Church News
Kylie Koelman
ALL WELCOME – WORSHIP AT ST PAUL
Everyone is welcome to join us on Sunday morning for worship. Worship times are 8.30am for a Traditional Service and 10.00am for a more Contemporary service with Godly Play on offer for Primary School aged children. Tea and Coffee and a time of gathering is held most weeks after both worship services. For the first Sunday of the month, there is one combined service, with a blended style of worship. This means that this Sunday, 3rd December, there will be one service at 9.30am.
This Sunday is the first Sunday in the season of Advent. Advent is the four weeks before Christmas and is a time for preparing, a time of waiting and watching. We celebrate Advent with the colour blue as this communicates the message of hope. The Christian faith rests on the hope that one day Jesus will come again. During this time many people use Advent Calendars or Wreaths to mark the waiting period.
You can find a short video here exploring more about Advent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC0FGQLBp7w
ADVENT CALENDARS
Advent calendars are very popular and a great way to help with the anticipation of Christmas. You may have a favourite calendar that you use each year, or you may prefer the ones with a little chocolate hiding behind the window. But if you’re looking for something a bit different, or an activity you can do as a family, why not consider making a paper chain calendar? Every morning you can remove a link from the chain and seeing it get shorter makes it a very visual project, so it’s great for smaller children. Each link could have a different Bible verse of the Christmas story or a different Christmas activity to complete, like sing a Christmas song or do some Christmas baking. Maybe it could include something you can all do together as a family, like playing a board game or going on a bike ride. Why not grab some coloured paper and scissors and let your imagination run wild!
It is time to start your Advent calendar this week, starting on 1st December!
If you’re looking for more different ideas, you can make a paper advent calendar, part of which you can colour in each day in the countdown to Christmas. The link below is to the template to make a paper candle calendar.
https://www.sunhatsandwellieboots.com/2021/11/paper-advent-candle-to-make-colour.html
If you’re looking for a craft activity to keep your children busy for a little while, you can use the template at the following link to colour in and create your own Nativity Scene.
PLAYGROUP @ ST PAUL
Playgroup @St Paul is on each Tuesday during Term time in the Hall. We welcome people anytime from 8.30 onwards to help set up. Join us for a coffee, playtime, story time and songs from 9-10.30 each week during school terms. Cost is $2 per family. We offer a simple craft, a sensory activity and read a book related to a different theme each week.
This week we ‘visited the beach’ in the sensory play space and painted the beach with free painting. After talking to the Year 3 children the other week about serving in community, today the Year 3s brought their recorders to playgroup and performed a little concert for us, which was very exciting for the ‘little kids’ to see the ‘big kids’!
Next week we will be starting to get into the Christmas spirit with the book ‘Meerkat Christmas’ by Aura Parker and starting to get our Christmas on with some Christmas crafts.
For more information about anything playgroup related contact Kylie Koelman in the Church Office on 8262 4690 or email at office@stpaul-church.org.au
SPY
St Paul Youth is run on the first and third Fridays of the month during school terms and is open to students in School years 6-8. The last date for SPY in 2023 is this Friday 1st December. Cost is $2 per family. Please contact either Renate or Tom if you need more information, the Church office on 8262 4690 or email office@stpaul-church.org.au