St Andrew's Chaplaincy Newsletter December 2021

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Newsletter December 2021

Reflection...

Rev. Canon John Sutton writes:
Promises, promises!

I’m sure that we have all experienced that moment when a promise made has not been fulfilled and we feel ‘let down’. That feeling of disappointment often affects the way we respond to other promises made.

There are examples however of promises made which leave us satisfied and grateful. The Bank of England had on its pound notes the statement, ‘I promise to pay the bearer the sum of one pound’, and this promise was backed up with the gold reserves of the bank. Though the paper was practically worthless, the promise made it ‘worth its weight in gold’.

Advent is full of promise. It reminds us of all the promises made in the Old Testament where through the prophets God promised the sending of His Saviour. Isaiah and many others looked forward to that moment of fulfilment when the promise would be realised. Simeon, the old sage who saw Jesus as a baby being brought to the Temple, summed up those promises with the familiar words, ‘Lord now let your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation, a light for the revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory to your people Israel’

Advent also reminds us of the promise of God that His chosen One will come again to fulfil the promise of Salvation for all those who believe and trust in Him. The New Testament looks forward with great anticipation to the ‘coming in Glory’ of the King of Glory. A promise yet to be fulfilled, but yet one backed up by the full weight of the Word of God Himself.

Advent is a time of great expectation, and each candle lit in church during the season reminds us of God’s faithfulness, past present and future, to all His people.

Interregnum

The Church Council met with the Archdeacon David Waller online on Thursday 2nd December to begin the process of finding a new Chaplain.

Please pray for all those involved in working on this and on keeping the Chaplaincy running during this time. The ministry team of Revd John Sutton, Caroline Macfarlane and Peter Hammond will be covering services until the beginning of February, when we will be joined by our first locum Rev Michael Lloyd Rees who will be with us until the beginning of May.

We are pleased to say that the Archdeacon will be coming to visit us during the interregnum. He will be with us on Wednesday 5th January, starting with attending the 10.30am Communion Service at Los Boliches. We look forward to welcoming Archdeacon David to St Andrew’s and hope he will meet as many people as possible.

Remembering

November was a time for Remembering across the Chaplaincy.

We held services in Los Boliches and at Alhaurin to remember those we have loved and lost, lighting candles in their memory. On Remembrance Day Caroline was honoured to lead the annual service held by the Coin branch of the RBL and on Remembrance Sunday we welcomed members from Alhaurin RBL to join us for our service. It is good to take time to stop and reflect and give thanks for lives gone by.

Charity of the month

Billy Dawson writes…

Every day, men and women have to leave their career in the UK Armed Forces as a result of physical or psychological damage, their lives forever changed.

HELP FOR HEROES helps them, and often those still serving, to recover and hopefully lead more normal lives. These servicemen are given physical, psychological, financial and welfare support. This is often extended to their families.

Virtually no funding is received from the British Government, reliance being placed on the general public to keep the charity going.

More than 26,000 veterans and family members have been supported and many more still need help.

Remembrance Day falls on 11th November and this seems an appropriate time for us to offer our support. Our small contribution to this worthy cause will be much appreciated and I would urge you all to support it in a generous way.

https://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/

Show

On Friday and Saturday 12th and 13th of November, our hall at St. Andrew's Los Boliches was transformed into a 1940s Naffi when A Touch of Class performed their -Remember the Days- concert to a full audience.

For a few short hours the years were rolled back by song, dance, beautiful and authentic uniforms and costumes and also a few tears as memories flooded back for many in the audience.

The concerts were to help with fundraising for our church but also a donation was made to the RBL. It was a joy for A Touch of Class to hear the audience singing along with the many lovely nostalgic songs of the war years waving their flags to Land of Hope and Glory with many people on their feet. We look forward to performing our next concert perhaps for Valentines night when we’ll be singing some beautiful love songs past and present.

German Themed Christmas Fair 2021

As with all fund raisers, we approached the fair with a mixture of excitement and nervousness asking ourselves questions like:

Would folk turn up?

Would we have enough lovely things to sell?

Would it be financially worthwhile?”

Well, all those questions were answered with a resounding “Yes”.

We had a great turn out of Church members, friends, friends of friends, plus a few people who came in in response to the banner. The wind dropped in time to make it a pleasant day (the rain started as the last of the clear-up crew drove home)

We had lots of lovely things to sell, ranging from the German themed Glühwein and Bratwurst and hand made crafts by our Craft group plus of course the usual gorgeous cakes and preserves made by our members. Then there were the fun games with great prizes which included of course our very generous Raffle prize.

All in all, we made just under €2000, so that question (and prayer!) was answered too. But more than all of that, was the great warm community spirit which pervaded the whole day.

So we thank the Lord for a successful day in every way and a big thank you to everyone who prepared, attended and contributed to a wonderful Christmas fair.

St Andrew's Day

On 30th November, Rev John Sutton led us in a Holy Communion Service to celebrate St Andrew, our patron saint.

St Andrew is the patron saint of many things, including fishermen, which was the theme of Caroline's sermon, and also gave Jen the idea we go for a fish supper afterwards. Nineteen of us took up her suggestion enjoying a delicious meal at La Parilla Gold. Thank you to everyone involved for a great evening.

Christmas at St Andrews

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