Pewsheets

Pewsheet for 10th January 2016 – the Baptism of Christ

Pewsheets

Click here to see this week’s pewsheet.

Tip: If this, or any other, PDF document opens at too large a size, here’s what you do:

  1. Open Adobe Reader, for example, by opening a *.pdf document you have on your computer.
  2. From the Edit menu, click Preferences.
  3. With Page Display selected in the left hand list of Categories, on the right hand side of the window, choose a Page Layout and Zoom level that suits you, for example Single Page and Fit Page.
  4. Now any time you open a PDF, it will open at this zoom level.

Happy New Year to you all !

Pewsheets

A new year, new beginnings, a new life.

When a new year begins we often look back on the year gone-by to reflect on its joys, sadness, achievements, failings and then we make a resolution to improve, to move forward with determination to do better. That is my theory anyhow but at the end of 2016 will I, will you, look back again and wonder, what and why, or will we be really impressed with our achievements ?

In 2016 there are a lot of new things to plan, new ventures there for some of us, for me too, I hope and pray – but what and for whom? We cannot make the decisions on our own, we should not rush headlong into something; we need to pray, to think and to consider what God would want us to do. We do not know His plans but we do know He will show us the way, if we let Him in to our hearts and minds; we need to be still, quiet and listen for that still, small voice that is calling us, then we may have an idea.

Next week we will celebrate the Baptism of Christ and all over Christendom, including here in our Parish Eucharist, there will be new Christians baptised, born in to the family of God, not knowing what they will do with their lives but knowing it is a new beginning for them; just as a new calendar year is a new beginning for everyone, with all its joys and sorrows, all its uncertainties.

I pray that all of us may go forward with the Lord as our guiding light, helping, healing and leading us on the right path; showing us why things happen and how we can turn to Him for our strength and salvation.

Go forward, as I shall, with hope, joy, peace and love in my heart and mind, and attempt to work “ ‘to the greater glory of God’. ”

Joan Tick – (retiring) pew sheet compiler

Pewsheet for 27th December 2015 – the First Sunday of Christmas

Christmas, Pewsheets

Click here to see this week’s pewsheet.

Tip: If this, or any other, PDF document opens at too large a size, here’s what you do:

  1. Open Adobe Reader, for example, by opening a *.pdf document you have on your computer.
  2. From the Edit menu, click Preferences.
  3. With Page Display selected in the left hand list of Categories, on the right hand side of the window, choose a Page Layout and Zoom level that suits you, for example Single Page and Fit Page.
  4. Now any time you open a PDF, it will open at this zoom level.

From the Rector…

Pewsheets

Have you every missed a bus or train for which you were waiting because you were so engrossed in doing (or thinking about) something else?  This week, I read an Advent meditation by Paula Gooder – a theologian for whom I have considerable affection and respect.  She wrote about two kinds of waiting:  an active waiting that demands we are alert, with our senses finely tuned to what is going on around us, looking keenly for the signs of the arrival of that for which we wait; and a passive waiting that is simply about the passing of time, with senses dulled or focused on something else.

Advent is supposed to be the former, but too often we can become so engrossed in getting ready for Christmas (writing cards, buying presents, planning and cooking meals …) that when the great feast comes – that moment when we celebrate God becoming flesh amongst us – we are so tired, or bored or still so focused on those preparations that the moment passes us by.  Let’s not let that happen to us.  Rather let us follow the example of Elizabeth and Mary in our gospel reading.

Here two pregnant women, Elizabeth who has waited almost too long for her pregnancy and Mary who bears the long-awaited Messiah.  As they meet their dynamic, active waiting gives over to a deep recognition (shown by John’s leaping in the womb) of God’s blessing.  And, significantly, that recognition flows out into praise.

Paula’s prayer is mine too: “may each one of us experience this kind of Advent waiting: a waiting that ends not in a whimper of exhaustion, but in joyful recognition and praise of him for whom we wait.

Every blessing for the rest of Advent and a joyous Christmas when it comes,

Anthony


Pewsheet for 13th December 2015

Pewsheets

Click here to see this week’s pewsheet.

Tip: If this, or any other, PDF document opens at too large a size, here’s what you do:

  1. Open Adobe Reader, for example, by opening a *.pdf document you have on your computer.
  2. From the Edit menu, click Preferences.
  3. With Page Display selected in the left hand list of Categories, on the right hand side of the window, choose a Page Layout and Zoom level that suits you, for example Single Page and Fit Page.
  4. Now any time you open a PDF, it will open at this zoom level.