Dear Friends<\/p>\n
Some bright spark reminded me recently that we\u2019re heading rapidly towards Christmas!!\u00a0 The truth is Christmas cards have been in the shops for a couple of months at least, gifts are appearing, schools are working towards their Nativity Plays and we\u2019re beginning to plan for the Church Services, but before all that takes place there are various other things happening.<\/p>\n
By the time you read this letter Boys\u2019 Brigade will have had their Dedication Service, something which I omitted to do last year, so it\u2019s great the boys and officers will be with us to celebrate and dedicate themselves once again to their ongoing work and activities.\u00a0 A week later will be our Remembrance Service when we will take time to be remember and be thankful to all those men and women who have given their lives, and continue to do so, for our freedom.\u00a0 I sometimes think we take our freedom for granted simply because we live in ways which allow us to speak freely, live our faith without fear of being attacked or worse.<\/p>\n
How fortunate and blessed by God that through His Son, Jesus, we have also been set free from our sins, that we can live in freedom from our past mistakes, in the knowledge that we are loved beyond measure.\u00a0 Very recently we sang these words from the song Here is love vast as the ocean:<\/p>\n
Grace and love, like mighty rivers<\/em> That last line creates a very powerful image of God bending down to reach us, to show His unending love for each and every one of us, to enable us to be renewed and restored to a full relationship with Him.<\/p>\n Christmas is rapidly approaching, and with those words in mind, maybe we can image God \u2018bending\u2019 down to us through Jesus being born \u2013 God gave us Jesus as a gift who continues to live among us today through the power of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n On the evening of Sunday, 29th<\/sup> November, the first Sunday in Advent, we invite you to join us for an Alternativity Meal as a way of beginning to prepare ourselves for Christmas.\u00a0 We will share a simple meal along with readings and reflections to help us focus on this incredible time when our Saviour came as a baby, with all that that entails.\u00a0 If you would like to join us, please let me know so we can organise the meal.<\/p>\n In the meantime, I hope and pray you will know the presence of our Living Lord Jesus as we journey through November and into Advent together.<\/p>\n Love and Blessings<\/p>\n Joan<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Friends Some bright spark reminded me recently that we\u2019re heading rapidly towards Christmas!!\u00a0 The truth is Christmas cards have been in the shops for a couple of months at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8z2vw-bl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3657,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/dance-classes\/","url_meta":{"origin":703,"position":0},"title":"Dance Classes","author":"admin","date":"15 August 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Tappy Toes dance classes for boys and girls (6 months to 5 years) will meet in the church halls on Wednesday mornings, see details below. https:\/\/www.tappytoes.com\/franchisees\/toddler-classes-glasgow\/","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Dance-Class-Aug-2022-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Dance-Class-Aug-2022-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Dance-Class-Aug-2022-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Dance-Class-Aug-2022-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Dance-Class-Aug-2022-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Dance-Class-Aug-2022-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":411,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/fit-for-a-king-clincarthill-church-holiday-club\/","url_meta":{"origin":703,"position":1},"title":"FIT FOR A KING – Holiday Club","author":"admin","date":"4 August 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We will have a fun filled programme of sports, music, crafts and messy games, with Clincarthill Puppets also joining in the fun. On the Wednesday, there will be a fencing workshop and on the Thursday we are planning an outing to the David Livingston Centre between 10am and 4pm. Boys\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"fit for a king sq","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/fit-for-a-king-sq-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":691,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/letter-from-our-session-clerk-oct-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":703,"position":2},"title":"Letter from our Session Clerk \u2013 Oct 2015","author":"admin","date":"1 October 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Friends in Clincarthill, What a wonderful spell of weather we are having, an Indian summer, and wonderful to see all the leaves turn to the beautiful shades of gold, orange and brown. Thanks be to God for the seasons!!\u00a0 We are in the season of Harvest, and our Harvest\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":364,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/glasgow-philharmonic-male-voice-choir\/","url_meta":{"origin":703,"position":3},"title":"Glasgow Philharmonic Male Voice Choir","author":"admin","date":"4 April 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Glasgow Stedfast Association are holding their annual fund raising concert in Clincarthill Church on Thursday 10th April 2014, 7.30pm to 9.00pm. Proceeds will go to the Association's support fund designed to assist projects in the current Boys' Brigade membership in Glasgow and elsewhere. We would be delighted if you\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Stedfast Choir002","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Stedfast-Choir002-300x216.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":705,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/letter-from-our-session-clerk-nov-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":703,"position":4},"title":"Letter from our Session Clerk \u2013 Nov 2015","author":"admin","date":"1 November 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Friends in Clincarthill, How the time flies, it seems no time at all that I was writing the letter for October\u2019s magazine. November is going to be a busy month and by the time you read this we will have welcomed the Boys\u2019 Brigade for their annual dedication service.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2828,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/crafty-sundays\/","url_meta":{"origin":703,"position":5},"title":"Crafty Sundays","author":"admin","date":"9 August 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"We\u2019ve reached the final instalment (for the time being at least) of Crafty Sundays. Thanks to everyone who has sent in pictures over the past 12 weeks.\u00a0 We\u2019re going out with a bang though, the Clincarthill Church Puppets have put together a new music video of \u2018Crazy little thing called\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/June-and-Brian-7.jpg?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/June-and-Brian-7.jpg?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/June-and-Brian-7.jpg?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/June-and-Brian-7.jpg?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/June-and-Brian-7.jpg?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704,"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions\/704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPoured incessant from above;<\/em>
\nAnd heaven\u2019s peace and perfect justice<\/em>
\nKissed a guilty world in love.<\/em><\/p>\n