November E-Magazine 2021
In this edition of E-Magazine we have:
Comedians & Carols
Our new Youth & Children's Missioner
Reflection by Wully Perks
St Mary's Christmas Tree Festival and Trail
The World is Yours - Scarface or Christ the King
Labyrinth of Lights
Services Throughout the Parish
16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence
Homemade Individually Decorated Christmas Cakes
Remembrance Service 14th November 10am
Cakes, Yule logs, Wreaths and Gossip
St James - reflective services then a busy Advent period
Yate Choral Society Christmas Concert
Renew, Refresh, Resource weekend at Lee Abbey, Devon
Harvest Festival at St Nicholas
For a full printable magazine click the file below
Comedians & Carols
Friday 10 December, 7.30pm, St Mary’s church
We are privileged to be able to welcome the comedian Paul Karenza back to St. Mary's as part of our Christmas Tree Festival. Those who attended his last performance here in 2015 will remember an excellent evening of good, clean, side-splitting comedy. He is a writer for many of the BBC's most popular comedy shows including Miranda and Not Going Out. This year Paul is bringing a few friends, including the folk-group 'Folk On' (who have also visited St. Mary's before) and a young comedian called Tom Elliott, and will be giving us an evening of comedy combined with the singing of our favourite carols. It is a format that Paul has been running successfully around the country for several years and we are very fortunate to have booked him amid stiff competition for the date.
This will be an excellent evening to bring friends along, and discounts are available for group bookings. The tickets will go on sale from 1 November through the Parish Office or by emailing yatepcc@live.co.uk. They cost £10 per individual, or £30 for a family of 2 adults and 2 children (yes, it will be suitable to bring children) and if you can assemble a group of 10 one of your tickets will be free. All the comedians performing are part of a close-knit group of Christian Comedians who support one another.
Our new Youth & Children’s
Missioner introduces herself
Hello. My name is Lydia Chancellor and I’m the new Youth and Children’s Missioner for Yate and Fromeside Parish. I’m married to Ben and mother of two, Tula Rae and Gabriel. We’re re-locating to the southwest after 18 years in London.
I’m passionate about Jesus, building the local church and the wider community. I’m an artist, speaker and bible teacher. Alongside this I have always pursued my love for song-writing, singing and jewellery design. I have worked in ministry for many years across the church of England including Holy Trinity Brompton where I was the service manager overseeing nine Sunday services. I have helped plant and shape two free churches in central London, pioneering different ministries, expressions of worship and working with diverse communities.
I have a naturally evangelical heart, not surprisingly given I found faith at Hillsong. This is not without its challenges in a culture far more secular than Christian these days. This only inspires me further.
After such a difficult time through the pandemic I believe this is a season of re-building and re-imagining the church and our ministries. This verse in Isaiah reminds me that God is indeed always doing something fresh and new in our lives and through our community!
Isaiah 43
18 Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
As part of my new role and vision for Yate and Fromeside I would like to help build a team of passionate leaders who are ‘inspired to inspire’ through their talents and love for Christ and His Church, a team that understands the common needs within our community. Together we will develop a fresh creative structure for a new generation of young people; expressing a culture that is forward thinking, relevant, attractive and most importantly genuine. I would also like to gather and enable the young people to create as artists: musicians, dancers & poets, to share & develop their gifts and encourage them to help build the house of God, allowing music and creativity to be a beacon to a generation of people who would otherwise walk past the church doors, uninspired. I also hope to connect with parents and help develop a space that is inviting and supportive for them.
From what I have seen so far in my new role there is much good work that has already been done and lots of groups and ministries taking place each week. I would like to learn more about all that is happening across the Parish and develop some of those further.
The young people I have already met are really inspiring to me, and I can’t wait to get to know them better and help continue to point them to Jesus.
I’m truly excited to be part of this greater mission and can’t wait to see all of what God has for the younger generation of Yate and Fromeside.
Reflection by Wully Perks
Over more than 50 years I have always loved preaching in the month of November, the month of memories. What a tremendous gift from God the memory is. On 1 November we celebrate the Feast of All Saints. St Paul in his letters remind us that we are called to be Saints. Saints are not just in stained glass windows – I remember years ago an 8-year-old girls’ definition of a Saint “Someone who the light shines through”. To me Saints are like bright lights in our dark world. Through them the light of the Gospel and the Glory of the presence of God is revealed – we see how life ought to be challenging how our life should be. Saints were not perfect neither are we. We see God choosing people far from perfect but who have a zest for living. St Francis called from being a carefree partygoer to show how we can enjoy living for God. Augustine of Hippo called from living a passionate life with a mistress and a son born out of marriage to show how to use our passion for God. To be a Saint means a great appetite for living life to the full. The Saints we remember are not just the great but those who have no memorial but who live their lives revealing God’s Glory and their love for others.
On 2 November we celebrate All Souls when we remember all those who have died. Those very special folk who have touched and enriched our lives whose light has shone through and are now at rest safe in Hands love.
On 11 November we stop to give thanks for all who gave their lives and are still giving their lives in the service of others. Let us never forget the sacrifice they have and are giving so that we might live in peace and freedom.
Then at the end of November we celebrate the fest of “Christ the King” with the challenge for us have we allowed Jesus to be our King? Do we seek to let him rule in our hearts and wills or do we let other power and events control our lives, leading to the great season of Advent when we prepare to welcome afresh the Babe of Bethlehem “Immanuel God with Us”.
Have a great November and Advent,
Wully Perks.
St Mary’s Christmas Tree Festival and Trail
This year our Christmas Tree event is a combination of some familiar festival events, and the socially distanced trail which was very much enjoyed and appreciated by many sponsors and spotters last Christmas during lockdown.
The church will be decorated for the festival period, including sponsored and decorated trees, and be open for public viewing with our festival commencing on the evening of Friday 3 December and running through to Sunday 12 December.
There will be some musical interludes during our open weekends and on Wednesday 8 December we will be hosting Yate Academy for their annual Christmas Concert; with their amazing choirs and musicians this is an event not to be missed.
If making your own decorations for Christmas is your thing, then come along on Saturday 4 and Saturday 11 to take part in one of our Christmas craft workshops – details to be confirmed – but you can be sure there will be something for children and also for adults.
And don’t forget to put Friday 10 December in your diaries and reserve your tickets now for our highlight event on Friday 10 December - when Comedians and Carols comes to St Mary’s – see pages 2 & 3.
There will of course be our usual selection of festive treats for you to sample, made by our catering team and available throughout the festival
There is still time to sponsor a tree outside your house, business or school so don’t delay. Contact Christine on 01454 313105 or email parishoffice@yateparish.org to reserve your tree.
The main focus and aim of our Tree Festival has always been to involve and engage with as broad a spectrum of the local
community as possible, helping to bring them the true message of Christmas. To that end our fundraising throughout will be shared 50/50 with St Mary’s Roof Project and St Peter’s Hospice for their ongoing work in the community.
This year, for the first time, we are running a stand-alone raffle with a first prize of £100, other prizes include Christmas
hampers, vouchers and seasonal goodies. You will be able to purchase tickets from members of the Festival Planning Group and these will be on sale from Sunday 31 October.
The World is yours - Scarface or Christ the King
The 21st of November is the Feast of Christ the King; this is a relatively new church festival started in 1925 by Pope Pius X and celebrated by Anglicans since 1970. Why was it started? Christ the King is Christianity’s response to the rise of Fascist and Communist regimes in the early 20th century. By 1925, Portugal, Russia and Italy had all fallen to dictatorships. There was significant support for dictatorships in Europe along with the idea that humans through science could create heaven on earth. The thought was that if we forget all this superstitious nonsense and follow science everything will be great; no need to worry about heaven we can build it ourselves. This idea is still around today even after the horrors of the 20th century. Christ the King is a festival to remind us of two things: how to be a good ruler and that the world is not ours.
The Feast of Christ the King makes me think of my third favourite film, Scarface, starring Al Pacino. It a gangster film where Tony Montana comes to Florida from Cuba, works for a drug dealer and rises to become the boss. When Tony comes to America he decides that the world is his and he can take whatever he wants from it. As he gains power through violence he buys all sorts of gaudy things. He buys a massive house, a huge bath sunk into the floor, a tiger and a huge statue embossed with the words ‘The world is yours’. Tony’s life gradually unravels as everyone and everything is destroyed and all his dreams turn to dust. At the end he is shot and falls into a pool beneath his statue, as the camera pans upwards you see the ominous words, ‘The world is yours’.
The film is really the tragic story of many countries in the 20th century. A government believes that the world is theirs and they gain power through violence, then slowly their dreams fall apart and chaos ensues. Even today with the gathering climate crisis we see the same thing; we believe the world is ours and we can take what we want. Like Tony there are always consequences for this belief. Christ the King shows us a better way to be. The festival reminds us how we should wield power. The first reading for Christ the King shows Jesus in glory coming on the clouds, this is in contrast to the gospel
Yate Parish Labyrinth of Lights from
Sunday 31 October until Wednesday 1 December
Our Labyrinth in St Mary's Churchyard is marked out using 100 solar lamps. Each light is dedicated to the memory of a loved one or a prayer intention. Fill in a form so that we can attach your message or prayer to one of the lights. It will show that even in the darkest time of the year light still shines. 2021 like 2020 has been a difficult year for all of us; walking the labyrinth can allow us to pray without words, walking with God and allowing him to bless us.
Services throughout the Parish
Sunday 7 November
3rd before Advent—Red
1 Kings 17:8-16 Hebrews 9:24-28 Mark 12:38-44
St Mary
8.15am Communion
10.30am Morning Worship
6.30pm 630Praise
St Nix
10.30am Communion - live stream
St James
10.30am Communion
St Peter
6.30pm Evening Worship (Book of Common Prayer)
Sunday 14 November
Remembrance—Red
Daniel 12:1-3 Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25 Mark 13:1-8
St Mary
8.15am Communion
10.00am Remembrance Service
6.30pm 630Praise
St Nix
10.0am Remembrance Service -live stream
St James
10.00am Remembrance Service
St Peter
4.00pm Remembrance Service
Sunday 21 November
Sunday next before Advent—White
Christ the King
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 Revelation 1:4b-8 John 18:33-37
St Mary
8.15am Communion
10.30am Morning Worship
6.30pm 630Praise
St Nix
10.30am Communion - live stream
St James
10.30am Communion
St Peter
6.30pm Evening Worship (Book of Common Prayer)
Sunday 28 November
Advent 1—Purple
Jeremiah 33:14-16 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 Luke 21:25-36
St Mary
8.15am Communion
10.30am Communion
6.30pm 630Praise
St Nix
10.30am Morning Worship - live stream
St James
10.30am Morning Worship
St Peter
6.30pm Communion (Book of Common Prayer)
16 Days of Activism Against
Gender Based Violence
On 21 November (the feast of Christ the King), we remember how Jesus gave up power to serve others, it is a timely reminder that our world has many victims of power. From this date the Mothers’ Union worldwide will begin 16 days of activism against gender based violence, remembering both male and female victims of violence. Many people live in homes filled with fear with partners or parents controlling and abusing. To help those trapped within these abusive relationships the MU have put together an information leaflet and poster directing people on where they can get help.
The Yate branch of Mothers’ Union will deliver these to St Mary’s school and all groups within our parish. This will show those whose suffering is hidden that there are people who care and can help.
Please pray for those affected by gender-based violence and the Mothers’ Union as they undertake this important work.
Homemade Individually Decorated Christmas Cakes
Each cake is homemade and individually decorated. There are a variety of sizes to cater for all needs; so, get your order in as soon as possible.
Either go onto the website www.yateparish.org and click on the link for Christmas cakes, there you will find an order form and link for payment.
* Or collect an order form and envelope from St Mary’s Church
* or The Coffee Shop (Youth Centre on Sunday morning),
complete and return with correct remittance, (cheques made payable to ‘St Marys Church’) in the envelope provided to the Parish Office.
Remembrance Service 14 November 10am
Yate Town Council and St Mary’s Church are inviting you to attend our Remembrance Service on Sunday 14 ovember 2021 at 10am, St Mary’s Church, Yate. It will be attended by the Deputy Lord-Lieutenant, the Mayor and councillors from Yate and South Gloucestershire.
You are welcome to join us at Poole Court where we will parade to St Mary’s Church at 9.00am.
Alternatively, you can head straight to St Mary’s Church for the service which starts at 10am.
Please let Yate Town Council know -
If laying a wreath, please give name/names
If you will be parading colours
Email: info@yatetowncouncil.gov.uk or call us on 01454 866506
We hope that you will be able to join in the town’s Act of Remembrance and we look forward to receiving your response.
If Covid restrictions change, numbers attending may have to be amended.
There will also be wreath-laying at St James & St Peter’s churches.
Cakes, Yule Logs, Wreaths & Gossip
Bookings still available for wreath-making workshops over coffee in church on Wednesday 24 and Friday 26 November starting at 10am. All materials will be provided. Places still available please contact Kathryn Mills (kathrynmills@talktalk.net or 01454 318157) or to book your place at £10, or to order a ready-made wreath (also £10). We shall also be offering Christmas cakes and Yule logs.
Pre-ordered wreaths and Christmas cakes will be available for collection at the Christmas Fair on 4 December or
delivery by arrangement.
St James – reflective services
then a busy Advent period
This time of year, brings us two moving services when we remember those we have lost (All Souls service on Sunday 31 October at 4pm) and all those who have given their lives in the many conflicts over the past century (Remembrance service on Sunday 14 November at 10am, followed by the Act of Remembrance at the war memorial).
Then comes the busy pre-Christmas season. At St James we shall be holding two sociable wreath-making workshops starting at 10am on Wednesday 24 and Friday 26 November, in readiness for our Christmas Fair on Saturday 4 December from 11 till 1. Our prize raffle will be drawn there and could win you a slow cooker, hamper, wine, voucher for dinner plus much more. If you can’t come to the fair, you can still order a Christmas cake, Yule log, wreath and raffle tickets: for all these and to book your workshop place please email kathrynmills@talktalk.net or call 01454 318157 (leave a message if we’re out).
On Sunday 12 December we’ll have our Christingle service with baptism. The following week we’ll be singing carols on Sunday afternoon in church (4pm service) and also on Monday 20 December by the Christmas tree on the green starting at 6.30pm. Then we celebrate Christmas with midnight communion starting at 11pm on Christmas Eve.
Yate Choral Society Christmas Concert
Tuesday 14 December
Chipping Sodbury Town Hall 7.30pm
With guests — Barn Bells
Tickets £8.00 - including refreshments
(Covid regulations permitting)
Tickets available from
Chipping Sodbury Tourist Information Centre
Choir members or call 01454 313907
Renew, Refresh, Resource weekend
at Lee Abbey, Devon
Ten people from the parish went down to Lee Abbey for the 3Rs weekend in mid September. The journey itself is a pilgrimage (tiring, challenging but worth it in the end.) For some it was their first visit to this retreat centre, for others a joyful return to a familiar place which has had a significant part to play in their journey of faith.
Here are some reflections from people from Yate parish on their time there:
‘I would say I felt a great sense of God's peace at Lee Abbey. I was able to listen to what God was saying to me regarding my walk with him and the way I should go next on my spiritual journey was confirmed during the weekend.’ (D)
‘What a blessing to return to Lee Abbey. A place where the peace of God rests and where you have time to be. I enjoyed getting to know my brothers and sisters from Yate Parish, especially over mealtimes and evening chats in chatty corridors. I felt God spoke to me of new beginnings.’ (A)
‘Lee Abbey is a thin place, where heaven meets earth, where the presence of God is immanent even as you enter the grounds when you first arrive. I loved all aspects of the weekend: coming together as a community of God, eating together, worshipping, listening, chatting and growing in faith. I felt God reiterated to me the importance of taking time out, to be refreshed by him and by those around you. Can't wait to go again!!’ (W)
‘Leaving Yate I longed for the healing of the Devon countryside. Lee Abbey is welcoming with blessed conversations, quiet times indoors and out, meals & coffee breaks, new friends, Jesus in faces and actions, and God’s all-embracing restful peace.’ (L)
‘For me it was a chance to get away from responsibilities and soak up the goodness of God. I first went to Lee Abbey when I was two and it has been part of my spiritual formation since then. We were part of an extended group of about 50 so there was also the opportunity to meet people from other churches. I enjoyed the beauty of the estate, the quiet of the chapel and the wisdom of those who led worship and spoke to us.’ (R)
Harvest Festival at St Nicholas
Our harvest service was well attended and the flowers and decorations by Sylvia and her team looked lovely. Thank you everyone for your very generous donations. This year these went to inHope (formerly known as Crisis Centre Ministry). Their mission statement is "We exist to help people overcome insecurities such as homelessness, hunger, addiction and poor mental health." Steve Baker, their Development and Relationships Manager, delivered an interesting talk. One of his main themes was 'enough’.
Steve asked why we are obsessed with owning so much stuff and if our lives are full of so much stuff are we making room for God to work in our lives? The love of money is the root of all evils and we should try to be content and recognise when we have enough. Jesus tells people not to focus on their physical needs but to focus on seeking the kingdom of God because consumption does not bring happiness and fulfilment. In the reading from 1 Timothy Paul says that contentment with godliness is great gain. However, this passage today could sound a little strange out of context - don't worry about having food to eat or clothes to wear. Try telling that to somebody who is homeless or trying to work out how to feed their children.
inHope's vision is one of communities where everybody can reach their God-given potential free from injustice and insecurity. In hope offers acceptance and support including food, life skills (enabling people to learn) shelter (safe places to stay) housing (asking local churches to help support people when they move in) etc. inHope need support and donations and Steve thanked us for the marvellous gifts.
Anne White— Warden, St Nix Church
Coffee Morning at St Mary’s
Tuesday 9 November
11.00—12.30pm
All welcome
Drop in for a drink, a cake and a chat
Morning prayer in Yate Parish
Do you find prayer a little difficult? Would you like some inspiration? Go to the Yate Parish Facebook page to join in Morning Prayer led by our ministry team. You can watch live at 7.30am Monday to Saturday, or watch at any time later in the day. Many people have found it a great start to their day.
Weekly at St Mary’s
Thursday Communion at 10.00am
Compline @8pm
Before the lockdown happened, we had recorded the saying of Compline. We ask that each evening at 8pm we light a candle in our window and pray together for our nation using the words of the Compline service - it takes just over 5 minutes.
Visit the parish website and click on the recordings to listen; you will find the words of the service there too.
DailyHope phone line
DailyHope, a free national telephone line, offers music, prayers and reflections as well as full worship services from the Church of England at the end of the phone. A Church of England initiative in partnership with CONNECTIONS at Holy Trinity Claygate, and Faith in Later Life. The line – which is available 24 hours a day on 0800 804 8044 – has been set up particularly with those unable to join online church services during the period of restrictions in mind; to provide comfort and spiritual nourishment to the most isolated in our society.