 
….

Great is the mystery of faith:

Christ has died:
Christ is risen:
Christ will come again.

The Lord’s Prayer

Rejoicing in God’s new creation,
as our Saviour taught us, so we pray

Our Father in heaven…

Breaking of the Bread

Jesus says, I am the bread of life,
whoever eats this bread will live for ever.
Lord, our hearts hunger for you;
give us this bread always.

Jesus, Lamb of God,
have mercy on us.
Jesus, bearer of our sins,
have mercy on us.
Jesus, redeemer of the world,
grant us peace.

Giving of Communion

Alleluia. Christ our passover
is sacrificed for us.
Therefore let us keep the feast.
Alleluia.

We share in the Body and Blood of Christ

Prayer after Communion

God of Life,
who for our redemption
gave your only-begotten Son
to the death of the cross,
and by his glorious resurrection
have delivered us
from the power of our enemy:
grant us so to die daily to sin,
that we may evermore
live with him
in the joy of his risen life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Amen.

Hymn:
Christ, Be Our Light

Alleluia. Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Praise the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He has given us new life and hope
by raising Jesus from the dead.

God has claimed us as his own.
He has brought us out of darkness.
He has made us light to the world.

Alleluia. Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

The blessing of God almighty,
the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit,
be among you
and remain with you always.
Amen.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ.  Amen!