Services This Week
Dear All,
Services this week are taking place in person or via livestream through our YouTube Channel. Please find gathering times and service sheet links below:
Friday 29 December
10.30am - BCP Holy Communion (Revd Dr Mark Scarlata)
Sunday 31 December / First Sunday of Christmas
11am - Holy Communion
Sermon: ‘The Fullness of Time’
Service Sheet: Here
Other news:
Charity Clothing Collection: Over Christmastide, the church will be collecting clothing & shoes for donation to the Salvation Army second-hand clothes bank for distribution to those unable to afford clothing & shoes for themselves. If you have any clothing or shoes that you would like to donate, please bring them in a bag (bag pairs of shoes separately to clothing) and leave them in the designated box beside the organ.
Volunteer Rota: In addition to the sign-up sheet in church, we are making it easier to volunteer by attaching an online rota with the weekly email here. (N.B. There will be an initial delay before access is granted to the form, in order that only church members can see and edit it.) Please do consider if you are able to help out in any of the ways listed – we are particularly in need of regular volunteers to set-up tea and coffee and stay a little longer after each service to wash-up/leave away. If you have any queries please speak to Peter on Sunday. Many thanks!
Giving: As always we are grateful for all of your gifts! Offerings may still be given during this time via a basket collection during live services, Standing Orders, or one time bank transfer, via BACS [SORT: 20-17-19 / ACCT #: 30851477 – “St Edwards Church Vestry Fund”]. There is now also a SumUp machine by the door of the church, for those of you who wish to give contactlessly: Simply power on, enter the amount you wish to give on the screen, and then tap your card.
Exciting Holiness (Wednesday 27 December):
Whether or not John the Apostle and John the Evangelist are one and the same, the Church honours on this day the one who proclaims Jesus as the Word made flesh and who is ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’. John was one of the sons of Zebedee, along with James, who followed Jesus. John was there at the Transfiguration of Jesus on the holy mountain; he was there with Jesus at the last supper; he was there with Jesus in his agony in the garden; he was there with Jesus and his mother, standing at the foot of the cross; he was there with Jesus as a witness of his resurrection and ‘he saw and believed’. John was a witness to the Word, he proclaimed the Word, and he lived and died witnessing to the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, who loved him and whom he loved.
Merciful Lord, cast your bright beams of light upon the Church: that, being enlightened by the teaching of your blessed apostle and evangelist Saint John, we may so walk in the light of your truth that we may at last attain to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ your incarnate Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
