WELCOME SHEET
For the period of lockdown churches will be closed, except for advertised
times, for private prayer
The
Benefice of St. James, High Wych, St.
Mary, Gilston and St. Botolph, Eastwick
For the period of lockdown churches will be closed, except for the
advertised times, for private prayer
Sunday 29th November – 1st Sunday of Advent
9.30am Holy Communion, St James, High Wych
From next Sunday our churches will be open again for services as
advertised and from next week Evening prayer will be at St Botolph, Eastwick
and St. Mary, Gilston on Tuesdays and Fridays at 6.30pm.
Benefice churches will be open for private prayer. St James is open on Sundays, Tuesdays, and
Thursdays from 2pm until 4pm. An information notice is displayed inside and
outside the church.
For advice on opening St Botolph’s and St Mary’s Churches, for private
prayer. Please contact Sarah Bagnall
who will advise.
Prayer
for this time of uncertainty
Keep us, good
Lord, under the shadow of your mercy in this time of uncertainty and
distress. Sustain and support the anxious and fearful and lift up all who are
brought low; that we may rejoice in your comfort knowing that nothing can
separate us from your love in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen
Please pray for those who are
ill and those who care for them: Mary Bates, Tara
King, Sue Benson. Joyce Sullivan. Denise Murphy.
(Please let me know if anybody
is now better and needs removing from this list, or needs to be added to the long-term
sick list)
And
for the long-term sick: Jenny Pemble,
Jennifer, Ruth Ashton, Kelly
Osborne,
Donna
Reynolds, Ian Neilson, Emma Wharton,
Doreen Cunningham, Malcolm Law, William Monk, Jean Beeching, Rita Bird, Adele, Rosemarie, The Rev’d
David Wright (past priest for our Benefice), Deidre and Harold Rawlings Sue
Saunders,
Linda Wilby, Daphne Austin, John
Ross, Andrew, and Len Castree.
Recently
Departed and those who mourn
them:
Joanne Appleby
Anniversaries
of Death David John
Goggin, Roy Anthony Webb, Pam Bellingham.
For
Prayer, this week:·
Rev.d Su Tarran, for the
time and care she is giving us during our vacancy. ·
Bishop Alan, Bishop Michael
and Bishop Richard. ·
The Parish of Thorley. Rev’d
Gaz Tracey, Readers Chris Carr, Katharine Roper and lay workers. ·
The Parish of Oxley, St Matthew (Watford) In Vacancy.
Thanksgiving
for the work of Fr David Shepherd over the past 22 years – now retired.
Prayers:
For a new Vicar for the Parish and for the plans to make the church building
more inclusive.
ACP: The Lusitanian
Church (Extra-Provincial to the Archbishop of Canterbury); Jorge Pina Cabral -
Bishop of the Lusitanian Church
This Sunday – 29th November –
The First Sunday of Advent
Old Testament: Isaiah 64. 1-9
Psalm: 80. 1-8, 18-20
New Testament: 1 Corinthians 1. 3-9
Gospel: Mark 13. 24-end
Next Sunday – 6th December – The
Second Sunday of Advent
Old Testament: Isaiah 40: 1-11
Psalm: 85. 1-2, 8-end
New Testament: 2 Peter. 3.8-15a
Gospel: Mark 1. 1-8
Would you like to join our advent course this year? Rev’d Su will lead us through a consideration of the Magnificat -
Mary’s Song, Benedictus - Zechariah’s song, Song of Simeon - Nunc Dimitis,
and the song of the Angels -.Luke 2:8-19 . We will meet on Zoom on Mondays at
7.30pm. If you would like to join, please email Su on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and she will send course details and zoom joining instructions
before the first session on 30.11.2020.
Prayer
for Growth God of Mission send your Holy Spirit to give vision to our planning,
wisdom to our actions, and power to our witness. Help our churches grow in
numbers, in spiritual commitment to you and service to our local community,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
St Albans Diocese advice about Coronavirus,
how it effects church services and precautions can be found on, www.stalbans.anglican.org this is updated daily.
Food
Bank – items are always needed for desperate families; please leave items in St
James or donate in-store while you shop.
During our
vacancy please contact the Readers or the Church Wardens if help is
needed. Thank you.
Benefice
contacts: Readers: Joy and Roger Burridge: 01279 444870 Judith
Denton: 01279 723714
Lay Leader of
Worship: Janet Bellingham 07882743627
Church
Wardens: High
Wych: Janet
Bellingham 07882743627
Sam Clark07717542524
Gilston
& Eastwick: Sarah Bagnall
01279 441644
Michael Shaw:
01279 726792
Safeguarding
OfficersHigh
Wych: Cath Sharples 01279 600996
Gilston
with Eastwick: Sarah Bagnall 01279 441644
High Wych PCC Secretary
Gemma Martin 01279 427906
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Gilston with
Eastwick PCC Secretary: Christine Law 01279 411646. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
“Eastwick
& Gilston Parish Magazine” Editor.Christine Law
“The Link” for High Wych. Editor: Ali Geller
01279 723677 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Articles are always welcome for both
magazines. Unusual experience? Different holiday? Write about it and send it
to Ali or Christine. Web site: www.stjameshighwych.org.uk
Events to be
advertised on the Welcome Sheet, please contact
Christine Law 01279 411646 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT (B)
COLLECT Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of
light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came
to us in great humility; that on the last day, when he shall come again in his
glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life
immortal; through him who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the
Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
FIRST READING Isaiah 64.1–9 A reading from the book of the prophet
Isaiah
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so
that the mountains would quake at your presence – as when fire kindles
brushwood and the fire causes water to boil – to make your name known to your
adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did
awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at
your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye
has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet
those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were
angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. We have all
become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy
cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us
away. There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of
our iniquity. Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our
potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD,
and do not remember iniquity for ever. Now consider, we are all your people.
SECOND READING 1 Corinthians 1.3–9 A reading from the first
letter of Paul to the Corinthians
My brothers and sisters: Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you
because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every
way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind – just
as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you – so that you are
not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be
blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were
called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
GOSPEL Mark 13.24–37 -
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark - Glory be to
you, O Lord
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘In those days, after that
suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and
the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be
shaken. Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in clouds” with great power
and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four
winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. From the fig tree
learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its
leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking
place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this
generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven
and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But about that day
or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the
Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is
like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in
charge, each with his work and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.
Therefore, keep awake – for you do not know when the master of the house will
come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he
may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all:
Keep awake.’
POST COMMUNION O Lord our God, make us watchful and keep us
faithful as we await the coming of your Son our Lord; that, when he shall
appear, he may not find us sleeping in sin but active in his service and joyful
in his praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
