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Issue No.23
Spring 2017
In this issue: • Refocus on Henlow • Thanks from Kempston West • • Event listing for Easter • • The work of the Senior Circuit Steward by Heather Harrison •
Plus details of all Ministers, Local Preachers & Worship Leaders 1 A Pastoral Letter Dear friends, When planning the wonderful gift from the Church that a sabbatical offered me, I needed time to reconnect with the people who mean the most to me, with myself and with God’s calling on my life. Also within the churches, for very different reasons, I have found myself attempting to deal with and resolve huge conflict and disagreement and feeling totally inadequate, so I chose the theme of building bridges. Those three months were a wonderful time of meeting with many people, visiting some lovely places, experiencing different styles of worship in different places, including a beach on Iona, the Methodist Church in Rome, the catacombs (where I assisted at Communion and the wine ran out) and at the prison I used to work at, where the men worshipped with energy, passion, enthusiasm and joy. I also completed the Bridge Builders Course, receiving training in Negotiation & Dialogue, Building Consensus & Making Decisions, Facilitation & Culture of Constructive Engagement and Leadership & Group Conflict, with a taste of Mediation thrown in. I learned much about the importance of process, honesty, listening, reframing, asking questions in different ways, and that conflict isn’t always bad or negative, even that some folk enjoy conflict, get a buzz out of it and often create it, much to the consternation of some of the rest of us! Even within our churches there is conflict on many issues: styles of worship, what kind of coffee, interpretations of Scripture, ways of praying, which charities to donate to and how much, leadership styles, where to put the flowers, theories of the atonement, whether to take out the pews, the young people, the old people, the middle-aged people, the missing people, traditional hymns, modern songs, homosexuality, divorce, marriage. Frankly some of these seem petty, although not to those who feel strongly and shout loudly about them. Others are crucial and deeply affect the way we feel about ourselves, other people and God, and the way we think God feels about us. Faithful, loving Christians will always have different views and understanding, different experiences - sometimes painful ones - and different longings about how the Church should be. Living with contradictory convictions is the phrase that has been used, not meaning that we don’t individually know our own minds, but that we don’t have a collective view. Disagreements happened in the past, happen today and will happen in the future. When they do, how do we stay together? Do we
3 stay together? Do some leave and some remain but stay silent? Is opinion polarised? Are we fragmented? When we are not of one mind, how do we remain of one heart?
Here is an extract from an interview with former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks from the August 16 edition of Christianity magazine. Asked about his debates with Richard Dawkins he said:
I love him, let me be absolutely straight. He’s one of the most brilliant science writers of our time, full stop. He goes around hitting religious people once in a while and we probably need to be hit! God sent Richard Dawkins for a reason. We are too complacent as we believe six impossible things before breakfast. We’re too credulous and we accept too much as the will of God, which we shouldn’t accept. So, just as Richard Dawkins sees religious people as part of the wonderful Darwinian plan of random genetic mutation, so I see Richard Dawkins as part of the divine plan. We each make spaces for the other in our universe. He’s a great man.
What a tremendous example of the attitude of mind we need to cultivate towards those with whom we profoundly disagree, a bridge being built between very different understandings and world-views that reaches out in love and acceptance. Here is grace in the face of difference from this wise Jewish man. Jesus confronted many situations of conflict between rich/poor, strong/ weak, men/women, slaves/free, Jews/Romans, clean/unclean and Pharisees/‘sinners’. As we journey through Lent, Easter and beyond, may we seek to be bridge-builders, and may we always remember that what bridges the gap between all of us and God is the love of God shown in Jesus, who gave his life that we might live and be one with God.
Caroline Weaver
Illustration by Elizabeth Wang, T-00081-CW, ‘Christ is our bridge to heaven - the only Way across the gulf between earthly life and eternal glory’, copyright © Radiant Light 2006, www.radiantlight.org.uk
4 President of Conference Visit to BEH District
The President of Conference, Rev Dr Roger Walton, visited the Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire District in late November. He led Sunday morning worship at Oxlease Methodist Church in the St Albans and Welwyn Circuit, where he was Minister in the 1980s, and had lunch prepared by members of the church’s Zimbabwean fellowship, before visiting Birchwood Methodist Church, where outdated church premises have been replaced by a compact and more suitable building, funded by the sale of part of the site for residential housing.
The President went on to Hatfield Road Methodist Church in St Albans, where he shared in a discussion of topical questions submitted by the audience about the contemporary mission and ministry of the Methodist Church. The day ended with a Circuit service at which the President preached. On the Monday the President travelled with the District Chair, Rev Dr David Chapman to Clacton in the Tendring Circuit to meet with the Ministers, before visiting the Brooklands ward of Jaywick, which is among the most deprived communities in Britain. Here Deacon Janet Jenkins gave the President a tour of an area in which she exercises a ministry of befriending and supporting some of the most vulnerable people in society. Then it was back to Trinity Methodist Church in Clacton for the regular Monday ‘grub club’ run by the church where guests, many of them experiencing acute poverty and even homelessness, can enjoy a free hot meal served by volunteers. Over lunch, the President had a chance to listen to many of their stories in a warm and easy-going exchange with those whose voices are often not heard, let alone respected. The President went from Clacton to High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, where he led a 3-day retreat for those Ministers in the Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire District in their first ten years of ministry, including Gill Baalham and Graham Claydon-Knights. The common thread throughout his visit to the District was ‘Holiness and Justice’, the theme which he and the Vice-President have chosen for their Presidential year. A booklet on the theme is available from Methodist Publishing. 5 New Series on Our Circuit Churches
Five years ago, when the three Circuits merged, we started a series of articles in the magazine for each church to introduce themselves to the new Circuit. We have just completed the series and all the churches – including some now closed – have been introduced.
The editorial team thought as a follow-up it would be interesting to revisit the churches, in the same order as before, and ask them what has changed in the five years since they wrote their first article, and what their hopes and mission plans are for the next five years. In Magazine issue 1 we had Henlow Church, and here is their report five years later.....
Henlow Methodist Church It’s been five years since I wrote about Henlow Church, and at that time we were celebrating 100 years of Methodism in Henlow village. It was a year of great rejoicing and celebration both for the congregation and for all visitors who supported the many special services and events held during the year. Since that time however we have had to face some changes which have challenged us greatly. Henlow Pre-school, who had used our premises for the last 40 years or so, had the wonderful opportunity to join with Raynsford Church of England Academy, which meant for them their own purpose-built classroom with all the facilities. As you can imagine, during those 40 years we had built up a good relationship with the Pre-school and their leaders, so it was with great sadness that we had to say goodbye to them. The dance school, who held classes four nights a week and on Saturday mornings, also found new premises for three of their classes including the Saturday class, which was not only another loss financially, but also for us in terms of outreach, meeting and chatting with the parents who supported our coffee mornings while they waited in the church for their children’s class to finish.
6 And last but by no means least, our Sunday School closed due to teachers/leaders moving on and, as in a lot of churches these days, a lack of children. Did Henlow folk get a bit ‘down’? Yes, I suppose we did, but we embraced the changes and came to realise that the challenge and mission for us lay in other areas of the community. So what have we achieved so far…? o Every second Wednesday of the month we have Reflections and Prayer followed by a light lunch. This is well supported both ecumenically and by people living in the village. o Coffee mornings continue to be successful with different people hosting each month, and the money raised going to a charity of their choice. o We have a bi-monthly lunch on a Saturday which is well attended, especially by people who live on their own, and gives them the opportunity for fellowship and meeting friends. o We have an Open the Book team who go into Raynsford Church of England Academy once a month. We tell Bible stories with the children joining us to act them out, there’s also a time for reflection and prayer and everyone has an enjoyable time including the team! o We have an ecumenical half-term Wacky Wednesday every half- term holiday (Dave Haseldine gave it the name!) for children aged 4–11 years. This is held alternately at Langford and Henlow churches and our Circuit Youth Workers play a big part in helping to organise and lead this. o The week after Christmas saw our first joint ‘Christmas party’ with St. Mary’s Church. We invited all the people we knew from coffee mornings and other contacts, trying especially to involve those who would feel lonely after coming back from spending Christmas with family. We had a great response from people asking if it could be made it an annual event! So, there are lots of exciting things going on for our church, and we find ourselves blessed and encouraged as our journey of faith and outreach continues, and again and again we see God’s hand guiding us and enabling us to use our time, talents and witness to build on the first 105 years of Methodism in Henlow village. Brenda Ballantine
7 When I attended a Circuit meeting and notice was given of £250 being made available for the development and outreach of churches, my ears pricked up. It is not often that such grants are given and so after consulting church members, we decided to apply and were successful!
Kempston West, like a lot of churches in the Circuit, has a small membership, and although active in the community, wanted more people to know what the Church was about. After discussion, we decided on the following priorities: