Thursday 17 December 2020

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Today, it is a year since our much loved Vreni died and I know many of us will be remembering her with great fondness and thanksgiving. She gave a huge amount to St Ursula’s over the years and I will never forget the sense of communal grief and thanksgiving at her funeral. Let us continue to keep Peter and the family in our prayers.

This coming Sunday we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent, when we particularly remember the obedience of Mary. Our service will be available online as usual from Saturday evening.

We await further announcements from the government tomorrow about Christmas services, but we hope we may be able to hold them, even if for small numbers, on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Sunday 27th December. I will send out another message on Saturday with an update and details about this.

Whatever happens all services will also be put online. This is a huge amount of work for all those involved in doing this, so a big thank you to Hector, Martin and Art.

Our Carol Service, which we are holding jointly with Bruder Klaus Roman Catholic Church, will be put online early next week. We are encouraging everyone to watch it at the same time, at 7pm, Tuesday 22nd December, but it will remain available to watch at any time. It will be a traditional nine lessons and carols service, and the lessons will be read by members of both churches. I will give a brief reflection and Father Matthew will lead the intercessions and give the blessing. The advantage of an online carol service is that we can join in singing at full volume at home! Singing is forbidden in public gatherings.

Our Christingle Service, 4pm, Christmas Eve, will be on zoom. This is a service for families and children. If you would like the zoom link please let me know.

I want to say a huge thank you again to all who worked so hard on the nativity service last Sunday. It was a big community effort and beautifully produced. Thank you to all those who participated and to Tricia and the Patton family especially. Thank you too to all those who made our online Bazaar such a success. If you want to read a presentation about how the Bazaar was organised, what was produced, and how much money was raised, you can find it here.

I conclude with our final Advent Reflection. Thank you to Agnes who provided the photos for these reflections during these weeks of Advent.

Advent Reflection: light
One of the themes of Advent is light in the darkness. We may sometimes be acutely aware of the darkness of our world, and even the darkness within ourselves. In Advent we await the promised light of Christ.

'The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them light has shined.'
  Isaiah 9:2

'The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.'
  John 1:5

With love in Christ,
Helen