Travel, Trees, and the gift of Time Last month I stood inside a c.4,000 year old yew tree. It put time into perspective for a few moments: when the locals hollowed out the trunk of the tree in 1820 and put a door in it(!) they found a cannonball buried in the trunk, presumed to date from the English Civil War; the yew was already around 2,000 years old at the time of Jesus’ birth and was roughly 1,200 years old when Isaiah prophesied about a Saviour King to come. I’m now back from sabbatical and working to deadlines again, but although hanging around inside trees may have to come to an end I’m keen to keep in mind God’s bigger perspective on time as I go about my week! I’m looking forward to preaching a series in the autumn on ‘The Tree of Life’, and how God uses trees in the bible, from the beginning to end, to point us to the life and salvation that only Jesus – hung on a tree - can bring. Over the last 12 weeks I’ve visited N Ireland, seen family and friends around the UK, had four weeks in Tuscany with Libby, and worshipped in all kinds of churches and cathedrals (including singing hymns and reciting the creed in Welsh!). I’d love to share with you some of our experiences, and so I will be organising an evening in August in church with coffee and cake, and a few photos and thoughts from my sabbatical - see our website for more information. It’s good to be back, and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday! Your friend and Vicar, Mick
We are preparing to build a new, fully accessible church centre! So that we can empty our current building and prepare the church for storage we are moving our 10 O'clock service to St Bede's School a little further up the road. Our morning service at St Bede's will have groups for children and young people from age 3 to school year 9 as usual, as well as our supervised creche for under 3s. We will have car parking spaces at the school, including a section for blue badge holders. We look forward to seeing you at St Bede's from Sunday 1st September!Our evening service and our midweek service, Rendezvous, will remain on our original site.
We are delighted to mark over 20 years of Rendezvous with a service of celebration and thanksgiving on Wednesday 6th March at 10.30am. Our guest preacher will be former Vicar of HT, Canon Gary Jenkins. The service will conclude with refreshments in the church centre and, in true HT style, cake!Rendezvous set out with the intention of creating a little midweek oasis where people could draw closer to God and to one another. Over the years it has proved a vital part of our outreach to our local community, especially for those who find it difficult to get to church on Sundays. We always say that Rendezvous is a service of two halves - the first part in church and the second in the church centre where we enjoy a relaxed time over tea and coffee. Come and celebrate Rendezvous with us - our services are open to all!
Discover Life According to Jesus with 321 Got questions about God, the world and you? 321 invites you to see life the way Jesus does. Over four sessions, Glen Scrivener presents Jesus' vision for life through interactive videos that help us better understand God, the world and ourselves. The course considers God's Three-ness, the world's two-ness and your one-ness. Each session begins with a thoughtful question followed by storytelling and commentary. Engage in thoughtful conversation as part of a small group hosted in a friendly environment. Interested? The first session is on Wednesday 24th January at 7.30pm- sign up here.
