Trinity Sunday - 7 June 2020
Click here if you want to download the service sheet, or just follow from this page.
The scutem fidei (Shield of Faith, or Shield of the Trinity)
Today is Trinity Sunday, the day when we marvel at the nature of the infinite God, as far as we can comprehend it with our finite minds. Did you know that the Holy Trinity has a coat of arms? The medievals did, and this is how they represented it: as the scutem fidei, the Shield of Faith. It contains truths about the nature of God in diagrammatic form. If you read from the centre inwards, and outwards, you learn that God is Father, God is Son, and God is Holy Spirit; and also that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are God. Reading around the sides of the diagram, you learn that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father, and vice versa. This provides 12 statements about the nature of God, in an attempt to capture something of the paradoxical mystery of three persons, one God. Whether we understand it or not, we are nevertheless invited into the life of the Trinity, the heart of which is love.
Opening Voluntary
Our opening voluntary is Handel’s Xerxes, ombra mai fu. Click on the link to listen before the service begins.
Light a candle to prepare yourself to praise the astonishing and mind-blowing, transcendent yet imminent, mighty yet gentle Holy and undivided Trinity. Our service begins as it normally would at 9.30am. Please click on the link, and make the responses yourself. If you would like to sing along to the hymn the words are below.
Opening Hymn and Welcome
The beginning of the service can be accessed from the youtube clip. Please join in with the responses, and hymns.
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee;
Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!
Holy, Holy, Holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee;
which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.
Holy, Holy, Holy, though the darkness hide thee,
Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
Only thou art holy, there is none beside thee
perfect in power, in love, and purity.
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!
Priest
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
All
Amen
Priest
The Lord be with you.
All
And also with you
Confessing our sins
We have not always lived our lives as we might have done. We have done wrong and hurt others. Let’s seek God’s forgiveness. We pray together:
All:
Almighty God, our heavenly Father,
we have sinned against you and against our neighbour
in thought and word and deed,
through negligence, through weakness,
through our own deliberate fault.
We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us,
forgive us all that is past
and grant that we may serve you in newness of life
to the glory of your name. Amen.
The priest gives the absolution, and we respond. Amen.
Praising God’s glory
We sing to praise God’s glory. Please join in with Jonathan
Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to his people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father,
we worship you, we give you thanks,
we praise you for your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father,
receive our prayer.
For you alone are the Holy One,
you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father.
Amen.
The priest prays the Collect – the prayer for the day
Reading
Charlie reads the Old Testament reading, which is Isaiah 40. 12-17, 27-end.
Psalm
Catherine leads us in singing Psalm 8. The response is:
R: How glorious is your name in all the world
O Lord God our governor,
how glorious is your name in all the world!
Out of the mouths of babes and infants,
your majesty is praised above the heavens. R.
When I consider your heavens, even the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you have ordained,
what is man that you should be mindful of him;
the son of man, that you should seek him out?
You have made him little lower than the angels,
and crown him with glory and honour. R.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands,
and put all things under his feet.
All sheep and oxen,
even the wild beasts of the field.
The birds of the air and fish of the sea,
and whatsoever moves through the paths of the sea. R.
Gospel
We stand for the Gospel reading, Matthew 28.16-20.
Sermon
Mthr Cynthia is preaching for us this morning.
Creed
As it is Trinity Sunday, let's say the full Nicene Creed. I won't make you say the Athanasian Creed, which is specified to be said on Trinity Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer. It's twice as long and has some tricky corners!
All
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
+ We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
The Prayers
Janice leads us in prayer this morning.
The Peace
Let’s share the peace! Click on the youtube clip for the next part of the service
As the altar is prepared, we sing our offertory hymn.
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation;
O my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation:
Come ye who hear, brothers and sisters draw near,
praise him in glad adoration.
Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth,
shelters thee under his wings, yea, so gently sustaineth:
hast thous not seen, all that is needful hath been
granted in what he ordaineth?
Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work, and defend thee;
surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend thee;
ponder anew all the Almighty can do,
He who with love doth befriend thee.
Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore him!
All that hath life and breath come now with praises before him!
Let the Amen sound from his people again:
gladly for ay we adore him.
The Eucharistic Prayer
We now come to the heart of the mass, the prayer of consecration. Please join in with singing or saying the responses.
Priest
The Lord be with you
All
And also with you
Priest
Lift up your hearts.
All
We lift them to the Lord.
Priest
All
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give thanks and praise.
The Acclamation:
Priest
Great is the mystery of faith.
All
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
The Sanctus and Benedictus (Sanctus means ‘holy’, Benedictus means ‘blessed’):
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
+Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
The Agnus Dei (which means ‘Lamb of God’)
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, Grant us peace.
This is a prayer for you to say at the point at which you would be receiving the bread and wine. You are making a spiritual communion in place of a sacramental communion, as that is not possible at this time.
In union, O Lord with the faithful at every altar of your Church, where the Holy Eucharist is celebrated, I desire to offer you praise and thanksgiving. I present to you my soul and body with the earnest wish that I may always be united to you. And since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, I ask you to come spiritually into my heart. I unite myself to you, and embrace you with all the affections of my soul. Let nothing ever separate you from me. May I live and die in your love. Amen.
Anthem
As we reflect on our spiritual communion, Jonathan and Catherine sing Tchaikovsky's Hymn to the Trinity.
Blessed angel spirits offer praise undying, ever crying:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.
Saints and martyrs praise thy name, Trinity life-giving,
earthborn sorrow leaving before thy throne.
Ever crying:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.
Father onmipotent, mighty in glory,
Christ thy Son our Saviour,
who died that we might live,
Holy Spirit, mystic dove dwelling with us evermore;
we praise thee, blessed Trinity.
With the angels’ sacred hymn all thy might proclaiming,
with the mystic cherubim in songs of praise we join.
Holy, holy, holy,
join we all in songs of praise for ever:
Hallelujah, Lord God of Sabaoth.,
The Blessing and Final Hymn
Please click on this link for the end of the service. No Regina Coeli this week as Eastertide is over. We revert back to a closing hymn, and it's a good one!
All
How shall I sing that majesty
which angels do admire?
Let dust in dust and silence lie;
Sing, sing, ye heavenly choir.
Thousands of thousands stand around
thy throne, O God most high;
Ten thousand times ten thousand sound
thy praise; but who am I?
How great a being, Lord, is thine,
which doth all beings keep!
Thy knowledge is the only line
to sound so vast a deep.
Thou art a sea without a shore,
a sun without a sphere;
thy time is now and evermore,
thy place is everywhere.
Jonathan’s closing voluntary, is Bach’s Fantasia in G.