I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and have enjoyed the New Year celebrations. Christmas and New Year are often very stressful times, but amidst all the activities of the festive season I hope you also found much joy and peace in celebrating once again the birth of our Lord.
New Year celebrations were down played at the vicarage this year – mainly due to the fact that New Year’s Eve was a Saturday. But I have also noted within myself that I am quite happy to stay in these days, and maybe just quietly raise a glass to toast the beginning of another year. A new start in a new year is often on our minds in January, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to mention something new which is happening at church this year. We have for some time now been thinking about how we can meet the needs of people who, for whatever reason, find coming to church on a Sunday difficult. After some thought and discussion we are starting 2 new services this year. The first is to be held every Thursday evening at 6pm. It will be a family friendly service open to everyone. 2 weeks in the month it will be based on a communion service, and the other 2 weeks will be a service of the word (no communion) so that Ann and I can take it in turns to lead the worship. The other new service will be held monthly (as a trial) and will be at 3.30pm on the 1st Friday of the month. Whilst, as always, this service is open to everyone the focus will primarily be on children. We chose a mid-afternoon slot because this would allow children and parents to come to church straight from school, and would be a good replacement for the Monday Morning Prayers that we used to do at St. Matthew’s school until the numbers depleted significantly. So 2 new things starting this New Year.
Soon we will be looking at what we can do to provide worship at and through St. Luke’s school too. So watch this space for some more developments.
The theme for January is very much centred on Epiphany (the theme of our first Friday afternoon service) as Christ is revealed to the world through the visit of the wise men, his baptism, the miracle at Cana, etc. We are challenged to think in this time about how we can reveal Christ to the world through our lives. For each of us that will be in different ways as we use the different gifts God has given to us, but reveal him to the world we do, so that all may see the glory of God. As the Book of Common Prayer puts it: “let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Yours, David
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I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and have enjoyed the New Year celebrations. Christmas and New Year are often very stressful times, but amidst all the activities of the festive season I hope you also found much joy and peace in celebrating once again the birth of our Lord.
New Year celebrations were down played at the vicarage this year – mainly due to the fact that New Year’s Eve was a Saturday. But I have also noted within myself that I am quite happy to stay in these days, and maybe just quietly raise a glass to toast the beginning of another year. A new start in a new year is often on our minds in January, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to mention something new which is happening at church this year. We have for some time now been thinking about how we can meet the needs of people who, for whatever reason, find coming to church on a Sunday difficult. After some thought and discussion we are starting 2 new services this year. The first is to be held every Thursday evening at 6pm. It will be a family friendly service open to everyone. 2 weeks in the month it will be based on a communion service, and the other 2 weeks will be a service of the word (no communion) so that Ann and I can take it in turns to lead the worship. The other new service will be held monthly (as a trial) and will be at 3.30pm on the 1st Friday of the month. Whilst, as always, this service is open to everyone the focus will primarily be on children. We chose a mid-afternoon slot because this would allow children and parents to come to church straight from school, and would be a good replacement for the Monday Morning Prayers that we used to do at St. Matthew’s school until the numbers depleted significantly. So 2 new things starting this New Year.
Soon we will be looking at what we can do to provide worship at and through St. Luke’s school too. So watch this space for some more developments.
The theme for January is very much centred on Epiphany (the theme of our first Friday afternoon service) as Christ is revealed to the world through the visit of the wise men, his baptism, the miracle at Cana, etc. We are challenged to think in this time about how we can reveal Christ to the world through our lives. For each of us that will be in different ways as we use the different gifts God has given to us, but reveal him to the world we do, so that all may see the glory of God. As the Book of Common Prayer puts it: “let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Yours, David
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