Good News of Great Joy

During the seasons of Advent and Christmas this year we are being encouraged by our bishops to find ways of sharing the good news of great joy that we celebrate at that time of year with the wider community.

All parishes in the diocese are being urged to to engage in activities that will 'bring the celebration of our Christian faith away from church buildings and into the various networks within our communities by appropriate evangelism and social engagement.' To this end I have arranged with the Church Army for us to have use of their trailer, from their 'Wheels Project' so that we can, as churches in Worthing, put together a celebration of Christmas music and entertainment in Montague Place on the evening of Thursday 21st December, the last late night shopping event before Christmas. I have also arranged the appropriate licences to enable us to take a street collection that day for the Worthing Churches Homeless Projects.

If you have a music group or individuals, singers or instrumentalists who would like to take part in this event please ask them to get in touch with me, it is important that we have a wide variety of style and content so that we are also able to demonstrate the diversity of our Christian community.

I would also like to hear from churches with details of their Christmas services as we will be putting together a flyer to hand out to enquirers on the day. As part of this initiative I would be particularly pleased to hear about any enquirer courses (Alpha/Emmaus/Essence/Start) starting in the January/February time so that we can publicise those as well.