Westminster Abbey

The speaker at our meeting on 17th November was Fr Mike, talking about his Chaplaincy Duty at Westminster Abbey.

There is a Duty Chaplain for each week, these are usually retired clergy, have some association with the Abbey, or the Abbey is Patron of their church.

The Chaplain’s duties begin at 7.30.am with Morning Prayer, he says hourly prayers which are broadcast throughout the Abbey, greets visitors, is available for private prayers and confessions and meets visiting schools.

Westminster Abbey was founded in the 10th century as a Benedictine Monastery and became an Abbey in 1558.

It is not a museum, nor merely a tourist attraction, but a working church, as well as welcoming many thousands of visitors each year.

Christchurch, Portsdown

A group of our members were invited to Christchurch, Portsdown for the afternoon on Tuesday 6th December.

A quiz based on the last line of the first verse of well know carols proved to be unexpectedly difficult and was followed by carol singing, finishing with a rendition of “The 12 days of Christmas” which required much energetic standing up and sitting down and was great fun.

Tea and cakes completed a very pleasant afternoon.

Advent Carols and tea at St Wilfrid’s

We were made extremely welcome on arrival, the service consisted of Communion, Advent hymns and readings, followed by tea and cakes. (Jennefer Higginbottom)

Advent Miscellany

Our Mothers’ Union Advent Miscellany on Thursday 15th December had a slightly different format to previous years.

We used as our focal point a “Jesse Tree”, a tradition used to celebrate Advent. Each day has a symbol, ours were made in olive wood, and were hung on our tree in turn, from the 1st December (The Creation of the World) through to 24th December (Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem). For five of the days we had readings and prayers.

Afterwards, with our tea, were mince pies and slices of a delicious coffee cake to celebrate Eileen’s 90th birthday.

Epiphany party

We held our Epiphany Party in St George’s Church Hall on January 19th, welcoming friends from other churches, as well as our own members.

After a “matching Pairs” game organised by Wendy Clark to find our “other halves” to sit with, we began with a hymn, a reading, prayers and a poem.

A quiz on shop names was on each table. After this we all tucked into sandwiches, savouries, cakes and biscuits, and cups of tea.

Raffle tickets found under our teaplates had a corresponding, wrapped prize for each of us.

Everyone had a most enjoyable afternoon.

Janet Johnson

Winter Edition 2012

St George’s News Mothers’ Union

Advent Miscellany Jesse Tree