Prince of Glory

The picture of the Messiah reaches its climax this week as we meet the Prince of Glory. Isaiah’s wonderful description of the coming of Christ is picked up by all four of the Gospel writers because it perfectly prefigures Jesus and His ministry as the Messiah. Join us as we look forward to Christ’s coming and think about the difference He makes to our Christmas and beyond. Jesus our peace, our judge and our deliverer has come to show us the glory of God. How will we respond to Him?

Next week we will be holding our Carol service events both in the morning at Archbishop Benson School and the evening at the Old Ale House so do be thinking about who you could be inviting. See below for more information about these services.

Group Activities

This week we come to the last group session before our Christmas Break. The whole of ENABLE is about understanding the gifts which God gives us to ENABLE us to live for him. In the first half of the term, we thought about the church and how we can help one another grow as disciples. In the second half of the term, we have been thinking about the gift of prayer, essential for us to grow as disciples.

Now, we want to put some of our learning into practice by choosing one of 3 options for your time together. Either by having a bring and share meal together encouraging one another in truth and love, or by having a time of extended Prayer, putting into practice what we have learnt this half term, or outreaching to others by organising an activity as a home group which you could invite friends and family along to.

ENABLE Continues Next Year

ENABLE returns with an all-together meeting on Thursday 11th January at 7:30pm. At this session we will introduce the third part of ENABLE where our focus will be on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. To help individuals attend this session, especially those with younger children, we are hosting the meeting online. During the evening there will be time for small groups to ‘break out’ into their own groups to talk and pray together. You can access this meeting on Zoom using the button below and entering these details:

Meeting ID: 886 1513 5891 - Passcode: 536788

Final Call!

This is the final week for collecting any donations for this years CAP and Lanterns appeal. If you would link to give to the Christmas appeal please can all donations come to the Church Office by Thursday 7th December. Thank you so much to everyone who has already given, it will make such a difference to the CAP and Lanterns families.

Truro Leadership Update

The Truro Leadership Team met last week and Marc (our church leader) writes to give us an update…

“The Truro Leadership Team met to pray for our church family and to continue developing the life of our congregation. We meet every month, chaired by Stephen Baird. There were a number of things on the agenda, including our pastoral care as a church and our safeguarding. It is so important that we are a loving, caring, safe church family and we always keep this under review. We also continued to plan for our Christmas Outreach Activities, including the All-Age Carol Service at 9:30am on the 17th December and our evening Carol Service in the Old Ale House at 6:30pm that evening. 

One of the larger agenda items was the ongoing situation with the venue for our meeting on Sunday mornings. You will know that we struggle to fit in half of the school hall and that it is hard for the Children's and Young People's groups in the space provided. We know that we also have little room to grow and that it can feel overwhelming for folk being in such a small space. We continued to pray for the right solution. We have ongoing conversations with Archbishop Benson School, but you will know that we are also looking at medium and long-term solutions which will enable us to grow as a church. The Leadership Team discussed the options and committed them to prayer. We shared more details at our last church Prayer Meeting, so do please continue to pray for the building of our church and work for the glory of God.

The Leadership Team will also be meeting to pray again this morning in our monthly prayer meeting - praying for the congregation as a whole and for you individually. 

On behalf of the whole Leadership Team, let me take this opportunity to wish you a very happy Christmas. We are looking forward, over the next few weeks, to celebrating together the birth of our saviour..

As always - Marc"

All Age Carol Service

On the 17th December in our usual Sunday morning service we will be having our all age Carol Service. It will be filled with carols led by our band, dressing up and the Christmas Story, so do join us at Archbishop Benson at 9.30am for this fun and interactive service.

Old Ale House Carols

On the evening of the 17th December we will be holding a very special Carol service upstairs at the Old Ale House in Truro. The evening will be wonderful opportunity to invite friends and family to in this relaxed and informal venue. During the evening our live band will lead us in contemporary carols as well as time to hear readings and reflect on this time of year. It is going to be a fantastic event so please do join us if you can. The evening kicks off at 6.30pm and drinks can be purchased from the bar.

Low Income Community Fund Youth and Family Worker

This is an exciting opportunity to join an existing mission team as well as develop new ministry reaching out to the youth and families within Powder Deanery. This post is grant-funded by the Lowest Income Communities Funding (LICF) mission of the Church of England.

In 2022, the churches of Powder Deanery committed to come together with a vision to see God transform lives across the deanery. A key part of this plan was to dramatically increase our engagement with children, young people and families from low income backgrounds. In January 2023 we appointed a Team Leader for this work (Erica Payne) and a part time Youth Worker (Sam Payne). Following the research and planning phase, we have now established a volunteer team from local churches to begin the work.

We are now in a position to significantly grow the capacity of the team with this exciting new post. Could this role be right for you?

The role is a part time role (typically 25 hours per week), but we are very open to meeting with candidates with relevant skills and experience even if they wish to work fewer hours.

If you are interested we would love to tell you more. Do look at the role description and contact Erica Payne (Team Leader) for an informal conversation.

Our initial round of shortlisting will include all applications received no later than midnight 11th December 2023. Applications should be submitted to St Kea Church Manager Victoria Cooper - victoriac@stkea.org.uk

Key Dates

All Age Christmas Carol Service - 17th December 9.30am at Archbishop Benson School

Christmas Carol Service - 17th December 6.30pm at the Old Ale House, Truro

Christmas Day Service - 25th December - 10am at the Moresk Centre

Weekly Prayer Points

Each week there will be a few things for our church life and church family that we can join together in praying for:

1. Father God, during Advent we want to thank You for the peace Your Son Jesus promised, not as the world gives, but willing, deep, lasting, and abiding peace. Thank You that, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord of peace Himself give us peace at all times and in every way.

2. Almighty God we pray for the work of the Barnabus Fund proving hope and aid for suffering Christians. May we pray with them for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. We ask You to provide for their physical and spiritual needs as they endure severe poverty along with the rest of the country. We pray for Your protection for Christians who, as converts from Islam, must keep their faith hidden under threat of execution as apostates. Please empower them to live gracious, compassionate and righteous lives, reminding them that “the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever”. (Psalm 112:6)

3. Finally we pray for St Clement Church in Truro. Let us pray for the services happening over Christmas including their Nine Lessons and Carols on the 18th December as well as their Advent Reflection course they have been running. We ask for blessings on all who comes to them.