Dear Friends

In 2017 Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, was suffering from a prolonged crisis as a result of civil war. The government and all its agencies had ceased to operate. All services – medical care, sanitation, food supply, factories, airports, seaports, bridges – everything was collapsing. Parents were desperate as their children began to die of cholera, a disease that can easily be treated in the developed world. A man named Muhammad Nasir waited outside a primitive cholera clinic as his son Waleed hung by a thread. Even if he recovered, his father had no money to return home. Another poor man Saleh al-Khawlani, had fled from bombing with his wife and six children form one side of Yemen to another. He said, “The war haunts us from all directions.” A third man, Yakoub al-Jayefi, a Yemeni soldier, had not been paid anything for, and his six-year-old daughter was in a dire condition from malnutrition. Waiting by her side in a clinic he said, “We’re just waiting for doom or for a breakthrough from heaven”.

This is precisely the Advent situation: doom on the one hand, deliverance on the other. The age to come has invaded this present evil age (Galatians 1.4) and Christians are people who are set apart by their longing for “a breakthrough from heaven”, the return of Christ to make all things new.

With love and my prayers,

James.

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Sunday and weekday Services

Our weekly service times are:

Sunday 10:00am Eucharist
Tuesday 10:00am Morning Prayer (BCP)
Thursday 10:30am Holy Communion (BCP)

The weekly online service is now a livestream of our Sunday Morning Eucharist Service. The link for the livestream page is https://stmarymagdalene.church/livestream-service/ the Service for the coming Sunday is listed on this page on a Friday. The page includes a video that will go live at approximately 9:55am on Sunday, it also has the words to the hymns, collects and readings and has a downloadable service booklet. It will continue to be made available to those who, for whatever reason, are unable to attend church.

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Coffee Mornings

The next and last for this year will be held by me in my flat 3 Anabelle Court, Slades Hill (02037261068) on TUESDAY 21st December at 10.45a.m. – hopefully Eleanor will play the piano and we can finish the morning singing carols – always a lovely thing to do. I hope to see lots of you then so please put a note in your diary.

Best wishes to all – keep safe/keep smiling & keep carrying on – God bless – love & thanks Rita

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Fellowship

December 15th Fellowship Christmas Lunch at Enfield Golf Club starting at the earlier time of 1:00pm. Please see Mo for further details.

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Lunchtime Recitals

The monthly Lunchtime Recitals have been quite popular this Autumn and there is one more left when Margaret Green, soprano, and Roddy Elmer, piano, will entertain us at 12:30 on Wednesday 8th December. This will be preceded by coffee and cake in the Vestry at 11:30.

A new programme of recitals for 2022 will be prepared.

Eleanor Pritchard.

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Christmas Greetings

We will not be using the pigeonholes again this year for Christmas cards because of the congestion in this area on a Sunday and the risks involved.

Here are peoples’ greetings…

Peter & Janet Rossiter would like to wish all our dear friends at St. Mary’s a very peaceful, joyful, healthy Christmas and New Year.

To all my dear friends at St Mary’s, I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a peaceful 2022 from Wendy.

Love and best wishes to all at our church for a happy and contented Christmas and a peaceful 2022 from Eleanor Pritchard.

Our very best wishes to all at St Mary Magdalene Church for a peaceful, joyful, happy time this Christmas and to each of you have a prosperous healthy New Year. 🙏 God Bless, love from “The Jones’s” Kath Chris & Victoria AND ‘The Wimsetts’ Charlotte and Jonathan.

We wish everyone at St. Mary’s a peaceful Christmas and a healthy year ahead. Janice & John Salmon. (One of John’s photos graces this month’s cover)

To all my friends at St.Mary’s wishing you Peace and Joy at Christmas and new year. God bless, Dot.

Dear friends, Malcolm and Mo send greetings for Christmas and a Healthy, Happy New Year. xx

Kitty, Robert, and family wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas.

Christmas greetings to all at St. Mary’s. Josie Andrews.

We wish you and your families a happy Christmas and a peaceful and healthy New year. Best wishes, Diane and Neil.

Sending Christmas greetings and good wishes for a Happy New Year to all my lovely friends at St Mary Magdalene Church and look forward to our shared worship, friendship and love for many years to come. May God bless you all – love Rita.

To all my friends at St Mary’s, wishing you a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year God Bless, Vic Smith.

Kate and Bob Bissett wish all their friends at St. Mary’s a very happy Christmas, and a peaceful and healthy New Year.

Paul and Alison Anderson and family wish a festive Christmas 🎄 and a Happy New Year 🎉 to all our friends at St Marys. X

Christmas greetings to all my dear friends at St. Mary’s. Yezi Lanzhen Ju.

To dear friends. I wish you a Happy Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year. Keep well. Love and all good wishes. Betty x

Dear Friends, God bless you all, enjoy Christmas. And a happy New year. With love Pam and Vic

Wishing everyone at St. Mary Magdalene’s a happy Christmas and a healthy New Year. Peter Lamb

Wishing all at St Mary Magdalene a Joyous and Peaceful Christmas with good health in 2022. With love from Christine & Terry Wingrove.

Wishing everyone peace, comfort and joy as we celebrate our Saviour’s birth. With love and every blessing, from Jackie Fish.

Best wishes to all at St Mary’s for a Merry, Peaceful and Healthy Christmas and a Happy New Year. June Carr.

Good wishes and blessings for Christmas for my friends at St. Mary Magdalene. Maureen Rew.

Wishing you Christmas joy and a happy and healthy New Year. With love and our prayers, James & Nana

We’d like to wish all our friends a Happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year. See you all in the not too distant future. All our love, Adeola, Aniru, Rahim-Joshua Raphael and Malachi.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year, God bless to you all, love from Alison and Robert Ludlam, Ruby Ludlam and John Jenkins x

Dear all, wishing all our Church family and friends a joyous Christmas, joyous and healthy new year 2022. With love from Elizabeth Ranson and family xx

To all my friends old and new a blessed Christmas and peace, health and safety in 2022. From Janet Reed

Alison and Paul Reeve wish all their St Mary Magdalene family a joyous and peaceful Christmas and a New Year filled with light and hope.