Weekly Worship.
Dear all,
below is the link for this Sunday's worship with South Bristol Methodist Church. I hope you can make time to watch, spend time with God and share in what is going on at Totterdown, Knowle, St Peter's and Bedminster Methodist Churches.
https://youtu.be/pczawuwQg-A
A couple of worship songs you might enjoy:
Love Shone Done by Matt Beckingham
(4) Love Shone Down (I had a dream) | NMCGB & Children's choir | Lyrics - YouTube
and Be Still My Soul sung by Kari Jobe
Kari Jobe - Be Still My Soul (In You I Rest) [Lyrics] - Bing video
Next week, Thursday 10th-Saturday 12th December, the lanterns we made will be displayed outside Bedminster Methodist Church, and a whole lot more lanterns will be decorating the shops on North Street and elsewhere in Bedminster from around 5pm till 8pm, and the shops will be opening late. Do go and have a look if you are able to, keeping socially distanced of course. You will see that the church's logo is on the Winter Lantern Parade's website as one of its sponsors and we are proud to be able to support it Home - Bedminster Winter Lantern Parade.
with very best wishes for a good week ahead,
Sally
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer”. Romans 12.12
Welcome to our weekly news and worship sheet
for Totterdown, St Peter’s, Knowle and Bedminster Methodist Churches.
We continue with worship online via youtube or zoom, and continue to send out the weekly newsletters by post. Another way to keep in touch is to join the South Bristol Methodist Church facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/SouthBristolMethodist
If you would like to receive this sheet and the SBMC video or access to our online worship by email, please contact me. The videos and livestream are also available on our website, southbristolmc.org.uk and on youtube at SouthBristolMethodistChurch.
Church Services (now confirmed)
Dec 6th Totterdown Gift Day led by Rev Sally; St Peter’s Gift Day led by Rev Philip Nott.
Dec 13th Knowle, Rev Anthony Hick; St Peter’s Rev Sally/Jimmy Tariq; Totterdown led by Stephen Holliday.
Dec 20th Services at all churches at 10.30. Totterdown Christmas service at 4pm.
Christmas Day: Totterdown 10am,
Knowle 10.45am (provisional please check next week)
Government guidance indicates that after December 2nd churches will be allowed to open for worship in Tier 3, but those who attend must not mix with anyone outside their own household. If you are attending worship please be careful about this.
Reading
Isaiah 40.1-5
1 Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Mark 1.1-8
1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”—
3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”
4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
This Year I’m Not Coming
This year I’m not coming.
I’m not coming because I’m fed up with coming every year.
On your earth no one listens to me.
I speak of friendship and you kill each other.
I told you to help each other and instead you think of yourselves.
I told you to become poor and instead you always strive to become rich.
I told you to break bread with the hungry and you exploit them.
I told you not to rob, and you instead make away with the money of the poor.
How can I come on your earth – which I gave you?!
Listen to me closely. I have but one thing to say.
Repent, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near…..
Extracts from a poem by 13 year old Massimilio Tortis, written for Christmas Eve mass in a public square in Italy, 1992. Look out for the rest in next week’s newsletter.
Reflection
The beautiful and inspiring words of Isaiah are familiar – not just from Christmas readings, or from Handel’s Messiah, but also from Martin Luther King’s famous speech in which he set forward a vision of a world where black and white children would play together without segregation or discrimination. The words show a God who is compassionate towards his people, and who holds out a future of hope and equity where his glory will shine.
John the Baptist also took Isaiah’s words, because he somehow knew that Jesus was the Lord referred to, and that he, John, was the messenger who would show God’s standards and get people thinking so that they were ready to hear Jesus when he came.
John’s message, like Massimilio’s is shocking. He tells us that knowing our need for God’s forgiveness, and wanting a new start, is just the beginning: we need also to be open to God’s Holy Spirit, and willing to change and to learn, so that we can follow what Jesus calls us to do.
Learning and changing, admitting we’ve been wrong in the past, does get harder as we get older. We want comfort and familiarity, reassurance, not challenge –for many people, especially if you are battling ill health and limited mobility, it seems as if there are plenty enough challenges in day to day living.
But, young or old, it does us good and keeps us young if we are curious rather than threatened by things that are new, willing to admit we’ve been wrong, and willing to be seized by a sense of wonder and awe – the living God is not only faithful and constant but also forever changing, always creating new things. Let’s keep our eyes and our hearts open so we can share in what God is doing among us, and see a little bit of his glory this Christmas season.
Rev Sally
A hymn
Like a candle flame
Flickering small in our darkness
Uncreated light
Shines through infant eyes.
God is with us, alleluia.
Come to save us, alleluia.
Alleluia!
Stars and angels sing,
Yet the earth sleeps in shadows
Can this tiny spark
Set a world on fire?
Yet his light shall shine
Fom our lives, Spirit blazing,
As we touch the flame
Of his holy fire.
God is with us, alleluia.
Come to save us, alleluia.
Alleluia!
Graham Kendrick
A prayer
Lord God,
Holy and wonderful,
May we be awed by your presence,
Bowled over by your beauty, astounded by your love, and challenged by your compassion.
Give us curiosity and a desire to learn – help us to be willing to change and grow,
To stretch our understanding of who you are,
To see you reflected in the faces of unlikely people
And to be reminded of how unlikely it is that we too, have come to worship the new born king of all creation. Amen
Carols on your doorstep
During the run up to Christmas many of us like to go to a Carol Service or Community Carol Singing event, this year we cannot do that but that does not have to stop us having a good sing with our neighbours and our community.
On Sunday 20th December at 5:30pm the whole country has the chance to join in Carols on your Doorstep. All you need to do is have a radio at hand. That can be a DAB radio, Freeview on your TV (725) or the Premier Radio phone app. Tune into Premier Radio who will play 3 or 4 carols for everyone to sing along to.
This is a good chance to dust off that festive jumper. It will be family-friendly so children welcome to bring something to shake or rattle along too. Tell your neighbours!
The Great Nativity Trail
Lots of you have joined in and we hope if you can you will follow the trail and that you will encourage your families to download the map and story and fill in the gaps as they travel around the streets of Knowle, Totterdown and even parts of Brislington and Headley Park!
Have a look at the SouthBristolMC.org.uk website or email nativitytrail@gmail.com
There will be no Christingle services this year, but families can collect ‘Christmas in a Bag’ from outside Totterdown Methodist Church 11.30-1pm and outside Knowle Methodist Church 1.30-3pm on Sunday 20th December.
St Peter’s and Totterdown churches both have gift days on 6th December, when they collect Christmas gifts for the homeless or families who are struggling.
For details about gift day offerings, and what to do if you are not attending church, please see separate sheet or get in touch with Andrew Matthews or Derek Rees.
Rev Sally Spencer