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

Contents From our Minister, Malcolm Harvest Supper Harvest Festival - October 15th 2017 News from The 177th Beavers Upcoming Events at South Parade Celebrating God's Kingdom 2 (CGK2) The Cow and the Bible Linked Churches Connections Make a date Early Christmas Decoration Office Butterflies Please Note . . .

Ukulele Concert Bath time The 500th Anniversary of the Reformation How long, O lord?

Youth club Love October Regular Meetings Tuesday Club Sunday Worship Weekly Church Activities

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From our Minister, Malcolm Dear friends, I marvel at the ongoing love and relentless commitment of those who week by week contribute to the life of Erdington Church Centre. I join with many others who are so appreciative of the way our premises are a community hub. So a huge thank you all those who work with the young, not so young in serving the community.

It is good to know that we complement and partner with others in Erdington to help build a spirit of ‘Everyone Erdington’.

I was delighted that following a request at our last Church Council for volunteers to attend Erdington Churches together, Claudette and Norma have now attended their first meeting. On 13th October Churches Together Erdington will be holding a Civic Prayer Breakfast in the ‘Lighthouse’ at St Barnabas. Local business representatives will be joined by local leaders in education, arts and politics. The Lord Mayor of Birmingham has accepted our invitation to attend and speak. I have the privilege of being part of a small steering group along with Pastor Rasaq from the Redeemed Church of God and Vera from the United Reformed church.

I invite you to pray for Churches Together along with many other groups in Erdington who are committed to enabling a growing spirit of cohesion in our wonderfully diverse part of God’s vineyard. I recently attended a meeting of the ‘community bunting project’… launched a few months ago; there is now 25 metres of lovingly locally made bunting. This will be displayed at the Civic Prayer Breakfast. It is hoped that numerous individuals/groups 3

will wish to add to this. I trust that such ventures together with local arts events excite you as much as they excite me. It feels great to live in Erdington. Should you wish to know more please follow: https://www.facebook.com/groups/211083062314091/ Www.twitter.com/erdingtonarts In a world which can sometimes feel rather frightening and where there is so much pain, glimpses of things which are positive can bring some hope. Hope for Christians is a central theme…. and can enable us to move forward. We focus more on this in Advent during December leading up to Christmas.

Recently, I was re-reading “How a Minister became a Timber Merchant” written by my great grandfather Revd Samuel Oliver. It tells of how in the seeming hopelessness of the lives of many in Sheffield in 1902, the Ebenezer Mission engaged with those in great poverty and out of work by offering employment. The world today is very different, but the questions remain the same: How do we engage with the local community to bring hope? …. Which takes me back to the beginning of this letter… A huge thank you to those who have chosen to take that engagement seriously, whether it is Pansy offering her classes to those who are refugees or the uniformed organisations, or the work of Maxine and others at luncheon club…. the list is endless. THANK YOU. Wishing you every blessing as you seek to bring hope to others.

Rev Malcolm Oliver 4

Harvest Supper You are all invited to join us for our Harvest Supper comprising of baked potatoes with your favourite fillings followed by a scrumptious sweet on Saturday 14th October beginning at 6pm.

This will be followed by a Beetle Drive. So brush-up on your dice throwing skills and beetle drawing ability and join us for what promises to be an entertaining evening.

Please buy your tickets as soon as possible so that we know how many to cater for.

Tickets cost £5 per head and available from Nick Riley

You are also invited to celebrate Harvest at morning worship (October 15th - 10.30 am) with the Church Family as we give thanks for God's good gifts to us (details on next page)

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Harvest Festival - October 15th 2017 This year we are asking our young church to decorate our church for Harvest. We are very excited to see what they do. As part of our worship we are also asking you to bring foodstuffs for Erdington Foodbank.

Please see the note below from Erdington Foodbank with regard to the type of goods needed.

Dear friends First of all, thank you so much for all the support you give us. Two things we are very sure about are that Erdington Foodbank is a community venture and that the need in our community is still very much there!

We are at that time of year where you might be considering donating foodstuffs from your harvest festival. We would be delighted to receive food from you – it will not go to waste. But to get the greatest impact from your giving we would ask that if possible you donate the following non-perishable items which are our current shortage foods:Granulated Sugar Fruit juice (carton) Pasta sauces Rice Tinned meat Tinned fish Tinned tomatoes Breakfast cereals

Tinned vegetables Rice pudding (tinned) Tinned fruit Tea bags Coffee Toiletries Nappies

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News from The 177th Beavers This is what the Beavers got up to following their walk from the church to Rookery park on one of the Fridays prior to the summer holidays.

We were later joined in the park by Rev Malcolm Oliver and our Group Scout Leader Gerald Peel.

Looks great fun to me - ed

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Upcoming Events at South Parade I am writing to give you information about 2 events at South Parade which may be of interest to your congregation.

Firstly, on Sunday, October 8th we will be celebrating our Church Anniversary with a service at 10.30am. We are delighted that the preacher at this service will be Rev Trey Hall who is the Birmingham District’s Mission Advisor. He is a young inspiring preacher and, as you may have heard, has initiated the District’s ‘Church Without Walls’ (CWW) project which will provide the tools to ‘reimagine’ each and every Methodist Church in the District and Circuit.

After the service we are having a Bring & Share Lunch which is to be followed at approx 1.30pm with a Workshop on CWW which Trey will present.

We warmly invite you to join us for all or part of this celebration.

Secondly, we are delighted to welcome Rev Alan back after his three month sabbatical. As you may be aware, during this time he has been looking at the Theology of Artificial Intelligence. This is a very timely subject for study because we hear a lot about AI in the media these days, and it is all around us whether we like it or not.

Alan has agreed to present some of his findings at a meeting at South Parade on Thursday, October 19th at 7.30pm. Whether you know much or little about AI, I’m sure this will be a most interesting meeting.

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We invite you to come and join us and I’m sure we will all be a little wiser at the end of the evening as we embrace this age of technology.

Celebrating God's Kingdom 2 (CGK2) CGK, at Bishop Walsh School last September, was a huge success with many encouraging comments afterwards of shared fellowship, inspiring and challenging teaching and wonderful sung worship.

The Circuit is planning another CGK to take place on Sunday, 29th April 2018.

If anyone is interested in helping to plan this service, the first meeting will be on Thursday, 12th October at 7.30 pm at Blackwood Methodist Church.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Thank you - The Circuit Leadership Team

The Cow and the Bible A religious farmer lost his Bible out in the field. A few days later he went to answer a noise at his door. Standing there was a cow, with his Bible in its mouth. The farmer raised his eyes to heaven and thanked the Lord for this miracle. "Not really," said the cow. "Your name was written inside."

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Linked Churches If you have read the last Circuit Magazine you will know that the Circuit is adopting a number of Mission Goals. One such Mission Goal is to 'Link each Church with at least one other Church' The Churches we are linked to are Streetly and St Chads.

As part of forging closer links the Circuit has asked that we send a small group (three or four people) to these churches on what are being designated 'Networking Sundays' - either 8th or 15th October 2017. The group will effectively be an emissary representing the people at Erdington. Groups will be 'commissioned' with a short prayer on Sunday 1st October.

So . . . I'm sure you know what is coming next! We need some volunteers to represent Erdington at Streetly and St Chads on those dates.

Volunteers may be invited (but not expected) to give a brief welcome from their church; eg ‘I am (___) from (___) church and I bring their love and greetings’.

It is hoped that fellowship and food will be shared after the service; anything from Danish pastries to a faith lunch If you would like to be involved then please speak to a Church Steward as soon as possible. Stewards need to notify names to the linked churches imminently so the sooner the better. Many thanks Nick Riley (Church Steward) 10

Connections The other day I heard something from my daughter that made me stop and think. She had arranged to meet with a friend with whom she had trained in Paris. This person was Finnish and for whatever reason had flown in to Gatwick, hence the availability for a meeting. My daughter originally trained as an architect and arranged to spend her fourth university year in Paris rather than Edinburgh, organised through the EU Erasmus student exchange programme. Presumably her friend was in Paris by the same mechanism. The cessation of our association with that scheme, when we leave the EU, will be a loss to future students.

My daughter often talks about multiple people with whom she trained. In contrast I think I have done well because I still have a friend from University and one from my time at Dudley Road. In similar vein, when I was trying to contact people with whom we had gone on pilgrimage to Palestine, I suddenly realised that I didn’t even have mobile phone numbers let alone email addresses.

How life has changed in the last fifteen years. All of this made me think about a comment that I heard a while ago that the present generation will only lose track of the people that they choose to.

Email, and social media leave behind trails that are almost impossible to eradicate.

Life is full of connections, for good or bad, which we begin to build from the first moment that our brains evolve sufficient complexity to be able to be able to tell a story. Within the world of work this is called networking, things done on the sidelines. This was not one of my strong suits. I can remember attending national meetings at the Pharmaceutical Society headquarters in Lambeth and buying a 11

newspaper deliberately so that, during breaks, I could sit in a quiet corner and do the crossword.

At the beginning of the summer I was informed, wonderfully, that I had been elected as a fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and that I was offered the opportunity to attend the Fellows reception to receive my new certificate. Around the time that I met my wife I undertook a ‘Masters’ degree at Aston University. This involved part time study over two years with a small group of other pharmacists, most of whom were involved in the local hospital pharmacy scene. Almost immediately after graduation and partly as a result of it, we moved away and I lost track of all of the people that I had laboured with over those two years. After the list new Fellows was published I received an email from one of these in this group saying that she hoped to see me at the reception afterwards. A connection remade.

In a way this is almost a parable of our relationship with God. We come and go, depending upon all sorts of things, but deep down we know that God is always there for us.

Peter Farley

Make a date Meeting with our new enthusiastic young curate, I asked if I could have a church service when I eventually die. "Of course," he said, grabbing his date book. "What day do you want?"

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Early Christmas Decoration On a recent trip to a local shop In the seasonal’s aisle I had to stop.

It’s only September but all I could see, Was a huge pile of Christmas trees.

Now I know it’s getting dark in the morning, As later and later the sun is dawning.

But surely it’s too early for the shops To be displaying their Christmas stock.

There’s still important dates to come, I mean We’ve not yet celebrated Halloween.

Plus to me Christmas decorations aren’t right To be on shop shelves before Bonfire Night.

So I marched the manager down the aisle, He looked, then gave me an insincere smile.

Ignoring my rampant protestations That it’s too early for Christmas decorations.

The manager didn’t seem apologetic at all, He replied, ” I’ll sell what I want, it’s my store.

And anyway it’s not too early if the truth be said.”

Pointing out his display of Easter eggs.

By Richard Archer – middle aged Black Country poet from Walsall.

Barbara Rawson 13

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Office Butterflies Please Note . . .

This is an article from a newspaper way back in June of 1968. Even the first paragraph dates it by referring to ‘office-girls’ - how the world has changed even since 1968. The article refers back to regulations for a Burnley cotton mill office . . . in 1852 - ed

I had almost begun to believe what the office ‘butterflies’ have been saying recently about bad bosses.

Almost - until I read this notice to employees. How, I wonder, would today’s office-girls react to conditions like this: 1. Godliness, cleanliness and punctuality are the necessities of a good business.

2. This firm has reduced the hours of work, and the clerical staff will now only have to be present between the hours of 7am and 6pm on weekdays.

3. Daily prayers will be held each morning in the main office. The clerical staff will be present.

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4. Clothing must be of a sober nature. The clerical staff will not disport themselves in raiment of bright colours, nor will they wear hose, unless in good repair.

5. Overshoes and top-coats may not be worn in the office but neck scarves and headwear may be worn in inclement weather.

6. A stove is provided for the benefit of the clerical staff. Coal and wood must be kept in the locker. It is recommended that each member of the clerical staff bring 4lb of coal each day during cold weather.

7. No member of the clerical staff may leave the room without permission from Mr Rogers. The calls of nature are permitted and clerical staff may use the garden below the second gate.

This area must be kept in good order.

8. No talking is allowed during business hours.

9. The craving of tobacco, wines or spirits is a human weakness and as such is forbidden to all members of the clerical staff.

10. Now that hours of business have been drastically reduced, the partaking of food is allowed between 11.30 am and noon, but work will not, on any account, cease.

11. Members of the clerical staff will provide their own pens. A new sharpener is available on application to Mr Rogers.

12. Mr Rogers will nominate a senior clerk to be responsible for the cleanliness of the main office and the private office, and all boys and juniors will report to him 40 minutes before prayers and will remain after closing hours for similar work.

13. The new increased weekly wages are as hereunder detailed: Junior boys (up to 11 years) 1s 4d; boys (to 14 years) 2s 1d; juniors 4s 8d; junior clerks 8s 7d; clerks 10s 9d; senior clerks (after 15 years with owners) 21s.

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The notice ended: ‘The owners recognise the generosity of the new labour laws, but will expect a great rise in output of work to compensate for these near-Utopian conditions’ I wonder what the ‘owners’ would think of today’s office workers -ed

Ukulele Concert Hopefully, many of you will have read in the notices that at 7.30 pm on Saturday 21st October a large group of ukulele players are coming to our church to entertain us with an assortment of well known songs accompanied by the twanging strings of umpteen ukuleles. If a feel good evening is your cup of tea, this is very probably something which will give you a ready smile.

What's more, Margaret Allen from Middleton Church, is happy to come along to our church to entertain us with a couple of well known, humorous performances made popular by Victoria Wood.

Margaret's portrayal of Victoria is first-rate.

Cups of freshly brewed tea, coffee and delicious cakes will be available at the end of the entertainment.

All this for only £6.00!

Tickets are available now from either Hilary or Barbara. Do come along and enjoy the concert!

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Bath time Recently we spent some time with old friends and during the course of the day they mentioned, in passing, that they only showered on a Monday and a Friday when they went swimming.

They have an air-source heating pump and so maybe this is one of the ways that they use to minimise their carbon footprint. But this revelation reminded me of when I was a child and I had an occasional bath on the kitchen floor in a round tin bath in front of the fire. Although I was not really aware of it at the time I suspect that Mum and Dad probably used the hot water afterwards. I remember, latterly, my parents installed an ‘Ascot’ water heater in the back kitchen and so the ritual moved away from the fire so that the bath could be filled directly from the water heater.

This led me to wonder when did we move from bathing being an occasional thing to something that happens most days? Aged 11 we moved to Erdington to a house where there was a bathroom.

But I still have little remembrance of bathing regularly. Maybe my parents were not worried because they knew that I had to shower twice a week at school, after ‘games’ and after ‘gym. I wonder if schools still do that. I remember the towels always had that damp smell, pseudomonas? I expect that the school caretaker was paid a fee to arrange for the laundering of these items and instead did it himself and dried them on the water heater pipes under the stage.

There was a similar change in the use of deodorants. These certainly didn't impinge on my consciousness until I arrived at university. The only thing that I can remember about them is spending time in the library investigating the formulations of these products, out of interest rather than use.

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But by the time I was married everything had changed. In my second and third houses, one of my first DIY projects was to install a shower, first over the bath and then as an en-suite. Suddenly my mornings started with a run or a cycle followed by a shower.

In the end maybe our friends are going back to the situation when I and probably them as well had a bi-weekly shower at school.

In similar vein the 'Today' programme on Radio 4 is seeking suggestions for things that have changed over the last 60 years.

Lets have some suggestions for the things that you think have changed over the last 60 years.

Peter Farley

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The 500th Anniversary of the Reformation October 31st marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door in 1517, signalling the start of the Protestant Reformation. He was protesting against the practice of indulgences, where the good deeds of the saints could be purchased to reduce time spent in purgatory before arriving in heaven. For Luther, this cheapened grace, repentance and forgiveness: ‘You can’t buy God’s friendship!’

Luther rediscovered the truths of God’s grace: ‘For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith’.’ (Romans 1:17). He recognised that righteousness (being right with God) and forgiveness is not earned by good works, but faith. The undeserved love of God and His acceptance is a matter of trust. This challenge to the Church of Luther’s day remains so today! At the Diet (Council) of Worms, he refused to recant his views: ‘Here I stand; I can do no other!’

Luther stood for the free forgiveness of the gospel, by which God accepts us because of the death of Jesus on our behalf to deal with our sin. Is this what we believe? Only trusting Jesus can make us right with God. In what ways can we slip into a mindset that seeks God’s approval for what we achieve in our spiritual lives, rather than in how we can serve as a response to all He has done for us?

We will continue to get things wrong, but God never gives up on us!

‘Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong (sin boldly), but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world.’ (Martin Luther).

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How long, O lord?

Prayer for the world based on Psalm 13 How long, O Lord, can we hide our faces from the headlines of violence and tragedy?

How long, O Lord, will communities in Myanmar be displaced by conflict?

How long, O Lord, will the children of the Caribbean be battered by hurricanes?

How long, O Lord, will the people of Mexico live with threat of tsunami from earthquakes?

How long, O Lord, will South Asia experience devastating floods?

How long, O Lord, must the soul of humanity bear the pain of trauma and loss, and have sorrow in its heart all day long?

Consider and answer us, O Lord our God! Give protection to all those living in fear of death.

Give strength to endure so tragedy will not prevail.

Give guidance to decision makers who are on the ground.

Give compassion to hearts weary with fatigue.

We trust in your steadfast love, our hearts will rejoice in your salvation, as we participate in your kingdom restoration praying, acting and giving bountifully with all those preparing and repairing what violence, hurricane, earthquake and flood is destroying.

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How long, O Lord, will we bring our prayers of lament to you?

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord we pray.

Amen. from the Christian Aid Website

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Youth club Recently I had one of those moments that come increasingly frequently as one gets older, where delights from youth come flooding in. I was out in the park on my bike when for some reason I remembered riding to Youth Club on a Tuesday evening.

Now Youth Club was a story all of its own but I am thinking about getting there. I still have a friend, now living in Canada, who had a very posh bike. I remember in a moment of teenage bravado, as you do, that he told me it had been assembled from parts selected to reduce the overall weight of his bike. The only thing special about my bike was that I had painted it a brilliant purple colour, somewhere between shocking pink and amethyst. Maybe my penchant for bright jumpers goes back further than I remember.

Part of our journey to Youth Club was along the Lichfield Road.

We would compete to see who could tuck in behind a bus as it started from a stop and then ride in the slipstream and let it pull us along. I don’t remember if either of us was any better then the other but it was great fun. But I never got as far as holding onto the handle that used to be conveniently placed for helping people on and off the platform.

All of this reminded me of a couple of things that have happened recently. The last time I saw my son we were talking about things that we had done together when he was younger and our outdoor activities became part of the conversation. He reminded me that on one occasion we had abseiled off a redundant railway viaduct somewhere between Lochearnhead and Killin. After the first descent, down one of the viaduct columns, we had moved along a little and turned it into a free abseil after the initial transition. My 24

son told me that that moment would stay with him for ever. He didn’t confirm whether it was pleasure or terror.

The other thing which came to mind was the suggestion last week from the head of Ofsted that children should not be mollycoddled and sent out on school trips looking like Bob the builder sans the hard hat. Children will always push back against authority and take risks, that it part of growing up. I have no problem with children’s Health and Safety because as one headmaster said, would you want to be the person to go and tell the parents that it was their child. But as Ofsted went on to say, one minute spent worrying about conkers is one minute less available for the real problems. I was always grateful that my children went away to University; they were able to grow up without my knowing.

But the debate about children’s safety throws up another dilemma, which was brought into sharp relief by all the recent public discussion about Charlie Guard's death. Who should have the final say? This problem will go on for as long as there are people but I will toss two small pebbles into the pool. Firstly from 15 years experience in senior hospital pharmacy management the medics on ITU were always reluctant to turn off the support. Almost any intervention was always preferable to the other option. Secondly, I agree with the spokesman from Great Ormond Street, who after the event asked how it was that suddenly the Pope and Donald Trump had become world experts on the state of Charlie’s mitochondria.

All of this is a far cry from cycling in the slipstream of a bus. As we wonder through life we start off and everything is decide by someone else. Then as we grow we falteringly take both risks and control and sometimes we get it right and sometimes we don’t.

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Then eventually some of us go back to where we started and someone else has the responsibility. When to re-cede that control is difficult and sometimes contentious. But if you are approaching that time have you signed a Power of Attorney because without that no one will talk to those to whom you have given the control.

Do it now.

Peter Farley

Love (Mt 22:34-40) When we don’t know what to do, when we don’t know where to turn, how to deal with that situation, how to manage that difficult person, Jesus says, LOVE, love, love.

Receive my love.

Know my reality in your heart, then reach out and love.

Love God, love others, love yourself and everything will change.

Jesus says love will do it.

Believe Him!

By Daphne Kitching 26

October 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.

1st

HOLY COMMUNION - Rev Ian Howarth (Chairman of Birmingham District)

8th

PRISONS SUNDAY - Mr Tom Watts

15th

HARVEST FESTIVAL - ALL AGE WORSHIP Rev Malcolm Oliver CIRCUIT SERVICE at Four Oaks - 6.00 pm

22nd

Local Arrangement

29th

BIBLE SUNDAY - HOLY COMMUNION Rev Malcolm Oliver 27

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 November 2017 CONTACT to any of the Editorial Team (Peter Farley, Christine Rankin, Ann Tomes & Nick Riley) by 15th October 2017 at the latest please, or alternatively email me: nickriley@blueyonder.co.uk with the word ‘CONTACT’ in the title.

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