Newsletter – Monks Road Methodist Church

Deuteronomy 31:8 The Lord, He goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Do not fear, nor be dismayed.”

God’s promises are wonderful. He made this promise to the Israelites when they were in trouble and He makes the same promise to us today. We need to remind ourselves daily that He is there before us; that He will never leave us and that He will always be with us, no matter what happens to us in life or in the world.

Throughout the Bible God makes promises to His people and His promises never fail. Psalm 100 says ”…his love endures for ever and his faithfulness continues through all generations”. How many of God’s promises can you find or recall? When we remember and realise that God’s promises are true and solid our faith calls us to respond by the way we live.

Living a Christian life is not always easy but resting on God’s promises day by day gives us strength to face any difficulties, courage to carry on and a deep joy that nothing else can give us. With this knowledge we know that “..nothing can separate us from the love of God” and whatever happens “…if God is for us who can be against us.” God blesses you every day – walk in His light. Amen

Services in March

Worship at 10:30am

1st – Revd T Nowell Holy Communion
8th – Mr K Chester
15th Revd A Burrows

All Church services have been cancelled until further notice, following the guidance from the government. Please see this post for details of alternative online services and resources.

Dates for your Diary

Mon. 02 March. – Craft & Friendship group – 10.30am
Wed. 04 March. – 1st Lent meeting, Steps to the Cross – 2pm
Fri. 06 March. – World Day of Prayer at All Saints – 10.30am
Fri. 06 March – Coffee Drop-in each Friday from now – 9-10am
Mon. 09 March – Craft & Friendship group – 10.30am
Thurs. 12 March – 2nd Lent meeting – 2pm

All events have been cancelled until further notice, following the guidance from the government. Please follow us on Facebook to keep in touch during this time.

Environmental Concerns

The churches are full of people trying to care for God’s creation. The church of England’s lenten journey is called Care for God’s Creation. The Methodist church, along with other churches, is part of Creating a climate of Change – Living Lent.

Living Lent encourages us to become part of a community who will respond to the call to climate action by making significant personal commitments to changing our lifestyles for the sake of climate. Living Lent majors on us realising that changing our climate is not just an activity but a lifestyle.

Can you change your lifestyle for Lent? 40 days but 40 days which might help us to continue changing as we hunger & thirst for righteousness, for instance, knowing that we might refuse a plastic bag for our fashion buy but think deeper about the child who might have made the item in a sweatshop! We need to think beyond the obvious in our living.

Groups and Events

Fairtrade Fortnight | 24th February – 8th March

The Fairtrade foundation campaigns for living wages for millions of those across the world who provide a lot of our food. This year they are concentrating on cocoa farmers. A Fairtade price for their crops means they are more likely to receive a living wage meaning they can feed and educate their children. Please support Fairtrade.

Pantomime

Thank you so much to all our players, backstage helpers, front of house staff, singers and Jonathan, our Musical Director for the wonderful production of our pantomime on 14th & 15th February. Three full houses cheered on and joined in as well as enjoying choc ices and trying for one of our fantastic raffle prizes. The amount raised was £1,020. This will help the church pay for the fire alarm system which will cost nearly £6,000 but is necessary to ensure safety to everyone on our premises.

Mission in Britain

Thank you to everyone who attended the coffee morning which raised £89.40 to help the Methodist church carry out it’s mission throughout the country. Thank you also to those who collect through the year in Mission in Britain boxes.

Fundraising

Our shrapnel and FISH

Our loose change does a lot of good, supporting different charities during the Autumn up to Christmas. We have decided to put out the loose change box again to support Food in School Holidays. Lots of families struggle to feed their children during school holidays when there are no school meals. Because of this the local churches provide vouchers to ensure the children don’t go hungry. If you can help by dropping your loose change in the box, the money will be very helpful to alleviate the struggle some parents might have.

Goodbye to our dear friends, Sylvia Marrows & Marjorie Farnsworth

Sylvia moved to our church when ‘Big Wesley’ closed and used her musical gifts from the beginning in our choir. She was Sunday School treasurer for a long time and a member of the Women’s Circle until fairly recently when, after a fall and a broken hip, she was unable to walk very well. For many years she sold choc ices with Mrs Brown at the pantomime. Her faith enabled her to be a central and much loved member of the church. Her funeral is in church on Tuesday, 10th March at noon.

Marjorie also was a life-long Christian and as a child attended the Salvation Army. Living in Walmer Street meant she could easily become involved in many aspects of our church life. She was a member of our Women’s Circle and leader for many years and she enjoyed singing at the pantomimes and with the singing group. Marjorie had worked as a cook and used her baking and sewing skills to support all the churches activities. Whenever she was asked to read in church there was no hesitation and she had a beautiful reading voice. Her funeral is in church on Tuesday 24th March at noon. There will be a thanksgiving service held in church at a later date.

We shall miss both Sylvia and Marjorie but thank God that we were able to share part of our Christian journeys with them. Romans 14:8 ‘If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.’

Closing Prayer

Thank you God for times of fun & laughter. Help me to remember You in times of happiness as well as times of trouble. Amen

Download a PDF version of the Newsletter

To download a PDF version of the newsletter, please click here.

God’s Closeness

As Christians we believe God is close to us and that in Jesus we see his human face and that gives us comfort and assurance. Do you sometimes feel though that YOU are far from God? Are we sometimes like St Paul – so sure of our rightness that we don’t even consider what God would require in our living? And yet God came close to Paul and showed him how vital a Christian way of life is to His world.

The 25th January is the day when Paul is commemorated by Malta when he was shipwrecked. He was so impressed and thankful for the kindness and hospitality he and his fellow travellers were shown. The Week of Prayer this year focused on hospitality and was prepared by Christians Together in Malta & Gozo. We long always to know the closeness of God but
sometimes we have to readjust our thinking and living. It is easy to slip and forget to welcome and be a part of our church community, our support of others who are not like us, and to be generous to those who have little.

Paul said he received “unusual kindness” and with humility we need to offer this to those of other denominations, religions, nationalities, refugees, those who are different – and to do this simply because this is what our faith demands and is the way we will show that God is close and working through our lives and our world.

Services in February

Worship at 10:30am

2nd – Revd Nowell, HC
9th – Revd Nowell
16th – Revd Nowell – Mission in Britain, Cafe Church
223rd – Section Service at Central Methodist Church

Dates for your Diary

Mon. 03 Feb. – Craft & Friendship group – 10.30am
Mon. 10 Feb. – Craft & Friendship group – 10.30am
Fri. 14 Feb. – Dick Whittington – 7.30pm
Sat. 15 Feb. – Dick Whittington – 2pm and 7.30pm
Sat. 22 Feb. – Mission in Britain Coffee – 10-11am
Mon. 24 Feb. – Craft & Friendship group – 10.30am
Wed. 26 Feb. – Church Council – 2pm
Thurs 27 Feb – Men’s Meeting – 7.15pm

Environmental Concerns

Throughout 2019 we considered several ways of helping our environment and the climate: illegal palm oil in a lot of our food, particularly confectionery and what it is doing to wildlife forests in Borneo and the rain forests across the world; how plastic wrapping paper and glitter cards at Christmas cannot be recycled; consideration of overconsumption to satisfy our wants rather than our needs; the careless over-use of single-use plastic; care with our use of water in our homes & gardens and re-usable water bottles; fast fashion which demands vast resources. These are just a few of the ways of living we considered.

Have you needed to adjust your ways of living and shopping e.g. using less plastic, and, if so, how have you been able to adapt to a more sustainable way of living? It is clear from what is happening in the world, with exceptional floods and heat that the climate is warming and we need to live sustainably if we are going to be able to save God’s world. Perhaps you need to email / write to your MP to ensure they lobby for right living, or to shops which are full of plastic? One letter or email is thought to say to those in power that at least eleven others are thinking the same, so don’t hesitate to speak out.

Heavenly Father, give us courage to care for your wonderful world. We pray that we will be filled with a spirit of concern for the future of our environment; bring an end to the exploitation of the earth’s scarce resources; and live as responsible stewards protecting and respecting this gift of creation God has placed in our hands. Amen.

Groups and Events

Pantomime – Don’t forget your tickets!

Friday evening 14th February, 7.30pm
Saturday 15th February, 2pm & 7.30pm

Tickets £5.00 from any cast member or Terry on (01522) 754254

Mission in Britain February

Sunday service on 16th February at 10.30am when we consider how our church supports Mission in Britain.

Saturday Coffee 22nd February with Cake & Bric-a-brac stalls along with a raffle. If you have a Mission in Britain box please bring it to be emptied.

Men’s Group – 27th February

Men’s Group will meet at 7.15pm on 27th February when the speaker will be Paul Disley, all men are welcome.

Thanks, Thanks, Thanks

Leaving Care Gift Service

Thank you to everyone who supported the young people who are making the transition from Care to independent living.

Christmas Giving

Our shrapnel (loose change) and the Folk Carol Service, with thanks to Jonathan and friends, raised £325.00, which will mean we can provide nine toilets for families in Africa so they will not have to go into the unsafe bush and the threat of disease because of unhygienic conditions will be greatly lessened.

NOMAD Lunch

Thank you to everyone who supported our soup lunch for the homeless which raised £180, and we sent 20 hats, 31 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of gloves and 10 books.

Other News

Church Envelopes & Assessment

The new year’s envelopes are now available. If you do not have church envelopes and think you would be able to give through the scheme them please ask Rosemary and she will provide them. The benefit of using envelopes is that even when you cannot attend church you are still able to put away your weekly contribution and can put the envelopes on the plate next time you are at church. This means that our church has a steady income which ensures we can carry out our mission more effectively, pay our gas & electricity & upkeep and pay our assessment.

Our assessment is the amount we have to pay each quarter to the circuit as our contribution to our Minister’s stipend and living expenses. At this time our assessment is £11,500 per
year. Totalling our assessment and our own church expenses means that to keep afloat we require £10 a week from each member. We also realise that not everyone can contribute this amount so we have events through the year to raise funds so we can continue our work here on Monks Road.

Thank you everyone for your support, not only of our church, but for the support you give to all the charities and good causes to which we contribute throughout the year.

Download a PDF version of the Newsletter

To download a PDF version of the newsletter, please click here.