Wednesday 23 December 2020

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

David and I thank you warmly for all the many Christmas cards and gifts we have received and for all your love and support. We are hugely grateful for all your friendship and encouragement.

I am thankful too for the understanding and supportive emails I have received about the decision not to hold services in person over Christmas. You will all appreciate how difficult this decision was. We all feel sad about it, but I hope that we can still keep a sense of community and worship together using our online resources.

Just to remind you of all that is going on:

TODAY 4pm-6pm: online afternoon tea: a chance to 'meet' with others from church via zoom. We can even see one another's faces as no masks are required!

Christmas Eve, Lectio Divina: The group will meet as usual at 10.30-11.15am tomorrow to reflect on a passage of scripture in silence and share our thoughts together. If you would like to join us, please let me know.

Christingle Service, 4pm, Christmas Eve: A short service for families and children, via zoom, involving making and lighting our Christingles. Do contact me if you want more details.

Christmas Eve, 9pm and Christmas Day 10am: These services will be online here. The carols and prayers are different but the readings and sermon for these two services are the same.

Sunday 27th, December: The service for this Sunday will also be online and I am delighted that James Morgan is preaching for this service.

A huge thank you to Hector, Martin and Art for all their hard work in putting together all our online services. It has been a lot of hard work and I am sure we all appreciate it.

Quiz, 30th December, 7pm: Come along to one of Sue's famous quizzes! On this occasion it is not a fund raising event, but free! If you want to register a team of up to 6 people, please email event@stursula.ch
More information about the quiz and how it works is in this flyer.

Archdeaconary Christmas Carol: members from the different chaplaincies in Switzerland have put together an online choir. I represented St Ursula's in this project! You can watch and listen to the choir singing the Hereford Carol here.

Christmas Poem
I love this poem by Malcolm Guite which reminds that because God has entered our world in Christ, heaven and earth have been brought together and we can glimpse the eternal even in the 'ordinary'.

Heaven in Ordinary

Because high heaven made itself so low
that I might glimpse it through a stable door,
or hear it bless me through a hammer blow,
and call me through the voices of the poor,
unbidden now, its hidden light breaks through
amidst the clutter of the every day,
illuminating things I thought I knew,
whose dark glass brightens, even as I pray.

Then this world's walls no longer stay my eyes,
a veil is lifted likewise from my heart,
the moment holds me in its strange surprise,
the gates of paradise are drawn apart,
I see his tree, with blossom on its bough,
and nothing can be ordinary now.
  (Malcolm Guite)

After Christmas, I will be taking a break from work and I will be back in touch with you in the new year.

Happy Christmas!

With love in Christ,
Helen