We are so grateful to James and Verity Greig for all they did to host the wonderful Christingle Service in St John’s on Sunday afternoon. The church was full of people—of all ages—coming to enjoy this festive and fun event.

Thanks too to Tim Clapp and Kit Haskell for leading our musical worship. Hearing ourselves sing ‘O little town of Bethlehem’ in the candle light was, for many, the start of their Christmas.

The theme of our Parish communion was Advent Hope, with my sermon being based on words of Isaiah and John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 3:

The day also happened to be the day on which our LLM, Gerry Stacey, would have celebrated his Ruby wedding anniversary, if his wife, July, had not died so suddenly in 1999. So it was fitting that we said a prayer for him and his daughters, and expressed our heartfelt thanks to him for his many years of love and service within the Church family.

This coming Sunday (11 December) we will have our 08.30am service of said Holy Communion at St John’s Itchen Abbas, followed by coffee, croissants and some teaching onf the theme of the Good Shepherd’. However, please note there will be no All Age Worship service at 10.00am, because we were hoping many will want to join us at 4.00pm for the Carols in the Barn service at Grace Farm.

With love and prayers,

Revd Peter