Advent is almost here

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A quiet start to my week as I was unable to attend the morning service in St Mary’s Church due to unforeseen circumstances but my contacts in the congregation tell me it was a nice service of Holy Communion led as usual by the Revd Alex Wheatley. The only problem was that it should have involved children as it was a Treasure Box service especially for children to become more familiar with the different elements of the Communion service. In the event, there were no children present which is a shame after the preparation that goes into preparing any service with a difference, by the Revd Alex. However, the situation should change in a couple weeks when we have our next Friends and Family service for all ages, always popular with the children. The theme for that service will be “Advent” Next week’s service is Choral Holy Communion with a guest preacher, the Revd Barbra Ebeling.

Visiting Bell Ringers Last Friday, November 18th, we had a surprise visit of a team of bell ringers to ring our lovely set of bells in our belltower. We do of course hear our bells most Sunday mornings and we do have a very good team but what we heard last Friday was ringing like we had never heard before. The visitors were from Westminster Abbey no less, possibly the top team in the country, and they rang continuously for nearly 3 hours. They rang at least 5000 changes, called a peal. Because the most individually different changes that you can ring on 6 bells is 6 factorial which is 720, they have to ring 720 changes 7 times. They rang 7 different methods (tunes) but without stopping in between. This technical information has been supplied by our Bell Captain, Rosemary Kimber. It was an amazing morning as many of the people came to listen had never heard the bells rung in that way before. Some visitors listened outside, others chose to sit inside the church where they could also see the visitors at work. It was certainly wonderful to hear.

Social Events In case it was missed last week here are the details of forthcoming events once more: We have a French dinner on Saturday, 26th November, 7.00pm for 7.30pm. There will be a 4 course meal with a mini quiz followed by coffee and petit fours. Tickets are £20. Please sign up on the sheet on the sides persons table in St Mary’s Church, or ring Rosemary on 01767 261206 to book. This promises to be another great food evening, not far behind our recent successful evening with the Medieval Banquet, but this time the food will be eaten using the usual cutlery! So why not try another great menu produced by our events team and chefs?

Also to look forward to: The Christmas Light Switch on, December 3rd and we have also a stall on the Christmas Market on December 10th, both events on the Market Square.

Services for Next Sunday, November 27th, Advent Sunday

9am, All Saint’s Church, Sutton, Service of the Word,

9am, St Mary’s Church Potton, Morning Prayer

10.30am, St Mary’s Church, Potton. Choral Holy Communion with Rev’d Barbra Ebeling

3pm, St John’s Church, Cockayne Hatley, Evening Prayer