Dear Friends,
New Beginnings!
This Sunday marks the beginning of the churches year. Our readings or lections (an archaic term used to denote a portion of text in a book) for our Sunday services are laid down in a document known as a lectionary which moves this week from the readings of Year B - the year of Mark, to Year C - the year of Luke. We now start again at the beginning. That time of preparation for, and expectation of the coming of Christ, the Advent of our Lord. Each year we take a slightly different perspective, as we explore Christ through the eyes of a different Gospel writer. Our own year has also taken a positive turn, as we are now able to celebrate Advent and our journey towards Christmas in a way we are more familiar with.
New beginnings are something we reflect upon at this time of year, may your journey with Christ find a new beginning itself at this time. Deeping in faith and the surety of the hope and joy, the child we now wait for, offers to each and everyone of us.
Every Blessing,
Fr Chris
A Prayer
Almighty God,
The Walesby Group, set into the north western edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, consists of 10 parishes, 10 worshipping communities and 11 church buildings. With a population of around 2100 we are a benefice of very small communities, living in the vast open spaces of this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. As worshipping communities we aim to grow ourselves in our faith and discipleship, support and engage with our local communities and bring new people to Christ.
We are blessed with beautiful buildings and faithful commitment from our congregations. As the group continues to integrate together, we are being enabled to offer a variety of worship and outreach styles. Lay ministry and leadership is key to all we offer, and encouraged as we endeavour to open the Kingdom and its values to all.
The Christian faith is focused on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. We also believe his death achieved something very special: the opportunity to reconnect with the God that we might believe in but might sometimes feel remote from.
We believe that Jesus was not just a human being but, in some way that we cannot fully understand, God as well. We believe in God the Father, the creator of the entire universe, and the Holy Spirit, who is the way we can experience Jesus today. Not three gods but one, who together are described as the ‘Trinity’ – a description not so much of philosophy but of the relationship at the heart of God.
In the most famous Christian prayer we pray ‘Our Father…’ This creator God wants a relationship with us, for us to be his children and to give us, as Jesus says, ‘life in all its fulness’ (John 10.10).
