Friday 28th November 12.20 

w/c Sunday 30^th Nov 2025

Dear Friends,

This Sunday is Advent Sunday, the time in the church’s year when we prepare ourselves and wait for the coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas.
In all the business of this time of year, it is easy to get distracted from what we are about to celebrate – God’ coming amongst us.
Can I encourage us all to find time to stop, to reflect on what this means for us – the wonder and hope of what is about to come.
To help us you will find a weekly Advent Reflection, prepared by the Ministry team, displayed in each of our churches, as well as on the websites.

To mark the start of Advent, we will be holding a United Mission Community service at Rattery at 10am.
In it we will be Commissioning some of our members who regularly lead services as our first Lay Worship Leaders.
Please do come to support them.

Thought for the week Matthew 24 v 36-44

Being prepared – it’s one of the main themes of Advent, so it’s no surprise that our Gospel reading

for Advent Sunday introduces this theme.
Jesus tells us that we ‘must be ready, for the Son of

Man is coming at an unexpected hour’. He likens his return to the time of Noah. In the flood story,

Noah had heard God instructing him to build an ark and fill it with pairs of animals because a

catastrophic flood was coming.
Those around him, though, knew (or believed) nothing of this and

carried on with their day to day lives, either ignoring Noah or ridiculing him for building an

enormous boat nowhere near water and then, to top it all off, catching a whole host of animals and

taking care of them.
Because they hadn’t heard God’s voice, and weren’t seeking to follow God’s

will, they had no idea of what was coming: they weren’t prepared for it.

Noah and his neighbours differed in their knowledge of God’s word and will, and in a similar way,

we today differ from others in our world in our knowledge of God’s word and will.
We do expect

Jesus to return some day, in some way – the unexpected part is exactly when and how, but that

isn’t something we need to worry about – whilst others live their lives not yet knowing God.
We

need to be prepared, as Jesus says.
But it is always hard to be prepared when we have no idea of

the timings.
In some ways, perhaps its easiest to be prepared for something happening at an

unexpected time by preparing for it as if it was happening tomorrow.
That is, we can try and make

sure that we are ready by living our lives faithfully, according to God’s will. Living our lives faithfully

means living as God wants us to – loving and worshipping him, loving our neighbour, caring for the

sick and imprisoned, standing up for the oppressed, bringing freedom, peace, joy and hope to the

world around us, and sharing our knowledge of God with others so that they can know God’s love

for them too.

This way of life is not always easy and takes a lot of effort and intention – there are always parts

we can work on more, whether that’s spending more time in prayer with God, more time studying

God’s word to us, or more time serving others in all sorts of ways.
Perhaps this Advent Sunday,

you could reflect on what aspect of loving God or loving our neighbours might most help you to live

your lives in a state of preparedness.
Rev Alex Holmes

Notices and Diary

• Sunday Nov 30^th Advent Sunday United Mission Community service at St Mary’s Rattery at 10am. We will also be Commissioning our Lay Worship Leaders – those people who regularly lead our lay-led services in the Mission Community. Please do come to support them. Refreshments after. Please note there will be limited parking in the Village Hall car park that day, so please park safely where you can.
• Weekly Advent reflections from our Ministry team will be available in each church and on the websites for your use. In addition, there are daily resources available from the Church of England website: https://www.churchofengland.org/faith-life/what-we-believe/advent-and-christmas/advent-and-christmas-theme-joy-christmas#na

Tues 2nd Dec                     St Luke’s Bible study at 10am

Wed 3rd Dec                       St Petroc’s Morning Prayer at 8.30am

Thought for the week at 10am by zoom and telephone

St Petroc’s Parish Lunch 12.30-1.30pm

Fri 5th Dec                            Morning Prayer at 9am by zoom and telephone

                                                      St Petroc’s PCC at 10.30am

                                                      Ministry Team meeting at 2pm

Sun 7^th Dec                          St Petroc’s Parish breakfast from 8.30am      

 Know you are in my heart and in my prayers.
Rev Gina