Second Sunday of Epiphany

This morning I took the 9:00am Communion Service at Holy Cross. Numbers were up again, which was good and there was a very good atmosphere. I spoke about Growing Disciples and shared the story of the peanuts...
Since (or so I thought) there was a gap before my next service at 11:00am. I stayed at Holy Cross longer than usual. This enabled me to pop in on their Sunday Clubs and have a chat with the young people - something that I'm not able to do very often.
I was impressed by the standard of the teaching - top marks all round! The older group (the teen-agers) are rapidly becoming a junior ministry team, rather than junior church. It was an encouraging visit - although the helpers may not have appreciated having the vicar drop in...
Unfortunatley, I was wrong about having free time! It turned out that I was booked for a 9:00am, a 9:30am and an 11:00am! I'd spotted the 9 and 11, but missed the 9:30 - oops... Never done that before!
The good news is that Ted wasn't fazed and held the service together - even preaching an impromptu sermon that had rave reviews! I must appologise and investigate this sermon a bit more... The 11:00am Service at St Mary's went very well this morning. We had a blessing for a little girl called Emily who sang through the reading and turned round to face me when I said her name... We had fun with the SU material, which included a game about emotions. It was a tie between "Colin's Team" and "St David's" (A name chosen by Arwell with obvious Welsh influence...)
After the service we had a very productive 11:00am planning meeting. We discussed Christmas, Children and Music. This is a great group who really have a good sense of vision and team work. I fully expect this congregation to grow...