Sixty Days of Summer — 12 July to 30 August 2026
READING BETWEEN THE LINES
For this year’s SIXTY DAYS OF SUMMER, we are spending eight Sundays exploring the different ways Scripture speaks. The Bible does not communicate in a single voice: it tells stories, gives instruction, sings, reflects, confronts, remembers, teaches, and lifts our eyes to God’s future. Each week we take one of these forms in turn, letting it shape how we listen and how we understand what God is saying. God doesn’t give us a single, smooth, unified monologue. God gives us a library — a conversation, a debate, an argument about what God is like and what it means to live well. And God lets the argument stand. God trusts us to read, to listen, to weigh, to discern. The Bible isn’t a single book telling us one single thing. It’s a centuries long argument about God and about life. A library of voices, not a single voice. And that’s how God still chooses to speak. You can read the order of service for this season at the bottom of this post.
Sunday 12th July — STORIES
| 0945 Communion for Jazz Sunday Sarah & Rosie at St Barnabas | 2 Samuel 12:1-7 Matthew 13:1-9 | 1115 Communion Sarah & Rosie at St Wulstans |
Story in Scripture works by showing rather than telling. It lets readers see events and characters in action so that meaning arises through what happens, and that recognition will not be the same for everyone. Parables are simply a concentrated example of this: they set up a situation in which people realise what is going on from within the story itself.
Sunday 19th July — INSTRUCTIONS
| 0945 Communion Andy at St Barnabas | Exodus 20:1-20 Matthew 22:34-40 | 1115 Communion Nick at St Wulstans |
Instructional writings in the Bible form us by giving clear, memorable guidance for life with God. Their commands shape the habits and patterns through which the community expresses covenant faithfulness. This kind of Scripture becomes a way of life handed on across generations.
Sunday 26th July — SONG
| 0945 Communion Andy & Rosie at St Barnabas | Psalm 23 Luke 1:68-79 | 1115 Communion Paul at St Wulstans |
Poetry in Scripture gives faith a voice through image, rhythm, and metaphor rather than logic, history and argument. It interprets experience in the light of God’s character, expressing trust, lament, praise, and hope. It speaks in pictures that reach into our worshipping imagination, with words for faith in every season of the soul.
Sunday 2nd August — WISDOM
| 0945 Communion Rosie at St Barnabas | Ecclesiastes 3:1-3 Matthew 6:25-34 | 1115 Communion Rosie at St Wulstans |
Wisdom literature differs from poetry and song by reflecting on experience and then suggesting ways forward. Although it often uses poetic language, wisdom observes life’s rhythms, limits, and uncertainties. This kind of Scripture is all about helping us recognise the patterns through which faithful living becomes possible.
Sunday 9th August — PROPHECY
| 0945 Communion Nick at St Barnabas | Jeremiah 7:1-19 Matthew 3:7-12 | 1115 Communion Rosie at St Wulstans |
Prophetic literature speaks with God’s voice to confront a community that has lost its way. Unlike wisdom, which reflects, or poetry, which prays, prophecy interrupts. It call for justice and warns of judgement while holding out the possibility of renewal. It is as much about the present as it is the future.
Sunday 16th August — HISTORY
| 0945 Communion Andy at St Barnabas | Joshua 24:1-28 John 20:26-31; 21:24-5 | 1115 Communion Andy at St Wulstans |
When Bible writers compile histories, they are shaping remembered events into a theological narrative rather than producing neutral chronicle. Their concern is how God’s dealings are understood and handed on, not modern standards of factual reconstruction. Remembering the past enables the community to recognise God’s continuing action and to understand its own identity within that story.
Sunday 23rd August — TEACHING
| 0945 Communion Phillip at St Barnabas | Exodus 34:6-7 John 1:1-18 | 1115 Communion Paul & Cary at St Wulstans |
Doctrine can appear inside story, poetry, wisdom, or prophecy, but it isn’t the same as any of them. It pauses whatever form it sits within to say, plainly and directly, the truths that matter about who God is and what God does. These moments give us a clearer understanding of the things we need wrestle with if we are to speak of God faithfully in today’s world.
Sunday 30th August — VISION
| 1030 Joint Celebration at St Barnabas Nick and Andy | Isaiah 6:1-8 Revelation 21:1-5 Luke 21:25-28 |
Where story, poetry, wisdom, and prophecy speak into the past and the present, apocalyptic writings lift the gaze to the immense things of God beyond the horizon. Using symbol and mystery, vision Scriptures help to show what God’s future makes possible now. Our imaginations are stretched not to speculate endlessly on what is to come, but to live securely as the signs of God’s new creation unfold around us in each passing generation.