Dear friends,
As you read this the Church is in the season of Advent. The two most important festivals in the Christian year are preceded by periods of quiet reflection, looking forward and preparing for the festival, firstly of Christmas and secondly of Easter. So Advent includes four Sundays of preparing, of ‘waiting’ for the birth of our Lord. Looking forward to this wonderful event of God sending his Son to live amongst us as a human. On these Sundays of Advent we do not use the New Testament Letters, but the prophecies of the Old Testament. The foretelling of the arrival of the Messiah.
We have lots of events which you will read about in the rest of the magazine. One of the strengths of being part of a Benefice with six different churches is that there is wide variety of worship in our Group. Our Carol Services vary as well, and this means that if anyone particularly likes to sing carols you can go to more than one service and have different experiences of celebrating the birth of Jesus. One of our parishes is holding their Carol Service in their local pub.
We also have Group Services, and I urge you to join us for the Group Service on the last Sunday before Christmas where we will be welcoming our Diocesan Bishop, Bishop Richard Frith, and children will be taking an active part in our service. There will also be the Band and singers – so do come along and support the children especially.
Of course there are parties in our Village Halls, and lots of fun activities for everyone to enjoy. So I would like to wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS, and as we give thanks for the many blessings we enjoy, let us remember those who are lonely, bereaved and unable to put food on the table for their families.
Blessings
Revd Caro