Worship, Sun Dec. 20 - Advent, wk 4 'Love'

 WELCOME and CHURCH NOTICES/
Hello and welcome to worship, on this 4^th Sunday of the season of Advent. We’ve been waiting and watching and preparing and soon, very soon, the time of waiting will be over – and we’ll be welcoming and celebrating the birth of Jesus, once more.

Over these last weeks, we’ve followed the traditional Advent themes of hope, peace, and joy, and on this last Sunday of Advent, we add love into the mix, as we think about a young woman – a teenager – from an out of the way backwater, from a family of no particular importance... someone who, in the society she came from, would ordinarily be invisible, unnoticed... and yet, someone seen by God, and chosen to do an extraordinary thing – to carry the long-held hopes of her people within her, and to see that hope born in flesh and blood, in the birth of her son, Jesus... on what was the very first Christmas.

CHURCH NOTICES/
Session news - having met over the course of the year, the Session was minded to invite Janice Reed to become a member of the Session, and having been asked, Janice has agreed, and so I’m delighted to announce that we will be ordaining and admitting her to the eldership. The date for the proposed ordination was to have been 3 January, 2021 - however, in light of the lockdown rules put in place on Saturday evening by the First Minister, this will now be rescheduled to a later time.

Re. the First Minister's statement, Sat evening and opening of church building: 
Given the changed circumstances, an emergency meeting with most of the Session was held on Saturday night.
Although we were to have reopened the church building for worship on Sun 20th Dec., the decision has now been taken to postpone at least until Sun 31st Jan, 2021. Presbytery has been duly informed and has agreed to this change of plan. We will keep you updated.
In the meantime, worship will continue to be provided online, including the Christmas Watchnight service, which will [hopefully] be online by 8pm on Thursday.

Over this coming week, blessings for a joy-filled Christmas.
Take care, stay safe, and God bless,
Nikki
                                          The link to this week's service of worship is HERE