Rochford Methodist
Message from the Manse
The Manse
February, 2002
Dear Friends
On the Sunday of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, I was invited to preach in an Anglican church - Holy Trinity, Southchurch. All ministers of the local Churches Together group went into one another's pulpits for the morning service. As is the custom in the Church of England's Eucharist service, I was allowed only to deliver the preaching sacrament but I found it really helpful to worship with the people of God in that place [despite it beginning at 9.30 am].
The Eucharist was partly sung and the liturgy was followed for the day. I was made very welcome indeed and enjoyed chatting over coffee, while my Anglican colleague rushed off to preach in a Baptist church, whose service had already begun.
We have a service in Ashingdon Elim Church this afternoon, when we shall all share in worship together with Christians of other denominations and I shall be attending a third such service in the evening, when 1 shall be part of the worship in a Community Church - again, very different from our normal way of proceeding. It isn't difficult to see why we worship in various ways, because we are unique, each one, and find ourselves able to concentrate on God and fulfil our purpose in such worship fulfilled in ways
that suit our individuality However, once we are translated from earth into God's presence, I cannot begin to imagine separate places of worship in
heaven..! In the meantime, we shall, I expect, seek to give praise to God as we feel we can and should, not shelving the hope that in the not too distant future, we shall all be one church, united if not uniform.
If you read the Methodist Recorder, you will have seen the report on the conversations between our Methodist Church and the Anglicans. The biggest stumbling block is, as expected, the difficulty the Anglicans have with women becoming bishops. They have come a long way in recent years with the ordination of women clergy - but bishops... we shall see…
In Rochford, we shall share Lenten studies with other churches to be held at St Teresa’s church on Wednesday evenings. Easter and the year ahead will bring more sharing of worship, so we shall draw Christ's people closer in order to fulfil Christ's prayer: ‘that they may be one.’
I hope it is not too late to wish for you all a year of peace and joy and of growing closer to the will of our Lord Jesus.
May God bless you all.
Your friend and minister,
Editorial
Well what a start to the year it’s been.
Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? And have you stuck to them?
One person at work decided to give up smoking and he lasted almost week before his resolve broke. His comment was ‘What does it matter? It’s easy to give up smoking, I’ve done it dozens of times!’
Outside our church the wider world carries on much as before. There’s still a war in Afghanistan, famine in the Sudan, floods in different parts of the world, holy wars in the Middle and Far East. Volcanoes in Africa.
There are still calls on our own slender resources for places far away. Once you become ‘registered’ as a Christian on the database of any charity, such as Christian Aid, each new disaster results in a heart-rending appeal letter in almost the next post.
It’s so difficult to say ‘No’.
Closer to home, we will shortly be appealing for help towards improving our premises - to bring the toilets and kitchen up to modern (and legal) standards, to improve our work for the Community. We have the offer of a lot of grants covering about half the cost, and we have some money in hand which will cover a fair chunk of the balance.
We will still be left with a balance at the moment of about £750 a member to find. This doesn’t mean that we want each member to give £750, but to find ways of raising it. However, if you pay income tax and gave £585, the Inland Revenue would make up the rest through Gift Aid - target hit, less to aim for!
There will be opportunities during the year to contribute and take part.
We have the offer of a curry evening that will be open to anybody sympathetic to our plans (or to a decent curry!)
There may be outings, where any profit comes back to the church building fund.
We have been looking at concerts and have ideas that we need to explore further and people to approach.
Sponsored slims, climbs, abseils, organ playing, singing, anything - would you like to volunteer?
Have you got any ideas? Ideally we would like to get as much money as possible from outside the church membership.
Do you know of an organisation that we can approach that gives grants? Or a philanthropic millionaire? (We can dream!).
It’s not really too late to set another New Year’s Resolution. How are you going to raise your £750?
Duncan Beckwith
We are sad to announce that Duncan died on 26th January. He was 75 years old and died in Southend Hospital after a short illness.
Duncan was a regular visitor to our church in the past as a popular local preacher and speaker at Guild and Women’s Fellowship. He was a ‘son of the Manse’ and an excellent organist, having honed his skills playing the organ at the now-closed Kingsway cinema in Hadleigh.
For the last few years of his life he lived at Westerley with his wife Audrey. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and the rest of the family.
The funeral service will take place at Rayleigh Methodist Church on 6th February at 11 am, followed by cremation at Southend.
RDCF Lent Lectures
Last year’s Lent Lectures were so popular that this year they are going to be held at a larger venue - St Teresa’s Roman Catholic Church. They will all start at 8pm and will be held each Wednesday in Lent, starting on 20th February.
As before, they will be led by the clergy of the Rochford District Christian Fellowship.
| Date | Topic | Bible Reference | Leader |
| 20 Feb | Jesus’s Temptation | Matt 4:1-11 | Tony Thomas |
| 27 Feb | Jesus’s Transfiguration | Matt 17:1-9 | Jerry Drummond |
| 6 Mar | The Woman at the Well | John 4:5-42 | John Stanton |
| 13 Mar | The Man Born Blind | John 9:1-41 | Brian Gibson |
| 20 Mar | The Raising of Lazarus | John 11:1-44 | Dave Redbond |
If you need more information, contact John Stanton on 01702 545470.
More details can be found at www.sharejc.com
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.
Has the meaning of the Passover passed you by?
Last year John Stanton gathered together a set of all the elements that are used in the ritual of the Passover meal - a ritual that has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years. John used them as part of Rockdene’s preparation for Easter.
Now you can share a Passover meal and learn more about the meaning of Passover and its part in Jesus’s Crucifixion because John has been invited to repeat the evening on Tuesday March 26 at our church.
This is being advertised on the Share JC website as 7pm for 7.30, so keep an ear open for more details and don’t be late!
February 2nd Carol Castle/Margaret Rayner 9th Pat & Malcolm Rubidge 16th Beryl & Owen Scoging 23rd Val & Dave Dobbin March 2nd Sue & George Edwards 9th Kathy & Robert Mortlock 16th Gwenda & Norman Andrews 23rd Margaret & Colin Rayner 30th Olive & Roy Pavitt
Flower Rota
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.
Circuit Workshops at Rayleigh and Trinity
This article is to ask for your help and to advertise a Circuit Creativity Weekend (no, don’t stop reading!) planned for 25/26 May 2002.
Based on the question ‘If you couldn’t use words how would you praise God?’, this will be a creative weekend ending with a Circuit Service at Trinity on 26 May led by Maureen Newcombe, the President of LPMA.
The idea is that each of the series of short workshops will produce something that will be used or displayed during the service. Where you are asked to help at this stage is to contact Rev Catherine Bowstead by 28th February telling her:
- Which of the workshops you would find most popular?
- Would you be prepared to lead a group?
Provisional timetable:
25 May 10:00 - 12:00 Workshop(s) at Rayleigh
26 May 3:30 - 5:30 Workshop(s) at Rayleigh
4:00 - 6:00 Workshop(s) at Trinity
6:00 Tea
7:00 Circuit Service
This is open to all ages and no experience (or expertise!) is required.
Possible workshops are: dance, flowers, crafts, painting, drawing, ‘pray and clay’, computer graphics, puppetry, banner/poster making, creative writing, music making.
If you were to consider leading a sessions it is likely to be either Sat am or Sun pm.
Women’s Fellowship
The second half of the year is now under way with meetings led by Margaret Deans, Lucy Woods, Hugh Beehag and Gwenda Andrews.
The programme for this year can be found at this link
Wesley Guild
Carol Singing is over for this year and who knows what will happen next year if the Council takes away all the wardens.
We re-started our meetings in 2002 and half of them in January had to be swapped.
On the 8th, Jenny DePaglio and friends (with special guest Sue Edwards) brought their March evening forward and a very enjoyable time it was too.
On the 15th, Clifford Newman stood in at very short notice and told us about his work and experiences at the London Mission. Very entertaining, informative and thought-provoking and a great evening.
Owen mixed and matched on the 22nd for a Social evening and we even had a tie in the quiz! Eric Rowe led our devotional on 29th on the theme of Having a purpose.
If you want to come along on a Tuesday at 8pm, You can find this year's programme at this link.
Church building scheme
- latest
£750
a member
Well, we’ve asked for some quotes and they’re a bit higher than we first thought - a total of around £100,000 + fees.
We’ve been back to the London Committee of the Methodist Church and they’ve identified a further source for grants because the total cost, including VAT, architects fees, charges for this, that and the other means that we will now fit into the range where a grant can be given.
We have also approached several charitable trusts and grant-,making bodies and we have about £2500 from them, with a further £2000 promised if we start by November.
When the Methodist Property Committee in Manchester give us permission to proceed we will be required to have raised about another £7000 before we can start.
To pay the total bill we will need to raise about £38000 more than we currently have available to us.
So what does this mean to the average member in the pew?
Well, this means that we still have to raise around £750 per member, but don’t panic about you being expected to stump up this amount yourself.
A letter will be coming out to everyone later explaining everything. Meanwhile we are still looking for ways of raising money from outside the church and would welcome any help you could give in identifying sources of funding.
It’s amazing how many charitable trusts there are ‘out there’ that are awash with money that the trustees can’t get rid of - because nobody applies for it.
If you know of a trust with such a problem, we would only be too happy to help the trustees out!
Expect a full round of social engagements over the coming few months with all the profits going to the Building Fund. But don’t think you have to come along on your own - invite a friend or two (or three, or . . .) to come along as well - their contribution will be just as welcome.
We also need ideas. Think wild thoughts - the wilder the better. Even if you don’t have the expertise or the time, there may be someone we can rope in who has.
So who knows how to run a charity shop, a barn dance, a coach-trip, a boat trip, a coach/boat trip, a steam-hauled train trip, a church holiday, an Elton John concert at the Cliffs Pavilion, an all-night session of ‘garage, hip-hop and funk’ for the over fifties, a trip to the moon on gossamer wings . . . ?
Your hundred favourite hymns
John Low is doing a sponsored 100 of your favourite hymns on Saturday 9 March at Westerley, 1 Winton Avenue Westcliff as part of the LPMA appeal for the recent upgrade to the premises.
All you have to do is to request one or two hymns and note 9 March in your diary so that you can go along and sing your favourite hymn.
From 9 am to 6 pm, John will talk about each hymn - its tune, writer and composer. A soloist will then sing a verse or two (with John playing) before all those present join in.
From 6 pm to 7 pm, John will be playing the most popular 10 hymns and there will be no soloist - all singing will be done by the audience.
Light refreshments will be available during the day. If you can’t find an official sponsor form, provide the information below and send it to Carole via this site by 17th February.
On Sunday 3rd March, each church will have a list of the hymns being sung, along with the hour in which it is being played - you don’t have to stay all day!
Information required:
1. Your name (and way of contacting you)
2. Choose your way of supporting John
Either - "I will sponsor John for £ : p for every sponsored hour (max 10) completed on 9th March"
Or - "I will donate £ : p to John’s efforts on 9th March"
(Note: a sponsored hour includes a 5-minute rest for John and the organ)
3. "I request the following hymn(s) to be sung" - not more than 2
Give the number in the Hymn Book or the first line of the first verse, and, where necessary, the preferred tune
The hymns chosen must be in Hymns and Psalms (HAP) or the Methodist Hymn Book (MHB)
(Note: Either or both of your requests may have to be omitted if the total number exceeds 100)
Rochford Methodist Word Puzzle
We’re always on the look out for new word puzzles. Any type of puzzle, but at least one answer and/or clue must be connected with Methodism or Rochford, or both.
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)
Thursday
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)
Saturday
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.
Sunday Services
Feb 3rd Revd Margaret Deans (All Age Worship)
Jim McAvoy
10th Rev Jack Porter (S)
Revd Margaret Deans
17th Barbara Hayter
Pam Freeborn
24th Sue Sigfrid
Roger Thomas
(All of the above appointments are subject to change at short notice)
Dates for your diary:
February
2 Music at Highlands, Fidelio Singers, 7.30pm
9 Circuit Prayer Breakfast, Belfairs, 8 am, Revd Margaret Deans
March
2 Circuit Workshop, Spirituality, Thorpe Bay
2 Music at Highlands, South Essex Youth Symphony Orchestra, 7.30pm
26 Passover meal, John Stanton, Rochford Methodist Church
26 Ash Wednesday services in the Circuit (see Plan for details)
28 Maundy Thursday Communion Service
31 Easter Sunday
31 Clocks go forward
April
6 Music at Highlands, Recital: Deborah Groves, mezzo, 7.30pm
May
25/26 Circuit Creativity weekend and Service, Trinity and Rayleigh, President of LPMA preaching
Circuit
Prayer Breakfast, at Belfairs
9th February
Starts promptly at 8 am -
Finishes promptly at 9.15 amSpeaker: Rev Margaret Deans
Free entrance and food (retiring collection)
For more cartoons like these, click here
