The Church of St. John the Evangelist, Wingates FOOD COLLECTIONS Urban Outreach say thank you for your support. From now on you can bring your donations with you when you come to a Sunday Service in any of our churches. Place your donations in the Grub Tubs provided. You can also bring Sunday 13 December 2020 donations to St John’s, Wingates between 10 – 11 am on the first and third Saturdays of every month. (Next collection days Saturday 19 December & 16 January ) You might find it easier to make a financial donation to Urban Outreach. You can do this via their website https://www.urbanoutreach.co.uk/ ******************************************************* Christmas Dinner on Jesus We will be supporting this event as usual this year, and the need is likely to be greater than ever. We have put up a board in the foyer on which you can put your Christmas greetings in lieu of sending cards, and a collection box in which you can make a donation to this initiative. Pease do not leave cards out to be picked up this year. **************************************** Celebrating Christmas in 2020 Because of the pandemic, we can’t hold services in the same way as usual, but we plan to do The Third Sunday of Advent our utmost to celebrate Christmas together. There will be on-line services, including a Carol Service. For those who can’t access these we will be holding services in church – but with limited attendance available. Holy Communion This evening at 6.00p.m. we invite you to celebrate Christmas with us - listen again to 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24 traditional readings and carols. 6 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for On 20 December there will be a Service of the Word at 9.30 a.m. and a Family Service at 10.30 you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but a.m. test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil. 23 May God himself, the God On Christmas Eve at 3.00 p.m. there will be a short Family Service and a service of Holy of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept Communion at 11.30.pm. blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he On Christmas Day there will be a Communion service at 10.00 a.m. will do it. ********************************************************************** PRIMARY SCHOOL ADMISSION FORMS John 1:6-8, 19-28 If you have a form which you need to have completed by a member of the clergy, please get in 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify touch as follows: concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he All St. Thomas’ School admissions, please contact Rev’d Angela Wynne came only as a witness to the light. 19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish [email protected] 01204 468150 leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. 20 He did not fail to All St. Bartholmew’s, St.George’s, St. James’ school admissions, please contact Rev’d Carol confess, but confessed freely, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ 21 They asked him, ‘Then who are you? Pharaoh [email protected] 01942 859251 Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ 22 Finally they said, ‘Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say *************************************************************************** about yourself?’ 23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Make straight the way for the Lord.”’24 Now the Pharisees who had been sent 25 questioned him, ‘Why then do you baptise if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?’ 26 ‘I baptise with water,’ John replied, ‘but among you stands one you do not know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’ 28 This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.

Collect for the Third Sunday of Advent as Michael Palin’s trip unfolded, even I could recognise the real moments of joy he discovered, God for whom we watch and wait, you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son: that trail magic. Our resistance to stay in our safe and secure worlds and avoid exploring the give us courage to speak the truth, to hunger for justice, and to suffer for the cause of right, wilderness means that we lose out on the opportunity of being deeply touched by that trail with Jesus Christ our Lord. magic and drawing closer to God. **************************************************************** The challenge of adventure Homily by Carol Pharaoh, Sunday 13th December 2020 It’s the call of Advent. The call to adventure! The challenge for us at times I think is to deliberately go and get ourselves into the wilderness by some means or other. Advent is a Adventure good time to do this so that we might learn more of what it means to wait and watch. It’s by When you hear the word “adventure” what do you think of? Indiana Jones, Swiss Family allowing ourselves to be stripped of all our comfortable defences and taking the risks, that we Robinson, and Jules Verne? Columbus sailing on the high seas in search of new worlds? Neil can come face to face with God. Armstrong stepping out onto the moon? Captain Kirk and the Starship Enterprise “bravely Whether we put ourselves voluntarily in the wilderness, or whether we just find ourselves going where no man has gone before?” there by life’s cruel blows, if we hold on and trust God, as Adventurers we can embrace these We’re in the season of Advent. The word “advent” itself comes from the same root as wildernesses, face them in confidence and continue the trek. One of many things we can learn “adventure.” I think that we are in danger of feeling so keenly the pressures of preparing for as an adventurer is that if you keep on walking, eventually you’ll get to where you’re going. Christmas, that we forget that advent is a time of adventure, of waiting and watching and Advent joy. preparing for the coming of the King as a baby in Bethlehem and in the future. A theologian So, where is your wilderness? What adventure are you being called to but resist because called Stanley Hauerwas said this; - The most basic task of any [church] is to offer its people a you’re afraid? I cannot answer that for you. But I can assure you that you are being called sense of participation in an adventure. For finally what we seek is not power or security, or because that’s trail magic which is the presence of God in our lives. God greets those equality, or even dignity, but a sense of worth gained from participation in and contribution to adventurers who courageously step into the wilderness and follow the path that he prepares a common adventure. for them. God’s calling each of us. He may call us into a scary place, those places where we Advent, then, is about adventuring together. How do we do this? feel vulnerable and perplexed and things are very messy. But if we wish to prepare ourselves Adventures in the wilderness this Advent for the coming of Jesus at Christmas and in the future, then we need to be brave Think of John the Baptist being like our scoutmaster and he’s out there in the wilderness and bold. We should be exploring ways to give our lives to God and allow him to challenge us shouting the scout motto: “Be Prepared! Get ready!” he says. “Be prepared! Be ready for in new ways. This way, we’ll be ready as never before to receive our God at Christmas, now anything because anything can happen in this life! Good stuff and bad stuff. The adventure and in the future. We will know more deeply that profound joy that knowing Jesus brings. can take us sometimes into the wilderness.” Amen. Sometimes wildernesses are sprung on us and much to our distress. Life is full of them. Illness **************************************************************************** is one of them and grief. Loneliness and anxiety too. You could say that the weariness and pain of the world we currently live in, is also a wilderness. We might not like to see these We are delighted to announce the appointment of Revd Dr Malcolm times as ‘adventures’ as these are all painful and difficult places to be. Nevertheless, it’s often Jamieson Wearing as Self Supporting Minister Associate Curate in the in the wilderness, as John discovered, that we often find God. God is there in every Blackrod, Daisy Hill, Westhoughton and Wingates Team Ministry. wilderness, waiting for us, the adventurers. Malcolm is currently OLM Associate Curate at , and Trail Magic Stoneclough. The date of his institution will be Thursday 7th Jan 2021 at St I once read that Apache Indians have their own words for the experience of finding God in the James' Daisy Hill. desert and wilderness places. They call it “trail magic” and they would say, when you’ve been Malcolm will be known as Associate Priest in the Team. His main focus of on the trail long enough, you find it everywhere. Trail magic is anything good or beautiful or ministry will be at St James' Daisy Hill. marvellous or unexpected that happens on the trail. It’s the experience of going through great Malcolm is a Chartered Civil Engineer, and in his secular work runs a small consultancy difficulty, and coming to improbable beauty at the end of it. For those with the eyes to see, business in Farnworth. He is married to Katie and they have a son Tom, who is at University in trail magic is the very presence of God in the midst of the wilderness. York. They live in Over Hulton. Malcolm is looking forward to the new challenges that will During lockdown, the BBC ran a programme featuring Michael Palin, looking back at his come with the move from OLM ministry to a ministry with shared incumbent responsibility for adventures around the world. If you remember, one of Michael’s trips was across the Sahara a church, and believes God is calling him to work with the enthusiastic team in Daisy Hill and Desert. I remember thinking when the series was about to be shown originally, that this with colleagues in the wider team of churches. wasn't a journey I would have liked to have made. I guess most of us wouldn't have enjoyed such a trip. The desert, the wilderness, are places we would easily choose not to go. They are strange and inhospitable places where we could feel easily vulnerable, perplexed and lost. Yet