Hi Everyone,
With all the news from Westminster in the past few days, I thought it might be time for another update from me.
Reopening Church
The government have announced that we can reopen church for gathered worship from the 2nd December. I have taken the decision that we will work towards Sunday 6th December. So, from Monday 30th November booking will open for services on Sunday 6th and the following Wednesday. It will be good to have you back! I’ve missed you!
The Parish Office will reopen on Monday 7th December, if you have any queries or questions – either I or a churchwarden will try to get back to you as quickly as we can.
Day of Prayer
This Saturday, St Michaels is holding a day of prayer for our community, nation and world. The church will be open for individual prayer from 10am to 4pm. Attached is a resource with various prayers and pointers to prayer that you might find helpful on the day. Throughout Saturday I will lead a form of prayer on the hour, each hour. This form of prayer is also attached. Scripture tells us that prayer has power – so I want to encourage as many of you as possible to join the parish in praying at some point on Saturday, even if its just for a few minutes. You don’t need to book to come to church, you can just turn up.
Advent
Happy New Year! On Sunday we enter into the new church year as we begin Advent. There a few things to tell you about with Advent.
There will be a new order of Morning and Evening Prayer, in line with the new season of Advent, available on the website.
Each day throughout Advent, Jess and I will be releasing a video at 4pm reflecting on different advent themes, during these videos we will be creating a Jesse tree.
On Sunday’s we will also release a video at 9am lighting our advent wreath which will include a children’s Christmas story.
Every day a there will be a new reflection posted on our website reflecting on themes of comfort and joy. (Mark is still looking for volunteers to write some reflections.)
With all of the above, they are resources to encourage you in your faith as we prepare for the celebration of Christmas. Use what is helpful, ignore what isn’t – I won’t be offended (promise!)
This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent and our Sunday service will reflect that with various carols and readings for Advent.
Christmas Appeal
This year I have launched a Christmas Appeal for church which is supporting 3 great causes. The 1st cause is the Children’s Society, the 2nd – the local foodbank and the 3rd – The Parish of Stockport and Brinnington.
We are asking for donations towards the work of The Children’s Society, who we usually raise substantial amounts for through our Christingle Services. The Children’s Society do vital work throughout the UK. Whilst I am asking for donations – I will also be attempting to run 10km every day in Advent to raise money too, if you feel compelled to sponsor me, I would be very grateful.
Thank you to everyone that continues to give generously to the foodbank, the second strand is an encouragement to keep going with that. Something you might like to do, is find a box and put something in it everyday of Advent, so that by Christmas you have a box full of food that could support families over the new year period.
The final strand is supporting the Parish of Stockport and Brinnington. In terms of deprivation, the parish of Brinnington is the 121st most deprived parish in the whole country, compared to Bramhall which is the 12,208th most deprived parish out of 12,382 (where 1 is the most deprived). We are asking folk to put together hampers of Christmas goodies that can bless some of the poorest families in the country who may not be able to afford any celebrations at all.
With all of the above you can find more information on our website at https://www.bramhall.church/christmas-appeal-2020 (including a video, a suggested list of items for the hampers, and links to our donation pages.)
If you are bringing a completed hamper, or items for a hamper to church, could you label them as part of the hamper project, so that they don’t get confused with foodbank donations. If anyone wishes to donate to the Christingle Society with cash or cheque rather than online, please leave these in the post box at church marked Children’s Society. Cheques can be made payable to St Michael and All Angels PCC.
Christmas
With government guidelines becoming clearer for Christmas, I can begin to finalise some of the plans for celebrating Christmas. Obviously things will be different, but my prayer is we still feel and know the joy of God with Us. Watch this space!
Plant Sale
Finally, there have been a number of plant sales at St Michaels over the past couple of months which has raised money to support some of the gardening projects going on around the church site. The final sale is this Friday (27th) with a range of winter flowering plants and decorative Christmas arrangements. There is a new venue for the sale - B2B car park next to the Victorian pub in Bramhall village and you will find the sale there from 10am till 2pm. Everything under £10 a plant. Cash preferred, but we will have a card reader with us, subject to connectivity. Any questions speak to Sue Howgego who can be reached in sue.howgeo@bramhall.church
Looking forwards to seeing many of you again and worshipping alongside you and with you!
God Bless,
Calum