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Christmas is a birthday, and we celebrate in the usual way, with cards, presents, parties and cakes. It is also more than a birthday. When St John tells us that in Christ “The Word became flesh” he also tells us that he “dwelt among us and we beheld his glory”. This dwelling among us we also celebrate at Christmas, and the real joy is that in beholding his glory we saw not some unapproachable, terrifying, totally other being but rather a carpenter, an ordinary man, even a baby, a baby who had to be laid to sleep in a manger because there was no room for his parents at the inn.
This is our God, the servant King, and we who are in turn his servants have both the joy of knowing that God is this humble and also the responsibility of being as like him as we can be. Thank God, he sends his Spirit to enable us to live up to that calling: one more thing to celebrate this Christmas!
oremus bible browser to prepare your readingFollowing a suggestion from a member of the congregation, we are offering a parish Christmas card for sale this year.
The front of the card shows the Priory Church, whilst the interior is a muted view of the bridge overprinted with a text from St Luke and the message 'Wishing you peace and joy at Christmas'.
The cards, which measure 8.3in x 5.8in (A5), come with self- sealing envelopes and cost 75p each.
A sample card and further details are available in church (please see Roger or Liz Bridgeman).
The Choir Kneelers are now ready to be worked on. If you are interested in making a kneeler or would like more details, please contact Kim Hallam (348178) or Liz Spratley (342401). You can either work the canvas, make–up the completed canvas into a kneeler or both.
Also if anyone would like to make a donation to help towards the cost of the kneelers please see either Liz or Kim.)
The 10am service on Sunday 28th December will be sung Morning Prayer from the Common Worship services book. It is the commemoration of the Holy Innocents, the children whom Herod’s soldiers massacred in the attempt to murder the infant Christ.
Holy Communion will be celebrated as usual at 8am amd Evening Prayer said as usual at 6pm (also Common Worship).
A Community Carol Service and Nativity Celebration for the whole family
at the Deepings School, Park Road
Monday 22nd December at 7.30pm
All are welcome: bring your friends!
It is with great sadness that we have learnt of the death of one of our ringers, Terry Richmond, who has been ringing for some 15 years or more. Terry rang regularly for Sunday morning services and, although often late home, would call in on Friday evenings for practice. He was one of the band of ringers who won the Southern Branch striking competition in May 1996 for the Deeping St James tower. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family at this sad time.
The bells were half muffled, as usual, for the Remembrance Service on 9th November.
May we take this opportunity to wish all a Very Merry Christmas and a very pleasant and happy New-Year.
At a prayer meeting held on Wednesday 29th October there were representatives from a good cross-section of the churches in the Deepings.
The meeting consisted of a mix of hymns, readings from scripture read by members of the different denominations in turn. This was followed by prayers and intercessions.
The evening ended with the sharing of refreshments and fellowship together before departing.
Bernard Babb
Many thanks for the generous response to the plate collection over two Sundays for the Liberia Disaster appeal which amounted to £52
Bernard Babb
One event not to be missed is our forthcoming Christingle service – the candle-lit family celebration that will raise money for the vital work of The Children's Society, a voluntary organisation of the Church of England. We hope you'll join us for this memorable and moving service, which turns the light of Jesus's love into practical action for society's most rejected and isolated children.
If you have attended a Christingle service before, you will know why it's a major highlight of the church year. If you haven't, a brief explanation may help! The 'Christingle' itself, which symbolises the light of Christ's love, is a lighted candle mounted in an orange, which has a red ribbon or tape around it. Also mounted in the orange are four cocktail sticks, each bearing dried fruit or sweets.
The orange represents the world. The candle stands for Jesus, the Light of the World. The red ribbon or tape symbolises the blood of Christ, who shares in the suffering of the whole world. The fruits and sweets are symbolic of God's Creation and His love for us.
The highlight of our service is when the Christingles are lit. It is very moving to see the children's excited faces illuminated by the Christingles. It's also a real opportunity for us to share the light of Christ's love with families who might not attend church regularly. But most importantly, Christingle offers a unique chance for our church family to do something incredibly worthwhile together – raising money for The Children's Society.
This year's Christingle appeal focuses on a very serious problem which affects thousands of children each day – bullying. Did you know that one in three children are bullied at some time during their school lives and that 4% of children are victims of regular bullying each week? Chances are that the children who bully others have been or still are the victims of bullying too. We need to break this cycle. Some children are so severely bullied that they attempt to take their own lives and some of them succeed. Bullying damages its victims not only in childhood, but for life. Our special Christingle collection will help bring light into their darkness, by helping The Children's Society's innovative work to prevent bullying in our schools and communities.
These projects are just one part of The Children's Society's ground-breaking work. Through its 90 projects, this important charity reaches out to help more than 50,000 children and young people each year. They include those who, like bullied children and the children who bully them, have problems that are often ignored by others. The charity's work would be impossible without the support it receives from the church community.
Last year, schools and churches nationwide raised almost £1million for The Children's Society through Christingle. This year, the goal is to raise more – and if each service raises just £150, we can reach that target.
Just as Jesus reached out to those on the fringes of society, through Christingle we can follow in his footsteps and shine light into the darkness of lives that are overshadowed by bullying.
For more information about how to support The Children's Society please visit www.christingle.org or call 0845 300 1128.
Christingle originated in the Moravian Church in 1747
All proceeds go to The Children's Society
Charity Registration No. 221124
Another delicious variation of a traditional theme..............Dave
Sift flour and salt into bowl. Cut margarine into small pieces and rub into flour. Add egg yolks and sugar, and work together to a smooth paste. Chill.
Roll out pastry thinly and cut out into desired shapes.
Topping: Lightly whisk egg whites, stir in sugar and ground almonds. Blend cornflour with water, add vanilla and stir into almond mixture.
Place a teaspoon of mincemeat into each pastry case and top with almond mixture. Place a half a almond in the middle of each pie (if required). Bake at 180°C, Gas mark 4, 350°F, for about 15 - 20 mins. until golden brown.
Makes about 40.
Over the last few year Margaret Flegg has contributed a lot of recipes to this magazine, all of them very attractive. Whether you have carefully filed them or not, it is possible to find Margaret's recipes using the archived Internet edition of Priory News and searching for a recipe name or an ingredient. If you look at the left-hand side of this page you will see the Priory News Archive with a simple search engine: type in what you're looking for and click "Go". You will be presented with a list of the issues that mention that word, with the context in which it is mentioned. For example, searching for "beef" yields recipes in April 2001 and 2002 as well as two articles on farming and on food in Malaysia!
This is only an extract from some of our magazine. Residents of Deeping St James can subscribe to the printed version.
Copyright © 2003 Deeping St James PCC