As well as finding out more about us, and how to contact us,
we thought it might be useful if we introduced you to the things that
generally go on throughout the year at St Nicholas'. We believe that
God sent his son, Jesus, to save us and give us eternal life. Our
worship is based round this fact, as we explore what it means for us in
our daily lives.
Every week we have a number of different services, where, although the worship
is different, we thank God for sending Jesus, say sorry for what we
have done wrong, and ask him, by his Holy Spirit, to help us become the
best possible version of ourselves. At many of our services we have Holy Communion, where we commemorate Jesus' death and resurrection.
During the year we have a baptism service about once a month. If you would like your child to be baptised, please come along to enquiry evening. We also ask you to come to our 11:15 service, not least so your child can get used to being in church!
)
About once a year we have a confirmation service, where candidates
repeat their baptismal promises and are welcomed as full members of the
Church of England. At this service the bishop comes to confirm the
candidates. It's a good opportunity for the various congregations come
together to worship and welcome the candidates.
Throughout the year we celebrate a variety of events, many based on events in Jesus' life.
Advent
The church's year starts four Sundays before Christmas, with a time of
preparation, looking back to Jesus' first coming and looking forward to
his return. Each Sunday we light another candle on the advent wreath to
remind us of this. During advent we also celebrate the feast day of our
patron saint, St Nicholas.
At Christmas we celebrate the birth of God's son, who was sent to be our Saviour. On Christmas day the two main morning congregations come together to worship, to celebrate our unity through Christ and to enjoy our different styles of worship.
Lent
Lent is another time of preparation, leading up to Jesus' death and
resurrection. During Lent we run a series of study groups, to try and
encourage people to learn more about their faith. Also during Lent is
Mothering Sunday, when we celebrate all the hard work of our mums! We
give out bunches of daffodils to every mum who comes to a service.
At Easter we celebrate Jesus' death for us and his resurrection, giving us new life. Again, the two main morning congregations come together to worship (and to recieve Easter eggs!).
Harvest
We celebrate God's creation and thank him for all the people who are
responsible for providing our food. We also remember the important work
of Traidcraft and the Fairtrade Foundation, for working to make the production of food fairer. To show our support for this we have become a Fairtrade Church and sell fairly traded goods after our services.
Social Events
We regularly have barbecues, parties and a variety of meals, to have fun
together and to get to know one another better.