#499 Looking around with awe
The sounds of Advent carols last Sunday warmed my little home in the choir, and I scuttled across the churchyard to the Parish Rooms to lend my best soprano to the first rendition of Christmas carols. The first, but not the last: I’m told that there will be four school carol services in the week to come, and two more the week after. I’ll keep practising and maybe I’ll hit the top note in the “Sing, choirs of angels” verse by Christmas Day…
Fr Sam writes
On Monday evening, one of our local Beaver Scout groups came to visit St Paul’s. They are six to eight years old, and therefore capable of quite a lot of chaos. They surged around the building, finding the altar and the font and the pulpit, and of course the giant pig in the children’s corner.
The final task I asked them to do was to find something in the church they thought interesting, to draw it and to say how it made them feel. It was amazing to see the chaos cease, and to behold these small children looking around our building with awe. A couple were transfixed by the font lid. One loved the pedals of the organ. One drew the smoke rising from a thurible and said it made them feel “holy”. Only one child drew the pig.
Maybe this is an exercise we can all try? When you are next in church, look around and imagine you are six years old. Look with awe, and let these mortal things lift your eyes up to Heaven.
This Sunday
“You brood of vipers!”
This is how St John the Baptist speaks to the Pharisees and Sadducees who come to listen to him in this Sunday’s Gospel. It is a strange encounter with this challenging saint, who prepares the way for Jesus and asks us to do the same. We also hear from the prophet Isaiah as he speaks of the Messiah’s kingdom of peace.
Image: St John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci
Services this Sunday
| 8am | St Paul’s | BCP Mass | Fr Sam Tanna-Korn |
| 9.30am | St Paul’s | Parish Mass | Revd Cara Smart |
| Anthem: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree – Poston Voluntary: O Adonai (O Antiphon Preludes) – Connolly | |||
| 10am | Woosehill Church | Holy Communion | Fr Sam Tanna-Korn |
| 11am | St Nicholas’s | Community Eucharist (Patronal Festival) | Revd Judi Hattaway |
Nine Lessons and Carols
Do mark in your diary our carol service at 6.15pm on Sunday 21 December, and invite friends and family to come to this beautiful and traditional celebration of the birth and Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
This week’s calendar: the generous bishop
This Saturday 6 December is a particular feast for our parish: it is St Nicholas’ Day. He was a fourth-century bishop known for his deep compassion, generosity, and quiet acts of charity in the name of Christ, and for vigorously defending the orthodox faith against an early heresy called Arianism.
Do pray especially for St Nicholas, Emmbrook, on its patronal festival.
