Happy New Year
What a great ending we had to the year at St Barnabas’ Church after a most challenging period of lockdowns, regulations, uncertainties and disillusion.
The Advent course led by Rev Ian Nicholson and based on the film A Christmas Carol, was well attended and enjoyed by all. Carol Nicholson made us cakes each week so that we could feed our stomachs as well as souls. It gave us all a lot to think and talk about and led us gently through to Christmas week.
On the 12th of December St Lazarus Church held a Carol Service in the room under the amphitheatre at Pissouri, and on the 14th Stanley Hooper, the church warden, was joined by ten friends from the parish for a festive lunch at Yialos Restaurant in Pissouri. It was a most enjoyable occasion where we all dined on a traditional turkey lunch followed by Christmas pudding.
It was the last lesson of the year for our Chinese Bible Study Group on Wednesday 15th December. After spending an hour revising what they had been learning over the previous couple of months, our books were packed away and Father Ian and Carol joined us for a small festive celebration. Christine Taylor and Brian Goodburn have been running this group for a while and it is great to see the joy and enthusiasm with which they approach the lessons and so good to see the progress they are all making. We will start the next course on Monday 17th January.
Saturday 18th December Archbishop Michael Lewis led a service of Nine Lessons and Carols at St George in the Forest, Troodos, it was a bitterly cold afternoon but about 30 brave souls turned up and stayed on afterwards to enjoy mulled wine and mince pies.
At 6.00pm on 19th December a similar service took place in S Barnabas Church in Limassol, it was good to see so many turn up on what was a very cold and wet evening, perhaps it was the promise of wine and chocolates following the service that enticed them away from their warm and cosy homes.
Several members of our congregation will be away from their families for Christmas so it was lovely to give them all Christmas gifts and food parcels after the Sunday morning service so that they could have something to cheer them up and celebrate with their friends here in Limassol. The joy on their faces was a gift to us as they each received their bags full of nice surprises.
The fundraising events held in the latter part of 2021 were a great success, to the utmost delight of our treasurer, it had been a difficult 18 months but things were changing, for the better.
Plans are getting underway for this year and hopefully we can look ahead with confidence that the events will be able to take place.
Our Annual Meeting is scheduled for Sunday 3rd April and there will be vacancies on the Council, if you feel you would like to be involved in the running of our church please have a word with Fr Ian.
Dates for your diary:
Regular Events at St Barnabas Church Limassol
Tuesday Prayer Meeting 9.30am
Wednesday Communion 9.30am
Ladies Wednesday Craft Group 10-12 noon
Chinese Bible Study, Monday 10.00-12.30
Friday coffee time via ZOOM 3.00pm
Saturday Tabletop Sales – Next sale 5th February 2022
Sunday Eucharist 10.00am – also available via Zoom
Sunday Eucharist at St Lazarus’ in Pissouri
2nd Sunday of each month at 6.00pm in the room under the Amphitheatre.
The next service will be: – January 9th
If you are visiting us for the first time, please make yourself known to our Chaplain or sides persons. Refreshments will be available in the church hall after the service.
For further information please contact:
Fr. Ian Nicholson 96 612371
www.stbarnabas-cyprus.com
www.facebook.com/StBarnabasAnglicanChurchLimassol
