All Praise and Glory to God

Brentry Community Lunch
On Sunday the 28th January we invited the community of Brentry to join us for lunch at the church. We all brought something, but the main meal was cooked by two students. Big thank you to Andrew and Mike and their spouces for their delicious dishes and their efforts to make the event a success.There were around twenty five people and we all had a wonderful time. There was one visitor and she had made the effort to come by bus to join us. The new cooker was used well.

Christmas in the Brentry context

We decided to arrange three services for Christmas and invite as many people as possible to come and join us. We produced a terrific invtitation card and went out door-knocking in the week before Christmas. We delivered about 1500 cards and spoke to perhaps 500 people. It was a great experience to go out and meet people, introducing yourself as representing the local church, their local church.

The services themselves were all very different. Christmas Eve was a Sunday, and we took over the regular morning service to tell the Christmas story from the experience of an angel, a shepherd and a wise man. In the afternoon we used the verses of 'Once in Royal David's City' and illustrated the story in different ways, including the sharing of real-life experience of God in the face of troubles. On Christmas morning we rediscovered Jesus' vulnerability as a baby by each holding a nappy with a 'Jesus' label on it, and reflecting that the King of kings came to such a place for us.

As a result of our door-knocking we did welcome some new people into the church, which was great, although it was only a small number of the people we spoke to. It was the first time that many of us had gone out to meet Brentry residents outside the church, and it certainly won't be the last.
Contributed by David

During the week before Christmas, the ten of us paired-off and invited the people of Brentry to the Christmas services we were putting on. We knocked on people's doors, introduced ourselves as members of Brentry Church and handed people invitations. We were each tested through this task as many of us felt a bit 'wobbly' about door-knocking, others were exhausted after just meeting essay deadlines and we endured freezing temperatures, mist and ferocious dogs! However, God blessed out efforts! Between us, we put on three services: a Christmas Eve all-age service, an outreach service and a Christmas day service. New people came to Brentry Church and it was a delight to meet them. We praise God for this and give thanks to Him for guiding and sustaining us through this busy week and providing us with fresh and creative ideas for the services. We have invited people to a community lunch on the 28t January and we pray that God will continue to use us to make Himself known among the people of Brentry.
Contributed by Hannah










Gospel in Action

We shared with the College Community some of our triumphs and struggles of the context based training we have experienced, on Wednesday the 22nd of November. It was well received and it was very moving how the the whole community came together and prayed for us and our families. All praise and thanks to the loving Father, whom we serve.

College Communion

We the Context based students led the Mass at college on Thursday the 16th of November. Can. George Kovoor presiding, Mike Rutter as Deacon and Vanessa Parr as Sub-Deacon. Dr Craig Smith preached the word from the Gospel of Mark. We all experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit and the peace of God. One of our supervisors Rev Peter Grimwood attended the service. On the whole it was a great experience.

African Concert

We hosted the African Concert at the Brentry Church on Saturday the 18th of November sponsored by the Bradgate Surgery in aid of their clinic in Ethiopia. The Church was packed with over a Hundred people attending most of them from Brentry. We were busy from 9 in the morning till 11.15 in the night. But it was worth the effort with over £800 being collected so far. Everyone who attended had a good time and enjoyed themselves including us.