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Magazine of Erdington Methodist Church Station Road - July/August 2017 GROWING GOD’S KINGDOM IN ERDINGTON, THROUGH WORSHIP, PRAYER ACTION AND FRIENDSHIP 1

Contents From our Minister, Malcolm Tuesday Club Meal Why it is good to talk to yourself Some Summer Reading Growing up Rambling Group Still lost in translation Brass band extraordinaire A Staffordshire Poem Extract from Annual Report of Erdington Foodbank : 2016-2017 Beat back seat boredom A Crossword to test your wits Flight path Grenfell Tower - Peter Farley Crossword Answers No home? No baby July/August Regular Meetings Tuesday Club Sunday Worship Weekly Church Activities

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From our Minister, Malcolm Dear friends, I am amazed with the progress the twins have made since we arrived in Birmingham last September‌ The time as flown by, before August they will have completed year one, and gained the ability to read and write. Like education, Methodism takes August as the end of the Church year and September as the beginning.

Please do make sure you have the date for the farewell service (30th July) and the welcome service in your diary (3rd September 6.30pm at Four Oaks). We will be welcoming two Presbyters and a Deacon: (1) Revd Stephen Froggatt and Deacon Marilyn Slowe who will work closely alongside Revd Alan Smithson.

(2) Revd Andrew Brazier who will work closely (part time) alongside Revd Stephen Willey and myself. You are invited to pray as we explore and discover how best we can utilise the gifts and graces of Stephen, Andrew and myself in the churches where Stephen and I have pastoral charge (Kingstanding, Nechells, Boldmere, Witton, Erdington Stockland Green and Falcon Lodge).

As we prepare to embark on a new Methodist year in September, we do so in an ever changing global, national, local and church community. At the time of writing the formal Brexit conversations have just begun, several terrorist attacks have caused immense pain and approaching 100 people have lost their lives in a towering inferno.

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Since the beginning of the last Methodist year some wonderful Christians have gone to glory. Yet we continue to ‘Praise Him for all that is past and trust him for all that’s to come’ It is a miracle that despite great adversity and pain, people have the strength to overcome. The power of love! a poignant example of this for me is Julliet. Just after the birth of her first child on the shores of lake Kariba in Zambia, she went to draw water, was attacked by a crocodile and lost both forearms. I first met her only days ofter this happened seven years ago…. and felt desperate to do something to help her… but what could be done?

I met Julliet in June in the rural and remote Gwembe Valley.

Despite her disability and never since that awful day being able to hold her baby, Julliet warmly welcomed us with a smile on her face. Through generous giving, including some from this circuit, Julliet travelled to UK four years ago and had a prosthetic arm made. Other money raised enabled her to build a simple house… and the balance over the years will be used to improve her home and enable her now seven year old daughter to get the best education she can.

Visiting Julliet was so special . . . this woman has overcome and made the best of the pain of the past, choosing to be positive rather than negative…. and that of course is a choice that millions of people also have, and, Praise God, others also make the choice for the positive. Mini (and not so mini) Miracles! Jesus said, I come that you may have life and life in all its fullness (John 10 v 10). Few of us know what tomorrow will bring… but some words again of Jesus may help us decide what choices we make : Matthew 6 v 25ff.

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May God bless us a we prepare to journey into a new Methodist year.

Your minister and friend, Malcolm

Tuesday Club Meal On July 11th Tuesday Club are sharing a meal at Blake Barn.

Please arrive at 12.30 for 1.00pm

Why it is good to talk to yourself When we see people talking out loud to themselves, we can tend to avoid them as slightly odd. But, in reality, they may be very smart indeed. According to a recent study at Bangor University, those of us who speak to ourselves while focusing on a task do better than those of us who stay silent.

It seems that when we read instructions out loud, our brains absorb information more quickly. As one psychologist at Bangor explained: ‘Our ability to generate explicit self-instructions is actually one of the best tools we have for cognitive control.’ Things simply work better when said aloud. Talking to ourselves helps us to better organise our thoughts, plan our actions, consolidate our memories, and control our emotions.

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Some Summer Reading As we enter July I thought it would be nice to get some reading recommendations so I asked Elizabeth Baizon and some of the Book Club members to suggest some - ed The Twilight Hour – Nicci Gerrard Eleanor Lee has lived a very independent life for over ninety years and following a small fire in her home her children give her an ultimatum – live with one of us or move into a nursing home. She reluctantly agrees to move into a nursing home but with the condition that the move does not take place until after her 95th birthday allowing her time to tidy her life away. Amongst her life time possessions are some things that must be kept hidden and, nearing blindness, Eleanor needs help to uncover them before her children and grandchildren do. She employs Peter Mistley, a young man dealing with his own ghosts, to help with this task and together they uncover traces of another life - words and photographs telling a story of forbidden love, betrayal, passion, grief and self-sacrifice, which Eleanor must visit one last time.

By speaking her memories out loud, and releasing the secrets of her past, Eleanor can finally lay them to rest. To honour them at last, and protect those who must never know.

The idea for the storyline is not unique, and the ‘secret’ somewhat predictable, however this was an enjoyable read having much to say about reflections on a life lived; memories and secrets, selfsacrifice and responsibilities, consequences and how all these stir our minds as we grow older.

Christine Rankin 6

The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce I have read ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry’ twice and it is just as good the second time around. In fact I read it from start to finish on Sunday ready for a discussion at our book club.

The book is written by Rachel Joyce and is of course about Harold Fry who leaves home in Devon to post a letter one morning and just carries on walking as he wants to visit an old friend, Queenie, in Berwick-upon-Tweed. He has no hiking boots or map, let alone a compass, waterproof or mobile phone.

Don’t miss this book and its uplifting tale.

Marion Griffin The hand that first held mine by Maggie O’farrell I was looking for a book to read in the small hotel library where we were staying on holiday and was struggling to find one I fancied.

As I turned to go a woman returning a book to the library came to me & said “are you looking for a book?”. “If you are -read this” she said & off I went. Once I had started the book I couldn’t put it down. Read it and you’ll find out why!!

When the sophisticated Innes Kent turns up on her doorstep, Lexie Sinclair realises she cannot wait any longer for her life to begin, and leaves for London. There, at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene, she carves out a new life. In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling from the difficult birth of their first child. Elina struggles to reconcile the demands of motherhood with her sense of herself as an artist, and Ted is disturbed by memories of his own childhood that don't tally with his parents' version of events. As Ted begins to 7

search for answers, an extraordinary portrait of two women is revealed, separated by fifty years, but connected in ways that neither could ever have expected.

Marion Griffin Some great non-fiction suggestions from Elizabeth - ed The Amazing Story of the Man who Cycled from India to Europe for Love - Per J. Anderson Pradyumna Kumar, known as PK, was born into a poor, untouchable family in a small village in eastern India. All his life he has kept a palm leaf bearing an astrologer’s prophecy: “You will marry a girl who is not from the village, not from the district, not even from our country; she will be musical, own a jungle and be born under the sign of the ox.” But not until PK attends art school in New Delhi do his stars begin to align. One evening, while drawing portraits in a park, he meets a young Swedish woman, Lotta von Schendin — and this brief meeting will change the courses of their lives forever.

This is the remarkable true story of how a young Indian man armed with nothing more than a handful of paintbrushes and a secondhand Raleigh bicycle made his way across Asia and Europe in search of the woman he loves.

An African in Greenland – Tete-Michel Kpomassie Tete-Michel Kpomassie was a teenager in Togo when he discovered a book about Greenland--and knew that he must go there. Working his way north over nearly a decade, Kpomassie finally arrived in the country of his dreams. This brilliantly observed and superbly 8

entertaining record of his adventures among the Inuit is a testament both to the wonderful strangeness of the human species and to the surprising sympathies that bind us all.

The Zookeeper’s Wife – Diane Ackerman When Germany invades Poland, Luftwaffe bombers devastate Warsaw and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals killed, or stolen away to Berlin, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski begin smuggling Jews into the empty cages.

As the war escalates Jan becomes increasingly involved in the antiNazi resistance. Ammunition is buried in the elephant enclosure and explosives stored in the animal hospital. Plans are prepared for what will become the Warsaw uprising. Through the everpresent fear of discovery, Antonina must keep her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and animal inhabitants - otters, a badger, hyena pups, lynxes - as Europe crumbles around them.

Written with the narrative drive and emotional punch of a novel, The Zookeeper's Wife is a remarkable true story. It shows us the human and personal impact of war - of life in the Warsaw Ghetto, of fighting in the anti-Nazi resistance. But more than anything it is a story of decency and sacrifice triumphing over terror and oppression.

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu – Joshua Hammer In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that were 9

crumbling in the trunks of desert shepherds. His goal: to preserve this crucial part of the world’s patrimony in a gorgeous library.

But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door.

Part history, part scholarly adventure story, and part journalist survey….Joshua Hammer writes with verve and expertise about how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist from the legendary city of Timbuktu, became one of the world’s greatest smugglers by saving the texts from sure destruction. With bravery and patience, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali. His heroic heist has all the elements of a classic adventure novel and is a reminder that ordinary citizens often do the most to protect the beauty of their culture. His the story is one of a man who, through extreme circumstances, discovered his higher calling and was changed forever by it.

Just Mercy – Bryan Stevenson The US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. The prison population has increased from 300,000 in the early 1970s to more than two million now. One in every 15 people is expected to go to prison. For black men, the most incarcerated group in America, this figure rises to one out of every three.

Bryan Stevenson grew up a member of a poor black community in the racially segregated South. He was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of the US’s criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young black man who was 10

sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, startling racial inequality, and legal brinksmanship — and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.

Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted lawyer’s coming of age, a moving portrait of the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of justice. . . . and some Fiction Book suggestions from Elizabeth - ed Sweet caress – William Boyd Amory's first memory is of her father doing a handstand. She has memories of him returning on leave during the First World War. But his absences, both actual and emotional, are what she chiefly remembers. It is her photographer uncle Greville who supplies the emotional bond she needs, and, when he gives her a camera and some rudimentary lessons in photography, unleashes a passion that will irrevocably shape her future.

A spell at boarding school ends abruptly and Amory begins an apprenticeship with Greville in London, living in his flat in Kensington, earning two pounds a week photographing socialites for fashionable magazines. But Amory is hungry for more and her search for life, love and artistic expression will take her to the demi monde of Berlin of the late 1920s, to New York of the 1930s, to the Blackshirt riots in London and to France in the Second World War where she becomes one of the first women war photographers.

Her desire for experience will lead Amory to further wars, to lovers, husbands and children as she continues to pursue her dreams and battle her demons.

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In this enthralling story of a life fully lived, William Boyd has created a sweeping panorama of some of the most defining moments of modern history, told through the camera lens of one woman.

When the Sky Fell Apart – Caroline Lea Jersey, June 1940: it starts with the burning man on the beach just after the bombs land, obliterating the last shred of hope that Hitler will avert his attention from the Channel Islands. Within weeks, 12,000 German troops land on the Jersey beaches, heralding a new era of occupation.

For 10-year-old Claudine, it means a re-education under German rule, and as she befriends one of the soldiers, she inadvertently opens the gateway to a more sinister influence in her home with devastating consequences.

For Maurice, a local fisherman, it means protecting his wife at all costs. He has heard the whispers from France of what the occupiers do to invalids like Marthe and he is determined to keep them away from her - even if it means endangering his own life.

Edith, the island's unofficial homeopath, is a Jerriais through to her bones. She sees her duty as caring for those who need her in their darkest time, but even she can't save everyone, no matter how hard she tries.

And as for English doctor Tim Carter - on the arrival of the brutal Commandant, he becomes the subject of a terrifying regime that 12

causes the Jersey locals to brand him a traitor, unaware of the torment he suffers in an effort to save them.

Salt Houses – Hala Alyan Although Salma keeps her predictions to herself that day, they soon come to pass in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967. Caught up in the resistance, Alia’s brother disappears, while Alia and her husband move from Nablus to Kuwait City. Reluctantly they build a life, torn between needing to remember and learning to forget.

When Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait, Alia and her family yet again lose their home, their land, and their story as they know it.

Scattering to Beirut, Paris and Boston, Alia’s children begin families of their own, once more navigating the burdens and blessings of beginning After You’d Gone – Maggie O’Farrell A distraught young woman boards a train at King's Cross to return to her family in Scotland. Six hours later, she catches sight of something so terrible in a mirror at Waverley Station that she gets on the next train back to London.

AFTER YOU'D GONE follows Alice's mental journey through her own past, after a traffic accident has left her in a coma. A love story that is also a story of absence, and of how our choices can reverberate through the generations.

Growing up Your child has started growing up when he stops asking you where he came from and starts refusing to tell you where he's going.

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Rambling Group Did you know that our Rambling Group has been rambling about the local countryside for about 14 years. That’s right – many of us were teenagers when we started !!

The group now consists of Church members from Erdington, South Parade, Four Oaks and Boldmere and a few who aren’t Methodists too. The group is open to anyone who would like to join us for a good walk and a good chat – and sometimes some good weather.

We meet at Church on the 1st Saturday of each month – our programme is up on the noticeboard in the corridor at church. We meet at 10am and then arrange lifts to our starting point which is usually within 45 minutes drive.

In June we started from Corley Moor (which is about 1.5 miles from Corley (Coventry) and not too far from Corley services on the M6.

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It was a very interesting and varied walk. There was very little road walking and we encountered styles and wooden kissing gates (most are metal these days). We decided that this route wasn’t often walked because some of the kissing gates had become quite overgrown. One in particular had us donning water proofs to protect our arms, necks and faces because it was almost totally overgrown by a holly bush!

We walked down an ancient sunken road and walked through wooded glades and especially for me there were a couple of reservoirs and a sewage pumping station! It really was a most enjoyable walk.

We aim for somewhere around 5-6 miles and stop half way for a little lunch.

If you don’t know what to do with your Saturday mornings why not come and join us.

Nick Riley

Still lost in translation For those of you travelling this summer, look out for similar signs!

In a Paris hotel elevator: Please leave your values at the front desk.

In a Bucharest hotel lobby: The lift is being fixed for the next day.

During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.

On a long established New Mexico dry cleaning store: 38 years on the same spot.

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Brass band extraordinaire On Saturday, 24th June, we were privileged to listen to the Coleshill Beginner Brass Band and the Youth Brass Band in concert at Erdington Methodist Church. What a wonderful evening!!

There were players as young as 5 years old and others playing for less than a year.

Their programme was exciting and varied including film themes – Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean and Ghostbusters – all skilfully executed under the watchful eye of their conductor and musical director, Stephen Fagg.

For us the highlight of the evening was a duet, I’ll walk with God, played by Nick on the organ and his niece, Olivia, on the flugel horn. What a treat!

We hope they will return – if they do – DON’T MISS IT Marion & Anthony Griffin 18

A Staffordshire Poem Recently, Staffordshire County Council’s Libraries & Arts Service have been developing The Staffordshire Poetry Collection, creating a picture of the county and capturing its diversity.

Ode to Hednesford

I’m just a born–and-bred Brummie With Bull Ring and shops in my head; I’ve loved it since I had a dummy But I came to Hednesford instead.

I knew that you had an old Raceway And miners had once worked in a pit; I saw on a map where the Chase lay But thought it was “Up North a bit” 19

Our friends said ”You’ll not last through Monday” “They’re 40 years back in the past”; “The buses don’t run on a Sunday” “The trains don’t get anywhere fast” But the years have long passed since I found you Community–driven and proud; Many good things still surround you So just let me say them out loud Your hard-working roots are no mystery You still know that manners are free; I haven’t your knowledge of history But I know that I like what I see Where else are the streets any cleaner And everything’s all close to hand; Environment thinking is greener And regeneration is planned I love Hednesford Town and its flowers The clock with its old-fashioned chime; A place to relax and it’s ours – Hold on to your “step back in time”.

Janice Taylor Submitted by Barbara Rawson

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Extract from Annual Report of Erdington Foodbank : 2016-2017 As Churches Together in Erdington were founder members of Erdington Foodbank I thought this Annual Report from Gerard Goshawk (Six Ways Baptist) was enlightening and also sobering. If you would like a copy of the complete report then I have a copy - just ask - ed Wow! So we began our active existence in 2013, first of all in conjunction with Aston & Nechells Foodbank and then under our own auspices. And here we are, 4 years later and sadly, still needed.

We had a visit earlier this year from Andrew Mitchell, MP for Sutton Coldfield. His view was that we are a triumph of successful volunteering, demonstrating that the Big Society (do you remember that concept?) works.

Well, yes we agree that our volunteers are fantastic and amazing and that the food and money that comes in from so many different sources is most certainly a wonderful example of people sharing in their common humanity, acting compassionately and showing what love in action is really like. This is all wonderfully true.

At the same time what is appallingly true is that in a prosperous society such as ours that it is an utter disgrace that we should have to be spending so much time, effort and money providing emergency food for so many people. It is wrong that we exist and that so many people need to make use of us. The existence of foodbanks such as ours is a terrible indictment of contemporary 21

UK society. But we carry on and we carry on providing food and a fantastic welcome for so many people. Thank you to you for the part you have played in this over the past year.

Client numbers and trends 2016-2017 We provided food for a total of 4,286 individuals.

3,178 = number of these for adults 1,108 =number of these for children The main reasons given for needing help were as follows:Benefit delays = 40% Low income = 27% Benefit changes = 15% Debt= 7% No recourse to public funds=6% Of those referred to us:1708 live in Stockland Green Ward 724 live in Tyburn Ward 560 live in Erdington Ward 284 live in Kingstanding Ward Referrals are spread quite evenly across Job Centre Plus, Erdington Customer Service Centre, Featherstone Children’s Centre, Castle Vale TRA and a number of housing providers. We have 115 referral agencies.

Gerard Goshawk

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Beat back seat boredom Do you have a long holiday drive with the family ahead of you?

Here are some games to play to keep the tedium at bay….

Car Snooker This game starts when someone spots (or ‘pots’) a red car, which gives them a score of one point. Then someone needs to spot a car of one of the following colours: yellow (two points), green (three points), brown/rust/orange (four points), blue (five points), purple-pink or rose (six points) or black (seven points).

Someone then has to spot another red car, and so the process is repeated until 15 red cars and all the other coloured cars have been spotted. Hopefully, by then, you will have arrived!

Just You You play a favourite song from a CD, and someone sings along for a few minutes. Then someone else turns down the volume, and the singer has to keep on going for 10 to 20 seconds.

Then the volume is turned back up, and the person is awarded marks out of ten for how accurately the singer has kept to the time and tune. Of course, if your children can’t sing, this may only add to the stress of the trip….

Yellow Mini The basic version of this game simply requires players to spot yellow minis (or else a car of any make and colouring that you choose instead). The one who spots the most, wins. Only one player in the car can claim to have spotted an individual car, and does this by calling out ‘yellow mini’. Or – you can play the version where any yellow car counts for one point, and any mini counts for one point, and a yellow mini counts for two points….

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A Crossword to test your wits Crossword Clues below:

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Across 1 ‘I pray that out of his glorious — he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being’ (Ephesians 3:16) (6) 4 ‘Saul’s father Kish and — father Ner were sons of Abiel’ (1 Samuel 14:51) (6) 7 ‘Praise the Lord, O my — ’ (Psalm 103:1) (4) 8 See 5 Down 9 Laws (1 Kings 11:33) (8) 13 ‘Who of you by worrying can — a single hour to his life?’ (Luke 12:25) (3) 16 Artistry (Exodus 31:5) (13) 17 ‘Your young men will see visions, your — men will dream dreams’ (Acts 2:17) (3) 19 How David described his Lord (Psalm 19:14) (8) 24 ‘If this city is built and its — — restored, you will be left with nothing in Trans-Euphrates’ (Ezra 4:16) (5,3) 25 ‘The holy Scriptures, which are able to make you — for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus’ (2 Timothy 3:15) (4) 26 Intended destination of arrows (Lamentations 3:12) (6) 27 Eve hit (anag.) (6) Down 1 ‘For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find — for your souls’ (Matthew 11:29) (4) 2 Where Peter was when he denied Christ three times (Luke 22:55) (9) 3 Remarkable early 20th-century Indian evangelist, a convert from Hinduism, — Sundar Singh (5) 25

4 ‘Now the king had put the officer on whose — — leaned in charge of the gate’ (2 Kings 7:17) (3,2) 5 and 8 Across The Lover describes this facial feature of the Beloved thus: ‘Your — is like the tower of Lebanon looking towards — ’ (Song of Songs 7:4) (4,8) 6 ‘Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled — your waist’ (Ephesians 6:14) (5) 10 Trout (anag.) (5) 11 Easily frightened (1 Thessalonians 5:14) (5) 12 The ability to perceive (Ecclesiastes 10:3) (5) 13 One of the clans descended from Benjamin (Numbers 26:38) (9) 14 “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who — bread into the bowl with me”’ (Mark 14:20) (4) 15 Resound (Zephaniah 2:14) (4) 18 Traditional seat of the Dalai Lama (5) 20 Precise (John 4:53) (5) 21 Build (Ezekiel 4:2) (5) 22 Beat harshly (Acts 22:25) (4) 23 Darius, who succeeded Belshazzar as king of the Babylonians, was one (Daniel 5:31) (4)

Flight path Windsor Castle, outside of London, is directly in the flight path of Heathrow International Airport. While a group of tourists was standing outside the castle admiring the elegant structure, a plane flew overhead at a relatively low altitude, making a tremendous noise. One irritated tourist demanded: "Why did they build the castle so close to the airport?" from the Parish Pump Website 26

Grenfell Tower

- Peter Farley I feel the need to write something about the General Election. I find the whole election-night process fascinating and because I didn’t have to go to work the next morning I was able to sit and watch the results as they came in. I finally gave up at 04.00 when the outcome, that there would be no outcome, was more or less assured.

All sorts of political pundits and grandees have had their say, from Laura Kuenssberg to Ken Clarke. But what have we learned? That elections rarely go as planned and that in the end hope triumphs over despair. With the Conservatives a tantalising few seats short of an overall majority and therefore everyone else, in unison, having an overall majority, we are in for an exciting few months from a political standpoint. This would be bad enough on its own but we are supposed to have started negotiating our EU exit.

I listened to ‘Have I Got News for You’ on the Friday evening after the results had been declared and Ian Hislop made a profound statement in his own inimitable style, complete with the usual look at the audience. “ They were supposed to achieve a thumping majority, but the problem is that Governments with thumping majorities tend to end up thumping people”.

I have written before about the inherent unfairness of our ‘first past the post’ electoral system. At the last election UKIP polled millions of votes and only achieved one MP. Some might think that that was for the best. But on this occasion the situation is worse. The Green party polled around 500,000 votes and returned one MP. At the same time in Northern Ireland 300,000 voters sent 10 DUP MPs to Westminster, and they have the dubious privilege of being ‘king 27

makers’ because they are party most likely to support the Prime Minister. If, these 10 individuals maintain the government in power for long enough, to allow the Brexit negotiations to be completed, then they will have had an incalculable impact upon our country for a generation or more into the future.

Since I wrote these words the landscape and mood have changed, we have corporately experienced Grenfell Tower. From a superficial analysis this could be regarded as a tragic culmination of some of the corporate ills that our country has built up over the last 50 years, which obviously includes times when both major parties have been in power.

We have singularly failed to build sufficient homes to enable all of our people to be able to live in homes fit for human habitation.

This problem is now so acute that the money necessary to support social housing tenants in private accommodation is consuming an unsustainable proportion of the governments’ welfare budget. In addition successive Governments have been unable or unwilling to prevent the increasing inequality in our country. Figures from the Office of National Statistics tell us that in in 2015-16 the original incomes of poorest 10% of households, presumably that is without benefits, was £4,436. In contrast the top 10% enjoyed an income of £107,937. Then over the last few years we have had the austerity, which we were told was necessary to ‘mend the roof whilst the sun shines’, with the consequential squeezing of council budgets. On top of that immigration has continued, compounding the housing problem and some would say driving down wages. Yet on the ward where my daughter is currently working, she tells me that 50% of the nurses are Spanish so that there can be little argument 28

about whether these people are necessary and I would not regard nurses as low skilled, low wage workers.

Nobody, as yet knows, anything about the cause of the fire. What is known as of today Friday 16th June is: • The police do not think that the fire was started deliberately • The cladding used on the Grenfell tower block has been banned in the US. For the entire building the more fire resistant version of this product would have cost an additional £5,000 • The death toll stands at 30 and it is hoped that it will not exceed 99.

• The first victim has been identified as a Syrian refugee.

• Local volunteer organisations have been overwhelmed by the generosity of donors. They have more food and clothing than they know what to do with.

• There is the beginning of a movement to determine what went wrong and who is responsible.

Maybe the light at the end of this tunnel is where I started, with hope triumphing over despair. In the church we learn that Christ came into the world to bring light, light that the darkness can never overcome. Metaphorically we each need to go from this place knowing, that we are led by an insecure government, which according to Michael Heseltine still has the cancer of the EU gnawing at it inside and Grenfell Tower weighing on our hearts and say as loudly as we are able Here I am Lord, is it I, Lord?

I have heard you calling in the night.

I will go Lord, if you lead me.

I will hold your people in my heart.

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Crossword Answers ACROSS: 1, Riches. 4, Abner’s. 7, Soul. 8, Damascus. 9, Statutes. 13, Add. 16, Craftsmanship. 17, Old. 19, Redeemer. 24, Walls are. 25, Wise. 26, Target. 27, Thieve.

DOWN: 1, Rest. 2, Courtyard. 3, Sadhu. 4, Arm he. 5, Nose. 6, Round. 10, Tutor. 11, Timid. 12, Sense. 13, Ashbelite. 14, Dips. 15, Echo. 18, Lhasa. 20, Exact. 21, Erect. 22, Flog. 23, Mede.

No home? No baby The soaring cost of buying a home is slowing down the birth rate.

Recent research by the London School of Economics has found that for people who are renting, every 10 per cent increase in house prices reduces the birth rate by 1.3 per cent. On the other hand, if you already own a home, then for every 10 per cent rise in house price, there is a 2.8 increase in the number of births.

According to the Land Registry data, average house prices in England increased by nearly 290 per cent between 1995 and 2016 – from £67,000 to £232,000. And some counties have experienced an eye-watering 900 per cent increase. from the Parish Pump Website 30

July/August Regular Meetings

Each Saturday 10.00 am to 12.00 noon

Tuesday Club Every 2nd Tuesday in the month at 2.00 pm

Sunday Worship All worship starts at 10.30 am unless stated otherwise below.

JULY 2017 2nd 9th 16th 23rd 30th

HOLY COMMUNION - Rev Stephen Willey Angela Constantine ALL AGE WORSHIP - Rev Malcolm Oliver Glyn Constantine Liz Topliss Circuit Service at Four Oaks - 6.00 pm

AUGUST 2017 6th 13th 20th 27th

Lynette Jones HOLY COMMUNION - Rev Malcolm Oliver Local Arrangement - Songs of Praise & New Songs Lyn Crowe

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Weekly Church Activities Sunday

10.30 am

MORNING WORSHIP and Young Church

Tuesday

2.00 pm

Tuesday Afternoon Meeting : Margaret Hillman (2nd)

Wednesday

9.30 - 11.30 am 12.30 pm

Stay and Play Luncheon Club - (1st and 3rd)

Friday

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

Beavers : Lynn Turner Cubs : Elizabeth Baizon Scouts : Paul Harris 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 September 2017 CONTACT to any of the Editorial Team (Peter Farley, Christine Rankin, Ann Tomes & Nick Riley) by 15th August 2017 at the latest please, or alternatively email me: nickriley@blueyonder.co.uk with the word ‘CONTACT’ in the title.

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