Season’s Greetings
The staff team, Stephen, Bryan, Dan, Andrejs, Margaret, Robert and Nick, and our Churchwardens, Neville and Ian, wish you and your families a joyous Christmas and a prosperous New Year. They especially wish to thank all those who have given so generously of their time and resources over the past year.
High Notes Rest!
Our thanks to our Director of Music, Robert Greenhill, our organist Nick Miller, our choral scholars, guest singers and volunteers, along with all of our musicians for providing us with such wonderful and inspiring music throughout Advent and Christmas. The music was stunning, reflecting everyones hard work in both planning and rehearsing. The choir are on a well deserved break on 29th December. We use our Folk Tunes setting on that Sunday with organ and guest musicians.
EPIPHANY
The arrival of the Magi, after their long journey following a star seeking Jesus, is one of the oldest festivals of the Christian Church. In the Eastern and Russian Orthodox Churches, this is the equivalent of Christmas. St John’s will celebrate Epiphany with a festival Eucharist on Sunday, 5th January 2020, at 10am. There will be a procession of the Magi and Presentation of Gifts before the crib as part of the service. Afterwards, there will be a reception of fizz and finger food. Members of the congregation are asked to bring a plate of finger food with them and, in order to help with numbers, please sign up on the form, indicating that they will be able to attend and what food they will be bringing with them.
Epiphany Carols
6 pm, 12th January 2020
After our fantastic Advent and Christmas carol services, what next? Epiphany carols! Robert, Nicky and the choir have prepared another special treat to conclude our seasonal celebrations marking the events of the Epiphany season. Featuring music by John Williams, Somewhere in My Memory (from Home Alone), John Rutter’s Candelight Carol, The Call from Ralph Vaughan William’s Five Mystical Songs, Nunc Dimittis by Katie Melua, The Maji’s Epiphany Dreams by Sorenson and On the Nature of Daylight by Max Richter, the service will be followed with fizz and galettes des rois. A great way to beat the post-Christmas blues!
Church Flowers
Thank you to all those who have donated towards the cost of decorating the church for Christmas. Our thanks go also to Laura Thompson, our florist, who has done a splendid job with her floral arrangements.
Services in Church between Christmas and New Year
There will be no midweek services until Thursday, 2rd January 2020. There will only be a 10am service on Christmas Day and 29th December.
Parish Office
The office will be closed for Christmas and will reopen as normal on Thursday, 2nd January. A member of the clergy team will be in residence in case of pastoral need. Messages can be left on the office answering machine as they will be collected regularly.
Rainy Day Appeal
Raised: £26,958
Target: £40,000
Two years ago we undertook some very essential repairs to the roof, gutters and parapets. If you look up on the outside north or south sides of the church, you’ll notice the beautiful new stonework. To fund the works, however, we had to borrow £200,000 from the Diocese of London.
The goal of our Rainy Day Appeal is to raise £40,000 to cover this year’s repayment commitment and interest. There are 160 metres of guttering, which works out at £250 per meter (£200 per metre if gift aided). To clear one or more metres or for more information about Gift Aid, speak to Bryan Sollenberger. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far.
Bible Book Club
8th January, 7pm
Bible book club meets once a month to read and to discuss the gospel reading for the coming Sunday and concludes with Compline. For further information, speak to one of the clergy.
