Colchester’s Bishop preached a message in the spirit of love to a packed Wivenhoe Pub Church.

Bishop Roger Morris also told people to pray the Lord’s Prayer when they attend the cinema, despite the Odeon’s recent ban of the Church of England Advent advert featuring it. He said the Lord’s Prayer offends people because it speaks of forgiveness.

“Pray for those you encounter….Enabling people to know that God loves them is the most important thing,” he said.

Bishop Roger answered some difficult questions during a Q&A session, held Holy Communion and blessed the children during the meeting.

“Sometimes the answer to our prayer isn’t what we ask for or what we expect,” he said. “God is able to do certain things because we are praying, that he wouldn’t do if we weren’t.”

Originally from Chipping Sodbury, Glouchester, Bishop Roger told how he switched from going into a career as a research scientist to becoming a vicar after attending a talk by Jackie Pullinger called: ‘Soft Hearts and Hard Feet.’

He said: “Most of us have a problem of having hard hearts and soft feet and I realized I had to do something about it. I said to God, ‘I’ll do whatever you want as long as I know what it is.’” Within a fortnight three people suggested he become a vicar.

“Prayer works because God is intimately and dynamically involved with everyone he cares about,” added Bishop Roger.

Wivenhoe Pub Church meets every Sunday at The Flag pub, Wivenhoe, near Colchester, Essex, at 5.30pm. It is a ‘come as you are church’ but ‘be ready to change’, so feel free to pop along.

Pictures used courtesy of Alyson and Tim Wilson of http://www.RedMemoryBox.com