This week has been “nativity play” week for us as a team, with three plays performed by Meole Brace Primary and seven hosted for Coleham school at Belle Vue church. In one of them I think we had 31 innkeepers, which certainly led to an interesting sight when Mary and Joseph – and donkey – got to Bethlehem and started knocking doors! In the book we’re using for Six o’clock live, Stephen Cottrell writes: School nativity plays tell the basic story in a way that is often overly sentimental – stables become the loveliest place to give birth, and shepherds quite the most welcome guests – but they also relate the events with an uncluttered impact; ordinary men and women caught up in astonishing events and working out how......

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Have you thought about Christmas trees yet this year? Anyone want to admit to having put theirs up already? I think one of my favourite memories of childhood is buying the Christmas tree. It always had pride of place in the hallway of the house. And on the top of the tree – with the help of small children on shoulders or step-ladders and whatever else – we’d crown the tree with an object. Each year there was a choice, either a gold-coloured angel or a bright-coloured star. The lights would switch on, and it was like Christmas had arrived. The world was ok again. Whatever you’re doing with your tree this year – and please think sustainable – let me encourage you to consider these objects sitting on......

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We are now 48 hours in to our week of prayer. Thank you to those who have already joined in, whether in the prayer room at the back of church during the day or from home in the evenings and nights. We hope that you are enjoying finding a quiet place, bringing your whole self to God, and exploring creative ways of praying. That theme of “restoring” and “refreshing” does seem particularly important given all that we have lived through this last 21 months. Do go on praying that for our nation and community, our church and one another. Go to www.trinitychurches.org/soul to find out more, as well as seeing the online record of how people have been interacting and praying together from home. The sign-up diary is looking......

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What do you feel when a friend phones you..? Energised? Loved? What does it take to get you praying..? An unexpected diagnosis? Family news? Global warming? How does it feel when someone really listens to you when you tell them what’s on your mind? Relieved? Cherished? Prayer takes many forms – we find that in the psalms. It could be a time of complete quiet and contemplation. It could be telling God how you really feel about something that’s on your mind. And then listening for what God might want to say to us. Of course we can pray anywhere and at any time, but at Trinity Churches we are inviting you to set aside an hour or two (or more) next week – time that is just for......

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Those of us who were at the Mid-Morning Congregation this week will have heard Charles issuing us with an invitation to spend an hour with the Almighty and to enter into the presence of the God who longs to spend time with us, simply for the pleasure of our company. What an awesome and life changing invitation! This invitation isn’t limited to a particular time or place, but Charles was specifically inviting us to join with our church family in a week of 24-7 prayer which begins on Sunday 21st November. In Psalm 23 King David writes, ‘Lord, you restore my soul.’ God loves to bring us back to our true selves and make us what he made us to be. We long for this for ourselves, for those......

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There’s many an evening when I’m racing round the churchyard with a dog. Alongside the despair of him disappearing off – or more likely getting bored and wanting to go home – I get to appreciate the beautiful location, chat to people walking through, and notice the changing of the seasons as leaves fall and autumn continues. This isn’t an advert for leaf-clearing, though at some stage fairly soon we’ll need our usual “bring a rake and join in” morning. But it is to notice the wording on the memorial cross at the heart of the churchyard that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” As the leaves fall and the seasons change, as Remembrance comes and Christmas looms, as our COVID journeys continue with many joys......

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