A collect for the Second Sunday of Advent that you may wish to pray over this weekend.
Advent is a time to give time to consider and be thankful for the coming celebration for Christ – how are you thinking about the season?
As Advent begins, we celebrate the anticipation of Christmas Day through Advent with a special service of hymns, readings and choir pieces at St Mark’s.
The January edition of our parish magazine is available now in church: but why not download the last edition now? Want to advertise in our magazine – get in touch with us to find out more!
Notices for Sunday 1st December, with details of our upcoming services and events – find out how you can help with our early December Christmas preparations!
“Lo, he comes with clouds descending” – a fantastic hymn for this day from Charles Wesley, but as you listen to the lyrics, are you comfortable with the language? Power, glory, claiming the kingdom, thrones, people, nations – the language all of being under subjection to Jesus the King. But Jesus was a king who was different: he doesn’t conform to the pictures usually associated with kingship, with earthly glory and power. Rather, the King we follow is a servant king.
Notices for Sunday 24th November, with details of our upcoming services – and details of events through December!
Christ the King announces the start of Advent, and what better way to celebrate than with a feast? One for the kids – but how about a tea-time fare?
If you were starting a business that only produced one out of four viable products at the end of a complex and costly factory process, you’d be lucky to find investors to back you. However, although Jesus – through the parable of the sower – suggests three out of four won’t hear the message, with the Gospel always being freely available to all, success can easily come from failure.
Are we willing to let go of our ideas of what ‘looking good’ looks like? Are we willing to shed our ideas of what we ‘should’ be doing? Are we willing to let go of our illusion of control? What does success look like – and are we seeing success as trying to fit in, getting on with those around us: twisting our Christian faith into a call to ‘niceness’, as nobody can be offended?