| CALENDAR | |||
| 4th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship, including the Sacrament of Holy Communion, led by Rev Phil Chilvers |
| 11th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by Rev Heston Groenewald, Vicar of All Hallows, Hyde Park We shall be joined by our friends from West Park URC |
| 13th | Tuesday | 12.30pm | Guild Lunch |
| 17th-18th | Weekend visit of prospective new Minister for the Partnership. Details below. | ||
| 18th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by Rev Phil Chilvers |
| 25th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by our Minister Rev Dr Nicola Robinson |
| 12 noon | Church Meeting | ||
In Memoriam: It is with great sadness that we announce that the Rev’d Liz Brown passed away peacefully in Headingley Hall Care Home on 13th December.
There will be a short Service of Committal on 9th January at 3.15pm at Lawnswood Crematorium and a Thanksgiving Service will be held at 2 o’clock on Friday, 16th January at Stainbeck URC, Stainbeck Road, Leeds LS7 2PP, followed by afternoon tea. Stainbeck URC are able to stream the service to Taiwan, where Liz served as a missionary for many years.
GUILD LUNCH
Our first lunch of 2026 will be held on Tuesday, 13th January, meeting at 12.30pm for lunch at 1 o’clock. All are welcome to join us for a hot lunch on what may well be a chilly day – and the welcome will be warm, too.
You may be interested to know that we usually manage to make a small amount over our costs and each year choose a charity. This year we are sending the money to ‘Jacob’s Well’ and Liz Lyle has suggested that it be used to support a group of ladies from a small community called Ba-a-jon who are hoping to start a small dry season vegetable garden growing okra, peppers and tomatoes; they had heard about the success of a similar project at Naakateng in which Liz had been involved.
PREACH WITH A VIEW WEEKEND 17th – 18th JANUARY 2026
During the weekend of 17th – 18th January you will have the opportunity to meet the ministerial candidate, to ask them questions and to find out more about who they are. The programme for the weekend is as follows:
Saturday 17th January
St Andrew’s, Roundhay URC 2.30pm – 4.30pm. Drop-in tea and refreshments
Sunday 18th January
Headingley St Columba URC 3pm. This will be a second opportunity to be led in worship by the candidate. Refreshments will follow the service. Events will culminate with a Church Meeting to discern if a call should be issued to the candidate. To vote at the Church Meeting you must be a Church Member, been present at one Act of Worship and be physically present at the meeting. The vote will be taken by secret ballot and an 85% vote in favour will be required to issue a call to the candidate.
This is clearly a significant event in the life of the Leeds URC Partnership, and it is vitally important that as many of our Church Members as possible are able to fully participate in what is planned and to register their vote at the Church Meeting.
I will provide a short biography prepared by the candidate one week before the Preach with a View weekend.
Ian Henderson
CHRISTMAS GIFT APPEAL
In total we have raised £1,140 for our Christmas Appeal.
The breakdown is as follows:
Salvation Army – £710, of which £275 is Gift Aided.
Leeds Women’s Aid – £430, of which £125 is Gift Aided.
Both charities were boosted by £150 for each charity from the choir.
I think this is a fantastic amount, plus there are all the gifts donated too.
The gifts for both charities were boosted by bags of gifts donated by the Construction Company working on the Otley Road who specifically requested where they would be sent to make them appropriate.
Sue Bollon
Our grateful thanks to Sue for coordinating the Appeal and delivering the presents.
CHURCH CHARITIES
The varied fund-raising activities from July 2025 to the end of November 2025 have resulted in the excellent sum of £711 being raised. Cheques have been posted out or delivered to the Retired Ministers Housing Trust (£230); Caring for Life (£130); Wheatfields Hospice (£130); the Bible Society (£110) and the Leeds Samaritans (£111). We have therefore raised £1603 this fund-raising year.
My thanks as always go the other members of the team: Brenda and David Stephenson who help so much all year round; Susan Bollon who on top of everything else she does for the Church still collects in the Sunday Morning tea donations; Christine Tweedie who continues to assist with the Festival Chorus T Bar mornings (sadly they don’t come quite so often as they once did) and Norman Madill who plays his part in the fund-raising group and who supports me to do my part.
My thanks go to everyone who donates items for the table and to all those who purchase those items, the books and the magazines. Every penny raised by the purchases goes to the five charities so every penny does count.
On we go . . .
Margaret Madill
CHRISTMAS GREETINGS
Christmas is a time of remembering friends old and new.
This year we received greetings from Clare and Brian Davison and Robin and Ann Hine and their families.
We also received a charming email from Hai Ning Chen. She worshipped with us regularly during the earlier part of this year when she was an exchange student from Japan, and sent her Christmas greetings. She came to the Guild Lunches and enjoyed the meal as much as the company – a surprise to us as the food was not anything to which she was accustomed and most of us were old enough to be her grandparents. How nice to know she has happy memories of her time in Leeds.
RING OUT WILD BELLS. (Selected verses)
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Nativity Square, Bethlehem Christmas 2025
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
