Dear All Saints Family,
We’ve made it to Christmas! 2021 has been another year of confusion, worry and concern for many of us. Yet the truth of Christmas still shines out to everyone of us, inviting us into the beautiful truth that no matter how dark things get, the darkness will never overcome the light of Jesus Christ, the one who came into the world to bring life, hope and healing. Today he is calling everyone of us to place our trust in him and receive his gifts of hope, love, joy and peace over this time and into 2022. Maybe right now is the moment when you want to say yes to his invitation. If so, I encourage you, wherever you are reading this to take a moment and turn that moment into a prayer:
Dear Jesus,
You are the gift of light and life to this world and to my life.
Today I choose to trust that you have the future of this world safely in your hands.
I choose to let go of my worries and trust that you will give me what I need as I journey into 2022 with you.
Flood me with hope, love, joy and peace and give me courage to live into these gifts day by day as I follow you.
Amen.
I want to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful staff and volunteer teams who have done an incredible job of blessing our community with their presence and ministry over this year, right up until the end of advent. You don’t know the half of what they have been getting up to to support the day to day ministry of All Saints, whether its been making sure all our events and programmes go well right through to serving those who otherwise would go without this Christmas time with meals and presents. These amazing people, are to modest probably to tell you, but they have worked very, very hard so on behalf of us all, we thank them, are so proud of them and celebrate what God has been doing through them. You are all amazing!
A few quick notices from me:
SUNDAY 26th Dec and 2nd Jan
The Wardens and I have decided that it would be best to not hold in-person services either this coming Sunday (26th) or the following Sunday, 2nd January. This is in order to provide a proactive, rather than reactive response to any changes that may or not be made regarding COVID-based restrictions after Christmas. There will be an online service offering provided on 2nd January on our youtube and social media pages. Hopefully we will be back for our 9am and 10:45am in-person services on Sunday, 9th January.
Open to God Prayer and Worship Evening, 5th Jan – 8:30pm
At the moment this evening is still booked to go ahead in-person, regarding that restrictions are the same. If changes happen before this date, we will offer this evening as an online-only Zoom-based event. We will let you know confirmation of this by 4th Jan.
I understand going online will restrict some members of our community from attending. We share your frustration and your prayers that this will be a short-term situation. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
May you know the deep peace of Jesus Christ that passes all understanding over Christmas time and beyond.
Love and prayers,
Craig Gaudion
Vicar