In our secret yearnings we wait for your coming, and in our grinding despair we doubt that you will. And in this privileged place we are surrounded by witnesses who yearn more than do we and by those who despair more deeply than do we. Look upon your church and its pastors in this season of hope which runs so quickly to fatigue and in this season of yearning which becomes so easily quarrelsome. Give us the grace and the impatience to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes, to the edges of our fingertips. We do not want our several worlds to end. Come in your power and come in your weakness in any case and make all things new. Amen.
Walter Brueggemann - Advent Prayer
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Image: Gospel of Luke - Chapter 2, Christmas lights.
Photo by ‘WI-Photos’, 2018
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In St Mary’s prayer cycle for this month, today we pray for the NHS - its consultants, doctors, nurses, paramedics and all staff, giving thanks for their selfless commitment and hard work.
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In these unprecedented times, St Mary’s is reaching out and supporting our community in many ways, especially online. But with activities in our buildings greatly restricted, we no longer receive the previous level of financial support from collections at Services, nor from hiring out the church and hall buildings.
If you can help us financially to continue to offer Christ's love to our community in these difficult times, as those before us have done down the centuries, please consider making a donation by debit/credit card and to Gift Aid it if possible, by clicking this link to 'givealittle':
Thank you!