Advent – Why? Dietrich Bonhoeffer said of Advent “The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, who look forward to something greater to come. For these, it is enough to wait in humble fear until the Holy One himself comes down to us, God in the child in the manger. God comes. The Lord Jesus comes. Christmas comes. Christians rejoice!”

Advent is almost opposite to Christmas. It is good to celebrate at Christmas that Christ is born but Christmas often becomes more about shopping, busyness and having a good time – all of which are okay in their own right as long as they don’t come to dominate what Christians should be celebrating. Advent gives us the opportunity to prepare for celebrating in the right way what the coming of Jesus means; it is a time of quiet reflection and we should deliberately set aside time to reflect on Jesus’s birth, his time on earth and His going to the cross to recompense for our sins.

Reflect on the most wonderful gifts we could ever have – faith and a friend and brother in Jesus. He was the Prince of Peace so how his heart must be breaking over the wars and terrors of the world in our time and we need Advent to help to realise what His coming really means to us and our troubled world.

Come and help consider Advent on the four weeks prior to Christmas and prepare yourself to be able to worship fully when Christmas comes. The first Advent session will be on Wednesday, 29th November at 10.30am in the lounge off Walmer Street.

Services in October

Worship at 10:30am

-5th – Revd T M Nowell, Holy Communion
12th – Revd T M Nowell, Parade
19th – Own Arrangements, Cafe
26th – Revd J Matthews

Dates for your Diary

Mon. 06 – Craft & Friendship – 10.30-noon
Tues. 07 – First Tuesday Circle – 2pm speaker from Green Synergy
Mon. 13 – Craft & Friendship – 10.30am-noon
Mon. 20 – Craft & Friendship – 10.30am-noon
Sat. 25 – Christmas Fair – 10-11.30am
Mon. 27 – Craft & Friendship – 10.30am-noon
Wed. 29 – Advent Group in the lounge – 10.30am

We invite everyone to join us at theme above meetings, you will be warmly welcomed. Monday mornings are open to anyone to bring along their own craft or just come for a chat and a drink. We share a simple lunch from midday and look forward to sharing our time together.

In the colder months we will also invite in those who need a Warm Welcome on Monday mornings. Starting in November, these sessions will run alongside our friendly craft group until February.

Our First Tuesday Circle is open to everyone. Come and listen to our interesting speakers and share refreshments. On Tuesday, 7th November our speaker will be from our local Green Synergy charity. Come and learn how the Green Synergy charity works in the community to help support and create an inspiring & therapeutic environment in so many ways.

Our Advent study will begin on Wednesday morning at 10.30 on 29th November. The title of the study this year is “Out of the Ordinary”.

Put it in your diary now and come and get into the real meaning of Christmas.

Come and share in this fun morning. There are several stalls – craft & toiletries, cakes, bric-a-brac, tombola, raffle – come and find Christmas gifts, toys, jigsaws and a whole host of other items, and enjoy refreshments.

If you can donate wrapped biscuits towards the refreshments please see Ros or Irene.

Environmental Concerns

Do you use an electric toothbrush? Lots of us do to help our oral health. Perhaps you know that you can buy recyclable heads for your toothbrush. They can be bought on line and are cheaper than the leading brand. Six are sent in a box and when they are all used just replace them in the box and post free back to the retailer who will recycle them – just one more way we can avoid plastic getting into the world’s oceans.

For women, recycle your bras. Visit againstbreastcancer.org.uk/recycling/bra-recycling. Odd socks? The London Sock Company’s sock amnesty collects old, odd, holey, unwanted socks and turns them into fingerless gloves and neck-warmers for Crisis. Visit londonsockcompany.com/amnesty to create a Freepost label. These are just a few ways that we can make sure we can reuse, recycle, reduce to help protect God’s world and help others.

Lord Jesus, again, lead us out of apathy. Give us the strength to do what is right and not to leave it to others. Where there is need, guide us towards helping. Let us not sit comfortably while others suffer but disturb us
enough to lift our thoughts, prayers and ways to what you would have us say and do, for we know that in your strength and with the Holy Spirit’s power your will can be done and our commitment will be honoured. Amen

Fundraising

Donations given to other causes:

Hope Shoebox Appeal £ 60.00
Macmillan Coffee Morning £190.25
EDAN £ 40.00

Thank you for your generosity to all these worthwhile and needy charities.

Other News

Family News

To all our friends unable to worship with us we send our love & prayers and blessings. Your prayers and support for our church is vital to all we do in our Father’s name, thank you.

New Telephone Number

Please Note: Irene & Terry Nowell NO LONGER have a landline. If you need to contact Terry his number is 07579 768910.

Deadline for December/January Newsletter – 26th November

If you have any news to share then please be aware of the above date and let us have your item a few days before.

Closing Thoughts

Are You into Being………a Christian? You might think you committed your life to Jesus a long time ago, a few months ago, a few weeks ago, even a day ago – if recently you might be still full of the fire that comes when the Holy Spirit is invited in – if a while ago you may have settled into a steady way of life not thinking about what it means as much as you once did. Whenever you became a Christian, we all need some help at times.

Indeed we need to keep our faith alive and not become complacent. Our friendship with Jesus should be building and developing each day no matter how long we have been His friend. Being a Christian is not a decision that should be taken lightly because we need to work at it if God’s light is to mean anything and shine into those around us. Whether you take the title of Methodist lightly or are an out & out Methodist because of our history and what it has meant since the movement began, this is our way of being Christian and it’s very similar to the commitment of other denominations.

To help our discipleship our Church has provided us with “A Methodist Way of Life”. Sending us on a journey from a train station we can jump on and off at any point and receive help with all aspects of our Christian life – get off and pray, get back on and the next station shows us where we might serve others; get back on and find challenges on the route and work out what needs to be done as we travel on.

Life can be difficult and scary at times but our pocket guide to “A Methodist Way of Life” offers so many ways in which we can build and strengthen our faith. If there’s an area of your Christian life that needs attention – the guide will help you think about that too. Don’t get off the train and stay off – even at sticky times God and Christian friends (and you are a friend too) will encourage you with His love – a love that never ends and is often beyond our understanding.

Download a copy of the PDF

If you would like to download a PDF copy of the newsletter, you can do so here.