Hello everyone,
Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Our newsletter is sent out regularly to share reflections from services, Bible readings and church news with our church family. You can find previous issues on our church website here.
We would love to hear from you and are always looking for uplifting and encouraging content to share in future issues of this newsletter. If you have any ideas or content that we can share, please do email them to Louise (publicity@christchurchuxbridge.org.uk)
Opening Prayer
Lord, as we learn to know you better,
may our love overflow more and more
so that our lives may bring you glory and praise.
Amen.
(Taken from Roots)
Reflection from 1 December
Readings – Jeremiah 33: 14-16 and Luke 21: 25-36
Our theme today, on the first Sunday of Advent is ‘Hopeful beginnings’ as we look towards the coming of God’s kingdom of justice and peace. And so it begins, Advent. The season of waiting, of preparation, of looking ahead to the Big Day – Christmas. Ticking off to-do lists (have you ordered the turkey, bought your gifts, written your Christmas cards, where is all that wrapping paper you bought last year, how many mince pies will people eat at our lunch time Carol service?). Of course, there are the seasonal highlights too – watching the neighbourhood slowly start glittering as more houses put up their lights, carol singing, feeling the air crisp and fresh.
We do a lot of waiting in our lives. Sometimes it’s when we are queuing in the supermarket or for a bus or train. Maybe some of us are waiting for hospital appointments or diagnoses. Some are waiting for the Christmas period, which can be a painful reminder of loneliness or loss, to simply be over. Many will be waiting to see where their next meal will come from.
More globally, with 2024 having been the biggest year for democracy in human history, many citizens have been waiting with bated breath to see who will have the keys to their equivalent to Number 10 Downing Street. We all waited to see who will be behind the desk of The White House. Refugees from Gaza, The Sudan, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Ukraine, are all wanting to know when they can return home. Asylum seekers are waiting to know when they’ll be granted safety, or waiting for the next attack on where they live. Pacific Islanders wait to see when their homes will be drowned.
Sometimes waiting has an end point. We wait for Advent, knowing that Christmas is just a few weeks away. We wait for the celebration of Christ’s light coming into this world. Within the darkness of winter, it is this light which gives us hope, motivates our preparation, makes the waiting more bearable. But what happens when there is no end in sight? Waiting for when the missiles stop dropping, waiting for when drought or flooding doesn’t kill the harvest, waiting for when the ends do meet at the end of each month. So, in our Advent reflections, as we think about what it is to wait, to prepare, to hope, what does Advent mean 2024 years later?
At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, born of David’s line, because this baby not only represents humanity at its most innocent but because we know the life that this baby went on to have. Jesus who understood what it is to be a refugee, what it is to witness the suffering of the sick and outcast, who suffered first-hand the depth of human cruelty. But before Jesus healed, listened, or comforted, he saw the person who was before him. He saw humanity, not charity. The people who are living these crises are not defined by their suffering. We prepare to greet the baby who broke the divide and divinity, a baby whose gift of love is for all, who sees worth beyond need.
There is a park in Plymouth with a rather unusual tree in it. Growing out of the ground is the stump of an old tree, at least a metre wide. Many years ago, the tree was cut down and only the stump was left, but somehow, a new fir tree started to grow from it. So now, each year at Christmas, nearby residents decorate the tree and have a little celebration together around it. This particular tree that was cut down has become a quite unexpected source of hope.
We had a similar thing happen to a very large Mirabelle plum tree in our garden which bore sweet smelling blossom in March followed by delicious cherry plums in July. We were very sad when the tree fell down. Rod chopped it up, but the stump still laid there. To our delight a few years later we discovered a new branch growing from the base and this year the blossom returned followed by a few cherry plums!
In Jeremiah, we hear of God causing ‘a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety’. The ‘righteous Branch’ that is to come is Jesus.
We look back and remember Jesus’ birth over two thousand years ago and how a tiny baby was born in less than ideal circumstances, whose parents then fled with him to Egypt to escape a terrible fate. Yet, among all this, the hope spoken of by Jeremiah became a reality.
Sometimes, hope appears in an unanticipated way. It can appear when we have given up. At Advent, we look towards Jesus’ coming and the hope he brings to all people. Amen.
Jean George
Readings for 8 December
Luke 3: 1-6
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
5 Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
6 And all people will see God’s salvation.’”
Further readings from the lectionary this week are as follows:
- Malachi 3: 1-4
- Luke 1: 68-79
- Philippians 1: 3-11
Our worship
We meet at 11am for our Sunday services, which are also live-streamed on our YouTube channel. If you wish to view our services online, you can find them at https://www.youtube.com/@christchurchuxbridge
You can also view a recent service on our church website. Our service this week will be a parade and gift service led by our minister, Revd Wilbert Sayimani. You can find the order of service here.
If you are unable to join us in person or online for our Sunday services, but would like to receive a recording of them on a memory stick to watch at home, please let us know.
Forthcoming services
8 December – Revd Wilbert Sayimani – parade and gift service
15 December – Christ Church worship group – carol service
22 December – Revd Wilbert Sayimani
25 December – Revd Wilbert Sayimani (10.30am)
29 December – Revd Wilbert Sayimani – Holy Communion
Carol services
Christ Church – 15 December
Our carol service this year will be on 15 December. We would like to include carols, readings, poems etc. chosen by members of our congregation. If you have a carol, reading or poem that you would like us to consider including in this service, please speak to Louise or Joanne.
Carols and mince pies – 18 December
This year’s carols and mince pies will be on Wednesday 18 December, 12noon in the chapel.
Candlelight Carol Service, Ickenham URC – 22 December, 6.30pm
We have been invited to join in with Ickenham URC for their candlelight carol service on 22 December at 6.30pm. If you would be interested in singing in the choir for this service, please let Louise know. There will be a rehearsal for the choir at Ickenham URC at 5pm on 22 December.
From the Circuit
RAF Community Concert at Ruislip Methodist Church
Tuesday 10th December, 7.30pm
The RAF Central Band will be back at Ruislip Methodist Church performing a free community concert on Tuesday 10th December at 7:30pm. Refreshments will be available during the interval, and people are free to make charitable donations if they wish. There is free parking at the church car park. If you are a wheelchair user please contact Karen Macaulay (A1macaulay@aol.com) and Terry Dean (famdean@blueyonder.co.uk) to arrange accessible seating. All are welcome to come along and enjoy the performance.
Circuit Life
The latest issue of Circuit Life is now available online here.
Circuit Administrator Vacancy
The Circuit has room for another administrator! Click here to see the flyer for this role. If you’re interested, email cgm@hahcircuit.org.uk to apply! The closing date for applications is Sunday 19th January 2025.
The role is a part-time opportunity based at the Lighthouse Centre in South Ruislip. The main duties involve working as part of the Admin team, working closely with the Circuit on Safeguarding training and administration, and responsibility for lettings at the Lighthouse Centre.
Applicants are sought with relevant experience, computer literacy, and sympathy with the aims of the Church. Occasional evening or weekend working will be required; the role is part-time 20 hours a week with a starting salary between £15-17/hr depending on relevant experience.
Friendly Bible Study
7 January – 11 February
Tuesdays, 1.15pm – 2.15pm, Quaker Meeting House
Focusing on Song of Songs
“The Song of Solomon is a divine firework, a cascade of imagery, a blaze of emotion. It is the most passionate book in the Bible, and it is the most mysterious. It is a love poem, but it is also something more, something divine.” (C.S. Lewis)
All are welcome to join in with the Friendly Bible study sessions which start on 7 January and run on Tuesday afternoons, 1.15pm – 2.15pm.
Christmas Thoughts
About two thousand years ago a peasant couple in a Galilean village celebrated the arrival of their first born. They called him Jeshua (after the liberator who had led his people into the Promised Land). He grew up there imbibing the faith of his people. At some point in his young years, he learnt of John the Baptiser who was calling the people to repentance. He travelled down to the Jordan to listen. He became a disciple of John’s. When John was executed, he started teaching as John had done. He wandered the hills of Galilee calling the people to be true to their faith and condemning the religious establishment for its hypocrisy. He told a parable about a prodigal who was welcomed by God over his self-righteous brother. He dared to go to Jerusalem and confront the Romans and the Temple authorities, knowing that he risked imprisonment or death. We know him as Jesus of Nazareth.
This is a Jesus I want to follow and whose birth I want to give thanks for. Why must I be expected to believe that his mother was a virgin, that he was born in Bethlehem (which he never said he was), that there was a world-wide census demanding that every man should return to his birthplace (for which there is no historical evidence), that there was a ‘massacre of the innocents’ (for which there is no evidence) or that his birth was heralded by shepherds and magi? Mark’s gospel does not say this, and we believe that its author was a contemporary of Jesus’s. Why must I give assent to what the authoress Stevie Smith has called “beautiful painted fairy stories pretending to be true”?
I want to celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Why does the Church make it so hard for me? If you still have a copy of ‘Hymns and Psalms’ I invite you to reflect of Alfred Bayly’s words in number 317. For me this is a true carol!
Howard Cooper
Children’s Corner
Dates for your diary
| 2024 | |
| 11 December | Welcome Wednesday |
| 18 December | Carols and mince pies |
| 22 December | Carol service at Ickenham URC |
| 2025 | |
| 8 January | Welcome Wednesday |
| 22 January | Welcome Wednesday |
Praying for other churches
This week we hold the following churches in our prayers
- Wealdstone Methodist
- St John’s URC, New Barnet
- Churches Together in Uxbridge
Closing prayer
May the road we travel be smooth and straight,
every rut filled in, every bump smoothed out,
any diversions easy to navigate,
any obstacles easy to manoeuvre round.
May good companions share our journey,
and may we be voices for good in the world,
a sign of Jesus’ love for all.
We pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
(Taken from Roots)
