A Service of the Word for Ash Wednesday

The order of service below is designed to be used on a device with a screen, for those, for example, following the service on a tablet while watching it on a TV. If you would like to print an order of service, click here for the PDF version which has the best design and page layout for printing.

A Service of the Word for Ash Wednesday in Devizes Deanery, 17 February 2021

Organ Voluntary (from St John’s, Devizes)

‘Little’ Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 533, by J S Bach, played by Chris Totney

Preparation

The service is introduced by the Rev’d Keith Brindle, Assistant Rural Dean, at St James’, Southbroom

In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.

All Amen.

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you

All and also with you.

Welcome to this Devizes Deanery commemoration for Ash Wednesday, which begins our Lenten observance for 2021.

Although the terrible circumstances of the pandemic forces us to be apart physically, through the wonders of the Internet, we will be united in a single deanery Ash Wednesday service for the first time.

You are encouraged to join in the congregational responses at home; these will be displayed as subtitles on the screen, so you don’t need a service sheet, although you are welcome to use one if you have it on another screen or have printed it off.

Brothers and sisters, since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord’s passion and resurrection and prepared for this by a season of penitence and fasting.

By carefully keeping these days, Christians take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.

All Holy God,
holy and strong,

holy and immortal,

have mercy upon us.

The Collect

Let us pray for grace to keep Lent faithfully.

Silence is kept.

Almighty and everlasting God,

you hate nothing that you have made

and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:

create and make in us new and contrite hearts

that we, worthily lamenting our sins

and acknowledging our wretchedness,

may receive from you, the God of all mercy,

perfect remission and forgiveness;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

All Amen.

The Liturgy of the Word

Old Testament Reading

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, read by Pauline Jenkins at St Peter’s, Great Cheverell

Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy hill.
Let all who live in the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand—
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the mountains
a large and mighty army comes,
such as never was in ancient times
nor ever will be in ages to come.

“Even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
Who knows? He may turn and relent
and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings
for the Lord your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion,
declare a holy fast,
call a sacred assembly.
Gather the people,
consecrate the assembly;
bring together the elders,
gather the children,
those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room
and the bride her chamber.
Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
weep between the portico and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord.
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”

Psalm

Psalm 51 sung by the Rev’d Gerry Lynch at St Mary’s, Devizes

1 Have mercy upon me O God after thy great goodness:
according to the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences.

2 Wash me throughly from my wickedness:
and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my faults:
and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against thee only have I sinned and done evil in thy sight:
so that thou art just in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgement.

5 Behold I was shapen in wickedness:
and in sin hath my mother conceived me.

6 But lo thou hast laid up truth in the inward man:
and hast taught me wisdom in the secret places of the heart,

7 Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness:
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

9 Turn thy face from my sins:
and put out all my misdeeds.

10 Make me a clean heart O God:
and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me not away from thy presence:
and take not thy holy spirit from me.

12 O give me the comfort of thy help again:
and strengthen me with a willing spirit.

13 Then shall I teach thy ways unto the wicked: and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

14 Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation:
and my tongue shall sing of thy deliverance

15 O Lord open thou my lips:
and my mouth shall shew thy praise.

16 For thou desirest no sacrifice, else would I give it thee:
but thou delightest not in burnt-offerings.

17 The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit:
a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt thou not despise.

18 O be favourable and gracious unto Sion:
build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then shalt thou be pleased with sacrifices in their appointed seasons
with burnt offerings and oblations:
then shall they offer young bullocks upon thine altar.

Epistle Reading

2 Cor 5:20-6:10, read by Carole Jones, Deanery Lay Chair, at St Michael and All Angels, Urchfont

We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says,

‘At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you.’

See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honour and dishonour, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Here ends the second reading.

Worship Song

Reckless Love by Cory Ashbury, performed by Jeremy Davidson (guitar and vocals) and Rhianna and Catherine Wallace (vocals) from St James’, Southbroom

Gospel

John 8:2-11, read by the Rev’d Adrian Burholt, at St Mary’s, Potterne

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to St John
All Glory to you, O Lord.

Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Preached by the Bishop of Ramsbury, the Rt Rev’d Dr Andrew Rumsey.

Nicene Creed

Led by the Rev’d Marion Harrison at St Peter’s, Great Cheverell

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is,
seen and unseen.

We believe in one 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 Liturgy of Penitence

Led by the Rev’d Andrew Sinclair, Rural Dean, and Andrew King, at Edington Priory

Self-examination and Confession

Let us now call to mind our sin and the infinite mercy of God.

Silence is kept.

The Litany

God the Father,

All have mercy upon us.

God the Son,

All have mercy upon us.

God the Holy Spirit,

All have mercy upon us.

Holy, blessed and glorious Trinity,

All have mercy upon us.

From all evil and mischief;

from pride, vanity, and hypocrisy;

from envy, hatred, and malice;

and from all evil intent,