Compline (night prayer) - Wednesday, 8 June 2022

The day ends, the night comes and all that's been is laid before the Lord. May we build our lives on the rock; stand before the winds of opinion; and tomorrow wake to serve You in all we do. Amen.

Compline (Night Prayer) - Tuesday, 7 June 2022

God's redeeming work is done and the baton, handed to us (the Church), calls us to make the love of God known to all creation. Lord grant us rest that tomorrow we might take upon us our missional calling. Amen.

Compline (Night Prayer) - Sunday, 5 June 2022

Spirit of God enfold us this night and dwell within us that the darkness be made light and our troubles healed by Your presence and peace we pray. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Saturday, 4 June 2022

We pray, we bless, we forgive - and laying all the day has been, go to our beds assured that whether we wake or sleep, we are Your O Lord. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Friday, 3 June 2022

On a day when we remember the martyrs of Uganda, we thank God that Christ died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Amen.

Today ( 3 June) the Church remembers the Martyrs of Uganda, 1885-7 and 1977

In 1884 Mwanga became ruler (kabaka) of Buganda in Uganda. When three of his subjects, obeying a missionary’s instruction, unwittingly disobeyed his orders, he had them executed: Yusufu Lugalama, Mako Kakumba and Nuwa Serwanga went to their deaths on 31 January 1885.

In November, Joseph Mkasa Balikuddembe, a Roman Catholic courtier, was executed for protesting at the murder of Bishop James Hannington.

The persecution reached its height in 1886, when some courtiers and palace officials refused Mwanga’s sexual advances. Mwanga was enraged that the Christians acknowledged a higher authority than the kabaka and ordered their execution. Forty-six whose names are known, Roman Catholic and Anglican, were martyred; most, led by Charles Lwanga, were burnt alive on Ascension Day, 3 June 1886.

The last martyrdom was that of Jean-Marie Muzeyi in the following January. The description of the deaths of these Ugandans reads like a martyrdom narrative from the early Christian centuries.

The Churches in Uganda came under extreme pressure during the presidency of Amin and the second presidency of Obote in the 1970s and 1980s. Among those who lost their lives at this time was Archbishop Janani Luwum. Christians in Uganda unite on this day to remember those who witnessed in their country for Christ, even unto death.

Compline (night prayer) - Wednesday, 1 June 2022

Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer and listen to the voice of my supplication.
In the day of my distress I will call upon you, for you will answer me...

For you are great and do wonderful things; you alone are God. Amen.

Today (June 1) the Church celebrates the life and reflects on the death of Justin, a martyr in Rome c.165.

Justin was born at the beginning of the second century in Palestine. 

As a young man he explored many different philosophies before, at the age of thirty, embracing Christianity. He continued to wear the distinctive dress of a professional philosopher, and taught Christianity as a philosophy first at Ephesus, and later at Rome. He became an outstanding apologist for the Christian faith, and is honoured as the first Christian thinker to enter into serious dialogue with the other intellectual disciplines of his day, including Judaism. 

 Justin always sought to reconcile the claims of faith and reason. It was at Rome in about the year 165 that he and some of his disciples were denounced as Christians, and beheaded. The authentic record of their martyrdom based on an official court report has survived. 

 Traditionally, Justin is often surnamed ‘Martyr’ because of his two-fold witness to Christ, through his apologetic writings and his manner of death.