Dear friends. I hope you have all had a lovely time over the Christmas & New Year season. There has been a dose of winter virus rattling around for several weeks now, of which I have been dealing with, but I do hope that you have all managed to avoid it, find some time for a good rest and perhaps even get to spend some time with family & other loved ones. And, if I may, every blessing to you and yours for the year ahead. Something New: On the 2nd Sunday of each month (exceptions to this will apply) we hold a service in the afternoon. (3pm at All Saints, Calthwaite). It’s a little less formal to our morning services and is open to all, especially for those of you who find a morning service difficult to manage. We’re trying to bring in guest speakers. This Sunday (Jan 8th) we have the Rev Keith Speck joining us to share some teaching. In March we have Pete Barton from the charity Adopt A Child coming to share with us the work the church is doing to help youngsters in parts of Guatemala and in Romania. Alpha: Rev Martin is inviting anyone interested to join the upcoming Alpha Course that will be starting later this month in Newbiggin Village Hall. If anyone is interested please let me know and I shall pass your details with Martin. On a side note ……..my sermons over the coming months will be loosely based around the headings of the Alpha Course, which I will be tying in with that Sunday’s Gospel reading. I aim to record these and I will work out a way of sharing the audio files with you when I have a bit of spare time. Lent Course, “You Can Be Serious” – This short course digs in to the Gospel of John. If you were part of last year’s Lent group you’ll remember that we had a very ‘heavy’ book to plough through but this book only has about 30 pages. It’s release date is soon and I shall do a bulk buy for the benefice. There will be a Zoom session and sessions where people can meet. Please let me know if this interests you. Men’s Prayer Group: There is a some wonderful teaching about prayer in the Bible. In the Church of England we may have a tendency to reserve prayer for those intercessions someone reads out on our behalf in church on Sundays. Whenever I hear those prayers being read my heart jumps for joy as I listen to the carefully crafted words that cover a range of issues that are being offered to God. But prayer should be more than that. It should be as natural as breathing, as offered in every breath we take. In Acts 1 it says the following: They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. I believe that for your churches to flourish in the way God intends we need to be meeting often and we need to be speaking to God (praying!) constantly. I’m starting this year with a men’s group. We’ll meet in different ways (Zoom, in a church and sometimes we might even meet for a bacon sandwich in a café somewhere). Let me know if this interests you. (& if any women are interested in starting a group ….) I am meeting with many families who are grieving presently. Every time the phone rings it’s usually another funeral director asking what my availability is. Please keep all families in your prayers during this season, continue to be kind both to those you know but also to the ‘stranger’ in our midst (Matthew 25:34-46) Until next time Mark
Merry Christmas from Mark & Ruth Dear Friends Another year draws to a close. We will all have faced some happy times and, no doubt, some have faced difficult & challenging times. I hope that through all that life puts in our way you have found comfort and fellowship from those around you Advent / Christmas Season Please check the News & Notes concerning the many church events taking place across the benefice in the coming weeks. I encourage you to share the joy of the nativity with your local communities and perhaps you might even feel it would be good to go and bless the other churches (from within the benefice, the Mission Community, across the county or wherever you may find yourself during the festive season. If you are staying with your kids & grandchildren, how about suggesting that they come with you to the local carol service. Showing our enthusiasm for this season & the story of Jesus can be an infectious way of sharing with our nearest and dearest. We are all being swamped at the minute by charities asking for help with this worthy cause or that worthy cause. There are so many. However we feel about this it does highlight that across our local communities as well as on a global scale there are people who could use our help. (I have already received a hamper from a lovely parishioner who wants me to make sure it reaches a family who will probably find the sparkle of Christmas a bit dim this year. So, please take time to look at these pleas. I know times are tough but let us see how we might make the lives of some people a little better, either by adding to a foodbank or sending a donation to a charity. Christmas Present Appeal | The Salvation Army Perhaps you might take time to get together with others to offer a warm space for your community. Blencathra Mission Community (BMC) Hopefully you all know about the BMC. With our local Methodist friends and the Greystoke benefice we form a Mission Community that looks to share ways of growing closer to Jesus (something we all need in my opinion). Rev Martin is planning on holding an Alpha Course that begins in February. Alpha is a way of learning more / drawing closer to Jesus. You may want to know more or have a friend who you would like to ask do check it out. If you want to know more please get in touch with me. Your lovely parish church is part of a wider family of churches and, no matter how you might feel we all need this support. The diocese needs some help, especially when it comes to looking after the stock of clergy houses we own. The Archdeacon’s Mission & Pastoral Cttee and the Parsonages Cttee meets 3 or 4 times a year. It tries to make sure that there are vicarages in the most effective locations and that they are well maintained. We, as a MC have been asked if anyone from within our community might consider sitting on this committee. If it is something that intrigues you please get in touch and I shall point you in the direction of the appropriate people to ask. Have a blessed and peaceful Christmas. With all my love and thanks Mark
You are invited to join us this Christmas at …. The Christmas Fair at Low House, Armathwaite on Saturday, 3 December at 10.30am until 12 noon. There will be coffee and cakes, gift and cake stall and, of course, raffle. Do come and join us with your friends and enjoy a convivial morning. Carols at the Duke’s Head, Armathwaite We hope to see you in the car park at the Duke’s Head on Thursday, 15 December at 7pm. Come along to join in the singing of carols and to have a glass of beer or wine. The Revd Mark Houston will be there with his guitar leading the singing – so come along and join in! Christmas Eve At 11.30pm there will be a service of Holy Communion to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The service will be held in the Old School Hall and you are most welcome to join us. If you have never been to a Christmas Service before why not come along and start your Christmas with us – we would love to see you.
There’ll be tea, coffee and cakes, singing, accompanied by Mark with his guitar and Sian on her keyboard, activities for the young and young at heart together with stories, prayers and friendship. Please come and join us – we hope to continue with this new style of worship every other month. Watch the December/January magazine for hopefully a list of future dates. We hope this will be the start of something different which will appeal to you!
