Leesfield Parish – 25th November 2018
This afternoon at 3 pm, Churches Together in Lees and District will be joining together at St Thomas’ for a special service “Advent hymns”. This is an opportunity to sing some of our favourite Advent hymns, and learn a little bit about them on the Sunday before Advent begins.
A further Open PCC meeting has been arranged for tomorrow at 7 pm in St Thomas’ Community Room. We will be discussing how we can all use our time, talents and money to serve God in this parish and beyond, and everyone is warmly invited to join the conversation. The last meeting was really well attended, with lots of ideas about how we can reach out to the wider community. Light refreshments will be available before the meeting.
On Saturday at 2 pm we will be Dressing the little Christmas Trees at St Thomas’. This is a fun event for all the family, with refreshments, mince pies and mulled wine served by the Ladies of Leesfield. If you would like sponsor a tree please see Karen or any of the Harvest Queen mums. From 4 pm the church bells will be ringing, and you can make your way over to the village centre (near Milan Bar) for the switch-on of the Lees Christmas Lights at 4.30. And a very special visitor may be there!
Next Sunday is Advent Sunday, and in addition to our normal services there is a special Christingle Service for the children, 3 pm at St Thomas’. They will make their Christingles (please bring your own orange), learn what they represent, light the candles and sing in candlelight. Donations from this service will go to the Children’s Society, which supports vulnerable children and young people throughout England and Wales.
During Advent we will be trying out different ways in which we can encourage our congregation members to support the work of the church. Many people these days don’t carry cash, so instead of the collection plate being passed around it will be at the back of church, along with information about planned giving, gift-aid, standing orders and other cashless methods of donating towards our work.
On Wednesday 5th December from 7-9 pm the Diocese is delivering Safeguarding Training at St Barnabas’ Church, Clarksfield. The training is for Sunday School teachers and all who have safeguarding responsibilities. Booking is required to ensure that there are sufficient handouts, certificates etc. are available, and can be made by visiting bookings@manchester.anglican.org .
The cold nights are definitely here now, and the organisations helping homeless people and others in need which we support are increasingly busy. Donations of warm clothing, food and toiletries are most welcome, but there is very little which we can’t find a use for. If you’re unsure about what to bring please see Paul and Liz at St Thomas’ or Frank and Philip at St Agnes’.
Items for the newsletter, website and facebook pages to Liz (lizzy.dent@googlemail.com) whenever you want to send. Lots of lovely pictures please!
