The Cayman Islands are within the ancient
Episcopal Jurisdiction
of
The Bishop of London granted him by the Crown in 1634
St Alban’s (Grand Cayman) & St
Mary’s (Cayman Brac)
Church & Office - 461 Shedden Road
P O Box 719, Grand Cayman KY1-1103, CAYMAN ISLANDS
Tel (345) 949 2757 : Fax (345)
949 0619
www.churchofenglandcayman.com
rector@churchofenglandcayman.com
23 Oct 2011
Welcome
to St Alban’s Anglican Church
Today's Scripture: Leviticus 19: 1-2, 15-18 1 Thess 2: 1-8
S. Matthew 22: 34–end
Today: 8.35 a.m. Matins; 9.00 a.m. Church School; 9.30
a.m. Holy Eucharist; 6 p.m. EP. 7.30 p.m. Holy Eucharist with St. Mary’s Cayman
Brac
Tues
- Thurs 12.30 p.m. Prayers; Fri (Ss. Simon & Jude) 5.30 p.m. Holy
Communion.
Next Sunday: 8.35 a.m. Matins; 9.00a.m. Ch School; 9.30 a.m.
Holy Eucharist; 6.00 p.m. EP
18th
Trinity After Sunday
Lord, we beseech
thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the
temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and
minds to follow thee the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
There is an English waterside town that underwent great growth in the
middle of the nineteenth century. As the rather affluent people made their
homes in the area, the Church began to cater for their needs and to build
churches where they could worship. In one such parish, where the families were
not short of a penny, they decided to build another smaller church. This was
not really needed … but it catered for their servants.
The Christian message is that, whatever arrangements society may make,
in the Church there can be no upstairs-downstairs divisions. In fact, although
we might be tempted to think that loving our neighbour means just that, the
Bible is quick to point out that our neighbour may be someone quite removed
from us.
So when Jesus demanded that to love God we must love our neighbour as
ourselves, he was not thinking of inviting over the Sherrington-Holroyds for afternoon tea. He would have been only too
aware of how the Jewish scriptures returned time and time again to three
categories of “neighbour” as the yardsticks for our love of God: strangers,
widows and orphans.
Strangers (or foreigners) couldn’t speak the language, were disoriented
from being in a different culture, and often were cheated by money exchangers.
Widows and orphans were not only objects of genuine pity but were defenceless.
In a male dominated society they had no one to speak up for them, depended on
charity and carried no clout when it came to getting justice.
The only way we can be sure of loving God is by loving our neighbour as
ourselves, by treating them in exactly the same way as we would want to be
treated. And the measuring stick that is used for this love is how we treat the
most vulnerable of our world (strangers, widows and orphans), those whom it is
not fashionable to champion, those who can offer us
nothing in return. Anyone can love “one of us”. The Bible tells us to love “one
of them”. Maybe even the Sherrington-Holroyds!