A busy weekend at St Marys with a most successful evening on Saturday and a well attended service on Sunday.
Saturday night we were treated to a Burns Night Supper in the Village hall. A really splendid occasion wonderfully catered by Hilary Platts and her team, the pudding being duly addressed in the traditional way, a Dram was drunk to toast the night and the arrival of a new baby grandson for Chris and Colin Field. After the wonderful food David Blackford played his accordion to accompany the singing including Auld Lang Sine. With the raffle and the sale of the lovely Primulas on the tables a total of £466 was raised for the New Rooms. Fantastic!!
The 10 o'clock service was well attended and we were joined by the Lay Chair of the Deanery Synod who is visiting all the parishes in his Deanery. In his sermon Father Stephen talked about the new Baptism Service, the wording of which no longer mentions the Devil. Father Stephen concluded that it is difficult to put words to mysteries.
The Choir sang 'The Crown of Roses' words by A.N. Pleshcheev translated by G. Dearmer and music by P.I.Tchaikovsky.

Next week, our family service will celebrate Candlemas!

Our first Mattins of 2014 took place on a beautiful sunny dry morning, such a contrast from recent times! We return to the canticles of Venite, Te Deum and Benedictus, and the psalm set for today was Psalm 40. The readings from the King James version of the Bible were from Isiah and St John's Gospel. It was the second reading, describing how the disciples moved from following St John the Baptist to following Jesus. father Stephen took up this story in his sermon, talking about how John had gone on to challenge Herod, It is as we are transformed by our relationship with Christ we also must go out and proclaim the good news.
The Choir sang 'A Closer Walk with God' setting by CV Stanford. 
Only one ticket remaining for the Burns Supper next Saturday night which promises to be an excellent event.

Winter sunshine in the Church yard

Epiphany Flowers

In our Eucharist this Sunday we commemorated the Baptism of Our Lord, Both readings related to the story of Christ's baptism in the River Jordan, In his sermon Father Stephen talked of the importance of water, including his story of swimming in the sea and loosing his footing and nearly drowning! He impressed on us how baptism symbolises drowning and being reborn to a new life in Christ.
The Choir sang 'Ave Verum. setting by W.A. Mozart.

The last few tickets for the Burns Night Supper on January 25th are available from the Church Wardens!

Happy New Year to every one!! This Sunday our family Service celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, Twelfth Night, marks the move of the Christmas celebrations into the Epiphany period. To mark this the Choir and Junior Choir sang the Twelve Days of Christmas (Traditional Arr. J Rutter) and between each verse, the narrator explained how this traditional song could be related to the Creed. Well Done Harriet for your reading, and the Choir for singing, this was instead of a sermon, and was a very jolly presentation.The adoration of the Baby Jesus by the Magi is an important part of the Christmas story, and during our Offertory Hymn the Sunday School enacted the arrival of the three Kings or Magi while the Congregation sang 'We three Kings of Orient Are'
The service, which gave us a very enjoyable start to the new year, was followed by coffee.

Don't forget to get your tickets for the Burns Night Supper on Jan25th 7pm in the Church Hall. £10 each for a 3 course supper in traditional Scottish Style. Tickets from the Church Wardens!

Three different representations of the Magi