FRIDAY 23rd DECEMBER

                                          Churchwarden Phil learns how to knit Christmas


People of God: prepare!
God, above all, maker of all,
is one with us in Christ.
Maranatha!
Come, Lord Jesus!

God, the mighty God,
bends down in love to earth.
Maranatha!
Come, Lord Jesus!

God with us, God beside us,
comes soon to the world he has made.
Maranatha!
Come, Lord Jesus!

We are God's children,
we seek the coming Christ.
Maranatha!
Come, Lord Jesus!

Much that we'd all like to happen at St. Peter's wouldn't happen without the support of Cathy in the church office. So here's a big thank you on behalf of the Advent Team and everyone else for what she does, efficiently, enterprisingly, and with a smile! Thanks Cathy!



The Christmas Eve Services:  ***TOMORROW***TOMORROW***


At 15.30 and 17.00 the Crib Service. An active all-age service for children, their parents, grandparents and carers. Choose the time that suits you best. Enormous fun.

At 22.15 there's forty minutes of your favourite carols (Come and Sing Carols). And then why not stay on for the service with the extra tingle as at 23.30 we gather to greet the birth of Jesus at the very first moment of Christmas Day. It's a special experience!

And so that the church looks wonderful throughout Christmas, Rosemary and her rota team of thirty-six (yes, thirty-six!)  cleaners will have been through to sweep, vac and polish the carpets and pews. We're not going to go all 'Oscar-nomination' on you, but when you're around the church some time, just look at the number of people who help make this place welcoming and lovely. You're probably one of them, so please feel appreciated. And if you're not, then why not? (Sorry to be quite so pointed!)


Stop Press! from our Foodbank Correspondent...


Lorraine Bewley-Tippler has sent us the following note:

'One of the congregation who had been at ADVENT SOUP talked afterwards to Councillor Stephen Legg about the needs of the Emmanuel Coffee Shop which were discussed at the lunch. He promptly made contact with the trustees and offered them a grant of £400, which they have been delighted to accept.

'And at OPEN HOUSE last Saturday, Rev. David was given a hamper to raffle. The total raised was £76, which he gave to me on Sunday for Foodbank. By midweek the money was being used. Foodbank opened on Wednesday and gave parcels to 27 needy families. By the end of the day we had run out of tins of meat and fish, but the hamper money was used to replenish the stocks for Thursday, when another 8 parcels were made up and given. About 120 people had food for Christmas. Thanks be to God for blessings which are spread.'


Joseph on his death bed

One regret?
Always the outsider, me.
Mary and the boy
Like twins.
A family within a family.
Knew what the other was thinking
Before it was ever said,
And me alone on the edge of the room,
Or passing through with a nice piece of wood or two,
Looking in on their world,
Private and mysterious.

It went way back.
I didn't know her
(silly, coy word)
Until after he was born.
Thereafter dutiful intercourse
And so along came James and Joses 
Jude and Simon.
But no, I never knew her,
Not really.
However that boy was conceived
I was always an anti-climax.

When he was small,
He helped in the yard,
Watched and asked questions.
In that sense,
Now I'm dying,
The business is safe.
He'll do the accounts,
Manage the difficult clients.
The others will do the work.

There was that moment
Up in Jerusalem
The year before his bar mitzvah,
He ran wild with the zealots,
Pretending he was working for me.
I ask you:
'I must be about my father's business'!
I was incandescent,
Mary emollient,
And after that
If such a thing is possible,
They were both even more unreachable.
Perhaps he'll end up a rabbi.
It runs in the family.
I suppose that's OK
Provided it doesn't turn his head.

Well, I'm curious to know
What will become of him,
But I'm like Father Moses
Looking over the golden, longed for land
The fulfilment of an adolescent exile
Not mine to enjoy.
He and I
We'll never share a pie and a pint
At the close of a profitable day.

The lad has an aura,
A strange unworldly kind of promise.
That's as much as I can say...
 
                                       VC

Antiphon:

O Emmanuel, our King and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Saviour:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.