Daily Scripture:In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’ (Luke 1:39-45)Daily Reflection:Here they are, both unexpectedly expecting! Naturally, they turn to each other, as women have always done, finding strength in the sisterhood. What came to me, as I read this passage, was actually Eurythmics’ hit “Sisters are doing it for themselves”! Because Mary, Jesus’ teenage mother, is no timid waif. She sets out alone to visit her relative, surely feeling only one will understand her; Elizabeth, who is also pregnant. And Elizabeth knows in the depth of her being that something wonderful is coming into the world through her young visitor and the child she is carrying. They draw strength from their shared experience, as we can, when we turn to each other in these strange and unsettling days. Now, more than ever, do we need our sisters – and our brothers! Rev Ylva
Please join us for this service via cut and pasting this link: https://youtu.be/OCTNvEuNLWUThe link will go "public" (ie be accessible) from just before 7:30pm on Monday 21st December so that we can all listen to the readings and sing along to the carols together - even if we're in our own homes whilst we do so. The carol service sheet is attached as a download (but the carols will also appear on your screen)Revd David
Daily Scripture‘O Lord, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him?’Or, as The Message Bible puts it,‘I wonder why you care, God - why do you bother with us at all?’ Daily Reflection In the middle of praising God for his greatness and entreating Him to intervene on his behalf against his enemies, the psalmist suddenly stops short and asks himself why God should actually care about us at all. He is the all-powerful Creator of the universe; why should He trouble himself with our petty affairs? God created human beings in his own image, to love and to be loved. He has made his love known in countless ways throughout the ages, but most amazingly of all he took a human body and came to live on earth as a human being like us, in the person of Jesus. God does not just observe us dispassionately from a distance. He is there in all the nitty gritty of everyday life, good and bad. Emmanuel. God with us. Revd Rosemary
Services: Sunday 20th December8am Holy Communion at St Nicholas, Sandhurst 10am BCP Communion St George's, Benenden
