Welcome to our online service. This service is a replica of our in person service at 11am. If you are planning on joining in person, please bring a mask for singing. Sunday Zone is running and they will be following the same theme.
Our AGM is after the in person service today. In the service we will also be sharing in communion and as part of that welcoming Janet into membership. Please pray for Janet as she is welcomed today after her baptism in September.
Youth Discipleship Cafe
Our next Youth Cafe is on the 9th December at 4pm - for High School age, a chance to explore life and faith together. If you are planning on coming please let Claire know.
Christmas Events
Christmas Celebration Sunday - 5th December 10.30am-1pm. Crafts, Decorating the church and tree, time of worship with scratch nativity, Christmas Carol Karaoke. Whatever age you are, come dressed as your favourite nativity character.
Carols by Candlelight - Sunday 19th December 4pm
Christmas Day Celebration - 10.30am
No service Boxing Day (26th)
Watchnight Service - New Years Eve 11.30pm
We will again be collecting for Christmas Hampers for those we support with food parcels - keep an eye out for a list of what we will need.
Prayer Course
Every Monday (with a break for half term) we are running The Prayer Course on Zoom at 8pm and at 2pm in person on Mondays. This is an 8 week course that will help you to grow and deepen your prayer life and it is based on the Lord's Prayer. See the intro video below.
For the zoom link, please contact us and we will send it to you.
Worship
Call to Worship
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good
His love endures forever
Let us, called as part of this church family, today tell our story
Let us, who have stood together through adversity, tell of his glory
Let us, who are gathered from the places we were scattered
From east and west, from north and south
Sing his praises
We come to worship God
Where we are wandering in the desert, he finds us a place to call home
Where we are parched with thirst, he brings streams of living water
Where there is hunger, he provides a banquet to eat
Where we sow with tears, we harvest with joy.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good
His love endures forever
Songs for today
You might want to save the last two for before and after the sermon/communion
Praying
The video below is from Hunchback of Notre Dame when Esmeralda sees how Quasimodo (the hunchback) and Esmeralda’s people are treated by society. Have a watch - as we finish off thinking about prayer today, look at the difference in the prayers in the video.
Read what Jesus says about prayer in our reading today taken from Luke 18:9-14 - you can find it here
Pray....
Father God, we don’t always get it right, and we are sorry for the times we do get it wrong.
We come to you and ask you for forgiveness now.
(take some time to think of those things you need forgiveness for)
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Amen
Word
Here is Claire with the sermon
Communion
If you would like to share communion at home, these are the words we will be using - taken from Gathering for Worship, published by the Baptist Union of Great Britain - The Simple Pattern.
Welcome and Prayer
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11.28–30
Come to this table, not because you must but because you may,
not because you are strong, but because you are weak.
Come, not because any goodness of your own gives you a right to come,
but because you need mercy and help.
Come, because you love the Lord a little and would like to love him more.
Come, because he loved you and gave himself for you.
Come and meet the risen Christ, for we are his Body.
Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Institution
The apostle Paul tells us of the institution of the Lord’s Supper:
For I received from the Lord
what I also handed on to you,
that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed
took a loaf of bread,
and when he had given thanks,
he broke it and said,
‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’
In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying,
‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Pray and give thanks
Break the Bread
Jesus said, ‘This is my body which is for you;
do this in memory of me’.
Share/Eat the bread
In the same way,
he took the cup after supper, and said:
‘This cup is the new covenant sealed by my blood.
Whenever you drink it,
do this in memory of me.’
Drink the wine
Your death, O Lord, we commemorate.
Your resurrection we confess.
Your final coming we await.
Glory be to you, O Christ.
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