Hello everyone,

Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. We would love to hear from you and are 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)

We start with our opening prayer:

O God, we pray,
in all places,
for weather that sustains life,
that provides for a fruitful harvest
and creates a gentle world.
Let sun shine,
rain fall,
ice form
and wind blow,
as the earth needs
and your people pray,
Amen.
(Rev’d Dr Susan Durber, taken from the URC Daily Devotions)

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Hello everyone,

Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. We would love to hear from you and are 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)

We start with our opening prayer:

Searching God: to you no-one is lost. No one is left behind
No one is the price to be paid for the greater good.
Give us the same restless desire; the same fierce joy
Which finds grace in every child of earth and makes a community open to all.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, who loved the world and did not count the cost.
Amen.

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Hello everyone,

Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. We would love to hear from you and are 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)

We start with our opening prayer:

Lord of all things we come to you knowing you are here.
We come recognising that you know us and care for us and we give you thanks.
We come noticing all you have given to humanity – our wonderful world, the diversity of its peoples, vast knowledge and skill, an all-encompassing love and we give you thanks.
We come too knowing what you require of us and all too aware that we often fall short.
We come to ask for forgiveness, through grace already knowing that you will forgive and we give you thanks.
We pray that we might live like thankful people this day and every day. Amen.
(Taken from the Vine at Home)

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Hello everyone,

Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. We would love to hear from you and are 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)

We start with our opening prayer:

Lord God, thank you for loving us
even when we turn away from you.
We are grateful for your constant care and concern.
Though we feel unworthy of your great love,
we thank you that through our weaknesses
you give us strength;
and in our wanderings you show us the way.
Amen.

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Hello everyone,

Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. We would love to hear from you and are 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)

We start with our opening prayer:

When we see only trouble Jesus, be our vision
When we feel only uncertainty Jesus, be our rock
When we hear only bad news Jesus, be our hope
In all the circumstances of our lives
Jesus, our Companion, be a light to our path
Amen.

News from the Church Council

The Church Council met last Tuesday (11th August) using ‘Zoom’. The main topic considered was the planning for using the buildings again for services and other activities. In doing this we need to ensure that we follow the guidance from the government and the denominations and to make adjustments as the advice changes.

Although we gave some consideration to what might be possible regarding activities during the week, the main topic was the restarting of Sunday services in the building. We have consulted with the group who has been producing the weekly streamed services. These have been very successful and we have agreed that we should continue to stream services after the services in the building start again and that until that is possible we will not hold services in the church. A timetable has been agreed for carrying out necessary preparations with the aim of beginning to hold services at Christ Church from about the end of September. Once these preparations have progressed further we will announce more details, together with a definite start date.
Brian Moere and Peter King – Acting Church Secretaries

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Hello everyone,

Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. We would love to hear from you and are 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)

We start with our opening prayer:

Gracious God, whose loving kindness has no limits, teach us afresh the way of Christ.
Where we have felt discouraged, renew us through signs of hope;
where we have been tempted to give up, grant us strength and faith to face the day;
Where we have grown anxious about the future, give us courage to plant the seeds of tomorrow in acts of radical love today.
Renew us by your Spirit and set us free to serve you so that the whole of creation may rejoice in your name. Amen.
(Richard Andrew, Darlington District Chair – taken from the Methodist Church prayer of the day)

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Hello everyone,

Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. We would love to hear from you and are 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)

We start with our opening prayer:

God of grace, good to all,
You have compassion over all you have made.
When I am falling, hold me up.
Raise me to my feet, so that I can walk with you.
When I am in need, meet with me.
Open your hands to me, to satisfy my longing.
When I call out to you, hear my cry.
Watch over me, that I may live in your love.
When I am hurt, lend me your grace.
Open my heart, that I may forgive.
When I see need, help me to face it.
Open my hands, to offer all I have and am.
When I hear you, help me listen.
Open my mouth, to bless your name.
Amen.

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Hello everyone,

Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. We would love to hear from you and are 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)

We start with our opening prayer:

In your love we trust, creator God:
your love for your world;
your love for each one of us;
your love that invites us to love others,
to love ourselves, and to love you.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
receive our love now, and our thanks.
Amen.

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Hello everyone,

Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Hope that you are all continuing to keep well and stay safe. This newsletter is one of our ways of trying to maintain contact and a sense of community during this time when we cannot meet together as a church family. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. We would love to hear from you and are 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)

We start with our opening prayer (from Psalm 95):

O come, let us sing to the Lord;
Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
O come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
And we are the people of his pasture,
And the sheep of his hand.
The Lord is here: His Spirit is with us
Amen

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