Wednesday 16 November 2022

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It will be a joy this coming Sunday, 20th November to welcome some of our older children to receive communion for the first time. Please pray that this will be an important step for them as they grow in their faith. The children are: Zornitsa, Nayden, Aydon, Adriele, Lucas, Samuel, Gabriela, and Cem. This Sunday will also an opportunity for us all to think about the significance of receiving communion in our own lives.

Help Moving Chairs on Sunday
After the service on Sunday, we would like some help to move all the chairs out of the church and put up tables ready for the Bazaar. If we have a good team this will make this job quicker and easier. Please do help if you can.

Pumpkin Soup on Sunday
After the service (and the moving of the chairs!) there will be a pumpkin soup to raise money for Cecily's Fund. This is one of the charities we support which works with orphans in Zambia. Basil Eastwood will join us for the lunch and give us an update on the work of the charity. Please do come along.

Cecily's Fund Benefit Concert
There will be a concert TOMORROW, 17th November, 7pm, in the Heiliggeistkirche, to raise money for Cecily's Fund. Everyone is welcome. If you want to know more here is a link to the flyer.

Christmas Bazaar
It is not long now until the Christmas Bazaar, on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th November. The sale site is now open for you to order your Christmas goodies.
We still need help for the Bazaar. We especially need cakes for the cake stall, gifts for the raffle and tombola, and help clearing up at the end. If you can help in any way, please do let Maria know in the office.

Advent Sunday
Advent begins on Advent Sunday, 27th November. Please do join us for this important service.

Advent Space
Is the time running up to Christmas often a time of hectic busyness for you? Do you sometimes long for more time and space to pray and reflect and receive from God?
During Advent this year, I will be offering 3 evenings of silence, reflection and prayer. These evenings will include some brief reflections on the theme, followed by suggestions for meditation and prayer in silence and concluding with the quiet service of Compline (Night Prayer). The sessions will be held in church as follows:

Wednesday, 30th November, 8-9pm: Yearning
Wednesday 7th December, 8-9pm: Waiting
Wednesday 14th December, 8-9pm: Yes
If you would like to know more please do ask me.

Thanksgiving Service and Lunch
It is coming up to American Thanksgiving. To mark that, we will be holding a short Eucharist at 12noon, Thursday 1st December, followed by a simple thanksgiving lunch of soup, salads and desserts. If you would like to come to the service and the lunch, please let the office know as soon as you can. Everyone is welcome - you don't have to be American!

As we prepare for this coming Sunday with our focus on communion, I leave you with this poem.

The Church's Banquet
Not some strict modicum, exact allowance,
Precise prescription, rigid regimen,
But beauty and gratuitous abundance,
Capacious grace, beyond comparison.
Not something hasty, always snatched alone;
Junkets of junk food, fuelling our dis-ease,
Not little snacklets eaten on the run,
But peace and plenty, taken at our ease.
Not to be worked for, not another task,
But love that's lavished on us, full and free,
Course after course of hospitality,
And rich wine flowing from an unstopped flask.
He paid the price before we reached the inn,
And all he asks of us is to begin.
(Malcolm Guite)

With love in Christ,
Helen