Rev Paul's Two Penn'orth for Advent 2013

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dvent marks the beginning of a new liturgical year for the Church. It sees the Church begin to prepare for Christmas in all its glory. The word ‘advent’ means coming or arrival. It is a time when Christians are encouraged to remember not only that Jesus came into the world in Palestine 2,000 years ago but that He also promised one day to return in all His glory. As a church we should prepare our hearts and souls for the time when Christ will return. 

Many Christians celebrate Advent not only by thanking God for Christ's first coming to Earth as a baby, but also for his presence among us today through the Holy Spirit, and in preparation and anticipation of his final coming at the end of time.

 

Each Sunday in Advent has a theme to be pondered during the season. In our church a purple candle is lit on three Sundays, also a pink on one Sunday and a fifth, a white candle, is lit on Christmas Day. The four themes traditionally are: God's people, the Advent hope, the Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist, and Mary the Mother of Jesus.

It is very easy to be carried away with all the preparations as we move towards Christmas Day. Furthermore, as a church we can be sucked into the festive aspects of the celebrations, forgetting to focus on what it means for us as God’s people. It is for us as Christians to open our hearts to receive him with faith, hope and love.

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hrist’s coming into the world as a baby gave us a more intimate knowledge of God. Our God was willing to experience our lives by being alongside us. At this time of year, just as we prepare for guests who come for dinner, so also we the Church should prepare in a special way for the coming of Christ at Christmas time by reading our Bibles and by prayer. We are told in scripture, in Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” How reassuring that can be for us if we follow that example.

Our Christmas Tree Festival less than a week away. We will fill our church with splendour and wonder with our many trees as we begin our Christmas celebrations. These events that happen in the church throughout the year take many hours and days of preparation by many different people and our thanks must be to Sue Wells and her team as we open the church to the wonder of our Christmas tree festival. May it long continue!

We should never forget that everything we try to achieve throughout the year should be covered by prayer. We are told in scripture in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 6:17-18 to “take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Wonderful words to keep in mind as we move through Advent towards Christmas and the Christmas celebrations and beyond.

Your friend,

Rev’d Paul

Advent 2013

News from our Church School (Holy Trinity Hoylake) about Christmas 2013

Jessica, Mia and Molly of Year 6 reveal the Christmas activities planned by Holy Trinity School Hoylake

We are delighted to be the first children from Year 6, Hoylake Holy Trinity, to write an article for the our church. The staff and pupils in our school are preparing for this exciting Christmas season. Coming up very soon is our Christmas Fair on Saturday, November 30, from 3pm to 5pm. There will be lots of fun, games and competitions. Please feel welcome to come along for some festive fun!

Some of our pupils have been very busy designing Christmas cards for the Esther McVey competition. Esther McVey, our local MP, is holding a competition for pupils to design a card for her seasonal message. We are hoping to have some winning entries who will receive a mystery prize.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It’s a Christmas tree! Confused? Well, we are entering St Hildeburgh's annual Christmas Tree Festival again. This year our theme is a ‘superhero’ tree (fitting in with our Creative Curriculum ‘Heroes and Villains’ topic.)

Each pupil will be designing a decoration for the tree and the winner will turn on the lights. How exciting! Please, please vote for us in church any time during the festival from December 6-8.

We are very excited about our Christmas carol service this year at St Hildeburgh’s. The service will be held from 9-10am on Thursday, December 19. Please feel welcome to come along to listen to some of your favourite Christmas carols such as Deck the Halls, Silent Night and many more.

The school choir will also be singing at Carr Farm garden centre on Thursday, December 5. They are delighted and looking forward to being the stars of the show. Mr Rochester has to prepare plenty of beautiful songs for them to sing. Remember your tissues!

Finally, may we take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas from all of the staff and pupils at Hoylake Holy Trinity.

Soup & Sandwich Lunch: A Regular Outreach for the Community

St Hildeburgh's Church (Stanley Road, Hoylake) 

has started another outreach initiative. 

Soup and Sandwiches will be served every second monday in the month in the Church Centre (behind St Hildeburgh's Church) at 12.00 Noon. 

It is hoped to provide a much-needed facility for vulnerable and elderly members of the local community. 

No need to book! 

Just come along for some warming soup and fellowship!

Communion at Monte Carlo Restaurant - 21 November 2013

We are holding another Holy Communion in the community!

The service will be at 11.00am on 21 November 2013 at the Monte Carlo Restaurant on Market Street, Hoylake.

All are very welcome to attend!

The Vicar's Two Penn'orth for November

As we move into November we are surrounded by the wonderful Autumnal colours of the trees which are truly magnificent this year, and with that comes a distinctive change in the weather. With the onset of winter not far off also come the long dark days and even longer nights. As I mentioned last month, it is very important for us to keep a caring eye on our fellow neighbours and friends especially those living on their own.  

To take a few minutes out of your day to call and make sure someone is OK particularly  those who are most vulnerable is not only an act of kindness, but enhances the Christian message ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. I am very conscious of the diversity of people within our Parish of all different ages, with many and various needs and with that in mind I am looking to begin a healing service on a monthly basis. The Bible talks about healing of our physical ailments, as well as emotional and spiritual ones. Jesus cured people, and he then told them that their faith had healed them. God always hears our prayers and requests for healing and he answers our prayers according to his will, healing is about wholeness and sometimes that may not mean a cure in the way we understand it. It is said that our final healing comes with our death when we are welcomed to the place that scripture tells us is prepared for us. It is a mystery that some are healed in this life and some are not and we just have to trust God that he knows our suffering and he will bring us healing whatever that means.

The Bible says that faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17), and that would mean hearing the Word of God written in scripture and as we know Jesus Is the Word made flesh.  But "hearing" means more than just occasionally reading and listening to verses of scripture.

It means that we have to internalize the Word of God in all that we think, do, and say.  It means meditating on the Word of God, and then observing all that it says to do. Another mention of personal healing in the Bible involves prayer for others. That is evident by the amount of prayers on our Prayer Board in the Lady Chapel which is a wonderful tribute to the way the Lady Chapel is being used by everyone. Let us be reminded what it says in James 5:14 16: Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord’

Next week is our second Soup and Sandwich lunch - an outreach into the community through the many nursing homes we have in Hoylake. Please do feel free to come along and join in with the wonderful sense of love and fellowship which has been generated. Outreach is a great way to grow a church spiritually as well numerically, please remember God uses each of us very differently, and we all have gifts that we can offer. So please feel free to participate in any way you can. 

Finally it was lovely to have Bishop Keith with us to preach and celebrate last month. The Sunday was made even more special by having Holy Trinity choir singing. My thanks goes to Mr Ham head teacher, and to Mr Rochester who runs the choir for such good and enthusiastic singing, we are looking forward to seeing them on a more regular basis.

 Your friend Rev Paul