Contact - February 2016

CONTACT

Magazine of Erdington Methodist Church Station Road - February 2016 1

Contents Minister’s Letter Vacancies Walk Through the New Testament In a sack Praying the Psalms – advance notice Coffee Morning 19th March Vision Project - winding up!

Giving up for Lent Growth - it’s not about being clever!

The Cracked Pot Refugees Judgement?

Read that again?

St Chad’s Sanctuary Mind the Gap Reith Lectures Silent Auction Blessing Some hints about prayer this Lent Giving a green light to mission Sir David Willcocks CBE MC Jelly Babies Leap Year – 29th February February Regular Meetings Coffee Mornings Tuesday Club Sunday Worship Weekly Church Activities 2

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Minister’s Letter Dear friends All living things change. We are born and grow, and later in life we tend to shrink again! We get fatter or slimmer, wiser or more foolish. Sometimes we change because we choose to, other times it just happens. The world, our families and our friends all change, too. Sometimes the change is welcome, sometimes it isn’t. That’s life!

It’s the same with church congregations: they are born, they grow, they shrink, they die. Except that a congregation isn’t a single thing. It’s a combination of people and groups – a gathering. It’s more like a garden than a single plant and while some parts are growing, others can be fading. Change is sometimes welcome, sometimes it isn’t. Or it’s welcome in some parts of the garden but not in others. Only one thing is certain: things won’t stay the same!

Given that change will come, like gardeners we have to decide what changes we want or need to make. Some of those changes will be in response to what happens elsewhere: gardeners have to think about climate change, for example, and as a congregation we have to think about how we respond to changes in the world around us. For example, how does our multi-cultural, multi-faith society affect the Church’s mission? And just as gardeners look and think what would make their garden better, so we have to look and ask what would make us better as a Church.

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Of course, it isn’t exactly the same: the Church isn’t ours! It belongs to Jesus Christ, and we’re not at liberty to do as we like with it. It’s as if we’re gardeners looking after somebody else’s garden for them. As we get to know him better, of course, we understand him better and have a clearer idea of what he wants and what he doesn’t. But all along, we seek to make the garden as he wants it.

Some things are constant, in gardens and congregations. The main one is the need for health: gardeners continually weed, feed, nurture, prune, etc. Congregations need to maintain healthy relationships, and be continually fed and nurtured. Sometimes they stop doing some things so that their energy can be redirected. And with constant change, congregations must depend constantly on God. Over these next months I want to help the churches in my care to think about these things in practical ways, so we can be more fruitful. Jesus said, ‘my Father is the gardener’ (John 15:1).

God bless Rev Paul

Vacancies We currently have vacancies for people to fill the following roles. If you think you can help then please speak to a Steward.

Representatives to: - Home & Overseas Missions - Methodist Women In Britain - Churches Together in Erdington 4

Walk Through the New Testament Many of us enjoyed a fantastic day last May when we did the Walk Through the Old Testament. We’re thrilled now to offer a Walk Through the New Testament! It will be a day of lively and interactive seminars, by speakers from Walk Through the Bible Ministries, helping us to understand the people, times and places of the New Testament.

It will enthuse you and help you to go on to read the Bible more for yourself.

Date: Saturday 20 Feb 2016 Time: 9.30am to 5pm Venue: Stockland Green Methodist Church The cost of the day is normally £14 per person, but Sutton Park Methodist Circuit are subsidising this event. The cost to us will be just £7 per adult. All adults will receive a colour workbook to take home with them. Children aged 11 to 16 are free if coming along with a paying adult in a family group. The day is not suitable for under 11s.

It’s necessary to book if you’re coming. Please use the booking form available at Church and send it, with the fee, to Gill Buck by Saturday 13 Feb.

In a sack Seen in a church magazine: ‘Bring your old newspapers (and your neighbours), put them in a sack and tie them if possible.’

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Praying the Psalms – advance notice The Psalms have been a wonderful resource to God’s people for thousands of years. They formed what has been called the ‘Prayerbook of Jesus’: he prayed them himself and quoted them on numerous occasions. All of us have found help from them at one time or another. Some of us use them every day. They help us find our place with God, they help us pray and they help us tell our story. They also contain some things we find unsettling, though, and can make us wince and cringe!

Across 5 Sunday evenings, from 13 March to 10 April, Rev Paul will lead a series of studies on the Psalms. Venue: Stockland Green, 6.30 - 8pm. Do come along, and we’ll share insights and experiences together.

Coffee Morning 19th March At this coffee morning we hope to complete a piece of community art to commemorate our achievement in completing the refurbishment of our building.

Please come and join in and have a look round, share a coffee and munch a bacon bap.

Thank you for your support Vision Group

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Vision Project - winding up!

The good news for 2016 is that the project is almost completed and we will have achieved everything that we set out to do. At the start we anticipated completion in 2018 with a target of £245,000.

Trying not to be pessimistic we had planned the work to take place in ‘stand alone’ phases so if we did not reach our financial target we would not be left with half - finished work. However, we only need to refurbish the upstairs toilets and have new carpet fitted to the stairs up to the organ. We have raised £20,000 above the original target, and are aiming for another £2,000 to be sure of completing all payments.

When you read this the Quiz Night will be over and, it promises to be an enjoyable evening. Elsewhere in Contact will be details of a Silent Auction and, with the coffee morning on March 19th, this will be the Vision project’s final event. We are not advertising the coffee morning specifically as a Gift Day, but there will be a donations box for any contributions you would like to make.

Officially Vision finishes on Thursday March 31st. and we thought we would like to mark this in some way. Our applications to charities emphasised the fact that the extended foyer would be used to provide refreshment, practical and spiritual, for the community, on the lines of the Saturday coffee morning; awards were made on this basis. This will need some thought as to convenient days to meet, and particularly will need people to run it! We think it best to proceed cautiously. It is appropriate to celebrate the project completion with the first of these ‘drop ins’ and show that our promises will be fulfilled. This is the week after Easter so the church will not be in use and an ideal day to start.

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The project group will organise this, advertise it, and see what happens; more details to come.

Important date for your diary Sunday 1st MAY at 6.00 pm - a circuit service at Erdington to celebrate the Vision Project. Refreshments from 4.30 pm and the preacher will be the District Chair, Rev Ian Howarth.

Hilary Price, for the project group

Giving up for Lent At the end of the vicar’s pre-Lent sermon he suggested, as an example to the rest of the community, that the congregation should worship in an unheated church for the whole of Lent. As they made their way into the chill Sunday air the vicar addressed one member of the congregation, asking what she had decided to give up for Lent. “Church,” she replied firmly.

Growth - it’s not about being clever!

It is not the number of books you read, nor the variety of sermons you hear, nor the amount of religious conversation in which you mix, but it is the frequency and earnestness with which you meditate on these things, till the truth in them becomes your own and part of your being, that ensures your growth.

F W Robertson 8

A shortened version of a story for children (of all ages!)

The Cracked Pot For two years a water bearer in India carried two large pots which were hanging from the ends of a pole. One of these pots was cracked but the other one was perfect. The problem was that water seeped out of the cracked pot so that when the bearer arrived home, it was only half full of water whereas the other pot was completely full. The cracked pot grew very unhappy as it could never carry the full amount of water home. It always leaked.

Eventually the pot spoke to its bearer and told him of its feelings of unhappiness.

The water bearer felt sorry for the pot and said, “When you walked home did you see the flowers growing only on your side of the path? I planted the seeds of those flowers on your side of the path on purpose because I knew your pot would water them every day.

See how they have grown into beautiful flowers. I pick them regularly and take them home and they brighten up the rooms in the house. You have done such a good job in watering them so well.�

This Indian fable is a story with a moral. In a way, we are all cracked pots - not really of course - but this story helps us to understand that none of us is perfect and there are times when we think we are not good enough. The good news, however, is that we can all live our lives to the full and we can all look for the good in everybody.

Barbara Rawson 9

Refugees One of our Christmas charities was for the work of Methodist partners working with refugees in Europe. The latest information from the Methodist World Mission Fund is that donations for this aspect of its work have exceeded £50,000.

The ‘Refugee Update’ December 2015 contained much information about the current situation in Europe. However, the item that caught my eye was one relating to climate change rather then violence.

Peter Farley

Refugees in Asia and the Pacific

By Steve Pearce There are many refugees in different parts of Asia and the Pacific who seldom feature in our news media. The impact of climate change may well create 250 million refugees worldwide by 2050 in places such as the Pacific islands and Bangladesh.

In areas of the Pacific, sea level is rising by 1.2cm a year – four times faster than the global average. For some of the coral-based islands only two or three metres above sea level, this has already resulted in relocation (our mission partner Julia Edwards has reported on some of these; her newsletters are available online at www.methodist.org.uk/juliaedwards).

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Last year the Kiribati government bought 20 sq km of land on the Fiji island of Vanua Levu, in case people needed to move. Dozens of villages in Fiji itself will soon be moved; 2,000 people from the Carteret atoll of Papua New Guinea will soon relocate to mainland Bougainville, a three hour boat trip away, because of salt intrusion and tidal damage. Also last year, engineers from Australia and Britain helped plan the relocation of Taro, a town in the Solomon Islands. The move will mark the first time a regional capital in the Pacific has been displaced for environmental reasons.

Judgement?

This true story concerns the visit of a visiting preacher to a little village chapel… ‘He was a few minutes into his sermon when, without warning, about twenty square feet of thick and decayed Victorian plaster fell from high on one wall and crashed into a group of empty pews below. As the dense fog of dust began to settle, and it became clear no one was in injured, the minister prepared to resume his sermon. Then he paused, and looked heavenward and in a slightly pained voice, asked: “Was it something I said?”’

Read that again?

This true story appeared in Episcopal Life: ‘When I was on the diocesan staff… I was a frequent visitor to the Parish of St Michael and All Angels in Anniston, Alabama. Upon one of my Sunday visits, I was to have been welcomed in the Sunday bulletin with the comment: ‘Dr Gribben has been with us frequently.’ Instead, a typo acknowledged my presence with the observation: ‘Dr Gribben has beer with us frequently!’

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St Chad’s Sanctuary During January and February the Circuit are collecting items to support the work of St. Chad's Sanctuary with asylum seekers.

Please bring items to church and give to a Steward, or bring to the Friday evening coffee bar.

Items needed are: • men's trainers size 6-9 • Girls and boys underwear (clean but does not need to be new) for 2-12 years, including small size bras • Pots and pans - not crockery or glassware • Fleeces and jackets, small & medium NOT LARGE • Shaving foam and disposable razors • Mens jeans 28-32 inch waist • Duffle/school type bag Thank you

Mind the Gap

Anne Churcher

I noticed that Gap stores are donating their plastic carrier bag fee to Action for Children . . . if you are someone who visits this store then another reason to visit. I certainly was very pleased to support this charity shopping recently.

Jan Payne 14

Reith Lectures On 7th January Peter Farley and I were fortunate to attend Professor Steven Hawking’s presentation of The Reith Lectures which took place at The Royal Institution in London. What a wonderful experience!

His presentation was very precise and he dealt with questions from colleagues, family and school children with great panache even though occasionally there were momentary pauses for his talking machine to catch up. Professor Hawking may be severely disabled, but my goodness, his brain is brilliant.

I was surprised to learn that black holes can have fur. It also became clear that no one will ever be able to see these mysterious objects, which is why they are black. We can only infer their presence by the effect they have on normal matter. I thought I knew quite a lot about black holes but I have now discovered just how little I do know!

Professor Hawking’s daughter, Lucy, had the final word. She claimed her father’s intractable nature provides the impetus for his work. She had uttered no more than a word or two about her remarkable father when she was suddenly interrupted by a malfunction of his computer. After the computer error was corrected she induced peals of laughter around the hall when she suggested that this was probably her father's way of shutting her up!

Don Rawson 15

Silent Auction As the name suggests this is not an event you have to attend in person but a bit like the Mary and Joseph list.

A large poster will appear in February with columns for you to complete . . . your name and an item or skill you wish to sell. You may put a reserve on if you wish. There will be further spaces for people to bid for your item so for example: Jan Payne - 4 hours gardening reserve price £10 person 1 £15 with name and contact details... person 2 £ 20 etc .... or it might be an item for example: Box Set of Twilight ...... £5 Hope you can think of ways to support this givers and buyers will be needed.

The poster will be up for a month.

Blessing

Vision Group

One Sunday when my grand-daughter was about two years old, her daddy and mummy made their Communion at my local church, and took her with them for a blessing. Arriving back in our pew she said in a loud voice: ‘Granny, the man has said his prayers on my head, and he has a lovely dress on.’

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Some hints about prayer this Lent Prayer is instinctive for human beings, even those who don’t regard themselves as religious. You are standing at a bus stop in the wind and the rain, thinking ‘I do hope the bus will come soon’.

It’s an inner yearning. It defies logic: either the bus is coming or it isn’t. But we all do it. It’s instinctive and it’s the raw material of prayer. Hoping for something better is basic. Like all instincts, it needs to be trained.

To whom do we pray? What you pray and the way you do it will be shaped by your view of God. Christian prayers are fashioned by what we know of Jesus and what He taught about prayer.

We pray by invitation. Again and again, Jesus encouraged his companions to pray. A couple of his parables on the subject have been misinterpreted as instructions to persuade a resistant God to do what we want. Have a look at Luke 18, verses 1-8, about a widow whose perseverance finally persuaded an unwilling judge to rule in her favour. The lesson is that God is not like that!

Similarly, an unwelcome neighbour who persistently calls for help in the middle of the night gets what he wants (Luke 11.5-13). The lesson? If tenacious lobbying can overcome human unwillingness, how much more our gracious God will heed his children’s cry.

Pushing at an open door. Jesus is already praying for us. So when we start to pray, we step on to an already moving staircase.

Sometimes prayer seems tougher than it need be. Jesus invited us to be linked to him, in the way an inexperienced bullock is yoked to a mature ox. Have a look at Matthew 11, 28-29, which concludes “for my yoke is easy and my burden is light”. When Marion 17

Bartoli unexpectedly won the 2013 Women’s Wimbledon final, she said “I believe if you put all your heart and effort into everything you are doing, then God is there to help you.”

Is your prayer on the right lines? Try adding “for Christ’s sake” at the end. “Please let my marrow win the Gardening Club competition”? No. “Not my will but yours” is the key. So when praying, don’t give God instructions, just report for duty.

The Ven John Barton

Giving a green light to mission The Connexion magazine brings together inspirational stories from Methodist people worldwide, who are passionate about sharing God's love to change lives.

The latest issue features stories of mission in action. It tells how Methodists are doing church differently, by taking risks, offering radical hospitality, going mobile and going on-air. The Holy Spirit is inspiring local Methodist churches to meet needs and change communities.

Mission continues to change Methodism.

The magazine is being distributed at the moment. But you can read the online version on the Methodist Church main website where you can also sign up to receive copies by post. from the Methodist News Service 18

Sir David Willcocks CBE MC 1919-2015 It is my tradition at Christmas to watch the Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols and this year was no exception. I was reminded, whilst watching that in September of this year one of the country’s renowned choirmasters, organists, composers and conductors died after a most remarkable career.

Born in Newquay, Cornwall David Willcocks trained as chorister at Westminster Abbey going on to Clifton College, Bristol before becoming an organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. It was there he met David Briggs, a choral scholar who later together would become colleagues at King’s as Organist and Master of Choristers respectively.

His career in music was interrupted by WW2, when he served in the British Army as an officer, being decorated for his action in the Battle of Normandy by Field Marshal Montgomery.

In 1947 he was elected Fellow of King’s College and appointed Conductor of the Cambridge Philharmonic Society. He became organist of Salisbury Cathedral and Salisbury Music Society before moving to Worcester Cathedral and became principal conductor of the Three Choirs Festival. He then went on to conduct the City of Birmingham Choir and later the Bradford Festival Choral Society.

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He was particularly associated with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge which he directed between 1957-1974 with frequent broadcasts and recordings, composing music for them. He became a familiar figure at the Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols. His first broadcast service being a somewhat poignant Nine Lessons and Carols on the first Christmas Eve of the war. And it was from Willcocks’s charges that the King’s Singers first emerged in the 1960s.

He held numerous positions during his long career.

For the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer, Willcocks served as director of music and conducted a new piece

by William Mathias. The event was watched by an estimated global TV audience of 750 million.

He was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen in 1977 in recognition of his services to choral music. If you would like to read more, and there’s much, much more to read, go online and read his obituary from The Telegraph.

What a truly remarkable man and worthy of recognition.

(Incidentally, a young man who worked with Willcocks co-editing four volumes in the Carols for Choirs series was a certain John Rutter, who went on to develop his own musical career. But that’s another story.)

Ann Tomes (With thanks to The Telegraph and Wikipedia)

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Jelly Babies Just after Christmas there was an article on the BBC web page about Jelly Babies and their slightly macabre history. This reminded me of one of the most memorable greeting cards that I was ever given by one of my children. The words on the front of the card were ‘You wouldn’t would you?’ and inside, attached to the card was a decapitated Jelly Baby.

Apparently the earliest record relating to these little sweets was when an Austrian confectioner was asked to make a mould for bear shaped sweets in 1864. Unfortunately the resulting sweets looked more like babies. By an interesting set of coincidences these were sold into Victorian pockets in Nelson as ‘Unclaimed Babies’. Such a title would not have resonated in the same way as it does today. At that time it is estimated that there were 30,00 feral children lived on the streets of London, doing whatever was needed to stay alive.

The problem was so serious that unwanted children were often abandoned on church or hospital steps as the least worst option.

The use of this title may even have raised a wry smile in polite circles.

The title jelly babies slowly evolved over the remainder of the 18th century. But once they were so labelled they from strength to strength. According to newspaper reports at the time they were is great demand by soldiers at the front during World War 1. When was finished Bassets took a marketing opportunity and sold them as Peace Babies. Production was halted during WW2, presumably because of the shortage of raw materials. Production began again in 1953.

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Since then they have been the favourite of personalities including George Harrison and Tom Baker’s Doctor Who. They have been the subject of animated advertising and the different colours have each been given names, Brilliant (red – strawberry), Bigheart (black – blackcurrant), Bubbles (yellow – lemon), Boofuls (green – lime)and Bumper (orange). From 2007 they have contained only natural ingredients However the biggest question still remains, ‘You wouldn’t would you?’ When you eat your Jelly Baby do you decapitate it, nibble round the edges or tear it limb from limb?

I wonder what a psychologist would make of it. Would you be labelled as a cannibal head chopper, a procrastinating nibbler or a serial killing dismemberer?

Peter Farley

Leap Year – 29th February 2016 brings us a Leap Year. We need to add this extra day every four years in order to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the Sun. The problem is very simple: our calendar has 365 days, but it actually takes 365.242199 days (a tropical year) to circle once around the Sun. That means we are ‘out’ by nearly six hours a year. Four times six hours is 24 hours hence an extra day every four years. Adding the extra day in February goes back to Julius Caesar in 45 BC. In his Julian Calendar, February was the last month of the year, and 24th February was Leap Year Day. 22

February Regular Meetings Coffee Mornings Each Saturday 10.00 am to 12.00 noon

Tuesday Club Every 4th Tuesday in the month at 2.30 pm

Sunday Worship All worship starts at 10.30 am unless stated otherwise below. For more information on Christmas Services/Activities please see list earlier in this magazine.

7th

HOLY COMMUNION - Rev Gerald Hainsworth

14th

Worship Group

17th

ALL AGE WORSHIP - Rev Paul Dunstan Circuit Service at South Parade Methodist - 6.00 pm

28th

Liz Topliss

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Weekly Church Activities Sunday

10.30 am

MORNING WORSHIP and Young Church

Tuesday

9.30 - 12.30 pm 2.00 pm

Pre-School : Karen Homer Tuesday Afternoon Meeting : Margaret Hillman (2nd)

Wednesday

9.30 - 11.30 am 9.30 - 12.30 pm 12.30 pm

Stay and Play Pre-School : Karen Homer Luncheon Club - (1st and 3rd)

Thursday

9.30 - 12.30 pm

Pre-School : Karen Homer

Friday

9.30 - 12.30 pm 5.00 - 6.15 pm 6.15 - 7.45 pm 7.45 - 9.15 pm 7.45 - 9.15 pm 5.30 - 6.30 pm 5.00 - 6.30 pm 7.30 - 9.00 pm

Pre-School : Karen Homer Beavers : Lynn Turner Cubs : Elizabeth Baizon Scouts : Lisa Porter Explorers : Lucy Porter Rainbows : Debbie Barnett Brownies : Lesley Carter Guides : Helen Rainsford

Saturday

10.00 - 12.00 noon 10.30 - 11.30 am

Coffee Morning : Lesley Morgan Church open for prayer : Margaret Curzon

Please hand any items for the March CONTACT to any of the Editorial Team (Peter Farley, Christine Rankin, Ann Tomes & Nick Riley) by 15th February 2016 at the latest please or alternatively email me: nickriley@blueyonder.co.uk with the word ‘CONTACT’ in the title.

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