Did you see the story in the news last week about the man who was on the run from the police in Italy and hid himself in a life-sized nativity scene? It was like something out of a movie! He was caught when the mayor of the town was admiring the scene and realised one of the statues looked very life-like and was wearing modern clothes.
Keith Moore, Pioneer Minister
This Sunday, 21st December, we'll be continuing to use the LICC's 'Small Wonder' series in our morning services at HTMB, while CTK will have a morning Carol Service led by Keith Moore and Robert Parsons. At 9am and 11am our speaker will be Alex Aldous, with Archdeacon Nick speaking at HTBV. Then, of course, it's one of our big highlights of the year with our two Carols By Candelight services at 4.30pm and 7pm. Please do invite others to join you as you come along!
Church Advent Prayer Calendar
If you've not yet had a chance to look at our Advent Calendar then you've got the final few days left to try it out! It's certainly been a real blessing to me each morning. Thank you so much to all those who have been involved. Each day, from 1st December until Christmas Eve, we'll be publishing a short video on social media (Facebook and Instagram) and on our website. Each clip tells part of the story of the birth of Jesus and ends with an invitation to pray. Our hope is that we as church family will feel happy to share this (if we are those who 'do' social media, or to send the website link to those who don't) and encourage others to 'try praying' this Advent.
Click here for the website version of our Advent Prayer Calendar
Carols by Candlelight
This Sunday sees two of our biggest services of the year, with Carols by Candlelight at 4.30 and 7pm at HTMB. Research tells us that one in three people would accept an invitation to church if it were offered, so why not be bold and invite someone to join you as you come along. For those who prefer not to come out in the dark, CTK are hosting a morning Carol Service at 10.30am in the Radbrook Green Centre.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
All our services over the next week are on the website, but don't forget Crib Services on Christmas Eve at 3.30pm and 5pm, Midnight Communion at 11.30pm…and then our usual 9am, 10.30am (CTK) and 11am on Christmas morning.
Lifts on Christmas Day
We have a significant increase in the number of guests coming to the Soul Purpose Christmas Lunch on Christmas Day who would also like to come to church first. This is amazing news, but it makes us very short of lifts. If there are at least two people in your car already, and you wouldn't mind giving lifts either after you've been to the 9am or on your way to the 11am, then would you please let Fi know asap. Many thanks.
Joint Service on December 28th at Holy Trinity, Meole Brace
Our usual reminder that the Sunday after Christmas is always a joint service. So we'll be joining together as congregations at 10.30am at Holy Trinity, Meole Brace, on Sunday 28th December. There are no other services in the parish, or Belle Vue parish, on that Sunday.
New Year's Eve Service
Our end of year service takes place on Wednesday 31st December at 6pm at Holy Trinity, Meole Brace. Do come along for a time of reflection as we look back with thanks, and forward with hope both in our own lives, and in that of our church.
Post- Christmas Walk
Sign up for the Post Christmas Walk
An invitation to 'Try Praying' in the New Year
We'll be advertising this course in our Carol Services, and are hopeful that it will encourage people who might like to try to 'step into faith' to try praying. It's been really well received, so if you can think of people who might like to explore talking to God in prayer then do encourage them to sign up and come along to the introductory session.
Sign up for the Try Praying Course
Giving update
Back at Harvest we asked people to prayerfully consider increasing their giving as we needed to raise our income by around 7%. We are so grateful to God that this has happened, and are thankful to those people who continue to give sacrificially - financially and in other ways - to the work of the Church. Thank you. And above all, thanks be to God from whom all blessings flow.
And finally...
We'll be taking a couple of weeks off from the weekly email to allow for some post Christmas downtime, and so this is the final weekly email of 2025...and we'll be back in 2026! All the information that you might need is on the website, so do have a look there as well as in Trinity Life.
Trinity Life
The December / January edition of Trinity Life is available at the back of Church and online - do grab a copy for more information about what's coming up in the life of our church.
Trinity Life
::unsubscribe_link::