Our annual Nativity was again a huge success. This year Junior church re told the story from the perspective of a news desk with outside broadcasts from Rome, Nazareth and Bethlehem. The older children acted as reporters and the younger children made up the stable tableau. The all acted and sang beautifully.
The Mothers Union of All Saints Church held a coffee morning and displayed a collection of approx 30 Nativity Sets.
Some were hand knitted, others from around the world made in wood,glass,cardboard and plastic.
This year we transformed All Saints into a special place to retell the events of the Birth of Christ and take local children on a Christmas Journey. Using gazebos we took the children on a series of visits to meet various characters of the Christmas story. We invited children in from local schools, brownies and playgroup and over 3 days we took 300 children on their Christmas Journey.
We started hearing the story of the gift of God’s creation and then headed to Mary’s kitchen to witness Gabriel’s visit. We then moved to the shepherd’s hillside where they heard the good news and followed them to the stable. At the stable we heard the story of Christmas Eve from the animals and then on to the house of the Wise Men. Finally the story of Jesus life, God’s gift of a second and new creation to transform the world. It was a magical experience and we hope helped the children understand what Christmas is all about.
The Durham Deanery Confirmation included 16 candidates from All Saints Newton Hall and Blue Coat School. Held at St Oswald’s church in Durham the candidates were jointly confirmed into the Church of England and Methodist church with both Bishop Mark and Revd Shaun Swithenbank laying hands on each candidate. The candidates were also welcomed by Revd Shaun into membership of the Methodist church with a handshake.
As you can see from the photo, all the candidates enjoyed their special evening which truly reflected the ecumenical nature of All Saints.
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Happy Birthday 234 City of Durham ATC Squadron
Comments off · Posted by Dave Knapton in Uncategorized
This weekend All Saints welcomed the 234 City of Durham ATC squadron to celebrate their 70th anniversary.
The squadron was formed as one of the first squadrons of the ATC in the aftermath of the Battle of Britain. At that time the purpose of the corps was as a place for training and recruiting young men for the RAF. Today’s squadron is very different, a uniformed youth organisation that gives many opportunities to cadets. The squadron are linked to All Saints as our Anglican minister Rev. Joanne Thorns is the squadron padre and they often have meetings and evenings at church.
The 70th anniversary was celebrated with style, past staff and cadets were invited and we were delighted to welcome the Mayor of Durham and her consort to join the celebrations. The service looked firstly looked at the past and paid tribute to past members, Squadron Leader Brown spoke about his many years as Squadron commander. We then celebrated the success of our current cadets and the activities and awards that they have achieved and looked to the future as Flt Lt Green announced the move to a much needed new building, we enrolled new cadets and ended with the whole squadron renewing their enrolment promise. After the service all were invited to stay for afternoon tea and to look at the displays of the past, present and future work of the squadron.
To find out more about the air cadets and particularly 234 squadron look on their website www.234squadron.org.uk
Some of the members of All Saints were joined by local band Jazz in My Pants to lead us in our carol singing. Despite the cold and the snow, we were in high spirits and lifted our voices to all people shopping and passing by.
Today saw the annual “Nativity Service with Carols” at All Saints, the pictures shows some of our young people who performed and wrote the play themselves. The play took a modern twist on the traditional Christmas story with angels breaking the news of Jesus’ arrival to Mary as she did the shopping at the supermarket and even included a brief appearance from Simon Cowell and Lord Alan Sugar!!
christmas · photo · worship · young people
Our very own Boys Brigade Company, (1st Newton Hall), were very pleased to host the Carol Service for the District.
It proved to be a good chance for lots of different Companies to get together and share in the worship and activities.
boys brigade · christmas · photo · worship · young people
In his latest letter, Robert Lawrance the North Durham Team Rector shares his thoughts for the coming seasons of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Click here to read his letter.
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All Saints were very fortunate to be visited by “Ngoma Vuma” a percussion and vocal choir from South Africa who were visiting the area for a couple of weeks.
The groups leader, Peter Okeno, lead a number of traditional worship songs from different areas of Africa.
It was a privilege to experience such powerful worship from a different culture. The visit was part of a tour of the region by the group. For more information on this click here.
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