Day: 25 November 2023

19th November 2023

By Justin Dyche in Sunday Service on 25 November 2023

Hello everyone,

An early message this week, so you have plenty of time to digest the news below, especially about next week’s Christmas Fayre. On the subject of Christmas there is a full listing of our Christmas services below so you can make your festive plans around them. Thank you to all those people who helped with the SHOEBOX drop off, I know some had no-one call in and others had over 100 boxes! If you have not yet returned your box this Sunday is the final opportunity. It is not quite the final opportunity to return SURVEY FORMS and STEWARDSHIP REVIEWS but if you have not yet returned yours and you can bring it on Sunday that would be helpful, thank thank you.

Sunday 19th November
There is just the one service at St Columba’s on Sunday, MORNING WORSHIP led by Rosie and with a sermon from William. Don’t forget to arrive from 10.15 to join in the early worship, with the full service starting at 10.30am. There will be ENERGIZE groups for children and for those who are not able to be in church you can watch on youtube by going to this link:
https://youtube.com/live/rPbFtkEAbXc?feature=share
We also have our PRAYER MEETING at St Columba’s at 6pm.

Christmas Fayre
Next Saturday is our Christmas Fayre from 11am until 1pm and it would be great if you can all be involved in some way.
Thank you to those who have already offered to help, we could still do with a few more to help with clearing up afterwards.
On Saturday if you’re helping with a stall, please be there from 9.30am or if you prefer clearing up this will be from 1.00pm.
We need cakes for the cake stall, which can be brought to the hall Friday evening between 6-7pm or as soon as possible after 9.30am on Saturday morning.
If you’re wanting to donate anything else at this stage we would appreciate more bottles and teddies for the Tombolas, which can be taken to the vicarage from Tuesday onwards or to the Hall on Friday evening at the setting up session.
For those who are not helping, please come and support our Fayre, bring your friends and families and spend some money, either cash or card will be welcome!
There will be home-made cakes, Christmas crafts, Christmas present ideas and more!
We look forward to seeing you next Saturday.
If you want any further information do speak to Riaan after the Service on Sunday if you’re in church or contact Miriam from Tuesday.
Thank you very much.

Coming soon to the Savoy Cinema
A recording of one of Cliff’s Blue Sapphire (65th anniversary) concerts at the Hammersmith Apollo being shown at the Savoy cinema at 7pm on Saturday 25th November, a good way to relax after the Fayre! There is also a performance on Sunday afternoon but as that will clash with our Advent Praise service (see below) I am not advertising that!
There is also a film on next week called Journey to Bethlehem which is described as “Classic Christmas melodies and modern pop songs tell the story of a young woman with an unimaginable responsibility, a young man torn between love and honour, and a jealous king”. I know nothing about the film but it may be worth seeing, especially with non-Christian friends and family because you can then talk about what really happened, whether or not that is shown in the film. It is on Friday 17th at 14.45, Saturday 18th 15.30, Sunday 19th 12.15 and 20.25, Monday 20th 15.15, Tuesday 21st 16.25, Wednesday 22nd 15.00, and Thursday 23rd at 15.30.

Sunday 26th November
A choice of three services next Sunday as follows:
9am HOLY COMMUNION at St Leonard’s
10.30 HOLY COMMUNION at St Columba’s with ENERGIZE beginning their preparations for the NATIVITY (see below)
5pm ADVENT PRAISE – although it is not Advent Sunday until the following week we are using this service of song, reading and reflection to prepare us for the season, which is meant to be a time of preparation for Christmas, rather than the beginning of the Christmas season.

Steve is busy preparing the next printed edition of SCaNS and the CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER but there is a Hope From Above PRAYER UPDATE, so do have a read of that and pray for the points raised.

Christmas Services
Sunday 10th December as well as a COMMUNION service at St Columba’s in the morning there will be a CHRISTMAS FAMILY SERVICE at St Leonard’s, Rockingham at 3pm.
Thursday 14th December 6pm – COMMUNITY CAROL SERVICE with school choirs and congregational carols
Sunday 17th December:
10.30am – NATIVITY with the children’s traditional Christmas production
6pm – CANDLELIT CAROL SERVICE a traditional service of readings and carols.
Thursday 21st December 7pm – CAROLS, MINCE PIES & MULLED WINE in Rockingham Village Hall.
Sunday 24th December (Christmas Eve):
10.30am – COMMUNION at St Columba’s
4.30pm – CHRISTINGLE at St Columba’s
11.15pm – MIDNIGHT COMMUNION at St Columba’s
and on Christmas Day:
10am (note the time) – FAMILY COMMUNION at St Columba’s
11am CHRISTMAS COMMUNION at St Leonard’s, Rockingham.

With best wishes to all,

Ian

01536 400225
07903 644609

12th November 2023

By Justin Dyche in Sunday Service on 25 November 2023

Good morning everyone,

It is Remembrance weekend and yesterday I observed silences with children and young people at Rockingham Primary School and Lodge Park Academy. Both schools gave me the opportunity to speak and pray and the silences were well observed, the full two minutes at Lodge Park. We will, of course, be having silences in our services tomorrow, see all the details below. You should also have a look at the mini-SCaNS below which has a Remembrance theme, again more details below.

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY 12th NOVEMBER
As mentioned above it is Remembrance Sunday this week and both St Columba’s and St Leonard’s have a service tomorrow morning so that they can both observe the two minutes silence at 11am. The St Columba’s service is at 10.30am and includes HOLY COMMUNION as well as ENERGIZE groups for children and young people. This service can also be watched on youtube via this link: https://youtube.com/live/RBrirRLmTHc?feature=share
At St Leonard’s there is a FAMILY SERVICE starting at 10.45.

PRAYER MEETING
We have our regular Prayer Meeting in St Columba’s at 6pm on Sunday.

SURVEY OF GIFTS AND TALENTS and STEWARDSHIP REVIEW
Thank you to those people who have already returned their surveys and reviews, but that is less than half the number that were given out. If you have not yet done so please can you try and remember to complete them before Sunday and then bring them with you to church. Once most of the forms have been returned we will be able to start looking at them. If you have lost your copy there will be spares available in church or you can request a copy by replying to this email.

SHOEBOXES
Please remember to return your shoeboxes, either tomorrow or at the latest by next Sunday. St Columba’s will also be open for people to drop off shoeboxes this coming week on Monday 13th, Wednesday 15th and Friday 17th between 9am and 1pm. If you are able to help with any of these, even if only for an hour or two, please email ianpullinger@btinternet.com or sign the list in church. We especially need people to help on Friday morning.

CHRISTMAS FAYRE
Please do remember our CHRISTMAS FAYRE that will be happening on Saturday 25th November from 11am to 1pm. There are several ways in which you can help with this:
sign up to HELP ON THE DAY, either before, during or after the Fayre, or all three if possible – see the sign up sheet in church.
bring a BOTTLE or TEDDY for the tombolas – we especially need more teddies this year (other soft toys are also welcome!)
bring a donation for the RAFFLE
invite friends and family to come along and join in
Thank you to those people who have already donated raffle/tombola prizes and/or signed up to help.

CLIFF at the SAVOY
Not in person sadly but there is a recording of one of Cliff’s Blue Sapphire (65th anniversary) concerts at the Hammersmith Apollo being shown at the Savoy cinema at 7pm on Saturday 25th November. I understand that our former vicar’s wife Judy Eden went to see him live in London this week and says his voice is as good as ever.

SUNDAY 19th NOVEMBER
There will be just the one service next Sunday, MORNING WORSHIP at 10.30am in St Columba’s with ENERGIZE groups for children.

Mini SCaNS
Here is the latest edition of mini-SCaNS. Steve writes: This issue of Mini-SCaNS has a heroic remembrance theme. You can read about two young men who lost their lives in the dreadful mud at Passchendaele in WW1. There’s Robert, who had just become a father—an ordinary lad, not a Chaplain—who before he was killed, was seen by a friend, standing, “in an open field with an open Bible, a group of young men around him, finishing a talk to the young soldiers, and then leading them in singing, ‘Rejoice, the Lord is King. Your Lord and King adore.” And there’s Rochdale lad, William Robinson, 18 (could be an distant relative – my mother was a Robinson from Rochdale/Oldham area), whose body, like so many young men of that war, was never found. See the beautiful hand-stitched Christmas card he had sent his parents.

Take a ‘Trip into the Past’ with a page of amazing pictures from before WW2. You think electric cars are new? See the lady charging hers in 1912; the miner being washed by his wife in a tub in front of the fire in 1931; early roller skates and an electric scooter; and kids having fun!

Discover the more recent story of Francine, for whom “something was missing” in her family’s religion, so she started attending an evangelical church in the Philippines, as a result of which her father beat her every Sunday, until, after she was baptised, she started to bring home food parcels, and he relented. Pray for him. There’s a Word Search about The Titanic, from which so many people were lost; lots of puzzles, some with a music theme and the usual funnies. Hope you enjoy them!”

May God bless us all, and help us to reflect this weekend on the absence of peace in our world today.

Ian

01536 400225
07903 644609