Time for gifts.

It's now the third Sunday of Advent – Advent, when we are looking forward to the gift of Jesus at Christmas – the greatest gift of all. Jesus, who came as the Saviour of the world, and whose return we also look forward to.

Many will be looking forward to the gifts that they will receive this Christmas. But this was our opportunity to give to those in much greater need than ourselves. The congregation gave 71 items for organisations such as "Action Homeless" to give as gifts to the children in their projects.

Jonathan Cryer, a representative from Action Homeless thanked the congregation for their gifts and described the plight of the people in their care and how these gifts will bring joy to their children this Christmas.

So many of the people at St Paul's wanted to contribute that we had more offers than the charities were able to use, so other people brought gifts for the "Welcome Project" which helps destitute asylum seekers.

As we have been given so much, may we share it with others.

God, the Universe and Everything

Every year, they Bishop of Leicester organises a "Lay Congress" when some issue of importance to Christians is discussed in detail. This year, 300 of us met at the Samworth Academy on Saturday 26th November, for a Congress with the modest (?) title: "God, the Universe and Everything." A group of us went from St Paul's.

The Congress was led by members of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion of Saint Edmunds College, Cambridge. These were people who are both eminent scientists and have a Christian Faith

Dr Alexander reminded us that many of the historic founders of science, such as Kelvin, Ray, Dalton, Boyle, Newton, Descartes, Kepler, Ray, Maxwell, etc, etc, were practising Christians, as are many today. They see their research as worship of God whose wonders they investigate. In fact, Christian faith underlies many scientific assumptions - such that there are laws, that experiments are appropriate - the reasonableness of the quest for coherence.

Ruth Bancewicz, of the Test of Faith project, presented videos of living scientists who spoke of their emotional involvement with science, of a sense of vocation, of their wonder and awe; also of their curiosity. For some their delight was in being involved with projects that have practical useful outcomes, while for others it was a pleasure in the intrinsic value of scientific discovery – of both mechanism and meaning.

The Reverend Doctor Rodney Holder introduced us to the complexities of the Big Bang and warned us against the "God of the Gaps" – the things we do not understand, because as those Gaps are explained, God risks being progressively excluded.

The big question is not the "How" the world was created, but Liebnitz’s question- “Why is there a universe?”

We returned much better informed but also full of wonder – both at the mightiness of God and the wonder of his Creation.

So next year, don't miss out on a similarly challenging day!

Thank you!

On 22 November 2011 Oadby residents met at Beauchamp College to vote on bids for resources from the £12,500 Community Forum Budget. This sum had been provided by Leicestershire County Council to share among projects that would benefit the local community. Each organisation had the opportunity to present their case at length on designated tables and then for 90 seconds to everyone present. There were votes on which projects represented value for money and then the opportunity to choose three of the best projects.

St Paul's put in the most modest of the bids – £600 to purchase equipment for the recently reconstituted Friday night Youth Club which is open to all. This bid topped both polls and we will soon be going ahead to spend the money in the ways we presented.

This youth club was initiated by our new Intern, Elena Williams, who assisted Revd Steve Bailey, our vicar, in presenting the case. Thank you to Elena for all her hard work, to the Council who made these funds available and to the local residents who supported our bid. We hope that the young people will soon be finding the new equipment attractive and useful.

The Cross of Christ.

The cross is at the centre of Christian faith. It represents Christ's death as a sacrifice for mankind, a sacrifice that forgives sin and stands as a unique example of supreme love – the love that Christ has for us. It also sets a standard for us of what our love should be like.

This five long sermon series on the cross, that we have just completed, is our final series based on the Essential 100 readings that we have used this year to celebrate the "year of the Bible," the four hundredth anniversary of the Authorised Version. The sermon outlines are all available through this link.

It was appropriate that we considered the supreme Divine sacrifice in the weeks before Remembrance Sunday, when we remembered the sacrifice of so many in war.

We will remember them

Today is Remembrance Day, the 11th of November and people stopped for 2 minutes at 11am to remember all those who have lost their life whilst at war.

Sunday is Remembrance Sunday and we will be having an All Together service with Parade as we welcome the uniformed organisations to join us on this special occasion. We will be looking at the words of Jesus from John 15.13 'Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.'

Jesus demonstrated His great love by dying for each one of us. On this special day we also remember those who have followed his example and laid down their life for the greater good. Towards the end of our service we will observe a 2 minute silence as we remember.

Bible Sunday

Join us this Sunday at St Paul's when we shall be marking Bible Sunday.

As Christians we believe that the Bible is God's word to us. We give thanks to God for the gift of the Bible and the many treasures it contains. Did you know that the Bible contains a whole variety of different literature including family sagas, war, history, gory detail, story, songs, romance, sex, teaching and miracles?

We will also be remembering those who do not have a copy of the Bible freely available to them in the own native language and pray for the work of organisations, such as the Bible Society, who undertake translation work.

Do you have a Bible somewhere? Why not find it, dust it off and try reading some of it. There are lots of Bible reading guides to help you and there is so much to discover.

New Youth Group!

On Friday 14th October a new Youth Group was launched. Lead by our Youth Intern, Elly, the first meeting was held last night. Not knowing what response we would get from our advertising it in the local schools we were delighted when 16 young people aged 11-14 showed up.

The evening had a happy, relaxed atmosphere with a variety of activities to choose from including table tennis and a graffiti wall as well as a tuck shop.

We hope that many will want to return and will tell their friends all about it. We hope also to be able to add to the equipment and offer an attractive place for the young people to be on a Friday evening. You would be welcome to come along and join us!

Don't deny

On Sunday we continued our sermon series on 'The Cross of Christ'. This week our focus was on the part of the story where Jesus is taken off for trial. It was during this time that Peter, one of his closest disciples, was asked three times if he knew Jesus and all three times he denied that he knew Him. Jesus had predicted this would happen just after Peter pledges his loyalty to Jesus in front of all the disciples. As soon as Peter denied Jesus for the third time a cock crowed.

We were encouraged to think of who are best friend is and what we would be willing to do for them. Even though Peter made a bad choice, took the easy way out and let his friend down Jesus made the biggest choice and chose the cross for Peter and for each one of us.

After His resurrection one of the first things Jesus did was to forgive Peter and give him the chance to express his love for Jesus. Peter then goes onto become one of the first leaders of the early church, preaching a sermon that brings 3,000 people to faith!

In our prayers we said sorry to God for the times we had denied Him and let Him down. We asked for strength and courage to be bold and strong to speak up for God. We also prayed for those who are persecuted for their faith that God would strengthen and encourage them as they daily risk their lives to live out what they believe.

Pioneer Minister

At a special service held today in Leicester Cathedral a number of people were licensed by the Bishop for different tasks. Among them was David Boyce, a member of St Paul's. David is a physics lecturer at Lutterworth College. As a Christian David felt called to set up a chaplaincy in this large college to provide spiritual support to students and staff.
David was licensed as a lay pioneer minister. This means that he has done some training and has the Bishop's full support in this exciting venture. David's aim is to bring a Christian presence into his working environment. He will lead assemblies, prayer meetings and be available to chat and offer support.
At a service in September David shared with us the exciting journey God has taken him on to bring him to this point. As a church we prayed for David and his family as they move into this new phase.

Fresh Expressions Of Church.

Like all churches, Saint Paul’s faces the question: "how do we share the love of Christ with the two-thirds of the population who never go near a church?" On Saturday 1 November 2011, Leicester Diocese organised a conference on "fresh expressions" in conjunction with the Methodist and United Reformed Churches.

It met at Saint Martin's House, the new diocesan headquarters, next to the cathedral which has been impressively refurbished. The conference was led by Dave Male, who was previously a Minister in this diocese, and has had experience of an alternative way of being church.

There are many ways in which Christians can organise activities which start in the community and by which people may be introduced to Christ in nonthreatening ways. Different workshops gave examples of some of these, with the chance to discuss the opportunities and problems experienced. However, these activities should always lead on to discipling people in the Christian faith, although this is a journey that may take many years.

“Thinking outside the box" was challenging but also fascinating. May we do more of it!

Link to Fresh Expressions
Link to Leicester Diocese's report of the conference.