From Rev’d Caroline - [email protected], 01285 712467

Readings for Sunday: Isaiah 11.1-10; Romans 15.4-13; Matthew 3.1-12

This Sunday we are thrilled to be joined by Bishop Robert of Tewkesbury at our 10am service as we give thanks for, and dedicate and bless, our beautiful new glass doors. This project has been years in the making, and it’s so good to be able to celebrate its completion together.

Although it was not in the original timeline (as we know, building projects rarely finish when you think they’re going to), it feels fitting that we should celebrate our new doors in the season of Advent. This time is all about preparing to welcome Jesus, and that means that welcome is very much on our minds. The entrance to our church is one part of that welcome for us as a community.

In our reading from Romans this Sunday, Paul talks about welcoming. He says, “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” Our lovely new porch, with its newly-level floor, and doors that are no longer dark and foreboding but light, beckoning visitors into the church, and showing them a glimpse of its beauty, is the first experience of our welcome that newcomers to St Mary’s might have.

But even more than the practicality of the doors and entrance, the design upon the glass is there to offer us a first taste of what they might find within – an encounter with the living God, with the Good Shepherd who leads and tends to his people. Paul’s words to the Romans in today’s reading are echoed in that one simple, powerful refrain etched through the waters of the River Coln on our doors: “Rejoice”. Paul quotes Isaiah: “’Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people’; and again, ‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him’. He reminds the Romans of the Lord’s word through the prophets of old, that everyone, of every tribe, and nation and language, should come to be welcomed into his fold. The Good News of the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord, is not only for one exclusive group. No, his love and salvation is for the whole of the world, with not a single person left out. ‘Rejoice!’ is a message for everyone, to be encountered within the peace and holiness of God’s house, the beautiful church building of St Mary’s, and then to be carried back into the world, shared far and wide.

As you pass through our doors, may that word of rejoicing take root in you. Each and every one of us is welcomed as Christ, and everyone is sent out again with his love and purpose surrounding them. May you find it that word of rejoicing deepened and strengthened in the prayer and worship you share within the church’s walls, and may you carry it with you wherever you go.

Rev’d Caroline

Join us for Morning Prayer via Zoom on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 9am every week. Click below for the week starting 1st December.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89129208277?pwd=dgARPNFJ8Amab2LFsrz9SkRdhjPFiY.1

Meeting ID: 891 2920 8277 Passcode: 968373