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Posts Tagged ‘Church’

Snow causes Christmas Service Chaos

Posted in Church, tagged , , , , , , on 18 December, 2010| 5 Comments »

A good headline, don’tcha think? Well, it’s not totally true, but my Twitter stream is already reporting a smattering of cancelled Sunday services. The Vicar is about to call round and cancel our 9am service which is mainly attended by elderly folk. The snow here is a good 6″ deep, and still falling and once it’s frozen overnight it will be even more hazardous for our more senior members.

Most sadly of all, live nativities have been hit by non-delivery of donkeys. The one we were going to attend at our old church in Wolverhampton today was cancelled as both the donkey (coming from Shropshire) and baby Jesus (coming from Tipton) were unable to make an appearance because of the snowfall.

I’m just praying that attendance our Nativity Service tomorrow morning and the Carol Service in the evening isn’t drastically depleted. Some of our church (and Christmas choir) members live outside the parish (and up steep hills), so they may well struggle to get in. It’s such a special time of year for churches and it would be very sad to miss all the fun and celebrations and the opportunity to share  Christmas joy with folk who don’t often join us.

 

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Festive Refreshments – A Poll

Posted in Church, Polls, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 15 December, 2010| 2 Comments »

What will you be serving at your festive services this Christmas? I have just taken delivery of a bulk purchase for our church – ten 2 litre vacuum jugs. This is so we can serve Spiced Cranapple, a non-boozy mulled wine, after our carol service and after the Christmas Cracker service on Christmas Eve.  With the jugs I’ll be able to mull the spices into the drink at home first and then take the hot beverage over to the church next door. We will also be providing mince pies, of course. And tea and coffee and biscuits too, for those not so keen on the festive delights. For the school carol service this morning I have two large choccie cakes with star sprinkles and some festive iced biscuits made with mixed spice.

What about you. Do you serve alcohol or not? With alcoholism and its attendant evils an ever-present problem in our parish, serving alcohol in church is something we tend to avoid. Do you mass cater with Asda mince pies or ask folk to bring their own, whether homemade or not? Time for a bit of sharing. I’ll close this poll at the weekend – I think we should all have our catering plans fixed by then.

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The Tree Date Debate

Posted in Church, tagged , , , , , , , , on 30 November, 2010| 11 Comments »

A small debate began on Twitter last night that I thought I’d like to expand. When do you put your Christmas tree up? Is it a symbol of Advent or of Christmas itself?

My family were always pretty disorganised and the tree would not go up until Christmas Eve. Although since the Twitter discussion, where there some pretty strong proponents of Christmas Eve tree decorating, I’m not sure that it was only because of disorganisation.

Since I got married, in a spirit of marital compromise (the Vicar comes from an early tree family), the tree has gone up earlier, and now the official date is as soon as we’ve bought our tree (always real, natch) and as early as possible after the Engineer’s birthday, which is 5th December. So this year, we may spend the afternoon of the Engineer’s birthday purchasing the tree, and possibly even decorating it.

I’m actually quite keen on having the tree up early now. I enjoy having the twinkling lights up through Advent, and especially since we have festive events in the Vicarage. We also have our Jesse Tree, of course, to take the kids through the story of the first  Advent of Christ. And the nearer to Christmas, the bigger the flap in the Vicarage. It’s a busy season for Vicars, you know…

So what do you think? Leave a comment if you’d like to explain!

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Release Sherif Hassan

Posted in Faith, tagged , , , , , , on 27 November, 2010| 2 Comments »

Sherif Hassan is a friend of Mark Meynell, an old pal of ours from Cambridge days and Senior Associate Minister at All Souls Langham Place, that great multi-cultural church in the West End of London. Sherif was married to Emma  at All Souls this summer and they went to visit Sherif’s family in Egypt on 9th November.

On arrival in Cairo, Sherif was detained and Emma was deported back to the UK. Since then Sherif has not been seen, and Emma has managed to speak to him only once, on 26th November. She has been told that the authorities are threatening to detain him for three years.

She has had no response to her enquiries at the Egyptian Embassy and the Egyptian Consulate in London. Neither Sherif nor Emma have a criminal record and no charges have been brought against him. There is a great worry that his detention is to do with his Christian faith.

To find out more, go to the website that Mark has set up. Please pray for Sherif’s release, pray for Emma and the wider family and pray for the Egyptian authorities to act with wisdom and fairness. Do write to your MP, to William Hague or to the Egyptian ambassador. Use the hashtag #ReleaseSherif if you tweet.

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I’m here. And planning to meditate.

Posted in Church, Faith, tagged , , , , , , , on 1 November, 2010| 2 Comments »

Just in case you thought I’d given up the ghost (check the spooky Halloween reference), I am actually here. We’re back from a few half term days away in London. We were mighty pleased to return to an unburgled Vicarage, I can tell you. And the cat and fish were still alive, thanks to Beauty, who negotiated our alarm to come in and feed the animals. Phew.

Our trip began at the weekend away of St James New Barnet, where old college friend the Baker is vicar. He and his wife Girlpreacha (and their five kids) are at a similar stage to us – in their second year of incumbancy. Their church is also quite similar to ours, so it was great when the Baker asked my Vicar to be the speaker. It was wonderful to be listening to talks by my husband and not worrying about the organisation! The kids had a brilliant time with two Oak Hill Youth and Children’s Ministry students, learning  about the lost son and his older brother from Luke 15, just like the adults.

I came away particularly challenged by God to spend more time in biblical meditation. The Vicar has been bending my ear about this for months, if not years. But you know how it is. He’s my husband, so when he gets all excited about  something I confess that it does occasionally wash over me, cos he’s talking about it whilst I’m worrying about taking the kids to swimming, or getting the washing done, or wondering when we’re going to get round to painting over those patches on the kitchen ceiling where the strip lights were taken down when we moved in.

So even though I’d heard about meditation, and even read a few of the Vicar’s excellent blog posts on the subject, it took a weekend away for his wisdom to sink in properly. He called meditation ‘the middle spiritual discipline, between bible reading and prayer’, where we let God’s word sink deeply into our hearts. As a natural activist, this is a discipline which does not come easily to me. I like to read the bible and I like to pray through the issues I see around us. But I’ve seen how the ‘hard work’ (as he described it) of meditation has borne fruit in my husband’s life.  For a while I’ve envied the Vicar’s love for God and the delight he finds in the Lord, which I can see are chiefly the result of his times of meditation. So now I am resolved to incorporate this discipline into my rather haphazard devotional life. He recommended just a short time each day (he mentioned six minutes!) meditating on the benefits that we have because of Jesus (listed in his blog post). This morning I meditated on Psalm 119v33-36, which was recommended in a book I am currently reading.

The thing is, it’s the long term benefit of biblical meditation that I need and that I want. So I’m also praying for pereverence perseverance…

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Christian Halloween Poll Results

Posted in Church, Faith, Polls, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 22 October, 2010| 3 Comments »

I closed the poll for the Halloween discussion last night. It was interesting to see how many churches are doing something at Halloween, and how the increasing popularity of the festival challenges us to think through how to respond in a godly way to our changing culture. Some of us find the whole thing a bit scary, though, it seems.

Light Party
24%
Turning the lights off and hiding behind the sofa
22%
Giving out sweeties to trick or treaters
16%
Giving out tracts to trick or treaters
16%
Other
14%
Pumpkin Devotional
4%
A Light up the Night type walk
2%
Trick or Treating
0%
Going door to door giving out treats
0%

As ever, the most fun and inspiring part of the poll has been the ‘other’ answers. I was very encouraged to find out that people would be praying. Not necessarily so sure about trying to get the Vicar drunk though. And I can’t be the only one who finds the prospect of a Churches Together disco extremely alarming, surely?

All Souls Day Eve Prayer/All Hallows Evensong 2
Barn Dance (though I’d rather be behind the sofa!) 1
Churches together Disco 1
Trying to get the Vicar drunk 1
Saying that we are Christians and celebrate happy things – so come back at Xmas! 1
Away on half term holidays 1

I enjoyed having another poll up again. Anyone got ideas for another?

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Poll: A Christian Halloween?

Posted in Church, Family, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on 14 October, 2010| 15 Comments »

Recently I was reminded that Halloween is just around the corner (thanks Cassie!) and have been thinking about the different ways that churches and individual Christian families can respond. The idea of celebrating darkness and things of the night goes against the grain with Christians who have been rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son (Col 1v12-13).

In previous years I have attended a ‘Light Up the Night’ walk in Wolverhampton and friends in Wolves have organised a Light Party. Someone else I talked to had organised the young people from their church to go door to door with lanterns giving out sweets and treats rather than asking for them. In our small church, we’re not really at the stage of being able to organise a party or walk, but we always ensure we have a supply of sweeties and Christian tracts to give to the visiting ghouls. The Good Book Company and 10ofthose supply some, although I feel there’s probably a gap in the market for something a little less wordy.

I also get the visiting kids to perform a joke or song for their sweeties. In Scotland, where the Vicar grew up, Halloween was a night for guising (it’s mentioned at the bottom of the Wikipedia page) – dressing up and going door to door with a wee show for the residents, for which they would give you a treat. So beware, you’ll need to have practiced if you come to my door at the end of half term.

And just the other day I was pointed to a blog post with a devotional based around carving a pumpkin. It’s a lot less weird than it sounds and I think I might try this with my kids this year.

So, how will you and your church be responding to Halloween this year? I’d love some extra inspiration. I’ll leave the poll open for a week.

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Complete? Not yet. But working on it.

Posted in Faith, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on 12 October, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I had a great day out on Saturday with three ladies from church. We went to the Northern Women’s Convention in Manchester. Things didn’t start brilliantly… I was woken by the doorbell ringing at 7.45am. That was the time I’d asked the women to arrive so we could leave in good time. Oops.

Well, once I’d got my act together, we were off and there in time to get a seat. For the first time ever, the conference was sold out, so it was packed with about 1,000 women from around the north of the country. I spotted friends from all over: Leeds, Preston, Sheffield, Chester, Newcastle On Tyne, Wolverhampton and Tipton. It was mentioned from the main stage that the last tickets sold on the Tuesday beforehand. I think they were sold to me! In by the skin of our teeth again.

Lizzie Smallwood’s talks from Colossians on The Complete Woman were challenging and encouraging in equal measure as she reminded us to ‘become what you are’ but also to have ‘a good clear out of our behaviour wardrobe’. The Holy Spirit, said Lizzie, is God’s beauty consultant – your very own Gok. Did I mention that Lizzie is a vicar’s wife? Yay!

Helen Roseveare is now in her eighties and has been a Christian for over sixty years. And yet her joy and delight in knowing Christ continue to overflow as she speaks, as fresh as if she were a brand new believer. She spoke of how she is continuing to learn and grow in wisdom even at her advanced age. It was wonderful to hear her and be reminded of the privilege that she spoke of – to know Christ and also to suffer for him. I want to be like her when I grow up.

I came home and immediately started reading her autobiography, Give me this Mountain, which tells the story of her missionary life, including the five months she spent as a captive of rebels in Congo. This year the talks and seminars from the conference will be available free in audio on the conference website, but the main talks and Helen Roseveare‘s seminar will also be on dvd for just £10 – you need to email the conference office to order. If you didn’t make it to Manchester, I highly recommend getting it. We’re getting a couple of copies to share around folk who weren’t able to come along.

Next year’s conference is on Saturday 8th October 2011, and the speaker will be Rebecca Manley Pippert, author of the classic book on evangelism, Out of the Saltshaker. Book early next year – I’m going to!

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The Book Group – Best Foot Forward

Posted in Books, Faith, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 5 October, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Last week I blogged enthusiastically about John Chapman’s book ‘A Foot in Two Worlds’ and mentioned how I’d be discussing it that evening with a new group. But as is the way of things, two out of the three group members couldn’t make it, so we cancelled. So we’ll be trying again tonight , and I’ve managed to recruit one more member and although one person still can’t make it, I’m hoping that we’ll at least have a go. There should be four of us. I’ll report again afterwards.

The Vicar is keen to start more small groups in the church, as even in a small church like ours it is hard to get to know people well. Our community is tightknit and some people have known each other for many years, some even from school days. So when newcomers join us, it can be very difficult for them to get close to the church family. Small groups are a great place for that to happen, and for young believers to be nurtured and discipled. I’m praying that this group proves to be a productive engine room of growth.

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Being Community

Posted in Inner city, State, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 27 September, 2010| Leave a Comment »

When you live in the inner city, people from the council or from government agencies are always coming round asking what facilities you need, or suggesting events that you should go to, that they have laid on. I never encountered government in such quantity until I came to live in a deprived area. They are involved in everything!

Sometimes I just want to suggest that the people asking the question give up their well paid job so the council can give the money to the church instead. And other times I want to say that they should come and live here instead of swanning in and trying to build “community cohesion” from outside, 5 days a week, 9am-5pm. Community doesn’t work like that. You need to be here. And you need the gospel to help you.

The Breathe Network seem to have a much better idea of what makes good community. NB From 3min30s onwards there’s no more action…

[HT Mark Meynell]

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