It’s been a rollercoaster two years at Christ Church. We’ve lost dear congregation members, some of whom to Covid itself, and we’ve had to react to gov- ernmental regulations and balance different views of how we safely worship. But there’s also been lots of wonderful positives, which are easy for us to lose sight of, especially in light of how this pandemic is leaving many of us frustrated and exhausted. The Spirit has been moving in Christ Church over the past two years – remember those wonderful out- door services last year, the zoom spiritual commun- ions that are still going strong, podchurch services that continue to have as many people listening as are coming to our building, lively and fun funky church online, in the car park, and now in the hall, and, of course, all the other events have kept us connected during these strange times – we’ve hun- dreds of people online over both Christmases, we had wonderfully peaceful Holy week services, we explored our Bibles together for 8 months on Zoom, we met an American church online for St David’s Day, and then are also the everyday and weekly work our teams are carrying out, from the chatter- box group, J-walkers youth group to our pastoral outreach, and so on.

As the year turns we remember all those who have sad memories of the past year. All those who have lost loved ones, and all those who have been affected by the covid pandemic.

We think about those who have endured lock- down for nearly 2 years due to failing health and fragility.

We pray for our Welsh Government that they will make wise decisions and that we might all start to find normality once again.

We pray that as a church we might start to reach out more into our community and that our eyes would be dynamically opened to their needs.

We pray that our new community hall will start to be built this year and that it will be a part of that reaching out.

We pray that this coming year will be a year which will herald health, life and restoration for us all.

Linda Alexander, Editor

We’re looking forward to Christmas as a time of hope, peace, and joy. Despite the restrictions that are still in place and the worries that we continue to face, Christ- mas in Christ Church will reflect the spirit of the season and the wonderful message of Jesus’s birth.

We have plenty of zoom and podchurch services, as well as ser- vices in the church building (booking is essential). Here is our time- table of services, which we are very hopeful of offering, although there may be some changes due to Covid developments:

We are pleased to announce that we will be holding a Service of Remembrance on Sunday 14th November at 10am in the church followed by a short service outside at the Calvary Stone straight after the service.

BIRTHDAY WISHES Ann James’ 90th Birthday was celebrated on September 16th. Also if Alan had lived, his 90th Birthday would be on November 16th. We wish Ann a belated Happy Birthday and also think of her as she remembers Alan’s 90th too.

PRAYERS Ourprayersgoto
Liz Reid, who is currently in recovery from Covid.

Nadia Bunston who has had a number of falls

And Baby Libby Feesey who is in re- covery but whose condition needs expert ongoing care and preferably a miracle.

SAD NEWS At the time of printing we have just heard the sad news of the sudden death of Gloria Thomas, from Covid. What a cruel virus this is!

It’s so good to see the young people and young families back using the hall for funky church twice a month. This rings of a certain amount of normality which is most encouraging.

Chatterbox is also back and they are able to take 15 children and parents which is another step in the right direction. We are now able to have up to 65 in our services and we can even sit a bit closer now. It’s sad that we still can’t sing in church, but we’re sure that this will return soon.

When we think about the children of Israel in the wilderness it feels a bit like that right now. They weren’t sure where they were going, there was no way back and everything that they had ever known was taken away or changed. This time of Covid hasn’t been quite that bad but life has certainly taken on quite a different hue, and it’s been a lot longer than any of us ever expected. So let’s take heart from our young people who are living in the moment, and not worrying too much about the future.

Let’s praise God for all the blessings we have in our lives, and if we can’t sing in church there is nothing to stop us praising God by singing outside and in our homes. Perhaps we might consider singing a favourite hymn or song as we go about our daily life. Covid can’t silence us and won’t silence us.