Where we meet

We are at St Michael's as usual on Sunday (3rd February) and again next month (3rd March) before we begin our six summer months at St Nicolas' (beginning on 7th April).  Did you know that St Nicolas' Church, Great Coates has its own Facebook page?

What matters to us

We had fun yesterday with the idea of Christmas presents including golf, frankinsence and myrrh, but it is interesting to report back on just two things.  We asked 'What does Gold mean to you?'.  More people mentioned their wedding rings in their answer than mentioned wealth.  'What was the best Christmas present you ever had?', was one of the other questions we asked.  More than a quarter of the answers written up were about a new member of the family or about a family getting together.

Happy New Year

Here are the words from the Bible reading for the twelfth day of Christmas on Sunday.  The larger the letters the more times the word appears in the reading.  So it looks as if the day comes when the glory of the Lord will be dawning and will be covering his people.  We will be exploring gold, frankincence and myrrh as well.

Christingle

We've worked with groups over the last few days includingt he First Sunday Thing today to link the parts of the Christingle with things with which our local churches are concerned... and these are two of the illustrations which we produced.  The orange for the world - a globe with Zimbabwe marked on it here we have a link parish we support.  The ribbon for Christ's blood - the Christmas Cards being sent through Action of Christians Against Torture.  The candle for Christ the light - the candle shaped collecting boxes for the Children's Society whose idea Christingle was.  The fruit for the harvest of the seasons - the tins collected at Harvest and through the year for Grimsby's Community larder and Doorstep charity for young homeless.

Children's Society

Our First Sunday Thing in December will be a Christingle Service.  Get the date (10.30 a.m. on Sunday 2nd December) into as many people's diaries as possible! Many people who have taken candle-shaped collecting boxes for the Children's Society will bring them back as part of this service. 

But before that our First Sunday Thing in November will focus on the work of the Children's Society.  It seems to make more sense to do this when people might be thinking of taking a collecting box rather than wait until the Christingle itself.  Among other things we will learn a little bit about how the Children's Society works as a campaigning group around issues which affect vulnerable young people.  We meet in St Michael's at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday 4th November.

Fair Trade Sunday

It is St Francis Day today - and we've just had our Harvest Festivals - so lots of people's minds are turning again to our care for the environment and for our neighbours.  So Fair Trade will be our theme next Sunday, and there will be a Tradecraft Stall as well.  Remember that we will be gathering in St Michael's - which will remain our venue month by month for the six winter months.

Lincoln and Canterbury

As we thought yesterday about St Gregory (as Pope) sending St Augustine to England, and Augustine establishing himself at Canterbury from where every one of our Archbishops has been based since, we recreated the shields of the Bishops of Lincoln and the Archbishop of Canterbury from the bottom of the east window in St Nicolas' (the original stained glass can just about be made out in this picture at the bottom corners of the windows).  The Archbishop's shield has a direct link as it pictures a sort of woolen scarf worn over both shoulders but joined together at the front which is the 'pallium' the Pope still gives to people in Augustine's position today.