Hillside Parishes Magazine
Hillside Parish MagazineDecember 2008Ian’s First Christmas at Hillside Christmas is coming – but not yet! Now that we’re in December everyone has Christmas in their sights and it seems that we can think of little else. There’s just so much to do, with cards and presents and parties and so on. Shops are busy, children are excited, bank balances and credit cards are beginning to creak under the strain. At church we are trying to hold out for just a few more days and to do justice to the season we call Advent. We try to keep some of the excitement until Christmas itself. The song about the Twelve Days of Christmas reminds us that the real celebration used to start on Christmas Day and not finish then. Advent is a time of expectation rather than excitement, a time to wrap Christmas presents but not to open them, a time to make the cake and the pudding but to leave them to mature until the Feast. It is a season of waiting which seems to contradict the “instant” nature of the world that we live in, where the adverts encourage us to “buy now” and mobile phones make us available even when we are away from home or work. For this is waiting which is not focussed on impatience or frustration because the future can’t come fast enough. It is waiting which seeks stillness and finds contentment in the present moment, which encourages us to be more centred and more at home with ourselves and the people around us, rather than chasing the distractions of the next new idea or change in fashion. It is waiting which prepares us to welcome the Christchild at Christmas and to truly celebrate his coming. This year there are a number of opportunities to share in the spirit of Advent: On Advent Sunday 30th November at 10.30am the Bishop of Whitby is preaching at Holy Communion at Holy Trinity, Boltby. This will be Bishop Robert’s last visit to the Osmotherley and Hillside Churches before his move to London and a good opportunity for us to wish him, and his wife Roberta, Godspeed. At 4.30pm there is a Candlelight Advent Service in St.Peter’s, Osmotherley, with music and reading appropriate to the season. The Hillside Music in Worship Group will be singing at both services. There will be two Advent Reflection Groups, one meeting in Osmotherley and the other in Knayton. Both are daytime groups and there are more details further on in the magazine. Depending on interest there is the possibility of a third group, perhaps meeting in the evening. The children at Knayton School are helping Mary and Joseph to find shelter for the night as they journey to Bethlehem. Following the Mexican tradition of Posada they will offer them hospitality in their homes throughout December (in the shape of the Christmas crib figures) and gather at St.Mary’s, Leake, at 11am on Sunday 21st December to share their experiences at the Carol Service. Their presence provides a great opportunity for family prayers, perhaps as a grace around the table, and an opportunity to remember all who are forced to leave their homes by war or economic circumstances. I hope that you will be able to make time in Advent to prepare your heart as well as your home for the joy of Christmas. And that Christmas will be a time of blessing and peace for you and your family – when it comes! With my prayers Ian Houghton
The magazine of the parishes of Boltby, Borrowby, Cowesby, Felixkirk, Kepwick,
Kirby Knowle, Knayton, Leake & "The Siltons". Also circulated in
Upsall, Thirlby & Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe. |
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©Thirsk.net |
