SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
August 3, 2025
THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE;
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!
LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.
GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS
Bob Dylan famously wrote, “You may be an ambassador to England or France. You may like to gamble, you might like to dance. You may be the heavyweight champion of the world. You might be a socialite with a long string of pearls. But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed. You’re gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord. But you’re gonna have to serve somebody…” It’s an idea which Paul articulates in today’s Epistle lesson. As those who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ, we have been set free from our slavery to sin, and now become slaves to righteousness.” But how is that God nourishes us and sustains us in our life in Christ? The chief way is by means of the Holy Communion. Our Gospel lesson for today tells the story of the feeding of the 4,000, where Jesus took, gave thanks, broke and distributed the seven loaves and a few fish, which is for us an image of the Eucharistic feeding we experience every Sunday, whereby our souls and bodies strengthened and preserved unto eternal life..
THE LESSON: Romans 6 :17-23
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard torighteousness. But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
THE GOSPEL: Mark 8:1-9
In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, “ I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.’ His disciples replied, ‘How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?’ He asked them, ‘How many loaves do you have?’ They said, ‘Seven.’ Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground; and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd. They had also a few small fish; and after blessing them, he ordered that these too should be distributed. They ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.
PARISH LIFE NOTES
Reverend Paula Foster has been appointed as the interim pastor of St. Mary’s and will begin part-time ministry on August 1, 2025. During her time with us, she will assist in developing a Parish Profile and guiding the application process for a new incumbent. This will involve reflecting on who we are as a parish, where we hope to grow, and the qualities we seek in our next pastor.
Her interim ministry will continue until Easter 2026.
WORSHIP THIS WEEK
Morning Prayer: Tuesday at 8.30 a.m.
Evening Prayer: Wednesday at 5.30 p.m.