The Bible is an Extremely Dangerous book

This is what the Pope has written to young people in a prologue to a new youth bible launched this week in Germany. He shares his personal relationship with his old, worn out bible and reveals that he would not swap it for anything in the world.
You can read the prologue in full be clicking here.

As today is Bible Sunday we had a book stall in church selling Bible and Bible reading notes.

Gandhi said: “You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn the world upside down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of literature.”

May we be faithful in our reading of the bible and may it constantly challenge and inspire us.

General Synod election results

The General Synod elections have now taken place and the votes were counted on Monday 12th October.  The results for the diocese of Leicester are as follows:

Elected to the House of Clergy (These are called Proctors in Convocation)
Alison Booker
Barry Hill
Tim Stratford

Elected to the House of Laity
Rhian Ainscough
Shayne Ardron
Jonathan Cryer

Jonathan Cryer is a member of our sister church in Oadby Parish, St Peter's,

We need to pray for them and for others who have been elected, as they take their part in the decision-making process of our denomination.

Principal Services - October - December

An introduction from the Vicar:

Mark's gospel continues to be our focus for most of these weeks. I am delighted that on the 29th November we welcome Rev James Lawrence from Church Pastoral Aid Society as our guest speaker. We are privileged to have such a passionate and gifted speaker to encourage us in our Evangelism — not to be missed!

As Christmas approaches we come again to the familiar story of Christ's birth and remember that He is Emmanuel — God with us.

Yours In Christ,

Steve Bailey

programme

Pray4Life

As Christians prayer is at the heart of everything we do. That is why I am excited about this latest prayer journey from The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Pray4Life is a 40 day period of prayer for people to become spiritually alive. Beginning on the 2nd November LICC will send out daily emails with a brief prayer prompt to encourage us to pray that the people around us, the people we meet regularly will become spiritually alive and open to faith.
I have signed up to join this prayer journey, you can too by clicking here.

Connected Church

At St Paul's we support the work of Tearfund through their Connected Church scheme. We have a link with PAG in Uganda. This week we received an update from them and you can read it here.

There is also a powerful 3 minute spoken word video from Miriam Swaffield who has visited the project. Click here to view her piece called 'I think I've glimpsed how we can change a nation. I hope to be sharing this video soon in church.

Youth Weekend Away 2015

Lou writes...We’re back from our weekend away, had an awesome time with some fab young people. We looked at the theme: Lost and Found, how God’s love never ends or gives up on us, whatever we’ve done, however near or far we feel, he loves and welcomes us back time and time again.

As well as our sessions we enjoyed football, basketball, baking cookies, eating cookies, crafty things, badminton, ice-cream milkshakes, music jams, zip wires, sparklers, chill time, frisbee, Uno, Jenga, games and lots of food and fun together :)

Bring on next year… the video from the weekend away will be shown in church this sunday so come along to see that and we’ve got our Youth Prayer Breakfast. All welcome - 10am This Sunday at St Paul’s church, Oadby

Harvest Gifts

Thank you to everyone who gave so generously at our Harvest service. Here is a picture of the display of your gifts. We pray that they will be a real blessing to those who receive them. Thank you God for providing us with all we need.

Harvest

On Thursday Coffee Pot held their Harvest lunch. Before eating I reminded those gathered that we thank God for the harvest, for all the good things he has given us and that all things come from God. We then sang We plough the fields and scatter. At the end of the meal Coffee Pot presented a cheque for £900 to go towards the work of Keith Waddell with Africa Inland Mission.
On Sunday we shall have our harvest festival service and continue our thanksgiving. Donations will go to the work of Oadby Food Bank and the Welcome Project with any fresh produce being auctioned off for Tearfund. Do join us at 10am as we give thanks to the Lord of the Harvest.

Students welcome

At St Paul's we are delighted to welcome anyone to join us at our services.
Last Sunday it was great to welcome some new students who have recently come to Leicester to study at the university. Some of the halls of residence fall in our parish so we are particularly keen to welcome students who live locally to come to St Paul's. Our main service is at 10am and varies week by week. Do join us, you can be assured of a warm welcome!

Spirituality Sunday

At this mornings service we focused on the different practises people use to sustain them in their relationship with God. I interviewed 5 members of the congregation who spoke about silent retreat, spiritual direction, bible reading, prayer partners and journaling. Each one shared how this allowed them to encounter God and we were privileged to hear some powerful and moving testimonies.
Thank you to those who took part. May we all be encouraged and inspired to spend time with God.
'Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.' James 4.8

Seeking Allah Finding Jesus book discussion

On Wednesday evening 14 of us squeezed into the vicarage living room to discuss our thoughts on this book which we had all read over the summer. We found Nabeel's story fascinating and were encouraged by the way the Christian faith had stood up to such academic investigation. We learnt a lot about the Muslim faith as Nabeel shared his upbringing. We were struck by the importance of dreams and that it was through dreams that God brought Nabeel to faith in Jesus. We were reminded of the value of both an intellectual understanding but also an experience of God. We give thanks to God that by His Spirit He is still at work in the world drawing people to himself.