Wooden figures and eagle eyes.

Dear friends

In her first service at Checkendon, curate in training the Revd Romey Poston reminded us about the challenge of Advent in the midst of the world’s pressures. Her words prompted me to belatedly recover our own Advent calendar from the loft. It is a wooden, brightly painted Columbian affair, bought many years ago from Traidcraft. Numbered wooden figures are slotted into a backboard on a daily basis, gradually building a nativity scene. Emma’s piano pupils watch keenly for it in the lounge, their eagle eyes noticing straight away if we are tardy in putting today’s  numbered figure in its place. They are unknowing models themselves for how Christians are to be, at all times, not just in December: watchful, attentive, alert and expectant.

In this season, when this year there is even more than usual, both bad and good, to distract and divert us from the matters of the Spirit, can I recommend a simple daily act, whether you light a candle or tend to your Advent calendar, to bring your eyes and heart back to the coming Kingdom. Take a moment to hold yourself, simply, in the presence of the Lord, who has come, and who is coming, soon.

Worship Services for Sunday  11th December

9.30am Morning Prayer at St John’s, Stoke Row with Revd Angela Linton

11am Holy Communion at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Canon Kevin Davies

Midweek zoom service: Wednesday Evensong at 5.00pm  410 935 129

Other service options for elsewhere in the Team can be found on the Langtree Team Ministry Churches website. Do join us for worship either in person, or online, or both. Don’t forget that you now can support both Checkendon  and  Stoke Row churches via dedicated and secure online card donation pages. Just click on the link. It is very easy! Thank you for your support.

School Nativity invitations

This week sees a flurry of school Infant Nativity plays, to which you are warmly invited. Checkendon School’s Nativity is in the school hall, this afternoon, at 2pm. Stoke Row’s is in St John’s Church, tomorrow, at 6pm. Do come along if you are able, and curious!

A full listing of Christmas Services is now available on the Team Ministry website. Please put these in your diary, and please, please, bring your family and friends with you if you plan to have guests. It isn’t Christmas without you!

In your prayers please pray for the next Team Vicar of Woodcote. Of course, we do not yet see or know who this is to be, and perhaps the individual themselves doesn’t, either! However our Lord knows whom he is calling. Thank God for everyone, whether lay or ordained, whom God calls to serve him.

May the peace and hope that Christ brings be yours this Advent tide. Returning to my opening theme, here is a beautiful and very recent release of In the Bleak Midwinter. for you to enjoy.

Your Rector, Canon Kevin.