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Sunday Services
6th December 10:30am Rev Matt Finch
Holy Communion
Children’s corner
Activities are available at the back of church. Please
feel free to join us at any time during the service.
Church Meetings
St Ives Methodist Church (SIMC) run various groups that meet on
different days of the week. For more details of a specific group’s
events, please pick up a leaflet from the leaflet rack in the
corridor opposite the kitchen.
The Christmas story is not just well meaning words but it is God’s action.
In the birth of the Jesus we see God not ignoring the world but becoming
one of us to change it. ‘God with us’ means more than an abstract
presence somewhere that we can feel if we think about it. It is the truth
that Jesus knows what we are feeling because he experienced it. Just
think Jesus was born into an occupied territory, without a home to call his
own, born to a teenage mother, and lived as a refugee as he grew up!
Jesus knows our world is not easy.
At this festive time may you know the message of hope that comes
wrapped up in cloths and laid in a manger. In the weakness of this child
God comes to challenge the way this world works and offer a way to
transform it; a liberation to the captive; a love for the unlovable, a peace
to the distressed and wholeness to the broken.
Whoever you are and whatever faces you may you know that the baby
born in a manger is born for you.
Matt finch
Church Events
Christmas Services with St Ives Methodist Church
This December we are organising and participating in various
Christmas services and events. We would love to invite you, your
friends, neighbours and families to any or all of the events. You
will be most welcome.
Remembering Service
Wed 9th 7pm A special service to remember those who
are in our thoughts at Christmas time.
Taize Healing and Wholeness Service
Wed 16th 7pm
A reflective and meditative worship service.
Carol Service
Sunday 20th 4pm
Come and join us singing traditional carols.
Please pray for those who have little this Christmas time. We
think of families locally who are facing times of hardship, and
those around the world who will receive no gifts. We are thankful
for the help our church has been able to provide through
shoeboxes and black bin donations, and we pray these gifts may
be received as an outpouring of God’s love to a needy world.
Open Circle
The Open Circle group would like to invite you to come along.
Open Circle meet on the first and third Thursdays of the month,
are open to both men and women and would be delighted to
welcome new members. For more information please pick up a
new programme at the Open Circle Carol Service or contact the
President, Audrey Hedger on 01954 200418.
Thank you
We would like to thank members of Open Circle for leading our
worship on 22nd November. If you were unable to visit church for
that service or if you would like to hear it again, please visit the
church website or ask Stuart Wilkinson for a CD copy.
Foyer Project
On Sunday 29th November Rev Matt Finch formally launched The
Foyer Project, a major redevelopment of the front area of the
church. Matt shared some of the thinking and theology behind
the ideas for the front of the church. If you were not able to be at
church on 29th November, please do listen to the recording of this
message, either on the website, or CD copies are available to
borrow. If you don’t already have one, please also pick up a Foyer
Project booklet from church, or if a friend can’t collect one for
you we can send you a copy in the post.
The Leadership Team hope that this will be a time of renewal and
excitement for the church. It is not simply an idea for making the
church prettier. It is about finding God’s plans and purposes for
us. To this end we encourage you to reflect and especially pray
about the plans, keeping an eye on important meetings, and
communicating your thoughts to the Leadership Team.
If you would like to pray about the project and discuss the plans
further there will be two meetings: Thursday 17th December
7:30pm or Wednesday 20th January 2010 7:30pm at St Ives
Methodist Church. All are welcome. Please don’t worry if you
can’t make one of the meetings as they will both be the same
material and discussion and two dates are simply to enable more
people to be involved. There will be more meetings in the future
to share any significant developments or to discussion decisions
that need to be made.
The Leadership Team usually meet approximately once every six weeks,
and beginning in next month’s newsletter, a summary of relevant issues
discussed will now feature in this newsletter to keep the wider church
informed of matters arising.
Newsletter Feedback
In the summer, following wide consultation with the church, it was
agreed to replace the magazine and weekly notice sheet with a monthly
newsletter for a 4-month trial. Last month, a feedback form was
included with the newsletter to gauge opinion of whether the monthly
newsletter should continue. An overwhelming 92% of responses were
favourable towards the monthly format continuing. The feedback has
been valuable in knowing how to move forward with the newsletter.
Our Leadership Steward with responsibility for communications, Stuart
Wilkinson, addresses some points raised.
Can we include the first week of the following month on the front?
Yes, from the November issue this has now been included so it is always clear who
will be preaching the following week – even if it’s the last week in the month.
Should you have any comments you’d like to make about the newsletter,
or church communication generally, do let the Leadership Team know. It
is feedback like this that helps us to make sure we are being effective.
December:feature
Each month the newsletter will include a special feature about one
particular part of our church. This month, we look at how you can
make sure you have a FAIRTRADE Christmas.
Due to the success of churches across the country doing the same
thing, Fairtrade has become a well known recognised brand, and
rather than need to run our own stalls we can direct people to the
huge range of fairtrade products available from our supermarkets and
high street shops, and the excellent Just Sharing Fair Trade shop at
The Free Church in town.
St Ives Methodist Church now even have their own online Fairtrade
shop at www.simc.co.uk/fairtrade - with over 700 Fairtrade products!
Forthcoming notices:
If you would like a notice to go into the next monthly
Newsletter, please contact Stuart Wilkinson.
Email: info@simc.co.uk
Telephone: 01480 389623
Write in the purple notice book at the back of the church.
Printed on non-bleached
100% Recycled Paper