December 2023

8 Buckden Roundabout December 2023 Church News Weekly Prayer Roster Each week during the year the Churches, in their prayers, remember the residents of particular streets in the village, those who work in the parish and village organisations. Those to be remembered this month are: 3rd December Clubs and societies, their leaders and members, volunteers, and the team that produces and distributes the Buckden Roundabout 10th December Buckden Surgery: the doctors, nurses, receptionists, pharmacists, health visitors and midwives; those we know who are in hospital, the elderly, disabled and housebound 17th December Farming communities, Taylor ’ s Lane (West), Hardwick Lane, the residents and staff of Hardwick Dene, Great North Road, Brampton Road, Perry Road, Buckden Wood 24th December High Street, Ivelbury Close, York Yard, Lion Yard, George Lane, King George Court, Taylor ’ s Lane (East), Wolsey Gardens, Charles Court 31st December Hunts End, Copes Close, Monks Cottages, Hunts End Court Thought for the Month Dear Roundabout readers, As I write I have a plant on the windowsill that today (the day before the Roundabout deadline) has flowered. Very appropri- ate for a December - January edition as it's the flowers of a Christmas cactus, handy! It came from last year's village lights switch on evening and has done well since. I write this before the season of Advent, let alone the twelve days of Christmas, and so am grateful for a little thing with the word Christmas in its name :) I can happily say it is a thing of beauty! "...for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man." I quote from the Nicene Creed. Those lines, a fraction of the whole creed we express our faith in week after week in church, say so much. And, Christmas is in them. Jesus, 100% God, and 100% human; this is the incarnation. It is the belief of the church, there is no point in this Churches Together page with- out it: 'by the power of the Holy Spirit...' , that is, the second person of the Holy Trinity, also God, 'he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man' . Those words from the creed unchanged from the year 381 are the defining statement of mainstream Christian belief. Christmas, the birth of Jesus, God as human now, came to save us. Today I have the flowers of a Christmas Cactus on my windowsill; in a few weeks, the waiting, the preparation, the season of Advent, will give way to Christmas and the joy of the nativity. God's offering of himself to humanity and the belief in his second coming, all are bound up in the brightest gift. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. John 1:5 With horrific scenes of conflict in mind I would like to end by adding, here, two prayers. The Christian belief is that God hears all our prayers however we express them. These two prayers have helped me in recent days. Thank you to a group from St Mary's who pray weekly together by zoom and who alerted me to them. The first is written by The Bishop of Lon- don, Dame Sarah Mullally. She refers in it to the people that her clergy and whole church serve in the Diocese of London but of course, it applies more widely. The second is a prayer she commends and was written by Archbishop Hosam Naoum of the episcopal church of Jerusalem. In the eyes of God, every human life is sacred. Together, we pray for every one of the diverse communities we serve [in Lon- don], for our Jewish and Muslim neighbours, and we pray for lasting peace in Gaza and Israel. Amen. (The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Sarah Mullally) O God of all justice and peace, we cry out to you in the midst of the pain and trauma of vio- lence and fear which prevails in the Holy Land. Be with those who need you in these days of suffering; we pray for people of all faiths – Jews, Muslims and Christians and for all people of the land. While we pray to you, O Lord, for an end to violence and the establishment of peace, we also call for you to bring justice and equity to the peoples. Guide us into your kingdom where all people are treated with dignity and honour as your children – for to all of us you are our Heavenly Father. In Jesus ’ name we pray, Amen. (The Most Reverend Hosam Naoum) With love, happy Christmas when it comes. Fr David, Priest in charge of St Mary's