91热爆

Please note: This script may not exactly reflect the transmission.

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91热爆 SUNDAY WORSHIP - 12th January 2025

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INTRODUCTION & WELCOME: SHAUN FENTON (HEADMASTER)

Good morning, from the beautiful St Mary鈥檚 Church here in Reigate, at the start of 2025, the 350th anniversary of Reigate Grammar School. I鈥檓 the Head Shaun Fenton and I鈥檓 speaking from St Mary鈥檚 Church with which the school has a close association. For us, this service marks that anniversary milestone and is a call to action, a chance for us to commit to a decade of making a difference - to grow philanthropy, charity and community partnerships. To nurture international citizens at school who can build a peaceful global village, to address urgent environmental issues and more.

We commit to doing our part, inspired by values that have shaped Reigate Grammar School for centuries. Our School hymn, To Be A Pilgrim, captures those themes. It speaks of pilgrimage鈥� our special journey with a good purpose. For us, this is a commission to every student: go well and make the world a better place. Perhaps, a message for our school in its 350th year and for us all, as we begin this new year with fresh hope and purpose 鈥� and as we remember those displaced around the world continuing to make arduous pilgrimages today.

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Today鈥檚 service also shares some incredible talents from our school community including Sharon the 91热爆 Young Chorister of the Year for 2024. We are so very proud of her, and of all our young people.

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MUSIC: TO BE A PILGRIM (MONK鈥橲 GATE)

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OPENING PRAYERS.听 READ BY: VANESSA RAMSDEN 鈥� RGS TEACHER

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Heavenly Father, as we start a new year and a new term, as individuals and as a community, we give ourselves again to you. Thank you that you continue to call us on in pilgrimage, to journey with you, through all the highs and lows of life. Thank you for the many opportunities and possibilities that this year will bring to us. Help us to cherish each of these and to be open to living life with you in all its fullness.听 Amen.

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SHAUN FENTON (HEADMASTER):

Leading our service and preaching is the chaplain of Reigate Grammar School, the Reverend Phil Jackson.听

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LEADER:

Our first choir piece this morning is A New Year Carol from Benjamin Britten. Britten wrote many pieces specifically for schools to sing and this is one of those pieces. It鈥檚 a traditional folk song which speaks of the ancient New Year ritual of sprinkling people with water drawn from a well.

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MUSIC: A NEW YEAR CAROL (BENJAMIN BRITTEN)

HARPIST AND RGS ALUMNI STUDENT, ELEANOR MEDCALF

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LEADER:

Our first bible reading is taken from the Book of Genesis Chapter 12, the call of Abram as a blessing to all nations, read by one of our senior 6th form students, Henry.

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READING: GENESIS 12: 1-3

Now the Lord said to Abram, 鈥淕o from your country and your kindred and your father鈥檚 house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.鈥�

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MUSIC: BETHLEHEM DOWN (PETER WARLOCK 鈥� EPIPHANY THEME)

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LEADER:

Our theme for this morning is pilgrimage.听 Sharon a pupil here at Reigate Grammar School and winner of 91热爆 Young Chorister of the Year shares her own experience 鈥� having moved to the UK from Hong Kong with her family just over two years ago.听 听The move was motivated by the desire to provide a future for Sharon, where she can grow and thrive, aligned with her family's values and beliefs about personal freedom and opportunity.

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SHARON INTERVIEW

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MUSIC: BE THOU MY VISION (BOB CHILCOTT)

SOLO SOPRANO, SHARON (91热爆 YOUNG CHORISTER OF THE YEAR 2024)

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LEADER:

Our second bible reading, from Matthew Chapter 2, is that great Epiphany reading of the Magi visiting the Christ child.听 It鈥檚 read by another of our senior students from the 6th form, Amika.

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READING: MATTHEW 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, 鈥淲here is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east and have come to pay him homage.鈥� When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him, and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, 鈥淚n Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet:

鈥楢nd you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler, who is to shepherd my people Israel.鈥� 鈥�

Then Herod secretly called for the magi and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, 鈥淕o and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.鈥� When they had heard the king, they set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen in the east, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

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SERMON - THE CHAPLAIN 鈥� THE REV PHILIP JACKSON

It鈥檚 hard if you are a student at Reigate Grammar School to avoid being a pilgrim. Every whole school assembly we sing our school hymn which we began today鈥檚 service with - to be a pilgrim. Our school magazine is called the Pilgrim Review and just a couple of miles up the road by Reigate Hill is the ancient pilgrimage route running from Winchester to Canterbury called Pilgrims Way. Being a pilgrim has been in our DNA at Reigate Grammar for the last 350 years.

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This idea of life as a journey with a purpose is familiar to many of us, and as we all start a new year again, many will be wanting to make the most of the fresh start that comes with that and try and walk that journey with fresh purpose and determination.

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In our Old Testament reading we heard that incredible calling and promise given to Abram. God calls Abram away from his home, his family. Away from all that鈥檚 familiar and safe and tells him that he has something different in store. The promise is huge. Abram will be given a new land, he will be made into a great nation, and God will bless him. But it鈥檚 not all one-way traffic. With this incredible promise comes great responsibility too. As Abram is blessed the calling is to bless others too. Like Abram, we too in life are often called into uncertainty, away from the familiar into something new. But like him we too may be aware of being hugely blessed. Many of us have so many things to thank God for in our everyday lives, alongside the stresses and struggles. Part of our pilgrimage is to use those gifts to bless others.听 A deliberate part of our work at school is to remind students that their task is to go out and make the world a better place- to bless others. We do our best to model that while they are with us through our community work and in our 350 celebrations, we will be doing even more of that 鈥� aware that there is always more that we can do.

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In this season of Epiphany we see, in Matthew鈥檚 Gospel, the Magi arriving after a long and dangerous journey, seeking after this new King whose star they had seen. This new King of Jews, as the Magi puts it, is the King that they, Gentiles have come to worship. The feast of Epiphany celebrates this amazing truth that the Christ child did not come for the faithful few, but he is a gift to the entire world. We in the church do not own Jesus - he is not contained within the walls of the church but is wild in the world, through his Spirit, bringing hope and blessing to all. As human beings we can be so tribal and provincial. We鈥檙e very quick to separate ourselves from people who are different from us - quick to put up walls and fences, quick to spot differences. Perhaps being a pilgrim means we know that we can walk this journey of life with those who are different, some severely disadvantaged even...perhaps those who are escaping from war or torture and who have been left with little choice than to leave their own lands and families behind. We see their journey鈥檚 mirrored in the journey of the holy family who, as Matthew goes on to tell us, had to escape the murderous grasp of Herod and flee to Egypt. We hear very little of the details of this journey and encounter - we can only imagine the terror and displacement they would have felt. A similar terror that is still felt by millions today having to make similar choices. We also know nothing of the people they met on this journey. Perhaps they experienced the kindness of strangers, or were able to walk for a while with those they met on their journey. Those people may never have known the difference they were able to make to that young family, but I am sure they were touched and enriched by the encounter.听 We too can learn from those we walk with for a time, be enriched from different perspectives and experiences that they can bring us, and we too may never know the difference we might make as we offer our kindnesses to fellow pilgrims.

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My final thought of what it might mean to be a pilgrim as we head into 2025 is to do with our school hymn. There are fantastic themes in that hymn of how as a pilgrim we need to persevere through tough times and have courage and determination to continue our journey with one another. However, the thought I want to focus on is less about the words and more about how it is sung, at least at Reigate Grammar. 听When we get to the final line of each verse and the refrain, 鈥榯o be a pilgrim,鈥� the singing becomes what can best be described as a yell!听 I enjoy that sense of fun that our students get from all bellowing together the words of a hymn that is so familiar to them by the time they leave us. One of the things I love about working in a school is observing the capacity that young people have to be playful.听 It鈥檚 so easy as adults to become very serious about everything, to lose our sense of fun and joy in living. Yes, life can be hard and there can be pain and challenges, but the pilgrimage of life can be playful and joyful too. We need to not take ourselves too seriously and allow the playfulness of children and young people to rub off on us so we can enjoy rather than just endure our lives.

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So, I offer these three thoughts at the start of this year, and for us a school as we celebrate our 350 years of pilgrimage. Can we as pilgrims, bless others, walk with those different to us and be playful on our pilgrimage.

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MUSIC: UBI CARITAS (OLA GJEILO)

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LEADER:

Our intercessions will be led now by Isabelle, Hugo and Esther, who are all members of our student Christian Union.

INTERCESSIONS:

Loving God, we thank you for the many opportunities and privileges we enjoy here at school. We thank you that we have the freedom to enjoy an education, and we pray for all those children and teenagers around the world who are not able to access learning in the same way. We pray for all those in worldwide political leadership - that they will have the wisdom to prioritise education for all. And we pray that the international community will do everything it can to support that change. Amen

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Loving God, as we start this new year with hope and joy, we pray for all those people around the world, and in our own nation, who begin this year in pain and sorrow. For those who live in poverty and hunger. For those who are ill or grieving. And for the many places around the world who begin this year in war and conflicts or affected by natural disasters. We pray especially for those who are displaced from their homes and who are fleeing conflict and oppression.听 We pray for safe passage for them and that they will find places of hospitality and new homes. Help us as individuals and as a global community to meet these challenges with generosity and wisdom. Amen

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Loving God, as we continue our own pilgrimage through this New Year, we pray that you will help us to live our lives in a way that honours you and blesses those around us. Help us to choose what is right, rather than what is easy. Help us to become friends who can be trusted and relied upon. Help us to make the most of talents that you have given us, so we can grow as people through this year, and change the world around us. Most of all Lord, help us to live each day in love for one another and for you.听 Amen.

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MUSIC: LORD鈥橲 PRAYER

SUNG SETTING (MARTIN HINDMARSH) COMPOSED FOR THE RGS GODFREY SEARLE CHOIR.

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LEADER:

That setting of 'The Lord's Prayer' 听was composed by a musical associate of our choir Martin Hindmarsh and is used regularly in our school worship. Our closing hymn is a wonderful reminder that the God of hope is with us through every moment and season life, Lord of all Hopefulness.

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MUSIC: LORD OF ALL HOPEFULNESS (SLANE)

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LEADER:

鈥楳ay God the Father, who led the wise men by the shining of a star to find the Christ, the Light from light, lead you also in your pilgrimage to find the Lord. And the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with you and remain with you always. Amen.鈥�

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ORGAN VOLUNTARY: BACH'S 'IN DIR IST FREUDE' BWV 615

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