CENTRAL/Talk Autumn 2014
The newsletter of the Central Baptist Association
COLIN PYE was appointed in June as third Regional Minister in Central Baptist Association. “So what are you going to do?” seems to be the question on many friends’ lips… and possibly yours too! I think some broad brush strokes may be needed at this point!! The new role for me will involve familiar landscapes (I have been part of the regional team on a one day per week basis for many years) and fresh pastures. I have of course become very fond of the South Bucks area, having lived and ministered there for 18+ years and with particular responsibility for the Bucks Forum. I now step into a broader role and am looking forward to getting to know better the whole of the CBA. Preparing for my interview I did what I considered to be a really helpful thing. I found a website that enabled me to mark every church in the association – all 156 of them and colour code into forums. Being a ‘visual’ type person I got a pictorial impression of the association, seeing its geographical spread, shape and the gaps. I have to say I thought ‘wow, look at that! All those Baptist communities, connected in sometimes close, sometimes loose ways, but with such potential to encourage one another in bringing God’s Kingdom in where they are ’. And so what is it I will be doing? As promised, some broad brushstrokes based upon our strapline ‘walking together in ministry and mission’: Firstly I want to emphasise the need for us to seek to ‘walk together’ more effectively. I see a part of my role as encouraging that to happen. I think we have to be honest and say that since the advent of the Association in 2002, that sense of ownership and ‘belonging’ to the wider Baptist network has struggled, in some parts more than others. Personally over the years I have been very grateful for the support and friendship received from ministerial colleagues and members of others in the wider Baptist
IN THIS ISSUE Page 2 Colin continued……
Page 3 Building at Olney
Page 4 Peace breaks out in Hitchin
Page 5 Ringstead at 300
Page 6 Limbury parties on …..
Page 7 Notices & news
Back Page Home Mission: your mission
page 2 community and I wonder what we are left with if we simply withdraw into our own ‘castles’ or ‘islands’. My belief is that we have much to contribute to one another, that we benefit from rubbing shoulders with others with whom we have a shared history & journey. So part of my role is to encourage a change in the trend in the direction of independence towards a greater interdependence. We need to discover ‘one another’ again, to relearn the positives of ‘associating’. Secondly our role as regional ministers is to be involved in ‘walking together… IN MINISTRY’. This is bread and butter stuff for me, walking alongside churches and colleagues in a whole range of ways. One particular aspect of my own ministry has been with children. Over the last few years at Lt Kingshill one Sunday a month would find me not working with the adults but with the children. This was a helpful pattern that earthed me and modelled something to both children and the rest of the congregation. One way or another, I must have been involved with 40+ holiday clubs over the years, indeed one of my songs was the theme song for this year’s Scripture Union material (and let me tell you there are many more inane kids’ songs up my sleeve!) It may be that you want to use me as a resource for this.
in our culture these things are light years away from where they are, and the last place they would go to explore spiritual things is the institutional church. Hence the need for us to explore other ways of doing church & being church that sit outside the institutions, that don’t put up as a barrier the need to enter our churchy world in order to consider the way of Jesus. I am certainly no expert on this but I am keen to engage with and encourage a Pioneering spirit among us. I will seek to connect with those in the Union and beyond that have experience in these things (such as the Incarnate Network/ CMS) and with all those of you who are already practitioners. We need to learn from one another and share stories and ideas that work, and hopefully I can help in that. I am thrilled to continue to work with Geoff and Stephen on the regional team. What is good is that we don’t have to spend the first year or so getting to know each other. Having been on the team for one day a week for many years I think we know and trust each other, and have a working knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses. I consider that we have complementary giftings, and we get on – always a helpful thing to have in a team. Colin
The third element of the strapline is ‘walking together … IN MISSION’ and it is this that gives me particular energy. As a local Pastor I became increasingly aware that while we may do ‘Sunday church’ very well, and be good at running courses or clubs or this or that, for many
Material for the next CBA News is required by December 20th. Please contact Stephen Copson if you have short features, information or adverts for consideration.
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CAN THESE DRY BONES LIVE.......? When the members of Sutcliff Baptist church in Olney decided to extend their premises to provide better facilities, first they had to deal with the graveyard that had been well populated over the previous two centuries. This was a costly and time-consuming business, but everything was done with due sensitivity and according to regulation. The redevelopment of the back of the site is the second stage of a refurbishment which began with the re-ordering of the sanctuary, to make it lighter and more comfortable and better adapted for the varying needs in worship for the C21st.
The tomb of the celebrated eighteenth century minister, John Sutcliff, was scheduled to be moved during the works. However, one touch proved fatal and the masonry crumbled. So the church’s future is being built literally on its glorious past! The motivation for the effort and expense of the project is so that the church can be better equipped for its mission to serve its local neigbourhood and share the good news of Jesus Christ with others by word and action and so nurture the sense of mission to the town. To see more about the life of this church in a Buckinghamshire market town, go to http://www.olneybaptist.org.uk/
MOVEMENTS in Ministry Into Association Helen Carr (URC) Danesholme LEP, Corby
to
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Simon Cragg to Christchurch, Welwyn Garden City from Southborough Lane, Bromley Tim Edworthy to Well Buckingham LEP from Newbury
Street
Peter Pilavachi to Broughton, ministerin-training Now the plan is to renovate the rear of the site (see artist impression above) to provide an attractive suite of rooms with enhanced reception area, more meeting rooms, better WC facilities and a modern kitchen This project will enable the church to house its own growing range of meetings but also will cater to the demand from community groups.
John Weaver in retirement, Beds
Out of Association Paul Brown from Stevington Paul Joel, Cotton End to Willingham
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PEACE CHANNEL In the summer, Walsworth Road Baptist Church in Hitchin organised their fourth Primary Schools’ Art Exhibition with more than 600 pieces of art submitted from children aged 4-11. Prizes were awarded but every picture was included in the exhibition. The artwork filled twelve large display panels hung in the church, and 325 visitors saw the exhibition. Sunday services focussed on ‘peace’. “Peace Channel” drew on the prayer of St Francis’, Make me a channel of your peace, but also linked to the 100th anniversary of the Great War. ‘Channel’ linked the world of television and internet. School assemblies launched the project included a length of guttering with balls rolling, illustrating that peace is a dynamic adventure as much as a state of being. Two other features in the exhibition generated further interest. Two very large mirrors were placed horizontally on the floor at the front of the church creating the effect of a giant (and deep!) pool for reflection, on which 100 candles forming the number 100 ‘floated’, together with a number of poppy flowers.
A “Peace Channel Challenge” was designed by an engineering student in the church family, featuring the letters of the word PEACE - a word at the very heart of the church’s self-understanding and missional service in Christ, and which is set into the architecture of the original entrance to the Victorian church premises and the new entrance opened in 2008. This installation was made out of a continuous length of domestic guttering and the challenge was to lift a corner of the board to which the guttering had been fixed, to ensure that a ball would roll along the channel from beginning to end and into a basket (the shortest time recorded was around 40 seconds!). It was hard work to organise, and it takes a team of people to create and hang the displays, and to be available to welcome visitors to the church, but once again it was worthwhile, and has really helped to consolidate the relationship with children and staff in local primary schools that has been built up during the past ten years. Andrew Henton Pusey, Minister WRBC
ASSEMBLY 2014 The Association Assembly was held in Whaddon Way Church in Bletchley in June. About 130 people came and as well as conducting the business, heard Chris Ellis, the Baptist Union President, speak on his theme of spirituality and mission. There was worship, fellowship and friendship; prayer and conversation; food and welcomes to new ministers. A good day.
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Two Amazing Weeks in July Ringstead Baptist Church was founded on 15 July 1714 by a dedicated band of dissenters who from the Act of Uniformity in 1662, had walked 15 miles each way to worship. The first weekend in July was a Flower festival “300 Years History in Flowers” when the building was filled with the most stunning arrangements depicting episodes from our history and aspects of our faith. A steady stream of visitors admired the flowers and asked about the baptistry (which was open and filled with flowers), giving us openings to tell them more. Rereshments in the schoolroom while watching pictures of old Ringstead gave more opportunities for conversation. The next weekend almost 100 people shared in our “Service of Celebration and Thanksgiving”. It was good to welcome former ministers, members and friends as well as our Regional Ministers and many
from the Kettering District Fellowship of Baptist Churches. We sang some of the great hymns of the last 300 years as well as lovely modern songs. We appreciated the address from Revd Dr Rob Ellis, Principal of Regent’s Park College in Oxford where our Ministers-in-training have been based and spent a long time happily catching up with one another over tea afterwards! Above all there was an overwhelming sense of the presence of God’s Spirit with us and urging us forward. Pictured here are Jan Sweetland, Patrick Smith, Angela Davis, (deacons) Rob Ellis, Geoff Colmer, Patrick Barker (minister-intraining), Stephen Copson, Kevin Price and Rosemary Eaton (former pastors) It is taking us some time to float gently down from the ‘high’ but we shall take these abiding memories with us into the next 300 years! Angela Davis
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It’s Carnival If you recently visited the Association FaceBook page, you would have discovered this piece of news from David Fleming, the minister of Limbury Baptist church, about August Bank Holiday in Luton. “Got to share some good news. Luton Carnival is the biggest one-day carnival in Europe. it is a multicultural event that pulls crowds of 200-300,000 people each year. Limbury Baptist Church did an amazing bit of outreach at the Luton Carnival yesterday. We gave away about 100L of tropical fruit punch, hundreds of balloons, put on puppet shows, worshipped and did craft with children. It was all free, and all in front of a giant inflatable church. We had an amazing day and so did hundreds and hundreds of people who visited our site. Pictures are on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/limburybaptist Please pray for those who we met over the course of the day. We talked with so many people, from a lady who used to go to church but became too busy ("so what do you do now on a Sunday Morning?" "Nothing, really"), to a man who thought Jesus came down in a spaceship (hence the star over Bethlehem).” Do you use Facebook? Do you want to connect, or to read stories, comment, news or to join the conversation with other local Baptists. If so, go to https://www.facebook.com/centralbap Like us. We like you!
CALLING ALL YOU PHOTOGRAPHERS The Baptist Union is seeking to add to its library of images What sort of photos are we looking for? “We are always delighted to receive photos of life in our churches – worship, prayer, small groups, all-age worship, social events, community events, Holiday at Home, Holiday Bible clubs, special events like inductions, commissioning, anniversary services, etc which include people from across the ages. Photos with people in them are usually more interesting than 'things' and you will need permission from the people in the pictures before sharing them. In order to use photos in printed material, they need to be of high-resolution and at least 300dpi. There may be occasions when we are looking for a specific kind of photo to illustrate a particular story/article. Please don't worry if you can't offer any photos for a particular request, but if you do have something which may 'fit the bill' we'd be delighted to hear from you. At the moment we are starting to prepare for our next Baptists Together magazine, and are specifically looking for photos which illustrate the themes of mercy and justice (Micah 6:8). If you have any photos which you feel would illustrate either of these themes, or could take some in the next few weeks, we'd love to receive them. Our deadline for receipt of these photos will be the end of October”. If this is of interest to you, contact Mary Parker on mparker@baptist.org.uk
page 7 people will be held on Saturday November 29th at Wollaston. Contact Stephen Copson for more details. This broad based course organised by the Association & Regent’s Park College Oxford is held over 10 Saturdays and offers an introduction to Christian life and thought that will enhance your discipleship and sharpen your understandings of faith. The first year programme Footsteps1 has begun for a third year and the new Footsteps 2 has just launched. It is not too early to be thinking about whether you would like to be part of Footsteps in September 2015! Want to know more? Contact Anne Lane on anne.lane@regents.ox.ac.uk
TREASURERS AND INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS Christ Church Stantonbury hosts a day event for the Association on Saturday October 18th. Led by Malcolm Broad, Treasurer of the Baptist Union . Cost £5. To register, contact Stephen Copson on stephen.c@centralba.org.uk
SAFEGUARDING A morning seminar for trustees to explore their responsibilities on safeguarding children and young
Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation Conference – 21 February 2015 Join us for Love your neighbour: Think, Pray, Vote - the third JPIT Conference - for a day of reflection, discussion and Bible study focussed on how Christians and churches can help create a more just society in the build-up to the 2015 General Election. We are excited to announce that the keynote address will be delivered by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. Following this will be a series of workshops on a wide range of issues, from engaging with the media and building relationships with your MP to climate change and grounding politics in faith. Love your neighbour: Think, Pray, Vote is at Coventry Central Hall on February 21st, with opening worship at 10.30. The conference is free, but a suggested donation of £10 on the day will help cover some of the costs. We expect there to be a lot of interest. Book early to avoid disappointment. For more information and to register please go to Love Your Neighbour: Think, Pray, Vote webpage.
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WHAT HAS HOME MISSION EVER DONE FOR US…..? Home Mission is the name for funding available to Baptists within our Union to enable work in national, regional and local contexts. It is sometimes called the Baptist purse but is better seen as an outpouring of money expressing our belonging to one another. The majority of this funding comes from donations from local churches, and members of the Central Baptist Association give generously – in 2013 over £322.000. Nationally, Home Mission is the resource to enable Baptists to encourage networking, share ideas with other Christians, support the development of ordained ministry and to provide specialist staff on trusts, finance, pensions and listed buildings. Regionally, monies shared with the Central Baptist Association allow the regional ministers to be used among the churches.
Baptist Union
CBA
Church Locally, in 2015, funding agreed by our Association will provide grants to 25 local churches, chaplaincies and ecumenical projects. They will support ministers-in-training, chaplains, local pastors and church planters. This is Home Mission or mission in your backyard….. You may never see the fruit of this work or know the people involved, but you are helping their mission. Perhaps you would like to highlight Home Mission in Sunday or midweek meeting? Talk to one of the Regional Ministers or maybe think of inviting a person whose ministry is supported by Home Mission. Maybe you would like to build a partner link to another congregation for support and prayer? Home Mission is a way in which all of us can identify with the mission of God through Baptists. What can your church do? Be informed. Pray. Give.