From the Assistant Minister

I do trust that you had some joy, peace and thankfulness in your Christmas days. In our rush into January, as the Feast of the Epiphany too slips past us, I invite you to pause for a moment, to recall those amazing visitors to the Christ child, so beloved by carol writers and Christmas card artists.

In Matthew’s Gospel account, we read that the star came to rest over the place where the child was.  The amazing star, supernatural guide for Magi from outside the Jewish nation and tradition, leading them precisely to the Saviour of the World. In this wonderful moment we see that Christ fulfilled prophecy and that His first coming and the Redemption He brings are given to challenge all humankind - Christ waits even now, for response from Jew and Gentile alike. When the Magi saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy (Matt 2.9-10). I do hope you too can feel, if only just a little, overwhelmed with joy in your Saviour as you enter a New Year.

The Prophet Isaiah (60.1-3), long before the Incarnation took place, set the scene -

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
    and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
    and his glory will be seen upon you.
3 And nations shall come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Dear Lord, we make it our prayer for 2024, that this year more and more people from the nations of the World - and their rulers - will come to the light of the Gospel and be overwhelmed with joy. Amen.

Happy New Year!

Revd Godfrey Smallman

From the Curate

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
(2 Corinthians 9.15)

How can you describe the indescribable? God becoming man, the creator entering his creation, the eternal one entering time and space, the Lord of all becoming a baby. May our hearts be filled with thankfulness to God for the gift of his Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ – the indescribable gift!

Thank you to all those who have gone above and beyond during the Christmas season in enabling us to celebrate and share the indescribable gift of God through services and song. It is amazing to think that 595 adults, 119 children and young people have come to our Church Carol Services so far, alongside 544 children coming to Primary School Carol Services, accompanied by 419 adults. Beyond the four walls of church, the gift of God’s Son has been shared with 70 toddlers, at Broomcroft House Care Home, in 3 local pubs, and through open air carol singing at Carter Knowle shops.

As we give thanks to God for his indescribable gift, let us pray that many will receive the gift of Christ this Christmas time. And let us pray that we are given opportunities to share God’s love with those near and dear to us. As 2024 beckons, who might the Lord be leading you to invite on Alpha, that they too can know God’s indescribable gift?

With thanks for your love, service, and partnership in our Lord,

Revd Simon Oatridge 
Curate

From the Vicar

Keep us, O Lord,
While we tarry on this earth,
In a serious seeking after you,
And in an affectionate walking with you,
Every day of our lives;
That when you come,
We may be found not hiding our talent,
Nor serving the flesh,
Nor yet asleep with our lamp unfurnished,
But waiting and longing for our Lord,
Our glorious God for ever.
Amen

Dear Friends,

Thank you for all your prayers and good wishes during the Christmas season. The staff and I are very grateful for your support and partnership in ministry and we pray that the Christ we serve will be born in many peoples’ hearts over this Christmas period.

We are however not there yet and during the remaining days of Advent, Richard Baxter’s famous prayer has been brought to my attention. May I say that I see many at All Saints for whom this is a lived-out prayer. Such a joy to behold. I commend it to you for yourselves in your own time spent with the Lord and perhaps with those with whom you gather in various settings. It is a prayer I shall be using to see greater and fuller evidence of in the days ahead.

With my renewed gratitude for your friendship and partnership in ministry.

The Revd Canon Mark Brown
Vicar

The Grand Reveal - Our Wonderful Windows

For the last 10 weeks we have had scaffolding up internally and externally while we have had significant and extensive restoration and repair work done to two of our large stained glass windows. The scaffolding was finally removed on the 7th December 2023 and the sunlight shining through for today’s mid-week communion was quite stunning.

The work on the windows has been carefully and diligently carried out by Pendle Stained Glass Ltd. and the scaffolding supplied by Hardy Access Services and we are so pleased with the result.

This is a fine example of how some of the money, generously donated to All Saints, is used. We are blessed to worship in a beautiful Grade II listed building that needs a lot of care and maintenance, usually by specialised and skilled teams. We are so thankful to be in a position to afford this work and to secure the building for this and future generations but without ongoing donations and gifts this wouldn’t be possible so thank you.

Thank you to all involved and to Hugh for the short video below of the scaffolding coming down to reveal the completed work, just in time for our Christmas carol services this weekend.

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/i6IZWL6SMAA

From the Associate Vicar

You're Invited!

This December we will be invited to so many events. Family gatherings, work events and school extravaganzas. This Christmas we are all invited to encounter Gods love for us. Whether that’s for the first time or the hundredth, we pray that this church will be a place to meet with God and with also have fun with friends. Why not invite someone along to one of the services that we are running?

Depending on what you like, we are putting on something for everyone. Whether you like church to be contemporary or traditional, formal or informal, a place of stillness or noise and energy for the whole family, there is something here for you and your friends.

And if you would like to find out more about faith and work out what you think – then you are also invited to join us for Alpha starting in January. It is ten weeks (either Monday evening or Thursday morning) with food and discussion for you to hear about the Christian faith and then for you to work out what it means for you personally.

For more information and to sign up email roland.slade@allsaintsecclesall.org.uk You can also find out more by visiting our Alpha page.

Revd. Roland Slade, Associate Vicar.

From the Operations Manager

You may notice a bit more light coming in from the South Side this Sunday; the first of our repaired and rejuvenated stained glass windows has gone back in! The work has been done by Pendle Stained glass and you can see some photos of the various stages in the welcome area. It is truly skilled work and we are very grateful for their time and dedication to bringing these beautiful windows back to life.

The second window is due to be fitted on Monday, completed Tuesday, and we hope to get the scaffolding down as soon as possible after that. Thank you all for your patience during these works, we know the scaffolding has been an inconvenience in a number of areas but I hope you will all agree that it has been worth it.

There are still a number of areas of the building that require attention, primarily the tower plaque in the early part of 2024, but I would like to take the time to appreciate the (anticipated) completion of this project and thank everyone involved.

Many thanks,

Stephanie Osman
Operations Manager

From the Vicar

A huge thank you to all who have been praying for a good response to this year's Stewardship Appeal. PCC was also encouraged to know of your prayers for our discussions and decisions as we met earlier this week to discern and agree priorities for 2024 and how best to use the church's financial resources entrusted to us.

120 households have made new, or re-affirmed, financial commitments. (But please remember anyone can join our pledged giving scheme or change their giving at any time!). Your pledges result in £27k of additional regular giving for 2024 and £8k of one off gifts. Thank you for your generosity.

PCC wanted to provide some immediate brief feedback on our decisions but will write in more detail early in 2024, including how you can support plans with further prayer and financially. In the stewardship letter we said we were hoping for an increase in regular giving of £40k to move forward with confidence with our 4 key priorities:

1. To meet inflationary cost pressures

2. To secure the funding for our Youth Minister as specific donations end

3. To recruit to a part-time Music Minister early in 2024

4. To continue and grow our various mission commitments

Despite not reaching the hoped for increase, PCC decided to approve budgets that seek to do all of the above. We could only do that by committing a substantial proportion of our financial reserves to these priorities over the next couple of years. However, we felt it was important to step out in faith, trusting that the current shortfall in income will be made good through future generosity from the church family.

Thank you once again for your continuing partnership in the Lord's work at All Saints.

Mark Brown
Vicar and Chair of PCC

From the Curate

Christmas Cards, Carol Services, and Alpha

Sunday marks the launch of our Christmas Card, wonderfully designed by one of our children, Niamh Fenlon. We would love to encourage everyone to prayerfully choose three people to pray for daily who you would like to give a Christmas card to, and personally invite them to our Carol Services in December.

At the start of 2024 we want to provide an opportunity for every guest who comes over the Christmas season to explore the good news of Jesus. That’s why we will be running Alpha again. Alpha is a 10-week course where people invite their family and friends for a conversation about faith, life, and God. Each session begins with food and a short film about an aspect of Christianity. There’s plenty of time to discuss, ask questions, and listen to others. It’s a free and fun way for people who don’t normally come to church, or wouldn’t consider themselves Christians, to explore faith. We are offering Alpha at two different times:

Revd Roland Slade is leading Alpha on Thursday mornings 9.30am- 11.30am from 11th January, and Revd Simon Oatridge is leading Alpha on Monday evenings, 7.30pm-10.00pm from 15th January. Who would you like to give our Christmas Card to and invite to our Carol services? Who would you like to invite to go on Alpha in 2024?

Let us all pray that God would put three people on our heart to invite.

Rev. Simon Oatridge