Services This Week
Dear All,
Services this week and next are taking place in person or via livestream through our YouTube Channel. Please find gathering times and service sheet links below (and note that there will be no church email next week).
Friday 20 December
10.30am - BCP Holy Communion (Revd Dr Mark Scarlata)
Sunday 22 December / Fourth Sunday of Advent
11am - Holy Communion
Sermon: ‘Blessed Is the Fruit of Your Womb’
Service Sheet: Here
Wednesday 25 December / Christmas Day
10am - Holy Communion
Sermon: ‘A Christmas Wonder’
Service Sheet: Here
Friday 27 December
10.30am - BCP Morning Prayer
Sunday 29 December / First Sunday of Christmas
11am - Holy Communion
Sermon: ‘Mary’s Contemplation’
Service Sheet: Here
Other notices:
Advent Reading Groups: During advent we will be running three parallel reading groups on John Behr’s book Becoming Human: Meditations on Christian Anthropology in Word and Image. The first group meets via Zoom on Wednesdays at 8pm; the second group meets in Benet’s Café on Sundays at 9.30am; and the third group meets in St Edward’s on Sundays at 12.30pm. We warmly encourage you to join a group for advent and hope that the range of formats will accommodate everyone who wishes to do so. The final two chapters (10-11) are accessible here and the study questions for the course of advent are accessible here.
Volunteer Rota: In addition to the sign-up sheet in church, we are making it easier to volunteer by attaching an online rota with the weekly email here. (N.B. There will be an initial delay before access is granted to the form, in order that only church members can see and edit it.) Please do consider if you are able to help out in any of the ways listed – we are particularly in need of regular volunteers to set-up tea and coffee and stay a little longer after each service to wash-up/leave away. Many thanks!
Giving: As always we are grateful for all of your gifts! Offerings may still be given during this time via a basket collection during live services, Standing Orders, or one time bank transfer, via BACS (Sort Code: 20-17-19 / Account Number: 30851477 / Account Name: St Edwards Church). There is now also a SumUp machine by the door of the church, for those of you who wish to give contactlessly: Simply power on, enter the amount you wish to give on the screen, and then tap your card.
Exciting Holiness (Friday 27 December):
It is traditionally held that John the Apostle and John the Evangelist are one and the same, so on this day the Church honours the one who proclaims Jesus as the Word made flesh and who is ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’. John was one of the sons of Zebedee, along with James, who followed Jesus. John was there at the Transfiguration of Jesus on the holy mountain; he was there with Jesus at the last supper; he was there with Jesus in his agony in the garden; he was there with Jesus and his mother, standing at the foot of the cross; he was there with Jesus as a witness of his resurrection and ‘he saw and believed’. John was a witness to the Word, he proclaimed the Word, and he lived and died witnessing to the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, who loved him and whom he loved.
Merciful Lord, cast your bright beams of light upon the Church: that, being enlightened by the teaching of your blessed apostle and evangelist Saint John, we may so walk in the light of your truth that we may at last attain to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ your incarnate Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
