Dear friends,

A very warm welcome to this service for this Advent Sunday. May the hope and joy that Christ brings be ours to share.

Advent is traditionally a season of fasting, study and prayer as the Christian community prepares for the celebration of Christ’s coming at Christmas. It is a good time to examine how well we know our faith.

Recent study days on Christian formation by the Bishop of Oxford pointed us all towards the key texts for our faith commonly used as benchmarks for considering oneself a Christian: the Apostle’s Creed; the Ten Commandments; the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer. The thesis is very simple: Christians should know these texts! Over the next four Sundays these texts will be printed here, one a week, and I invite you to join with me in learning (re-learning) them off by heart as your Advent discipline for 2018.

Let’s begin this week with the Apostle’s Creed.

Your Rector                                Kevin Davies

The Apostle’s Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.