St Nicholas Restoration

December 6th : Well, it’s St Nicholas Day, and we have an early Christmas present !

An email has arrived today from the Chancellor of the Diocese granting us the Faculty we need to start the restoration work ! It carries some further directions and qualifications, but we can at long last look forward to work starting early in the new year.

I can’t express the relief I feel that at last we can begin to move forward, and please may I say another “thank-you” to all who have helped to get us this far, and for the community’s patience. It feels we have turned a huge corner today.

What a lovely touch too that it comes on our St Nicholas’ Day, remembering an ancient Bishop who is best known for his unexpected gifts to those in need around him.

I saw an extraordinary advert recently ! It was for Disneyland Paris, and the suggestion was that a trip there would make an ideal Christmas present. I couldn’t quite believe it, not because Disneyland isn’t a fun place to go (unless you hate queuing and it’s in France in December!), but because we are already being told that this Christmas is going to be a miserable one due of the recession.

We have heard people bewailing the fact that they won’t be able to afford to get the children what they want (or what they expect) this year, and see retailers in permanent sale mode.

So the suggestion of a holiday at Disneyland as an ideal gift is perhaps a little odd. In fact it’s the first time I think I’ve ever seen a holiday being suggested as a Christmas present. Maybe it’s an attempt to suggest to people that it really isn’t that bad, and all this talk about recession is over-dramatised. I wonder how long the advert will run …

The statements above remind us of what Christmas has become for many people – a chance to spend a lot of money. That’s why we seem to be being prepared for lots of disappointment from families who didn’t get what they want, and from retailers who found people didn’t shop until they dropped.

It’s true that part of Christmas is about celebrating with families and exchanging gifts. After all, there were angelic celebrations the night Jesus was born, and the wise men brought him valuable gifts …

But an important part of our Christmas celebration is who Jesus was and why Jesus came. The carols we sing are full of this wonderful news.

Our celebrations are not just about seeing family, buying presents, eating well, and watching James Bond – though all these things are great fun ! Christmas is about celebrating the birth of the one person who can really make a difference in our lives – clearing away the rubbish that lies there, and giving us a fresh start.

Why ? Simply because God loves you.

May I wish you a very happy Christmas, and a new year filled with hope and new beginnings.

Rev Martin Green

Dear Friends

At last we have some more good news.

The DAC, which is the church of England’s body that oversees the care of church buildings, has given their formal approval for the plans we presented to you to go forward. This is the church’s equivalent of planning permission, and they are very happy with the plans so far. We will have to get their continued permission as the interior detail develops, but this is an important step forward.

We are still awaiting the decision form the local planning authority, but as soon as that is granted, we can at last begin to develop the detailed plans for the church. It has taken such a long time, and I think none of us anticipated this process being quite so drawn out, but each stage we reach appears to have its own timescale to it and we have no control over how long that is to be. But we are getting there !

So in the meantime, let me tell you of some fund-raising activities, with the emphasis on fun :

Quiz Night & Fun Food Auction
Radford Semele Bell Ringers invite you to a Quiz Night & Fun Food Auction on Saturday 20th November 2010 (7.00 for 7.30 start), in the Community Hall, Lewis Road, Radford Semele. Tickets £5 per person in advance – bring a team or get a team together on the night. Tickets available from Claire (01926 886408) or Fiona (01926 425442). Come with a plate (or 2!) of food to be auctioned! Drinks & a Raffle!

Christmas cards
We have produced some Christmas Cards to be sold in aid of the restoration project. There are 3 beautiful designs, and they will be sold in packs of 6 cards (2 of each design) at £4 a pack. They will be sold in various places in the village – the Radford Rendezvous coffee mornings, church, post office, RED hair stylists, store and directly from Helen Robertson (01926 339978)

Please consider supporting us by sending out these Christmas cards this year.

Classical Guitar Recital
We are delighted to tell you that Ray Burley, the internationally renowned classical guitarist will be giving a classical guitar recital on Saturday Feb 5th at St Michael’s Bishops Itchington. Tickets will cost £12 (£10 concessions) and are available from Rev Martin Green (01926 613466).

This will be a stunningly good evening, so make sure you come along and bring friends! Tickets are already going, so buy yours early … we have limited numbers.

That’s all for now, but watch out for more events as they come …

With best wishes,
Rev Martin Green

All services are in the Community Hall, unless otherwise stated

QUALITY TIME – CHRISTINGLE
Dec 7th, 10.00am

Christingle is always a special moment in the Christmas calendar, and ours will kick off the season in our village. Proceeds from the service will be sent to the Children’s Society, to help disadvantaged children in the UK.

CAROLS BY CANDLELIGHT
Dec 21st, 6.00pm Candlelight Carol procession begins outside St Nicholas Church, 6.30pm service starts

Christmas this year will feel very different without the special atmosphere St Nicholas church gave us. You will see though that we plan to congregate outside the church at 6.pm on Sunday 21st, and walk through the village to the Community Hall, singing carols. It is a mark of acknowledging what has been lost, and also of determination and hope for what is to come. Do please join us, either at the church or along the way …

CAROLS ROUND THE TREE
Dec 24th, 5.00pm

This is always a special Christmas Eve time – it’s an informal carol service for all the family

CHRISTMAS EVE COMMUNION
Dec 24th, 11.30pm at Radford Semele Baptist Church

We are delighted to be sharing again with the Baptist church, and very grateful for their support and fellowship over this year – a year that has seen significant change for both of our church families.

CHRISTMAS DAY CELEBRATION
Dec 25th, 9.30am

Do join us – it may seem early, but if you have children, you will have been up for hours anyway ! A lovely break from opening presents !!

CAROL PRAISE
Dec 28th, 10.00am

An informal joint service to sing and celebrate.

… and can’t get enough of singing carols and celebrating the Christmas story, Christmas services at Radford Semele Baptist Church are as follows :

Carols by Candlelight Service : Sunday 21st at 4.30pm
Christmas Day Service: Christmas Day at 10:30am

Hope is rising

As I write this, there is a great tide of hope rising in America. They have a new President Elect, and they have been given promises of change and new, even historic, beginnings.

But there are also many who are struggling to find hope … people for whom the economic problems of the last few months have meant a loss of jobs, pensions, and maybe even homes.

As we enter the Christmas season, many have hopes for Christmas – some may be excited about a gift … others may be longing to see a loved one … and we will certainly have that annual hope that it might even snow on Christmas Day !!

Hope is something that runs through the Christmas story.

It begins with the hopes of an elderly priest and his wife, longing for a son, and hoping beyond hope that God would hear their prayer, and of the first encounter with the angel Gabriel.

We discover long-held hopes for freedom and justice for a downtrodden people, and God’s response to their cries – elements that resonate with so many parts of our world today.

We find hopes for a better life, for a new King, for a Saviour, for purpose, for change …

Some of this sounds all very familiar … these are hopes many still look for.

The Christmas story tells us that God understands the deep-felt hopes we have … and answers them in a baby; in something so fragile and dependant, hope comes.

Many will tell you today that this is nonsense – that God “probably” doesn’t exist anyway, so why bother. But many will also say that God has met their hopes and dreams in ways that were way beyond their imaginings ! So who is right ?

Hope can be dashed if our hope is based in the wrong things. As we have seen clearly this year, people whose lives are based in financial security have been seriously challenged. As banks have been shaken, and some collapsed, the effects are felt right across society.

Hope can be dashed too if we see hope as “wishful thinking”, like the child hoping for a new bike, or the latest computer game, or the buying of a Lottery ticket.

But for God, hope is about looking forward to something which is assured … It is about the value that God places on us, a value that comes out of His love for us.

And so Christmas is full of hope, because it is at Christmas that we celebrate God entering our fragile and vulnerable world, and walking alongside us through those uncertainties with an unchangeable and unassailable love.

With His love giving us value, we can face the uncertainties with a new perspective, unafraid of the changing and falling values of the world around us. We can dare to reach out to help others struggling under the weight of their lives. Hope in God helps us see things differently, and respond generously to one another.

May God open our eyes to the hope of Christmas, and live in that hope together in a new way.

Wishing you God’s blessing of hope this Christmas,
Martin