Please find attached the liturgy for the Reflection and Compline service to be held at 7pm on Thursday 22nd December 2022.You can attend this service at St Ed's or join on-line via the St Ed's Facebook page Wherever we are, we gather in the Name of God, Source of life, love and hope.All welcomeThe attached sheet will help you participate in the service. Please join us on Thursday evening or watch later 'on catch up' Please note: St Ed’s has the following licences to support all our livestream services/activitiesCCLI 184420Streaming Licence 333710 Music Reproduction Licence 184420 SongSelect®Advanced
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1 : 18 – 19This week’s reading : Matthew 1 : 18 - 25Thought for the weekThe waiting is nearly over. Christmas Day is looming large on the horizon. The next few days will be filled with last minute preparations before we finally breathe deeply. Whether we are ready or not Christmas will come! However we are feeling about Christmas, whether we love it or dread it, whether we are ready or not, there is Good News, the best news. Jesus is born into a world where things are sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes easy, sometimes hard, sometimes straightforward, sometimes complex. That Jesus is born into the reality of life with all its many facets is Good News. Into the Mess of the world comes the Message of hope that has been there since the dawn of time. This is the Message of God's infinite love, grace and peace given to us in Jesus the Messiah - Emmanuel, God with us. This is Good News for the whole world. Happy Christmas! RachelPrayers for this weekEternal God, as Mary waited for the birth of your Son, so we wait for his coming in glory; bring us through the birth pangs of this present age to see, with her, our great salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord. AmenGod is soaked in our world. God's Spirit lives and breathes in and through all that is. We are lost only when we do not understand that God is already with and in each one of us. Our task is recognition of God's initiative to be at home in us— acceptance of God-With-Us. Then we cannot but be glad.written by Edwina Gateley in There Was No Path So I Trod One (1996, 2013). Posted on Journey with Jesus.
The following services will be available via the St Ed's Facebook page or by attendance (as stated below). Sunday 18th December 9:30am Mustard Tree Church Nativity – informal service for families and children. (at St Ed’s)Sunday 18th December 10.00am til 3:00pm Christmas Nativity Display (at St Peter’s )Sunday 18th December 11:15 am Holy Communion (at St Ed’s)Sunday 18th December 11:15 am Online Sunday service (livestream) Sunday 18th December 7:00 pm Carol Service (at St Ed’s and livestream)Monday 19th December 10.00am til 3:00pm Christmas Nativity Display (at St Peter’s )Monday 19th December 5.00 pm Monday prayers (at St Ed’s)Tuesday 20th December 8:45 am Prayers (at St Ed’s)Tuesday 20th December 10.00am til 3:00pm Christmas Nativity Display (at St Peter’s )Tuesday 20th December 10:00 am Tiny Tunes (music for all young people) (at St Ed’s), refreshments10am til12 noonTuesday 20th December 7:30 pm Taverham Band Candlelit Carols (at St Ed’s)Wednesday 21st December 10.00am til 3:00pm Christmas Nativity Display (at St Peter’s )Wednesday 21st December 10:30 am Holy Communion (at St Ed’s)Wednesday 21st December 12:00 noon til 3:00pm Christingle Bag making (at St Ed’s)Wednesday 21st December 5:00 pm Evening Prayers (at St Ed’s)Thursday 22nd December 10.00am til 3:00pm Christmas Nativity Display (at St Peter’s )Thursday 22nd December 7.00pm Reflection with Compline (at St Ed’s and livestream)Christmas Eve, Saturday 24th December 3:30 pm Christingle Service (at St Ed’s and livestream)Christmas Eve, Saturday 24th December 6:30 pm Contemplative Christingle Service (at St Ed’s)Christmas Eve, Saturday 24th December 11:00 pm Midnight Communion (at St Ed’s)Christmas Eve, Saturday 24th December 12:00 am Midnight Meditation (livestream)Also Sunday 25th December, Christmas Day, at St Ed’s: 10.00am Holy Communion, open church in the afternoon. At St Peter’s 10:30 Christmas Holy CommunionAdditionally at 8am daily (except Sunday) we will be posting a ‘Daily bitesize prayer’ on the St Ed's Facebook page.For on-line services, watch live if you are able --- or join later on 'catch up'.Everyone welcome.AdditionallyRingland: future services/events at St Peter’s: daily Sunday 18th to Thursday 22nd December 10am til 3pm Christmas Nativity DisplaySaturday 24th December 6.30pm Carol Service with Taverham bandSunday 25th December 10.30am Christmas Morning Holy Communion serviceChristingle bag making we are filling bags on Wednesday 21st December from 12.00pm till 3.00pm for the Christingle service. All help from all ages greatly appreciated!Christingle Service. Thank you to everyone who has contacted us for tickets for the Christingle Service on Christmas Eve. The service is now full, we have issued 200 tickets for the 3.30pm service which is the safe limit and we are not able to issue any more. Would you consider joining us online for the service through our Facebook page? Christingle bags will be available at St Edmund’s Church from 9.00am on Thursday 22nd December. If anyone wants to join the ‘reserve list’ for any tickets that become available they can contact Stella Noons or Rev Paul. Big Christmas card thank you to Linda Johnson for creating the big card this year for St Ed’s and St Peter’s. Please sign to send your good wishes to everyone in our churches. Donations will go to the charity Smile.Christmas Day afternoon St Ed’s will be open as a quiet space. Hats, Gloves, scarves for the homeless We are now collecting these to be taken to the Salvation Army in the city. These can be left at the back of St Eds.Alpha We will be holding our next Alpha course at the end of January on a weekday evening in church. Invitations for Alpha are now in St Ed’s church. Please pray as we embark on another exciting Alpha journey. HAPPY CHRISTMAS! From everyone at St Ed’s and St Peter’s. We hope you have a joyful and peaceful Christmas.
When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Matthew 11 : 2 - 3This week’s reading : Matthew 11 : 2 – 11Thought for the week It seems all our expectations are being reduced this year. There are fewer Christmas outings, less likelihood of big feasts and parties, many people reducing their present lists and (with the strikes) even fewer Christmas cards can be expected to arrive! A simpler Christmas. But an opportunity for a more meaningful and heart – felt Christmas this year. Actually a Christmas far closer to Jesus’ birth.John the Baptist sent a message to Jesus asking if He was the one, or should they expect another? John had expected dramatic features of the Messiah’s coming along with everyone else at the time. Yet Jesus came in such a surprising way, and in His ministry revealed the Kingdom not through revenge on enemies, judgement and force, but through compassion and healing, mercy and forgiveness.Jesus turns all our expectations upside down. As we prepare for Christmas we focus on Jesus who became the least of all. The abundance of God’s love revealed by becoming the smallest of all, a tiny human child.The sheer greatness and infinite vastness of God’s love and mercy that for each of us exceeds all we can ever expect or hope for. Rev PaulPrayers for this weekO Lord Jesus Christ,who at your first coming sent your messenger to prepare your way before you:grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready your way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,that at your second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;for you are alive and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. AmenGod for whom we watch and wait, you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:give us courage to speak the truth, to hunger for justice, and to suffer for the cause of right,with Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
