York Family Information Service
The York Family Information Service offers lots of resources to help everyone make the best of family life - you can find out more at http://www.yor-ok.org.uk/Parents/Family%20Information%20Service/family-i...
Refreshment and Retreats
You can find help, support and encourage for your growth in faith at the St Bede's Pastoral Centre in York - visit www.stbedes.org.uk to find out more.
York 800
In 2012 York is celebrating becoming a self-governing city 800 years ago. An exciting programme of events - York 800 - will roll out this year, making it a year for everyone to remember! For further information you can visit www.yorkfestivals.com.
City Centre Churches weekly newsbulletin
To catch up with the lastest news from York's City Centre Churches, and discover more about life in our City Centre Churches goto http://www.coreyork.org/ where you can sign up to receive their latest news and explore their helpful website.
Pause for Prayer - December 2011
‘He will be called Emmanuel – which means God with us’.
In our prayers this month let’s focus on the season of Advent, just begun, asking God to prepare our hearts, helping us to find a little more time for waiting and listening to what He might want to say to us; a little more time just to stop, rest and think, a little more time to pray for ourselves and others.
A prayer.
Lord prepare us for your Advent coming. As we begin this season of preparation for Christmas, help us to remember that we are also thinking about your second Advent, your promised return in glory as Lord of all. May we be your servants, living in the light of that glorious Hope. Amen
In this time of financial insecurity let’s remember the pressures put upon people by the commercialisation of this season – pray for those who spend beyond their means; pray for the homeless helped locally by organisations like Carecent and the Salvation Army, those who take others into their families for Christmas, sharing a little of God’s love. Pray for ourselves that we too won’t be caught up in the false spirit of Christmas, but that the spirit of Advent, of preparing for His coming, will mean something special this year.
A Prayer
Lord, prepare us for your coming – in the Church. Help us to clean out the unnecessary clutter of our church life: dead habits, prejudices, old unforgiven grudges, whatever spoils the flowing of true love amongst us. We’ve prayed together Lord in a special way, and we ask that you will open our church to the free flow of your refreshing Spirit. Give us new vision and hope and let Holy Redeemer become even more that home where people find you and find peace. Amen
Finally – a Celtic prayer for Advent
Calm us to wait for the gift of Christ
Cleanse us to prepare the way for Christ
Teach us to contemplate the wonder of Christ
Touch us to know the presence of Christ
Anoint us to bear the life of Christ
Prayer Team
Your Ward - sharing our experience of life in our local Community through the City Councils local meetings.
We have made a commitment as a Church to attend our local Ward Committee meetings to hear about and support where we can, the work of the City Council and our local councillors. It is also a great opportunity for local residents to air their views and concerns and share in local decison making that helps to shape the life of our community.
You can find out more about the Acomb Ward Committee meetings at http://www.york.gov.uk/council/Wards/acomb/.
Neighbourhood Watch and Community Policing.
To find out more about local policing and the work of the Safer Neighbourhoods Partnership you can go to http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/index.aspx?articleid=11
and http://www.saferyork.org.uk/
The flyers here give the latest Neighbourhood Watch Alerts for our area.
Reporting Antisocial Behaviour
Tackling Antisocial Behaviour is a priority for local policing and it is helpful in dealing with this to report any incidents that you encounter. However, before deciding to report an incident involving young people Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinators have been asked to pass on the request from the Police to consider first;
1. For incidents involving children ask yourself if my children were behaving in the same way would I be happy for a Police officer to tell them off, bring them home or move them on? If the answer is no then is this just children local to the estate using the facilities?
2. If there are a group of youths hanging around in the bin stores replace them with adults and ask yourself if their behaviour would still be classed as anti social? If the answer is no then do you need to contact the police?
For emergencies dial 999 and to report non-urgent incidents dial 0845 6060247.
Distraction Burgulary and Bogus Callers
If you would like to know more about how to protect yourself from these you can find out more from http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/boguscallers
Crimestoppers You can find out how you can help be a Crimestopper at http://wanted.crimestoppers-uk.org/index.asp including taking a look at Britains Most Wanted.
The York Older People's Assembly works to help promote the interests of everyone aged 50+. If you would like to know more about their work you can find out more at www.yorkassembly.org.uk were you can also find a copy of their latest newsletter.
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