Hearing the Service
St John’s has an Induction Loop System so if you have a hearing aid, please switch it to the ’T’ setting.
CHRISTMAS 2017
Christmas Eve
4.00pm - Crib Service
Mary and Joseph return to St John’s after their travels around the parish and all of the children attending will build the crib, placing lamba alongside the Baby Jesus.
11.30pm – Midnight Mass
Enjoy the first mass of Christmas in a candlelit church, singing Christmas carols accompanied by strings and winds. The setting will be Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai HOB XXII:6.
Christmas Day
10am – Family Festival Eucharist
Children are invited to come along dressed up in their fairy costumes and sparkly shoes or Christmas pyjamas and to bring their toys with them if they wish.
Christmas Flowers
Remember a loved one by making a donation to this year’s Christmas flowers. Complete the slip inside your order of service and leave it with Bryan Sollenberger. A list of those in whose memory donations are given will be displayed in the porch.
EPIPHANY 2018
The arrival of the Magi, after their long journey following a star seeking Jesus, is one of the oldest festivals of the Christian Church. In the Eastern and Russian Orthodox Churches, this is the equivalent of Christmas. St John’s will celebrate Epiphany with a festival Eucharist on Sunday, 7th January 2018. There will be a procession of the Magi and Presentation of Gifts before the crib as part of the service. Afterwards, there will be a reception of fizz and finger food. Members of the congregation are asked to bring a plate of finger food with them and, in order to help with numbers, please sign up on the form in the porch, indicating that they will be able to attend and what food they will be bringing with them.
Epiphany Carols
14th January 2018, 6pm
After our fantastic Advent and Christmas carol services, what next? Epiphany carols! Robert, Nicky and the choir have prepared another special treat to conclude our seasonal celebrations marking the events of the Epiphany season. The service will be followed by fizz and seasonal delicacies. A great way to beat the post-Christmas blues!
Children’s Community Choir
Thursdays, 4.10pm
The Children’s Community Choir is open for children 6 years old and above, sessions will be 30 minutes long and children will sing different genres of music. If you are interested in bringing your children along please let Robert or Antonio know.
NB There is no session this week due to half term.
St John’s Book Club
SJBC met earlier this month and selected Hillbilly Elegy by J D Vance as their next book and will discuss it on 5th February 2018. After that, they will peruse The Bell by Iris Murdoch for a meeting in April. See Michael King for more information.
Silent Film
Following the rapturous reception of The Passion of Joan of Arc and Nosferatu, the next film to be shown will be The Hunchback of Notre Dame on Sunday evening, 21st January 2018, 6.30pm. Tickets are £7 in advance, £10 on the door.
St John’s Late
St John’s Late returns on 28th January with a series before Lent. The first in the series will be a jazz mass at 6.30pm, followed by Compline at 8pm on 4th February before concluding with a Choral Evensong at 6.30pm on 11th February.
CULTURE VULTURE VENTURES
Culture Vultures Ventures to the Panto!!
A festive treat for all the family, Saturday 6th January 2pm. ‘Oh yes he did!’ ‘Oh no he didn’t!’ The young and the young at heart are sure to enjoy Jack and the Beanstalk at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith www.lyric.co.uk (that’s the Lyric, main entrance on Lyric Square, not the Apollo by the big church) on Saturday January 6th at 2.00pm. Tickets are in the Upper Circle: Front Row £20 and just 4 rows behind £15 each. If family commitments allow, meet for delicious lunch at 12.30pm at Byron’s, www.byronhamburgers.com, opposite the Lyric and to the right as you exit Hammersmith & City line tube station. Kid’s Menu £6.50, with both healthy and less healthy options, £6.50. Payment, for tickets only, to Margaret, please. Cheques preferred.
Culture Vultures Venture: The Postal Museum
A New Year treat on Tuesday January 16th when we visit the very popular, recently opened Postal Museum at Phoenix Place, Mount Pleasant, WC1X ODA. Our self-guided visit includes tickets to ride on one of London’s hidden gems: the underground mail train route and surprising stories from what is in fact the first social network! Before our visit we enjoy a 2 course set lunch at the nearby Sicilian restaurant Luce E Limone, 91-93 Grays Inn Road WC1X 8TX. Our exhibition visit is not timed, but our train departs at 2.35pm, so we will meet at the restaurant at 12.15pm to give us plenty of time to enjoy lunch. Nearest tubes Chancery Lane and Farringdon. Total cost £36 (tea/coffee extra) but places are limited. Payment to Margaret Legg (cheques preferred) to secure your place.
Culture Vultures go to the Opera
10th March 2018
Former Choral Scholar (2015-16) soprano Soraya Mafi has landed the role of Tytania in English National Opera’s production by Robert Carson of Benjamin Britten’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, based on Shakespeare’s popular comedy. Britten’s opera follows the consequences of a falling-out between the fairy-king Oberon and his queen, Tytania. Mistaken identities, confused lovers and alarming transformations are the result! We have tickets in the front of the Upper Circle at the London Coliseum, St Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4ES for the 7.30pm performance on Saturday 10th March 2018 and will enjoy a 3 course supper beforehand and during the interval (drinks, tea/coffee extra). Meet in the Coliseum’s American Bar Restaurant at 5.30pm. Tickets all in £70. Paymen t to Margaret will secure your place. Cheques preferred.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
LORD MAYOR’S CORNER
Including last Sunday’s spectacular at St John’s (what fabulous music!) we attended four services of lessons and carols over four consecutive evenings last week - additionally at Southwark Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral. We had a few more pre-Christmas services to look forward to, including more lessons and carols at the Abbey on Saturday plus midnight mass there on Christmas Eve, followed by attending St John’s on Christmas Day morning. After which we will head across to City of Westminster College to meet volunteers and clients at the Crisis homeless shelter which has been set up there over the festive season.
Following a few days’ break, we will attend evensong at the Abbey on 29 December, followed by a concert connected with the London New Year’s Day Parade at Westminster Central Hall - part of the build up to the Parade itself on 1 January, when I shall be parading in a horse-drawn carriage to launch the event in front of a global TV audience. With all good wishes for Christmas and the New Year. @LM_Westminster
St James & St John School Gate Gossip
Christmas celebrations concluded this past week with a whole school nativity service Tuesday afternoon at St John’s, led by years 4-6, before term concluded on Thursday. Staff and pupils all have a now well deserved Christmas break (we hope the parents look forward to it just as much) before the next term begins on Thursday 4th January.
Under Five’s Playgroups
An international playgroup aimed at Russian speakers meets in St John’s on Wednesdays at 10am. Other playgroups meet on Wednesdays at 3.45pm which is also for early school years and Thursdays at 10am. Suggested donation for all groups: £2. Information about the playgroups can be found at www.HPPplaygroup.weebly.com.
Playgroups will not meet during the Christmas holidays. Playgroups resume on Wednesday, 10th January.
