We continue on the journey towards Christmas by lighting the forth candle on our advent wreath, this year representing love. Chris speaks on the word given to Joseph by the angel of the Lord in a dream leading to his decision to marry Mary. We discover the love of Joseph, Mary and most of all,…
We continue on the journey towards Christmas by lighting the third candle on our advent wreath, this year representing joy. Chris speaks on the word given to Mary by Gabriel and her subsequent visit to see Zechariah and Elizabeth. In this we see the three aspects of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all present, working as one and inviting Mary to participate in God’s great plan. He then contrasts it with the act of communion, the Lord’s Supper, where at the other end of Jesus’ earthly life we are all now invited to participate in that great plan of God.
Andy leads the rest of the service thinking about the origin of the word joy and its importance in the Bible whilst Lynne and Dave lead our sung worship.
Ant leads our all-age service for December, choosing the theme of wonder as his subject for this month. God has many names in the Bible, at this time of year we focus on the name Immanuel, God With Us, and the wonder that Jesus’ coming brings into our lives.
Mike leads our sung worship this week.
As we conclude our Advent series for 2023 Chris looks at Jesus bringing peace to the world. This doesn’t just mean no conflict; it means true Shalom peace, the reconciliation and reunification of God’s people. The making right of the world. And Jesus calls us to do that right alongside him.
We also have prayers for peace in situations in our lives and around the world whilst Pete leads our sung Christmas worship.
In our traditional carol service Chris speaks about the hope that we have through the birth of Jesus. The readings are brought to us by members of the congregation, whilst Mike, Lynne, Zoe and Dave lead us in our carols and songs.
We continue our Advent series for 2023 and Chris looks this week at the joy that Jesus brings. Joy is a simple but powerful word. It’s not something that we can force ourselves to feel, but something that processes out of glorifying and rejoicing in the Lord. Even in our darkest moments we are called to rejoice in the Lord and what Jesus has done, from this rejoicing will come our joy!
Ant leads the rest of the service with a rather unorthodox baking tutorial whilst Lynne and Dave lead our sung worship.
After our all-age service last week we now start our Advent series for 2023 in earnest with Chris looking at the interconnected nature of hope, faith, joy and peace. This week he looks at faith, the nature of the faith we have in God, how faith comes out of hope, and how faith must inevitably lead to action: otherwise we might as well not have it at all.
Susan leads the rest of our service whilst Pete and Nick lead our sung worship.
As we enter Advent for another year, Shona kicks us off by leading us in our all-age service for December. In the service we look at three things we can do to prepare ourselves for Christmas: we can 1) Wait in, 2) hope and 3) praise.
Chris leads us in our prayers this week whilst Mike and Ricky lead our sung worship.
Led by Chris and members of the congregation, whilst Mike leads our sung worship.
This week we complete our Advent series with Chris looking at John’s account of the coming of Jesus. Like Mark he dispenses with the story of the birth, choosing not to to focus on the literal events that took place but on the immense implications of Jesus’ arrival. He takes us right the way back to Genesis and Exodus to explain how the same God that created the world and had spoken to Moses through the burning bush came down to Earth in the form of Jesus. His purpose is to explain these events so that through the spirit-influenced writings we may be confident in our belief in Jesus.
Karen leads the rest of the service whilst Mike leads our sung worship and we also share communion together.