Welcome to the website of St James, Bramley. We hope you will find it helpful and informative, and would be delighted to welcome you to come and worship God with us on a Sunday soon.
To find the church with a SatNav, use the postcode RG26 5DF
This Week’s Services
These are the services in Bramley and Little London this coming Sunday, 16th December:
- 8.00 Holy Communion – St James
- 9.00 Sunday@nine – Cross House
- 10.30 Morning Worship – St James
- 5.00pm Carol Service – St Stephen’s, Little London
Over the four Sundays of Advent, we are focusing on the well-known ‘Love Chapter’ of the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 13. This Sunday we shall be looking at verses 8-12. Do come and join us!
And if you live in Little London (or even if you don’t!) we’d be delighted if you’d join us at our Carol Service this Sunday evening in St Stephen’s Church.
Word for the Week
Our Advent book, Love Came Down at Christmas, goes through 1 Corinthians 13 phrase by phrase in its daily readings. The author, Sinclair Ferguson, comments movingly about the words in v. 5, “[Love] keeps no record of wrongs”…
‘Sometimes the gospel is preached in these terms: “Because Christ died for you, the Father now loves you.” But this is profoundly muddle-headed…
Jesus did not die to persuade the Father to love us. It was because the Father loved us that he sent Jesus to die for us… What Jesus said to the apostles in the upper room he says to all his disciples: “The Father himself loves you” (John 16:27). There is nothing un-Jesus like in God; there is no hidden resentment in his heart towards his children.’
Sinclair Ferguson goes on to quote a beautiful prayer of St Augustine:
O God, the light of every heart that sees thee,
The life of every soul that loves thee,
The strength of every mind that seeks thee,
Grant me ever to continue steadfast in thy holy love…
The house of my soul is, I confess, too narrow for thee. Do thou enlarge it, that thou mayest enter in.
It is ruinous, but do thou repair it.
It has that within which must offend thine eyes; I confess and know it; but whose help shall I implore in cleansing it, but thine alone?
To thee, therefore, I cry urgently,
Begging that thou wilt cleanse me from my secret faults.’[1]
| Monday | Psalm 51:1-12 | |
| Tuesday | Jeremiah 31: 31-34 | |
| Wednesday | Lamentations 3:19-33 | |
| Thursday | Mark 10:17-27 | |
| Friday | 1 John 3:16-24 | |
| Saturday | Hebrews 10:19-25 |
[1] Ferguson, Sinclair, Love Came Down at Christmas, pp. 82-84
Other Services in our Benefice
Our parish of Bramley and Little London is part of a group of parishes known as a Benefice. We work together, sharing resources and helping one another out when needed, while also retaining our individual styles and preferences as we worship the living God.
There is just the one service in other churches in our Benefice this coming Sunday, 9th December:
- 10.00am, St Leonard’s, Sherfield-on-Loddon: Holy Communion & Sunday Club
- 6.30pm, St Mary’s, Hartley Wespall: Carol Service
