1. education
2. graduate school
3. college

The Coker Ridgeway weekly
30th November 2014
(East Coker, Sutton Bingham, Closworth, West Coker, Hardington Mandeville, East Chinnock and Pendomer)
Sunday 30th November
Advent Sunday
10:00am
United Benefice
Communion
East Chinnock
Sunday 14th December
The Third Sunday of Advent
Purple
8am Holy Communion (BCP) East
Coker CH
9.15am Family Service Pendomer
Richard Middleton
10.45am Christingle and Posada East
Coker CH
10.45am Holy Communion West
Coker DW
3.00pm Scouts Carol Service West
Coker DW
6.30 pm CAROL SERVICE Closworth
6.30pm CAROL SERVICE Hardington
DW
Sunday 7th December
The Second Sunday of Advent
Purple
8am HC (BCP) West Coker DW
9.15am HC (BCP) Sutton Bingham CH
9.15am Holy Communion (CW) East
Chinnock DW
10.45am Sung Eucharist & Sunday
School East Coker CH
10.45am FS West Coker DW
10.45am Matins (BCP) Hardington
Richard Middleton
6pm Evensong East Coker Monica
Whipp
Collect
Almighty God, give us grace to cast
away the works of darkness and to put
on the armour of light, now in the
time of this mortal life, in which your
Son Jesus Christ came to us in great
humility; that on the last day, when he
shall come again in his glorious
majesty to judge the living and the
dead, we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns
with you, in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
www.CokerRidge.org.uk
Rev’d David Wilson 862328; [email protected]
Rev’d Charles Hatton 862125 [email protected]
Diary
Mon 1 Dec
Tues 2 Dec
YeovilNET Charity Day at the Gateway Coffee Shop (see p4)
10:30 Little Wheelers (Parents and children)
East Coker Village Hall
10:30-12:00 Coffee Morning East Chinnock Village Hall
Wed 3 Dec
11:00 ECCF Coffee Stop Gospel Hall, East Coker
14:00-14:20 Informal prayer for Benefice - St Michael’s Lady
Chapel East Coker
15:15 Seekers After School Club, West Coker School
18:30 Governors Meeting West Coker School
Sat 6 Dec
15:00 Ilchester Branch Bell Ringers St Martins West Coker
Tues 9 Dec
10:30 Little Wheelers (Parents and children) E Coker Village Hall
10.30-12:00 Book Swap, Soup Roll Mince Pies St Marys
Hardington Mandeville
19:45 Benefice Choir Practice Weavers Cottage Hardington
Wed 10 Dec
10:30-12:00 Bible Study Group East Coker.
To confirm venue please call Rosemary Chorley on 412140
11:00 ECCF Coffee Stop Gospel Hall, East Coker
15:15 Seekers After School Club, West Coker School
Sat 13 Dec
11:00-12:00 Hardington Villlage Hall Coffee Morning
19:30 Stanchester Quire Christmas Delights
St Mary East Chinnock No Tickets required
th
Mon
15 Dec 18:45 East Coker Carol Singing around the village
Collect
Tues
16 Dec
10:30
Little
Wheelers (Parents and children)
Eternal
Father,
whose
Son
East
Coker
Village
Jesus Christ ascended to the Hall
10:30that
– 12:00
throne of heaven
he Coffee Morning East Chinnock Village Hall
18:00
School
Carols by Candlelight St Martin’s West Coker
might rule over all things as
18:30 Carol Service Sutton Bingham
Lord and King: keep the
19:30 Carol Service East Chinnock
Church in the unity of the
Wed 17 Dec
10:00 Holy Communion 6 Weston Close
Spirit and in the
bond of Hardington Village Coffee Morning
10:30-12:00
peace, and bring
the Post
whole
The Old
Office, High Street
created order11:00
to worship
at
Home communions
his feet; who 11:00
is alive
andCoffee Stop Gospel Hall, East Coker
ECCF
reigns with you,
in the
unityPrayer for the Benefice
14:00
Informal
St Martins
West Coker Lady Chapel. All welcome.
of the Holy Spirit,
one God,
15:15
Seekers
After School Club West Coker
now and for ever.
19.30 Carol Service Pendomer
Thurs 18 Dec 14:30-15:30 WI Carol Service St Marys East Chinnock
Lectionary Readings for today
1 Corinthians 1.3-9
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has
been given you in Christ Jesus, 5for in every way you have been enriched in him,
in speech and knowledge of every kind— 6just as the testimony of Christ has
been strengthened among you— 7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8He will also strengthen
you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. 9God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Mark 13.24-37
‘But in those days, after that suffering,
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
25
and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
26
Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in clouds” with great power and
glory. 27Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four
winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
28 ‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and
puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29So also, when you see
these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30Truly I tell
you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken
place. 31Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
32 ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor
the Son, but only the Father. 33Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when
the time will come. 34It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home
and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the
doorkeeper to be on the watch.35Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know
when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at
cockcrow, or at dawn, 36or else he may find you asleep when he comes
suddenly. 37And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’
©NRSV
Around the Benefice (and area)
•
East Coker: the next church lunch will take place at the Helyar Arms on
Sun 7th Dec at noon. Please sign up on the form by the church door if you
would like to come, or phone Alison Hatton (862125).
•
Friends of St Mary’s, East Chinnock. The Stanchester Quire is giving a
concert, entitled ‘Christmas Delights’, to include carols, songs and tales
from the South-West, on Saturday 13 December at 7.30pm. Seasonal
refreshments (donation) and retiring collection (to be split between the
Friends’ Fabric Fund and the Quire). We look forward to welcoming you.
•
YeovilNET Charity Day There will be a Charity Day at the Gateway Coffee
Shop in support of YeovilNET, a local church partnership for mission on
new housing estates, on Monday 1st December. All food and drink is 'free',
donations go to support outreach to the new communities forming around
the edge of Yeovil. Please come and support this valuable work, and find
out what's happening on Wyndham Park, Brimsmore and Lufton new
estates.
•
YEOVIL CHRISTIANS AGAINST POVERTY Some of you may know that the
Yeovil CAP Debt Centre has a new manager - Steve Hart. After working for
15 years at Yeovil Community Church, Steve is looking for those who would
be willing to join the Centre Volunteer Support Team. Therefore, if you
would like to receive the regular Centre Update, join a prayer team, join
the debt coaches on befriending visits or would just like to find out more,
please contact him on either [email protected] or ring/leave a message
on T. 01935 426771 (designated Yeovil CAP No.). Thank you.
•
The Lords Larder Christmas 2014 will be collecting again in November
2014 for this coming Christmas. Collecting Boxes for the Lords Larder are
available in many of the benefice churches.
On a recent visit to Erbil in Kurdistan where thousands of Christians
have taken refuge from ‘ISIS’ a TV crew filmed Christians singing a
powerful song about their property being labelled with the Arabic
letter ‘N’ for "Nazarene":
"Oh if they knew, oh if they were aware, what this ‘N’ means, they
wouldn't have put it on our walls... ‘N’ means to love, yes we love, ‘N’
means to build, we built, and we will build more, ‘N’ means to believe,
to teach, to be peaceful, graceful, to understand and to forgive you,
forgive all."
And a church leader from Mosul said “so they marked us with the
letter ‘N’. I’m proud of this; it carries the meaning of serving,
sacrificing for others – all the positive meanings.”
Sunday 30th November 2014 ADVENT SUNDAY ‘Keep Alert/be prepared’
For me Advent has always carried with it a reminder about the uncertainties of life –
so, at the beginning of this year I was thinking of at least another four years as rector
and starting to consider what I ought to be doing in those four years for the future
health of the Benefice…
At the start of the chapter that contains today’s gospel one of Jesus disciple draw
attention to the wonder of the Jerusalem Temple –all seemed so secure and
unmoveable – to be met with Jesus’ statement ‘all will be thrown down’
Where is our certainty in the uncertainties of life?
Advent reminds us of true certainties: the preparation for remembering the past
events of the first Christmas but also the time for thinking about the future –as we
pray ‘thy kingdom come’ in the Lord’s own prayer.
After Jesus’ disturbing prophecy of the destruction of the temple a little while later,
Peter, James, john and Andrew come to him privately and ask about the future and
when this will all happen - it is at the end of that personal conversation where we
pick things up in the Gospel for today. So when Jesus says in v37 ‘and what I say to
you I say to all: Keep awake’ he is first of all addressing those four and then all
disciples.
So how do we do that? Well via the everyday perspectives of life itself? Yearly,
weekly and daily – all key parts of how we live our lives in the ‘everyday’. Birthdays
and anniversaries, the duties of the week, waking and sleeping daily.
a. Yearly -The Church year, the reminder about the whole and its basis on
Jesus
b. Weekly – public worship & fellowship
c. Daily - ‘Jesus prayer tells us to pray for ‘daily bread’ [BRF booklet]
After her first rehearsal, she burst through the door with her costume, a five-pointed
star lined in shiny gold tinsel designed to drape over her like a sandwich board.
"What exactly will you be doing in the play?" her mother asked her. "I just stand there
and shine," her daughter answered.
But that shining still depends on the preparation, the costume etc. (even the learning
to stand!) the putting together of the play. You can never truly be ready for
something unless you have prepared whatever it may be, however informal that may
be (like a child preparing for life through play).
We don’t know what the future may hold for each of us but are we laying down good
foundations for it, for life itself, in the light on the wonder of both the coming and
the Revelation of Jesus?