I hope you have had a good week and are keeping well.

Compared to Lent, Advent can seem to be a fairly low-key penitential season. The focus is more on hope and anticipation than perhaps the more sombre emphasis of self-examination that goes with Lent.

Before we entered Advent this year there seemed to be little to look forward to. Church services would be very restricted. The opportunities for us to get together to celebrate the birth of Christ seemed to be very limited and nothing like we’ve been used to over the last few years. But necessity is, as they say, the mother of invention.

Yesterday, we had a Christmas tree  put up in the Car Park. We would like you to put a decoration or two on it as you’re passing.

And today Paul Turner, Graham Lancaster and Mark Longstaff braved the weather and have started building the Manger in the Car Park (see photo). All it needs now is lights, a roof and straw bedding, and then you’ll be able to realise a lifetime ambition and create your own nativity scene. You don’t have to dress up. Just come as you are (but you can dress up if you want to). Don’t be shy! You’ll have a couple more days to get ready and your cameras/phones fully charged up!

Tickets for Midnight Communion are going well, so if you want to come please go to our Eventbrite page:- https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/all-saints-church-daresbury-15013411336

You can also now reserve seats for our Sunday morning Communion services. These will restart next week – 13th December. As before, we are limited to 30 places at present. As an experiment, we’ve extended the closing time for reservations to 9.30am on Sunday morning, to allow for any late minute changes of plan on the day itself.

We’ve found out that some of emails from the Church’s email address (@daresburycofe.org.uk) are ending up in people’s junk folders. Please check yours from time to time. This does not affect emails such as this one as it comes out a different way. It is being looked into.

This Sunday morning’s service is attached. Don’t forget there is also a service of Evening Prayer every Sunday afternoon at 4.00pm.

Have a good week.

With God’s blessing,
David