June 28: World history has a score

Welcome to St Mark’s Home Church, wherever you are in the world! As you scroll down you can follow the form of the service at your own pace with space for interaction, Bible readings, song and prayer as you feel led.

If you’re doing this with your family, you can head over here to access additional content for kid’s church today.

Worship

Thanks Stuart and Caitlin for bringing us this music today. Feel free to sing your own songs, or you can find more songs on our slowly growing worship playlist.

Sermon: Part 1

World history has a score

I’ve structured today’s content into two parts. There’s a bit more this week so as to complete Daniel before we return to St Mark’s – so make the most of doing church at home and take a break for a cuppa if you need!

Reading: Daniel 9:1-19

Thanks to Patricia for bringing us this reading. Before the next part of the sermon you might like to read to the end of Chapter 9.

Sermon: Part 2

In response to today’s sermon you are invited to take some time to write your own prayer of corporate confession.

Download this PDF for a bible study on Daniel 9.

Prayers

Hello everyone, Anita Booker here! One of the things I have found helpful over the last few months is reading the Psalms aloud – there is something powerful in actually hearing God’s Word spoken. I invite you to pray this Psalm aloud with me as we begin our prayer time today. 

Take a moment to get your bible if you don’t have it with you already, and turn to Psalm 8.

Confession is also a significant part of prayer and in the audio below I have used the words from one of the Confessions in the Prayer Book for Australia. You might like to say the words in bold along with me. 

God the Father, maker of heaven and earth,
have mercy on us.

God the Son, redeemer of the world,
have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit, giver of light and life
have mercy on us.

For accepting life yet living it without you,
forgive us, Lord.

For living without concern for others,
forgive us, Lord. 

For tolerating, oppression, injustice and wrong
forgive us, Lord. 

For disobeying your will and commandments,
forgive us, Lord. 

For refusing to love and forgive others,
forgive us, Lord. 

For turning the world to our own purposes and desires,
forgive us, Lord. 

That in all things we may hold to your will and purpose,
Lord hear us. 

Having confessed our sins we can be confident that God forgives us, through his Son, Jesus who died for us. 

Amen. 

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial,
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.

Giving

Thanks to all of those who continue to give to support our ministries. If you’d like to give to support the work of our church as we continue to reopen, click the button below.

Give now

Plans to reopen

• Friday services to resume on the 3rd July
  We’ve decided to begin with our Friday service as we have a number of people in our community who have been unable to access our online service. This also gives us an opportunity to enact our COVID Safe plan with a smaller group before we attempt multiple services on a single day.

• Sunday services to resume on the 19th July
  We will resume our 8.30am, 10am and 6pm services on Sunday 19th July. We have been working hard on models of how to use our limited space, including the use of the hall, but with the physical distancing limits reduced from 4m2 to 2m2, we are much better placed to be able to accommodate people.

• Prior to re-opening, Kim, Anita, Stuart and Emilia will be taking a week of annual leave from 4th to 12th July. This is to enable them to catch a breath before we return, and to practice our self-care through what has been a challenging year. Dennis and Fraser will be available as required in the period of 4th to 12th July, and the staff team will resume on the 13th July.

• Once we return to Sunday worship, we will not have the capacity to produce the same kind of online content, but we will aim to have some simple resources for those who are unable to attend church in person, such as a recorded sermon. 

Reopening Schedule

Friday 3rd July: Weekly Friday services resume at 10am.

Sunday 5th July - Online service (Daniel 10-12)

Sunday 12th July – Pre-prepared online service. Details: TBC.

Sunday 19th July - Weekly Sunday services resume at St Mark’s

Friday 24th July - Friday youth groups to resume face-to-face

There will be further logistics that we will need to work through for Sundays, so keep an eye on your inbox for further updates from us. In the meantime, a heart felt thanks for your prayers, and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Thank you!

Grace and peace be with you, see you next week!