Rochford Methodist

Message from the Manse

Editorial

Nibbling away at a Filet with fries and a McFlurry I looked at the logo and realised how much Macdonalds had in common with Methodism.

They both have places all over the country. They both give (or should give) a warm welcome when you arrive.

If you look at the front cover of the Worship Book, they both use a large ‘over-arching’ M as their symbol.

And they both use strange terms and words to describe things - and they’re not always as easy to decipher as you would think. If you look back at my opening paragraph - a McFlurry is a type of ice cream with added chocolaty ‘bits’, fries are thin chips and a Filet (pronounced Fee-lay) is short for Filet-O-Fish which is a sandwich containing an oversized cod fish-finger. Even then, a sandwich is a soft roll! An apple pie has the appearance of a filled crispy pancake - and the mince pies are only available at Christmas!

If you’re a regular attendee at either Macdonald's or the Methodist Church you will soon get to grips with the terms used, but might be nervous about going in for the first time in case you say the wrong thing.

But it appears that Macdonald's has something that Methodism doesn’t - a stream of children pestering their parents to take them across the threshold every time they pass the door!

So where do the differences lie?

Could it be that Macdonald's have a better advertising campaign? Or just a better image?

Is it because everything is fresh and hot?

Or is it because they provide a very quick service?

Is it because the ‘product’ is standard across the world - so you know what you are going to get whether you are in Southend or Hong Kong, Detroit or Melbourne?

Is it because the people are properly trained to be friendly and helpful?

Or do they really give the customers what they want?

The staff in Macdonald's have a training manual to make sure they provide the consistent service, wherever they work - the Methodists have CPD (Constitutional Practice and Discipline)!

If you were running a hamburger stall (or a church) what would you do to attract ‘customers’?

However, somehow I can’t see Margaret wearing a peaked cap and a badge with a set of little gold stars!

Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year - or should that be ‘have a nice day!’

Happy Hands re-opened after the summer break with an exciting day when our hall was transformed using a ball pool, bouncy castle and lots of soft play equipment. It was a noisy session and enjoyed by most of the children.

This term we have had the Tempest Schools photographer in with some smashing results - in time for grandparents’ Christmas presents!

All our sessions are well attended and we still have to operate a waiting list for the morning sessions

We also welcomed Win Bayford as our new ‘tea lady’. We wish her well in her ‘new job’

Val has recently spoken to Mary Verrinder who sends her best wishes to all her and Wilf’s friends in Rochford. Mary’s Christmas card is on the church notice board.

Wilf is poorly and so is she, but they have managed a short holiday this year and take each day as it comes.

Sue Edwards

What do I mean by cross stitching?

Is this some form of embroidery that can only be carried out when angry? No, of course not. This refers to sewing that is done mainly by forming crosses with thread.

Many of you already know that this is one of my hobbies, and you may have seen some of my work for sale at the Bazaar, in the form of Christmas cards.

I find that rather than making me cross, it is usually very relaxing - except where it goes wrong and needs to be unpicked! I have done several pictures, both for our house and for friends and family over the years. Indeed, if you were to look in one of the cupboards upstairs you would find enough to keep me busy for several years.

However, while big pieces of work are both a challenge and an achievement once done, it is nice to do smaller things in between.

This is where you come in and why I am writing this piece - after all I am using up valuable stitching time!

I have lots of charts of small designs, from magazines and computer programmes, that would suit being made into cards. I also have quite a wide selection of card blanks.

If anyone would like a card made, for a special birthday or anniversary, perhaps, then just let me know and I will do this for you for a cost of £2.00.

It is difficult to buy a nice card for less than this and in this instance the whole of the cost will be going towards our church building funds. As I have said, I have lots of designs available, so all you need to do is give me some idea of what you would like and I will do my best to find something suitable.

I know £2.00 will not make much difference to our funds, but I hope that over the course of time lots of you will ask me for cards and together we can boost the total. All I ask is that you give me reasonable notice of what you want, as sometimes I seem to have little time to myself.

Most cards wouldn't take me very long to do, but it would be nice to think that I had at least a fortnight's notice.

Remember to keep all those used postage stamps from your Christmas cards and pass them to Helen Willson who will make sure they are used to raise money for missions.

Something to Think About

(Email passed on by Colin Rayner)

This was written by an 83-year-old woman to her friend.

Dear . . . ,

I'm reading more and dusting less. I'm sitting in the yard and admiring the view without fussing about the weeds in the garden.

I'm spending more time with my family and friends and less time working.

Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experiences to savour, not to endure. I'm trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them.

I'm not "saving" anything; we use our good China and crystal for every special event such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, or the first Amaryllis blossom. I wear my good blazer to the market. My theory is if I look prosperous, I can shell out $28.49 for one small bag of groceries.

I'm not saving my good perfume for special parties, but wearing it for clerks in the hardware store and tellers at the bank. "Someday" and "one of these days" are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it's worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now.

I'm not sure what others would've done had they known they wouldn't be here for the tomorrow that we all take for granted. I think they would have called family members and a few close friends. They might have called a few former friends to apologize and mend fences for past squabbles. I like to think they would have gone out for a Chinese dinner or for whatever their favourite food was. I'm guessing; I'll never know.

It's those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew my hours were limited. Angry because I hadn't written certain letters that I intended to write one of these days. Angry and sorry that I didn't tell my husband and parents often enough how much I truly love them.

I'm trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter and lustre to our lives. And every morning when I open my eyes, tell myself that it is special. Every day, every minute, every breath truly is a gift from God.

If you received this, it is because someone cares for you. If you're too busy to take the few minutes that it takes right now to forward this, would it be the first time you didn't do the little thing that would make a difference in your relationships?

I can tell you it certainly won't be the last.

Take a few minutes to send this to a few people you care about, just to let them know that you're thinking of them.

"People say true friends must always hold hands, but true friends don't need to hold hands because they know the other hand will always be there."

I don't believe in miracles.

I rely on them.

Letter from the Manse (2)

This was held over from the last newsletter that just didn’t happen. I am printing it now because I think it ought to be published, but with my apologies that It hasn’t been printed before now.

The Manse

September, 2001

Dear Friends

Now is the beginning of a new Methodist year. What will it bring?

That's a question none of us can answer, although I have met a few people, who would love to be able to see into the future. There are those, who seek advice from crystal balls, tarot cards and such strange divination. There are some, who look into history, believing that there is a pattern, which could reveal future events. Then there are others, who read our scriptures and find in them prophecy, which they relate to present times and infer that 'the end is nigh'. Who are we mere mortals to attempt to play God?

Jesus himself said that tomorrow will look after itself and that he in the Holy Spirit will be beside us whatever life may bring.

Surely, as Christ's followers, we are content to be in the hand of the One, who made and sustains the world and us. However, this doesn't mean we refuse to plan for the future. It is within our capabilities and our purposes to be good stewards of our God-given intelligence and possessions. Thus, as we go into the future one step at a time, we are planning to make our church building more useful and practical as well as attractive to the outside world. Our actual worship area is lovely and I commend it to people, who approach me for weddings or baptisms, blessings or funerals. From across the road, though, it does not look inviting and needs to sparkle with the love and warmth to be found within.

A new notice board has been made by Dave and is a good beginning - thank you, Dave. The church windows have been renewed thanks to Owen's work- thank you, Owen. Slowly but surely, we shall have premises that, we pray, will draw people inside to find our Christian family and the God, who makes us who and what we are.

The coming year will mean work as well as fun, worship and communion, fellowship and relaxation. All power to you in our Lord. I look forward to the events and want to support everything that is planned, after all, I am a member of this part of God's family and am growing and working with you, more so as I learn more about you all and how this particular church works.

God bless you all in everything you are and do for God's church and people. Let us commit the future to God in prayer, then we shall go God's way and not simply seek a blessing our own plans.

Your friend and minister,

 

 

 

 

Cleaning Rota

Dec 29th Mick Ellis/Helen Willson

Jan 5th     Judy Garner/Rosie Isaacs

    12th     Mike & Heather Sims

    19th     Bruce & Carole Glendenning

    26th     Maureen Whalley/Jayne Pullman

Now’s the time to see Helen if you want to be on the next Cleaning Rota

 

Flower List

Dec 30th   Beryl Scoging

Jan 6th     Helen Willson

    20th     Olive Pavitt

    24th     Rosie Isaacs

    31st     Ivy Blenkinsop

Feb 3rd     Carole Glendenning

    10th     Lucy Woods

    17th     Amy Simmonds

    24th     Sue Edwards

If you want to be on the next Flower Rota, please see Beryl.

If you need to speak to the congregation or do a reading, would you please stand near a microphone - and speak up?

There are two microphones at the front - one on the lectern and one in the pulpit.

There is a tendency in normal speech for a person’s voice to drop at the end of a sentence or when you make an aside. At these times, voices are often too quiet and we miss what you say.

Please be aware of this and keep your voice level up.

Just when we’ve all got used to calling it NCH - Action for Children, instead of the National Children’s Home, they go and change it again!

It’s back to NCH (without the tag line) and the logo has changed to reflect the change in name.

Talking of change, don’t forget that NCH can use your old foreign coins - just put them in the jar at the back of the church.

And don’t forget the move to the euro by many of the European countries on 1 January means that their old currency will cease to be legal tender soon after. So dig out those old francs, deutschmarks, lire, pesetas, etc, and change them back to pounds before it’s too late . Or, of course, pass them on to NCH and let them do it to support their work.

Church building scheme - latest

The questions that some people are asking:

Although the building is quite pleasant, it does have one or two shortcomings. In addition it doesn’t come up to the standard required under recent Acts of Parliament - particularly facilities for the ‘disabled’.

The kitchen, as those who have had to work in it will confirm, is too small and seriously in need of refurbishment.

The toilets are too small, are hard to keep clean and in a year or two’s time will need some sort of upgrade to provide facilities for disabled people to comply with the law.

The vestry is very central at the moment and tends to be a busy place with people popping in and passing through whenever the building is occupied.

When Margaret, or other preachers, are trying to quieten themselves as they prepare to go into the pulpit, the noise and bustle can be unsettling.

In addition, if someone wants to talk to the minister there is nowhere to go to talk in private.

It would be less disruptive if all these problems could be solved in one go and the plans were to take advantage of the land we have at the back of the building to move the vestry to the other side of the church and build new toilets. The work would also enable a new kitchen to be set up in the current vestry area - but not to full catering standard at the moment!

What’s happening now?

Our application has gone forward to the Property Division in Manchester who have to approve the work. They have asked for more information and a reply will be going back to them soon.

Several other trusts and organisations outside Methodism have been approached for grants and some have replied - around £5000 has been offered so far. This is in addition to the £23,000+ from within Methodism and the £20,000+ we already have in the bank.

The architect has approached several builders to get firm quotes for the work; these have now been received and all are higher than the original estimate by several thousand pounds.

The group looking after the project are to meet during the New Year to work out a way forward. It might be possible, for example to shave some amounts off the final bill by doing some of the preparatory work, or final decoration, ourselves.

Quite what we can do, and when, needs to be sorted out.

Is there anybody in the congregation who’s good with a sledgehammer??

Anybody who’s used a demolition drill will already be aware that ‘you know when you’ve been Kango’d.’

The Guild has been working through a packed programme so far this year, with a concert, talks on prison visiting and Christian Listening, a demonstration of cake decorating, as well as a couple of thought-provoking Devotional evenings and thought-testing Social evenings.

During December we have been to Romney House, Wedgwood Court and Spa Court to sing carols.

Jan 8     Flight to South Africa, Sue & George Edwards

    15     Westerley, Sue Reed (Manager)

    22     Social Evening (Missions Collection)

    29     Eric Rowe (Devotional Evening)

Feb 5     From Pop Star to Toastmaster, Jan Burnette

    12     Citizens Advice Bureau, Alison Henwood

    18 (Mon) Visit to Hadleigh Guild

    26     Rev Graham Hindle (Devotional)

If you want to pop along one Tuesday, feel free. We start promptly at 8pm and you’ll be sure of a warm welcome.

One of the London North East District’s best kept secrets appears to be MEG - the Mission Enabling Group.

- If a Church or Circuit have a vision they want to fulfil in their Mission

- If they want help and support to turn the vision into reality

then MEG are there to help.

MEG is a team of people with experience and skill in Worship, Learning/Caring, Service and Evangelism who are willing to support and encourage local churches.

The particular areas of expertise are in Caring Services, Ecumenism, Grants for Ministry and Grants for Mission, Local Preaching, Regional Development, Working with the elderly, Communications/Media, Evangelism, Property Development, Social Justice, Working with the young, Disability awareness, Finance and Stewardship, Leisure, Race and Culture, Training, Worship Development, World Church and International Affairs.

The co-ordinator is Brian Llewellyn on 01376 583167

You may think we have been quiescent lately? No, not really, but we have lost three very good supporters recently for one reason or another, so there hasn’t been quite as much to report.

However, in September we sent off £20 each to our Methodist Relief and Development Fund (MRDF) and to the Bible Society. There are some posters in the church hall about these, so have a look!

Our MRDF continue to be very active in many ways over wide areas and in the first six months of this year have given practical aid to many life-enhancing projects to help poor people in Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Pacific to the tune of over as million pounds.

When you consider that the Methodist Church in the UK has a membership of only 350,000, that is a fantastic response.

We have never given to the Bible Society before, but their work is so important and they look to all Christians for support, so we thought we should make a gift on your behalf. Hope you approve.

That makes £110 to date in 2001, so we are not likely to reach the £200+ of the last three years. Never mind, we are only Talking Tiddlers and it takes a lot, but our thanks to all who give their support. Please keep up the good work because we always try to ensure that whatever is received is used to really make a difference in the lives of those whose needs are very great.

Whatever we may feel about the activities of the government of Afghanistan and the terrorists which they appear to have been sheltering, it seems that most of the Afghan people are suffering dreadfully from famine and exposure after three years of drought.

Unless supplies are taken in quickly there will be a very heavy loss of life. Surely one must try to help. We have sent £20 through MRDF.

Thank you for your support.

God bless.

As a final postscript, Hugh informs me that the final figure he has sent forward for the year is around £150. The main reason for the drop from last year’s total is the loss of four of his biggest contributors, for various reasons.

But this is still good and on behalf of the church, I would like to thank Hugh for his work with Tiddlers. He has opened my eyes to the needs of the broad range of organisations and people who need our help.

If you want to join the Tiddler hunt, just empty you purse or pocket of all that fiddling small change every so often (or every night if you prefer!) and, instead of putting it back again, pass it on to Hugh. If Hugh isn’t around, Colin has agreed to pass them on.

Why not get together a group of your friends to collect Tiddlers?

Mony a mickle maks a muckle!

Many newsletter editors last year were supplied with an article on the origin of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Unfortunately, the article may have been inaccurate. If you didn’t see it, the story was that the Twelve Days of Christmas was composed to help Roman Catholic children to learn the principles of Catholicism. This had to be done secretly because of the religious persecution of the Roman Catholic church and so the various items were coded references to various parts of their beliefs. The first known appearance of the song appears in a small book for children called Mirth without Mischief, published in London in about 1780. Here they are the words of a fireside memory-and-forfeits game.

There is also a similar game from Northern France, called Les dons de l’an where the items to remember are: a partridge, two turtle doves, three wood-pigeons, four ducks flying, five rabbits trotting, six hares a-field, seven hounds running, eight shorn sheep, nine horned oxen, ten good turkeys, eleven good hams and twelve small cheeses. In the west of France there’s another one based on food.

If you take the partridge bit seriously then the Twelve Days of Christmas is almost certainly French in origin. One clue is the ‘partridge in the pear tree’ as the French Red Leg partridge is more prone to perching in trees, whereas the British partridge almost exclusively uses the ground. The Red Leg partridge was introduced to England in about 1770

There have been various similar versions over the years, including the Fifteen Days of May (from Langudoc) which has a similar, and extended, list of items as Les dons de l’an.

A version from Somerset doesn’t talk of ‘a partridge in a pear tree’ but uses the line ‘a part of a juniper tree’ and talks of ‘twelve bulls a-roaring’ and ‘eleven bears a-baiting’.

If there is a religious slant to the original, it could be an irreverent version of a chant like ‘Dic mihi quid unus?’ (no I don’t know what this means either!) or a carol from the fifteenth century that went:

A less interesting derivation perhaps, but more accurate? You pays your money . . . .

Based on The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, edited by Iona and Peter Opie

Rochford Methodist Word Puzzle

What goes on at Rochford Methodist Church?

Sunday

11.00 am FJ Club

11.00 am Morning Service

6.30 pm Evening Service

Monday

2.30 - 4.30 pm Women’s Fellowship

7.30 pm Private Table Tennis Group

Tuesday

9.30 - 11.30 am Happy Hands Toddler Group

12.30 - 2.30 pm Happy Hands Toddler Group

3.30 - 7.30 pm Hildale School of Dancing

8.00 pm Wesley Guild (Oct-Mar)

Wednesday

9.00 am - 8.00 pm Schizophrenia Support Group

8.00 - 10.00 pm Fuchsia Society (4th Wednesday of month)

10.45 am RDCF Ecumenical Bible Study (1st Thursday of month)

3.00 - 7..00 pm Hildale School of Dancing

7.30 - 9.30 pm Table Tennis

Friday

8.00 pm Rochford Floral Group (2nd Friday of month)

9.00 am - 4.00 pm Hildale School of Dancing

The premises are available for use outside the above times but the general rules of Methodism apply - no alcohol is allowed on the premises. Contact us by clicking here.

And don’t forget:

The House groups meet each month. Listen out for the dates and venues.

Dec  23rd     Local Arrangement

                     Revd Margaret Deans, Carol Service (4 pm)

        30th     Revd Margaret Deans

                    No evening service

Jan    6th    Hugh Beehag

                    Revd Margaret Deans, Covenant Service

13th   Rev Christopher Jones (S)

        Rev Catherine Bowstead

20th  Stan Rae

        John Low

27th  Rev James Goldie

        Revd Margaret Deans (S)

Feb    3rd    Revd Margaret Deans (All Age Worship)

                    Jim McAvoy

          10th  To be arranged (S)

                    Revd Margaret Deans

          17th  Barbara Hayter

                    Pam Freeborn

          24th   Sue Sigfrid

                    Roger Thomas

Dates for your diary:

December

    25     Christmas Morning Family Service, 10.30

January

    5     Music at Highlands, Jerry Attricks Jazz Bands, 7.30pm

    6     Annual Covenant Service, 4pm. Tea following the service.

February

    2     Music at Highlands, Fidelio Singers, 7.30pm

    4     Circuit Consultation with the Chairman of the District

March

    2     Circuit Workshop, Spirituality, Thorpe Bay

    2     Music at Highlands, South Essex Youth Symphony Orchestra, 7.30pm

April

    6     Music at Highlands, Recital: Deborah Groves, mezzo, 7.30pm

OP PRESS - STOP PRESS - STO

Just as the Newsletter was about to be printed, we heard that Rev George Thompson Brake had died. Our prayers are with Gwen at this time.

For more cartoons like these, click here