Welcome to
Walton Team
Ministry
Three Churches One Parish

Sunday Worship for 3rd Sunday in Advent

St Aidan's Eucharist at 10.00am

St Mary's Eucharist at 10.30am

St Nathanael's Eucharist at 11.00am

OUR PARISH CAROL SERVICE IS AT ST MARY'S AT 4PM

ALL ARE INVITED

We pray for all those who are coming for baptism or getting married in the Parish

To arrange any service please do contact either Jo in the Parish Office on 0151 525 4002 or Revd Fiona on 07941652488.

Pray with us

Advent 2 - Awaiting the coming of Revolutionary Love.

Learning how to Love …

By revolutionary love, I mean love beyond - love that goes beyond myself to my neighbour, beyond my neighbour to the stranger, alien, other, outcast, and outsider; beyond the outsider to the critic, antagonist, opponent, and enemy; and even beyond the human to my non-human fellow creatures. In short, revolutionary love means loving as God would love - infinitely, graciously, extravagantly. To put it in more mystical terms, it means loving with God, letting divine love fill me and flow through me, without discrimination or limit, as an expression of the heart of the lover, not the merit of the beloved.

Brian McLaren

We pray for difficult people

We are all difficult to someone, sometime

And some of us are difficult a lot of the time

To a lot of us

Some of our difficulties may fix us

And some may break us

And it is difficult to know the difference

But every day has a another one

We pray for our difficulties

May they be resolved

May they resolve us

Amen

Martin Wroe

May the God of dreams and visions

Enable us to dream creatively

And to hear the dreaming of others –

Young and old – in our community.

May we be open to new ideas,

Dare to share visions,

Be encouraged to hope.

Jan Sutch Pickard

And…

Bless us God

With saints to tell us stories

With angels to surprise us

With friends along the way

Bless us God

With strength and joy and courage

All the length and breadth

Of our nights and days

Ruth Burgess

Set your light

On my path

When the day

Goes very dark

Set some star

In the sky

Walk with me

At my side

Martin Wroe

Expected and Expectant God 1st Week of Advent

God was at our Christmas Fayre on Saturday…

in the innocent little child who believed they’d heard Father Christmas Ho-Ho-Ho-ing in his car on the way…

In our ‘Father Christmas’ who agreed he’d been there at the traffic lights at exactly that time..

In the lady crocheter who sold all her work and gave the money to our church…

In the tombola lady whose ‘£1 for 3 tries’ lasted well beyond, until little ones always went away with a prize…

In the lady with the Wire Touch Game who let so many of the children ‘win’ even when the buzzer wasn’t switched on…

In the man, our Jack of all Trades, who was taken so seriously ill earlier in the week only to make an appearance and assure everyone he was ok….

Thank you God for being there.

Expectant God

The heavens can no longer hold your abundant love,
So you pour out the gift of your embodied self,
Relinquishing the beauty of your majesty,
To adorn the pale colours of our humanity.
Choosing to enter into this world in a place of scarcity and need.

Reveal to us this hidden world
of poverty,
of refugees,
of suffering.
As you choose this as the place of your birth
Let us choose this to be the place of our rebirth.

Rebuild us,
Transform us,
Make us anew.
We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Kieran O'Brien/CAFOD

My seeds are small Father,

But they have great potential.

I don’t know where they will take root.

So I want to sow well with care.

Seeds of friendship and respect and value for people,

Seeds of justice and love,

Seeds of reverence and encouragement.

I want to sow seeds of peace.

I can only sow.

For the rest, I trust and let go. Amen

Little, Big Moments Blessing

May you stop and see

the way light falls and rocks glow,

and may God bless you with

little, big moments that make your heart dance.

Moments when you suddenly become aware of all the

overwhelming beauty and wonder and richness and love

living in the middle of where you are standing already.

Moments when you gaze around understanding:

the kingdom of God is now.

Neil Paynter

Moving into the Advent adventure - journey, escapade, exploration, quest 22nd November 2022

An authentic revolutionary is guided by strong feelings of love. Che Guevara

Advent helps us trust that since God was faithful in the past, he will be faithful in the future.

Father we are still learning that your message of hope is for everyone – for every race and culture, for us who have warm homes and plenty to eat and for those have no roof over their heads and are starving. We pray for displaced people in countries across the world and for those whose home is in the streets of our city. God who made us in your image, who sides with the poor, who made the world to be one, may the power of your Spirit forever coming into the world move us

into love and action and prayer.

God of eternal compassion, as individuals and as community, we ask for light so that we become more welcoming and understanding towards others and reduce suffering in our world

God of eternal compassion, grant us peace; teach us and guide us to be builders of a tolerant and non-violent world

God of eternal compassion, who knows us, who never forgets us, we thank you that you make a new world possible.

Help us to remember the horrors others face

Help us remember the people we would rather forget.

Help us to remember the dark corners of our own lives

for you transfigure everything, bringing light and life. Amen

…This human person can freely enter into relationship with God.

They can speak together.

They can rest in one another.

They can celebrate together.

The maker and the made can be in love with one another.

Only God, the source of all life, can take this great risk of creation –

for the made can say ‘yes’, but also ‘no’

Jean Vanier, Broken Body

A Hopeful Benediction
Be people of hope.
Let hope live in our hearts and share the hope of Christ with all we meet.
Share hope by noticing someone else’s humanity.
Share hope by listening to someone’s story.
Share hope by praying for our world.
We need to see, feel, and share hope.
As we go out into the wonder of God’s creations, we share hope with those we meet. Amen.

Liturgy Link - Adapted

18th November

A Faith Budget

“Get all the advice you can, and you will succeed; without it you will fail”. (Proverbs 15.22, NIV).

Restore Rescue Rebuild

We pray that faith will be restored in in a government being held to account.

We pray that government will account for those who need to be rescued,

We pray that government make restoration, not accumulation, the imperative.

We pray that through restoration and rescue, rebuilding will begin.

Lord our God,
You have called us to love our neighbour in a multitude of caring and practical ways –
to be the arms, hands, ears and eyes of Jesus –
to offer whatever help and support we can when people need care.

Compassionate God,
We thank you for the Walton Parish Team and all that we seek to do in your name,
We thank you for the vision, dynamic and loving care
given on a day by day basis, across this area.

We pray for everyone being cared for by our churches and community groups

that they might feel confident that they are in good hands,
feel loved, and have a sense of God's presence.
Bless each and every person who is counselled and cared for, in whatever way.

Providing God,
We ask that in these difficult financial times provision would be made
to enable us to continue to offer the services which are needed by the people within our care,

and deserve our support.

Inspiring and Visionary God,
It is so easy to become weary even when we are doing so much good.
Help everyone who works for, or supports us

to continue to grasp the vision of your will for the care given.
Grant inspiration for new ways to provide support
which best meet the diverse needs and potential outcomes
of all those who are in need of care and support.

Renewing God,
For all supporters and employees,
grant to each and every one of us
strength, peace, faith and joy in what we do.
Enable us to see day by day the nobility and importance of what we do
and also the gratitude of the whole Church.

Guiding God,
We depend upon you for all things,
for you are God and we are not.
We pray for guidance, in difficult times,
as we seek to continue to combine excellence with care
and try to offer the best service in every area of need.

Loving God,
with the confidence of faith we place our work into your gracious hands,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Church of Scotland - adapted

There Will Be No Peace

till attitudes change;

till self-interest is seen as part of common interest;

till old wrongs, old scores, old mistakes

are deleted from the account;

till the aim becomes co-operation and mutual benefit

rather than revenge or seizing maximum personal or group gain;

till justice and equality before the law

become the basis of government;

till basic freedoms exist;

till leaders - political, religious, educational - and the police and media

wholeheartedly embrace the concepts of justice, equality, freedom,

tolerance, and reconciliation as a basis for renewal;

till parents teach their children new ways to think about people.

There will be no peace:

till enemies become fellow human beings.

David Roberts, Kosovo Poetry 1999

Hold your hope, and your despair

Capture them inside a prayer

Take this moment, find your life

Hold it in the light.

Martin Wroe

1st November 2022

‘Blessed are the cracked for they let in the light’.

What kind of Saint are you…?

Prayer for All Saints Day

We give you thanks, O God, for all the saints who ever worshiped you
Whether in green arbours or cathedrals,
Weathered wooden churches or crumbling cement meeting houses
Where your name was lifted and adored.
We give you thanks, O God, for hands lifted in praise:
Manicured hands and hands stained with grease or soil,
Strong hands and those gnarled with age
Holy hands
Used as wave offerings across the land.
We thank you, God, for hardworking saints;
Whether hard-hatted or steel-booted,
Head ragged or aproned,
Blue-collared or three-piece-suited
They left their mark on the earth for you, for us, for our children to come.

Thank you, God, for the tremendous sacrifices made by those who have gone before us.
Bless the memories of your saints, God.
May we learn how to walk wisely from their examples of faith, dedication, worship, and love.

Safiyah Fosua

The Liberating Touch

In my hurry, Lord, I brush by some

And our lives do not touch at all.

In my concern, Lord, I reach out to some

But because of where I stand

They receive no helping hand.

In my need, Lord, some reach out to me

But because I shrink away,

Our hands never touch.

Lord, you always come to all and to me

With your healing, liberating touch.

So touch my life with your love,

That I may be, each day,

Your out-stretched hand of welcome and of love.

Magnet: Methodist Publication Winter 2015

Loving God, we respond to your amazing love by serving you in all that we do.

Sometimes we feel tired and when we do,
we ask that you will refresh us.

Sometimes we feel we have let you down and when we do,
we ask that you will pick us up.

Sometimes we feel we have disowned you and when we do,
we ask that you will put your gentle arms of love around us.

Then, when we are refreshed, picked up and held by you, Lord,
send us out into the community to continue to serve you in

response to your amazing love. Amen.

Wrestling for a blessing

Watch, watch

for the bright shining light in the sky.

The saints have passed through

the gate of glory

Listen, listen

for the sound of prayer

rippling through the waves

Sing, sing with the saints

the song of God’s wonders

in sand, sea and stars.

Be aware of the saints

beside and around you:

the keepers of wisdom;

the hospitality givers,

the teachers and healers;

those who shine with the uncreated light of God.

Let all the earth be glad

and the heavens resound

with the delight of God’s people.

As we struggle with reluctance;

so let us wrestle for a blessing

walk with a limp

pray with a question

put our hands in the wounds

of your world, elusive God.

Kate McIIhagga - Adapted

October 11th 2022

We are surrounded by change - as the season changes, as governments seek to manipulate change or resist change, as the economy changes, as the planet changes, as our churches change…

The speed of light is the one constant in the universe.

We are the light,

and this love that it symbolizes is the one thing

that makes the world go round.

The quantum, the subatomic, the elemental, and the very minerals of the earth: