New Year's Day

We won't be trying to do The First Sunday Thing (although there will have been a Last Saturday Thing in St Micahel's for an hour on New Year's Eve).  Instead there is one Family Communion for all the churches in the parish together at the Bishop King Learning Centre at 10.30 - our annual re-use of the former Bishop Edward King Church.  Normal services resume for the First Sunday Thing in February.

Today

Christingle

It is the Christingle Service on Sunday.  We meant to tell you that sooner!

November

At the 9.30 Communion this morning (ahead of the 10.30 First Sunday Thing), we were still reflecting on All Souls' Day earlier in the month as we read the Christian hope in the earliest writing from the New Testament beginning 'We do not want you to be uninformed about those who have died'.  We prayed for all those who had gathered for the parish's All Souls' Day service.  We remembered also and in particular John Brown, a retired Bishop from Cleethorpes whose Funeral had taken place in the week.  Few people locally really appreciated what a remarkable man there was living among us - demonstrated particularly by his Christian and diplomatic skills when he was our Bishop for the Arabian Peninsula through the time Terry Waite was in capitivity and through the Gulf War.  His name was one of those included in the First Sunday Thing's celebration of all the saints afterwards.

Prayers yesterday

We've saved the vine of prayer people created yesterday so that the prayers on it (and prayers for Terrie Stott, whose last service with us it was) can be offered a few more times over the next week or so.  It would have been more fun to post a picture of the party poppers going off around Terrie, but that picture didn't quite work!

2nd October

Our September service (including the Baptism of a member of the congregation) was a special experience.  Now, in turn, we look to our October service and two things stand out.  One is very routine - we will be meeting back in St Michael's again, which will remain our venue through the winter.  The other is far from routine - it will be the last service taken in the parish by terrie Stott before she leaves for her new job in Surrey.

Baptism

We are at St Nicolas' for the last time this year on 4th September, when the activities and service will be built around the Baptism of a member of the congregation. Then on 2nd October we return for our six months in our winter home at St Michael's.

Walking on water

I asked my colleague who will be in charge on 7th August what she plans. She said that the Gospel reading for the day is about Jesus walking on the water. She then added 'I thought we could begin by telling the story with everyone taking part'; if this is true then I'm very sorry I shall not be there to see it! Do come yourself and perhaps someone will tell me how you get on!

St Thomas' Day

Most of us won't be there on 3rd July! This message should really have been put up sooner.

Most of us will be in Lincoln Cathedarl where our Curate, George (she's there in the picture in the last post), is being ordained priest.

But Canon Judy McMann, an old member and friend of St Nicolas', will be there to take a simple Family Service for those who do come at 10.30 a.m.

There will be no 9.30 a.m. Communion at St Nicolas', but there will be a big 6.00 p.m. Communion at St Michael's at which George will preside for the first time.

Normal services will resume in August.

Baptism Welcome

Here is the moment this morning when we welcomed two of those baptised at services on Sunday afternoons last month: one of them can be seen reaching out to crush a copy fit the service sheet; the other is out of the picture. The regular congregation is never there on Sunday afternoons so we always invite the families back to take part in the next First Sunday Thing.

Butterflies

We are promised creating butterflies at the First Sunday Thing next Sunday (5th June). By then we will have not only passed Easter but also Ascension Day, and the apparently dead cocoon produces the new life of the buuerfly which then flies.

Although the doors were locked

And here is the prayer for the Second Sunday of Easter in the form in which those who came yesterday folded paper to take it away with them. Among other things we lit the Easter candle, explored the Easter garden, made rubbings of the Easter scene, and sung some Easter songs.

Sunday after Easter

The planning group at the weekend looked forward to our next First Sunday Thing in two weeks time on 1st May. The church will be reading the next bit of the Easter story that day - the risen Lord appearing to the disciples including Thomas. We noticed that God can operate behind our locked doors. We noticed a prayer set for the Sunday beginning Risen Christ, for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred: open the doors of our hearts... It is this theme we will be picking up.

Planning ahead

A small group of us will be meeting informally in St Michael's next Saturday (16th April) to sketch out ideas and plans for the First Sunday Thing for at least May and June. The gathering is open to anyone who wants to come along then or to offer us thoughts in the week before then.

Mother of the Tribe

This is the carving from Mua in Malawi which we looked at this morning. The Chewa sense that God is the 'mother of the tribe' is here made Christian; she has a cross on her forehead and Jesus' death is one of the things going on beneath her feet. Alongside the crucifixion, all sorts of ordinary parts of life (from a school lesson to an old man on a stick) are down there under God's protection as well.

Mothering Sunday

Next Sunday is Mothering Sunday and that will give a flavour to our First Sunday Thing that day. But the main thing to remember is that we will be back at St Nicolas' - our venue for the six months April-September. We'll put a notice on the door at St Michael's in case anyone tries to find us there.

Seeing through us

This 'stained glass window' was created at the First Sunday Thing last week. It is Jesus in majesty reigning over the earth.

It is said that saints are those 'who God shines through', an idea which works for saints in stained glass windows and for saints in real life.

Most Christians know that we are not as good as we would like to be. We know that from time to time people will notice this and 'see through us'. But nevertheless our prayer continues to be that it will be soemthing of God which they see.

6th March

Plans for the next First Sunday Thing include making figures of people for both a prayer card (for people to take away) and stained glass images (to display in church). The reading from the Gospel for the Sunday before Lent begins is the story of Jesus' Transfiguration. Our prayer is that we will see the light of Christa nd that it will be reflected in us.

Christian response

Activities last Sunday also included aspects of our response - in these two cases we have preparing emergency food aid and offering prayers.

Facing floods

Activities this morning included allowing our best efforts at making paper boats be overwhelmed by the flood and building a shelter.

Facing the floods

The people effected are very much at the front of our minds, so on 6th February the plan now is that we will be thinking about what people need when disaster strike, and how the light of God can shine through the actions of individuals and communities.