Church Drive March/April 2015 Bi-Monthly News from St. Giles, West Bridgford In this edition… The Rector Writes Meet Our New Bishop Young Leaders & Youth Confirmation PCC Update A Tale of 2 Carolines Before It‘s Too Late…. Update from the Boys Brigade St Giles‘ Directory & Coming Up at St Giles The Rector Writes…... 21 The number of Coptic Christians cruelly murdered by ISIS fanatics in Libya. In the days following this horrific event Egypt‘s Bible Society distributed 1.65 million tracts across Egypt. The tract - Two Rows by the Sea contains biblical quotations about the promise of blessing amid suffering, alongside a poignant poem in colloquial Arabic: Who fears the other? The row in orange, watching paradise open? Or the row in black, with minds evil and broken? ―The design is meant so that it can be given to any Egyptian without causing offense,‖ said Atallah the Society‘s director. ―To comfort the mourning and challenge people to commit to Christ.‖ The impact of these murders has been felt across the world. Men brutally killed simply because they are of a different faith to that of their killers. The last word on their lips before their blood flowed into the sea was ‗Yeshua‘ - arabic for Jesus. Christianity Today‘s Peter Chin notes that messages of support and solidarity have flowed to the Coptic Church from Christians of all denominations and every corner of the globe. 2 He writes: Seeing the church stand up in solidarity with these men reminded me that we are one family in Christ. Yes, a broad, diverse, and incredibly fractious and quarrelsome family, but family nonetheless. There are surely significant and important differences among us, but persecution and suffering has a way of putting those differences into perspective and allowing us to recognize, even if momentarily, that what ties us together as Christ followers is far stronger stuff than we thought. And what binds us is nothing less than the name of Jesus, the name above all names, the name that these men uttered before they died as martyrs. Youth Confirmation at Southwell Minster On Saturday March 21st at 7pm a number of our young people will be being confirmed at Southwell Minister during the Diocesan Youth Confirmation Service. This is an important step in their Christian lives, they will be making a public witness of their allegiance to Christ. At confirmation we confirm the promises made at our baptism, and a bishop lays his hands upon us and prays that the Holy Spirit confirms his presence in our lives. One of the most important things that we do as a church is to pass on the faith to the next generation introducing young people to Jesus is core to our children‘s and youth work and always should be. Do keep all those being confirmed in your prayers, and if you are able join me, Andy, and their families in supporting them at the service. Wishing you every blessing, Lee 3 Meet Our New Bishop It was announced last month that the new Bishop of Southwell & Nottingham will be the Rt Revd Paul Williams, currently the Area Bishop of Kensington, London. Paul, 47, who grew up in Somerset, studied at Durham University, before training for ordained ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, having first considered becoming a priest in his teens. He is married to Sarah and they have three sons: Edward, 16, Thomas, 14, and Joseph, 12. They are also foster carers in their local borough and are deeply engaged in the wider issues relating to the care of looked-after children. In his spare time Paul enjoys various sports, especially cricket and football, as well as running with his teenage sons. He has wide musical tastes, with a special affection for jazz and blues. Some of Bishop Paul‘s opening remarks at the Press Conference held at Emmanuel School on 10th February: It‘s a huge privilege to be invited to join an outstanding diocesan team committed to advancing the mission of the church for the benefit of everyone, whatever their culture or background. There are over 300 churches in the diocese already making a massive difference in the communities they serve. And I‘m delighted I‘ll be working with some very gifted clergy and congregations, along with ecumenical partners, at a time when many churches are experiencing exciting new growth. The adventure of following Jesus, and letting the wisdom of the Bible shape my outlook on life, gave me bigger and bolder aspirations to make a difference in the world than anything else 4 could have given me. That‘s why I‘m passionate that children and young people should have the opportunity to discover faith in God for themselves, and while respecting other faiths, we shouldn‘t hesitate to allow them that chance. Good schools can make a massive difference and loving families are vital but when you know that God is with whatever you‘re facing there is always hope. I look forward to working closely with schools like Emmanuel and also non-faith schools to foster healthy ambitions in all our young people, especially those from more disadvantaged communities. I‘m energised at the prospect of how a hopeful church can help create a more hopeful society, in which everyone has equal opportunity to flourish. For Christians, our engagement with our society must be as crossshaped as our worship, so that the only thing about which we will ever gladly boast is Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. This keeps us humble as Jesus was humble, but it also reminds us that we are closest to God‘s heart when we are with those who are suffering, and as we work on behalf of the poorest and weakest. Many churches are already doing this through food-banks, local credit unions, debt advice centres, as well as a vast range of activities for children and young people. As we do this, our lives are enriched in more ways than we could have imagined. I look forward to the exciting challenge of growing the church to help build united and more compassionate communities. “I’m convinced that there is nothing better you can do with your life than become a follower of Jesus Christ. I made this decision in my youth and, while it didn’t make life easier, it gave me a new kind of hope grounded on faith in God.” 5 Young Leaders This term we have seen 4 of our sixth formers taking on a role of young leaders during our Sunday morning groups. It is incredible to see them take on this position of authority and a joy and privilege to see their willingness to serve God in this way. ‗It challenges our faith by looking at it from a new perspective.‘ ‗It‘s wonderful telling people about the Good News.‘ ‗Having been recently through the stage of life that the younger youth are now in, we understand what they are going through.‘ ‗This is a crucial time in the youth‘s journey of faith, and deciding to follow God.‘ Our young leaders are Alex Markland, Georgie Jones, Lisa Lesowiec and Robert Gadsby. Please pray for each of them as they lead in this way. Youth Confirmation On 21st March, 15 of our young people will be confirmed at a Youth Confirmation Service at Southwell Minster. They have decided to confirm the baptism vows made for them, they are stepping up to declare that they know and love God, that they believe in one God, the creator of all things. That they follow Jesus, ‗who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.‘ Philippians 2:6-8. These young people are choosing for themselves to follow Christ and live a life for his glory. Pray for them as they make this bold step in their journey of faith. 6 PCC Update from 21st January 1. Buildings Review Working Group Brendan briefly described some recent work on the Cottages, and outlined some future expenditure, ie Alarm maintenance £800, Tree maintenance £1k, Heating leak (ref 6.1 above) £1200. Also the Energy Efficiency report was discussed and referred to the Group. If you are interested, talk to Brendan. 2. Fire Safety report Robin Carter‘s report raised several issues which needed further consideration and action: limit of 430 people in church, locks on the garden gates and the need for a crash bar on the vestry fire exit door. It was referred to Standing Committee of the Rector, Wardens, Treasurer and Secretary. 3. Finance Eddie Pearce (Treasurer) presented draft annual accounts for 2014, and a draft budget for 2015. Please talk to Eddie if you would like further information. 4. Funding Campaign There will be a funding campaign for the whole of March 2015, to include a request for future commitments to fund a Children and Families Coordinator. The planning group for this is Lee, Richard, Eddie, Adrian and Johanna. 5. Mental Health Awareness Daphne Carter circulated an action plan. She would be delighted to speak to anyone who would like to know more. 6. Weekend Away 2015. Lee presented a draft programme for the Weekend Away in March. There will be one service only at St Giles‘ on the Sunday that weekend - Nigel Beasley will lead Morning Prayer at 10.00am. 7. The AGM will be on Sunday 26th April The next PCC meeting will be on Wednesday 18 th March. It will be held at St Helen‘s Church in Stapleford, to look at the way that they have reordered the church. Dizzy Prentice, Secretary 7 A Tale of 2 Carolines Messy Church is a form of church for children and adults that involves creativity, celebration and hospitality. It's primarily for people who don't already belong to another form of church. It includes lots of creative time exploring a biblical theme through getting messy; a short celebration time involving story, prayer and song and a sit down meal together. Caroline Harper set up Messy Church at St Giles several years ago and has been running it ever since. Last month, the time came for her to pass on the reigns, to Caroline Crew who has taken over Messy Church leader. Here, they tell us what Messy Church means to them and why it is such an important ministry. Caroline Harper, you set up Messy Church at St Giles – when was that? The very first Messy Church was in October 2009. I can still remember the subject – Fruits of the Vine. We made vine pictures using purple paint footprints! Why did you think it important for St Giles to host Messy Church? For a long time I had wanted to do something to reach out into the wider community. When Lee first showed the video of Messy Church to the PCC I realised that here was the perfect way to do that. It had the potential to reach both children and the adults that accompanied them, was a non threatening way of evangelising and de-mystifying the inside of our church. What have been the rewarding aspects of running Messy Church? Seeing some of the children who first joined as toddlers progress through and grow in faith and confidence. It has also helped me to make new friends and to deepen my own relationship with God. 8 Any particularly memorable crafts to illustrate a bible story? Over the years we seem to have made about a thousand different types of sheep. Using blue toothpaste and ziplock bags to create undersea pictures for Jonah and the Whale was fun, and church smelled minty fresh afterwards. I‘ve always enjoyed the food crafts – we made donkey dung out of icing sugar and cocoa powder at Christmas! What were your greatest challenges that you encountered running Messy Church? The sheer physicality of it can be hard work – from shifting chairs and tables, to doing the shopping and being one‘s feet all afternoon can be challenging. Also, trying to put across some of the more obscure Bible stories in an interesting and engaging way. What will you miss about Messy Church? I will miss the fun, the laughter, seeing the church full of children who are relaxed and happy to be there. I‘ll miss seeing all the friends I have made. Most of all I think I shall miss the feeling at the end of the day, when I would get home, collapse with a glass of G&T and review the session with a wonderful sense of satisfaction at having had an afternoon of teaching and worship in an atmosphere of joy and openness to the word of God in His house. I wish Caroline and Sally and the rest of the team all the very best for the future and thank everybody for all their support over the years. I shall miss you all, together with the hugs, the glitter, the glue, the cotton wool and cake icing and the smell of pasta bolognaise cooking for tea. Thank you Lee, for giving me the opportunity to start Messy Church, and thank you Lord God, for carrying me through. And THANK YOU Caroline, from everyone at St Giles. The Messy Churchers will all miss you. 9 And so to Caroline number two…. Caroline Crew, why is it important that we run Messy Church at St Giles? I‘ve been involved for about 3 years and it‘s clear that Messy Church provides an outreach and an alternative service pattern for families who may find the normal Sunday service intimidating, or difficult to access. We have many families who see Messy Church as their regular ‗church‘. What are the best things about Messy Church? The best things is that the children and their carers have loads of fun. They see that church is a friendly, warm environment and not something to fear. For parents and carers it‘s somewhere safe and friendly to relax and meet new friends, whilst the children are entertained and fed. What are the challenges and opportunities for Messy Church at St Giles? The biggest challenge for Messy church is staffing. It is supported entirely by a team of volunteers who transform the church for each session so that the children can play, do crafts, and sing and eat together. Going forward, we also need to look at how we continue to reach out to new families in the local area, so that they can come and join in with Messy Church at St Giles. How many volunteers do you need and what do they get involved in? Ideally we need 10-12 volunteers to run a session. We have 6 or 7 craft and games areas, we serve drinks for the adults and there are the chefs in the kitchen cooking pasta and serving up to the children. Everyone clears up at the end, rearranging the church back to normal. I would love to hear from anyone who might be interested in helping at Messy Church. The sessions last 1 1/2 hours and take place on the 3rd Thursday of each month. If you can‘t make it to a session but have time to cook up a bolognese beforehand which can be put into the slow cooker on the day that would be wonderful. All help is gladly received! 10 SOCIAL CARE PENSIONS DEMENTIA RESEARCH RETIREMENT AGE VOTE Meet the Candidates FOCUS ON SENIORS BED BLOCKING SPORTS FACILITIES 2015 TRANSPORT General Election Thursday 16th April 2015 2.30-4.00pm St Giles‘ Church, West Bridgford, NG2 6AY Come along for refreshments beforehand—an opportunity to chat about some of the important issues. 11 Before It‘s Too Late….. The reason for the title of this article will become apparent later! Many of the congregation will know that St Giles‘ had three daughter churches, All Hallows (Lady Bay), St Luke‘s (Alford Road) and St Paul‘s (Wilford Hill). These are recorded in the North Aisle window, designed by Jenny Bell at the time of the Centenary in 1998,and marked the building of the nave in 1898 following the rapid expansion of West Bridgford at that time. If you have read the notes on the wall you will see that, from the main waterfall, there are three tributaries – representing these three churches. The subject of this article is the development of St Paul‘s, which became a separate Parish in Sept 1988. There is an excellent history, chronicled by Sheila Christopher, dating from the Dedication in 1960, which used much of the material from Gerald Cleaver‘s ‗archives‘. But how did the building come about? I refer to our title of this article and on the recent death of Elizabeth Snodgrass of St Paul‘s we realise that we, along with Gerald Cleaver and Margaret Brock (nee Lowe), are the only remaining ‗pioneers‘ who can tell that story. The original proposed site for a new church was in the area of what is now the Jesse Gray school in Musters Road. However, when plans became known for new houses to be built off Loughborough Road/ Wilford Hill in the early 1950s, Canon R F Wilkinson and the PCC recognised that it would be better if the site was moved nearer to Wilford Hill. Reginald Felix, as he was affectionately known, made a very shrewd move and the plans were changed, selling the original land and negotiating instead for the site on Boundary Road. (At that time Boundary Road only existed between the railway bridge – near what is now Rushcliffe School – and down to what is now Willow Road). So it was that in the early 1950s, when the St Giles Fellowship was thriving – both in the life of the church but also as a ‗marriage mart‘! – that this story unfolds. There were a number of Fellowship members who as newly- weds in 12 1955/56 moved into the houses being built on Wilford Hill. Elizabeth Snodgrass and her husband Gerald, moved to Stanhome Drive, Bill & Rosemary Meakin to Melrose Gardens and ourselves to Canberra Crescent. Also newly arrived from Rushden to take up his post as Chief Schools Inspector, was Gerald Cleaver who, with his wife Cynthia, took up residence in Colston Crescent (Gerald by then being a Lay-Reader). We embarked – with the blessing and encouragement of the Rector – on a canvassing campaign to raise funds for the building of a dual purpose Hall which would serve the community both as a church and general meeting place for other activities. Gerald was the mastermind of the operation along with Fred Lowe ( Margaret Brock‘s father) who was a Church Warden at St Giles, acting as Clerk of Works. It is worth noting that correspondence faithfully kept by Gerald, revealed fascinating exchanges of letters to and from the farmer working the land and the officials in the Diocese ! While work was in progress, Gerald was instrumental in getting the West Bridgford Urban District Council – as it was then – to supply one of its fleet of buses on Sunday to take children to St Giles‘ Sunday School until St Paul‘s was up and running. After much hard work the first part of the building was dedicated in July 1960. We were involved at St Paul‘s until 1981 when we returned to St Giles‘ – considering our work there was done. Looking back those early years were very exciting, the Hall being regularly used during the week for meetings and on most Saturday evenings we held social events including dances, beetle-drives etc. Of course at the close of each event everything had to be cleared away with chairs put back into place ready for Sunday service – the drawing pin marks, in the skirting- board, showing the rows may still be there! Thus the phrase ‗ the conversion of St Paul‘s‘ took on a whole new meaning! This is, of course, only a brief outline of these events but we felt it worth recording. Happy days ! Derek & Sylvia James 13 Boys Brigade Update In the Junior Section Christopher Kerry has gained his Silver Achievement Badge. For the Battalion Junior Section Unihoc competition we only had Xenis Antcliffe and he joined forces with the 42 nd. In the group stages the team won all 3 games and in then in the semi-final they beat the 19th 2-0. Onto the final and they eventually lost 3-1 to the 17th A. The Company Section played their 2nd round National Chess match against the 32nd Nottingham and we were so close to beating them but lost 5-4 in the end. Nicholas Ford and Jasper Hanson gaining 2 points each. They have also held there Table Tennis Competition and we had 2 boys in both the Junior Company and Seniors event. In the Junior event Kurtiss Baker managed to reach the Quarter –final whilst in the Seniors Nicholas Ford was knocked out at the semi-final stage. This year a competition was resurrected to deal with First Aid. It was for school years 7-10 and the syllabus was to cover bleeding, choking, broken bones, unconsciousness and the bystander effect. Three of our boys were entered Patrick Loughran, Edward Baker and Sebastian Whitlow. They were marked of 50 and our best two were Patrick with 37 and Edward 35. Keith Whitaker, Captain 14 St Giles‘ Directory Rector Lee Proudlove Tel: 981 1112 [email protected] Church Wardens Caroline Harper Richard Crawley Administrator Claire Sheard Tel: 07948 834250 [email protected] Youth Worker Andy Wright Tel: 07880 313884 [email protected] Pastoral Care Co-ordinators Daphne Carter Tel: 974 3749 [email protected] Tel: 914 5650 Tel: 981 3262 Debbie Keown Tel: 914 9684 [email protected] House Groups Katie Conley Tel: 923 4721 Seniors Doreen Ottway Tel: 981 3689 PCC Secretary Dizzy Prentice Tel: 07951538670 PCC Treasurer Eddie Pearce Tel: 981 3580 [email protected] Sacristan Maureen Swann Tel: 859 0975 Director of Music Andrew Rootham Tel: 921 3081 Junior Church Sarah & Iain Moppett Tel: 974 4442 Sunbeams Claire Sheard Tel: 07952247147 Tiddlers Caroline Crew Tel: 914 2465 Weddings Caroline Harper Tel: 914 5650 Church Cleaning and Flower Rota Helen Jarvis Tel: 981 9947 Something Else Graham & Kat Rooke Tel: 07577 966684 [email protected] or [email protected] 15 Coming up @ St Giles March/April Tuesdays, 8.00pm (weekly until 24th March) Alpha course in the George Chapel Thursdays, 1.45pm (weekly until 2nd April) Seniors‘ Bible Sturdy for Lent in Church Hall Meeting Room Saturday 7th March, 9.00am Spring Clean in church - everyone welcome! Monday 9th March & 13th April, 8.00pm First Priority Prayer Meeting in church. Tuesday 10th March & 14th April 10.30am Seniors‘ Coffee Morning at Bradmore Wednesday 11th March & 8th April, 8.00pm Ladies‘ Evening at The Parlour Thursday 12th March, 3.45pm Messy Church (no Messy Church in April during Easter school holidays) Friday 13th—Sunday 15th March Church Weekend Away Monday 23rd March, 6.30pm & 27th April 8.00pm Men‘s Social at the Willow Tree Pub. Thursday 2nd April, 7.30pm Maundy Thursday supper and Communion Friday 3rd April, 10.00am—12 noon Good Friday Workshop Friday 3rd April, 3.00pm Good Friday Meditation Saturday 4th April, 9.00am Decoration of church for Easter - everyone welcome! Sunday 26th April, 12 noon AGM, PCC elections and parish lunch 16
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