Thursday 3 December 2020

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It was lovely to see some of you when you came to pick up your orders for the Christmas Bazaar. The whole online event was a wonderful success. Those who organised it, those who cooked and baked, those who sold books and made decorations, wreaths and patchwork items all worked extremely hard. I want to say a huge thank you to them all.

Book Stall
The book stall will be open again Friday 4th, and Saturday 5th December, 10am - 1pm. Only 6 people will be allowed in at a time, so please be advised you may have to wait. Please enter the lower hall by the back entrance directly into the hall.

This Sunday, 6th December, we celebrate the second Sunday of Advent. The service will be online from Saturday evening.
As always, I am very grateful to Hector, Martin and Art for their hard work in putting the service together online.

Nativity Play
Next Sunday, 13th December, will be our nativity play. This again will be online. This is quite a big project, with a large number of children and adults participating. I am grateful to Tricia who is co-ordinating it all, and to Marc, Kathy and Jillian Patton for their technical help. I hope you will enjoy joining us. I will send out more information next week.

Future services
The services will be online only until at least 13th December. We are hoping that after that we may be able to have some live services in church. I will update you about this when we have the most current information about what is permitted. Of course, even if we can have some services in church, the online services will also continue.

Bible Study Groups
The next Bible study will be on Tuesday 15th December, 7pm
The next Men's Group Meeting will be on Sunday 20th December, 5pm

Advent Prayer and Fasting Day
On Wednesday 9th December, I invite you to join me for a day of prayer and fasting as we pray for our needy world, our church, and ourselves. I will suggest some short readings and prayers to use during the day. Those participating will also be encouraged to meet, via zoom, for brief prayers and sharing together at three points during the day. Let me know if you would like to join in with this, or would like to know more. Fasting may not be advisable if you have diabetes or any other serious health problems.

Advent Reflection: Hope
One of the themes of Advent is hope. We enter into the hope of the people of Israel as they looked ahead to the coming of the Christ, and we ourselves look with hope to the renewal of all things at his second coming. We are encouraged to be people of hope in our daily lives in the present.

'As for me, I will hope continually
and praise you more and more'
  Psalm 71:14

'May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.'
  Romans 15.13

With love in Christ,
Helen