To La Côte Church family and friends and visitors,

Dear *|FIRSTNAME|*,

I came across some good news this week! A day called “GivingTuesday” for people around the world to come together through generosity - sharing acts of kindness and giving their voice, time, money, goods, and advocacy to support communities and causes. Of course, one day a year is not enough, but this still sounds like something to celebrate! Go to their website to find out more: https://www.givingtuesday.org/.

We light the second Advent candle this week as a symbol of Advent faith. Our Christian understanding of faith holds together head, heart and hands. Put bluntly: “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill”, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead,” (James 2).

I am deeply thankful for the myriad ways in which faith shapes the lives of our church members to share acts of kindness and generosity. As we celebrate Advent faith, we ask for God’s love to fill us afresh and to strengthen us to continue to live beyond ourselves in our prayers and actions.

Loving God, we thank you for the gift of faith,

for inviting us to risk entrusting our lives and our way to you.

In the ongoing disruptions of life, impacted by Covid,

help us to keep turning to you in faith.

Open our lives to the free flow of your refreshing Spirit,

And open our eyes to the needs of others.

Inspire us to find ways to share your love and welcome in this Advent season.

Grant us also the grace to receive the kindness of others.  

Generous and loving God,

hear our prayer.

Here is our Christmas programme. I encourage you to think about who you can invite along to our services to celebrate God’s generous love among us.  

In addition, two of the services are being prepared and led jointly with local churches : Jazz Carols and Blue Christmas. Publicity for this service will be out soon.    

Worship this coming Sunday 5th December

2ND SUNDAY IN ADVENT - Celebrating ADVENT FAITH

10.00   Crassier           Holy Communion 

PLEASE REGISTER WITH Liz Bramley for each service. In line with new Covid safety measures please bring your Covid pass and ID, or proof of a negative Covid test from the previous two days.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO REGISTER WITH Liz Bramley for all our services - to give us an idea of our numbers. IF you come along and have not registered – be assured you are very welcome! We will simply take a means of contacting you just in case someone from the congregation tests positive to Covid in the following weeks.

Refreshments

Due to an increase in Covid cases in our region, we will offer refreshments outside after our services, so please wrap up in warm outdoor clothes!

Taking part in our Christmas activities

As you will realise, our services rely on the generous involvement of many people in our community. Thank you to all of you who give of your time, talents and faithful service to help in our worship and hospitality.

For our Christmas programme we would love to hear from you if you can take part in any of the following ways:

Reading the Bible passages  

Welcoming people

Preparing a plate of Christmas snacks, such as mince pies or biscuits – that can be individually handed out with tongs.

Preparing and serving hot drinks / mulled wine outside – I wonder if some of our younger (under 70!) church members could step up for this in the cold winter weather.

Decorating Crassier for our carols by candle-light on 19 December

Decorating Divonne for our Christmas Day celebration

Please let Anne de Tréverret know by 10 December how you can help and in which services.

Coming up this week

Tuesday 7 December 9.15-10.30 – TUESDAY PRAYER GROUP – ON LINE

Please contact Peta if you need information or have any prayer requests that will be treated confidentially within the group.

Here is the link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/971117768?pwd=L3RjajViZEtTSUtFWGFrc0s5S29pdz09

Meeting ID: 971 117 768

Passcode: 387090

Thursday 9 December 19.00-21.00 THURSDAY SPACE - an opportunity to meet in Nyon between 7pm and 9pm to share a simple meal, to discuss a question of faith (in the run up to Christmas we will be looking at Dr Paula Gooder’s study guide based on Pope Francis’ “Joy of the Gospel”. A link is attached: https://www.chpublishing.co.uk/features/the-joy-of-the-gospel

and to say evening prayer together. If you would like to come along please do talk to Carolyn, Phil, Ever, Chris, We’d love to have you come along.

Friday 10 December 9.30-11.30 – Coffee, cake and catch up – with the next session of “The Joy of the Gospel”, Pope Francis. Contact Alice Debell for any enquiries.

One way of giving during Advent is through the local initiative Sapin Solidaire:

This is an opportunity to buy a gift for a child who might otherwise not unwrap any Christmas presents. https://www.eerv.ch/activites-cantonales/sapin-solidaire/offrir

Another way of giving would be to support Nourishing Minds – a nonprofit organisation who give breakfast to 7,000 school children in Malawi:

There is an opportunity for an extra donation towards a special and nutritious Christmas meal (beef, rice and vegetables), for these 7,000 children. This happened in 2019 but for obvious reasons did not take place last year. If you would like to donate, please donate to Nourishing Minds (mentioning Christmas Party) by bank transfer (go to website www.nourishingminds.org) or for cash contact Jane Broere.

MEET ANNE de TREVERRET – Administrative assistant to the Chaplain

I hope that you will make Anne feel welcome and support her as she finds her way with us.

If you’d like to say hello and be in touch with her – here is her email address anne.detreverret@lacotechurch.ch and phone number +41 79 635 5657

Anne is available for any inquiries at these times :

Tuesday morning between 9 and 11

Thursday morning between 9 and 11

Children’s Choir

Welcoming all children - bring your friends !

Starting up on 21 November – A chance to learn and enjoy singing Christmas Carols

Three rehearsals – 21 November, 28 November, 5 December – straight after the morning services at La Côte Church

And then helping to lead the singing at a Christingle and Carol service on 12 December at 16.00 in Gingins. See HERE for more details.

Saturday 11 December

20.00   Gingins            Jazz carols

Refreshments from 19.30

Worship Sunday 12 December

3RD SUNDAY IN ADVENT - Celebrating ADVENT JOY

10.00   Divonne            Holy Communion

16.00   Gingins            Children's carol and Christingle

Charlie Whetham father of 3 of our youth at La Côte, has come up with an idea to support our young people in their faith during our Sunday morning services.

Charlie writes : " With a growing and intellectually-curious group of children in the church, we would like to be able to pass on to them the huge accumulated wisdom which you each have. We are exploring a series of mini-seminars for the children during Sunday services. Read more

For this initiative, we will need a third faciliator to work with Charlie and Ed Kelley.

Please contact Charlie Whetham if you are interested.

Coming up elsewhere

Poetry workshop with Etienne Guilloud – Envie d’écrire? Petit parcours de poésie thérapie…

4 & 18 November, 4 December - Gingins Parish rooms 19.30-21.30

021 331 58 23 OR etienne.guilloud@eerv.ch to book or find out more.

An invitation from Mark Charles :

COMMUNITY CHOIR - COME AND SING and BE A FOUNDING MEMBER of HTC COMMUNITY CHOIR
No previous experience necessary, no need to read music, all voices and ages welcome and do bring friends!
ENTHUSIASM VITAL! We will be singing a variety of repertoire: some religious; some secular.  

On Thursdays 6.30 -7.45, at Holy Trinity Church, Rue du Mont-Blanc, 1201 Genève

Hope to see you all there – I’m looking forward to working with you!

An invitation from Peta Tracey :

TRIVIA NIGHT - HOLY TRINITY ADVENT

Do join us for this fun quiz, hosted by Holy Trinity Church Geneva on Zoom on 3 Dec. at 7pm.

Peta & John Tracey took part in the last one and can recommend it! No need to get a team together.  The Quiz is free and gives us all an opportunity to respond to the Bishop's Advent appeal for climate disaster impacting on the Diocese. Read more

Please register with Michèle in the HTC office: admin@holytrinitygeneva.org

From your safeguarding team

Your safeguarding team promotes and works towards keeping our church a safe place where our congregation can feel secure and cared for.
Safeguarding is an integral part of the wellbeing of our Church community.
We are here not only to work with you through the formalities of short training or administrative safeguarding checks but to support you in strict confidentiality if concerns relative to abuse arise.
You can count on our understanding and goodwill in all things safeguarding.

Christine Warren, Cate Bichara and Liz Martinez

Contact email: Safeguarding@lacotechurch.ch

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