Newsletter

#460: The number of verses in ‘When Candles are lighted on Candlesmas Day

Good afternoon my dear friends! I have surpassed myself this week, and I, Bertram, am finally an artist! After the challenge* last week to find a candle that represents yourself ready for Candlemas, I have been thinking and sculpting for days. Do I bring a candle in the shape of a mouse, that would be accurate. Or do I bring a candle that acts like a mirror, enabling all of you to see the reporter, writer, investigator within me, a candle in the shape of a pen and notebook? Or do I reflect my passions in life, cheese, and make a candle out of Edam wax in the shape of that delicious delicacy? I have gone for something which depicts all of these, and made a wax tableau the size of the altar, a diaorama of my life, interests and work. I just have to work out how to get in into church…

*If I’m being fair to the curate, it was not phrased or meant to be heard as a challenge, but that’s how I took it and I’m sticking to it.


This Sunday

As you may have guessed, this Sunday is the Feast of Candlemas, and we have services at St Paul’s at 8am and 9.30am, and St Nick’s at 11am. You are invited to bring along a candle from home to represent the fact that we are all one people shining with one equal light even though we are very different. Please either bring whatever you have at home or, if you have a choice, something which could represent you- and definitely choose a candle which will stand up safely on its own. Candlemas is the service at the end of the Christmas/Epiphany season and we start looking forward to Lent. If you’re in St Paul’s, you will be invited to join the procession and follow the choir, to light your candle as you get to the altar, and place it on the altar for the service. At the end of the service, the Christmas star is turned off, and the crib carefully emptied, as a symbol of turning away from Christmas and towards Lent.

A small bit of history of this gorgeous festival: In Medieval times, the Presentation of Christ (in our Gospel reading) was used as a festival of light when candles, wax, bees etc were all blessed. Clergy would either go into the fields to bless the hives or sometimes the hives were brought into church for blessing, as a way of thanking the bees for the wax, which was incredibly precious. People would bring their candles from home to be blessed, and the natural Christmas decorations in church – holly, ivy, greenery etc – were taken down and ploughed back into the fields to be a blessing on the land.

The music at St Paul’s for Candlemas will be:

Before (ca 12’)

Bach – Partita on ‘Christ, der du bist der helle Tag’ (BWV 766)

Anthem

Sumsion – Nunc dimittis in G

After

Bach – Gigue from French Suite no. 5 in G (BWV 816)


New beginnings

As you know, there are a number of vacancies locally, including our own! Revd. Patrick Mukholi is being licensed to Winnersh and Bearwood this Sunday, please do pray for him and for his ministry there. We are currently readvertising for a Rector, and hoping to shortlist and interview next month. Again, please do pray for all those involved, for the churchwardens, pre-wardens and stewards, for the parish clergy and those local clergy who are stepping in to help. As a reminder, here is the prayer for the parish in full.

Almighty God, in this time of vacancy and change for our parish, hold us in your loving care, lead us in the way of your son Jesus Christ, and send your Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen us.

Help us to use the gifts and talents you have given to each of us for your glory, to seek your wisdom in prayer before we make decisions, and to encourage, care and pray for each other.

We seek your guidance in the appointment of our new Rector.

We pray for a priest who will value the traditions and ways of worship of St Paul’s, St Nicholas and Woosehill; a priest who can hold us together as a parish and embrace that which makes us unique.

Give wisdom and discernment to those charged with finding our new Rector, help us all to look forward with hope for the priest who will pray with us and for us; a priest who will lead us by example and inspire us with enthusiasm for witness and mission, a priest who will teach and preach the Christian faith and help us to serve you with joy and courage.

Make our hearts ready to welcome, support and love our new priest, and enable us all to work together for the building of your kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord,

Amen

A prayer to take away and use each day

O God, our source of love and strength,

in this time of change

encourage our Parish,

guide our leaders

and bless our future,

Amen


New Bishop of Reading

The Bishop-Designate Mary Gregory’s Service of Welcome is planned for Sunday 2nd March at 3pm in Reading Minster. Please save this date in your diaries.

More details and formal invitation to follow. All are welcome.


Lent Quiet/Discussion Morning

The next Quiet/Discussion Morning is based on the theme, “What do we believe? We say the creed(s) regularly …but what do we mean by what we say?

Join us on Saturday 8th March 2025

at St James Church Centre, Finchampstead RG40 4LU

for time to contemplate and discuss the promises made at our baptisms through focus on the words of the Nicene Creed.

Time: 10am to 1pm

Hot drinks will be available; if you wish to bring lunch and stay a little longer, we have the venue until 2pm.

For further information and to book your place, contact mary.cassidy@spauls.org.uk


World Day of Prayer

The World Day of Prayer service this year, prepared by Christian women from the Cook Islands, with the theme “ I made you wonderful”, is to be held atCorpus Christi Church in Sturges Road, at 10.30am. on Friday 7th March.


Safeguarding

The news this week sadly once again highlights abuse, safeguarding and the Church of England. We pray for all who have been affected, all in the Diocese of Liverpool in leadership positions. Again, it proves why we need to take safeguarding so seriously, and why we do so as a parish. We have to, because getting it wrong and not taking abuse seriously is so incredibly damaging to everyone, especially victims and survivors.

You can find out more about safeguarding in this parish here: Safeguarding | St Paul’s Parish including our updated safeguarding policy, thanks to the discussion and commitment of the PCC. If you need, you can talk to Cara or Steffi (Parish Safeguarding Officer), or someone in the diocese, and I promise we will listen. When we talk about a safeguarding culture, we mean one where everyone in the parish, everyone, has the right to be safe, protected and heard. Where we have failed in the past, we pray for the strength and courage to get this right in the future. There are posters in church with this information too. You may also wish to use this prayer over the next few weeks.

Loving God,

We come to you in the knowledge that you hold all your children in unconditional love.

We lift to you those who are vulnerable and in need of protection.
Give them your safety, comfort and peace.

We cry to you for those who are hurting and whose trust has been broken.
Give them your healing, restoration and justice.

We bring to you those who seek to forgive others who have hurt them.
Give them your strength, courage and hope.

For those who by their actions or attitudes have caused hurt and harm to others,
lead them to seek your forgiveness and to enter into true repentance.

Thank you for all who give their time, knowledge, and skills to make our communities safer.
Give them your wisdom, guidance and grace.

For ourselves, we ask you to give us your heart for the vulnerable, the oppressed, the voiceless and the forgotten. 

Help us to see them as you see them; to value them as you value them, and to nurture and protect them as you desire.

Help each one of us play our part in creating safer places for all your people.

In your name we pray, Amen


Lucky Numbers & January Draw

Lucky Numbers is a monthly draw (previously called Spire 2000), which was launched in 1997. The money it raises is dedicated in providing a fund  for restoration and renewals work at St Paul’s. Fifty percent of the total income from the sale of its shares is distributed as prizes to the first four winners of each draw throughout the year, and all remaining funds will go towards this restoration and renewals fund.

As time goes by, it is inevitable that the number of participants declines naturally, and the draw now requires more shareholders to the number required to sustain the current monthly prize structure of £50, £25, £15 and £10. Each share in the draw costs £2.00 per month and the total number of shares is unlimited so you can apply for as many as you wish. 

The draw takes place monthly, at either St Paul’s or St Nicholas, Emmbrook.

Should you wish to take part in the draw to both support our parish church and enjoy the chance of being a winner, please contact Mary Cassidy at St Paul’s, Tony Roberts at St Nicholas, Emmbrook or Liz Gallagher also at St Nicholas. Tony Roberts can also be contacted by phone on 0118 9795351 or 07810 643770. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Lucky Numbers draw for January took place at coffee after Communion at St Nicholas on Sunday 26th January 2025.

 Many Congratulations to the lucky winners:

£50     No. 84   Frances Self

£25     No. 90   Petra Johnstone

£15     No. 98   Keith Mintern

£10     No. 4     Margaret Carver

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.