St John's and Kiltermon

                                                                           Are You Joined to Jesus, the True Vine? ‘Graft’ to attach a twig or bud from one plant   to  another plant so they are joined and grow   together.    Most years, Advent is lost in the glitter  of the weeks before Christmas.    This year, when we are told that there are no rules for   Christmas, Advent has all but disappeared in   the rush to buy gifts and put up trees either side   of circuit breakers and lock downs.    But in its rightful place, after the thankful days   of Harvest in October, through to the solemn   days of Remembrance-tide in November,   Advent marks the beginning of the new   Ch...

  Some Days ARE Encouraging …  they just are. One happened this week. It was a small white envelope, the usual Christmas card suspect, gritty glitter discernable beneath the sealed paper. I knew the handwriting and was pleased. Very often it’s accompanied by a bag of my favourite sweets. But this time it was something much better.   The sender is a sister in Christ, or perhaps more rightly, a mother in Christ. Right from the days when I was a very fledgling curate in another part of the country, she spoke words of Christian encouragement, and had a gorgeous and infectious laugh, which I remember still. Both her and her husband had come to the parish some years before, and both became great and genuine encouragers in the Gospel. They could be very clear in understanding what Church might be or need to become, but it was always with a right spirit. I value that until this day. But I made the mistake or perhaps wise decision, to mention from the pulpit   w...