Hello everyone,

It is that time of the year again and we are looking forward to St Columba’s CHRISTMAS FAYRE tomorrow, Saturday 25th November, from 11am to 1pm in the Church Hall. Please do come along and support the Fayre which supports our church, there are a variety of stalls including the ever popular Bacon Rolls from the Cafe, our own Home Made Cake Stall, Raffle and Tombolas, Books and Games, as well as a number of outside stall holders selling a variety of Christmas crafts and other goodies. Having said all that, I always think that the best thing about the Fayre is the opportunity to meet people, some who come along every year. Please do join them and invite your family and friends to come with you to enjoy all the fun of the Fayre!

Sunday’s Services
We have a choice of three services on Sunday as follows:
9am HOLY COMMUNION at St Leonard’s
10.30 HOLY COMMUNION at St Columba’s with sung worship from 10.15am and ENERGIZE will begin their preparations for the NATIVITY on 17th December. This service will also be available as a livestream for anyone not able to be in church, just go to this link: https://youtube.com/live/YRpuMxkcQSg?feature=share
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. DO come along and enjoy a mixture of traditional Advent hymns and more modern worship songs as well as time to reflect on the question “What are we waiting for?”
As a result of this service there will be no Prayer Meeting this week.

SCANS
There is a new PRINT edition of SCaNS out this week so do make sure you take a copy from church on Sunday. Steve writes about it:
It’s got extra pages, 15 puzzles and activities, anecdotes, cartoons and three great stories, including one which changed my life. I also asked David to consider writing a series about boys and girls, who may have accompanied Jesus and who He could have sent on errands, etc…a bit like Sherlock Holmes’ Baker Street Irregulars. A sort of ‘behind the scenes’ approach to the Gospels. His first Epiphany-based story about the son of one of the Magi accompanying his dad to meet with Jesus is great! I cannot wait for the next one.

Sunday 3rd December
We have a service of MORNING WORSHIP at St Columba’s next Sunday, beginning with sung worship from 10.15am and the formal service from 10.30am. ENERGIZE will be continuing with their Nativity Rehearsals.

CINEMA NEWS
I didn’t get to see “Journey to Bethlehem” last week but it is on again this coming week, Tuesday at 2pm, Wednesday at 2.10pm and Thursday at 2pm.

CHRISTMAS SERVICES
Full details of our Christmas services were in last week’s email and will appear again in a couple of weeks before the first of those services.

I hope to see many of you at our Christmas Fayre tomorrow or one of our services on Sunday.

God Bless you in this coming week,

Ian

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07903 644609