Saint Paul's Church, Landkey
In Brief
Next Service:
Online Communion Service
(Third Sunday in Epiphany)
The next village event will be Parish Council Meeting on 3rd February 2021 at 7:00 PM in Virtual Parish Council Meeting
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More ImagesService Times and Themes
Services are usually held in St Paul's Church at 10:30am on Sundays. Variations to this routine occur occasionally so we publish our services diary here to give more precise information. The services shown are those that we expect to take place during the next month.
Whenever a fifth Sunday falls within the month, our congregation joins with those of the other churches in our Mission Community for a service of united worship. The church in which this service is held is selected on a rotational basis.
Service Times
Click or tap on any of the services to reveal fuller details:
Service Themes
Our services, like those organised in other churches, usually have a theme associated with them and the chosen theme is inspired often by the current date in the Christian calendar. Easter and Christmas are the two most notable dates in the Christian calendar but there are many more which we celebrate at the appropriate time. In the article below, we explain briefly the main theme that is featured in our listed services in order to help worshippers unfamiliar with Anglican services to better understand the meaning behind each one.
Service Themes
Epiphany
After twelve days of festive celebrations, the decorations come down, the tree is taken out of the house and a feeling of anti-climax marks the day when Christmas is finally over.
The formal end of Christmas falls on 6th January and this day in the Christian calendar is known as Epiphany. It is the time of the year when the actions of the three Wise Men at the time of Jesus' birth are recognised.
These three men were known as Magi and, although little is said of their origins in the Bible, it is possible that the name would suggest that they were associated with the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. One aspect of this religion involved paying particular attention to the stars, and it gained for itself an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science.
It may not, therefore, have been entirely a coincidence that these educated individuals who came "from the East" should have undergone a lengthy journey to Bethlehem where they were to ask, "Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage". (Matthew 2, v2).
King Herod of Judea was frightened by the birth of a child whom he believed might usurp his throne. He sent for the Wise Men and discovered from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem on the pretext of letting him know the location of the birth so that he could also pay homage. As they went on their way, the Wise Men were to observe the star come to a halt over Bethlehem.
The Wise Men found the child with Mary and they knelt to pay him homage, giving him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. After being warned in a dream of his plan to get rid of Jesus, the Wise Men did not report back to Herod.