Weekly Bulletin for St Mary's and the Villages

Collect
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity…..

Additional Collect  

Almighty God, as your kingdom dawns, turn us from the darkness of sin
to the light of holiness, that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.  

Principal Readings: 

Isaiah 2.1-5 Psalm 122 Romans 13.11-14 Matthew 24.36-44  

Barton
8.00 Said Eucharist
9.30 Parish Eucharist
6.00 Candle-lit service for the beginning of Advent

Monday (St Andrew's Day, transferred from Sunday)

9.30-11.30 Toddler Time (St Mary's Hall)

9.30 Eucharist (followed by ministers' Chapter in the Vicarage)

11.30 Ministers' Diary Meeting (Vicarage)
Wednesday

9.30 Eucharist (St Mary's)

7.30 Ladies' Group  (St Mary's Hall)
Thursday 

1.30 Sewing Bee  (St Mary's Hall)

Saturday

10.30-12 Advent Study Session (|St Mary's Hall) 

Next Sunday: Second Sunday of Advent

Principal Readings: 

Isaiah 11.1-10 Psalm 72.1-7,18,19* Romans 15.4-13 Matthew 3.1-12

Barton
8.00 Said Eucharist
9.30 Parish Eucharist
4.00 Evening Prayer

Winter Hours: Please note that from next Sunday until the end of January
Sunday Evening services are at 4.00

No offence to the author of John’s Gospel, whoever they might have been, but sometimes we can get a bit dismissive, suspicious or fearful of darkness. Personally, I blame the Persians for splitting the universe neatly into Light* (=Good) and Darkness (=Bad), because it’s closed off an important part of Scriptural (and traditional Christian) thinking about the inner life.

If we can shove the Persians to one side for a moment, reflect on how in Genesis, God creates light – and darkness too. The most holy place in the Temple in Jerusalem is a place of deep darkness. Jacob’s dream at Bethel and struggle with the mysterious stranger at the brook of Jabbok are places where he seems to encounter God in the darkness of the night. And, of course, turning our minds towards Christmas just for a moment, both the Nativity and the journey of the Magi are things which happen in the dark. It’s a place where unexpected meetings with God can take place.

‘The Owl who was afraid of the dark’ is a children’s story I read to my kids time and again , and its title’s self-explanatory.( An abridged reprint some years ago sadly stripped out much of its subtlety – it’s the 1968 one to look for).  A baby owl fears the night, and his parents help him, not to conquer it– but to embrace it.

The genius of the book was in recognising that there was more to be done than just overcome fear. The owlet’s meetings with (among others) a boy on Guy Fawkes’ Night, an astronomer, a cat and an elderly widow, taught him that darkness was a place pregnant with glories, possibilities and comforts hidden by the hard light of day.  

I remember particularly the widow’s lesson, that darkness was kind, a place where, no longer tyrannised by her aged reflection in mirrors, she could rediscover the joys of life and love which still burned within her, but from which the too much light had distracted her.    

In darkness, paradoxically, sometimes one may see things more clearly.

Though Advent and Lent have some superficial similarity – purple vestments, a somewhat stripped-down Eucharist and so on – they’re very different animals. Advent is the time of joyful expectation, as we wait in a darkness brimming with hope and possibilities, the distractions of daylight blotted outby the mysterious invitation of the night, against whose backdrop we may see things subtle and quiet, too easily missed in the glare of the sun.

Advent invites us to dwell in the mystery of God, waiting to meet him in the unexpected people and places of our lives. We may meet him in the unexplored rooms of our own hearts, minds and souls, as we feel our way through the Advent journey. We may admit to ourselves our own dark places and risk discovering God waiting to greet us there and turn our fears into joy and exhilaration. We might, John-of-the-Cross style (feast day 14th December), admit that we simply can’t know enough about God to possess him, so must begin to allow him to possess us. We might come to learn in the long night of Advent that in the absence of light, we sense the presence of God coming closer. 

Try not to wince to much even at the more lurid Christmas displays on show this Advent – they owe their very visibility to Advent’s darkness. Advent lets us see everything differently, even that, unlikely though it may seem, an inflatable gnome can bring someone delight.

Let us all enjoy the dazzling darkness of Advent.

*In an idle moment, I recalled that Mazda light bulbs – remember them? – were named after Ahura Mazdā, the principal deity of Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of Persia/Iran. I wonder how Zoroastrians felt about that? Would any reputation-conscious brand give it a go these days? The nearest I can get to so using a Christian image is ‘Lucifer’ as in ‘If you’ve a lucifer to light your fag...’

For our prayers

Church:

The Church in Australia.

The Churches of the Middle East. 

Our Advent journey. 

Archbishop-designate Sarah Mulally. 

The mission of our parishes, Deanery and Diocese. 

World: 

Those in authority. 

Gaza, Iran, Ukraine, Sudan. 

Peacekeepers and Peacemakers. 

Those leading in the protection of our planet and the resolution of the issues surrounding migrancy. 

Our Community: 

Parish cycle of prayer: Visitors to our town. our local heritage and conservation organisations. Those who co-ordinate our Community events:
Diocesan Cycle of Prayer: Youth & Children’s work.

The world’s half-forgotten troubled lands:

Afghanistan, Myanmar, Haiti.

Those in need. 

All who are fleeing war, poverty or climate change. 

People living under the shadow of fear, deprivation or illness; 

the anxious, the lonely and mourners. 

Those struggling to make ends meet. The homeless. 

Those in hospital or who watch with them. 

Especially, please pray for: 

Those on our Parish prayer boards

The Departed: 

Notices.

Is that the time already?

Just reminding you that Advent 1 marks the beginning of a new cycle of readings at the Sunday Eucharist. In particular, the bulk of our Gospel readings will be coming from Matthew’s Gospel.  

Although Matthew stands at the beginning of the New Testament, it’s neither the oldest book of the Christian Scriptures nor even the oldest Gospel. We know this because Matthew borrows heavily from Mark (attempts have been made to argue it the other way round, even into the last century, but they’re highly unconvincing) and subtle changes in Matthew’s version make us think we’re looking some time after AD 85 (Mark being sometime around AD 65). 

He makes very heavy use of the OT, and seems to be writing for people with a close acquaintanceship with the Jewish Scriptures in their Greek translation, which leads us to believe he’s writing for Christians living outside the homeland of the Jewish people.

Mission to Seafarers:

Just a reminder that there’s a box at the back of St Mary's to receive donations of toiletries and other small comforts for MtS to distribute this Christmas.

‘Blue Christmas’

For some years we’ve been running a quiet and reflective service in the run up to Christmas for those who find the razamatazz grating, or unhelpful, or just in need of a bit of rebalancing. This year it’s on Sunday 14th December at 4 at St Mary's. Do mention it to anyone who you think might find it helpful

Advent Study mornings -‘The Word of the Lord’ – reading Scripture faithfully.

St Mary's Hall 

Following our pattern of short study sessions, there’ll be a couple of Saturday sessions on December 6th and 13th, 10.30-12 where we explore what it is to read Scripture faithfully.  

Funny though it may seem to some, 'faithfully' doesn’t mean a slavish, literal reading of the Bible. That was completely alien to the Church until the last two or three hundred years (since when it’s caught on in some circles and gone down some very strange alleyways). Nor does it mean going to the opposite extreme of treating the Bible as 'an interesting product of the ancient world', as if we were outsiders Examining A Specimen. The authentic Christian tradition is both more challenging and richer than either of these pale and arid byways.

We meet in St Mary's Hall. No specialist knowledge required - bring a Bible if you can, and if you can just make one of the sessions don’t worry, they’re being designed to work as separate, though connected units:
Session 1- Scorched Earth or just Clearing the Weeds?
What common assumptions do we make about ‘Scripture’? What do we mean by ‘A Bible-Believing Christian’ – and should we be one? And it it ‘True’? And if so, how?

Session 2 – ‘Come to my heart, Lord Jesus.’
How have Christians read the Bible over the centuries? How does it speak to us? And how do Christians deal with those passages which turn the stomach?

It’s also running at the Vicar’s Rooms in Barrow on Thursday 11 (2.15-4)and Thursday 18th (2-4), so if you can’t make one venue…..