Benefice of Goring and Streatley with South Stoke : Sunday 4th January 2026

4th January 2026 Christmas 2

Welcome to our weekly newsletter

Happy New Year!

We give thanks for wonderful Christmas celebrations and for all who came and all who prepared our churches for them.

May we continue to celebrate God With Us. We have this new light to live by, and dwell in. Let us ask God into our New Year plans: our hopes and fears, and pray for us to share that light and good news in our villages and our lives.

Collect for the week
O God,
who by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Readings for Sunday: Isaiah 60: 1-6, Psalm 72 and Matthew 2: 1-12.
Family Services: John 1: 1-5.

This Sunday:
8:00am      BCP Holy Communion at St Thomas’
St Thomas’ parish breakfast between the two services
9:30am      Family service at St Thomas’
11:15am    Holy Communion at St Mary’s
11:15am    Family service at St Andrew’s
4:00pm      Choral evensong at St Thomas’

This Sunday, 4th January,
Parish Breakfast at St Thomas’

Come along for croissants and coffee on this first Sunday of a month from 8.45-9.15am. This is a wonderful way to integrate our different church members of all ages and stages.

Thank you to Jo for providing this.

Nativity scenes around the Benefice

New Year’s resolutions…
To grow closer in relationship and life with our Lord God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
How? Many ways, gifts and tools. Time listening to God, alone and together.

Possible suggestions:
Consider coming to a Morning Prayer in church one morning, see times below.
Or take up daily Bible reading. I have really been enjoying Chris Mitton’s daily notes “Further Up & Further In”, available either in a big book or each day on your phone or computer. He gives a wonderful overview and some deep points. A thought, question and a prayer each day. You can start whenever you like, but one of his lovely details is a day of Sabbath each week from your reading and a thoughtful freeing prayer to consider instead.
Much to look forward to: a new curate coming in July.
What is missing in our church, in our society, in us?
What do we need to let go of, or change in our aspirations and lives? Ask God.

Start your day listening to God and praying together. Why not come to Morning Prayer one day? We listen to the Bible and pray for our world and church members in turn.
Monday: 8.30am Goring, Tuesday and Thursday: 8.30am Streatley.
Friday: 9am Goring.

Our Families work. Please pray for this:
We had an amazing nativity play on Christmas Eve in the morning packed with children from across our benefice. Madeleine Bastawrous, who produced this, is giving us an extra push with weekly activities during the 9.30am services in Goring to try to build up this ministry….

Discoverers for age 10-14, twice a month, 11th and 25th January, 5-6pm in the Canterbury Room.

Little Lights… 10.30am – 11 am a short Toddler and parent/carer gathering with songs, story, a prayer and support for all concerned, 14th & 28th January.

This week we are asked to pray:

Giving thanks for our Christmas Services and all who attended them.
For our individual reflections on a year past and a year ahead.
For discerning our priorities for now and the year ahead.
For our PCCs as they meet this and next week.
For Madeleine B and all our families.

Diary for the week

Wednesday 7th January
10:30am    BCP Holy Communion at St Thomas’
                   followed by coffee in the Canterbury Room
The readings will be 1 John 4: 11–18, Ps 72: 1, 10-13 and Mark 6: 45–52
7:30pm      St Thomas’ PCC meeting in the Canterbury Room

Thursday 8th January
10:00am    Advent groups meet up in the Canterbury Room

Sunday 11th January
8:00am      BCP Holy Communion at St Mary’s
9:30am      Holy Communion at St Thomas’
11:15am    Family service at St Mary’s
11:15am    BCP Holy Communion at St Andrew’s
5:00pm      Discoverers

The monthly calendar for January can be downloaded by clicking here

Prayers for the week, adapted from Roots on the web

Eternal God,
whose birth in human form we have celebrated and welcomed, we gather our thoughts and prayers for those in need at the dawning of this new year; as the old year passes we embrace the new.
This New Year.
This is our prayer

We pray today for those who have spent a lonely or difficult Christmas and all those for whom the start of this new year has brought tragedy, remembering those affected by the fire in Switzerland – the bereaved and the injured. May they find comfort, healing and peace in you.
This New Year.
This is our prayer

We pray for those with no family to turn to, no friends to support them, no neighbours who care. We pray for the cold and the hungry, and those who have nowhere to call home.
This New Year.
This is our prayer

We pray for those who suffer through illness and those waiting for treatment or the results of tests. Heal the sick and comfort the anxious and strengthen all those who care for others.
We pray for those whose homes feel empty or changed as the result of the death of a loved one.
This New Year.
This is our prayer

We pray for peacekeepers around the world who strive to bring order out of chaos. We pray for those areas of the world in crisis either natural or manmade as this new year unfolds. May this year be the time for conflicts to be resolved, justice and compassion to be shown, and us all to walk gently on the earth.
This New Year.
This is our prayer

As the wise men brought their gifts to the infant Jesus, so may we reach out in thought and word and deed to those for whom we have prayed.
Amen.

Daily readings for the week beginning 5th January

Monday am:	Ps 48	Ruth ch. 3	Col. 3.12-4.1	pm: Ps 97	John 2. 1-12
Tuesday am:	Ps 73	Ruth 4. 1-17	Col. 4.2-end	pm: Ps 87	John 2. 13-end
Wednesday am:	Ps 99	Jer. 23. 1-8	Matt. 20. 1-16	pm: Ps 118	1 John ch. 3
Thursday am:	Ps 46	Jer. 30. 1-17	Matt. 20. 17-28	pm: Ps 45	1 John 4. 7-end
Friday am:	Ps 148	Jer. 30.18-31.9	Matt. 20. 29-end	pm: Ps 67	1 John 5. 1-12
Saturday am:	Ps 149	Jer. 31. 10-17	Matt. 23. 1-12	pm: Ps 36	Titus 1. 11-14, 3. 3-7

Please send any notices or articles for the next news sheet by noon on Thursdays to vicarofgsandss@yahoo.com.

The Benefice of Goring and Streatley with South Stoke

The Vicarage

Manor Road

Goring, Berkshire RG8 9DR

United Kingdom