{"id":1468,"date":"2017-12-07T17:02:56","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T17:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christ-church-selly-park.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1468"},"modified":"2017-12-31T19:01:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-31T19:01:00","slug":"christmas-at-christ-church-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christ-church-selly-park.org.uk\/blog\/christmas-at-christ-church-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas at Christ Church 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Church<\/div>\n
\n

The Christmas message in three words: God With Us. At Christ Church we celebrate Jesus’ birth and all that it means in a variety of ways and for all age groups: lively and reflective, young and old. Our hope and prayer is that everyone may find a way of relating to God more closely, at Christmas and throughout the year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Advent: The Jesse Tree<\/h2>\n
\"The<\/div>\n
The Jesse Tree reminds us of the people God used to prepare the world for Jesus’ birth. Each Sunday during Advent we add more of the characters who played a part in God’s story<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

More events in our building<\/h2>\n

Coffee Mates Christmas Special<\/h3>\n

The weekly Coffee Mates finished the year with Christmas carols and seasonal food<\/p>\n

\"Devon

Devon leads Christmas carols at Coffee Mates<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Singers<\/p>\n

Christmas Messy Church<\/h3>\n

Our Christmas-themed crafts included making Christmas tree biscuits and cards, stained glass (well, tissue paper), badges and heart-shaped decorated boxes<\/p>\n

\"Nativity

Messiest Christmas ever! We had a lot of fun with gloop – it’s gooey but goes all hard when you try to move something through it<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Rachel

Rachel reminds us who we need in our hearts at Christmas, and all the time – Jesus<\/p><\/div>\n

Christmas Party<\/h3>\n

We threw a special party to say thank you and farewell to our curate, Megan Gibbins, and husband Paul as she moves on to take up her new post at Bewdley<\/p>\n

\"Megan

Megan and Paul answer tricky questions from the audience<\/p><\/div>\n

Candlelit Carol Service<\/h3>\n

Our hall was full of people and sound as a specially-formed choir led singing. Large quantities of mulled wine and mince pies were consumed afterwards<\/p>\n

\"The

The choir leading singing at the Carol Service<\/p><\/div>\n

Christmas weekend<\/h2>\n

Three contrasting ways of celebrating Christmas: Follow the Star<\/span>, for young children and their families on Christmas Eve; the quiet reflection of Midnight Communion<\/span>; and a joyful all age celebration on Christmas Day<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"The

The innkeeper delivers his message to Joseph at Follow the Star<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Two

The angels relax after their brilliant performance at Follow the Star<\/p><\/div>\n

\n\"Serving\n<\/div>\n

Happy Christmas! Thank you to all the many helpers who make it possible to run our services and other events all year round<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Christingle at Moor Green<\/h2>\n

Our Children’s and Familes Missioner, Rachel Fasham, visited Moor Green Primary Academy to help the children explore the meaning of Christmas. She demonstrated the Christingle to Year 3 and Reception, explaining what it represents: the orange, the world; the cocktail sticks, the four seasons; the red ribbon, Jesus’ death on the cross; the sweets, God’s goodness in creation; and the candle, Jesus the Light of the World<\/p>\n

\"Carol

Rachel Fasham prepares to explain the Christingle tradition to the children at Moor Green School<\/p><\/div>\n

Sharing the journey<\/h2>\n

Clients of the Christians Against Poverty<\/strong> Debt Advice Centre which we run alongside five other partner churches are receiving Christmas hampers as an encouragement on their journey out of debt<\/p>\n

\"Christmas

Christmas treats for a CAP client<\/p><\/div>\n

More events at other venues<\/h2>\n

Carol Service at Neville Williams House<\/h3>\n

We joined with residents and staff for a Christmas celebration<\/p>\n

\"Serving

Serving mince pies after carol singing<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A

Thank you Toddler Club for the loan of the nativity set<\/p><\/div>\n

Carol Singing at the Highbury, Dads Lane<\/h3>\n

We always get a warm welcome at the Highbury, and this year was no different<\/p>\n

\"Carol

Carol singing at the Highbury<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Carol<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Christmas message in three words: God With Us. At Christ Church we celebrate Jesus’ birth and all that it means in a variety of ways and for all age groups: lively and reflective, young and old. Our hope and prayer is that everyone may find a way of relating to God more closely, at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christ-church-selly-park.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christ-church-selly-park.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christ-church-selly-park.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christ-church-selly-park.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christ-church-selly-park.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1468"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.christ-church-selly-park.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1499,"href":"https:\/\/www.christ-church-selly-park.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions\/1499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christ-church-selly-park.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christ-church-selly-park.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christ-church-selly-park.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}