From Rev Iain Baxter, All Saints Chiang Mai
Dear Friends,
Christmas is now truly upon us! Perhaps it is difficult to feel Chrismassy when the sun is still shining and there’s no sign of snow, but the season is here when we welcome Christ into the world and into our lives once more!
Please join us this Sunday at 11 a.m., then on Christmas Eve for Midnight Mass at 11:30 p.m., then again on Christmas Day at 11 a.m.
Our Christmas Day service will again be followed by a sit-down Christmas lunch. It is still possible to sign-up if you would like to join us. The best way would be by email to Emily Chase on emilylschase@gmail.com.
The meal is free but people will need to sign-up so we can calculate numbers, and people will be allocated things to bring! Please sign-up this week as Christmas Day is almost upon us! Donations towards the cost of the turkeys would also be welcome. (They were $100 each!)We are family, and nobody should be alone at Christmas!
Our readings this Christmas Sunday, the Fourth Sunday in Advent, will be Micah 5:2-5, Romans 16:25-27, and Luke 2:1-20, and we will be singing the carols O Come, All Ye Faithful; O Little Town of Bethlehem; and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! Past services and sermons can be viewed via the All Saints audio-visual page!
If you don’t know the way to All Saints, directions can be found on the Where and When page.
Christmas 2018 at All Saints
The All Saints Festival of Carols
This was a wonderful event with over two hundred people in attendance and over THB 30,000 raised for the Youth Charity Foundation orphanage!
The packed chapel!
The wonderful Lannacapella Choir!
The Youth Charity Foundation Choir!
Photos courtesy of Steve Yarnold!
Thanks to all the many people who worked so hard to make this a success, to so many people from All Saints, to Lannacapella for singing, to Remi for playing the organ, and to Chiang Mai Christian School for allowing us to use the historic 1868 First Church.
Highlights of the Festival of Carols can be seen here! Thanks to Steve Harrow.
Last Sunday we also had another collection for the forty-four children of the Youth Charity Foundation to buy each one of them a Christmas present. We shall be taking them their gifts on either Christmas Eve or Boxing Day!
Memorial Poinsettias
The following people donated poinsettias in memory of loved ones:
Contributors: In Memory of:
Abigail James Bernard Garvey & Lorreta Garvey
Chris Tananone Thomas B. Buffum Jr.,
. Gertrude K. Buffum,
. Thomas Henry Buffum,
. Cheng Tananone
. Anita Pleumarom
Don Williams Donald R. & Pauline
Bill Moeller Mia & Carl Moeller
Chase Family Walt & Donalda Robinson,
. Earl & Kathleen Chase
. Daphne Thomson
Anonymous Rani & Reuben
New Year’s Eve
Everyone is warmly invited to the Vicarage for New Year’s Eve. Festivities begin at 7 p.m. Bring food and drink to share and stay for as long or as short a time as you like! Call 0 904 604 304 for directions!
Ardahanreeswara Award
On Wednesday 12th December I travelled down to Bangkok to receive the Ardahanreeswara Award for Strengthening and Empowering LGBTI Community. This was given for the work of All Saints in welcoming gay and trans people, and shows that our work is nationally recognised in this area.
The report on the event (in Thai) on Thai PBS can be seen here, and my speech (in English) can be seen here!
Most people get to hear about us via the internet or by word of mouth, so please feel free to pass on this email to others. All are welcome to join us as we celebrate the Christ of Christmas! We hope to see you soon and that you will enjoy worshiping with us,
God bless,
Iain
All Saints' Chiang Mai 