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 Plan
Baldrick’s cunning plan was to carve his name into a bullet. If somewhere there’s a bullet with your name on it, by owning that bullet he can’t get shot with it! (Blackadder S4E1). All around us today we see plans (cunning or otherwise) that don’t seem to be reaching their intended fulfilment. Perhaps time will tell. Perhaps governments around the world will bring peace and prosperity. Perhaps ‘interventions’ by force of arms, or through financial incentive, or in the making of (more) rules, will work. Perhaps.
It’s easy to look at the imperfect leaders we have, and their imperfect plans and conclude that there cannot be a perfect plan. But what if there’s a perfect leader with a perfect plan? Would you dare to believe?
If the crux of the plan is a man on a cross, would you turn away? Pain and suffering to end pain and suffering? A death to bring life? Surprising, counter-intuitive.
When we look into God’s revelation to us – in creation, in the events we call history, in scripture, we find that it is so.
God’s plan is fulfilled in Christ as “he leads justice to victory” (Mat 12:20).
Raymond.