Special Services and Events
Every Sunday is a Mini-Easter
Every Sunday is a mini-Easter. The Lord’s Day, Sunday, is the time when we offer the Worship that Our Lord commanded us to do: we offer Eucharist – thanksgiving and remembrance – for his loving sacrifice on the Cross and the Resurrection which consequently opened to us the hope of salvation.
A parish church must reach out to everyone in the parish – not all of whom are communicant members of the church. Consequently, to engage with a large community like Bourne, there is a requirement to meet the different needs of the parish, so that we can let the gospel speak for itself in people’s lives.
At the Abbey there are many baptisms, weddings, and funerals. There are Confirmations, and even an Ordination. But there are also Services to enable people to bring something of their own lives to God. For example, we have recently introduced personal invitations to a style of Harvest Service that the local farming community can recognise as belonging to them and reflecting their hopes and aspirations. There is a Civic Service, where the new Mayor of the Town Council is blessed and at which we pray for the council itself. There is the traditional Remembrance Service, where we use the agreed National Service. Although Mothering Sunday conveys a traditional message, it is conveyed in an informal ‘family service’ style. Our All Souls’ Service recognises that bereavement is not something that time can simply heal away, so we invite back to Church for a special Service all those who have lost loved ones or friends in the past year. Everyone has the opportunity to light a candle on behalf of someone who has died, and their names are later prayed aloud in the Service. There are Pet Services, Christingle, School Carol Services. There is the Grammar School’s Formal Speech Day evening.
All of these occasions reach out to somebody or something that enables the Abbey to be the sacred space where God can be encountered – even on the most secular of these occasions. In all of these as the parish church, the Abbey reaches out to a cross-section of parishioners and acts as an on-going witness to God’s grace and love to us whoever we are or whatever we do.
E-mail: info@bourneabbey.org.uk