Dear Friends,Advent and Christmas 2024This newsletter comes with greetings for the Advent and Christmas seasons as we prepare to celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.The special seasonal highlights start on Sunday 22nd December with our Carols by Candlelight at 6pm. This service, on the traditional format of Lessons and Carols, is really a curtain raiser for this holy season. In words and music we celebrate the growing revelation of God to humanity through prophets and in the birth of his Incarnate Son of The Virgin Mary. The candles graphically remind us of the birth of the Light of the World, a world that often seems dark. 5pm Christmas Eve sees our annual Crib service and Nativity Tableau involving local children in the Nativity. They are assisted by real shepherds with their sheep and a patient donkey. Many thanks if you or your children are taking part this year. Christmas Carols and readings complete the seasonal theme. We are still looking for some more children to take part in this Nativity Tableau, so, parents, please contact myself or Gavin Kenny if your child is interested, without delay.Then, there being no Midnight Mass this year, on Christmas morning at 10am, we have the Sung Eucharist of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is always a joyful occasion which celebrates one of the great feasts of the Christian Church. It’s a great joy to “salute this happy morn whereon the Saviour of the world was born,” in the words of the hymn. It’s very special moment in the year, a day to receive Holy Communion and a day to recall with faith the Incarnation of the Word made Flesh, one of the central beliefs of Christianity. Another day when the meaning of this season is unfolded is the Naming of Jesus on Wednesday 1st January with a Eucharist at 12 noon. How better to begin a new year than in Church with the name of Jesus on our lips? Then on Sunday 5th January the 10am Eucharist will tell again of the visit of the Three Wise Men to the Infant Christ-the Epiphany.Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany all in their own way help us each year to prayerfully be caught up in the mystery of the Word becoming flesh for us, God entering our world, not in judgment, but in a desire to restore humanity and renew the face of the Earth. All of our services in their own way help us be moved and touched by God’s act of love and to respond in celebration, prayer and renewed respect for the humanity which God came to save and restore.I wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year.Your friend and parish priest Chris
Dear Friends,The PCC met on 24 th July and had a wide ranging session discussing a number ofpoints, implementing a number of measures to do with safety and safeguarding.We also took note and approved of plans to have nesting boxes for swifts installedon the church building as part of a scheme supported by Wilder Horsham District,a partnership between Horsham District Council and Sussex Wildlife Trust, whichalso will involve other public buildings in Shipley. The details are yet to be workedout, but we hope that by next Spring the nesting spaces will be ready for next year’sarrivals. Swifts are iconic birds and their sights and sounds are part of the feel ofSummer in many locations across the country.Birds like swifts and their regular appearance each Spring remind us of the wayGod has created a world of order and co-operation which sustains human life andsociety. 1 st August is Lammas Day when in the days of Merrie England a loaf wouldbe made from the corn first harvested and made into a loaf and brought to Church.This symbolised how people acknowledged their dependence upon God for the lifegiving order of the universe and upon the co-operation of the whole community inbringing in the all-important harvest. We may not live off the and so directlynowadays but we still depend upon the land and those who produce food for ourvery existence which makes it important that the balance of the world’s climate isnot disrupted by human activity.Summer in Church can be a quiet time, but we hope not too quiet! Worshipping ona Summer Sunday is a very pleasant experience with doors open and the soundsof nature of the local community wafting in. This helps us to remember that we areoffering worship on behalf of the whole community, which is always our task as aspecifically parish church. So just as the loaf was brought to Church on LammasDay, so we offer to God the whole community, it’s gratitude and it’s needs, all yearround.This is the moment to remind you of the foodbank hamper at the back of Church.Tinned food is always welcome, especially tinned meat and fish, as well as toiletriesand bottles of water which can be refilled from a tap in warm weather by those whoare homeless.A Summer highlight is the Open Gardens Event at Durrance Manor on August BankHoliday when the Church will be responsible for the teas and cakes.Sunday, September 8 th will be our Patronal festival this year. It’s one of the feasts ofthe Blessed Virgin Mary which occur throughout the year and this year this Feast ofthe Birth of St Mary the Virgin will be our Patronal Festival. Another highlight will beSunday 22 nd when at 6pm we are having a Songs Of Praise Service wherebypeople can choose a hymn which is their favourite, which will then be sung at theservice, together with a few words of background about the hymn. So start thinkingwhat hymn you will choose!Enjoy the Summer and make the most of worshipping in a warm, light and airy,church with the sounds and smells of nature and of the community around us.Your friend and parish priest, Chris
Dear Friends,Christmas and EpiphanyIt was good to see so many of you at the Christmas services. The years come and go but the message of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ is eternal. It is in that spirit that I wish you all a very happy and peaceful New Year. We don’t know what this year will bring for either ourselves, or our families, or our nation and the world. But we can take comfort from the day we observe every year at the beginning of the year-Christ’s manifestation to the world, or The Epiphany. The Christmas season is not yet over, because we keep the feast of The Epiphany of The Lord on Sunday, 7th January. On Christmas Day we celebrated the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem a “City of Judah.” Now we are about the celebrate what has been called the Christmas of the Gentiles; the moment when Jesus Christ was revealed to the world, as represented by the three wise men. This is a major feast in its own right and we should not fail to attend the Eucharist on that day. It contains a hope that the light of Christ the Prince of Peace has shone on this world, a light which, for those who follow it, will bring salvation and hope. In other words, for those who wish to seek and find Christ, there are enough signs and pointers of which the Wise Men availed themselves and responded. Let’s pray that we will likewise respond and that the whole world will come to seek the incarnate and glorified Lord, who holds the truth to meet the world’s needs.January can be a difficult month for many-some feel a sense of anti-climax after Christmas and the weather can restrict outside activities. Others, however, are glad to get “back to normal” after the festivities and detect the gradually lengthening days. So, what are some good things from which we will benefit this month?Reasons to be happy in JanuaryFirst our new service booklet is now in use, having been introduced just before Christmas. I am very pleased with it and I hope it will be a real support to us in our worshipping life. The services, especially the two Eucharists, make provision for a certain amount of variation, so that the priest can make use of some of the texts which the Church of England has provided for priests to use at their discretion. So at a few points worshippers are reminded to expect some words to be used which are not printed, or advised that other words will sometimes be substituted for those which are written. For Evensong, too, we now have a simple, clear procession through the service without the duplications and multiple options found in the Prayer Book.Secondly, with some generous help from the Knepp estate, our compost area in the Churchyard has now been cleared. If you are removing items from the churchyard such as Christmas wreaths or other floral tributes, we ask now that you would either take the items home or place them in the appropriate bins sited at the church gates.Family ServicesThe PCC had a long discussion about the Family Services at its November meeting. We decided to continue with the Family Services until the March Family service on 10th March, and then review. Please let me know what you think about the Family Services now that they have been running again for a year. Lent and EasterEaster is early this year, so Lent begins early. Please make a note in your diaries of the Lent Groups. In the Andrew Hall as in recent years, they will be the three Thursdays, 22 February, 7th March, and 21st March. More details will be forthcoming!Your friend and parish priestChris
Dear FriendsLast Sunday was Advent Sunday which begins a period of reflection and thought beforethe celebration of the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each Sunday, we light another AdventCandle as we hear the ancient prophecies speaking of God’s special person who wouldcome with salvation and blessing.It’s important to keep Advent so that we can appreciate the full meaning of Christmas asbeing God’s final utterance to the world in the Word made Flesh. In their own way, thePatriarchs, the Prophets, John The Baptist and the Virgin Mary, all prepared the world forJesus Christ. Hearing about their diverse witness to God’s purposes, we can all the betterappreciate God’s final word to us in his Son, born in Bethlehem. So please don’t skipAdvent, but stay with the unfolding drama week by week.During this time we welcome the Shipley Scouts at their annual Christingle service, joinedthis year by pupils from Shipley Primary School, on Friday 8th December at 6pm. This is agreat parish occasion and once again it will be wonderful to have a full church.Sunday 17th December sees our annual Parish Carol Service at 7pm. The Choir havealready been practising for some weeks for this service which again reviews, in words andmusic, the expectations surrounding the birth of the long- expected and hoped forMessiah. This service is one of the highlights of our year and not one to miss!As the weather gets colder, please make an extra effort to contribute to the foodbank. Thisis something practical we can do to love our neighbour and to mirror God’s own love andgenerosity to us.Christmas will come this year with added urgency to our prayers for peace, in particular, inthe land of Christ’s birth. Christmas services are timed as last year, with the Crib Service at5pm on Christmas Eve, and Midnight Mass at 11pm. Christmas Morning sees a SungEucharist at the usual time of 10am. These services are our celebration of the Birth of ourSaviour and we look forward to seeing many of you on these occasions.Preparations will soon be in full swing. The sheep are already being trained for theirappearance at the stable during the Crib Service, while others will be setting up theChristmas tree and decorating it.The world around us has a tendency to start Christmas too early and finish it too early.This can lead to a sense of an anticlimax and a feeling of being fed up, in January,leading to the so called Blue Monday. The remedy is to stick to the Church calendar whichhas a Christmas season extending into January with the Naming Of Jesus on 1st Januaryand the Epiphany a few days later. In this way we continue to contemplate the fullmeaning of “The Word was made flesh” well into the New Year.Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and a New Year full of peace for you and thewhole world.Your friend and parish priest,Chris
