MCC Manchester News

On Saturday 8th December we are off to York for the day for a wander around the shops and minster. York is a wonderful medieval city with excellent restaurants and marvellous history. We will meet at Piccadilly train station on Saturday morning and travel up to York on the train. Please sign up in church, or email me back if you wish to come.

On Sunday 9th we have our Annual General Meeting and Christmas meal together at Sedgley Park centre in Prestwich. The meal costs £18, and you need to book! Neil will also sing some of his own songs to us after the meal.

On Monday 10th we are going to the Manchester Hospitals’ Carol Concert at the Bridgewater Hall. This raises money for the Malcolm Sargent Cancer Fund and is a wonderful evening of music where we join in with many of the carols. Prices are £15. Sign up in church or email me to let you know if you are interested, if so we will book tickets.

After Christmas on 27th December we are off to the Bridgewater Hall again for the “Last Night of the Christmas Proms” this is a wonderful mixture of music from a range of classical sources. Tickets start at £17.50 and the concert starts at 7.30pm. Ian and I will offer a light tea that afternoon for anyone who wants to come round before the concert. Please either sign up or email me to say you are interested, and we will then book tickets.

Next Sunday, 2nd December, the great season of Advent starts. This is a season of prayer and preparation as we look forward to Christmas and the celebration of Jesus’ birth amongst us.

As in previous years we have changed our worship format for Advent. We will follow the traditional Advent themes: John the Baptist, longing for Jesus’ return, and the Christmas story itself. We have pre-recorded readings and reflections on these themes and mixed them with modern music and various images. These recordings will take the place of the sermon in worship and our services are deliberately more reflective in this season.

Our Carol Service will be on Sunday 16th December, and we will have a Christmas celebration on Sunday 23rd. We celebrate a traditional Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, starting at 11.30pm and are warmly invited to Christmas Day worship with our friends at St Chrysostom’s at 11am.

Our Emmaus Group starts a new programme on Thursday 29th November.

The Emmaus Group is a small group of people who meet together every other week to pray, study the scriptures and get to know each other better.

In September and October they looked at Prayer using the Lord’s Prayer as a model, and after a short break, they are now going to look at the Old Testament (in three sessions!) to get a rough idea of the general sweep of history of the Old Testament and some of its key characters. The Old Testament was the Bible that Jesus and the disciples knew and is the Bible of the Jewish people today. These three sessions will help us get to know the history of the Old Testament better and cover the following areas:

Thursday 29th November From Abraham to Joshua

Thursday 13th December From Joshua to the Exile

Thursday 17th January From the Exile to St John the Baptist.

Then on 31st January we will start a brief overview of the New Testament.

The group usually meets at Margaret and Gwen’s home in Altrincham, but this week will meet at Sue’s home nearby. If you wish to come, and need directions, please email Margaret and Gwen on migwy4@ntlworld.com.

With much love

Andy

Each year we have our Annual General Meeting on the second Sunday of Advent whilst St Chrysostom’s host the Victoria Park Carol Service. This year our AGM falls on Sunday 9th December. We will, therefore, NOT be serving refreshments after church on that Sunday. Instead we will travel to Sedgley Park Police College in Prestwich (lifts available) for a Christmas Dinner, AGM and concert from Neil. The cost for the meal is £18 (unwaged £10) but we don’t want to exclude anyone on the grounds of cost. Please use the bookings forms and return this with your payment to Andy.