Skip to main content

The Story of Light Advent Candles & Christingle

Image
By
The Story of Light Advent Candles & Christingle – Bradford Methodist Circuits, North and South.




This year during December we'd like to invite you to pray for a little light in our city. 

During our services through advent some of our churches are handing out candles (well, battery powered LED tea lights to be more precise), to each person present as a sign of God’s light, for them and their community.   As we give them out to people in our congregations or at our Christmas fairs or Carol services we invite people to pray for the City of Bradford.

We are also inviting people to bring their tea light into a special Story of Light Christingle service at 3pm on Christmas Eve in The Wild Woods (the former M&S building on Darley Street). After a 30 minute service we can either make our way down to the mirror pool and stretch out our lights around its perimeter, adding our lights to the lights of the city, or head back to add our lights to the Christingles that are happening at 4pm in some of our churches.

Then (for those who want to) it's off to the Made of Bradford bar on Ivegate for refreshments and carols around the Christmas tree! 

Please do be creative with the way you use your tea lights in prayers. Maybe they could become the focus of your intercessions during services? Perhaps you could encourage people to carry them to all their Christmas events? 

However you decide to use them we hope they will focus our prayers on the whole city of Bradford, and help us all to point towards the coming light of Christ this Christmas.

 ---

Looked for, the light of Christ surrounds us. It pushes back the darkness and points us to the promise of God with us, Immanuel.     

May the light of Christ be in all we do
May the light of Christ be in all we say
May the light of Christ be in our every thought

Looked for, the light of Christ draws us. It calls us to pray for our families, friends and communities.

May the light of Christ be in all we do
May the light of Christ be in all we say
May the light of Christ be in our every thought

Looked for, the light of Christ transforms us. It changes our homes and our cities into places of joy and peace. 

May the light of Christ be in all we do
May the light of Christ be in all we say
May the light of Christ be in our every thought         

Amen

Rev’ds Nick Blundell, Lyn Gregg & Graeme Dutton, on behalf of the joint staff of our two circuits.

For more information on The Story of Light go to www.westyorkshiremethodist.org.uk/mission-enabling-team
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

July message from Rev Phil

By
Dear Friends,      The Methodist Church makes provision for its ministers to take a three-month sabbatical break from the routine of ministry every seven years – this year, in my case! By the time you read this letter, I will have already started my sabbatical and I will be absent from the circuit from mid-May to mid-August.     This is not an extended holiday but an opening to do something different, as a way of being refreshed in ministry; an opportunity to ‘power down’ and to get away from a hectic, diary-driven ministry, in order to spend more focused time with God. It is a requirement and not an option for ministers to take their sabbatical break.     There have been two main aspects to consider in planning the sabbatical. The first has been to decide how I should use the time. For your interest, I am pressing on with studies begun through Leeds University (which could lead to the award of a PhD), reflecting on my wor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Godly Ways 8-10 March 2013

By
Godly Ways CODEC  and the  Dales Biblical Literacy Project  present: A weekend of Worship – Teaching – Workshops. WHEN : March 8th to 10th 2013 (Starts Friday evening) WHERE : Elm Ridge Methodist Church and Bondgate Methodist Church, Darlington and Ingleton Methodist Church SPEAKERS: Revd. Professor David Wilkinson  is a Methodist minister and Principal of St. John’s College, Durham. Well-known as a writer, speaker and broadcaster, David has wide-ranging interests, although he is especially concerned about science and religion. Revd. Dr. Peter Phillips  is a Methodist minister and Director of Codec, a research centre housed at St. John’s College, Durham. For many years, Pete served on the staff of Cliff College. He has a great interest in the New Testament and in communicating the faith in a digital age. Revd. Ron Willoughby  is an ordained minister with the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States, now living in this cou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Summer Coffee Evenings raise over £1,200

By
Wilsden Trinity Church We would like to say a big thank you to all who supported us for your help in making our Summer Coffee Evenings such a brilliant success. The evenings have proved to be very popular and have been really well attended, attracting people from Wilsden village as well as members of other churches in the circuit.  Together we have munched our way through a tonne of biscuits and home-made scones and consumed gallons of coffee and tea. We have baked and bric-a-bracked and book sorted and are all exhausted and half a stone heavier than we were in May but feel it has been well worth the effort. In addition to enjoying very pleasant social evenings, with God's help we have succeeded in raising over £1,200 - approximately £250 each for the five chosen charities: Yorkshire Air Ambulance , Parkinson Society , Alzheimer's Society , Multiple Sclerosis Society and Martin House Children's Hospice . We are already planning for next summer and look forward t...
Post a Comment
Read more