I am taking this opportunity to share with you some of the activities of our church that you might like to be involved in.

With Christmas only three months away our thinking turns to those activities that celebrate the birth of Jesus and those that prepare us for them. This year, Christmas Day will be on a Monday and this means the previous day, Christmas Eve, will be Sunday morning worship and then an evening worship also.

Leading up to this will be some special worship services, children, music, youth, etc.

To prepare for this we plan to run two Advent Workshops - after school programs for children on November 23 and 30.  I will be asking many of you for help for these days as we hope to give the children in our wider community something of the message of Christmas.  We will need people to help with promotion, catering, games, craft and worship.  I hope you can support me in this.

The other activity I am running in preparation for this period, and beyond, is the “Faith for Living” program where we learn about our own faith journey, each other’s journey and how to engage other people in our faith journey.  This began on September 10 with tea at 5pm and our workshop followed on.  I was delighted that 36 people attended and I think most found it worthwhile.  Two more sessions are planned - October 8 and 29.  Please consider coming along and joining in a journey of discovery.  To build on these, O.A.C. Ministries will spend the weekend of November 10 – 12 with us, helping us to talk about and share faith with others.

All of these lead us into Advent and then Christmas where we have the opportunity to celebrate and share this wonderful event.

I hope and pray that you will consider these activities prayerfully and think about how you might be a part of them.  This could make your Christmas more fulfilling and joyous.

Your friend,