Seventh Sunday of Easter and APCM
“so that they may be one, as we are one”
Overview
Seventh Sunday of Easter
Today our Annual Parochial Council Meeting takes place within our morning worship. The business part of this meeting is short: we elect those who will serve as our Church Wardens and on our Parish Church Council for the coming year.
The APCM gives us the opportunity to give thanks for all who have served our community in the past year; to declare our support for those who will serve us going forward; and to ask for God’s blessing on their work.
In place of the sermon we will have a speed summary of what we have been up to in the last year.
As we look back at 2025 and look forward to the year ahead we have a chance to reflect on what it means for each of us to be part of Christ’s church. In John 17:1-11, Jesus prays that his disciples may have eternal life which he describes, not as life after death or life at the end of time but as a relationship with him and with God:
“And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Christ’s gift to the church, life in all its fullness, is found in the depth of our relationships, not only with God but also with one another; so Jesus prays “that they may be one, as we are one.”
In the year ahead may those relationships increase and strengthen as we seek to become a beloved community bring Christ to the world.
GOSPEL
John 17:1-11
Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
