THE OPEN DOOR The Magazine of the Lymington United Reformed Church
Our tasting day on the bowling green
AUGUST 2022/ SEPTEMBER
Our Open Door Vision Statement…… “Our vision is to be a church with an Open Door for all people to come in and for us to reach out, responding to the needs of the community and spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
MINISTER’S PIECE
Look before you send people into mission A simple lesson from the bowling green to check our direction Bowls can be like life and if you don’t look before you bowl you can go a long way in the wrong direction! We can have a vision for where we want to go, but have we checked the church is ready for the journey? I knew where I intended this bowl to go and that was as close to a little white ball called a ’jack’ as I could get. Even though I say it myself, the style looks good and I sent the bowl to do a job, but it curved away from my vision for another destination. To my embarrassment It finished closer to the ‘jack’ in another game, but what, or who, was to blame? We like someone, or something, to blame, but to my shame I had not looked to see if the bowl was ready to achieve my vision. If I had looked before I bowled I would have seen I wasn’t holding it correctly and the bias would take it in the wrong direction. It wasn’t the fault of the bowl, but the person who was bowling. The old proverb comes to mind to “look 3
before you leap!” Which means that we shouldn't act without first considering the possible consequences or dangers. Churches can spend so much time considering the consequences and the health and safety risks that nothing gets done when it can be as simple as checking the bias on how you hold opportunities in your hand. We have amazing potential at Lymington United Reformed Church, but we need to check what we are doing before sending people into mission. However, there is nothing like a safe mission when you follow Jesus. Picking up your cross is not safe and painless so we cannot eliminate risk. You can send a bowl all the way to the ‘jack’ and be in the best possible position until someone comes and knocks you out of the way to win the day! (I found that we have some members who enjoyed doing that on the bowling green!!) If you are knocked out of the way it means you are (or were!) in the best place to be and that was where someone else also wanted to be. By putting yourself there you are leading the way to where people need to be so don’t worry about being knocked out of the way because that was the place for us to be. The biggest concern is when no-one wants to follow you because you are a long way from the destination and no-one wants to knock you out of the way. That happens when we don’t check how we are holding the opportunities in our hands. 4
Which way will the bias take our mission? It’s a very simple lesson from the bowling green for the mission field to check before you start which direction you plan to go…. God Bless, Richard
SECRETARY’S BITS AND PIECES FOR AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2022 This will be my last submission to the magazine as Secretary as my 2 years have come to an end. What an eventful period in our Church life this has been. We have all suffered through the pandemic, but in many ways we have grown stronger. Two years ago, we were, after 5 years, still without a Minister. Then we were blessed by Richard Becher answering our prayers and becoming our Minister. He has made a very positive impact not only on our Church, but also on the wider community. We now look forward to even more of his enthusiastic proposals. I was concerned a few months ago, that we had no nominations for people to fill 3 key roles in The Church : Secretary, Treasurer and Accounts Verifier. However nominations for these roles were received in time for The Annual Church Meeting and by the time you read this they should be in place. 5
I look forward to using my practical skills to serve our Church in other ways including work in the Church Garden and in Pastoral work. John
ELDERS ELECTION The result of the election held at the Annual Church Meeting was that Jenny Henderson and John Wiseman were elected for another term and that Christine Brown and Richard Mallory were elected as new Elders..
LYMINGTON URC DIARY COFFEE MORNINGS: The Open Door Café, Monday to Friday mornings from 10 a.m.. SUNDAY WORSHIP:
Note: Following guidelines there will be some changes for the time being. There will be no elders’ prayer time in the vestry at 10.15 but we will hold communion. Singing is now permitted.
CLOSING DATE FOR OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 'OPEN DOOR': 19th SEPTEMBER 2022 Free Wi Fi connection to the internet available in the Open Door Cafe, balcony, main hall and cottage meeting room areas. Just ask for the required passwords! 6
AUGUST 7th:
10.30 a.m.
Worship led by Rev’d Richard Becher
14th:
10.30 a.m.
Worship led by Mrs Christine Brown
21st:
10.30 a.m.
Worship led by Rev’d Rosie Ward
28th:
10.30 a.m.
Worship led by Mrs Maggie Larkin
SEPTEMBER 4th:
10.30 a.m.
Worship led by Rev’d Richard Becher
11th:
10.30 a.m.
Worship led by Mrs Mary Ann Jardine
18th:
10.30 a.m.
Worship led by Rev’d Richard Becher with Mr Andy Stevens
25th:
10.30 a.m.
Worship led by Mrs Christine Brown
NB: In the present environment these arrangements may still be subject to change at short notice.
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GOSPEL BELL
Celebrating with Gospel Bell
We had an amazing weekend of outreach and celebration with Gospel Bell in July to help celebrate our anniversaries. Open air service on Sunday with people on the High Street listening in and on Saturday Donald McCombie and Richard Teare, the leaders of the group, sang to the High Street Market followed by a concert on our stage in the garden.
Sunday service outdoors and our Prayer Tree a great success
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Thank you Gospel Bell for contributing to our anniversary celebrations -- 350 years in Lymington, 175 years on our present site and 50 years of the United Reformed Church. We also launched the Lymington Prayer Tree with anyone who passes on the High Street invited to write a prayer on a leaf and peg it to the tree.
Our stage in the garden is perfect for concerts!
WESSEX HEARTBEAT Many of you will be aware that Southampton University Hospital is one of the forefront centres in heart disease research, and under their charity Wessex Heartbeat supports the families of those who are undergoing major surgery or following a major trauma. We quite literally know they saved both Peter's life, during the nine weeks he was in hospital (nearly 7 years ago) and also Shelagh's by providing a bed just 400 yards from Intensive Care. 9
We have persuaded our son Andy to run the London Marathon in aid of Wessex Heartbeat on 2nd October (which happens to be the day after the URC 50th celebration in London, and the day before our Wedding Anniversary). Andy has committed to raising £2000 for the charity and we are asking everyone we know if they would consider making even a very small donation. Every penny will count and go towards vital research. The link to Andy's fundraising is : https://tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/andy-richardson? utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=website&utm_source=En thuseSendGrid or you can send any donations to us at 25a Sea Road, Milford on Sea, S041 0PH and we will forward them for you. None of us know if or when we might need this local charity any more than we did. We promise to let you know how he gets on - and sorry we won’t be at church on 2nd October we will be cheering him on! Thank you. Peter and Shelagh Richardson
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ROTAS FOR AUGUST COMMUNION SUNDAY: 7th COMMUNION ELDERS: Judith and John DUTY ELDER 7th John Wiseman 14th Judith Baker 21st Margaret Clark 28th David Bywater
READING IN CHURCH Colin Noyce Wyn Davies Pat Weaver Peter Middleton
STEWARDS SOUND SYSTEM 7th Virginia Becker and Barbara Waite DW/MC 14th Liz Griffiths and Christine Brown DB/GC 21st Pat Weaver and Anne Simmons WD/MC 28th Gill Wiseman and Peter Middleton DW/MC
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ROTAS FOR SEPTEMBER COMMUNION SUNDAY: 4th COMMUNION ELDERS: Barbara and Jenny DUTY ELDER 4th Jenny Henderson 11th Barbara Waite 18th Chris Brown 25th Richard Mallory
READING IN CHURCH Keith Holmes Janet Taylor Chris Brown Richard Mallory
STEWARDS 4th Norma Bell and Judith Baker 11th Shelagh and Peter Richardson 18th Lizbeth Eason and Fran Cooke 25th Janice Perkins and Kate Noon
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SOUND SYSTEM DB/GC WD/MC DW/MC DB/GC
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OPEN DOOR FELLOWSHIP AND FUNDRAISING
We will be having our own Anniversary celebration tea on August 5th 2-4.30, hopefully in the garden, with some live music from Peter Middleton. Looking ahead there will be our Warbler’s cream tea on Friday 21st October.
PLEASE NOTE: This magazine is printed on paper from renewable sources out of our concern for the environment.
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www.twocountiescleaning.co.uk 01425 613860
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Whilst every care is taken to ensure information within the advertisements and posters on display in the magazine is accurate, Lymington URC does not accept any liability to any party for any errors or omissions. Lymington URC does not officially endorse the advertising material included on any external organisations’ adverts/posters.
If you wish to advertise in The Open Door magazine (6 issues per year), please contact the Lymington URC for more details. Competitive rates, both mono and colour adverts accommodated in quarter, half and full page sizes!”
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CONTACT DETAILS Minister:
Rev’d Richard Becher. Tel 01590 688657 E-mail: reverendurclym@btinternet.com
Church Secretary: John Wiseman. Tel 01590 676306 e-mail: secretaryurclym@btinternet.com Magazine Editor:
Wyn Davies. Tel 01425 616384 e-mail: WynBDavies@sky.com
Children & Families contact: childrenfamiliesurclym@btinternet.com Church web site:
http://www.lymurc.org.uk/ Tel 01590 676306 e-mail: adminurclym@btinternet.com
Other web sites that list the church: http://www.joinmychurch.com http://www.findachurch.co.uk http://www.searchchurch.co.uk Centre Manager:
Andrew Collins. Tel 01590 676306
(As the Centre Manager is not in on Mondays the Church Office is closed that day). NOTE! The Church Office is open to callers in person: Tuesday - Friday 9.30am to 12 noon. (The church office is upstairs in the cottage. If the church/hall doors are locked during the office open times, please proceed to the cottage).
Basics Bank web site: http://www.basicsbank.org.uk/ Tel 01590 610008 E. admin@basicsbank.org.uk Charity No: 115017