No one ever sits at the front

The three empty chairs in the photo were the only seats not taken at the carol service at Worcester Market. Why people don't sit at the front I don't know. They were crammed in like sardines at the back!

The evening was done jointly between Worcestershire Young Farmers and Farm Crisis Network. We dared to include a carol written by the Iona Community

Once in Judah’s least known city
stood a boarding house with back-door shed,
where an almost single-parent mother
tried to find her new-born son a bed.
Mary’s mum and dad went wild
when they heard their daughter had a child.

The service raised just under £360 for FCN

Busking for FCN

This Sunday (13/12) and next (20/12) there's an opportunity to busk some carols for FCN at Farmers' Markets.

This week it's at the Teme Valley Market at Knightwick. I've done it there before in previous years and stallholders and shoppers have been appreciative of the Christmas feel it gives.

The week after it's at the Angel Place Farmers' Market in Worcester. We held a Harvest Festival Service there when it was the first Farmers Market in the site in October this year. Henry Wormington, who organises Worcester Farmers Markets says "Group Members will be making an effort to give the Farmers Market a Christmas atmosphere."

If anyone wants to join in, then you're welcome.

St Nicholas in the Shire

I had the delight of preaching at Dormston Church. Tolkein used to stay in the village and there is a farm called Bag End Farm.
Dormston seems to have been part of the inspiration for "The Shire", that content tranquil home from which Bilbo Baggins and Frodo went off on their adventures.

The church is dedicated to St Nicholas, perhaps the world's best known and most misunderstood saint. Billions of people world wide have heard of Santa Claus but few know that Father Christmas was a bishop in ancient Turkey who loved children and was generous with his gifts.

This morning we thought about God's generosity in the people he gives to the church - Ephesians 4 is about that - and the ways in which we all can be God's gift to His church.