The day of wonder is almost here!

I hope you've enjoyed the various Christmas events at our family of churches over the last few weeks. It's been great fun for me dashing between carol services and school nativities and a great chance to meet lots of new people, and also to plug our Christianity Explored course starting in the new year (see below!)

Amidst all the Christmas craziness of the last few weeks, I've been struck time and again by all of the hard work and enthusiasm of the volunteers who make these events possible. Let me celebrate their work once again, by saying thank you!

The Bible never sees the church as a hierarchy, but as a body - an interconnected whole - where every part has a role to play, and every part is valuable. Thanks therefore for playing your part over the last few weeks!

There will of course be more opportunities to serve Jesus in the church body in the new year...but hopefully not all crammed into two crazy weeks! In the meantime we hope to see you at one of our Christmas Day services to celebrate the birth of King Jesus, and that you'll then join me in taking a well-earned post-Christmas rest!

In the rest of this email you'll find details of a few things coming up next year and a link to my favourite Christmas kids video ever (well worth watching!)

Finally, can I say thank-you for all of the cards and gifts people have given us over the last few weeks. You're generosity has been much appreciated. So on behalf of all the Unwin family - may I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a blessed 2017!



Reverend Barry Unwin
Vicar, Hope Church Family

PS: A little plea on communications! I'm always happy to publicise events on the website - but recently there have been one or two situations where people have been disappointed to find their event have missed out. To avoid any future disappointments, let me clarify how to get an event onto the website. The procedure is simple: send the details direct to me. The details must include: a title, a date, and a start and end time. If I do not have this information the website calendar won't accept it! If you have a photograph/poster as well, please send them as they can help make the event look more attractive!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Services

What's new for 2017 in our churches?

1. Benefice Family Service. Starting in March, at Upton Parish Church, and monthly thereafter (1st Sunday). This will be an exciting, all-action family service, and accompanied by the renewed KidsChurch offering in Welland, means we have children's work at one of our churches on each of the first four weeks of the month. More details in the new year (including it's impact on services at the Hook and Ripple).
    
2. Christianity Explored Course. This is a fantastic opportunity to explore the basics of the Christian faith, and will be ideal for anyone exploring baptism, Christian faith itself, or who wants to go over the basics again. The course lasts 7 weeks and gives you the chance to read the whole of Mark's gospel through. I've run this course lots of times in the past and it's mix of study and discussion is great fun, and a wonderful opportunity to get to know Jesus in his own words. Publicity materials should be available in most of our churches by now - please feel free to hand leaflets to friends and invite them to come on the course. It's fine if you want join them on it too..
    
3. Central fellowship and Bible-study meeting. Ever wanted to dig deeper into some areas of the Bible that our lectionary passages never touch upon? Long to get your teeth into a decent Bible study? From early 2017, I'll be hosting a monthly central fellowship and bible-study event for all our churches. This is open to any regular church member, and meant to encourage, engage and take you deeper into your relationship with God.
    
4. Service leaders gathering. This will be a bi-monthly gathering for everyone involved in leading services (clergy & lay) to reflect, plan, pray and resource our services better.
    
5. Warden Gathering. This will also meet bi-monthly, and will focus on our warden's needs: equipping and encouraging them to do their work for Jesus.
    

To get the big picture of what's happening in our churches this month, visit the WHAT'S ON page.