Doncaster Minster Services

Sunday 5th February 2012




The Third Sunday Before Lent - Education Sunday



Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) at 8.30am

Sung Eucharist at 11.00am
Setting: Communion Service in F - Harris
Hymn: 349 - Come, let us join our cheerful songs
Reading: Isaiah. 40. 21-end
Hymn: 366 - God of mercy, God of grace
Gospel: Mark 1 v29 - 39
Hymn: 295 - Let all mortal flesh keep silence
Anthem: The Holy Eucharist - Harris
Hymn: 398 - Lift up your hearts!
Voluntary: Prelude, Fugue & Ciaconne in C - Buxtehude

Choral Evensong and Installation of the Bishop of Doncaster at 4.00pm
at Sheffield Cathedral

Evening Prayer at 6.30pm
Setting: Evening Service in B - Noble
Hymn 445 - Rock of ages, cleft for me
Reading: Numbers 13 v 1 - 2; 27 - end
Psalm: 5
Reading: Luke 5 v1 - 11
Anthem: When to the temple Mary went - Eccard
Hymn 252 - The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended
Voluntary: Adagio - Liszt



Tuesday 7th February 2012


Morning Prayer • at 8:30am
Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) • at 12:30pm



Wednesday 8th February 2012


Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c525
Midday Prayers • at 12:00pm
Holy Communion (Common Worship) • at 12:30pm



Thursday 9th February 2012


Morning Prayer • at 9:00am

Bishop and Businesses



This week Doncaster and the Minster have experienced two important events. Many of us had a celebratory day in York on Thursday for the consecration of the new Bishop of Doncaster, The Rt Revd Peter Burrows. He will be installed in the Cathedral this afternoon at 4.00 pm if you would like to attend, but the main service of welcome will be here in the Minster next Saturday at 11.00 am. Many people from the town, college, schools, borough, churches and other faiths, will be here to welcome him and the new Archdeacon, Stephen Wilcockson. Come early to get a seat.

I am a great believer in celebrating our achievements, no matter how small or great they are. Listen for good news regarding grant funding success, soon to be announced. The Director of Music, who works hard going into schools to recruit new choristers, informs us that 19 girls turned up for rehearsal this week as a result of his hard work. Well done Darren. The new information banners, costing almost £100 each, were donated by a local business, Printing.com at no cost to us. A new business in IT consultancy, set up six months ago by a 25 year old young entrepreneur, gave us free IT repair work, and local catering businesses, photography and others, are keen to work with us to put on marriage fairs at the Minster to secure more weddings in the future.

On Tuesday evening, the Minster sponsored the Doncaster Chamber of Commerce Business Network event in partnership with the Dome and Printing.com. More than 100 businesses were represented, and I had the opportunity to do the opening presentation to showcase the Minster’s positive strategy and vision for the future alongside some of the challenges we face.

The sponsorship of the Doncaster Chamber event provides a great opportunity to raise our profile within the local area and provide a platform for promoting the Minster to a wider audience. We welcomed a captive audience of local businesses and a chance to make new contacts to explore future partnership together.

The Revd Canon Dr Paul Shackerley
Vicar of Doncaster Minster


The Revd Canon Dr Paul Shackerley
Vicar of the Minster

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday before Lent


Text: Mark 1. 29-39

Mark’s gospel is full of people whose names we never know. The man with the unclean spirit, the leper, the woman with the hemorrhage and the daughter of Jairus. These are the people who no one will ever touch, they are treated as nameless, treated as outsiders but they are central to Jesus’ ministry. Verse 31 “Jesus went up to her, took her hand and helped her up.” Over and over again in Jesus’ ministry, his compassion is conveyed through the power of touch; taking hands, touching shoulders, helping up, touching blind eyes, holding people. Touch is an immense pastoral gift that conveys the compassion of Christ. There is real tenderness in the touch of a man who stood in direct opposition to a religious practice that was quicker to declare someone as ‘unclean’ than they were to offer the compassion of embrace.

Simon’s mother in law is raised up; Jesus takes her by the hand and gives hope. The word for ‘raised’ or ‘lifted up’ is used on Easter morning, ‘He is risen.’ Simon’s mother in law then serves others when she is restored. She resumes her routine daily work, what is different is that she begins to serve others, she becomes a model of ministry. Jesus becomes a public figure, and this means great demands are laid on him. Yet, the busier he is, the more he knows his need to spend time alone with God. Jesus knew that if he was to bring life and hope to others he could only do so if he spent time with God. That is the challenge for those of us who are busy and have demands laid on us. There is an urgent need in busy lives to look to the source of life, if we are to bring life to others and to ourselves. This Gospel comes at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and Mark presents a pattern for our lives. Christ is in the centre of so many demands. Yet, he retreats from this busy public ministry to be with God and he emerges from that time with God with clarity of purpose for the next step of his ministry. He is not to remain with this immediate community, attending to their needs, but is to move to another community in order to ‘proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do’ (v.38). Jesus’ balances his ministry to others with his own, drinks deeply from the well of his Father’s presence enabling him to perceive a clear direction for the future. The reality of living our lives means that we can easily lose perspective, but in waiting upon God we regain perspective, we discover again who God is and who we are; we are renewed and we are able to keep going with a new vigour of purpose and direction because we gain new insights and self-understanding.

We are told in verse 29 that it was the house of Simon and Andrew and they went with James and John. Simon and Andrew and James and John were the first disciples to be called in Mark 1:14-20 - and there we read that, as Jesus called them, he said ‘Follow me’. Simon and Andrew left their nets and followed him…. James and John left their father Zebedee… and followed him. When we hear stories of the disciples leaving to follow we assume that they gave up everything, completely. But the reading this morning suggests something different. Simon was clearly married, because he had a mother-in-law. He also owned a house. So to follow Jesus doesn’t mean they ran away from their domestic responsibilities. They had family and property and it was right for them to continue to behave with responsibility towards those. Instead, Jesus comes into Simon’s house to enter the domestic world of his followers.

And so it is with us. God enters the domesticity and ordinariness of our lives. Being a follower of Jesus isn’t some mystical, transcendental experience that takes us out of the responsibilities of this world. Being a follower of Jesus means that God comes into our lives and he ministers to us in the everyday. God does not despise the ordinariness of our lives. We are not to regard our domesticity as a barrier to our relationship with God. If we want to meet with God, he comes to us in the everyday and he finds us living out our lives responsibly and with service to others.

As we engage in mission and seek to proclaim Christ to our friends and families we would do well to consider how we can be Christ-like in our approach, by touch and simply being alongside them. Like Christ we are called to enter the ordinariness of other peoples’ lives. Priests do this regularly through the occasional offices of funerals, marriages and baptisms, to name a few. To be Christ-like is to learn how to be considerate to the needs of others without them becoming dependent on us. Regardless how small a need appear to us it is never insignificant for the person bearing it. To show compassion as Christians is to follow the pattern of Christ who touched Simon’s mother in law, raised her up (same phrase as Christ’s rising), who then went on to serve other who visited her home. To be touched and raised up by Christ is to be compelled to go on to serve others. This is the mission of Christ’s Church.

The Revd Canon Dr Paul Shackerley
Vicar of the Minster

Regular Weekly Services





Sunday


Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) • at 8:30a

Sung Eucharist (Common Worship) • at 11:00am

Choral Evensong (Book of Common Prayer) • at 6:30pm



Tuesday


Morning Prayer • at 8:30am
Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) • at 12:30pm



Wednesday


Midday Prayers • at 12:00pm
Holy Communion (Common Worship) • at 12:30pm



Thursday


Morning Prayer • at 9:00am



Festivals and Saints Days


See Events for details of all other services
Events

Daily prayer


The Church of England, along with other churches in England and around the world, has a pattern of daily morning, evening and night prayer. Each day, and each time of day, uses different readings from the Bible, and different prayers.
Morning Prayer
Evening Prayer
Daily Prayer provided by the official Church of England web site, © The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, 2002-2004.

Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals


If you are interested in booking a service at the Minster why not ask one of the clergy team after you have attended a service.

Alternatively please contact the Parish Clerk and Head Virger – See Contact Us for details

See Contact Us




The Church of England has created a website especially for parents considering baptism for their children called The Baptism Service

The Church of England has created a website especially for people wanting to know more about funerals called Funerals

The Church of England has created a new website especially for people getting married called Your Church Wedding

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