Many of you will have received a letter from the church outlining plans for our pledge day on 7th March. It is an exciting time in the life of the church as we approach independence from Kings Church Catford, to whom we are extremely grateful for their support, and assume control of our finances. We will soon become a charity in our own right and will need to increase our giving to support the ongoing and future activities of the church.

In line with this we are asking those committed to the church to prayerfully consider what they might give this coming year and communicate that by way of a pledge. We will also take up an offering on that day that will contribute to our financial reserves and greatly aid future cash flow.

Regardless of your current financial situation, this is a great opportunity to flex the faith muscles and make a significant difference to Emmanuel’s capacity to impact and influence Greenwich and beyond.

Thank you again to those who already give sacrificially to the advancement of God’s purposes through us as a church.

If you have not received a letter or would like to know more, you can contact the office on info.emmanuelchurchlondon.org and we’ll reply asap.

We recently received a letter of thanks from the Besom project who we were able to give around £450 to back in November 2009. Here is a short extract that is really encouraging:

 ’When you called to tell us about the money back in November we were in the middle of a core team meeting. It was very exciting to hear of your donation and we were able to begin praying about how to use it immediately! We often hear of needs but are rarely able to respond by buying new things’

So far some of the money has been spent on beds for a family escaping domestic violence in Charlton and the rest will be used soon!

Sundays sermon looked at ‘the beginning of ethics’; how being made in the image of God affects a Christian approach to difficult ethical topics like abortion / euthanasia / human rights.

A few resources you might want to look at to think through the subjects more carefully:-

On the newfrontiers website there are a number of theological papers, including one on ‘What do we say about Euthanasia’ and one on ‘What is a person?‘ which looks at the beginnings of life in particular.

Websites that are worth a visit to see their work in these areas include those of the Christian Medical fellowship, who provide lots of resources on ethical debates surrounding medical practice,  and the International Justice Mission, an organisation committing to offering legal protection to people suffering human rights violations.

Finally, I mentioned I would try to link to some resources for thinking through the issues around suffering in our world and what the bible teaches about it.  bethinking.org is a website with a stack load of resources on all kinds of issues and has a section on how we respond to suffering with articles and talks at the introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels.

Phil Moore spoke on ‘The Beginning of Everything’ on Sunday, looking at issues surrounding creation and evolution and how Christians should respond and understand what the bible and science teaches.  Over the next few days I will try and add more links to this post with online resources for those who want to investigate further.  To get you started…

The Test of Faith website has loads of short video clips with prominent scientists expressing how they combine their faith with their science.  Also, the scientists give brief insights into their area of expertise, and the discoveries that point at the handiwork of God.  The website is run by the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and comes from a theistic evolutionary perspective.

A second resource is a ‘Tough Questions’ seminar stream run at the Newday conference this year.  Adrian Holloway addresses the questions ‘Are you saying Darwin was wrong?’ and ‘Do you believe in evolution?’

On Sunday I mentioned that we would provide a link for people who were able to give to help the disaster relief in Haiti.  The organisation I mentioned, Tearfund, works with local churches and on the ground organisations, allowing them to respond quickly and effectively to the point of need.

If you have the facilities to give online, you can find information and an online giving form here.

If you would like to give cash, please contact us in the church office.

It’s always amazing to see people getting baptised, as they make a public statement about their faith in Jesus and their commitment to be his disciple.  We will be baptising people at 5pm at New Life Church (Ichthus) on Woolwich Rd, opposite East Greenwich library.  There is a map here, so come along and celebrate God’s kindness in changing people’s lives.

This is also the venue for our Men’s Day, starting at 11am on the same day.

For 3 weeks in January we are focusing on topical issues that come out of the first few chapters in the bible, Genesis 1-3.  Each meeting will have a talk on the topic and then plenty of time given over to questions sent in via text during the meeting.  Here is a brief summary of what’s coming up…

Jan 17   The Beginning of Everything

Guest Speaker Phil Moore on Darwin, Dawkins and the creation / evolution debate.  How should Christians understand the beginning of the world?

Jan 24   The Beginning of Ethics

Stu Gibbs on some of the implications of being made in the image of God.  How should this affect our thinking on issues such as abortion, euthanasia, human rights etc?

Jan 31   The Beginning of Sex

Stu Gibbs on the bible’s teaching on sexuality.  What does the bible teach about who we should have sex with and when we should have it?

Emmanuel Church is not meeting again on a Sunday afternoon until January 10th.

If you would like to join us for a walk in the park and a coffee, we are meeting on Boxing Day at 11am and on January 3rd at 11am.  We will be meeting in the middle of Greenwich Park at the viewpoint next to the observatory.

Have a great Christmas

Following our December offering, we were able to give the Jericho Rd Project (see previous posts) over £500 towards their excellent work with the homeless and under-privledged.