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January
2022 - Happy New Year
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| Services |
| 2nd |
10:30am |
Adrian
Watts |
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| 9th |
10:30am |
Anne
Hayward |
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(C) |
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| 16th |
10:30am |
Dr
Peter Baines |
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| 23rd |
10:30am |
Baptismal
Service |
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| 30th |
10.30am |
Ian
Hayward |
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(C)
denotes communion will be held as part
of the worship service
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| Weekday
Meetings |
| Monday |
Craft
Group |
2:00pm |
10th
and 24th |
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Baptismal
Service - Sunday 23rd
Baptismal services are always a joyous occasion,
marking a significant step on an individual's
journey of following Jesus Christ as Lord and
Saviour. On Sunday 23rd we will join with Derek
Carpenter as he takes this step in his walk
of faith. This is a great day for Derek and
the Church so please be sure to put it in your
diaries.
| Gardener's
Corner |
Winter
Weather can be the gardener's friend.
The cold kills of the pests and any snow
will protect any plants from frost damage.
Winter flowering plants can look their
best just now with any frost on the berries
and flowers. Evergreens will also look
lovely with the frost. By the end of the
month the days will lengthen and growth
will slowly begin again.
A good time to sort out the greenhouse,
clean it up in preparation for sewing
seed trays in readiness for spring. However,
you may well need to keep the greenhouse
warm for a while just now, bubble wrap
is invaluable for insulation from the
cold.
A good time to clean paths and patios
of moss and algae in anticipation of warmer
days. A good time to take root cuttings
of perennials and alpines; remove a few
lengths and replace the plant. Half fill
a seed tray with free-draining sandy but
moist compost, and lay root cuttings in
rows on their sides, then cover with more
compost and keep in a cool but not cold
place until they shoot.
Winter honeysuckle is lovely now if you're
lucky enough to have it, very fragrant
and can be cut for indoors.
Enjoy what you can in the garden and prepare
for the warmer weather to come. Enjoy!
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| Minister's
Musings |
Allan's
Musings - The New Year's Resolution
When, at the end of December, one of the
great days of the Christian year has come
and gone, many of us think of that grand
old tradition, the New Year's resolution.
Will you actually make any New Year's resolutions
this year? The making of New Year's resolutions
(and failing to keep them) is for us a long-running
tradition that's taken on something of a
more jovial tone. So, while we start the
2022 with such good intent, people in some
other countries seem to have adopted resolutions
in a similar way. The tradition may have
actually started as far back as the ancient
Babylonians, perhaps 1,000 years before
Christ.
The ancient Babylonians celebrated the New
Year on the first new moon after the spring
equinox. They called it Akitu and it was
a major festival that lasted 11 days. During
the festival, the Babylonians made New Year's
resolutions to keep themselves in good standing
with their gods. They may have resolved
to get themselves out of debt, to return
borrowed farm equipment, or other things
important to them in their time. We could
recognise these as worthy intentions just
as ours are.
We have the Romans to thank for our New
Year taking place in the winter when it's
usually cold and miserable. The improvement
of the old Roman calendar still used Ianuarius
(January) where Romans in all occupations
offered resolutions to Janus, their god
of beginnings, endings and the New Year.
In particular farmers in those times were
expected to make an "auspicious gesture"
by making a start on the tasks they intended
to get done throughout the year.
It seems clear that even before the time
of our Lord the intention was that people
resolved to change their behaviour in ways
that would help to make them better citizens.
In more modern times, and certainly in Christian,
English spoken lands, the New Year's resolution
was used to encourage people to be better
Christians. In particular to reform themselves
in one way or another and to adopt a personal
discipline which would enable them to live
up to the accepted standards of the day.
As we know, the advance of the secular society
has watered down the stricter traditions
of the past to the point that the "Top Ten
New Year's Resolutions" as analysed by users
responses to a Twitter question were:
" Diet, exercise and weight loss
" Read more
" Learn something new
" Save money " Be a nicer human.
" Get a new job
" Give more time and money to charity
" Drink less.
" Sleep more.
" Make new friends.
If we read all these things in a particular
way, we can see that this actually means
we should practise the good stewardship
of the gifts that God has given us all.
Good stewardship means good management of
our "time, talent, and treasure" for the
greater glory of God. As Jesus warned us
in His parables, all His servants will be
judged on how they used the graces they
were given. Do we neglect them and spend
them selfishly, or are we generous in building
up God's kingdom on earth?
No-one said it would be easy! |
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