Lawford Church

Lawford Church The page for St Mary the Virgin, Lawford. Now part of the Cross Reach Churches.

09/09/2026

The Gift of the Natural World by Pastor John Michalak and Joyverse.

Genesis 1:26
God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

I found a spider in the house recently. Considering my options, I realized I could: 1) leave him be; 2) crush him under my foot; or, 3) put him outside.�I put him outside.�Many of us approach God’s creation — with its oceans, trees, birds, and livestock — using one of these options. Some do nothing. The natural world never crosses their mind. Some like to crush nature: using it only for their consumption and survival. Still others choose to care for nature, occasionally at the expense of God or human beings.�What does it mean to represent God’s image as stewards of nature? Perhaps it’s a balance of all three. At times, we need to leave nature well enough alone. At times, it’s justified to harvest nature for our consumption. And sometimes, God wants us to go out of our way to let the spider live.�A UN report in 2019 estimated that because of humanity’s action (or inaction), over 1 million species are at imminent risk of extinction. How we treat the creation speaks volumes about our relationship with the Creator.�This is our Father’s world! We must always respect the responsibility and privilege of stewarding the gift of the natural world around us.

07/09/2026

Holy God,
whose truth is steady as the tide and tender as morning light,
steady our hearts in your faithfulness.

Where we are uncertain, be our clarity;
where we are weary, be our strength;
where we are searching, be our way.

Let your Spirit of truth guide our steps today,
that we may walk in love,
speak with kindness,
and live in the light of Christ,
the Truth who sets us free.
Amen.

07/09/2026

The Truth of God

What is truth? Various generations have had different ways of answering that question. It's a popular belief in today’s culture that truth can be whatever you want it to be. This is the idea that truth is relative and unique to every individual person.

But if everyone lives their own truth, then nobody can truly know which one is right. And if one person’s truth contradicts another person’s truth, one of them must be wrong.

Scripture tells us that there is an objective truth available; a truth that we can live by. Rather than truth being grounded in the individual, it is grounded in something much bigger than ourselves.

Truth is sourced from God.

God is the Creator and Ruler of the universe and everything that exists, and the one from whom truth and beauty come. God’s Word contains the truths that He has spoken to us—so that we might live according to His truth and His ways.

Jesus says that His teachings are true because they come from God. He goes on to say that anyone who knows the truth of God will be set free in their life.

When we know the truth, we are no longer living according to a lie. God’s Word tells us the truth and leads us to life. This is why Jesus says that the truth will set us free. That's when we become truly free to live according to how God designed us to live.

An important part of learning what's true and what isn’t is reading God’s Word. He has spoken to us through His Word, and all that He has spoken is true. When we read and memorize God’s Word, we learn more and more about God.

Take some time today to thank God for revealing Himself to us through His Word, and for illuminating our lives with His truth.

06/09/2026

Ecclesiastes 3
To every thing there is a season, and
A time to every purpose under Heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace. KJV

Held Through Every Season - Ecclesiastes 3
Ecclesiastes speaks with the honesty of someone who has watched life unfold over many years. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” These words do not promise that every season will feel welcome. Some arrive with joy, others with ache; some feel like planting, others like uprooting. Yet each is named, each is acknowledged, each is held within God’s larger story.
The Teacher invites us to see our lives not as a straight line but as a rhythm, like the tides on the estuary, rising and falling, revealing and covering. We are not asked to control these tides. We are asked to live faithfully within them. There is a time to speak and a time to keep silence; a time to build and a time to let go; a time to weep and a time to laugh. None of these moments are wasted. None fall outside God’s care.
And then comes the quiet promise: God makes everything beautiful in its time. Not necessarily easy, not always clear, but woven with meaning we may only glimpse. Our calling is to trust that the season we are in, whether bright or shadowed, not the whole story. God is working through it, shaping us, steadying us, teaching us compassion for others who walk through different seasons of their own.
So we stand here today, in whatever time our lives are holding, and we remember: God is present in all of it. The changing seasons do not change God’s faithfulness.
Amen

06/09/2026

Light, Life, and the Image of God
Genesis 1:1–5, 26–31
“In the beginning…” Scripture opens not with a fully formed world, but with darkness, deep waters, and the Spirit of God hovering, waiting, breathing, ready. Creation begins with God’s first word: “Let there be light.” Light is God’s opening gift. Light is the first mercy.
Genesis tells us that God does not rush creation. God speaks, and the world unfolds with care, day and night, sea and land, seed and fruit, creature and bird. Nothing is accidental. Everything is spoken into being with intention and delight.
And then, near the end of the first chapter, God says something astonishing: “Let us make humankind in our image.” Not to dominate, not to consume, but to reflect, to mirror God’s life giving character into the world God loves.
To bear God’s image is to share God’s way of tending creation. It is to be people who bless, not break. People who cultivate, not crush. People who look at the world, the cattle on the hills, the fish in the rivers, the birds that wheel over the estuary, and say with God, “This is good.”
Genesis ends this section with a vision of harmony: humans and creatures sharing the earth, fed by its fruitfulness, living within its rhythms.
It is a picture of shalom, creation at peace, humanity at home, God’s blessing resting on all that has been made.
In our own time, when creation groans under strain, these verses call us back to our first vocation. To be image bearers is to be light bearers, people who bring clarity, gentleness, and care into the world. To be image bearers is to be earth keepers, tending the land, honouring the creatures, protecting the fragile beauty entrusted to us. To be image bearers is to live so that God’s “very good” can still be spoken over the earth.
May the Spirit who hovered over the waters hover over us now, renewing our calling, restoring our wonder, and guiding us to live as people shaped by God’s light. Amen.

06/09/2026

Evening:
Genesis - 1:1-5, 26-31
1.In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
2.And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3.And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4.And God saw that the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5.And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
26.And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27.So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28.And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29.And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30.And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31.And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. Ant the evening and the morning were the sixth day. KJV

Monday 7th September 2-4pm come and join us, or pop in for a cuppa with us.
06/09/2026

Monday 7th September 2-4pm come and join us, or pop in for a cuppa with us.

06/09/2026

Christ the Word, Creation’s Beginning and Renewal
“In the beginning was the Word…” John begins his Gospel not with shepherds or angels, but with creation itself. Before the first tide of the Stour Estuary rose and fell, before the curlew learned its call, before the seals found their resting places on the sandbanks, Christ already was. And John tells us plainly: “All things came into being through him.”
This is the foundation of EcoChurch. Creation is not a side project. It is not scenery. It is the work of Christ, the eternal Word, who speaks life into being.
When we stand by the estuary and watch the redshank flicker across the mudflats, when we see the heron keeping its patient vigil, when we hear the wind moving through the reeds, we are witnessing the artistry of Christ. These creatures are not simply wildlife; they are fellow creations, brought forth through the same Word who becomes flesh for us.
And then comes the miracle: “The Word became flesh and lived among us.”
The Creator enters creation. The One who shaped the waters of the Stour walks beside them. The One who formed every creature becomes a creature. The One who breathed life into all things now breathes our air.
This is why caring for creation is not an optional Christian hobby. It is discipleship. It is Christ centred. It is Gospel shaped.
EcoChurch invites us to see creation as Christ sees it: not as a resource to be used, but as a neighbour to be loved. Not as a possession, but as a trust. Not as something silent, but as something that declares the glory of God.
And during this Time for Creation, we are called to repentance and renewal. We confess the ways we have damaged Christ’s world, the pollution of waters, the loss of habitats, the pressure on the creatures who share our estuary home. We commit ourselves again to the small, faithful acts that honour Christ’s creation: reducing harm, restoring habitats, choosing wisely, treading gently.
Because the light of Christ still shines, in the glint of sun on the estuary, in the flight of birds across the sky, in every creature that bears the imprint of the Word who made it.
And that same light shines in us when we live as people who cherish what Christ has created.
So today, as we celebrate the Festival of the Creation in Christ, may we hear again the Gospel’s truth: “In him was life.”
Life for us. Life for the world. Life for every creature that shares this earth with us. Amen.

~LightoftheWorld

06/09/2026

The Festival of the Creation in Christ
“In the beginning was the Word…” John’s Gospel does not start with a manger or a genealogy. It begins before time itself, before the first tide rose, before the first seal slipped into the waters of the Stour Estuary. It begins with Christ, the eternal Word, through whom all things came into being.
This is the heart of the Festival of the Creation in Christ: that creation is not an optional extra, not a backdrop to salvation, but the very work of Christ from the beginning. The One who becomes flesh in Bethlehem is the same One through whom the estuary was shaped, the mudflats patterned, the reeds stirred, and the birds taught their flight.
John tells us: “Without him not one thing came into being.” Not one thing. Not the curlew calling across the water. Not the seals basking on the sandbanks. Not the heron standing patient and still. Not the quiet creatures hidden in the reeds. All of them, every feather, every fin, every breath, arise from the life of Christ.
And then comes the astonishing turn: “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” The Creator enters creation. The One who shaped the tides steps into the world of tides. The One who formed every creature becomes a creature. The One who breathed life into all things now breathes our air, walks our earth, shares our vulnerability.
This is why creation matters to us as Christians. Not because it is beautiful, though it is. Not because it is fragile, though it is. But because Christ is woven into it, from the first moment of creation to the moment he takes on flesh.
During this Time for Creation, we are invited to look again at the world around us, not as scenery, but as sacrament: a sign of the Creator’s love. When we watch the birds rise over the Stour, when we see the seals resting, when we notice the small creatures moving in the margins of the reeds, we are seeing the artistry of Christ, the Word through whom all things came to be.
And we are called to care for this world not out of duty alone, but out of love, because it is Christ’s world, Christ’s creation, Christ’s gift. To harm it is to wound what Christ has made. To cherish it is to honour the One who became flesh for us. So today, as we celebrate the Festival of the Creation in Christ, let us hear again the Gospel’s opening: “In him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”
That light still shines, in the waters of the estuary, in the creatures who share it with us, and in every act of care we offer to the world Christ loves.
Amen.

06/09/2026

Sunday 6th September 2026 – Trinity 14
The Festival of the Creation in Christ

Collect (Collective prayer of the Church of England) Gospel reading: John 1:1-14

Collect:
Holy and eternal God,
You are the Maker of heaven and earth,
You are the Word through whom all things were made,
And you are the Spirit, the giver of life:
Draw us into the mystery of your love,
That with all creation we may proclaim your praise,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.

Gospel reading: John 1:1-14
1.In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2.He was in the beginning with God
3.All things came into being through Him, and without Him, not one thing came into being. What has come into being
4.in Him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
5.The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6.There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
7.He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
8.He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
9.The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him.
11. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.
12.But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,
13. who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a fathers only son, full of grace and truth. (NRSVue)

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Manningtree
CO112JX

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