The Welland-Fosse Benefice: Prayers and Notices.

 Sunday 20^th December 2020:  Advent IV

 

• Please remember in your prayers those who are sick: Janette Saunders, Ann Hensby, Bishop John Holbrook, and Will Beattie.
• Today, Morning Worship will take place at South Luffenham, 9.30 am and the Zoom Service begins at 11am. Zoom Compline is at 6pm with a short presentation to consider the Advent themes of darkness and light in the art of Holman Hunt.
• Zoom Morning Prayer continues on Monday and Wednesday at 8.30 am. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services are advertised elsewhere.
• Next Sunday, the Zoom Service is at 11am.
• The Benefice Carol Service is premiered today at 4pm on YouTube. Go to wellandfosse.org
• The clergy, ministers and wardens of the benefice wish you all a very joyful and safe Christmas.

 

BARROWDEN

Today’s Zoom service is at 11 am. and our next service at Barrowden will be Christmas Day at 11 am.  Please book your places with Kay.

A reminder that Advent windows are all round the village are lit every evening.

 

SOUTH LUFFENHAM

Midnight Mass is in our Church at 11.30 pm on Christmas Eve. There will be carols to listen to. Please email sally@saltlane.com if you have not yet booked your place. 

Our Advent Calendar Windows are still going really well. It’s lovely having an early evening walk to see all the lights. Pictures will be included on our email loop.

We had an amazing 6 tubs of contributions collected by the Foodbank team PLUS  another 7 carrier bags of Christmas treats which we took in.

 

MEDITATION

On Monday night at dusk, Jupiter and Saturn are set to cross close to each other just above the horizon in the southwest sky. This conjunction happens occasionally – the last being 800 years ago – and is thought to be the reason why the Magi from the East hurried towards Bethlehem to see what this strange phenomenon might herald. St. Matthew records the event in Chapter 2 verse 2.

 

What a lovely coincidence this is for us who have had the most difficult year with Covid-19.  Is it coincidental?  Does God console us in such a way?

 

Such thoughts lead us on to consider the factual basis of the New Testament.  Did St. Matthew report what astronomers tell us happened with those two planets in 7BC?  It is highly probable.  Much of the Old Testament brings to us a very poetic account of the history of the Jews and their engagement with God.  The New Testament begin with the birth of a baby in a particular place and time. That birth has changed the course of world history in a very positive way and we are the beneficiaries of that event.

 

When I visited the Holy Land I was surprised at the lack of commercial tackiness, political tension and geographical contradiction to be found around the Holy Sites. This is an area of the Middle East which has been regularly fought over but more often pored over by historians, archaeologists, philosophers and sociologists for 2000 years. Each will have come away with their own convictions.  We pore over the scriptures and the life of the Church – Christ’s Church – in much the same way to establish the veracity of the claims of faith.  But at the end of the day, we have to accept that it is faith – our faith and no one else’s – which causes us to worship at the crib and the cross. We may do it in secret or in company but what an adventure and a blessing it is!

 

See wellandfosse.org for much more information, including contact details for

The Very Rev Christopher Armstrong and the churchwardens