St. Barnabas Church , Linslade, Leighton Buzzard
01525 371802
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From Fr. Bernard
​

Dear All,

Greetings once again, on this cold week: the coldest I can ever remember. I don't think I've ever known it stay so cold for so long! I hope everyone has been able to keep warm and to stay safe? The forecasters apparently tell us that a thaw is on the way! But whatever the weather throws our way, St Barnabas is still open, and our services will not change: I do, after all, have a very short commute! So, first things first: a reminder that this Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Advent, and the last Sunday before Christmas. There will be Eucharists at 8 am and 10 am, and the 10 am Service will be an All-Age Eucharist, with a  'scratch' nativity. What that means is that everyone is welcome to come to the 10 am service dressed as their favourite nativity character, and we will see who we have on the day! One of the people we will have, hopefully, will be our Bishop, Alan, who will be worshipping with us.  A copy of the order of service to this email, as well as the weekly Cross and Crown are both on the website..

On Sunday evening, at 6 pm, we will have our service of Nine Lessons and Carols. Before then, tomorrow, we will have a concert in Church at 7:30 pm given by the Musica charity choir, who will sing a mixture of Christmas-inspired songs old and new.  All the money raised will go to the Church, so please support this if you can. Also tomorrow, at All Saints' Church, there will be a 'Blue Christmas' Service at 3 pm for those who find the festive season difficult. On Monday at 7 pm, St Leonard's Church are holding a zoom service of remembrance for those who have died this year. You can find the link to that on their website.

Services this week will be as usual, with said Eucharists on Wednesday at 9:30 am and Thursday at 10 am, and Morning and Evening Prayer every day except Monday. On Friday the 23rd, anyone who wants to decorate St Barnabas is invited to bring a decoration to the Church between 9 am and 12 noon. Then, on Christmas Eve we will have our usual Crib Service at 4 pm, and a Midnight Mass of Christmass beginning at 11:30 pm. On Christmass Day itself, there will be a said Eucharist at 8 am, and a sung Parish Eucharist at 10 am, but there will be no Evening prayer on that day.

I know that many of you have been using the pigeonholes in Church for individual Christmas cards. Please do look and see if there are any for you. A reminder also; there is a board next to the pigeonholes for you to pin up one card for everyone if you find that easier.

At Evening Prayer this week, I will sing the different advent antiphons set for each day. A note about them is included in this week's Cross and Crown. They are the basis for the hymn 'O come, O come, Emmanuel' that we sang in Church last week. But it only struck me recently that Christmas and Easter mirror each other in this respect. In the week leading up to Christmass, there are special 'extras' for Evening Prayer. But the special 'extras' for Easter - the sung Easter anthem and the Alleluia - come after Easter Day, and in the morning. Likewise, the unique service of Christmass is Midnight Mass, celebrated in the darkness of the middle of the night. The unique service of Easter is the Easter vigil, celebrated as the sun rises in the morning. Christmass is all about the build-up. Slowly growing excitement, and little lights twinkling in the enveloping dark. It has the 'flavour' of evening, and of a world enveloped in the dark. Easter is all about the fall-out: the light of a new and different day. The all-pervasive sunlight pierces through the clouds. Its flavour is the morning, the dawn of a new and eternal day.

Advent is a time when we prepare for Christmass, but even Christmass itself is in a way a time of preparation. The baby born is preparing for His ministry. The candles of Christmass are the dayspring of the resurrection sun of Easter. For now, we still see "in a glass, darkly", but "a brighter day is dawning". We look for what we do not yet see, but we believe that it will one day come: the great day of the Lord, when all things will be made new.

Until then, God bless!

Fr Bernard

The Rev'd Dr B Minton
Team Vicar of Linslade
Ouzel Valley Team
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