Notices
No midweek services over New Year
Folks,
There are no midweek services on Wednesday 1st January at 10:30am in St Finnbarr’s or Thursday 2nd January at 6:00pm in St Andrew’s. There is also no Crask service on Saturday 4th January at 5:00pm. Normal service will be resumed thereafter.
Blessings
James
Where to Celebrate the Birth of Jesus – 2019
All are welcome to share with us in celebrating Christ’s Birth at any of our services in this part of the world:
Dornoch
Dec 10th – Carols for Christian Aid at Dornoch Cathedral at 7:00pm
Dec 24th – Christmas Midnight Sung Eucharist at St Finnbarr’s at 11:00pm
Dec 25th – Christmas Day Holy Communion from the Reserved Sacrament at St Finnbarr’s at 9:30am
Tain
Dec 22nd – Carol Service at St Andrew’s at 3:00pm
Dec 24th – Christmas Midnight Sung Eucharist at St Andrew’s at 11:00pm
Dec 25th – Christmas Day Sung Eucharist at St Andrew’s at 10:30am
Brora
Dec 24th – Carol Service at St Columba’s at 5:00pm
Dec 25th – Christmas Day Sung Eucharist at St Columba’s at 9:00am
Lairg
Dec 25th – Christmas Day Sung Eucharist in Lairg Parish Church at 8:15am
Crask
Dec 19th – Monthly Thursday service at the Crask Inn at 12 Noon
Dec 28th – Carols at the Crask Inn at 2:00pm
The Hub at Bonar Bridge
Dec 17th – Carols at the Hub at 5:30pm
Brora Carol Service
Christmas Eve Carol Service
at St Columba’s Brora
at 5pm
Tain Carol Service – 22nd Dec 2019
Christmas Carols
St. Andrew’sScottish Episcopal Church
Glebe Crescent, Tain
SUNDAY 22 December
3pm
Followed by Mulled Wine, mince pies & other seasonal refreshments
EVERYONE WELCOME
Advent Study Groups 2019
The topic this year will be “The Theology of Christmas Carols”.
People are often critical of some Carols on the basis that they’re unbiblical:
“What a load of nonsense is written in some Christmas carols. Of course, many are excellent. But along with the gold there is a lot of dross. Take the line in ‘Away in a manger’ which asserts boldly: ‘Little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes’. Really? On what basis is that stated? It’s certainly not in the Bible. And then there is ‘We Three Kings’ – in the Bible: no kings, not three, etc.etc.” – David Barker in Christian Today
Others however take a very different view:
“It’s a kind of bland puritanism which demands literal truism at this level. Next thing we’ll be arguing is that Noah’s ark is parked in Essex, The Good Samaritan was a real bloke called Eli from Shechem and the Johannine vine still grows in an Ephesian cave.” – a post on twitter
Professor Jeremy Begbie from Duke Divinity School and the University of Cambridge, who isn’t in any sense a wooden literalist, when asked whether we should continue to sing traditional carols, said:
“Only with great care. For thousands, carols will be their only link with a church. At the same time, sentimentality is perhaps the single most dangerous feature of our Church and culture—and the sentimental air is never thicker than at Christmas. The Incarnation is messy, dirty, and resonates with the crucifixion. We need a new wave of carol writing that can gradually swill out the nonsense and catch the piercing, joy-through-pain refrains of the New Testament.”
These three sessions will try to cut through all of this and explore what we can learn from a variety of Christmas Carols. We will explore where the ideas come from: the Old or New Testament, the Creeds, Theological Doctrine or simply from the imagination of the writers.
This year there will be two parallel Groups with one session at 2pm on each of the Wednesdays 4th, 11th and 18th at James and Anna’s house in Spinningdale and a second session in the evenings at 7pm in St Andrew’s hall.
