WELCOME TO ST MARY'S AND ALL SOULS
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St Mary's and All Souls Services We will post any revisions to services here and on our Facebook and Twitter feeds: https://www.facebook.com/StMarysAndAllSouls |
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St Mary's and All Souls latest Newsletter |
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PCC Papers You can now download minutes and other PCC documents from the PCC page |
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Food Bank latest needs: https://bromleyborough.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-food/ *PLEASE DON'T SEND US FROZEN OR CHILLED ITEMS AS WE DON'T HAVE THE CORRECT STORAGE FOR IT AND IT SPOILS BEFORE WE CAN DISTRIBUTE IT* WE'VE GOT PLENTY OF PASTA, CEREAL & BISCUITS
Thank you!
Judith Simmonds will be taking the Parish contributions towards the end of the month so please drop your donations into our box in the porch before then. |
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In need of help? Call |
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Here's the link to registering for help if you are in the highly vulnerable group: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable
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Princess Royal Hospital www.pruh.kch.nhs.uk | |||
Rev Susan writes:
As I sit here in November thinking about what to write for this December magazine, I cannot help but think that we have not even reached Advent yet. The Advent season is frequently ignored in the rush to get to Christmas, which is mostly marked as a happy, merry, and joyful time, but I’m very aware that it’s not that way for everybody.
However, whatever we are feeling, whether that is up or down, if we try to take time and pay attention to the promises of God that open through the amazing Biblical stories in this season, we may find ourselves touched by God’s presence in new ways.
It will not be long before we hear Christmas Carols and songs playing wherever we shop, nor will it be long before we are singing them ourselves. Most of us could name lots of them, Hark the herald angels sing, Away in a manger, In the bleak midwinter…and so on. I suspect that we know the words of many of them without the need of a carol sheet, but do we pay attention to what we are actually singing? Sometimes it makes little to no sense - ‘In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron’ – doesn’t sound like Bethlehem and ‘Little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes’ – I think many parents would be very grateful but most likely worried too if their child never cried.
But, on the whole carols are wonderfully clear in their message and profoundly moving in a simple and touching way. The last verse of Once in Royal David’s City is particularly poignant: ‘Not in that poor lowly stable, with the oxen standing by, we shall see him; but in heaven, set at God‘s right hand on high’. And despite its opening words the last verse of ‘In the bleak midwinter’ asks a question we all need to answer:
‘What shall I give him, poor as I am?
if I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a wise man, I would do my part; yet what I can I give him – give my heart’.
As we wonder at the mystery that Advent and Christmas give to us about the God who comes to us as Word made flesh, about the God who comes to us as light in the darkness. May we also open ourselves to Him wherever we find ourselves for God is always very keen to meet us there.
I wish you a blessed Advent, a joyful Christmas and a New Year full of grace, goodness and love.