Dear Friends,
Why blame God
when it’s our fault?
For my last letter of the year I say: “Don’t blame God when things go wrong, but take responsibility for your own actions and the suffering they can cause.” That’s my resolution for the New Year and one I suggest can make a big difference if we all follow it!
Dear Friends,
Patients were encouraged by a woman who walked around a hospital ward in her dressing gown singing, “Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger, my love is stronger than your fear. Don’t be afraid. My love is stronger and I have promised, promised to be always near.”
Dear Friends,
Strictly come dancing
with the Lord of the Dance!
YOU can do anything with the right people around you is a lesson that was reinforced for me as I watched the final of Strictly Come Dancing. YOU can also be one of the right people that encourage someone to do something they never thought they could two. It takes two to tango!
Love is found in the bleak mid-winter
Read: Luke 1: 1-20
In the bleak mid-winter,
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow,
Dear Friends,
In the bleak mid-winter,
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow,
in the bleak mid-winter,
long ago…
It’s not the weather that is making this winter so bleak; or the wind that is moaning. It’s our mood that is bleak and our words that are moaning. Understandably so in this bleak mind-winter.
Lives pregnant with hope
Luke 1: 26-38
I want to say “don’t be afraid” of angels and prophets or the Word of God that seems to be speaking to you from nowhere. I want to say “don’t be troubled” by voices of strangers in your kitchen who greet you as a friend and tell you to do the impossible.
Dear Friends,
Ready, steady go – another marathon begins!
I never did like running — which is why I was a goalkeeper — but I am now told that I have got to run another marathon. Yes, another one!
Being in Bournemouth reminds me how much I hated running because I was at Boarding school near Southbourne and when the teachers wanted a break we would be sent off on a run. One route was to the top of Hengisbury Head and back or the alternative was a long return plod along the promenade to Bournemouth Pier.
Dear Friends,
I was told the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was waiting for a telephone call from me so I gave him a call and he had a message for me. He’s got a message for you to and I’ve been told I can pass on his number, so here it is. If you are speaking to someone else who wants to hear a voice of hope you can give them the number as well.
WORSHIP GROUP SERVICE : SUNDAY 13th DECEMBER 2020 : ©BROADWAY UNITED REFORMED CHURCH
LOOKING FORWARD IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST
Order of Service
WELCOME MARK
CALL TO WORSHIP MARK
HYMN 134 R&S On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry …
On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
Announces that the Lord is nigh;
Come then and harken, for he brings
Glad tidings from the King of kings.
Then cleansed be every breast from sin;
Make straight the way for God within;
And in each heart prepare a home
Where such a mighty guest may come.
Dear Friends,
What do these trees have in common?
Some officers from Wychavon Planning Department apparently visited Church yesterday and decided “we don’t need planning permission for Christmas Trees!” They probably went away either angry that we had wasted their time or having a good laugh at our expense or that of their boss for sending them.