Living to make a difference
For mums who come to our Baby and Toddler groups.
Come and join us for a Mum’s Christmas Craft Evening with a two course supper on Monday 29 November at St Michael’s Centre, North Road, Stoke Gifford, BS34 8PD from 7.30 to 9.30 pm.
Tickets are £4 and include supper and all craft materials.
Soft drinks included or bring your own bottle.
Numbers are limited so please book early
CONFERENCE POSTPONED
Instead of a printed notice sheet, we’re keeping everyone updated via email.
Previous weekly updates, as well as our midweek message emails – can be seen here
You can sign up to receive our email updates here, or by contacting us
Our monthly prayer breakfast is now back in person! Come along to St Michael’s Centre on Wednesday 29 June at 7.30am for prayer and worship, followed by a light breakfast together.
We meet in Seminar Room 3 (at the end of the new corridor on St Michael’s Centre)
All welcome!
Spaces are limited. Click here to book
A day course on Mindfulness and Christian Spirituality.
Intentions for the day
Programme
The programme for the day starts with a short introduction and then mixes guided mindfulness practices with reflecting on our experience and then linking them with our spiritual journey.
There will be regular breaks throughout the day. Tea and coffee will be provided. Please bring a packed lunch with you.
Course leader
Tim Stead is an accredited mindfulness teacher who trained with the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. He was a Church of England vicar for 23 years and now operates as a freelance mindfulness teacher, teaching eight week courses and leading retreats and quiet days. His books, Mindfulness and Christian Spirituality and See, Love, Be – mindfulness and the spiritual life are published by SPCK. He has also published a Grove Booklet: Mindfulness and prayer. www.timsteadmindfulness.org
Spaces are limited. Book early to avoid disappointment
We are One Church, with a Vision to be a Christian heart at the centre of our communities.
We live to make a difference, through learning and growing together, sharing Jesus together, and serving together.
We encourage these things locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. To make our vision happen, we hold 2 gift days a year. One in November to support day-to-day ministry, and this one to support our resources and buildings.
Our gift day last year saw 10% of all we gave given away to our Mission Partners, with a special emphasis on alleviating the effects of the Covid pandemic. We also put a serious dent in our mortgage for the Church Centre.
For 2022, this scripture seems relevant:
“Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means” 2 Corinthians 8:11
We have 4 main aims this year:
We are so very close to completing the Heart of the Community project. How can we each play our part to make it happen, together?
Are you new to St Michael’s, or joined us within the last 6 months or so?
If so, please join us for a Welcome Lunch at 12.30pm on Sunday 8 May in St Michael’s Centre
It’s a great chance for us to get to know one another over a meal, and to find out a bit more about what goes on at St Michael’s.
Click here to sign-up to say you’re coming along
We have lots going on this Easter.
In 2020 and 2021 all our Easter services and celebrations were online only. We are so pleased that this year we can meet in person, as well as continuing to live-stream each service.
Communion Service 7.30pm in church. Live stream link here
All-age Service 11am in the centre Live stream link here
Reflective Service 12pm in church, This service concludes with communion at 1.45pm. Stay for all the service or come and go on the quarter-hour. Live stream link here
The Nine o’clock – communion service in church – Live stream link here
The Ten-thirty – communion in the centre– Live stream link here
The Six-thirty – in the centre – service will also be Live stream link here
Head to our special Easter Trail page for more info!
“The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.” Luke 24:20-21
‘We had hoped…’
Those words (by some of Jesus’ followers walking away from Jerusalem) so eloquently sum up what they must have been feeling after his crucifixion. All hope seemed lost. They had started to believe he really might be the promised Messiah, but now…
Many of us face – and possibly still live through – dashed hopes: the death of a friend or relative, the clear end to a pandemic, the longing for a career or position that is now closed.
How does Easter story speak to these situations? After all, despite the disciples worries – Jesus was alive.
There is nothing wrong with expressing ‘we had hoped’. We need to grieve over lost dreams and crushed hopes. There are strong biblical precedents for lamenting and taking time to process our emotions.
Jesus’ message, when he appeared to his ‘hopeless’ friends on the road, was more than ‘boo…I’m alive’! Jesus opened their eyes to a much wider and more glorious reality; that pain and hurt will, in the end, be defeated by ‘hope’.
As we ponder Jesus’ sufferings and resurrection in the coming days, let us take comfort in the amazing truth that hopes which seem defeated are in reality just deferred.
This Easter, ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 15:13).
God bless,
Simon
Rector St Michael’s Stoke Gifford
Lent (Wednesday 2 March to Friday 14 April) offers an opportunity for us to discover new depths to prayer and spiritual growth, as we learn and grow together.
our Ash Wednesday Communion service was live-streamed on youtube – click here
Following on from Richard’s sermon on Ash Wednesday, here are some suggestions for verses to memorise during Lent this year.
We recommend the Church of England’s theme for Lent 2022. #LiveLent: Embracing Justice
We are called to reflect on the injustices of the world and ask what God is calling us to do about them. Over forty days, we step into God’s work in the here and now – and in doing so we move from brokenness towards wholeness.
Those who already have the Church of England app, will find that it automatically updates. The app will offer a daily Bible reading, a short reflection and a prayer, as well as a practical challenge linked to the week’s theme. Each week follows a different thread through the many stories of justice in the Bible to explore how God works with humanity to bring justice, wholeness and salvation to all.
Visit this page to sign up to the daily reflection emails
Living in Love and Faith sets out to inspire people to think more deeply about what it means to be human and to live in love and faith with one another. It tackles the tough questions and the divisions among Christians about what it means to follow Jesus in a society in which understandings and practices of gender, sexuality and marriage continue to change. Our two recent sermon series “Living Well Together” and “God & Sexuality” have opened up the conversation and, we hope, laid some groundwork to us doing the course together as church family.
The course will run in-person in St Michael’s Centre on Wednesday evenings for 5 evening sessions, starting Wednesday 9 March. BOOKINGS CLOSE FRIDAY 4 MARCH.
Each of the 5 sessions explores one key topic, with an opening reflection about learning together, followed by teaching, time for discussion and Bible study and prayer. You can share or speak as much or as little as you like, as we all recognise that we may have very personal and deeply held views.
The Core Leadership team have already done the course and warmly commend it to you.
Download the course booklet here
Visit the Church Of England Living in Love and Faith Hub here. It’s full of resources including podcasts, books. This is also the place to go if
You can download or purchase a paper copy of the LLF book from here.
You can subscribe to listen to the LLF Podcasts here or on whatever podcast app you use.
