Newsletter 21st November 2021

Christ the King

21^st November 2021

The church year ends today with the Feast of Christ the King. We celebrate Christ as king of the universe. This is also stir-up Sunday, the traditional day to make your Christmas puddings. It gets its name from the traditional Post Communion prayer for today, which reads: ‘Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful.’ We hope you can join us this week.

Collect

God the Father,

help us to hear the call of Christ the King

and to follow in his service,

whose kingdom has no end;

for he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, one glory.

Readings

Daniel 7.9-10,13,14, Psalm 93, Revelation 1.4b-8
John 18.33-37

Our Sunday school meets in the hall this week. New children are always welcome.

St Mary de Haura – Town Carol Service This year we will not be able to have the numbers in church on Christmas Eve that we usually do. We will have two “Carols at St Marys” services on the 23^rd December at 3pm and 6.30 pm, and the Town Carol Service on Christmas Eve at 5pm as usual. Tickets will be restricted to 200 for each service, with a maximum of 4 tickets per household for the services on the 23^rd and 2 tickets per household for the Town Carol Service. There is a sign-up sheet for the services at the back of church after the services.

At this time, we are asking people only book for one of the services.

Bible Art John 18.33-37

This Sunday we celebrate Christ the King ... yet in the passage Jesus says to Pilate 

"For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth."

It was the word 'born' which struck me ... the precariousness of human birthing,

the precariousness of being a new born baby at a time when many mothers and babies did not survive the birth.

Then the one who was there from the beginning, now willingly confined within part of that creation,

both in the sense of being in human baby and being in Mary's womb,

a heavenly King in a totally vulnerable infant.

A butterfly in a chrysalis with no way of escaping the hungry bird.

Revd Jess

Morning Meditation

We have a new meditation group at the Good Shepherd Saturday mornings at 8am. This is run in partnership with the Brighton and Hove Centre for Spirituality, a group that explores contemplative Christianity. The guided meditation and lectio divina practice can also be joined on Zoom.

Fellowship Lunch

The date of the next Fellowship Lunch is Sunday 21^st November.  There is also a fellowship lunch at the Yacht Club on 19^th December. Please let Joy know if you would like to come.
 

Advent Online Retreat

Rev'd Jess will be leading an online creative meditation retreat on Friday November 26th, repeated on Saturday 27th.

The theme of the retreat will be Advent Light.  There will be a morning session starting with a 10am Zoom meeting, followed by a meditation which participants will do in their own time. There will be a second Zoom session at 2pm, followed by a meditation. At 4.30pm there will be a final Zoom session, with a time of sharing and worship to finish the day. If you'd like to join in, email Rev'd Jess at j.aidley@gmail.com

Christmas Fayre – help needed

Christmas Fayre Saturday 4th December 11 am-3 pm. The Fundraising team request donations for the raffle: chocolates, wine, or any item suitable towards the construction of a Christmas hamper. Raffle tickets will be on sale each Sunday prior to and including Saturday the 4th December. We also need chocolates as prizes for the tombola. Cakes are also needed on the day - fruit cakes, drizzle cakes, Victoria sponges, cupcakes. Just let one of the team know what you'd like to make. Please remember - we need a list of the ingredients used in the cakes preparation. If you'd like to help run a stall or help in the kitchen we'd love your assistance. We would also like help on Friday 3rd, 6:30pm for an hour setting up, and again in the morning of the 4th, 9am, as there is always a lot to do. Many thanks in advance,

The Fundraising Team

A visit from the new Bishop!

Rt Revd Will Hazlewood, the Bishop of Lewes will be leading our worship and preaching at our 10am service Sunday 19^th December. This will be his first visit to our church and we look forward to welcoming him.

Sussex Chamber Choir Concert

We are delighted to host this concert by the Shoreham Chamber Choir on Tuesday 7^th December at 7.30pm. Half of the donations will go to the church.

Living in Love and Faith – a message from the diocese

As you may be aware, the Church of England has embarked upon a significant debate in the last two years concerning the areas of identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. This conversation has been expertly introduced to the Church for consideration through the process known as Living in Love and Faith.  Many of these conversations remain largely in their infancy. With a lot of theological, missional and pastoral work ahead of us, regardless of any decisions General Synod may take in its coming quinquenium, we now want to take a snapshot of the range of perspectives and theological convictions held across the diocese.

Regardless of whether or not you have undertaken an LLF course, or engaged with the LLF material, we would like to invite you to participate in a short survey monkey questionnaire that will enable us to compile a brief paper that we will submit first to our diocesan synod for consideration and then to the national church. Every diocese in the Church of England is generating feedback for this national discussion. We would be very grateful to have your input into this process.

We understand that a simple survey cannot hope to give opportunity for the expression of every point of view. We are however hoping to gather a wide range of perspectives and we offer assurance that every perspective will be reflected.

The questionnaire will take around ten minutes to complete and is anonymous. Thank you very much indeed for taking part.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/D5T8ZB5

And finally…

Our Remembrance service went well last Sunday.  A wreath was also laid by Joss Loader on behalf of the Shoreham Beach Resident’s Association. Thank you to everyone who stepped in to help this week whilst I was in isolation with covid.

I work half-time and the usual days when I am available are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings. Blessings and prayers for you all this week.

Revd Jane

If you are reading this newsletter on a paper copy and would like to receive it each week through email please contact: cogsenews@gmail.com

Services this Week

Sunday, 21^st November

8am – Holy Communion with Revd Jane and Derek.

10am – Parish Communion with Revd Jane and Derek.

This service will be live streamed onto our Facebook and You Tube channel.

You Tube page CLICK HERE

Church Facebook page CLICK HERE