This year we will have a Christmas tree outside St Andrew’s Church focusing on a different advent theme each week: hope, peace, joy and love. Would you like to help us decorate it? It could be a decoration you have made or bought and you could come back each week to see the tree and maybe hang another decoration! (Please observe social distancing when hanging decorations and be aware that for health reasons we will not be able to return any decorations to you). While you are at the tree you might like to say a prayer - perhaps on the theme of the week or for specific people or situations.
Advent and Christmas have at their heart a message of Hope and although Christmas will be different for most of us and harder for many, it can still gift us with a call to hope. Hope in the “Word made flesh”: Immanuel … “God is with us”.Music can be a key way in which hope can be “felt” deeply in our lives. It impacts our moods. Times of lockdown have seen an explosion of music creativity. People have sung and played from driveways and balconies, choirs have sung to their communities via mobile phones and lap tops … nothing will stop us from making and listening to music.“What music brings you hope?” This is the question I asked a number of friends and throughout Advent their musical choices will find their way into this calendar. As you use it, ask yourself the same question. Then let me know. I will be more than happy to include your hope-filled tune in the calendar.www.goldsworthpark.org.uk/advent20
Come and find the nativity characters in the windows of St Andrew’s Church and watch the Nativity story come together. Each week (30 Nov – 3 Jan) there will be new characters to find!