St Chrysostom’s Church e-Newsletter January 9th 2012
We enjoyed lovely worship yesterday at Church as together we celebrated the Epiphany. Our Mass was a High Mass and it was good to see the children join in fully in the procession of the Three Kings. 69 different people attended church for the Epiphany (we include those who didn’t come to Mass but came to other worship). One short of our target this year of an average Sunday attendance of 70 different people!
At Mass yesterday everyone was invited to take home prayers for the blessing of their homes, and to use chalk, blessed at Mass, to mark their home doorway. There are details of how you can do this this – with an example of a doorway already done for you to better! – and the prayers on our church blog, click here.
Fr Ian spoke about the Wise Men in his sermon at Mass and encouraged us to read carefully Matthew 2. 10,11 The wise men were ‘overjoyed,’ they ‘worshipped’ and they were ‘generous’ with what they had. They encourage Christians to be the same. Fr Ian suggested these were good themes for us with which to enter 2012 at St Chrysostom’s – to be joyful, to be worshipful and to have a spirit of generosity.
Benediction was a lovely act of worship yesterday. We prayed peacefully before the Blessed Sacrament, reflected on the meaning of Epiphany and Fliss sang a lovely solo “Silver Star” to music of Borodin. We had special treats afterwards. Jack, Lisa and Yvonne had made different types of Epiphany cake for us to try. All were simply delicious! And there was lots of laughter too. Have a look at the blog for more details – and the recipes.
| Two targets for 2012
First Target…. to build up our church community by achieving an average Sunday attendance of 70 in 2012. This will strengthen our worship and fellowship. Two ways you can help:
Second target … to encourage us all to give generously. Not just giving money, of course, but encouraging everyone to be involved in church life and work – to give of ourselves. Of course we also wish to strengthen our church financially. Free will offering envelopes for 2012 are available for regular giving, or forms for those who wish to give directly from their bank. |
Worship this week: Today is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Holy Mass for the feast at 5pm. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (St Aelred) 5pm Holy Mass. Friday 5pm Vespers.
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: (18th to 25th January) During this week we are inviting members of the congregation to visit one of the other places of Christian worship in our parish for weekday worship. We’ll put up a list in Church on Sunday asking for volunteers to join one of our ministry team in going along. On Sunday 22nd at 5pm we will have candlelit Vespers and prayers for unity.
Our next Church lunch is on Candlemass, February 2nd, at the Hollings Training Restrant – full details in Church, and you can sign up if you are coming.
Book reading: We’re inviting you to read Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Amazon link here) – we’ll meet after Vespers on 12th February to discuss it. Then the book for Lent is Live Unknown by Ruth Burrows (Amazon link here),
