Dear Friends,

The great turning point in In Memoriam, the Victorian poet Tennyson’s great exploration of time and eternity, mortality and resurrection, doubt and faith, comes with the ringing of bells for the new year and his famous and beautiful lines beginning ‘Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,’ and concluding:

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

May the new year bring you and your families, peace, joy and happiness.

With love and my prayers,

James.

---

---

Dear Friends,

Malcolm and Mo would like to thank everyone who sent greetings for Mo’s retirement, Christmas and the forthcoming house move. We have both been very busy packing up 42 years of stuff and Christmas has passed us by without our usual sending of cards etc. HAPPY NEW YEAR. May 2023 bring you all joy and happiness.

Very Best Wishes from Malcolm and Mo.

---

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.

---

Free, warm, welcoming, safe.

Every Wednesday, from 1:30pm-3:30pm, we will be opening the hall for anyone and everyone as a free, warm, welcoming, and safe place to be for a couple of hours. Cups of tea or coffee will be provided along with the opportunity for somewhere warm to meet others in a friendly and safe space. Starting Wednesday 11th January.

---

Rita’s Coffee Morning

I held my coffee morning on Tuesday 20th December & thankfully the snow had gone by then. I had such a lovely surprise as 35 people turned up to join in the fun – thank goodness I had my daughter Jo and Grandson Archie to help – we had cakes/coffee/raffle/bring & buy plus guess the Teddy’s name so it was very busy and then we finished off singing carols accompanied by Lilian on her mini keyboard. Thank you too to some very kind people who gave me donations as they were unable to come along so all in all we raised the staggering sum of £437.50p! So rounding up for the year (minus 2 months where there was no meeting) we have raised £2,375.55. My thanks to everyone who hosted a morning and to all the steadfast attendees. Hopefully that Vestry kitchen dream will soon materialise!! Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year. Love to all,

Rita

---

Prayer for Ukraine

If you wish to support Ukraine in prayer we have one you may wish to join with and a prayer for world peace on our website: https://stmarymagdalene.church/resources/

---

Sermons

If you ever want to revisit a sermon, these are available on the website under the more ‘user-friendly’ name of Talks. They include a specially recorded video and the text of the sermon and can be found here: https://stmarymagdalene.church/resources/talks/

---

Dates for your diary

January
Wednesday 18th 2:00pm Fellowship in the Choir Vestry
Saturday 28th 7:00pm Parish Feast at Enfield Golf Club

February
Saturday 11th 7:00pm Bingo with Fish and Chips
Wednesday 22nd 8:00pm Ash Wednesday Service with Ashing