Christmas, a time of celebrating the birth of Our Saviour Jesus Christ ,and Advent the time of anticipation of that birth. The four-week period of Advent started on Sunday 30^th November at our patronal Festival of St Andrew at the Parish Church when we welcomed clergy and members of congregations from churches in the Witham Team Ministry.  Each Sunday we light another coloured  candle in our Advent rings of holly and ivy, culminating with the central white candle at the Midnight Mass services starting at 11.30 pm on Christmas Eve at both churches. Before then we will be able to enjoy  the lovely candlelit Carol service at All Saints Ulting at 4pm on Sunday 7^th December,  then, at  St Andrew’s, the Messy Christmas service on Sunday 14^th finishing with a light lunch,               the Carol Service at 4.30pm on Sunday 21^st and then the very popular Light of the World Service at 4.30 pm on Christmas Eve . Please see our poster with details of all  these services.

As many of you will know, the tradition of the Light of the World service is to support our own local charity Home-Start Essex which does so much to support young families… Home-Start Essex is one of the county’s leading ‘early intervention and prevention’ charities which supports families with young children under 5 years and aims to give children the best possible start in life. Challenges faced by families include poverty , physical or learning disabilities, domestic abuse, being rehomed or living in temporary accommodation,  struggles with mental or physical health issues , social isolation,  and bereavement. Home-Start provides support for these  via Volunteer Family Support Mentors, Family Support and Wellbeing support Groups, Counselling and provision of essential items when needed.

So many families are in need and at our Light of the World Service many of us bring donations to help Home-Start to support and bring joy to their families over Christmas and beyond. Some like to bring presents for the children, but Home-Start also appreciates  monetary donations or tokens from a local supermarket so that appropriate gifts can be offered according to need.

Although looking forward to Christmas is exciting , we must not forget our Remembrance Day services which took place on Sunday 9^th November. We had services at both churches . The one at All Saints required the congregation to walk up the church drive to the upper graveyard where the War Memorial is situated . The service at St Andrews involved a procession from the Scout Hut to the church with Church Road closed between both points thanks to the Parish Council. Both services which were powerful and meaningful were very well attended and showed a strong ongoing commitment in the parish to the  memory of those who laid down their lives so that we can enjoy our lives.

Our Soup and Roll in November raised £170 for Christian Aid and our December event on Tuesday  9^th December will be in support of Home-Start Essex. We finished November with a film showing of The Shack on Saturday 29^th . Watch this space for the next Film show which will be in the New Year.