A bit of press coverage

Goodbye St. Peters Hall Yeovil. After serving the local community for 50 years, it's now being pulled down, to be replaced with a new community centre. Between the the church, the community association, and partners from the local council and housing association, we've raised £927,000 of £945,000 required, and demolition started on Monday.

BBC Radio Somerset did a piece earlier in the week, fast forward to 1h 32m in and then again 2h 34m in. John Clark in the second clip is a local councillor, and is the tall guy at the back.

A few other news pieces, apologies for the duplication of news and photographs!

Diocese of Bath and Wells

Somerset Live (online version of the Western Gazette)

Yeovil Press

Yarlington Housing Group

It's amazing how God has brought together the funding, the team, and the vision for the project. It started with 4 people in a chilly back room in Jan 2014, wondering what a church of 20 elderly people and a fledgling community association could possibly do with a creaking old hall. It's notable how folk who aren't part of the church are regularly commenting how it's all come together, from the project team (with every skill we needed, and every job we needed doing had someone willing to do it), to the finances (£900,000 raised in 13 months).

Christmas Services

This is currently how the Christmas calendar is shaping up

28th Nov Christmas Dinner, St. Peters

6th Dec (Sun) Christingle 3.30pm, St. James
Weds 9th Dec 12.30 Yeovil College Carol Service
Thu 10th Dec 2pm Nativity, Westfield Infant School
Fri 11th 9.30am, 11am, 2pm Preston Primary Carols, St. James Church (done in 3 shifts as the church is too small to fit the children in all at the same time)
Sat 12th Wedding blessing

Sun 13th Cafe service Christmas celebration
Mon 14th Preschool carols, St. James
Tues 15th Nursery Christmas service, St. James
Weds 16th Parent and Toddlers Christmas party (am)
6.30pm Scout Carols, Abbey Community Centre.
Thurs 17th Abbey Pre-school nativity (am)
6pm Christingle, Brimsmore Garden Centre
Sat 19th 4pm Christingle, St. Peters

Sun 20th 6.30pm Carols by Candlelight, St. James
Mon 21 Westfield 'Stay and Play' Christmas story & prayers (am)
Christmas Eve 3pm & 5pm Nativity service, St. James (2 shifts for space reasons, see Fri 11th)
11pm Communion, St. Peters
Christmas Day 10.30m Family Communion, St. James

Just 20, plus normal services on Sundays on top of that. The next job is to work out how many Christmas talks I need to cover the above: there's unlikely to be too much overlap between, say, Yeovil College and the Scouts, but that will need to be different from the school talks as some of them will be in the Beaver and Cub groups.

Now is also a good time of year to wander round the local joke shop, scanning the shelves and muttering under my breath 'the Kingdom of God is like............' until something grabs me. In the days of Christmas Harry Potter movies it was easy, everyone had a common reference point. X Factor is a bit old hat now, and Doctor Who seems to be going for 'dark' in a big way, more Maunday Thursday than Christmas Eve.

PS thanks Phil, not quite sure what happened there!!

Christmas Services

For the record, here are the 18 Christmas services I'm involved with this month. If you're in the habit of praying (and even if you're not) then prayers would be appreciated - for stamina, clarity, energy and being able to remember exactly which one I'm doing! I'll probably need to prepare several talks, as well as sorting out orders of service, and liasing with readers, musicians, Christingle makers, minced pie chefs and hopefully God too.

Thurs 4th 11.30am Parent and Toddlers, St. Peters (songs & story in church) - wohoo! one down!

Weds 10th Yeovil College, 12.30pm
Thurs 11th 11-12noon, preschool nativity, St James'
Fri 12th 9.30am, 11am, 2pm Preston Primary school carols (in 3 shifts because our church is too small to hold them all at once)

Sun 14th 10.30am Cafe Service Advent celebration, Abbey Community Centre
3.30pm Christingle, St. James
Mon 15th 11am Reception service, Preston primary school
Tues 16th 11am Tots & Toys Christmas service, St. James
6pm Christingle, Brimsmore Garden Centre
Weds 17th 11.30am SSDC nursery, St. James
6.20pm St. James Scout Group carols, Abbey Manor Community Centre
Sat 20th 4pm Christingle, St. Peters

Sun 21 6.30 pm Carols by Candlelight, St. James
Mon 22nd 10-12 stay and play nativity, St Peters
Christmas Eve 3pm Nativity
11pm Holy Communion, St. James

so if blogging is a bit thin for the next couple of weeks, blame the Archangel Gabriel.....