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Scripture readings for Sunday
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Mike Oldfield's version of In Dulci Jubilo expresses for me what the celebration of Christmas should be like. It is an exuberantly joyful tune, played simply and gives me a vivid reminder of the wonderful shock that God gave the world when he arrived here as a baby in a manger. This great God, the creator of the universe, is with the poor, and mean, and lowly. Rejoice, ordinary people, God is with you!
As one year ends with this joy, the next begins and in gratitude for what God has done and is doing for us in Christ, we set out on our journey through the year with our resolutions, hopefully to do better in service to God and neighbour. This year's Plough Sunday service (6pm, 6th January) includes the renewal of Baptismal promises at the start of the new year. Whether making a religious ceremony out of your resolutions will help in the keeping of them I cannot say, but Christians would surely wish to be taken back to these promises at such a time, and I hope you will find this addition to our annual new year worship valuable. The Social Committee has arranged a Plough Supper after the service as usual, and you are invited to purchase tickets in advance for this so as to enable the catering to be done properly, please.
Offering Envelopes for 2002 have arrived and are now available in Church for collection.
Regular committed giving helps the Church to budget for its major and regular items of expenditure. Peter Wilde and Simon Marshall will be happy this with you in confidence. If you would like any more information; see them after Church, or phone Peter on 344991 or Simon on 346420.
The World Wide Web is, well, world wide, but it is of great local value as well. Among local organisations which publish information on the Web are Deeping St James Parish Church (dsj.org.uk) and Parish Council (dsjpc.org.uk), and it is the Parish Council which provides a useful "front page" giving easy access to a wide range of on-line resources. If you have Internet access and an interest in your local community, then dsjpc.org.uk may well be very helpful, and hopefully will become more helpful as it develops over time.
At the top of the front page are three links to help you keep in touch: DSJ Exchange, which is the community mailing list run by the Priory Church, on which you may post anything of local interest and read what others have to say (it's been a bit quiet lately on the list: I suppose everyone must be busy); 192.com, which is a directory and electoral roll enquiry service for the whole country; and Deeping Chat which is an on-line chat facility through which you can hold a typed conversation in real time with anyone and everyone you have arranged to "meet" there, like a virtual bar or café or street corner!
The big graphic buttons giving access to local information are fairly self-explanatory: "Churches", for example, links to a page listing Deeping St James's five churches, with links onwards to their and/or their denominations' web sites where available. "Local Press" takes you to a list of the local papers which have on-line versions, and even to "Priory News"! If you want to look at the local resources provided by Deepings.com, there is a link to that site, too.
Across the middle of the front page is a green row of text buttons giving access to the information published for our village by UKVillages.co.uk. These include a commercial directory, a community diary and noticeboard, a "for sale" section and a list of groups and societies. Anyone can post information to the site, so if you have anything to say to the local community, click on the appropriate button and add your own notice! The information goes on the sites of all villages within 4 miles, so all the Deepings are covered, along with Langtoft, Northborough and Glinton, and we get their notices, too. If everyone keeps posting their information this could be a really brilliant community resource.
Below this on the dsjpc.org.uk front page are sections for logging onto a web-based mail service and for searching the web for information on any subject. These, and the UK newsfeed and county resources below them will have to form the basis of a future article, but I ought just to mention that the Ixquick metasearch engine used here (and on our church site as well) is the fastest and most accurate search facility I have ever seen, and very simple, too. Once you've used it, you'll want to make this your normal way of searching, and you can keep it handy by making the site your browser's "home" page.
Mark Warrick
I was lying in bed, feeling ill and very sorry for myself. My throat was raw, my stomach was, in polite parlance, "unstable" and had been for most of the night; my tinnitus raged with a vengeance.
Then a neighbour's diesel car started up and the engine continued to throb loudly for the next ten minutes or so. I felt my blood pressure rising at this further invasion of my peace, and was about to implode in total self-pity, when I remembered something I had read a day or two before: "Find something positive in what seems a totally negative situation".
So I tried … and succeeded. I thought, "I'm lying here warm and safe in my comfy bed, my caring husband beside me. I don't have to get up and go to work like my neighbours; aren't I lucky?"
It worked! I stopped feeling angry and victimised and felt very thankful. The book I'm referring to is "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" by Richard Carlson, published by Hodder & Stoughton at £7.99. It is full of practical ways of making your life less stressful and more loving and is very readable.
If you have a Christmas book token, I can't think of a better way to spend it. If I could afford it, I'd certainly buy all my friends a copy. My Mum sent me this book. She's eighty and still open to the positive suggestions this book offers, such as "surrender to the fact that life isn't fair". I hope I'm as open-minded as she is, if I live as long! Read this book if you can, and let me know what you think. It has certainly helped me on my spiritual journey.
Bet Washbrooke
Thanks to every one who helped and attended the Coffee morning on 6th December when £195-85 was raised. Carole & Margaret.
A date for your diary for our
in the Church Hall
Assorted Soups and Pancakes
£1.50 each
Names please on the list in Church
WE have received from Belgaum Leprosy Hospital, with whom we have now established a mission link, details of two patients they seek to rehabilitate.
Saraswati's parents died while she was still young. Her education had to be abandoned and she had to stay at home to look after the rest of the family. Then she contracted leprosy and began to suffer, not only physically but spiritually too when even her own relatives joined in the harassment which sufferers encounter in villages in India. Her brother took her to a remand home in the city but even there harassment continued, some of it even of a sexual nature, and often she went hungry too. The situation was so bad she felt like committing suicide or running away.
Then she got to hear of Belgaum Hospital. She was treated and in the new environment she gradually recovered, though the hospital still had to intervene to prevent the authorities from returning her to the remand home. It was also impossible for her to return to her native village but the hospital was able to send her to the Nashik training centre. There she stayed for two years and completed a tailoring course. She met a young man and planned to get married, but as he was Muslim and she was Hindu she found herself rejected yet again. Staying on working at the hospital she met someone else, this time things worked out and they were married. The Leprosy Mission is hoping to set them up in a shop and are seeking donations towards the 50,000 rupees required to set them up in the project.
Mishrilal is a middle aged man. He was cured of his leprosy but has deformed hands and feet. He too was rejected by his village and has to seek refuge in a leper colony with his wife Janak, also a leper. He hopes to have a small grocery shop - for this 20,000 rupees are needed plus another 50,000 for a house. Again, donations are sought.
If you wish to send a donation or could consider having a collection box for the work of the Leprosy Mission, please speak to Bernard Babb.
Well, I definitely heard some of you asking what to do with the Christmas
left-overs - why not try this?
Dave
Melt butter in a large saucepan. Gently cook onion & potatoes for 5 minutes. Add stock, bay leaf and turkey.
Simmer for 10 minutes. Add sweetcorn and most of the milk. Simmer for 10 minutes. Blend remaining milk and cornflour. Stir in about 6 tbsp of soup and return to saucepan, stirring continuously. Bring to boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Season to taste, remove bay leaf and stir in parsley before serving.
We welcome to the Lord's family
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Copyright © 2001 Deeping St James PCC
Created by WebEdit, 5 December 2001