More than half a million people to be invited ‘Back to Church’

Churchgoers around the world are set personally to invite more than half a million people to services on Back to Church Sunday. The event will be one of the largest co-ordinated ecumenical evangelism events staged across Britain.

Christians across the UK and further afield are encouraged to invite someone they know who used to attend church to come back on 27 September 2009.

Methodist President the Revd Stephen Poxon, said “This is a wonderful initiative and I encourage all of our Methodist Churches to be involved. We must also give thought and time to how we continue the warmth of welcome every Sunday of the year so those coming among us will want to stay to find friendship and deepening faith.”

Back to Church Sunday was originally an initiative of the Church of England, but this year will be supported by the Methodist Church, Churches Together in Scotland, the Church in Wales, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the United Reformed Church, Elim Pentecostal churches and Anglican churches in Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Canada.

Celia Lawton-Livingstone was invited to St Luke’s, Colchester, on Back to Church Sunday in 2008 by her friend Carole. Now Celia attends church regularly, has joined the worship team and hopes to be confirmed later this year. She comments: “I was surprised when I got to the church that morning. It was different to what I’d imagined, and the people were very friendly. I didn’t feel like they were trying to shove religion down my throat, they let me make up my own mind. It was a very relaxed and welcoming atmosphere, just like one big family. I would recommend it to others: you never know where it could lead you. My whole life has changed completely in the last year.”

The initiative is supported by a website (www.backtochurch.co.uk ) and resources such as special welcome T-shirts and subsidised party packs of fairly-traded drinks and snacks, produced in partnership with Traidcraft.

Source; Methodist News Service 12/05/09

Welcome to new Methoblogger

Allow me to introduce you to my friend and Minister, Dermot Thornberry, who is now blogging at www.truffler-tberry.blogspot.com - all about bridges to date! Why not pop over and give him a welcome?

No hugs please, we’re men

Hugging, handholding and discussing feelings are big turn-offs for male churchgoers, a new survey of 400 men reveals. Three-quarters said they wanted worship to challenge them intellectually and spiritually and almost the same proportion chose the sermon as their favourite part of a service. Sixty per cent said they enjoyed singing but preferred ‘proclamational’ hymns to emotionally-based songs. Findings of the research, conducted for Sorted magazine, will be discussed in a seminar on men in church at next week’s Christian Resources Exhibition (12–15 May). The Sandown, Esher event is expected to draw up to 13,000 people from all denominations.

Sources: Daily Telegraph (5/5); Methodist Recorder (7/5)

Louisa's Second Birthday

Last weekend I had the joy of going to Kent to share in the second birthday party of my great-granddaughter, Louisa. her parents are house parents at Bethany School, where because of the credit crunch there are fewer boarders this term and none upstairs in their house. So my daughter-in-law brought pillows and duvets and I and my son and his wife were able to sleep there on Saturday night.

After breakfast, Louisa had great fun carrying all the things from the breakfast table to the kitchen one at a time - first, each jar of jam or marmalade, then the milk (which produced the word 'heavy'), etc. 'Heavy' seemed to be a new word and came out several times during the day. It was lovely to see how helpful she was, so that will be a great help to her mother in the next few months.

Then we had a session when she was showing me her books and I read one story and she identified colours in another book designed for that purpose. Then gradually the rest of the family started arriving until she had two grandmas and one great-grandma present. I told her that I was her Mummy's grandma, so after that I was sometimes, 'great-grandma' and sometimes 'Mummy's grandma'.

With each new arrival there were more presents, of course - to the delight of everyone! I took her a (foundation) train set that is complete in itself but can be added to ad infinitum. I also took two pretty tops for her to wear with her skirts or jeans. She was so delighted with these that she insisted on putting them both on one on top of the other, so that she wore three tops for the rest of the day. Someone else brought her some summer shoes and she had great delight in trying them on and taking them off all day. The most successful present was a toy birthday cake with candles that could be taken off and put on again. It was divided into 5 slices,which each had a small area of Velcro in the middle so that they stuck together and it had to be cut with the little knife supplied. Louisa quickly went for her toy plates and, on and off for most of the day, she was busy cutting slices of cake and handing them round on her little plates. Since there were more than 5 of us, it was interesting to watch her deciding who was to have the next slice. The other present that kept her busy for quite a time was a toy gardening set. She loved the gloves with pretty pictures on them, but invariably got them on the wrong hands and had to change them. Eventually, she decided to put them in her (new present) toy rucksack and she put that in her bedroom. So the next time she wanted to use her new watering can, she ran into her bedroom to get her new gloves from the rucksack! She spent much time watering everything with her new yellow watering can. In fact she spent so much time doing 'grown-up' things like serving cake and watering that, when it came to bedtime, she found that her doll Rosie had not been out of bed all day! She had given Quentin, her cuddly toy dog, a walk round in his push chair though.

There were too many of us to sit round the table in the dining room for lunch, so we all ate outdoors where the garden has several wooden table-cum-benches, so we were glad that the weather was fine, if a little on the chilly side. We were back inside for the birthday cake, which finished off a very successful second birthday party, enjoyed by all - until Louisa noticed that we were all preparing to go. Then she burst into tears, saying, 'People going. People going.'

With a new little brother or sister due in September, there'll be two birthday parties next year - but in Stourbridge, not in Kent. Something else to look forward to in 2010!

CENTENARY ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS

Centenary celebrations at Caversham Heights Methodist Church, Reading, continued with a very joyful day with the return of a number of former members of 30 years ago for the visit of former minister the Revd Terry Harris, who took as his theme ‘Rising to the occasion’. Other visiting preachers will be the Right Revd Bishop Crispian Hollis, Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth on May 24th at 10.30am and The Revd Jackie Case, Superintendent Minister of the Methodist Portsmouth Circuit on June 7th at 10.30am.

Bishop Crispian Hollis was born in Bristol in 1936, educated at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire (1946-54). He was then in the Somerset Light Infantry for National Service, after which he went to Balliol College Oxford to read history, though more cricket than history! After that, he went to the seminary in Rome to study for the priesthood and was ordained in 1965. After a year in Amesbury (Wilts) as a curate, he went back to Oxford as chaplain to the Catholic students and stayed there till 1979, when he went to the BBC as Roman Catholic Assistant to the Head of Religious Broadcasting. That lasted until 1981 when he went to Clifton Cathedral (Bristol) as Administrator and stayed there till 1987 when he became Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham, resident in Oxford. He left that post in 1989 to become Bishop of Portsmouth where he is to this day. In the Bishops’ Conference, he has been in charge of communications, ecumenism, and European affairs and currently is Chair of the Dept for International Affairs. Recent visits overseas have included Iran, Iraq, Zimbabwe and South Africa. He have also been a member of the Pontifical (Roman) Council for Social Communications.

The Revd Jackie Case grew up in Caversham and in the Caversham Heights Methodist Church, where she gained high marks each year in the annual Scripture Examination, won a long-service medal for JMA (Junior Missionary Association), taught in the Sunday School and became a Local Preacher.Educated at Caversham Primary School, Kendrick School and Bristol University, Jackie went on to teach at the Cox Green Comprehensive School, where she was Head of Religious Studies for many years, Head of Year with pastoral responsibility for the care of 150+ students and is remembered for an eventful trip to Russia! When called to the Methodist ministry, Jackie trained at Oxford University before ordination in St. Asaph’s Cathedral, North Wales, in 2003, and spent several years in ministry in Eastleigh before becoming Superintendent Minister of the Portsmouth Circuit.
Jackie's ordination at St. Asaph's Cathedral, 2003

The climax of the Centenary Year is the actual Centenary Anniversary that falls on the weekend of June 20th and 21st, with a display of ‘Items of Interest’ of the church over the 100 years in the church vestibule throughout the month, a Flower/Art Exhibition from 10am to 4pm on June 20th when the Church will be open to the public and coffee/tea and biscuits will be served. There will be an opportunity to buy Fair Trade goods from the Traidcraft Stall.

The visiting preacher at 10.30am on June 21st will be the Revd the Lord Leslie Griffiths of Pembrey and Burry Port. An Anniversary Cake will be cut in the Hall during coffee after the service and a Celebration Lunch (including a Hog Roast) for the church family (by tickets purchased in advance) will be held at the home of Ken and Barbara Macrae. Lord Griffiths was ordained in Haiti and his first British appointment was to both Caversham Methodist Church (Gosbrook Road) and Caversham Heights Methodist Church, where he served from 1974-1977 before being recalled back to Haiti to deal with a severe crisis there. Back in Britain, he was elected President of the Methodist Conference for 1994-1995. He returned to Caversham to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of his Ordination at the Gosbrook Road Church on 21 January 1998. For many years now he has been Minister of Wesley’s Chapel, his house and the Museum of Methodism in City Road, London, with a multi-cultural congregation and many visitors from all over the world to this treasured Methodist site.

The last visiting preacher in this month of celebration will be the Revd Canon Brain Shenton, Rector of St. Mary the Virgin Church in Reading at 10.30am on June 28th. Canon Shenton needs no introduction to
Caversham people because of his role in many civic ceremonies in Reading and, in particular, those relating to the town’s twinning with Dusseldorf.

Kidnapped nurse prays for attacker

A nurse who was discovered locked in a car boot within hours of death has said she will pray for her attacker. Magdeline Makola, 38, an Edinburgh cardiology nurse, was bound and gagged and locked in her own car boot for ten days before she was found. On Boxing Day, Justice Ngema, 35, a failed South African asylum seeker, had forced his way into Miss Makola’s home and forced her to give him the pin numbers to her bank cards. Despite the incident, Miss Makola said, ‘I feel no anger towards him, only pity. I wish him well in the future and I will pray for him.’ She said she ‘spent a lot of time praying’ during her ordeal and ‘Praying gave me a lot of strength’.

Source: Daily Telegraph (24/4)

Twitter and pray, Primate advises

The leader of Ireland’s Roman Catholics has urged social network users to create ‘a sea of prayer’ by sending text, twitter or email prayers. ‘Make someone the gift of a prayer,’ Cardinal Sean Brady, Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, told worshippers. The Cardinal was speaking at a Mass in honour of Father Patrick Peyton, who promoted prayer by encouraging families to pray through the Rosary. ‘Father Peyton had a gift for using the most up-to-date means of social communication’ and ‘was pioneering in his use of television’, Cardinal Brady explained. ‘I ask young people to [send] their friends an occasional twitter or text to say that you have prayed for them.’

Sources: Daily Telegraph (28/4); Catholic Herald (1/5)