Whilst we are in lockdown, there are lots of good things still happening. Dearne Churches Together will be giving out Advent gift bags (containing Nativity crafts, Christmas stories, snacks and surprises) on Saturday 28th November between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at three local venues (St Helen’s Church Hall in Thurnscoe, the Salvation Army in Goldthorpe and Furlong Road Methodist Church in Bolton-on-Dearne). As before, families will be invited to book an allocated time slot for collection so as to avoid any mixing of households and to maintain social distancing. This can still go ahead, even in lockdown, because it is a charitable event, and we very much hope we can bless many local families in this way.
If you can help with giving out these bags at one of the three venues for a short time or can help with packing the gift bags at GPCC on Tuesday 23rd November at 1 p.m., please let Julie know. Volunteering for such events is still allowed, even in lockdown.
In preparing for Christmas, we are also encouraging people to make their own angels – either knitted or crocheted angels, craft angels or angels painted onto rocks and left in Phoenix Park. Please send any photos of your crafts to us and we will make an angel gallery of photos, reminding us of the messages of hope they brought at Christmas time.
We will be holding an Advent prayer meeting with other local churches on Facebook live on Wednesday 2nd December at 10.45 a.m. and will also be walking outdoors and praying in our ‘Take Back the Streets’ prayer initiative on Saturday 5th December at 10 a.m.
Finally, we have been pondering hard about how we can celebrate Christmas together as a church and have a carol service when we are not at all sure if we’ll be able to meet in person or will still be holding online services! We have decided, therefore, to prepare a pre-recorded Nativity show which can be recorded by church members in their own homes and then edited together so that we can share this at our carol service on Sunday 20th December at 6 p.m. whether that’s live in our building or online or both! If any church members would like to be involved in this, please contact Julie as soon as possible so we can work on recording scenes for our ‘Good News Nativity’ as soon as possible!
