St Nicholas, Peopleton

Bowland Benefice Pews News 11 January 2026 Collect for The Baptism of Christ Heavenly Father, at the Jordan you revealed Jesus as your Son: may we recognize him as our Lord and know ourselves to be your beloved children; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen This week in the Benefice Sunday 11 January 10.30am Holy Communion in Upton Snodsbury 10.30am Christingle Service in White Ladies Aston Monday 12 January 12.00noon Meet and Eat in The Parish Room, White Ladies Aston Tuesday 13 January 7.00pm Benefice Council meets in The Parish Room, WLA Friday 16 January 7.30pm Film Night - The Book Shop - in The Parish Room, WLA Saturday 17 January 2.00pm Installation of Bishop Hugh in the Cathedral. All welcome! Sunday 18 January Epiphany 2 10.30am Benefice Holy Communion in Upton Snodsbury The Christingle Service in White Lades Aston this Sunday is very much child-focussed and the collection will be for The Children’s Society, a society which helps to give young people hope, and a reason to believe in a brighter future. After the service, please do stay on for refreshments and chat with friends and neighbours. If you have anything you wish to be discussed at the Benefice Council meeting on Tuesday, please let me know - [email protected] For more information or to book Meet and Eat or The Film Night, please ring Margaret on 01905 345371 or email [email protected] Urgent Need! Please remember the local Food Banks. Stocks are low after the Christmas period. They are in constant need of the staples of life – UHT milk, tinned goods, dried goods such as pasta, coffee, tea, packet soups, cleaning materials and toiletries. Please help families in need. Following on from last week – three more stanzas from Tennyson which seem so very pertinent as we look at the world and its daily news: Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Prayer for the New Year Dear Lord as we start 2026: We give thanks for our health, our family and our friends. We thank you for all the gifts in our lives. We ask that you help us to release our resentment, jealousy and grudges towards others, as these feelings can only hamper and diminish us. Help us to live each day in love, serving all who are in need, following the examples set by Jesus. Help us not to forget how fortunate we are to be living in the warmth and comfort of our own homes with family and friends. Help us set out on the New Year with hope, courage and the determination to make a difference in some way, however small. Amen. It is so easy, as we look around at what is being done to and in our beautiful world, to get desponded and to question. We all know that if life is to have meaning and purpose we need to begin with ourselves, our relationships and our faith. I make no apology for once again, offering this ancient Sandskrit philosophy. Look well to this day, for it is life, the very best of life. In its brief course lie all the realities and truths of existence, the joy of growth, the splendour of action, the glory of power. For yesterday is but a memory and tomorrow is only a vision. But today, if well-lived, makes every yesterday a memory of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day.