A U T U M N / W I N T E R
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Chenies Baptist Church
Outlook Issue 470
Enlightening
Voted The Nation’s Favourite Carol by listeners of Classic FM: O holy night! The stars are brightly shining, It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 'Til He appear'd and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born;
The Bible on Channel 5 The Bible will be coming to Light of the Channel Five this Autumn. The 10‐part, five‐hour World programme which dramatises some of the most famous stories from the Bible has been a phenomenon around the world and in America attracted 13 million viewers. The series includes narratives from the books of Genesis through to Revelation, including Noah's Ark, the Exodus and the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. Diogo Morgado (see above) takes the challenging role of Jesus. While Producer Mark Burnett said that attracting a "new generation" of viewers to the Bible was his "greatest hope" when creating the series, Channel Five said the channel was the "perfect home" for the show, and they "look forward to it drawing in a huge audience". Matthew Van Duyvenbode from the Bible Society says, ‘Re‐enacting some of the most iconic episodes from the Scriptures will help these powerful stories come to life for a whole new audience of TV viewers.’ ‘We believe the Bible is more than a book. This will help people encounter the Scriptures, irrespective of their background or beliefs.’
Candle lit Christmas Services (see page 2) Advent Pilgrimage
Carols by Candlelight
Christingle on Christmas Eve
Sun 8 Dec 7 pm
Sun 22 Dec 4 pm
Tues 24 Dec 4 pm
A short pilgrimage from Chenies Baptist to a candle lit barn at North Hill Farm
Traditional carols with professional organist Alexander Hamilton
www.cheniesbaptist.co.uk
A service for all the family. Let Christmas begin here…
OUTLOOK
WINTER 2013
Is that it?
A candle lit Christmas O Light Divine Candles have formed a crucial part of religious life for centuries – never more so than at Christmas. Candles will be in wide use at Chenies Baptist this Advent and Christmas season. Cast your eyes on the feast of candle light planned to celebrate and pierce the darkness of this Christmas season:
Advent Pilgrimage Most Christmas services take place in warm, lit buildings despite the events of Christmas being mostly in the open air or in a drafty stable in candle light. Perhaps this is why the Scouts in Chorleywood do something a little different: Each year the Cubs & Scouts walk across Chorleywood Common to their camp on the Chorleywood Estate to sing carols and remember the first Christmas. As I walked with the Cubs and Scouts and led the gathering around the campfire it seemed the ideal way to prepare for Christmas The only thing missing was the barn and the animals. This gave us the idea. So we planned a pilgrimage from Chenies Baptist Church to North Hill Farm for everyone. On arrival at North Hill Farm we remember the journey Mary travelled from being told of the child to be born, to the location she would give birth to the Christ child. With candles
illuminating the stable and the smell and sound of horses to fill the air we will sing and pray and remember. It will be a very special time. We invite all able bodied travellers to join us on Sunday 8th December leaving Chenies Baptist at 7 pm.
Carols by Candlelight There is something wonderful about singing carols in candlelight. This year we will have the added pleasure of welcoming a young professional organist to lead us. Alexander Hamilton (age 17), a previous pupil at Christchurch School and now destined for Cambridge and a scholarship as organist in Windsor Castle, will be tickling the ivories. Please come and raise your voice on Sunday 22nd December at 4 pm.
Christingle on Christmas Eve If you have never attended a Christingle service then you have missed out on a delightful part of Christmas. Each child present is invited, during the service, to make a Christingle (see picture above) and then bring it into the candle lit church. We are told by many of our visitors to this service that it now represents a key part of their family preparations for Christmas. We invite you to make it part of your preparations. 2 Join us on Tuesday 24th December at 4 pm. Malcolm Hazell
OUTLOOK
WINTER 2013
Never Knowingly Over-Commercialised Each year I both love and hate the Christmas adverts. I hate them because they too easily distract from the true meaning of Christmas. I love them because they are done brilliantly. The one advert that stood out to me was the Christmas advert by John Lewis, starring Lewis (pictured above) two years ago. Did you catch it? If not, have a read of this article kindly written by Anthony Billington from the London Centre for Contemporary Christianity: “Even if you’ve not yet seen the John Lewis Christmas TV advert, the chances are you’ve heard about it – through colleagues at work, Facebook friends, or just about any national newspaper. Within a few hours of being broadcast, it was trending on Twitter and has already had over 1,800,000 hits on YouTube – three times more in a week than its counterpart last Christmas managed in a year. High production values, careful editing, and a few nods to classic movies combine to tell the story of a young boy counting down the days to Christmas only to ignore his own presents on Christmas morning for the joy of giving his parents their gift. Ending with the tagline ‘For gifts you can’t wait to give’, it has apparently reduced grown men and women to tears. Others, however, have balked at the £6 million price tag for the campaign, or condemned it as a clichéd, overly sentimental example of commercial manipulation, yet another victory for consumerism,
and a cynical way of making money – only slightly offset by the policy of John Lewis to reward its workers with a share in the profits. Fans of Morrissey are divided on whether he has done the unthinkable in allowing the 1984 Smiths song, ‘Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want’ to be borrowed, covered in this case by Slow Moving Millie, using a hymn about unrequited love to sell goods to the middle-classes. Even so, although the scenes contain John Lewis products, they are not centre-stage. In fact, the emphasis is not on the value of presents so much as the warmth of relationship. As such, the advert gestures towards what we hope to be true. We want generoushearted children who know that ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35). Maybe the child embodies qualities we’d like for ourselves. The joy of giving rather than receiving is somewhat hackneyed, but no less true for that, not least for those who are themselves part of the story in which God loves, Jesus serves, and the Spirit ministers – in selfgiving tenderness towards us. Here, perhaps, is a way of truly ‘connecting with culture’. But it’s also the challenge presented in culture to us. Mawkishness and sentiment aside, how might we demonstrate over the festive season and beyond a generosity of heart and home?” Malcolm Hazell You can view, free of charge, this one and a half 3minute advert at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSLOnR1s74o
OUTLOOK
WINTER 2013
Playing a Part in Advent The theologian and writer Eugene Peterson has a delightful way of seeing our role in the Story, which might help us to play our part more authentically, this advent. ‘We get included’, he says, just read the Bible: God with us (Matthew 1:23), Christ in me (Galatians 2:20), God for us (Romans 8:31). With… in… for…; powerful, connecting, relation-forming words.’ And they are not just words. As we gaze in wonder, kneel at the crib and sing with the angels by faith we too can join this greatest story of all of a God who made us, has come to us in Jesus and lives in us by His Holy Spirit. Is that why Jesus is referred to as Immanuel – God with us? Imagine. The curtain’s rising. Did you ever star in the nativity? As we enter advent, children across the country will be wondering – if they don’t already know – if they’ll get to play Mary or Joseph this year, or be relegated to the back end of a donkey. But remember the excitement as you prepared! Remember that thrill, as you rehearsed the play, and parents arrived to crouch like giants on infant benches and watch the Christmas story unfold, once more! We were part of the story. Characters, participating in the sheer wonder of it all. Sadly, as we grow up, it gets harder (for some reason) to use our imagination and enter the fray. If we’re not careful, or indeed if we’re too careful, we can turn the greatest story ever told into a set of dry propositions, instead of the flesh-and-bloodand-donkey-dung opening scenes of a story that has changed the world.
Would your child like to be in a nativity? Then bring them in costume on Sunday 15th December at 10.30 am for our Family Christmas Nativity.
Sunday Services Every Sunday at 10.30am Children’s & Youth groups run each morning Minister: Rev. Malcolm Hazell - 01923 285361 E-mail: Malcolm.hazell@btinternet.com Friday’s Youth Worker: Ben Ansell Youth contact dawn.hazell@hotmail.com 01923 285361 Pastoral Carer: Penny Baron – 01923 283046 E-mail: penny.baron@ntlworld.com Hall Bookings— Georgie Clark 01923 285382
As for playing our part within it, many of us struggle, if we’re honest, to believe we truly have a role to play at all, aside from the good-for-nothing who is saved from hell and must now try to keep out of mischief until they reach heaven. Either that, or we become so infatuated with the story of ‘me’ – of climbing my ladder, making my way, achieving my goals – that we struggle to connect the story of our lives to anything meaningful beyond it.
We wish all our readers a joyful Christmas and a peaceful New Year
www.cheniesbaptist.co.uk