331 Advent Sunday

 Half past eight this morning and the almost deserted Lisburn Road was a cold, bleak place.

 It's often good to have a person wearing red as a focal point in a picture; this lady just happened to walk past the end of Cadogan when I was trying to get a shot of the church!  Wish I'd gone over and put on the lights before taking the pictures....

The Rector's Churchwarden and Mrs T arrived very early to begin preparations for the 9.30 am Holy Communion Service.  We were fourteen folk altogether - a congregation of both Methodists and Anglicans.  From today until the new Methodist Church building is ready we're sharing Saint Nicholas'.  The early service is united and then the parish worship at 10.15 am followed by the Methodist congregation at 11.30 am.  It seems to be a reasonably good plan... It was hard to know today if the smaller attendance was due to snow or the early start.... time will tell.  

The Coffee Club is open when we come out from our service and a nice warming cuppa was certainly on the cards on this snowy Advent Sunday.

This evening there's a united service in the Presbyterian church and so I'm off to that now.

Almighty God, 

give us grace to cast away the works of darkness 
and to put on the armour of light now in the time of this mortal life 

in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility; 
that on the last day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty 

to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; 
through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, 
one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Book of Common Prayer

Collect of Advent Sunday