Today I called into the supermarket near church and loaded up my basket with:
eight bags of oranges
four boxes of cocktail sticks
their entire stock of own label fruit pastilles
a roll of foil
When I got to the till, the lady said, "are you going to make orange juice?"
I tried to explain the Christingle to her but she just looked faintly bemused.
If, however, you are in the Glasgow area and want to find out just what one is, than come and join us at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve... it is our "families watchnight" but Christingle is fun for all ages imo.
Forgiving others is second nature, and anyway there's no-one I currently feel a need to forgive. My money is spent up already, so I opted for the middle one, not least as after yesterday's household blitz I have lots of stuff waiting to go to charity shops. But which challenge is the one for you...?
Dear Catriona
How many times have you tried something, not quite got it right, and then done better second time around? In all likelihood, we’ve all had the benefit of being given a second chance on something.
In a similar way, the Bible teaches us the importance of offering second chances, after all, God gives us ‘second chances’ time and time again!
2 Take some items to a local second hand shop for someone else to use Accept challenge >
3 Text ‘Refugee’ to 70500 and donate £5 to give Bibles and practical aid to refugees this Christmas. If you don’t want Bible Society to contact you by phone in future, add the words NO INFO to your text. View our full terms and conditions. Accept challenge >
A view from the Bible
"Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you."
The Christmas Number 1 in the UK... always used to be a big "wait and see" with record sales being counted and verified. Then came digital downloads and the X-Factor and it all became boringly predictable. Gone are the days of Bob the Builder's version of "Mambo No 5" (a little bit of tiling in the roof...) or Cliff Richard massacring a carol, or some one hit wonder, or a charity single (Do They KNow it's Christmas in its first incarnation) or even (and this remains my all time favourite) Slade with "Here it is Merry Christmas".
This year there is a bit of a political edge to the push to get Gareth Malone's latest choir project to No 1. A choir of NHS employees from Lewisham (London) and a pointed message to GM Government to stop privatising/dismantling NHS England... and let's not delude ourselves that all is rosy in NHS Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, the impact of cost controls may just be manifest in other ways.
The NHS is truly remarkable... and I, along with many members of my family living and dead, owe a huge debt of gratitude (mostly to NHS England but in my case to NHS Scotland) for free at the point of delivery healthcare. From the presumed still-born premature baby delivered in a London hospital at the end of 1962, I have come a long way... had there been no NHS I wouldn't be here to tell my story.
If I had my way, I'd increase taxes for those who can afford it to help protect the NHS - but I reckon that is a pipe-dream, since no major party seems willing so to do. But what I can do, and have done is download the single and up load the selfie... and if you wish to, wherever you may be, so can you.
Photo taken by our tame oncology professor... slightly wobbly quality certainly reflects the standard of my singing!
Not a huge congregation, yet it included a few folk who came specially to express gratitude for the Beatson hospital and to donate to the charity.
Not our finest singing ever, but we determinedly gave it our best shot, and had some fun (or I did anyway)
No idea how much we raised - the sealed buckets will be opened and counted by the young woman in the centre of the photo who works for the charity.
The congregation included past and present patients of the Beatson, doctors who work there, employees of the charity, and many people whose loved ones have been treated there.
Being note perfect matters so much less than being big hearted... and yesterday people majored on the latter.
I chose option 1 - very similar to the quiz I had created for church yesterday, but with more questions and some puns on London underground station names as a format... Option 2 I have done and will do again this week. Option 3 ... don't think the kitties would sit still long enough! Have fun whichever you choose.
Dear Catriona
It’s one of the most famous stories of all time. Every year children act it out, people sing about it and images of it are all over Christmas cards. But just how well do you know the Christmas story?
1 See how well you know your way around the nativity story with our interactive online quizClick on this challenge to view the quiz Accept challenge >
2 Read the Christmas story and share with others what it means to you! Accept challenge >
3 Explore the Christmas story with children using our free ‘Bible Bedtime’ app Click on this challenge to access the app. Accept challenge >
A view from the Bible
"At that time the Emperor Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Roman Empire. When this first census took place, Quirinius was the governor of Syria. Everyone, then, went to register himself, each to his own town...."
