Next weekend sees the first Sunday of Advent when Christians anticipate and remember the birth of Jesus. Advent is a time of quiet contemplation and prayer for four weeks before the festival of Christmas itself. It has its own hymns and carols such as O Come Emanuel, which reflect this beautiful time. Christmas, at the end of December is the most joyous season as we all know and love, with feast and song as the news of Jesus’s birth brings hope and light!
This December, we are delighted to offer worship and activities to reflect both Advent and Christmas in all our villages in the Langtons and Welham Benefices.
Advent and Christmas Services for Langton and Shangton and Welham Benefices for December 2024
We have produced a Christmas card with all the details. The card will be delivered to the parishioners of St Peter’s Church this weekend, but for friends further afield, there is a PDF to download below, with all the services listed, along with a Christmas message from our Lay Incumbent, Maxine Johnson.
We are delighted that this year’s card features a remarkable photograph of the church by Melissa Johnston, taken earlier this year with an unprecedented appearance in the night sky of the Aurora Borealis. Thank you Melissa for allowing us to use your lovely image.
St Peter’s Church Aurora Sky by Melissa JohnstonChristmas message 2024
We hope you can join us for some of the services but also wish our friends and followers here who live further away, a very peaceful Advent season and a joyful Christmas when it comes. Thank you 🙏
Smiles were all around when a certain email popped into our in box recently. What is it all about? You might well ask! St Peter’s now qualifies as a Bronze Eco Church. After filling in questionnaires on the Arocha UK website, we discussed our care for the churchyard, the flowers and the creatures that inhabit it, as well as the care for our building and our hopes for its future use by our community. We applied to Arocha Uk and were delighted to receive our Bronze Eco Award. We made promises to help protect God’s Earth and its creatures from extinction by reducing pollution, landfill and food waste. This promise applies to St Peter’s Church building and churchyard but also to us as individual members of the church community.
Join us on our Eco Journey
There are a number of initiatives we aim to support at the start of our Eco journey. The churchyard is already a haven to wildlife, (see the example below) but we want to install bug houses and bird boxes and hedgehog houses go encourage more. Can you help us make them or install them? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here by email or reply to this post on our Facebook Page.
See below, just one example of the extraordinary natural habitat found in the churchyard. These tiny fungi form an almost magical landscape and appear in the autumn.
The fairy village – tiny fungi growing in St Peter’s Church yard
Just One Thing
We pray to encourage our community to join us in pledging to do “JUST ONE THING” however small to help restore the Earth’s balance. Lifestyle Change does not have to be massive it can be as small as not using paper handkerchiefs, reducing the use of cling film and single use plastic such as bottled water or it could be to set the washing machine to a lower temperature.
Could you think about making a pledge and letting us know? We’d love to hear what you and your family have decided to change in your household. Every step we all take, however small, makes a huge difference.
Fair Trade Produce
The use of Fair Trade produce is so important to ensure that farmers in third world countries have a fair salary and have good working conditions. Would you consider buying Fair Trade produce for your pledge? We want to promote the use of Fair Trade produce in St Peter’s especially during our much-loved Cream Tea Sundays.
Time for tea!
What is YOUR Carbon Footprint?
Finally, one last thought to ponder is to check your own carbon footprint on the website CreationCare.org.uk where you can get your own personalised carbon footprint number. Use this number to update every six months or whenever you have time. What a great thing to do with your children and grandchildren by introducing them to carry on the legacy of caring for God’s Earth.
Visit St Peter’s church and churchyard
St Peter’s is open every day for contemplation and quiet prayer. It welcomes you for those moments when you need a quiet space to get away from the pressures of everyday life or just for somewhere to sit for a while. St Peter’s is always there for all.
Creation is given as a gift to us all and we share responsibility to protect and nurture it.
Come along and celebrate the season of Autumn. This beautiful season is the time of the year of migration and hibernation. The nights draw in and we prepare for winter. November includes All Souls. Two Remembrance services at Church Langton and Stonton Wyville.
Service Rota
October 6th Communion 6.00pm Thorpe Langton – Martin
13th Harvest Festival 10.30am Church Langton – Martin
13th Harvest Festival 4.30pm Tur Langton Jonathan
20th All Age Worship 10.30am Tur Langton – Maxine
27th All Age Worship 10.30am Church Langton – Maxine
November 3rd All Souls Service 3.00pm Church Langton – Martin*
3rd Communion 6.00pm Thorpe Langton – Martin
10th Remembrance 10.30am Church Langton – Martin
10th Evensong for Remembrance 4.30pm Tur Langton – Jonathan
17th All Age Worship 10.30 Tur Langton – Maxine
24th Communion 10.30 Church Langton – Martin
Sunday 3rd November 3pm – All Souls – Tea and cake after the service
Rosy Autumn Harvest
COVID GUIDANCE: All services are now live in church, observing the current UK Government guidance: Masks/face coverings are now optional, but we ask that if you have symptoms, please do not attend. Please check updates onLeicester Diocese’s website
St Peter's Church, Church Langton 