An eventful month

I can't believe how quickly September has passed us by. Our good friend Dan Nicholson passed away on 1st November, aged 95. If you scroll down to the bottom of this blog, you'll see Dan proudly placing a wreath of poppies in front of the altar. For several years he shared his memories and his faith with us on Remembrance Sunday and his stories are still remembered. He was a real gentlemen and is sadly missed.

On 9th September Bishop John visited and formally welcomed Revd. James Turner and his wife Patricia to St. David's. James is on placement with us for the next few months and takes the Eucharistic services on Thursday mornings and the second and fourth Sundays of each month. He is also busy visiting people around the parish.

The All-Age Worship on the third Sunday of each month seems to be going well and we're seeing some younger people joining us, which is great. It's more informal than the other Sundays and we have a good time . So, if you fancy a good sing, shaking a musical instrument and generally having fun praising God, then why not pop in to see us. A warm welcome is guaranteed.

All-Age Worship
On the third Sunday of each month we now hold an 'All-Age Worship'. Sunday was the second one to be held. If you've been in St. David's before you'll know that the building is really versatile and lends itself to different worship styles. We move the chairs around and last Sunday we had a semi-circle around the piano, a large screen was put in place and the full service was displayed rather than relying on service booklets. The service is fun and quite interactive and both young and old seemed to appreciate it. The musical instruments were passed around and we raised the roof in praise of God.

First Sunday back after a much welcomed holiday and the majority of today's sermon was written whilst looking out over the Mediterranean Sea on a hot, sunny day. Wonderful surroundings that greatly inspired me but I didn't realise just how much I rely on being surrounded by books and a computer. 'The Kingdom of God' and all that seemed to flash through my mind was the great hymn but unfortunately I could only remember the first line! I managed though and was back on English soil at 1.45am and refreshed enough to take the service at 11.15am. Only eight of us in Church this morning which did nothing to diminish the praise and worship of our great and glorious God - Julie

It's a sad sign of the times when the attendance of five children in church dramatically reduce the age of the congregation! Saying that, we had a really good time thinking about Jesus 'The Good Shepherd'. The kids were brilliant and responded really well. When telling them that Jesus protects his sheep they nodded along and one little boy added that 'he also protects us from dragons and monsters' - quite right too!

It's been about eighteen months now without a residential Priest-in-Charge and the congregation have responded really well to the pattern of worship at St. David's. We now have a bit more freedom to try out different styles of worship and the building is so flexible as we can move the church furniture around.

We've been bringing the website up to date, so if you're reading this and want to take a look, let me know what you think. It's work in progress! http://www.stmarysbeeston.org.uk/st_davids_home

St. David's Day

Today we celebrated St. David's Day which is the nearest Sunday to 1 March. We were joined by our friends from St. Marys. It is a real joy to see so many people and to be part of a larger worshipping community. St. David's is a modern church and it was designed with an area set aside for a choir. Alas, St. David's hasn't had a choir for many years. Today, though, saw those seats filled with the choir from St. Mary's. James, the organist, flooded the church with his wonderful music and Frank played a couple of tunes on the piano.

The service that David used was Celtic which I think most people really appreciated. The words of our regular Eucharist are so familiar to us that it is so easy not to appreciate them and savour the words. A different service, order and words is refreshing. Much of the service was wonderfully poetic and I shall be savouring the words and phrases for some time.

Advent

We're now into the season of Advent and Christmas is just around the corner. This is the first Christmas where we will be without a Priest in charge at St. David's. So it is with a mixture of excitement and trepidation as I am putting together some of the services and events for the first time. We are still getting used to not having a Eucharistic service each week, however, the Services of the Word are being well received. Taking Communion only every other week makes me realise just how precious it is and we are grateful that the service is still available to us.

Congregation numbers are low but static. Live music has been a problem in church and we now have cover for most services. We've even got some variety; piano on the 1st Sunday, organ on the 2nd and 4th and the flute on the 3rd. All we need now is for more people to come along and sing!

Regardless of the challenges, there is an air of excitement as we wait to see what God is doing in our lives and where he is leading us.

Remembrance and Thanksgiving service

Tonight we held a service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance. It was the first service of this type I had taken so I was a bit nervous. We had a lot of people to remember and we lit a candle for each of them and named them by name. The clocks went back last night and so it's dark earlier on an evening. Not many people like to venture out on dark nights and the service, being at 6pm meant it was dark and so the service wasn't very well attended. Maybe we'll try it earlier next time.