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":705,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/letter-from-our-session-clerk-nov-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":703,"position":0},"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":578,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/letter-from-our-session-clerk-jan-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":703,"position":1},"title":"Letter from our Session Clerk – Jan 2015","author":"admin","date":"7 January 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Friends in Clincarthill, Here we are at the start of a New Year and what a busy month December was. May I extend my grateful thanks to all those who worked so hard to make the Christmas celebration special and CHRIST- filled. To Joan who conducted our services so\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":495,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/the-tearfund-christmas-tour\/","url_meta":{"origin":703,"position":2},"title":"The Tearfund Christmas Tour","author":"admin","date":"9 November 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"4th December 2014 in Clincarthill Church. Doors open 7pm. Tickets \u00a35. Tearfund are teaming up with some of Scotland\u2019s finest Christian musicians to celebrate Christmas with you in style. \u00a0Yvonne Lyon, Steph Macleod, Allan McKinlay and David Lyon will be hosting twelve Christmas concerts across the country, performing a blend\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Tear Fund Christmas Tour Web_Bannerv2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Tear-Fund-Christmas-Tour-Web_Bannerv2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Tear-Fund-Christmas-Tour-Web_Bannerv2.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Tear-Fund-Christmas-Tour-Web_Bannerv2.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":546,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/christmas-week-events\/","url_meta":{"origin":703,"position":3},"title":"Christmas Events","author":"admin","date":"20 December 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Christmas 2014 poster square 2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Christmas-2014-poster-square-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Christmas-2014-poster-square-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Christmas-2014-poster-square-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Christmas-2014-poster-square-2.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1575,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/christmas-eve-family-service-6-30pm\/","url_meta":{"origin":703,"position":4},"title":"Christmas Eve Family Service – 6.30pm","author":"admin","date":"23 December 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Join the angels on Christmas Eve as they learn of God's plan for the very first Christmas - you won't be expecting this! Come along for our family candlelight service at 6.30pm on Sunday 24th Dec (Christmas Eve) - all ages welcome.","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\/2017\/12\/Angels-together-4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Angels-together-4.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Angels-together-4.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Angels-together-4.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Angels-together-4.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Angels-together-4.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":190,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/stress-free-christmas\/","url_meta":{"origin":703,"position":5},"title":"Stress Free Christmas","author":"admin","date":"2 November 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We welcome you to our stress free Christmas event on Saturday 16th November, 10am to 2pm","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"STRESS FREE CHRISTMAS _2013 square 2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/STRESS-FREE-CHRISTMAS-_2013-square-2-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"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