Advent & Christmas Services & Activities

Christmas Bazaar
Saturday 25 November
10.00 am – 1.00 pm, St Andrew’s Church
11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN
(for the Wickford & Runwell Team Ministry – St Andrew’s, St Catherine’s & St Mary’s)

• School Choirs performing
• Guess the weight of the cake
• Tombola & Bottle Tombola
• Christmas Gifts & Crafts
• How many sweets?
• Cakes & Produce
• Name the Teddy
• Children’s Lucky Dip
• Meet Santa
• Refreshments
& Grand Christmas Draw

Mission to Seafarers talk & Sea Shanty singing
Friday 1 December 2023, 7.00 pm
St Andrew’s Church, 11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN

Hear Rev Paul Trathen, Port Development Manager for Mission to Seafarers, speak about the work of the charity around the world and hear Sea Shanties sung by local group The Crayhillbillies. Part of ‘Unveiled’, the fortnightly Friday night arts and performance event at St Andrew’s Church.

Advent Coffee Morning

Saturday 2 December, 9.00 am - 12 noon

St Catherine’s Church Hall 

Homemade cakes, Tombola, Bric-a-Brac, Raffle, Refreshments etc.

Advent Services

• Mondays in Advent: Advent Night Prayer with Reflection, 8pm in St Catherine’s (4, 11, 18 December)
• Sunday 10th December: Advent Carol Service, 6.30pm in St Catherine’s
• Wednesday 13th December: Messy Church, 4pm in St Andrew’s
• Sunday 17th December: Parish Carol Service, 6.30pm in St Andrew’s
• Friday 22nd December: ‘Blue Christmas’ service, 6.30pm in St Mary’s for those who are grieving and for whom a Happy Christmas will be difficult

A Service of Lessons and Carols

Tuesday 5 December, 6.30 pm

St Catherine's Church

Beauchamps High School
Invites you to
A Service of lessons
and Carols
Everyone Welcome
Free Entry
Tuesday 5th December 2023
St. Catherines Church,
Southend Road, Wickford

Take Note in concert
Saturday 9 December, 3.00 pm
St Andrew’s Church, 11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN

Take Note are an all-male a Cappella group of up to 12 singers formed in 2015. They sing many genres of music across many eras in four-part harmony. Their wide-ranging repertoire includes traditional male voice choir numbers, popular songs from the 50s and 60s sung in close harmony doo wop style, comedy items and other a Cappella arrangements that they think will appeal to their audiences. This concert is a fundraiser for St Andrew’s Church. No tickets required. Donations requested on the day.

Messy Nativity

Wednesday13 December, 4 p.m. for 2 hours

St Andrew's Church, 11 London Road Wickford, SS2 0AN

​Messy Church is a way of being church for families and others. It is Christ-centred, for all ages, based on creativity, hospitality and celebration.

Film Night: It's a Wonderful Life. 

Friday 15 December 2023, 7.00 pm
St Andrew’s Church, 11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN

The story of dejected & desperate George Bailey, who's spent his whole life in the small town of Bedford Falls, but longs to explore the world. Reaching rock bottom, he starts to believe that everyone in his life would be better off if he had never been born. An angel shows him how important a role he's had in the lives of friends & family.

Sunday 24th December, Christmas Eve:

• Eucharists 9.30am St Mary’s, 10am St Andrew’s, 11am St Catherine’s
• Christingle Service 2pm, 3pm, 4pm in St Catherine’s
• Crib Service 2pm and 3.30pm in St Mary’s
• Crib Service 5pm in St Andrew’s
• Midnight Mass 11.30pm in St Andrew’s, St Catherine’s and St Mary’s

Monday 25th December, Christmas Day:

• Eucharist 9.30am in St Mary’s
• Eucharist, 10am in St Andrew’s
• Eucharist, 10.30am in St Catherine’s

Sunday 31st December:

• Joint Eucharist, 10.30am in St Mary’s 
• Songs of Praise, 6.30pm in St Catherine’s

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Graham Kendrick - The Candle Song (Like A Candle Flame).

Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

 

Here are the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Services in the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry. All are most welcome.

See the Parish of Wickford and Runwell website for more information. To find out more about Christingle Services, see The Children's Society website.

Wishing you a blessed Christmas and a happy and healthy 2023. Love from Revd Jonathan, Revd Sue, Revd Steve, and our Licensed Lay Ministers, Emma and Mike.

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Graham Kendrick - Song For Christingle.

Youth-led All-Age Christingle Service (2)

The All-Age Christingle Service planned and led by our Pathfinder Group at St John's Seven Kings included a Christingle demonstration, Human Christingle, sweet sharing, information about and prayers for the Children's Society, 'Show me the way to shine for Jesus' song, and a Christingle procession. Our thanks go to the Pathfinders and their leaders for leading us in worship so well this morning.

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Tim Hughes - Here I Am To Worship (Light Of The World) .

Youth-led All-Age Christingle Service

Looking forward to our All-Age Christingle Service (the first of our Christmas Services at St John's Seven Kings - see above) which has been planned and will be led by our Pathfinder Group. The Service includes a human Christingle video created by our Pathfinders.

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Kate Rusby - Diadem.  

St John's Christmas Leaflet

Does Christmas start with telly ads in October?
Does Christmas start with the office party?
Does Christmas start with a fight on Eastenders?

No! Christmas starts with Christ.

The Christmas story has been around for a long time, but today it's being forgotten. Just 12 per cent of adults know the nativity story, and more than one-third of children don’t know whose birthday it is. Meanwhile, 51 per cent of people now say the birth of Jesus is irrelevant to their Christmas.

Together we can reverse the trend. Some of the UK’s leading Christian groups, including the Church of England, the Evangelical Alliance and Bible Society, are coming together because they believe Christmas is worth saving. Christmas Starts with Christ is a campaign aimed at helping churches to make Christ and the amazing story of his birth the focus of the nation’s favourite time of year.

The campaign kicks off on December 1st this year with the first-ever nationwide Christmas Starts Sunday, at the beginning of Advent.  The campaign features posters in festive green and red which focus strongly on the message they want to get across, that Christmas starts with Christ.  There are three posters. They ask people to think about when Christmas starts. Is it with the traditional fight on Eastenders? Is it when Christmas ads appear in October? Or is it at the office party? There is also a radio ad and three extra posters, using the same design, which churches can customise for free.

Francis Goodwin of ChurchAds.net, which is coordinating this campaign, says: ‘Christmas is a time when Christians shine light in their communities. But the good news is being lost. We can’t sit back and let that happen. We’re passionate about bringing the church together to remind everyone of the true meaning of Christmas.’

Steve Clifford, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance says, “I’m excited by this campaign, which really seeks to show that the Church is good news for the nation in every season; not least of all at Christmas when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our saviour. The world needs to know that’s why we do what we do.”

Arun Arora, Director of Communications, Church of England says, “Churches do a huge amount to carry the Christmas story into their local communities, through word and deed. Christmas Starts With Christ uses a common logo to ‘join the dots’ of these activities and project a powerful message to our nation that the reason for the season is the birth of Jesus.”

This Christmas let us project that same powerful message as we invite others to church and send Christmas greetings by post, email or social media. The reason for the season is Jesus – Christmas starts with Christ!

Advent & Christmas at St John's Seven Kings -
November/December 2013

 

November  

Saturday 30^th   10.30am          Christmas Bazaar – Refreshments, handicrafts, cakes, raffles, preserves, toiletries, games & toys for children, Christmas gifts and many other stalls. Visit Santa in his grotto.

December  

 

Sunday 1^st         

10.00am        Advent Reflections Service - poems,  readings and songs

 6.30pm         Advent Service - Seven Kings Fellowship of Churches

Saturday 7^th       6.00pm          Tamil Carol Service

Sunday 15^th    

10.00am          All-age Christingle Service - a colourful service of music & light (collection for The Children’s Society)

6.30pm          Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at St Peter’s Aldborough Hatch - traditional carols and readings

Tuesday 17^th     7.00pm          Carol Singing around the Parish - wrap up warm. Collecting for Haven

House Hospice.

Sunday 22^nd      6.30pm          Service of Nine Lessons and Carols by candlelight  - traditional carols and readings

Christmas Eve (Tuesday 24^th)

5.00pm        All-age Nativity Service - dressing up & tree lighting - fun for all. Bring a present to

leave under the tree for children helped by Barnados. Collection to Haven House Hospice.

11.30pm     First Holy Communion of Christmas

Christmas Day (Wednesday 25^th)

 

8.00am         Holy Communion - Book of Common Prayer

10.00am       Christmas All-age Holy Communion - children, bring a gift you have received to show others

New Years Eve (Tuesday 31^st)

11.30pm       Watchnight Service - welcoming the New Year in prayer and reflection

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Red Mountain Music - Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus. 

Christmas at St John's (1)

We had our All-Age Christingle Service and Service of Nine Lessons and Carols by candlelight today at St John's Seven Kings. Also above are photographs from our Youth Group's Christmas Party and our Christmas Bazaar plus our Christmas Tree. During the week we have had both the Aldborough E-Act Free School and Downshall Primary School in church for Christmas shows and assemblies. New opportunities this year have included the link with the Free School and a Carol Service held at a local supported housing complex, which has led on to a monthly service also being requested. Tomorrow will find us carol singing in the parish, while on Tuesday we have our Carol Tea.

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Solomon Burke - Silent Night.

Christmas: Giving or Getting?

Today, at St John's Seven Kings, the number of people able to get to our services was understandably affected by the snow which makes the church look beautiful in the early morning light. Nevertheless, those of us there thought about the work of the Children's Society and, using their Christingle resources, the extent to which people are prepared to give up things in order to achieve something else.

We said that giving up things is something that we are all generally prepared to do if it means we can achieve something that we want. Sometimes, the something we achieve is for others but more often it is for ourselves.

The difference that we see in Jesus and one of the reasons why we still remember and follow him today seeing him as the light of the world, as symbolised by the Christingle candle, is that when he gave something up, he actually gave up everything – his very own life, when he died on the cross – and he did it not to achieve something for himself but instead something for us and for all people, that we might be saved from the wrong things that harm us and our world and become part of God’s family. That is what the red ribbon on the Christingle reminds us of and it is the reason why we are here today and the reason why we love and follow Jesus.

Around this time of year it’s very easy to get distracted by the things we’re hoping to get at Christmas. It’s very easy to think of Christmas itself as a time of getting rather than giving or as a time of giving so that we will get. But we need to remember that, when Jesus was born as a human baby, he gave up everything that he had had previously as God in order to become human and that, when he was a man, he gave up everything once again by dying in order to save us.

Christmas is therefore primarily about giving, not getting. We need to remember that the measure of Christian’s life is not what we get, but what we give, and what we give up for others.

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Jon Boden and Sam Lee - On Christmas Day It Happened So / Lisa Knapp - Coventry Carol.