Sunday 28th November 10.0am Advent 1    

All Age Act of Worship- Preparing for Christmas

   Sunday 5^th December   10.30am       Advent 2

        Sunday 5^th December      4.00pm  Tree Lighting

meet at the church tree – light up the tree!

“And Sing the Story”

                    Sunday 12^th December  10.30am   Advent 3 Toy Service                                     

                                                      Thursday 16^th December  3.30pm   Messy Christmas

                                                           All age service – story, activities for all!

                                                      Sunday 19^th December  10.30am Advent 4

                                                                  Carol Service – Come and see

25^th December 10.00am             Christmas Day

 Christmas Day Service – Come and See again!

 

Friends, neighbours  family and children welcome please join us this Christmas

Services continue to be online and on the telephone

To worship with us each week:     Telephone: 03306060403 (await instruction)

Access code (enter) 1529640#  (DON’T FORGET #)

OR access online https://join.freeconferencecall.com/rjones853

We are live online from 10.15am each Sunday

God bless you and we look forward to worshipping together from wherever you are……

 

ADVENT 6: 3 December 2021

REMEMBRANCE

Malachi 3:16b “A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honoured his name.”

Philippians 1:20 “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”

According to the Imperial War Museum, there are over 90000 war memorials in the UK, including this one in Surbiton. I learned only recently that around 50 towns and villages in England were identified as Thankful Villages because they lost no-one during World War 1. In place of a war memorial these places often have a plaque giving thanks to God that no lives were lost from the parish. Only fourteen of the Thankful Villages were lucky enough to have lost no lives in either of the world wars.

The question of why we serve God is at the heart of Malachi’s message today. The people of the prophet’s time had become indifferent to God, feeling that there was no reward in serving him. It wasn’t preventing the wicked from flourishing. Neither has serving God protected believers from their sufferings. The situation is so bad that such arrogance is considered blessed because the behaviour never seems to be called to account. However, Paul reminds us that good can come out of adversity and even his imprisonment has enabled others to speak more confidently about Christ. And God remembers those who honour him.