Bible readings Sunday 29th March: Philippians 2.5-11 and Matthew 21.1–11
Gospel Reading [NRSVA]
Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, “The Lord needs them.” And he will send them immediately.’ This took place to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,
‘Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’
Bible readings for Easter Sunday 5th April: Acts 10.34-43 and John 20.1–18
Bible readings for Sunday 12th April: Acts 2.14a,22-32 and John 20.19–end
The next Newsletter will be for Sunday 19thApril.
Updates… by Wed 15th April noon. Send to Keno.
Staff Meeting will be on Tuesday 7th April 10am.
St Peter’s PCC meeting on Tuesday 7th April 2pm.
St Mary’s PCC meeting on Tuesday 7th April tbc.
Welcome to Archbishop Sarah
On Wednesday 25th March, the Feast of the Annunciation, a historic moment took place for the Church of England. Dame Sarah Mullally was installed as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury.
I wonder if you were able to watch the service live (still available on BBC iPlayer)? The beautiful majestic setting of Canterbury Cathedral, the congregation made up of Church and Lay dignitaries, local school children, invited people from caring professions, the wonderful music stretching from traditional to contemporary, the service readings carefully planned and shared to be fully reflective and inclusive of the diversity of the Anglican community both locally and globally was a perfect joy to watch and listen to.
Archbishop Sarah’s sermon to the congregation based on Luke 1.37, ‘For nothing will be impossible with God’ set out both her personal faith journey and her strong vision for the way ahead. Every sentence is powerful and full of hope. You can read the full sermon at the end of this blog.
So let us this week welcome our new Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah and hold her in our prayers with words written originally for her pilgrimage walk from St Paul’s to Canterbury by Student Chaplains from Archbishop’s School Canterbury. May they guide her and the Church on her journey as Archbishop.
Strengthen us in faith,
Grant us a heart like Christ’s,
gentle, humble, and devoted to the truth,
So that we may share the Gospel with joy. AMEN
Sunday 29th March. 11am. Paul church. Palm Sunday Eucharist.
Wednesday 1st April. 9am. Paul church. Eucharist.
Wednesday 1st April. 11am. St Peter’s church. Eucharist.
Thursday 2nd April. 6pm. St Peter’s church. Maundy Thursday Passover service. Joint Cluster service.
Thursday 2nd April. 7pm. Paul church. Maundy Thursday.
Friday 3rd April. 10.30am. Paul church. Good Friday Service.
Friday 3rd April. 11am. St John’s church. Good Friday Service.
Friday 3rd April. 12.45pm. St Mary’s. Good Friday Service.
Friday 3rd April. 2pm. St Peter’s church. Good Friday Service.
Sunday 5th April. 7am. Paul. Easter Sunday Sunrise Service.
Sunday 5th April. 9.30am. St Peter’s church. Easter Communion.
Sunday 5th April. 11am St Mary’s. Easter Day Communion.
Sunday 5th April. 11am. Paul church. Easter Sunday Eucharist.
CLUSTER INFORMATION & EVENTS
Tuesday 7th April at 7pm Talk at Paul church “Coastal Colours” featuring the photographs of Mike Newman.
Saturday 11th April 7.30pm IMS Concert at Paul church. Tickets from https://www.i-m-s.org.uk
Celtic Morning Prayer – Each weekday morning on zoom 8:00am – 8:30am. Please email Keno for zoom details.
Psalm Group – Every Thursday at 11:15am we read and meditate on a Psalm. Come and join us at St Mary’s. Josie
Meditation Group – Every Friday a Meditation group meets at St Mary’s church at 10:30am. This is a welcoming and supportive space for everyone in the community. Vicky
Julian Prayer Group – The Julian Group will meet online via zoom at 6:00pm on Sunday 29th March and in the church on Sunday 5th April (first Sunday of the month). If you would like to attend, please email Mel at mlevesconte@hotmail.co.uk for zoom details.
Prayer Requests – If you are concerned about someone and would like their name included in the Prayer Request Group’s weekly prayer list, please do email Mel by 7:00pm on Tuesday evenings.
Sustainable Sunday at St Mary’s on Sunday 29th March, 2:30-4:30pm. FREE activities, clothes, toys, book swap.
Little Lights group is taking an Easter break, and hope to return to St Mary’s Church on Thursday 23rd April, 1.30-2.30. A new Little Lights group will be starting in St Peter’s Church, Newlyn on Wednesday 22nd April, 9.30-10.30. Please share with anyone you know who has children aged 0-3 years. Many thanks.
News On Friday 20th March, three groups from Alverton School visited St Peter’s Church to find out more about the church and what happens there at Holy Week and Easter. They were all interested in the different church features and came up with some thoughtful questions for Derath, the church wardens and myself. The best question – ‘’When can we come again?’’ Jenny
Easter Holiday Club 2026
Our current plans for holiday club are:
Tuesday 7th – Gardeners House
Thursday 9th – Paradise Park
Thursday 16th – Godolphin House
Friday 17th – Lappa Valley
We will have 20-25 children per day, 5 members of staff and 4 junior leaders. If you would like to sponsor a child or make a donation towards Easter holiday club please contact Molly.
Many of you will donate to food banks – for the holiday club period. Might you be able to donate food to holiday club instead? We are looking for the following items for picnic lunches. (food to be in date for 17th April please): bread rolls (packs of 12 rolls) 8 packs; butter – 3 tubs; ham – 3 packs of 30 slices; cheese – 3 packs of grated cheese; crisps – 3 packs of 30 packets; fruit – apples, oranges, bananas; yogurts – Frubes 10 packs; cakes – enough for 25 people per day! If you are able to help with any of these items, please let Molly or Jenny know at molly.blewett@penleecluster.org.uk or jenny.orpwood@penleecluster.org.uk. Many thanks for your continued support for local children- it is really appreciated. – Molly & Jenny, Family Workers
St John’s Church and Playzone
St. John’s church Penzance – has now re-opened for worship only initially. We are so grateful to Betty for hosting our Friday morning Holy Communion services in her home over the last few weeks -we are now equally grateful to be back in St John’s where we belong! So a huge thank you to Betty for enabling the service to continue during the closure. Do join us for our 11am Fridays services from now on! The service on Good Friday will be a non – Communion service. We are also pleased to announce that the Civic Service will be held at St. John’s as usual this year, on Sunday 21st June at 11am following the procession from St John’s Hall to the church.
We will announce when the church will re-open for children’s play in due course. Revd. Derath Durkin
NightChurch Exhibition:
“This Is Me”
We are delighted to share that the NightChurch exhibition “This Is Me” is now on display at St Mary’s Church, Penzance.
The exhibition celebrates the creativity that has emerged from the Wednesday NightChurch sessions, where the community have taken part in Hope and Transformation art workshops, sketchbook projects, and poetry writing sessions. The work on display reflects uplifting words, courage, simple joys, and the beauty of sharing space together.
“This Is Me” is a glimpse into the stories, creativity, and connections that continue to grow through NightChurch.
We are always glad to welcome new people. If you have a creative practice, enjoy holding welcoming and reflective spaces, and would like to be part of a supportive and creative community, we would love to hear from you.
Come and see! Monday and Wednesday 6-9pm. Victoria
Lent Lunch
Saturday 28th March at 12 noon – St Thomas’ Church, Heamoor
CTiPA Walk of Christian Witness Good Friday 3rd April . All are welcome to join us. We gather at 11:30am at the bus station where the procession will “Follow the Cross” up Market Jew Street followed by a short service and refreshments at the Salvation Army Hall, Queen Street.
Deanery Synod Standing Committee/DIT
Please consider prayerfully, whether you are able to offer service to the wider deanery by volunteering your experience and/or knowledge/expertise and serving on either the Deanery Synod Standing Committee or one of the designated ‘arms’ of the new Deanery Implementation Team. Ask info from churchwardens. Deadline noon on Tuesday 31st March 2026.
- Intergenerational church growth
- Better use of resources
- Improved patterns for ministry
The inaugural address of the Archbishop of Cantebury
‘For nothing will be impossible with God’. (Luke 1.37)
May I speak in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
I am delighted to be with you today. Over the last week I have walked the ancient pilgrim path from St Paul’s Cathedral in London to Canterbury Cathedral. Each day my heart and spirits were lifted immeasurably by the people young and old we encountered, even though my aching feet and limbs tell a different story!
As I have walked, I have been aware that I make this journey both on a personal level, as my ministry moves from being Bishop of London to the Archbishop of Canterbury, but more significantly, I make this journey with others and in the footsteps of the past.
Thomas Becket, one of my predecessors as Archbishop of Canterbury, made this same pilgrim journey over 850 years ago. Today, I think of the many thousand unknown Christians who have trodden these same paths since. And not just on this ancient land, but all across the world, people walk the pilgrim paths of faith each and every day.
Of course, even if you’re following a path, the way can be unknown. Where it leads isn’t always clear, but we can trust in God’s hand guiding us – and in God’s promises.
In the prayer that was written for my pilgrimage by Student Chaplains at The Archbishop’s School, here in Canterbury, they prayed that God might:
“Strengthen us in faith,
Grant us a heart like Christ’s,
gentle, humble, and devoted to the truth,
So that we may share the Gospel with joy.”
Pretty good, isn’t it? And it reminds us that we can all learn from the faith of our young people.
For Mary, perhaps much the same age as those Student Chaplains, following God’s invitation to trust in his promises meant trusting in a future she couldn’t yet see – a future she could never have imagined. Mary was invited to put her faith in God, and to trust in the angel’s words of assurance: ‘For nothing will be impossible with God’.
I resonate with this, as I look back over my life – at the teenage Sarah, who put her faith in God and made a commitment to follow Jesus. I could never have imagined the future that lay ahead, and certainly not the ministry to which I am now called.
Mary followed in the footsteps of the faithful, her story resonates with the beautiful stories of women like Hannah in the Scriptures. Mary put her hope in God’s future. She trusted that He was with her, and through Mary, God did a new thing!
As we approach Holy Week and Easter, we also know that Mary’s journey wasn’t easy and that she faced unimaginable challenges. The sword of grief and pain pierced Mary’s soul – just as Simeon had foretold – most of all at the cross. Yet even that was transformed into the joy and hope of the resurrection.
But here in this moment of encounter with the angel, before any of this story unfolds, Mary is invited to open her heart, to offer herself and say: “Here I am”. And to put her hope in the angel’s words: ‘For nothing will be impossible with God’.
Some of our Anglican brothers and sisters are unable to be here today due to the war in the Middle East and the Gulf. We pray for them without ceasing, and for all those in war-torn areas of the world, in Ukraine, in Sudan, and Myanmar – that they would know God’s presence with them, just as we pray for peace to prevail.
And in a world already torn by conflict, suffering, and division, we must also acknowledge the hurt that exists much closer to home. We must not overlook or minimise the pain experienced by those who have been harmed through the actions, inactions, or failures of those in our own Christian communities. Today, and every day, we hold victims and survivors in our hearts and in our prayers, and we must remain committed to truth, compassion, justice and action.
As a church, we are a pilgrim people. And like Mary, we are called to trust that nothing will be impossible with God, Even when we see so much in the world that makes hope seem impossible.
There is hope because we make this journey ‘with God’ – ‘we do not bear the weight of this calling in our own strength, but only by the grace and power of God’.
We walk with God – trusting that God walks with us. Trusting that in all that we face, in the sorrow and the challenges, as much as in the joy and the delight – we do not walk alone.
There is hope because we are invited to trust that God will do a new thing! The moment of encounter between Mary and the Angel Gabriel announces the mystery of the incarnation – the definitive moment that reveals ‘God-with-us’, Immanuel.
In the incarnation, we see God becoming one of us – and this gives me such hope for the Church. In the ordinary and extraordinary life of the church, we see God’s hand at work – the Church rolling up its sleeves and getting stuck in, where God is already at work: in the local and the global.
The Church, through the ordinary lives of its people, contains so many extraordinary acts of love:
God’s people, offering a listening ear, a word of encouragement, or prayer for healing;
offering food and shelter, sanctuary and welcome;
in a world that so often seeks to divide us, tables to sit at and conversations to be shared;
And being a simple, loving presence, like the salt of the earth, a light on a hill, the treasure of the kingdom.
A church for the whole nation and for the world, which looks for ways of joining with people of all faiths and none, in acts of service that will transform. A church which extends around the world, with our sister churches in the Anglican Communion, as part of the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church, to embody Christ’s love.
God is at work in the good news of the gospel and in the hearts and lives of ordinary people, who – like Mary – have the audacity to believe that with God we can do extraordinary things.
For me, this trust and hope in God began as I committed my life to Jesus. And God has been with me, each and every step of my pilgrim path, and I trust that He walks with me now.
Maybe as you are listening to me, you are thinking about your own journey. Perhaps it’s smooth, perhaps it’s hard. Knowing God is with you on the journey makes all the difference. I encourage you to visit a church — for a quiet prayer or for a conversation. If you want to talk, you will be heard.
And you can respond to God’s invitation with words as simple as the words of Mary: ‘Here I am.’
As I begin my ministry today as Archbishop of Canterbury, I say again to God: ‘Here I am.’
May we have the audacity to believe in the promises of God: for with Him, nothing will be impossible.
Amen.
