Monday, December 12, 2016

Christ at the Centre of our World

Text of the Week:  For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.

Welcome to today’s services on the third Sunday of Advent and a very warm welcome to any worshipping with us for the first time. It’s Sunday Special today and so our children and young people are going to be together in the first part of the service, getting ready for Christmas. They will join us for the last part of our service. We invite all who love the Lord Jesus Christ to share with us in the Lord’s Supper this morning. This month our Communion collection and our giving at coffee after the service are going towards our Christmas Collectionfor CHIKS, Children’s Homes in Kerala State. It’s good to be joined by Robin Radley today. Robin has just returned from a visit to India and the children’s homes he helped to set up nearly twenty years ago. He will be updating us on the work that’s going on there, on the moves towards sustainability with the farm that Sue Cole helped to establish. It will be great to hear how the little children we were supporting when we first got involved at Sue’s prompting are getting on now they are well into their teenage years and needing to be helped towards independence. Do remember the work of CHIKS in your prayers and if you are able to Gift Aid your Christmas collection gift use the yellow envelopes in church and label them Christmas Collection.




Morning Worship

Welcome and Call to Worship

Hymn: A sound of singing fills the air

1     A sound of singing fills the air
          in praise of all that God has done,
       who sent, our human life to share,
          his Son, his own beloved Son;
            the Prince of life the Father gave,
            a wayward world to seek and save.

2     The sovereign King of all the earth,
          and Lord of all the worlds there are,
       he chose, as emblems of his birth,
          a stable and a shining star:
            within a manger-bed to lie,
            whose fingers formed the starry sky.

3     He came, the Father's final Word,
          from that celestial throne above;
       a child, and yet creation's Lord,
          to show the human face of Love:
            the love of God to earth come down,
            who chose the cross before the crown.

4     So lift our songs to fill the skies!
          From manger-crib and cattle-stall,
       from cross and grave, behold him rise,
          the high-ascended Lord of all,
            whose praise the whole creation sings,
            as Lord of lords and King of kings!

Timothy Dudley-Smith (born 1926) 
© 2014 Timothy Dudley-Smith in Europe and Africa.

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Christ at the centre of our personal lives, of our church lives, of our world.

Lighting the Advent Candles

Reading: John 6:48,51 & 15:1,5 – Angela and Angela

Christ at the Centre of the World

I am the bread of life. 
I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
Whoever eats of this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. 
I am the vine, you are the branches.
Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit,
because apart from me you can do nothing.

We reach our Christmas Communion service – and two I am sayings that take us to the heart of communion.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
Whoever eats of this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

How appropriate as we light a candle and think of Christ at the centre of our world – the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

Christ for the world – the communion laid on the table that has the crib scene underneath – and  beside our stable.

Need to serve the world – speak of Robin, Christmas collection
The world-dimension of Christmas.

The needs of the world overwhelming

Cannot do it on our own – the second comes into play

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit,
because apart from me you can do nothing.


Apart from me you can do nothing.

But with me – in the presence of Christ – a power to change things and make a difference.

The call to live as children of light.

What that means – the meaning of Christmas in the singing – the songs of Luke 1-3

And so in our service we are going to share the three songs … and read them together – and sing them together.



The Magnificat – the Congregation

‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
   from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty. 

He has helped his servant Israel,
   in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
   to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

42 Tell out my soul

The Benedictus – the Congregation

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
   for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a mighty saviour for us
   in the house of his servant David,
as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
   that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
   and has remembered his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
   to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness
   before him all our days.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
   for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people
   by the forgiveness of their sins.
By the tender mercy of our God,
   the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
   to guide our feet into the way of peace.’

599 O bless the God of Israel
The latest news of CHIKS - Robin



A Hy-Spirit Song
Prayers of Concern
58 Jesus, hope of every nation
The Lord’s Supper
Communion Offering & Dedication
A Hy-Spirit song
The Nunc Dimittis – the Congregation
Retiring Collection

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