20,000 welcomes: an Advent Vigil for refugees – arranged by the Churches Refugee Network
Tuesday 8 December:  10.00 am to 4.30 pm at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey

The day will be structured around three main themed sessions:
*  Re-member, re-member: exodus and exile (10.00 am to 12.00);
*  Blown by the winds: conflict, climate change and current pressure (12.00 to 2.00 pm);
*  Consider yourselves at home (2.00 to 4.00 pm);
with an epilogue from 4.00 to 4.30 pm.

All are invited afterwards to attend evensong in the Abbey.
A range of distinguished speakers, interfaith, ecumenical and from the continent, will give talks and meditations, with contributions by refugees themselves.  There will be space for silent reflection, opportunities for discussion and associated activities.
All are welcome, for the whole or part of the day.

To get the church spick and span for our Christmas Tree Festival and Christmas services a cleaning morning is planned on Saturday 5 December.

As usual we will need as many helpers as possible to come and help us to get the church looking its best again, so please put the date in your diary now, look out your oldest clothes, make sure your marigolds are without holes, and prepare to come and do battle with the grime and dust in every nook and cranny of the church and the hall – to say nothing of the kitchen and the toilets!  Cleaning materials will be provided: it’s your elbow grease we’re after!

We will aim to start about 09.30 and finish by 13:00, but any time you can spare will be greatly appreciated – there will be plenty for everyone to do.  Needless to say there will be regular infusions of tea, coffee and home baking to keep you going.  You may find this hard to believe, but the church clean is good fun, and is a great way of sharing fellowship and getting to know folk you may not have come across before.  We look forward to seeing you!

The final figure for Gift Day on 1 November 2015 was £11,853 following our Gift Aid reclaim. This was a tremendous result and the charities chosen by us have now received our donations to them. Thank you to all who supported another successful Gift Day at Trinity.

The funds raised on Gift Day this year will again be allocated to Charities chosen by Trinity members and friends in a ballot. The following charities were chosen and they have received £500 each:-

Local Charities
Merton Winter Night Shelter
St. Raphael’s Hospice
Christian Care Association
South London Refugee Association

National Charities
Alzheimer’s Research UK
Cancer Research UK
Macmillan Cancer Support

International Charities
Barnabas Fund
British Red Cross
Medecins sans Frontieres

The Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church in Britain and the United Reformed Church have released a joint statement on military action in Syria. – Download full statement here.

To read the Synod Moderator’s Christmas letter to churches, please click here.

A conference, being organised by GEAR (Group for Evangelism  Renewal within the United Reformed Church) at Swanwick next year from 19 to 21 February, is relevant to several of the Vision 2020 statements, particularly Hospitality and Diversity, Evangelism and Church Growth.

The conference speaker is Michael Harvey, who is well known for ‘Back to Church Sunday’, and we are very privileged that he can join us.  He is a very interesting and inspirational speaker, and he will no doubt tell us how churches need to move on from being WELCOMING to also being INVITATIONAL.  It is for this reason that Back to Church Sunday has developed into “Season of Invitation”, and there is a lot that we in the URC can learn from Michael.

For further information and booking form click here.

This event should be both entertaining gastronomically and informative. It will be a seated and tutored tasting of fine Israeli wines by Kedem who are a leading importer of the best wines, which have been transformed in recent years since the original biblical era vines left behind by the Romans. There will be great savoury snacks to accompany the wines. There will also be short talks about the use of wine in the Christian tradition and in the Jewish tradition, and the opportunity to see some wines made by the Trappist monks at Latroun monastery in Israel.

Tickets are £10 each, on the door BUT we do need to know if you are coming, so we don’t run out of wine!  So please reply to this invitation as soon as possible if you would like to come, indicating your name and the number of people in your party. If you prefer to reply to Domonic Hobson at St Mary’s (dominichobson@dominichobson.com) or James Leek at Wimbledon Synagogue (jaslek@btinternet.com), whose names are on the flier, then please do so – so long as we know if you are coming.