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The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means 'God with us').
Matthew 1:23
Welcome to the first Sunday of Advent - that special time of year when we remember and celebrate the incredible, life-changing truth that is 'God with us'! We have two quite different gatherings for you today. The first one is at 9am and is a quieter and more reflective service, which will be led by Jessica. Following that, at 10.30am, is our loud and lively all-age celebration, led by Anita. Between the services, from around 10am, there will be some breakfast available in the hall. There is no livestream today, so please do come and join us - we'd love to see you there!
In the afternoon, from 1pm, it is Dereham's 'Lights On' event in the town centre. We will have our usual Nativity stall there, which gives people the opportunity to dress up and take pictures. If you are able to help with that at all, then please do let us know. In particular we need a few people to help with clearing everything away from 5pm.
As part of the event, from 4pm, we also get the opportunity to lead the community in some carol singing. The Dereham Band will be playing and a few of us will be singing from the stage. It's a wonderful opportunity to share the truth of what Christmas is really all about. We'd love to have as many as possible of you in the crowd at that point, to help get the words into people's hands, and to sing, which always ebcourages others to join in. Thank you.
As mentioned previously, we are again looking to put together some hampers for those we know of who are in need this Christmas, including our CAP clients. If you are able to give a donation towards the cost of these, that would make a real difference. You can pop your gift into the office during the week, or put in the offering box in an envelope (marked 'hampers') or send it by bank transfer, again marked 'hampers'. Thank you.
Finally, Richard Cracknell has again prepared some specific points for prayer for the coming week, so that we can be calling out to God in unity together. You can access those byCLICKING HERE.Thank you for praying with us.
Nigel