This Sunday is ‘Back to Church Sunday’. The B2CS campaign has seen thousands of people come back to church in recent years, including some at St Peter’s. We look forward to welcoming people this Sunday – some who have received a personal invitation from a church member, and others who have just seen the publicity.

In preparation for this Sunday, we asked our members to tell us why they come to St Peter’s, and how they would recommend it to a friend. Here are some of the responses:

‘St Peter’s is a very down-to-earth church with a warm and caring congregation’

Going to St Peter’s sets me up for the week and sorts out all my problems’

‘I shall always remember how kind members of St Peter’s church were at the time of my husband’s terrible illness and subsequent death.’

It is a warm and friendly church which accepts me and tolerates my occasional eccentricities!’

This is such a friendly church: For those with modern ideas of worship, you will find it here; for those of more traditional bent, you are not forgotten. And in the winter, the church is warm!’

‘Walking into St Peter’s is like coming home, especially at 8.00am Communion; it is peaceful and quiet which gives time to reflect on the past week, and give thanks to God, as well as asking his help for the coming week’

‘I like St Peter’s because everyone is very friendly and welcoming. It caters for the whole family, especially children – they love the songs with actions!’

‘I like St Peter’s because everyone is kind and welcoming. Everyone makes an effort to join in the songs especially’ E, 8 yrs old.

‘I like St Peter’s because it has a fun ‘Lighthouse’ and I learn more about God, and the Vicar is very kind.’ H, 10 yrs old

So, be prepared to receive a warm welcome in a heated church, with a variety of worship styles for all ages, a kind Vicar who will make a serious attempt to apply the Bible to your life (and his!) – plus a cup of coffee and a chance to talk to others at the end of the service! Come at 8.00am for a Prayer Book (1662) Communion, at 10.30am for a more contemporary service with baptisms of 3 children, or to a more reflective evening service at 6.30pm.
We’d love to see you!

Till Next Time!

Copied entirely form Mick Hough.

Does “Sin” Mean to “Miss the Mark”?

Many thanks to Baker Book House Church Connection from whom the following is copied directly:

Given enough time you will a preacher or teacher say that the Greek word for sin “actually” or “literally” means “to miss the mark.” It really is sad with all the excellent resources on Greek and Hebrew that things like this are still so often heard. I offer as a corrective this great paragraph taken from J. P. Louw’s book Semantics of New Testament Greek.

“A very important fact, as always neglected when ἁμαρτάνω is explained etymologically as ‘to miss the mark’, is that among the oldest usages of ἁμαρτάνω contexts can be found in which ἁμαρτάνω not only meant ‘to miss a target’, but also ‘to make a mistake, to be deprived of, to lose, to neglect’ (see LSJ). Why is ‘to miss a target’ taken as the ‘hidden meaning.’ not not one of the others? Furthermore, if etymology is to be used, why go back only as far as Homeric Greek? Why not even further to ἁ + μαρτος in which μαρτος goes back to a stem σμερ from which μέρος ‘part’ is derived. This derivation is given by J. B. Hoffman (1950) as the origin of ἁμαρτάνω. Thus, the basic meaning would be ‘not be have a part in’–a meaning which can easily be applied to ‘sin.’ In fact, the concept ‘sin’ has so many facets that it takes little imagination to link any of the above mentioned ‘meanings’ in some way or another to a favored explanation of the basic notion of sin.”

Who today, for example, would try to make a case that the English word “nice” “actually” or “literally” means “stupid” or “ignorant” even though these meanings can be found in an etymological study of the word? For someone to claim that “sin” literally means “miss the mark” is simply showing how “nice” they are (literally speaking).

Till Next Time!