Compline (night prayer) - Sunday, 26 June 2022

As we head for bed, we ask that You bless, strengthen and lead us into a new week of opportunity, blessing and witness to You, O Lord. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Saturday, 25 June 2022

Lord, we thank you that seasons end and new beginnings become ours to strengthen and bless.

As this day ends, we look towards a new day and the blessings it will contain.
Sleep well all. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Friday, 24 June 2022

Restore us again, O God of hosts;
show us the light of your countenance and we shall be saved.
Bless and keep us, this night and always. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Thursday, 23 June 2022

Grant that we might hear Your voice, study Your word, pray and praise and in all things be You people. And as we sleep, restore us that we might serve You. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Wednesday, 22 June 2022

Alban, on taking the place of a Priest becomes the first British martyr.
Jesus in taking our place confirms his being the Messiah. 

Alleluia - Lord, grant us a quiet night and a perfect end. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Tuesday, 21 June 2022

Lord, teach us to hear Your voice and to see You in the things of the day that we might be Your Church. As we take to our beds, restore us that we might be Your witnesses to a broken and needy world. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Monday, 20 June 2022

May we experience Your presence Lord in the simple things of the day, and in the memories and thoughts of those people and places and things that ground us and bless. us. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) Sunday, 19 June 2022

Lord help us to seize the day and live for You in the 'Now', putting the past behind us (lessons learned) and not living for tomorrow be all we are in You this day that we may bear Your message of love to others. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) Saturday, 18 June 2022

The power of the Cross which turns condemnation to forgiveness, shame to beauty, weakness to strength bring you sleep, healing and wholeness in the godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Amen.

Today (18 June) the Church celebrates the life and ministry of Bernard Mizeki.

Born in Portuguese East Africa, Bernard Mizeki went to work in Cape Town and there he was converted to the Christian faith by the Cowley Fathers.

He then gave his life as a translator and evangelist among the MaShona in what is present-day Zimbabwe.

He was murdered on this day in 1896 in a tribal uprising and is revered throughout Central Africa as a witness to the gospel of Christ.

Compline (night prayer) - Friday, 17 June 2022

God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Thursday, 16 June 2022

The Eucharist is central to our faith - as we ponder the passover, the last supper and the wedding feast of the Lamb in our present time - we rejoice in the body and blood made real in and for us. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Tuesday, 14 June 2022

Cover us with Your wings, cover our sinful natures with the blood of the Lamb and grant us Your peace this night we pray. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Monday, 13 June 2022

'Thy kingdom come' - invitation and proclamation of who God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is in our lives and for Him to be all in all in us. Take us to our beds Lord, that tomorrow we might truly be Yours. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Sunday, 12 June 2022

We have peace with the Father made real for us by the sacrifice of Jesus, the Christ, and lived out daily by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Alleluia.

Compline (night prayer) - Saturday, 11 June 2022

May we in our lives mirror all that the godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) - not in substance but in essence, that we may love, serve and inspire those we meet. Amen.

Compline (night prayer) - Thursday, 9 June 2022

Lord, as we head for bed may Your love renew and restore us and may Your presence bring healing and wholeness to all creation. Amen.

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.