Neighbourhood News Magazine

C hristmas is fast approaching and we will be busy preparing in the coming season of Advent! One of the initiatives we run at this time is the ‘You Can be Santa’ voucher scheme which aims to help children/families who may not otherwise enjoy the full spirit of Christmas. Parishioners make donations of vouchers from Sainsbury’s, Argos, Amazon and One4All, and these are distributed to these families at Christmas. Services Our Annual Christmas Carol Service is being held on Friday 22 nd December at 7.30pm and is always a well-attended, joyous celebration of the good news. Popular carols are sung, interspersed with key readings from the Christmas story – the birth of the baby Jesus the Saviour, in the stable in Bethlehem, and the visits by the shepherds and wise men. The children love the life-like !gures in the crib before them. Naturally, this is rounded o" with mulled wine and mince pies! Why not look up last year’s carol service on YouTube to give you an idea? Market Look out for us at our Wednesday market stall in December. Come and say hello and we will give you a Christmas card with details of our Christmas services. The !rst service is a beautiful children’s liturgy held in our main church in Beacons!eld Road on Christmas Eve. It is open to all. On Christmas Day, there are several services, as well as the usual joy-!lled family celebration at St. John Fisher School at 9am. It is a great way to start Christmas, and we see many new and old faces celebrating. You are warmly invited to join us! Full details of our parish Christmas services are available on our parish website: www.albanstephen.org 37 Getting into the Christmas spirit on the Church’s Wednesday market stall