December 2008
Services
| Sunday Services | Friday Services (except Dec 27th) |
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| 8.00 am Holy Communion (Prayer book) | 10.30 am Holy Communion (Prayer book) |
| 11.00 am Sunday at Eleven | 5.30 pm Meditation |
| 5.00 pm Meditative Eucharist |
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Sundays at Eleven |
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December 7th: Advent Eucharist Preacher Canon Fraser Watts The monthly Sunday morning Eucharist is on this particular Sunday, because it is the one Sunday in the year when the 5.00 pm service is not a Eucharist. Fraser will give the first of two sermons putting the coming of Christ in the context of human evolution, focussing this week on the first coming. December 14th: Advent Service Preacher Canon Fraser Watts An Advent service, built around the seven Advent Antiphons, the great "Advent O’s", and the sonnets based on each of them written by Malcolm Guite. Fraser will preach, putting the second coming of Christ in the context of human evolution. December 21st: Christingle Service Preacher Reverend Dr Malcolm Guite A carol service for people of all ages, including young families, featuring the Christingle, with its symbolism of Christ entering the world as its light. December 28th: Commemoration of the Holy Innocents Preacher Canon Fraser Watts This is the day when the Church attends to the darker side of the story of Jesus’ birth in Matthew’s gospel, Herod’s slaughter of young male children, carried out in the hope of killing Jesus. It illustrates in dramatic form that the light of Christ shines in a dark world. |
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Meditative Eucharist - Sundays at Five |
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| December 7th: | Advent Carol Service (NB not a Eucharist this week) |
| December 14th: | John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus; healing service (Malcolm Guite) |
| December 21st: | Mary, the mother of Jesus (Fraser Watts) |
| December 28th: | The Holy Innocents (Malcolm Guite) |
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Meditative Eucharist - Sundays at Five |
| Sunday 7th December 5.00 pm: Advent Carol Service Carols and readings for Advent, with the choir of Girton College. Followed by mulled wine and mince pies |
| Sunday 21st December 11.00 am: Christingle Service A family carol service with Christingles, for people of all ages. |
| Wednesday 24th December 11.30 pm Christmas Eve Midnight Mass The first Communion of Christmas, with carols and candlelight. Preacher: Revd Dr Malcolm Guite |
| Thursday 25th December – Christmas Day 8.00 am Holy Communion (1662) Canon Alan Cole 10.30 am: Christmas Day Carol Service. Readings and carols for Christmas Day. Preacher: Canon Fraser Watts Followed at 11.30 am by a short service of Holy Communion |
Contemplative Eucharists: There will be a contemplative Eucharist, with much silence, at 5.00 pm on Saturday 29th November (Eve of Advent Sunday).
Holistic Spirituality Group: The group will meet at 3.30 pm on Sunday 16th December, chaired by Malcolm.
Goth Eucharists: There will be Goth Eucharists at 8.30 pm on December 2nd (Sara Ball on 'Sloth') and December 16th (Malcolm Guite on Bob Dylan)
Meditation Group: The meditation group meets regularly on Fridays at 5.30 pm (ending around 6.15) except on December 27th, led by Fraser.
Songs and Sonnets: This will now be on Thursday December 4th at 8.00 pm (note change of date). An evening of songs and poems, with some of Malcolm’s songs and more recent poems.
Healing: There will be laying on of hands for healing at the 5.00 pm Eucharist on Sunday Dec 14th.
New Year’s Eve: There will be a short watchnight service at 11.40 pm on 31st December, followed by ringing in of the New Year, and refereshments in the ringing chamber.
Chapter: The next meeting is at 6.30 pm on Wednesday December 3rd in the Faculty of Divinity. Readers for 11 o'clock services: Dec 7th: D Hirst and Chaplain; Dec 14th: A Finn, R Adams, W Cann
Chaplain's Letter
At this time of year we always get some ritual hand-wringing from the clergy in which they decry the 'materialism' of Christmas and argue that it should be 'less material and more spiritual'. I want to argue the reverse; the whole point of Christmas is to stop us from being disconnectedly abstract and spiritual, and to show us again how to reverence God's good creation, the matter of which he makes us. Our problem is not that we are too material and not spiritual enough; our problem is precisely that we have divorced the two things, and experience a false split or tension between them. A world conceived as only matter, bodies and persons conceived as nothing but the inevitable unravelling of selfish genes, is repellent; it is understandable that people flee from it. But a religious life conceived as 'purely spiritual' swiftly becomes distant, dislocated abstract and arrogant.
We need to rediscover the rich truth that matter always has an inward spiritual reality and that the life of Spirit must always be embodied in particular places and persons, particular acts, moments of touch. Most of the time we forget this, living between our split and dualistic worlds, and then along comes Christmas and puts it all back together! Spiritual abstractions like Generosity, Affection, and Love are suddenly embodied in material things, carefully chosen presents, invitations to dinner, firesides, gatherings in pubs, circles of friends, re-united families, a flurry of choosing, wrapping, giving, unwrapping, touching, tasting smelling, so that at last the work-a-day world is once more full of Spirit, and love is embodied in so many particular little bundles at the foot of a tree.
And why at Christmas? Because once and for all, on the first Christmas Day, God healed our false division between matter and spirit. God packed everything he is as Spirit, the whole meaning of all His Love, into one tiny little bundle of matter. And in and through that baby, bundled in the hay, the divided realms of matter and spirit, earth and heaven, outer and inner, were re-united. In Christ, and so in Christmas, we discover that everything material is also radiantly spiritual, that the highest spiritual truths are also replenishingly physical.
Advent looks back to the first Christmas but it also looks forward to the day when the whole cosmos will at last be as radiant with the indwelling of God as was the child in the cradle Advent looks forward to the day when 'the earth will be filled of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea', or as Isaiah might have written if he'd been at one of our Christmas dinners, Like a plum pudding soaked in brandy, Matter will be rich with Spirit. Malcolm Guite
Clergy: Revd. Dr. Fraser Watts (19, Grantchester Road, CB3 9ED; 359223, fnw1001@cam.ac.uk); Revd Dr Malcolm Guite (694249, mg320@cam.ac.uk); Canon Alan Cole (892286, alan73@waitrose.com). Churchwardens: Mr Steven Mastin (361041, stevenjamesmastin@yahoo.co.uk); Mrs Judith Tonry (892160, judith@tonry.co.uk). Treasurer: Mr Geoffrey Barnes (717757, Geoff.Barnes@cambridgeshire.gov.uk). Chapter Clerk: Mr Stephen Davies (242636, stephdvs@btinernet.com); Church phone: 362004.