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, 23rd December:
- 8.00 Holy Communion – Little London
- No 9.00 or 10.30 service
- 6.00pm Carol Service – St James’s, Bramley
We do hope that you will come and join us at our Carol Service this Sunday evening, featuring readings of the Christmas story from the Bible, our chamber choir, and many of your favourite carols. The service will be followed by mulled wine and mince pies over in Cross House.
Our Christmas services will all be in St James’s Church, Bramley:
Christmas Eve, Monday 24th December:
5.00pm – Crib Service (If your primary age children would like to take part, please bring them at 2.00pm so they can rehearse the Nativity Play with us. A light tea will be served at 4.00pm before the Crib Service itself.)
11.30pm – Midnight Communion
Christmas Day, Tuesday 25th December
10.30 – Family Communion
Word for the Week
Our Advent book, Love Came Down at Christmas, challenges us day after day about our lack of love for one another. The author, Sinclair Ferguson, gives us food for thought when he comments on the words in today’s reading, “…When perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.”
“When perfection comes, the extraordinary insights of the gifts of knowledge and prophecy and the ability to speak in other tongues – will be seen for what they are – only partial, only little pieces. In fact, it takes all the gifts Christ has given to our church family to put him on display – and even then, we do that only partially. The day has not yet arrived when we will see him ‘face to face’ (v.12) – all in one piece, as it were. Understanding this breeds humility because it underlines the “not-yet-ness” of our present Christian experience.
Like the Corinthians, we have been given gifts to enable us to kneel before each other in love and say, “I have something here that Jesus has given me to pass on to you. He loves you. He has given this gift to me so that I can have a way of expressing my love for you, too. Please receive it from me, because it is for the common good and for building up the church (14:12). But our gifts are only partial. Only a fragment of who Jesus is and how much he loves us is expressed in our gifts.”[1]
Our readings this week focus on Jesus’ love for us and how knowing that helps us to pass on to others the good news that He loves them and wants them to know Him.
| Monday | Mark 10:17-27 | |
| Tuesday | Matthew 5:43-48 | |
| Wednesday | Luke 7:11-17 | |
| Thursday | John 13:33-38 | |
| Friday | John 15:9-17 |
[1] Ferguson, Sinclair, Love Came Down at Christmas, p. 122-3
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.
These are the services in other churches in our Benefice over the Christmas period:
Sunday 23rd December:
No morning services
- 6.00pm, St Leonard’s, Sherfield-on-Loddon: Carol Service
Christmas Eve, Monday 24th December:
- 5.00pm, St Leonard’s, Sherfield-on-Loddon: Crib Service
- 10.30pm, St Mary’s, Hartley Wespall: Holy Communion
- 11.00pm, St Leonard’s, Sherfield-on-Loddon: Holy Communion
Christmas Day, Tuesday 25th December:
- 10.30am, St Leonard’s, Sherfield-on-Loddon: Family Service
- 10.00am, St Mary’s, Hartley Wespall: Family Service
- 11.00am, St Mary’s, Stratfield Saye: Family Communion
