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January 2020 January 2020

OTHER CHURCHES NEWS

BERE REGIS CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

Sundays 10.30am Morning Service taken each week by visiting
preachers.
Mondays at 7pm STS (Search the Scriptures) Youth meeting
Tuesdays at 9.15am (during term time) Chapel Toddlers Group
Tuesdays at 7.30pm Bible Study and Prayer

January heralds another New Year, this time 2020. It doesn’t seem like 20 years
since we celebrated the Millennium!
Epiphany – on 6 . January, is recognised as the time when the Wise Men visited
th
Jesus. The story of them following a star and bringing gifts to Jesus is a central part
of the Christmas story. But many people think that the star is just a part of the
‘fairytale’ of Jesus’ birth.
However some years ago a senior astronomer
recreated the mysterious bright light which guided
the Wise Men to Bethlehem. He calculated that it
was caused by an alignment of Saturn and Jupiter
which occurred on September 15 in the year 7BC
– a medieval error in dating gave the wrong
starting point to the Anno Domini era. Dr. Percy
Seymour, who recreated the Bethlehem night sky
in the planetarium at Plymouth Polytechnic, used
published data on the movement of planets 2000
years ago and fed the information into
sophisticated electronic projection equipment at
the college. Much of the data came from the
computer work of Dr David Hughes of Sheffield
University, an authority on the Star of Bethlehem
“mystery”. Dr Seymour, a Fellow of the Royal
Astronomical Society, was ‘amazed’ when a huge
star appeared on the planetarium screen,
coinciding with Dr Hughes September 15 theory.
“Nothing else in the night sky, around the years of the birth of Christ, can account
for the star.” He said. “It is, in fact, the planets Saturn and Jupiter coming together
in the night sky in the constellation of Pisces. A conjunction of planets like this
happens only about once in 179 years. This is almost certainly the astronomical
event which marked the birth of Christ.”

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