Monday 30 December 2024

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

It was good to see many of you at our Christmas services. I hope that all of you were able to enjoy the celebrations with family and friends.

Sunday 5th January
On Sunday we celebrate Epiphany, when we remember the wise men following the star to find the Christ child, and offering to him their lavish gifts.

Sunday 12th January
On January 12th, we remember the baptism of Christ. We will also be baptising Summer. Please pray for her parents, Marc and Zhanna, and her godmother, Charlotte.

Looking further ahead...

Sunday 19th January, Open Forum
After the service on 19th January we will have an Open Forum on Caring for the Environment: Practical Steps. This will be an opportunity to meet our new Eco Group, listen to personal stories and examples, share ideas and practical suggestions and ask questions.
There is more information in the flyer.

Saturday 25th January: St Ursula's Pop Up Market, 10:00 - 12:00
Why not book a stall at our Pop Up Market and sell second hand books, clothes and household items, gifts and accessories? Booking the stall costs 30CHF (going to St Ursula's funds), but the profit from what you sell is yours. This is a good way of decluttering. It is also more sustainable for the environment for us to buy second hand goods rather than new ones. Alongside the stalls, there will be home baked goods on sale.
There is more information in the flyer.

Happy New Year
David and I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year!

As we approach this new year, let us pray for our world, our community, our families and friends, and ourselves, that God's grace may be at work in the daily joys, pains, hopes and struggles of our lives. Even as Christmastide comes to an end, the message of Christmas continues: God is with us in everything, and in Christ heaven and earth are brought together. We may be going back to our 'ordinary' lives, but nothing is ordinary when we are open to God's grace.

I leave you with this poem to ponder:

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 boughs,
And nothing can be ordinary now.
(Malcolm Guite)

With love in Christ,
Helen