A Happy New Year to all our Members and Friends.
Herewith:
(1) A New Year’s Message & Prayer
(2) Details of our First Service of the New Year: Sunday 7th January 2024 @ 10:30am
with Soprano, Foodbank Collection & Brunch
(3) Our latest Newsletter with Main Events Dates for 2024:
(1) A New Year’s Message & Prayer: New Year, New You!
So says Brixton Unitarians’ illuminated wayside pulpit this January.
I like this expression, for all its self-serving commercial use by gyms, yoga groups, and meditation classes at this time of year; my history of many, largely broken, New Year’s resolutions; my predisposition to prefer the old to the new; and my faith which brings me closer to Divine Truth, Beauty and Goodness all the surer, I believe, in its steady small steps. Those small steps find us finally and often suddenly in new places, places we’d hoped to reach but wondered if we ever would. For me it feels very much that way this January; and so it truly feels like a New Year and New Me. I know it feels this way for many of our regulars too. Thus the New Year starts very well for us at Brixton Unitarians, with newness of life, energy and even more to offer each other and the community. It won’t last, of course; but only because, I pray, we will have moved on yet further to even greater mansions of the Spirit. Make sure you’re a participant in, and not merely an observer of, our adventure in faith in 2024, lest the Spirit should pass you by. Surely we all know by now that there truly is no life but in the Spirit and, accordingly, no time to waste. If we all remember that deeply going forward, this will be a real New Year indeed, as will all our New Years to come.
And so let us share this prayer:
Spirit of all time,
help us to enter the New Year quietly,
thoughtful of who we are to ourselves and others,
mindful that our steps make an impact
and our words carry power.
May we walk gently.
May we speak only after we have listened well.
Creator of all life,
help us to enter the New Year reverently,
aware that you have endowed
every creature and plant, every person and habitat
with beauty and purpose.
May we regard the world with tenderness.
May we honour rather than destroy.
Lover of all souls,
help us to enter the New Year joyfully,
willing to laugh and dance and dream,
remembering our many gifts with thanks
and looking forward to blessings yet to come.
May we welcome your lavish love.
May we cast off the small, vindictive god our fears have made.
May the grace and peace of Jesus and all true light bearers bless us all in the days ahead. Amen
Vinita Hampton Wright (www.ignatianspirituality.com; Adapted by JS)
(2) First Service of the New Year: 7th January 2024 at 10:30am
Truly Start the New Year with our:
New Year Music
New Year Soprano
New Year Readings
New Year Meditation & Prayer
New Year / New Month Rededication Communion
New Year Joys & Concerns
New Year Reflection
New Year Blessing
New Year After Service Fellowship & Hot Dog Brunch (M & V)
New Year Foodbank Collection
And much less excitingly, the Chairman asks me to mention that there will also be:
New Year Donation Envelopes (for every Sunday of the Year, not just the ones you attend!)
New Year Gift Aid Forms to fill in and return
Much love and see you in Chapel
Julian