Dear friends,

A very warm welcome to this Carol service, from all of us in the Langtree Team ministry.  As Christmas draw ever closer, let us pray that the truth of Christ will be very close to all of us, and to our communities.

Services for the Christmas season across the Team ministry are listed inside this sheet. Please do take it away with you and make a note of which you might invite friends and family to.

St John’s Stoke Row are our hosts for the Team Service on New Year’s Day, at 10.30am. This will be an informal service of hymns, prayers and readings, and a chance to reflect on the changes that we have seen unfold throughout 2016, as well as our hopes for the year ahead. Please note that there won’t be any other services that day, so please make the most of the opportunity to worship together in the comfort of the re-ordered St John’s Church.

If after our Carol services today you have a desire to sing some more there is another opportunity to do so at the “Carols Round the Well” (also) at Stoke Row, on Friday 23rd at 7pm.

Let us continue to pray for peace in the world, expressing our solidarity and anger at the brutal attacks on our brothers in Christ in Cairo last week. Violence in the name of God is a perversion, a simple grasp for power through the creation of fear and mistrust. We might disagree with the beliefs of minorities in our midst, but that does not give us the right to murder them as they go about their daily business.

May the peace that Christ gives be with us all, near and far.

Your Rector                                                        Revd Kevin Davies

Inside the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo, before the bomb blast.