'Father we love you, we worship and adore you', sung by the singing group, with Mrs. Sheila Noot as organist, opened worship on Sunday. Connor Bridge read the words of welcome and was thanked by Rev. Nanette Lewis Head.

Following prayers, the congregational reading was of Psalm 19, 'The heavens declare the glory of God'.

Nanette then told the children what she called a daft story, about a duck, an eagle, a squirrel and a rabbit, with the gifts respectively of swimming, flying, climbing and running. They failed miserably when they tried to learn each other's gifts. The moral of the story being that it is better to keep and develop the gifts which we have in order to help each other.

This story led into the theme for worship, which was to continue to look at our God-given gifts. The hymn before the children left, 'He's got the whole world in his hands', was a reminder that we are all important to each other.

Mrs. Melanie Walker read from Luke 14, 14-21, 'Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee' and 'Jesus is rejected in Nazareth', and 1 Corinthians 12, 'Gifts from the Holy Spirit' and 'One body, many parts'. In her sermon, Nanette used both of these readings to continue to explore the theme of 'God's Gifts'. When Jesus preached to his own people and was rejected, they wanted God's blessing without challenge. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, explained this challenge, when he compared the body of Christ's people to the human body and stressed the importance of each member.

During this week of prayers for Christian Unity, there is a reminder that there have been many conflicts throughout history which have not led to unity in the worldwide church. There is a call, as never before, for the church to work as one in the body of Christ, to discover one's individual gifts and to use them in proclaiming that 'Jesus is Lord'. There is much that needs to be forgiven in the way that there has been failure to live in the body of Christ. Nanette led prayers in which to words 'Father forgive', the response was 'Help us change'. Thank you, Nanette, and all who took part in the worship, Melanie, Sheila, Connor and the singing group.

Nanette will again lead this Sunday's worship at 10.30 am when she will have the help of Mr. Peter Neate in looking at the outreach in Madagascar. All are welcome.