From the Registers
Baptisms at St. John’s
26th Nov. - Vinny Porter
- Oren Jareth Ash Ellison
Funeral at St. John’s
10th Nov. - Tony Steven Martin
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Christingle: St. John’s church, Sunday, 10th December at 4.30 pm
Brandon Lodge Carol Service: Monday, 11th December at 2.00 pm. Anyone would be very welcome to come and join the singing!
New Brancepeth Village Christmas Carol Service:
Sunday 17th December 3.00 pm at St. Catherine’s Church
Christmas Eve:
Between 3.30 & 4.30 pm visit the Crib at St. Catherine’s Church
Christmas Eve at St John's Church: 7.30pm Christmas Vigil Eucharist
CHRISTMAS DAY at St. Catherine’s Church:
9.00 am Holy Communion with carols
St. Stephen’s Day:
St. John’s church, Tuesday, 26th December9.30 am Holy Eucharist
St. John the Evangelist, Patronal Festival:
Wednesday, 27th December - usual 9.00am Holy Eucharist
Holy Innocents:
Thursday, 28th December - St. Catherine’s usual 9.30 am Holy Eucharist
Epiphany: celebrated at the normal services on Sunday, 7th January
Prayer for Our Churches: in St Patrick’s Parish Room,
Tuesday, 19th December, 09.30 - 10.15 am. All welcome.
Advent Group: ‘So what are you waiting for?’ (Churches together in DH7) each Friday at 2.00 pm in St Patrick’s (RC) Church, Langley Moor (last meeting 15th December).
Brandon Parish Magazine
December 2017
St. John’s Church, Brandon &
St. Catherine’s Church, New Brancepeth
Sunday services
St. John’s - 9.45 am Holy Eucharist
St. Catherine’s - 8:45 am Holy Eucharist
Weekday services – followed by tea/coffee
Wed. 9.00 am St. John’s – Holy Eucharist
Thurs. 9.30 am St. Catherine’s – Holy Eucharist
Evening Service: Mon. 7.00 pm St. John’s – Holy Eucharist
Revd. Carl Peters, The Clergy House, Sawmill Lane, Brandon,
Durham, DH7 8NS. Tel: 0191 6803875
Other Contact Telephone Numbers
St. John’s: David (Churchwarden) – 3789718; Carolyn – 6803875
St. Catherine’s: Joe (Churchwarden) – 3739927; Liz - 3731554
Website http://www.brandonparish.org.uk/Welcome.htm
https://www.facebook.com/StJohnTheEvangelistChurchBrandon
https://www.facebook.com/StCatherinesChurchNewBrancepeth
https://www.facebook.com/Stjohnschurchhallmeadowfield
Events:
St. Catherine’s Christmas Lunch Club and Stalls: Friday 8th December
12.00 Cake Stall, Tombola, Raffle etc. (for Church Funds).
12.30 pm Live Christmas Music.
1.00 pm Lunch (£6). Booking essential Joe – 0191 3739927 or David – 0191 3731554 and if you want a lift contactJoe or David.
Mothers’ Union:
Mothers' Union Christmas Lunch will be at theBraun’s Den Brandon on Wednesday, 13th December – 12.00 for 12.30 pm. There is a list and menu at the back of church, please sign up asap - £10.00 deposit is required.
Note: Due to the Christmas Season, the next magazine will be on 7th Jan.
Come, Lord Jesus, into our lives and the lives of those for whom we are concerned
Week 3:
‘I am come that they may have life and have it more abundantly’ John10:10
This week may have started with a joyful carol service, proclaiming the ‘great and mighty wonder’ of the incarnation. Maybe you noticed a young person outside the bus station or in a doorway for whom life has become dreary or dangerous. Pray to the Good Shepherd for just one such person. Pray for the Brandon Foodbank and Drop-in Centre in their sharing of Christmas Joy.
Into the darkness of our world
Wherever people are hurting
Come and let your light shine.
Week 4:
‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God’ Luke 1:30
It’s Christmas Eve – Let us think of Mary, her experience following the visit of the angel, her public shame, the provision of Joseph, the long rough journey, the crowded streets, the back room at the inn ... Remember her words, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord’.
Angels say, ‘Don’t be afraid’
Angels mean it
The Love of God
Is always stronger
Than our fear
May the joy of the Lord be our strength at Christmas among friends and family, or alone, now and always.
Some quotations from ‘Winter’, Ed. Ruth Burgess, Wild Goose Publications
An Advent Meditation
As Christians we might be familiar with living at ‘cross’ roads! The season of Christmas is a roadway of preparation for a renewal of wonder that the Holy God became man in the birth of the Baby at Bethlehem. The secular Christmas traffic is already hasting along its road in shops and on-line, in street decorations and Christmas tree lights. We too go back and forth across this road as we live in the world God loves so much that He gave us his Son.
These four short meditations are for the road crossings in our lives.
Week 1:
‘Your heavenly Father knows you have need of these things’ Matt 6:23
Today, as I go shopping, I have my list. May I find those little stocking fillers that surprise and make them smile.
May I meet someone who needs my smile today – perhaps a friend or just that tired one on the bus.
Many children are learning Christmas songs this week, some have taken part in the ‘Christmas Journey’ at St. Andrew’s Church.
Lord, lead the children in my family into your truth.
Week 2:
‘Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart’ Matt 11:29
As I open a Christmas card, may I stop, give thanks, pray for this friend. Maybe they have shared some news of happiness, a new child on the way, a wedding, but maybe news of sadness or ill health. I try to offer this news to the Lord. May God guide my response.
I have felt besieged by Charity requests. Can I spend a few minutes praying for those being helped by this good cause?
St. John’s Heating: At the PCC on 29TH November the sub-committee looking at the details reported that we had two estimates for a new heating system, and are waiting a third which is expected very soon. When it arrives, a decision will be put to the PCC at an extraordinary meeting and we will hope to proceed to a Faculty from the Diocese and start applying for grants from charitable funds. However it is unlikely the work will be completed until well into the New Year. In the meantime the installation of more powerful electric heaters and the associated wiring is being pursued.
For your prayers:
Please pray for the many services and activities over the Christmas period, which give us opportunities to share with people the good news of Jesus’ incarnation. Some examples:
· Christingle service at St. John’s on 10th December – families and children will come.
· St. Catherine’s Christmas stalls and lunch club. This combines the lunch club and Christmas Fayre, and will include some live Christmas music.
· ‘OPEN THE BOOK’ assemblies in New Brancepeth Primary School. We continue on Mon. 11th December with the story of visit of the wise men.
· Various School Carol Services held in St. Johns Church.
· Christmas Eve Crib at St. Catherine’s Church.
· Christmas Eve Vigil Eucharist at St. John’s Church
· Christmas Morning Service at St. Catherine’s Church.
Please pray also for Fr. Carl, Church Wardens, PCC and the sub-committee involved in deciding about St. John’s church heating.
If there are other topics for prayer please let David know.
From our Priest
Is it really Advent again? Well yes it is I’m afraid. Afraid in the sense that another year has gone so quickly. But not afraid surely in the sense that Advent is a time of expectancy and looking forward to the coming of Jesus. Yes Jesus comes to us as the infant Jesus at Christmas, he comes to us in our daily lives, and one day he will come again in a very special way. As marvelously as Jesus came the first time – just differently.
Jesus came to us in his birth and continues to come to us because he wants to. He wants to be a part of our lives and make a difference to our lives. So much so that we and Jesus can share a life together. We in Him and He in us. Sounds good to me!
Many people like to share in the life of Jesus and most commonly they like to share in his birth. The wonderment and awe of the infant Jesus in the nativity scene still has a great appeal to people. It’s something to look forward to, like the singing of carols and the giving and receiving of presents.
It’s good to have things to look forward to. Just as we might begin to look back over the year in what’s happened to us and the world, in the birth of Jesus we also look forward.
It’s exciting when someone you really like or love is coming to see you. We normally get ourselves ready and prepared for that coming of the one we want to see so much. As a child we lived in Australia for three years and we went there as ten pound poms living mostly in what they called hostels where newly arrived migrants lived. My dad had an accident on his motorbike when we were out there, I remember him hobbling in on his crutches. When we returned to England after quite some time my dad had to go back to Australia in a court case relating to the accident. He was gone for so long, a few months anyway and even had to get a job out there delivering televisions and fridges. One day he was going to return and as time went on I looked forward to that more and more. As we started to count down the days as a family we got more excited. ‘It’s only a week away!” ‘It’s only a few days away!’ And then the day came. I didn’t play out in the street as I might normally have done. I just kept looking out. ‘Is this him? Is that him in this taxi? Oh no it’s not!’ Well eventually it was him. We saw the taxi pull up or more than anything heard the taxi and the sound of my dad’s voice, and that was it. I ran out there, called out to him and jumped up and hugged him. I was so pleased to see him. We celebrated, dad gave us presents and the next day we got in the car and had a day out.
In that same vein we have someone coming to see us and from Advent Sunday we too begin to count down the weeks and the days. How excited are we? Do we want to see him? Are we looking out for him? Do we want him in our lives? He’s come a long way to see us, further than Australia. For all the distance he comes are we prepared to run that shorter distance and embrace him with our love? And importantly stay with him and live our life with him.
O come O come Emmanuel! God be with us!
Fr Carl Peters
The Advent Collect:
Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.