I will be forever grateful – literally - to a man named Andy Bales. I met Andy when I was 17, both of us doing the day-release ‘study’ part of our apprenticeship at Derby Lonsdale College. We struck up a friendship and met up fortnightly at the Baseball Ground, home of the (then) mighty Derby County. Andy became a Christian during the time we were doing our apprenticeships, and he immediately started talking about the difference Jesus had made to him. He wasn’t a great preacher or evangelist, but he had clearly found something of life-changing value and meaning and wanted to talk about it. To cut a long story short, Andy invited me to attend an evangelistic meeting that set me on the path to discovering Jesus for myself – or rather discovering that it was God who had come looking for me in his Son Jesus! It was Andy’s courage in witnessing to his new found faith in Jesus that led me to want to know more – and in God’s goodness I have followed Jesus since I gave my life to him in 1984. Our Verse for the Year is Romans 10: 14-15 (2 verses, I know…) as the apostle Paul asks ‘How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?’ We are not all given the gift of evangelism, but every single follower of Jesus is a witness to what they know of him. Come and hear more from these encouraging verses and how it is God who comes looking for us in Jesus, to make us right with himself, and then gives us the joyful responsibility of being a part of someone else’s story.Mick
The FIFA World Cup Final takes place on Sunday 18th December. In 2020 England reached the final of the Euros and the viewing figures were astonishing: Around 25 million people watched on the BBC and 6 million watched on ITV, making 31 million TV viewers. Those figures don’t include those who listened on the radio or gathered to watch the final in pubs and public spaces, of whom there were many thousands if not millions! If we reach the final of the World Cup then it is highly likely that more than half the population will make it a priority to watch… and even if Gareth and the boys don’t get that far the attraction of watching the World Cup Final is very strong for many. So, we have moved our Carol Services to Saturday 17th December. We have All Age Carols at 5pm and the Civic Carol Service with the Choir at 7pm. We would love to invite you to come and hear the good news of Jesus’ birth and why it makes all the difference! Rev Mick Hough, CA Vicar of Holy Trinity
What’s the point of a verse for the year?To keep in front of us throughout the year - to keep returning to it! For our individual encouragement and our inspiration together. So, stick it on your fridge, put it in your Bible, keep it by the side of your bed…put it wherever you’ll see it regularly!I have chosen Isaiah 12: 3 this year because joy and salvation go together in this verse, and they belong together in our lives as we live for Jesus. Joy is a natural response to salvation, joy in our restored relationship with God sustains us in a world where other things may try and rob us of our joy. - Mick
Our Christingle services and Christmas Morning service are all now fully booked. We are operating a waiting list, so please contact us on rachel@htredhill.com to add your name to a list. It is important that if you are booked into one of these services but, for some reason, know that you will not be attending please let us know - that will enable us to contact those on the waiting list. Our Christmas Day service at 10.30am will be livestreamed, so if you are not able to make it, or have not yet booked into our Christmas Day service you can join us online. We have made the difficult decision to cancel the Midnight Communion service. Holy Communion is the service where there is the greatest potential for spreading the virus, with lots of people moving around the church. For that same reason we had already made the Christmas Morning service - which is usually a Family Communion - a regular service of word and worship. Christingle will be slightly different this year<span style="font-size: 1rem;">. We will now be giving each child a Christingle kit as they come into church, and inviting you to take them home to assemble them. There is a prayer inside the kit for you to use as you light the Christingle - whether that is Christmas Eve or around the Christmas dinner table! Other than this change, we will share in all of the other familiar elements of this candle-lit service.</span>The service on Sunday 26th December (Boxing Day) will now be a short, all-age service of word and worship. Please book places by emailing rachel@htredhill.com - thank you!<span style="font-size: 1rem;"></span> We are keeping the church well-ventilated and as safe as possible for all who come to worship. In keeping with this, we have reintroduced the alternate pew system, so that you will have a free pew in front of you and behind you. Where you share a pew with someone else from outside your household or group, we ask you to respect the space between you.
