First Sundays

Faith,  Food,  Friendship

Starting 1 September at 11.30am

What’s your story?

What’s your story and how does it fit into this often chaotic world? Does your story build you up or does it get in the way of your being a better person? How does your story connect you with others?

Does it help you to love?

Without stories we’re lost. We need them to make sense of our lives and our world. But not all stories are good stories. Not all stories foster love, neighbourliness, generosity, and joy. Not all stories are hopeful.

At the heart of the Christian faith lies a story about a God who creates everything out of love, who never gives up on us, who won’t stand being separated from us. It’s a story about life . . . a story that gives life.

A story that begins with joy and ends with joy…no matter how much the time in between may seem like a valley of the shadow of death.

Living well

Stories do more than help us make sense of ourselves and our world. They also affect how we live individually and collectively. Stories can help us to thrive with others or they can set us at odds with them. They can fill our world with rich meaning and wonder or they can leave us feeling isolated and adrift.

Christians believe that the story about God’s work in the world and especially about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus enables us to live well.

Not just as individuals but as a community.

We also believe that our well-being involves our living well with God, our neighbours, and creation.

In this way, we can ensure that our personal happiness never diminishes what God has made good and beautiful.

First Sundays

  • First Sunday is a new initiative at St Mary’s Brecon aimed at building community by deepening our faith. Through learning, conversations, and shared meals, we hope to reconnect with God’s story and deepen our understanding of it and our commitment to it.

  • Faith is more than subscribing to a set of beliefs. It involves also learning to live within God’s story, to find meaning and purpose in our lives through living well with God, our neighbours, and creation. FIRST SUNDAYS aims to help Christians discover how to do that through scripture, the sacraments, and fostering spirituality.

  • Central to FIRST SUNDAYS is a shared meal. One of the ways that Jesus demonstrated his fellowship with sinners was by sharing meals with them. He revealed his new covenant with his disciples at the Last Supper. The earliest Christians ‘broke bread together’, sharing a meal that would become the Eucharist. Hospitality and table fellowship are essential parts of living well with God and each other.

  • By learning and dining together, we come to know and trust each other. FIRST SUNDAYS aims to provide the space and time for people to get to know each other. In this way, we can grow as a community as we grow in faith.

Faith, Food, Friendship

Word & Sacrament

Living God’s Story of Salvation

FIRST SUNDAYS is based on a study guide written specifically for St Mary’s Brecon that takes people into God’s story. Each session provides an engaging exploration of the Christian faith that looks not only to inform but also inspire.

These topics are divided into three main sections: Scripture, the Sacraments, and Spirituality. Copies of the study guide will be provided for free to all participants.

You can download the introduction here

Scripture

The story of God’s creation and redemption of the world is found in the Bible. The Old and New Testaments not only tell us about God but also invite us to enter into the story they tell, to become characters within God’s own story.

Sacraments

We live in a sacramental world, where visible things can communicate meaning, spark our imagination, and make us aware of things otherwise hidden. God reveals himself to us through creation. He also gives us sacraments, like baptism and the Eucharist, that provide us with the help we need to be good and faithful characters in God’s story.

Spirituality

Living as good and faithful characters in God’s story is central to Christian spirituality. To live well with God, we must know him as he has revealed himself to us. To live well with others, we need his help provided through the sacraments. To live well within creation, we must understand why God created and redeemed humanity.

Join us.

While we’d love to see you at our 10.00am worship, you’re very welcome to come just to FIRST SUNDAY. These are held on the first Sunday of the month at St Mary’s, starting at 11.30am. There’s no obligation to come to all the sessions. You’d be very welcome just to come for a taster.

If you do plan to come, please let us know. We’re happy to help with transportation. Let us know if you do, any dietary requirements you have, and anything else that would be useful for us to know about you.

We look forward to your joining us.