Hello everyone,
Thank you for joining in with today’s service and for your continued prayers.
Here is the link in case you want or need it for the recording of the service: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EV4vNb-WWIlfzM-Nky15G7rS7EJrhsLk/view?usp=sharing
Other notices are:
FAB church
is on this afternoon at 3.30 using http://ststephensbd5.org.uk/live/
Or on Zoom:
Time: Dec 20, 2020 03:30 PM London
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83720348751?pwd=dUZnNzZ4TGRsMWFrODV2akZpY0RsZz09
Meeting ID: 837 2034 8751 Passcode: fab
Christmas Services
Spaces are still available for both midnight (11.30pm at St Matthew’s on Christmas Eve) and for Christmas Day (11am at St Stephen’s) but please do let Jimmy know if you are intending coming for monitoring numbers. You are welcome to either (or both!) and we will still stream Christmas Day as normal.
Send Us Your Smiles!
Who has made you smile in 2020? We are collecting short video clips of people’s smiles along with messages from them about who made them smile this year. These will then be shown projected on a screen for the whole community of West Bowling.
Watch the video to find out more:
Instructions:
- Film your smile (landscape, for 20 seconds)
- Click ‘share’ and email
- Write who you are thankful to and why
- Email to smile@shinewestbowling.org.uk
We will be showing your smile in early 2021.
Prayer for today
Eternal God,
as Mary waited for the birth of your Son,
so we wait for his coming in glory;
bring us through the birth pangs of this present age
to see, with her, our great salvation
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
I was particularly struck by the use of the words ‘birth pangs‘ which speak of pain and anticipated joy at the same time.
The Coming
The poem that we referred to was ‘The Coming‘ by RS Thomas, good to reflect on as we approach Christmas:
And God held in his hand
A small globe. Look he said.
The son looked. Far off,
As through water, he saw
A scorched land of fierce
Colour. The light burned
There; crusted buildings
Cast their shadows: a bright
Serpent, A river
Uncoiled itself, radiant
With slime. On a bare
Hill a bare tree saddened
The sky. many People
Held out their thin arms
To it, as though waiting
For a vanished April
To return to its crossed
Boughs. The son watched
Them. Let me go there, he said.
Stay well, stay safe and stay expectant with love and prayers,
Jimmy