Dear Friends,

I was delighted recently when someone asked me why we have no flowers in church during Advent; we were able to have a good conversation about the different seasons of the church’s year and their significance. It was also interesting for me to hear how something that I perhaps take for granted affects other members of the church.

Like the natural seasons of the year, I love the rhythm of the church’s year. The times when the church is stripped bare in the penitential seasons before the major festivals and the different colours of the hangings in front of the altar and the pulpit that tell us which season we are in. All these things are signs and symbols – pointers to the great story of God’s redeeming love for the world in sending his Son to live among us as one of us.

We start the year in Advent as we prepare ourselves for His birth, his coming among us as a baby. But Advent is also about our preparation for the second coming; Christ’s coming in judgement at the end time that is why it is one of the penitential seasons of the year. Now, the celebrations of the Christmas Season are almost at an end and we move into Epiphany – the time when Our Lord was ‘shown’ to the Gentiles in the shape of the Magi, or the Wise Men, as they are more often called. At the end of this month we celebrate Candlemas, or the feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, its actual date is 2^nd February. We remember the time when, as good Jewish parents, Mary and Joseph took the infant Jesus to the Temple to make the required sacrifice to God, ‘a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons’. It was there that the aged Simeon and Anna recognised the child as the Lord’s Messiah, and where Simeon praised God in the words that we now know as the Nunc Dimittis. I like Candlemas particularly as it is a turning point. It allows us one last look back at the wonder and beauty of the incarnation before we turn our thoughts towards the rigours of Lent and the solemn liturgy of Holy Week and Easter.

Many symbols are used in church to help our understanding of worship. I think they add to the beauty of what we do as well as enhancing our understanding of God’s purposes for his world. If you have sometimes sat in church and wondered why things happen the way they do, please ask. It is always good to have chance to talk.

I wish you all a Happy and Peaceful New Year.

Yours in Christ

Jo

All waiting for hospital treatment.

The frail and elderly during the cold months.

A united witness to Christ among the different branches of his Church.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins this year on Tuesday 18^th January and finishes on Tuesday 25^th January. As usual, during that time, we shall be sharing some worship with the community and congregation at Turvey Abbey to which Christians of all denominations are warmly invited.

At the time of publication, details have not been finalised – please watch the notice board for details, which will also be announced in church.

By the time you receive this Newsletter it may well be too late for you to catch the event of the season! On Friday January 13^th and Saturday January 14^th, starting at 7:30 pm, Tony Harrison’s version of The Nativity will be produced in church. It is exciting, fun and different – with unlikely people doing amazing things! Tickets are £5 or £3 in advance from either of the village shops, or £6 and £4 on the door – DON’T miss it!

The first coffee morning of 2006 will be at 10:15 am on Saturday 14^th January at Grange Farm House, by kind invitation of Mr. and Mrs Rob Petty. There will be a raffle and a bring-and-buy stall for which contributions of cakes are particularly appreciated, plus any of those unwanted Christmas presents! Please come and support us. All are welcome.

Thank you to the band of dedicated helpers who decorated the Church for Christmas and to those who brought holly and ivy.

The new flower rota is now in the porch. Please do sign up now rather than later if you would like to be included. It makes sense to sign up for two consecutive weeks which seems to work well for most people but some of you are happy to sign up for a whole month.

On Thursday 19^th January at 2:30 pm in the Manor Room a talk by Doris Burton, "A Journey, events people and words that have helped shape my life".