St Leodegar’s Church, Hunston

Today at our churches

St Stephen's Church

It was lovely to have Revd David Nason with us. He talked about the message in today’s reading in Romans “Love is the fulfilment of the law”. Romans, written by Paul, is a handbook of the Christian way of living. Christians are to live and spread the Gospel in the Power of Love and not the love of power.

Sunday School

The Sunday School continued looking at Creation, looking at animals today. They answered some questions about animals in their lives and created animals through drawings, cutting out, colouring, etc.

They also looked the difficulties a village in Africa has with elephants and the ingenious solution of creating a bee fence! They created a model bee fence.

Emmanuel International UK (one of the missions that our benefice supports) is installing a bee fence in the village of Mafuluto. You can read more about this in the Bushnet.

St Leodegar's Church

Altar window

It was a lovely service taken by Revd Graham Steele with well known hymns on the screen.

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Sunday at our churches

Joint service at St Stephen’s Church

What a wonderful and exciting day we had at church on Sunday!

The first reading was dramatized for 3 voices: God, Moses and Narrator.

Moses stepped aside to see the burning bush, then listened to God. God asked “What is in your hand?” and gave Moses a sign to trust in God. Then Moses obeyed.

Revd Anne used “show and tell” to share about the importance of the different elements of a service, and about how God has spoken to her in her life.

Remember these words: “God speaks and I…” You fill in the verb. How do you respond when God speaks to you? What do you have in your hand that God is asking you to use?

Clare did the intercessions, using visual aids to demonstrate the points she was praying about.

It was Revd Anne’s last official duty with our benefice. She has made a great impact on us and we thanked her for all she has done for us!

The Community Rangers from the RSPB Pagham Harbour Reserve’s display table was very interesting and well attended!

A number of us stayed for the bring your own picnic. Though the weather was much better then predicted, we ended up spending a lovely sociable time around the table in St Stephen’s Room instead of outside. We shared the lovely cake that the children had decorated with their names as a thank you to Revd Anne.

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This Sunday! 30 August: 5th Sunday Joint Communion Service

at 9:30am at St Stephen’s Church

There will be a special section within our usual Holy Communion service.

“The Word of God: Moses saw a burning bush”

From 10:30am the Community Rangers from the RSPB Pagham Harbour Reserve will have an information table about the society, the birds in the reserve.

From 10:30am a Bring Your Own Family Picnic

Bring everything for your own family’s picnic. please.

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Today at our churches

St Leodegar's Church

Lovely service led by Revd Wyn, with wonderful hymns chosen and played by Naomi.

St Stephen's Church

Today we welcomed Sue Fallon, General Manager of Emmanuel International UK. Our benefice supports EIUK. Sue visited EI Uganda in June and spoke about the work that is being done there. Clare beautifully led the service, introducing the hymns by sharing a bit of their background, which made it very piognant.

Summer Sundays

The Summer Sundays series concluded today. They looked at eagles in the Bible. Did you know that an eagle has a wingspan of 6ft?! There is a brass eagle in the church, thankfully not life-size.

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Today at our churches

St Stephen's Church

It was lovely to have Revd Nigel Mason and his wife Cathy back eith us again.

Jesus, with his disciples, has withdrawn to an area outside Northern Israel. They are close to Tyre and Sidon.

A Canaanite woman calls out to Jesus for help. With an absence of response from Jesus, the disciples suggest he sends her away.  The significance this non-Israeli woman gives to Jesus is amazing.  She calls him ‘Lord’, ‘Son of David’, asks for his mercy and she kneels before Him, explaining her daughter’s suffering from demon possession.  Her persistence in perusing Jesus reveals a conviction that the answers to such a need lie with Him.

First Jesus tells her that he was only sent , “for the lost sheep of Israel”.  She continues, “Lord, help me”.

What might be considered a harsh reply , “it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs”, comes from within the context that all non- Israelis were loosely referred to as ‘dogs’ – ie other than them.  She agrees but reminds Jesus that even the dogs can eat the crumbs which fall from ‘their master’s table’ .

It was suggested here that there may have been some humour in this communication but in any case Jesus’ attitude would have been  compassionate.  There is also a possible link here to the feeding of the five thousand, with 12 baskets of leftovers and Jesus’ saying of himself, “I am the bread of life”.

Ultimately this woman is commended for her ‘great faith’ and her daughter is restored to her.  Sadly, many of Jesus’ own people, in contrast, had failed to recognise Him.

Summer Sundays

St Leodegar's Church

We had a lovely Morning Praise with Revd Wyn Jones and he gave a brilliant sermon, a truly wonderful service.

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Today at our churches

St Leodegar's Church

Revd Roger Pullen led a lovely Holy Communion service this morning. We had a congregation of 18 plus 1 child. A truly wonderful service.

St Stephen's Church

It was great to have Revd Roger Pullen with us again today. He talked about the meaning of the miracle of Jesus walking on the water, today’s Gospel reading. For the disciples this was a reminder that Jesus is the True God and that they are not forsaken. For a church in interregnum, this is also a reminder that God is in control and we are not forsaken.

Summer Sundays

The children looked at hens today. They had a creative activity to demonstrate who the chicks run to be under the mother’s wing when danger looms (“as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” in Matthew and Luke). They also looked at the cockerel in the Bible.

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Joint service at St Stephen’s Church today

2026-08-03 St S

It was lovely to welcome back Revd Graham Steele and his wife Mandy. Revd Graham pointed out that today’s Gospel reading follows the news of the death of John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin. Jesus wanted to go to a quiet place to grieve but the crowds followed him. Last weeks readings focused on the value of the Kingdom of God. Perhaps the people were so keen to seek this treasure that they followed Jesus, ignoring his need to grieve. They came unprepared. There was no food, but Jesus used the little was available to feed many. We don’t have to have everything in place to follow Jesus – he can use the little we offer.

Summer Sundays

The children learned about doves in the Bible.

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Today at our churches

St Stephen's Church

It was wonderful to welcome Revd Stephen Everard and his wife Jane back with us today. Stephen shared that the Word of God does not come back empty, as per our Isaiah reading.

In the parable of the sower, the farmer sows seed – some may be lost but the crop from the good soil is an abundant result. Thought the Word of God is snatched away or overburdened, those who hear and respond deliver a great result.

How do we respond? The Kingdom of God is being ushered in. Our role is to scatter seeds. Tell others how God works in your life! What kind of soil do we provide for the seed to grow? What can we weed out to make sure God’s Word can grow?

Who has ears, let him hear.

St Leodegar's Church

Canon David Nason took our Holy Communion service, and Jo Williams did the intercessions. We had a total of 14 people today.

As today is Sea Sunday, Canon David’s sermon explored Jesus’ parables, why He taught from the water and what His stories mean for us. Jesus often used everyday nautical or agricultural imagery, inviting His listeners to look past familiar shores, trust the wild abundance of God’s kingdom, and anchor their faith.

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At our churches

St Leodegar's Church

Revd Rodger Pullen took the service, Naomi played music and also did the readings – one from Romans with 16 do’s in the first few verses!

Jesus viewed people around him as though they were children playing together and singing frivolous little songs.

John the Baptist – the one sent to prepare the way for Jesus, considered to be a prophet like Elijah and about whom Jesus places him as the greatest, was dismissed because of his odd clothing and limited diet (locusts and honey).

Jesus is dismissed lightly because he eats and drinks like others but doesn’t seem to recognise when he is amongst ‘sinners’, especially the tax collectors.

How lightly people around us dismiss Jesus as ‘just another religion’ with no serious attempt to examine or question more deeply.

St Stephen's Church

Photo by Grace Alexander. No photo was taken at the service.

Revd Rodger Pullen took the service, Naomi played music and also did the readings – one from Romans with 16 do’s in the first few verses!

Jesus viewed people around him as though they were children playing together and singing frivolous little songs.

John the Baptist – the one sent to prepare the way for Jesus, considered to be a prophet like Elijah and about whom Jesus places him as the greatest, was dismissed because of his odd clothing and limited diet (locusts and honey).

Jesus is dismissed lightly because he eats and drinks like others but doesn’t seem to recognise when he is amongst ‘sinners’, especially the tax collectors.

How lightly people around us dismiss Jesus as ‘just another religion’ with no serious attempt to examine or question more deeply.

Sunday School

2026-07-05 Sunday school

We concluded the Story of Creation today by looking at animals and people. We were able to use the outside space for a Creation detectives activity. In groups, the children had to hunt for cards about particular animals (bee, earthworm, bat, butterfly and elephant). There were facts about how the animals positively contribute to God’s Creation and other facts about how we as people harm them. The children wrote pledges on leaf shapes on something they can do to help our environment and also enjoyed creating some scratch art pictures of animals.

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