Alan chaired the evening and, after tea, some of the children from Sunday Club came to the front to help him run through the Ten Commandments, a subject that they’ve been learning about recently on Sunday mornings.
They also enjoyed singing some of the choruses from Sunday Club, before Daniel Rudge came to speak over the tea table.
In a short, powerful message he told the story (from Numbers 20) of Moses striking the rock in the wilderness to bring forth water finishing with linking to 1 Corinthians 4:10 – ‘that rock was Christ’.
With the new ‘The Link Coffee Bar’, the upcoming baptism, the planned Light Night and the forthcoming Christmas activities we’re really looking forward to the weeks ahead.
Our next regular Family Service is on 18th November at 11.30am.
This morning a group of us met up for prayer before we headed off to the High Street to hand out invitations for our Carols by Candlelight, held today at 5pm. We had a good time in the town and handed out well over 500 invite cards in less than half an hour.
Invitation for this year's Carols by Candlelight
Afterwards we regrouped and shared a coffee in Costa Coffee before heading home.
This is the first time that we have held a carol service on Christmas Eve and we were delighted with the response. Earlier in the week a group of us had gone carol singing, also for the first time, around the local roads and had handed out mince pies and sweets. This had also been very positive and well received.
Great night carol singing by candlelight. Mince pies, sweets & invites to our Christmas Eve carol service well received.
Some 80 people gathered with us this evening for our Carols by Candlelight service to enjoy a tradition mixture of the Christmas favourites and listen to something about the real meaning of Christmas.
A few of the crowd at today's Carols by Candlelight service
The service was led by Alan Michael and began with the singing of Hark the herald angels sing, followed by prayer and a welcome to all.
The second carol was Silent Night, which was followed by a reading from Jeremy, based around the first subject in our ‘Step into Christmas’ series – Christmas: The Plan.
Some of the younger children from Sunday Club came up to sing Away in a manger. This was followed by our second reading, read by Phil Bray and set around verses to highlight Christmas: The Person.
Our fourth carol was Once in royal David’s city. After the carol, poems that the children had written about Christmas were displayed on the screen in the form of video clips showing them being read by their authors.
This was followed by our final readings which highlighted Christmas: The Purpose and were read by David Angell.
Our fifth carol was O little town of Bethlehem. After this, David Hedges came up to speak. He highlighted God’s present at Christmas – the sending of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world – and how easy it was to lose sight of this in among the distractions of Christmas.
Our final carol was O come all ye faithful which was followed by prayer.
Alan and David handed out presents for those who attend Sunday Club and explained that there was something for everyone to take away with the refreshments offered after the carol service.
Among other giveaways was a Parkside fridge magnet for 2012, which also proved somewhat popular.
2012 fridge magnet calendar
Overall, it was a tremendous evening and really encouraging for us all to see the hall full. It’s definitely something that we’ll look to repeat next year.
Today, some 45 people enjoyed the final carol service in our Step into Christmas series as we looked at the subject Christmas: The Purpose.
The service was once again hosted by Phil Bray and began with the carol Hark the herald angels sing followed by prayer.
The second carol was Away in a manger and was followed by the final installment of the Christmas Quiz which ultimately ended in victory for the Mince Pies.
The third carol was Infant Holy, infant lowly and was followed by playing the two video clips below:
Our fourth carol was O come all ye faithful and after this, Paul Cogger came up to speak.
Paul used examples of different activities which keep us busy over Christmas, as below, before gradually fading out the pictures to leave the cross as the real purpose of Christmas.
Paul closed in prayer before our final carol which was I cannot tell why He, whom angels worship.
As in previous weeks, we followed the service with hot drinks and mince pies.
Following the cancellation of last year’s Young People’s Carol Service due to the snow, it was good to meet up with others once again.
We had around 60 people in for this years carol service which was hosted by Phil Bray and Brian Sparks and was dubbed #YPCarols on Twitter. We were also pleased to welcome Iain Bailey as our speaker for the evening.
Below are some tweets from the night:
Just 5.5 hours to go until tonight's #YPCarols! We'll try and live tweet tonight as well! See you there.
Today we held the second in our series of Carol Services known as Step into Christmas.
We had around 50 people at the carol service again, similar to last week.
The service was once again hosted by Phil Bray and began with Joy to the world followed by prayer. Phil welcomed those attending and explained about the service being part of a series.
The second carol was Silent Night which was followed by the second installment of the Christmas Quiz which pitted Christmas Puddings against Mince Pies and involved those attending coming up to collect an envelope from the Christmas tree. Inside the envelope was a card with points which the team could score if they answered a question correctly.
The third carol was See Him lying on a bed of straw. This was followed by an excellent solo by Judith Hamm, singing O Holy Night while accompanying herself on the guitar.
The final carol, before Victor came to speak, was While Shepherds watched their flocks by night.
Victor spoke on Christmas: The Person and brought out verses showing that Jesus was a real man as well as being God. He also displayed verses explaining that Jesus is the Son of God and our Saviour.
As last week, we finished with coffee and mince pies in the back room.
Parkside Christian Fellowship 