Christmas & Advent Services & Events at United Reformed Church Weybridge Surrey
Macmillan Family Christmas Carol Concert
Sat 9th December 2017 starting at 4.00pm
We are very pleased as a church to be able to host this popular event again and to have the opportunity of welcoming many visitors into our midst.
The A Cappella Singers will make another welcome appearance on the concert programme and the St James’ Hand Bell Ringers also be returning fter their wonderful first appearance last year! There will also be seasonal readings (both serious and light-hearted) and plenty of opportunity for the audience to join in with singing several well-known carols.
Tickets (£8.00 adults/£2.00 children – pay at the door on the day) include complimentary refreshments in the hall after the concert.
Come along, have a good sing and join in the festive atmosphere. Some members of the congregation are regular attendees so you can be sure of finding somebody you know in the audience. Having a good time is guaranteed and by buying a ticket you will be supporting this important charity.
The concert is organised by a small group of local volunteers who work tirelessly throughout the year to raise money for this very good cause. Please put the date in your diary and make this occasion a part of your Christmas celebrations and encourage others to come, too.
Advent 1, Gift Service and Parade for uniformed organisations with Revd Michael Hodgson
Sunday 3rd December, 10.30am
This service for everyone connected with the church is always
a significant and popular part of our Christmas celebrations.
Please bring your gifts for local children and young teenagers whose families are in special need. For example, new or nearly-new (good condition) clothes, toys, books and games plus gift packs of toiletries, sweets etc for all ages are very welcome but there is always a particular need for gifts for 10–14 year olds.
The NE Surrey Social Services Children in Need Team is very pleased to have our support each year in helping to make Christmas special for so many disadvantaged children.
Please do not wrap your gifts as this delays the sorting process for the Children in Need Team.
Advent 2 – Family Service and Holy Communion with Dr Alex Henham
Sunday 10th December, 10.30am
Service of Lessons and Carols
Sunday 17th December, 10.30am
with Revd Michael Hogson
Come along and join our choir to make this a splendid singsong.;
Ian Englemann Singers Christmas Concert
Friday 22nd December at 7.30pm at Weybridge URC Church
Another opportunity to enjoy a Christmas concert by a local choir in the familiar surroundings of your own church. There is no charge for admission but a collection will be taken from which a donation will go to a charity. Just turn up and enjoy the evening and meet up with everyone in the hall after the concert for mulled wine and mince pies.
I do hope you will be able to come. You may be interested to know that the choir rehearses in our church on Mondays at 7.30pm and new members are always welcome.
Christmas Eve Crib Service
Sunday 24th December, 3pm
With Mrs Thelma Roberts and live donkey!
This service is intended primarily for children and their families but everyone is welcome to come along. It will include dramatisation of the traditional nativity story and a real donkey will be making his regular visit. Children are invited to come dressed as their favourite nativity character and join in the fun of the occasion.
Christmas Eve – Midnight Candlelit Service
Sunday 24th December, 11.00pm
Intimate service with informal carol requests from 23.15. Service starts 23.00 to herald in the birth of Jesus.
Christmas Day – Family Service
Monday 25th December, 10.30am
conducted by Dr Alex Henham
A lovely way to start Christmas Dy, while the turkey cooks. Bring your friends and family and your favourite present to show us all – because our organist Gordon probably will!
All retiring collections over Christmas are in aid of Cure International, in gratitude for their presentation to us earlier this year and their wonderful life-restoring work in Ehiopia.
Christmas Offertory – CURE
There will be retiring collections on Christmas Eve at the Crib Service and Midnight Eucharist and on Christmas Day in aid of CURE.
This charity was chosen by the October Church Meeting. CURE is an international children’s charity working in under-developed countries and is overseen by The Royal College of Surgeons in London. Caroline and Rick Gardner’s son, Richard, is Medical Director and Senior Surgeon at the Cure Hospital in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. He is trying to set up satellite centres all over Ethiopia so that children needing urgent operations can be assessed nearer to their homes. Currently some of them travel for days just to be assessed. Those whom CURE can help go to Addis Ababa for surgery. CURE is able to transform the lives of children in developing countries living with correctable disabilities such as club foot, cleft lip/palate, spina bifida and limb deformities. Without treatment they face a bleak future. Since opening its first hospital in Kenya
in 1998 CURE has held over 3.3 million outpatient visits and performed 230,000 life-changing operations. Any donation you can give will be very much appreciated. In the words of CURE – ‘Small amounts go a long way in giving a child hope and a future.’
NB: All the loose cash in the collections will automatically be increased through the Gift Aided Small Donations Scheme. If you are making a donation by cheque you will need to indicate if it is to be Gift Aided. Please make your cheque payable to Weybridge URC; put it in a sealed envelope marked ‘CURE’ plus the words ‘Gift Aid’ (if appropriate) and place it in the offertory plate. The Treasurer will add your gift to the cheque sent from the church. If you are going to be away for Christmas and want to make a donation you can put it in the offertory plate (marked appropriately) any Sunday beforehand.
