Sunday 20th December 2020 – Advent 4
All Saints Church, Childwall
READ: Luke 1.26-38 – In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favour with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
REFLECT: As I read this well-known and much loved passage, once again, I am challenged afresh. When the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary he says, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ How does Mary react? She is greatly troubled. The angel tells Mary not to be troubled and repeats that Mary has found favour with God. How? Why? We don’t know, but it’s interesting that she has found favour with God BEFORE she has done anything special, BEFORE she has said, ‘Yes!’ Similarly, Matthew 3 tells us that at Jesus’ baptism, by John in the River Jordan, a voice was heard from Heaven, ‘This is my beloved Son in Him I am well pleased.’ BEFORE Jesus had done anything special. Maybe Mary [and Jesus] are not ‘highly favoured’ [and ‘beloved’] because they obeyed God, but because God knew that they were willing to do so and say ‘Yes!’ to His call. An ongoing motif in Scripture is the idea that God sees the heart and calls people on the basis of the attitude of their heart towards Him e.g. David, the shepherd boy who became King of Israel. The angel goes on to explain that Mary will play a vital part in God’s plan of salvation by conceiving, carrying, giving birth to and nurturing a child who will be ‘great’ and be called ‘the Son of the Most High’, who will sit on ‘the throne of his father David’ and reign over ‘Jacob’s descendants forever’ in a never ending kingdom! Not surprisingly, Mary has a practical question; How? How can this possibly happen? The angel explains that this will be the work of God, the Holy Spirit. Mary says very little in this exchange other than to say that she is willing to accept God’s will for her life. It would be easy to romanticise the calling of Mary, focussing on the fact that she was ‘highly favoured’ of God, but we must also remember the potential and actual cost, to her, of her ‘Yes!’ to God. It’s always good to be reminded that God is not impressed by our ability [which will never be enough on its own no matter how able we may be], nor our religiousity[if that’s a word], but our availability and willingness to serve Him.
RESPOND: Many people [even Christian people] seem to think that their standing before God is based on their performance of religious duties, or in what they have done FOR Him. It is NOT! God loves us because He loves us because He loves us BUT, He does long for a response from us. You and I are not Mary. You and I will never be asked to do what Mary was asked to do, but the key issue is whether we, like Mary, are willing to play whatever part God may call us to play; are YOU available to God today and in the days ahead; will YOU respond to God’s call on your life in a way which will deepen your relationship with Him and, who knows, may have a wonderful impact on the world of our day?
PRAY: Post Communion Prayer for Advent 4 – Heavenly Father, who chose the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of the promised saviour: fill us your servants with your grace, that in all things we may embrace your holy will and with her rejoice in your salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Rev. Bill Forster[Associate Minister]
Dear Friends,
Church Services this Christmas
Sunday 20th December 9.30am Carol Service part 1 11am Carol Service part 2.
Thursday 24th December
10am Christmas Communion 4pm Crib Service – please come as a Nativity character
Friday 25th December Christmas Day
9.30am Christmas Day service with communion 11am Christmas Day service with communion
Sunday 27th December 10am Morning Service
All services will last no more than 30-35mins and ALL services will be recorded and available online.
Our church building will be open this Sunday 20th December for two morning services at 9.30am and 11am. We are having a Carol service with readings in 2 halves. If you come to one service, then please go online to watch the other service. Both Services will be filmed and then uploaded and available on our website. Hopefully the 9.30am service by about 11am and the 11am service by about 12.30pm. For all servicesplease wrap up well as the church building will be cold. The heating will be on but the doors have to be open for ventilation. If you choose to come please remember to wear a face mask. We are only able to use every other pew so we have limited space. We are not using a booking system but hopefully as previously when we were open, we will not need to turn anyone away.
Church Services Online – All of our Christmas Services will be recorded and you will be able to watch them online on our Church website. They will be uploaded to our website and ready about 1 hour after each service has finished. www.allsaintschildwall.org.uk
Virtual Nativity Premiere – ALL WELCOME – Saturday 19th Dec at 6pm
Please join us in watching the Virtual nativity play this Saturday at 6pm. We will zoom and meet the children who took part before sending out the link for you to watch the play. Zoom details for this event are: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/72350686409?pwd=MkJpckR6bllHZ1ZDeURoSERqVEcyUT09
Meeting ID: 723 5068 6409 Passcode: 4allsaints
Childrens Christmas Party – 19th Dec, 7pm
Following the above zoom we will be having a children’s Christmas party. All children welcome, and please feel free to invite cousins and friends if you would like to. This will be on zoom.
Please RSVP to Gypsey on gypsey.allsaintschildwall@gmail.com
Christmas Cards – Please can I ask you not to give out Christmas cards in church or leave any in church for other people to collect. The virus can be present on paper and cards and can potentially live for a fewdays. We have worked hard to keep our church building Covid-secure and we need to ensure that this continues by not allowing any possible risks into the building. All our service books and bibles and leaflets have all been removed to ensure that this is the case.
Rock Club Online Now!– Our youth and children’s worker Gypsey has developed online activities for Pebbles, Rock Club & Boulders. These can be accessed on our website: https://www.allsaintschildwall.org.uk/online-rock-club/
If you would like to be kept informed and receive specific emails detailing our Youth & Children’s Worship please can you let us know by emailing gypsey.allsaintschildwall@gmail.com
Weekly News – If you are aware of anyone who is not receiving all the weekly news that we are sending out please ask them to send me their email address so I can add them to our master email list.
Evening Prayer every Sunday at 6pm – Every Sunday evening the Readers will be hosting a weekly service of Evening Prayer on Zoom at 6pm. Using the Zoom facility, the Readers will host Evening Prayer each Sunday at 6.00pm. The liturgy and the readings will all appear on the screen and there will be a short reflection on the New Testament passage which has been set for the day. Please join us. Garry Critchley
Meeting ID: 789 873 7449 Passcode: Newsman1
For further details please contact me at garry.critchley@gmail.com 0151 722 9643
Advent Calendar – Link below for our Advent Calendar with daily reflections from members of All Saints.
Boys’ Brigade
75th anniversary badges
The Boys’ Brigade are celebrating 75 years at All Saints’ and, to mark this milestone,the guys have had a commemorative badge struck.
If you’d like to get hold
of one (…because it’s never too
early to think about Christmas
presents!), be sure to check
out the flyer or email the team:
35Liverpool@boys-brigade.org.uk
FREE money for All Saints Church when you shoponline
easyfundraising.org.uk is the UK’s leading charity online shopping website. It helps good causes raise money when people shop online for everyday items. The online retailers will donate a percentage of your purchase to All Saints Churchwithout you incurring any extra cost.
It just takes a minute to register and then each time you shop online simply login to easyfundraising and click on the link to your chosen retailer.
To register just follow the simple steps below Go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk1. Click on ‘Find a cause’ and type in All Saints Church-Childwall.2. Fill out the quick form to register your details.3. Find the retailer you want to shop with.4. Click on Go Shopping to visit the retailer’s site 5. Shop as you normally would.6. Remember, save easyfundraising.org.uk as a favourite and next time you want to shop online simply log into your account, find your retailer and click Go Shopping. 7. The retailer’s donation will be show in your account within 30 days.
Thousands of retailers are signed up to donate to our cause when you shop online, e.g. Amazon, Tesco, Asda, Toys R Us, Debenhams, Argos, John Lewis, npower, BT, Dixons, Aviva, Thomas Cook, Virgin Media, Virgin Trains, Sky and many more ……..
| If you shop online regularly imagine how much money we could raiseat no extra cost to you! Please tell your friends and family. |
Access to church hall – If you are a key holder and need access to the church hall for resources or equipment for your organisation please will you speak to Peter Kefford and book your time in with him.
It would be helpful to do this on a Friday afternoon as our All Saints Playgroup will not be in again until Monday morning and we need to keep the building Covid secure. Thank you very much. Andrew
Thank you
Joan Mcclelland Stuart, Fiona and their families thank you all for your prayer support and practical help over many years. We also deeply appreciate the messages of sympathy, floral tributes and lovely meals we have received in recent weeks.
Weekly Prayer requests – If you would like other members of our church family to pray for you or a family member, please send me their names for this sheet, please ask permission from the person. Please pray for all those who are unwell at this time particularly praying for Bill Maitland.
Please pray for the bereaved family and friends of Alan McClelland.
All Saints Playgroup – Please support the work of All Saints Playgroup by purchasing a ‘Real Christmas Eve Box’ this year. the kits contain; The real message, goodies, reindeer food and a letter from Santa himself! They cost just £5:00 each. To order contact allsaintsplaygroup1@hotmail.co.uk. Or visit the playgroup facebook page https://www.facebook.com/All-Saints-Playgroup-107894217747755 for more information on this and other ways to get involved.
Daily Hope – free phoneline
This Advent and Christmas, in conjunction with the Church of England’s Comfort and Joy campaign, DailyHope will continue to offer all the national services as well as Comfort and Joy’s special reflections. In addition, BBC Songs of Praise’s Pam Rhodes offers listeners an introduction to some of her favourite carols; as well as a special festive series of ‘Christmas at Home on the Phone’.Pastoral visiting – Current Government guidelines mean that we cannot visit people and go inside their homes or sit out in their gardens for a chat. Any face to face visiting will have to happen from the front gate, and with the colder and wetter weather will need to be brief so people don’t get cold. If you would value a chat or know anyone who would also appreciate a chat please let Helen or me know, our phone numbers and email addresses are at the bottom of this sheet, Thank You.
WEEKLY PRAYER MEETING – Weekly prayer meeting Thursday 6.30pm on Zoom. Why not join a group of us at All Saints that pray regularly. It lasts 40 minutes, you can pray, sit and listen or just contemplate.
Zoom Meeting: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/79853782379?pwd=NEloclhRVEJST3RFeUdUVEowSWJRUT09
Meeting ID: 798 5378 2379 Password: 7VUQh6 Aidan Holmes
Zoom Sunday coffee – Every Sunday 11.15am for 40 mins – remember to bring your own coffee!
Zoom Coffee – every Sunday at 11.15am Meeting ID: 842 767 1496 Password: 4allsaints
With our prayers for you all at this time
Andrew Colmer – Vicar – Tel: 07305 842257 – vicar.allsaintschildwall@gmail.com
Helen Deegan – Curate – Tel: 07984 933467 – curate.allsaintschildwall@gmail.com
Gypsey Tait – Youth & Children’s Worker – Tel: 07961 793435 –gypsey.allsaintschildwall@gmail.com
Bill Forster – Associate Minister – william.forster1@btinternet.com
