Welcome
We are the Church of England parish of St Mary’s Shaw cum Donnington – just to the north and east of Newbury.
Our purpose and focus is Knowing Jesus, Sharing God’s Love, Caring for People.
You can read more about it here.
We meet every Sunday at 10am, as well as at other times during the week.
Everyone is welcome to join us.
Word for the Week
- A Perfect End
At University, the college chapel invited a guest speaker every Sunday evening. One Sunday before Ascension the best speaker ever invited spoke on how Christ deals with Guilt. Word got out. On the Sunday after Ascension numbers were up, but the speaker not to the same standard – the highlight of his sermon was speculation on the direction of Jesus’ ascension: forwards? Backwards? downwards?
What? Surely ascension implies upwards– it’s there in the word. Ascend. Up.
I suppose we could contend that in Australia Up is Down, but that rather misses the point. Humans have always looked up to God (metaphorically and literally lifting our eyes to heaven). Jesus came down from heaven and was made man. He lived and loved and taught and modelled, before he suffered, died, and was buried. And then he rose again.
But the end of his time on earth was not his death nor even his resurrection, but his ascension – when he returned to the place he came from, because he had completed everything he came to do.
Think about it: “After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Heb 1:3.
Raymond