Pewsheet for Week Beginning 11th December 2016

Pewsheets

Click here for the pewsheet for the week beginning Sunday 11th December 2016.

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.

Pewsheet for the Week Beginning 4th December 2016

Pewsheets

With 4th December being the Patronal Festival of St Nicholas, each of our churches had a different pewsheet, only one of which is published here.  The notices are the same but not the readings.  If you wish to view the St Nicholas’ version of the pewsheet, email magazine@worthparish.org.uk and I’ll send you a copy, else click here to see the pewsheet as distributed at St Barnabas’.

From the Rural Dean…

Clergy

Following on from the Year of Mercy, the Bishop has designated 2017 ‘The Year of the Bible’. During the year, there will be all sorts of events going on to help us engage more deeply with this hugely important text for the Christian journey.  If you do not do so already, I urge you to think about getting bible reading notes.  These are available on the bible reading fellowship website http://www.biblereadingnotes.org.uk/

New Daylight is a particularly good one for those starting out on this but there is a whole selection on the website.  For those of you who are technically minded you can even download them now straight to your phone or computer!  However, if you would prefer us to order them for you please sign up on the list at the back of church and I will organise it for you.  The new notes begin in January and what better new year’s resolution could there be than to spend time with God’s word every day.

The Bishop has also recommended we pray the Bible Sunday collect as a regular inspiration to us all.

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

 

Pewsheet for Week Beginning 27th November 2016

Pewsheets

Sorry about the slight delay in getting this pewsheet to the website.  But it’s here now!

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.

More About Our Christmas Charities

Charity, Christmas

Every year, we choose charities that we can support at Christmas through collections made in our special services.  This year, we have chosen The Salvation Army as our national charity and  Crawley Open House as our local charity.
The Salvation Army work with a variety of psalvarmyeople including those in poverty or situations of domestic abuse.  They also provide support and advice to the homeless and unemployed, tackle loneliness in older people and work to trace family members who have lost touch with each other.

Crawley Open House provides local support and services for those oepnhousesuffering the effects of homelessness, unemployment, loneliness, discrimination, or other forms of social exclusion.  Visitors to their day centre can access health services, benefits and housing advice, workshops and classes as well as hot food and drinks and empathy and kindness.

Money collected will be split between these and our Parish, where there are several projects requiring our attention such as refurbishment of the St Barnabas’ Hall flooring, heating and toilets, as well as addressing water ingress to the bell tower at St Nicholas’.

From Revd. Gordon Parry

Clergy

This Sunday we contemplate the greatest Kingdom of all, God’s Kingdom on earth and in heaven.  Yet even though God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit represents a mystery not given to us to fathom in its entirety, God the Son – God made human – was sent to enable us, with all our imperfections, to seek out truth and perfection and to use this search to make better our world for all life, now and in the future.

Clues to the nature of God’s Kingdom engage us daily with their transient beauty, symbolic of a permanent, heavenly beauty to come.  We see the life-giving presence of the sun, the incomprehensible vastness of the night sky, the glorious death of autumn leaves and their spring rebirth in dancing, fluttering green.  We move to the rhythms of the days, the seasons, and the sea. We move also to the beauty of music which often accompanies important moments in our lives.  We are bound together by love which comes from God’s love for all of us, whatever our condition or status. I am often reminded of an observation quoted by the late Cardinal Hume, “‘Yes, God is always watching you.  Because he loves you he cannot take his eyes off you.’  That is a wonderful thought.  God can’t take his eyes off me.  Wherever I am and whatever I am doing, He keeps looking at me, not to catch me out, but from love.  As lovers look for each other and then gaze at each other, so it is with God.”

It is through the – very different – kingship of Christ that we are given a supreme example of how our lives can help to bring about the Kingdom of God – on earth as it is in heaven.

 

Gordon

 

Worth Parish Announces Charities for Christmas 2016

Charity, Christmas

Worth Parish are pleased to announce that the charities that will be supported through collections at our Christmas services this year are:

  • The Salvation Army (national)
  • Crawley Open House (local)
  • Our own parish

Collection money will be split equally between these charities.