the parish pages

Sunday 4th January
Second Sunday of Christmas

• 8.00 a.m. Holy Communion
  The Rev Canon George Royle
  
  
• 10.30 am. Parish Communion
  The Rev Canon Geoffrey Barton
  Preacher, The Rev Colin Coward
  
  
• 6.30 p.m. Evening Prayer
  The Rev Justin Pottinger

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St John’s a Minster Church?
Soon our Bishop hopes to designate St John’s a “Minster” Church.
What does this mean?

It is part of a current movement in dioceses across the country to de-centralise diocesan and county events so that not every celebration in the life of the church and community in the diocese is felt to have to take place at the Cathedral. Other churches that have long been recognised and occasionally used as places for such diocesan and county celebrations are being acknowledged as such centres by the designation “Minster Church”.

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Choir restarts on Friday 9th Jan at the usual times.

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Details of the month's Services are here

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Click here to find the download
[Submitted by Sylvia]

An Abbot, a Bishop and a Canon Theologian launched the CofE’s Advent website this week, aiming to put the ABC of waiting back into wanting as the countdown to Christmas begins. The website – www.WhyWeAreWaiting.com – includes an introductory film featuring the Archbishop of Canterbury and an Advent Calendar with a difference made up of reflections, podcasts, and waiting tips. The website has been produced by the Church of England and was launched by the three church leaders on Monday, November 24. More details here .

Separately, www.paperlesschristmas.org.uk offers a time-locked Advent countdown of 24 videos produced by Jerusalem Productions Limited, in association with Bible Reading Fellowship.

[Submitted by Liz Overthrow]

December is a month of anticipation. It is full of frenzied activity as we anticipate the festivities of Christmas. Adult lives are preoccupied with shopping for food and drink and gifts, with writing and sending greetings cards, with organising parties and arrangements for Christmas Day. Children are full of the innocent joy of excitement, often stoked up by parents, teachers and other older contacts who seek to capture again something of the Christmas Spirit through their children’s antics; in Nativity Plays and scenes; in pantomimes and school shows, in the letters to and visits with Santa Claus – “Christmas is for the children, isn’t it?”

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Have you seen the card with candlelight shining into the midnight blue sky over a scene of the Church in the snow? It has been designed especially to raise money for our Church and a pack of ten cards costs £4. Please support us.
Submitted by Elizabeth Merritt.

Four members of our church were asked to write a few words explaining what Xmas means to them. Here's what they wrote:
[Submitted by Pat & Stephen]

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