Newsletter - 10 December 2023
PARISH NEWS
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS FELLOWSHIP
Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. At our meetings you will find a variety of people with many different experiences of what their drinking was like and what made them stop. At the heart of it all is the same thing: we didn’t want to drink any more and we realised we couldn’t stop on our own. Many of us had tried that and it didn’t seem to work.
AA started in 1935 when one sober alcoholic on a business trip, worried he might start drinking again, called around to see if the town had any drunks that needed help getting sober. There he met another man who had been trying to stay sober but couldn’t. From that small beginning, AA has become a fellowship of over 120,000 groups around the world.
In late May, we added to that number by starting a new meeting here at Christ the King Church. Normally around 25 people come each week for the hour-long meeting. Meeting goers have varying lengths of sobriety: some have a few days or months while others have many years, but regardless of our differences we are bound together in our primary purpose of getting sober and helping others do the same.
We are grateful for Father Christophe’s support and encouragement of our efforts, as well as allowing us to use the hall at a reasonable rate. It would have been difficult to start the meeting otherwise. We are an open meeting, which means anyone interested in finding out more about what Alcoholics Anonymous does is welcome to attend. If you or someone you love is affected by alcoholism, or just beginning to wonder if that’s a possibility, you are most welcome to join us Tuesday evenings 7:15 to 8:15 pm in the small hall.
Please click here for a testimony.
Focus of the Week
Christmas Carol Service
Sunday, 17 December – 4.30pm
Come along and spend an hour singing carols with your church
community – the ideal preparation for Christmas!
Mulled wine and drinks will be on sale in the bar area.
Rorate Mass for Advent
During the Fridays of Advent we will be celebrating the “Rorate Mass,” at 7:00 am. This is a Mass in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is traditionally celebrated in candlelight just before dawn. The name comes from the opening words of the Entrance Antiphon, “Rorate caeli desuper,” Latin for “Drop down dew, ye heavens.” (Isaiah 45:8).
The Mass is 30 minutes and will be followed by a simple breakfast in the large hall.