General Chat

Tomorrow we begin the traditional week of prayers for Christian unity 18th-25th January). The theme for 2014 is:
"Has Christ been divided?"
(1 Cor 1:1-17)

Many Christians become aware of the great diversity of ways of adoring God. Hearts are touched, and people realize that their neighbours' ways are not so strange.

Pulpits are exchanged, and special ecumenical celebrations and prayer services are arranged.

Good morning everyone......and I hope you are all well. :-)


I can remember the Week of Christian Unity being quite an event John, and much as you describe. I have to say, however, that it doesn't seem to have the same effect in our area as it used to. The united congregations have dwindled and the clergy don't seem as keen as they used to be. Not sure what the root cause is but, at least, the people from different denominations are friendly in their everyday lives.

Where we live now, I am told that back in the 50's/60's and even into the 70's I think, the Church of England folk and the Roman Catholic folk would walk on opposite sides of the road :-0 Thank goodness things have changed!

After thought!
I wonder if the modern young clergy, who haven't experienced very much in the way of 'dis-unity', cannot see the point in 'unity' ???? :-S


On with today's thought:

How Much More

Sometimes it seems my smallest task,
Becomes a major job;
That my valleys become deeper,
And my mountains taller, God.

Oft times my road seems longer, too,
And I cannot see its end;
More rocks fall down to trip me,
With bigger boulders 'round the bend.

I push and strive, press on and drive,
If need be, I can crawl;
Whatever it takes for me to survive,
Indeed, I do it all.

I sometimes stop and close my eyes,
I question why my test;
I think how hard I try each day,
And, God ... I do my best.

Perhaps I don't thank you enough
For the strengths you've given me,
And for your love sent from above,
And your gifts most heavenly.

You raise me to the summits,
You drop me to the depths;
My life swings like a pendulum,
Between the worst and best.

How many oceans yet to swim?
How many more mountains to climb?
How many valleys yet to crawl from?
Dear God ... will you give me more time?

~ Virginia Ellis


Take care.....Cx <3

I have been gazing on my attractive lips and eyes in the mirror this morning :-D :-D And, yes, life is like a roller coaster and at least we know it ends in great happiness.

My Minister is very ecumenical. By nature, I am the opposite. I think that anyone who is not a Wesleyan Methodist is still travelling. I know a friend of mine who was a Calvinistic Methodist felt that I was the one who only partially understood what Jesus and his apostles were saying to us. As Sidney Carter wrote: "Keep me travelling along with you". Not Wesley or Calvin or Lloyd Jones or John Henry Newman. Keep me travelling along with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and God, the Father.

I think the text for the week of prayer for Christian Unity (1 Cor. Chapter 1) may be quite challenging.

First Corinthians Chapter One

"1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: 3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. "

Corinth was a bad city with a terrible reputation. We have here the apostle's preface to his whole epistle, in which we may take notice,
Paul was very Jewish and had been brought up very strictly. He would not even have been aware of some of the lewd behaviour widely practised in this city. Yet he went into their midst, and planted the little Christian church of Corinth.
Now there were some among his new church who now questioned his apostleship (ch. 9 verses 1, 2), and vilified his person and ministry, 2 Cor. Chapter 10 verse 10.
False teachers then and even today try to deny his apostleship. Yet Sosthenes, the leader of the Jewish synagogue in Corinth before Paul planted Christianity there, joins Paul in this letter of unity and knows that Paul was indeed an apostle of the Lord Jesus.
The people to whom this epistle was directed were “the church of God that was at Corinth, sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints”. All Christians are therefore called saints by God. Paul is writing to the saints in Corinth, and also to the saints today in 2014 – whether we live in Scotland, Australia, Canada or Timbuktoo.
In every place in the Christian world there are some that call on the name of Christ. God has a remnant in all places; and we should share communion with all that call on Christ's name.

Loving yesterday and today's poems Cynthia, thankyou.

Christian Unity week used to be quite an event many years ago. I would take envelopes and distribute them to houses nearby and collect them after. This event was always well supported and village folk were generous in their giving.

Our village had thriving Catholic, Methodist and my C/E church and we held a walk through the village and used each building throughout the years for shared worship. That sadly hasn't happened for a long, long time. The Methodist chapel was pulled down and is now a small new estate of flats. The Catholic church has no village Priest as he went off to teach in a Seminary in Spain and an elderly Priest comes to lead Masses but has no other involvement in our village life.

My church has endured 10 years of upset and uncertainty with our church wardens taking on much more responsibility than they should have but it has been necessary to keep the Sunday worship and services for our village folk going.

Now, we are blessed to have a new lady Rector who also is our Rural Dean and shares Ministry for 3 parishes....... so there is a lot of Christian Unity happening, but just very different to how things used to be very many years ago.

John, I'm off soon to do the supermarket run on a very wet and cold day, but your posting has me singing to myself this hymn which sums it all up for me:-

One more step along the world I go
One more step along the world I go
From the old things to the new
Keep me traveling along with you

And it's from the old I travel to the new
Keep me traveling along with you.

Many other verses which will surely be familiar and meaningful to you.
Join me in singing along. It's cheering me up on a dark damp day!
Shopping awaits..............!

Give me courage when the world is rough,
keep me loving though the world is tough;
leap and sing in all I do,
keep me traveling along with you

What with supermarkets and weather today, difficult to keep loving. But we all have smiley lips and eyes and we do our best to leap and sing :-D :-D

Just thinking about Sylvia and hoping that the memorial service for her SIL went as well as it could. Hope that Sylvia has a safe journey to her daughters and that she will soon be on the mend. Gentle hugs right now.

Good morning.......I don't know if Sylvia will be posting herself, but I had a brief word from her to say that all went well with the memorial. I will let her fill in the details as and when she is able to - it's the internet connection and all the travelling she is doing which is causing the problem. I am sure she is aware that we are all still holding her and the family in our thoughts and prayers.


Regarding the hymn John was so merrily singing..... - I have a feeling we are singing that today! :-) It is Education Sunday and our church school will be leading the service. :-)


The Collect for today:


Almighty God, in Christ you make all things new: transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.



I hope everyone enjoys their day....Cx <3

Pleased to get that news about Sylvia, Cynthia. It must have been a very stressful week for her.

Education Sunday eh? That sounds good. We have our Covenant Service today, which is not a set day. It is an Anglican tradition started in mid 17th century but only practised in Methodism today as far as I know. Used to be the first Sunday of the New Year, but as it includes Communion and there are only 3 ordained Ministers for 15 chapels, it is now a "Sunday in January"

Chapels would be pretty full on my old circuit in Northamptonshire, but in the Valleys of South Wales it does not seem to have the same significance. It is my favourite service of the whole year and gives me a stark reminder of all the woeful service I have given in the last year and that I must try to do much better in 2014.

It is probably similar to returning to a church or chapel and repeating your wedding vows. :-) :-)

Covenant Service in our church last Sunday John.
Interesting and a surprise too, as it is years since we had this service and the booklet stated the words were taken from the Methodist faith.
All very different with our new Rector. It was good to be able to renew our faith in words shared by so many over the past years. Good and thought provoking!

The words are wonderful, kandj. It was an idea by a Church of England clergyman in 17th century - name of Alleyne, I believe. 100 years later, Wesley nicked all the best bits of Anglicanism for his new Methodist Society within the Church of England. And so the Covenant Service became known as a Methodist tradition.

Wesley also nicked the best bits of the Quakers, the Baptists and the Independents. Never a man to invent something when there was something good already to be adopted. It is not generally known that both Wesley's grandfathers were ejected from the Church of England in 1662. One (Rev John Wesley) became an Independent Minister in Dorset. And the other (Rev Dr Samuel Annesley) became a leading Puritan writer). :-) :-)

Good morning everyone...... :-)


Our late vicar would have been so pleased to see another packed church yesterday as we welcomed Year 3 from school who were giving a presentation during the service. We also welcomed the three babies who were baptised last week, with a simple prayer, their baptism card and a rousing round of applause!


I have to admit that it is years since I heard about a Covenant Sunday taking place so I had to google to find out more. Very much a Methodist based service where you renew your relationship with God which seems like a fine idea to me. The Church of England does have some services where we renew our Baptism vows, which would be a similar sort of thing.


A prayer for renewal from the Roman Catholic tradition.

Lord, We are Your people, the sheep of Your flock.
Heal the sheep who are wounded,
Touch the sheep who are in pain,
Clean the sheep who are soiled,
Warm the lambs who are cold.
Help us to know the Father's love through Jesus the Shepherd and through His Spirit.
Help us to lift up that love, and show it all over this land.
Help us to build love on justice and justice on love.
Help us to believe mightily, hope joyfully, love Divinely.
Renew us that we may renew the face of the earth.
Amen


Enjoy your day.....Cx :-)

A cold and frosty morning here in Yorkshire. Everywhere looks so different covered in the white frost. I drew the blinds and stood in awe at the wonder of God's work. My mind was filled with this old beautiful hymn:-

For the beauty of the earth
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.

Refrain
Christ our love to Thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.

There are several other verses, but this came immediately to mind. How blessed I am to have eyes to see such wonder and glory this morning freely given by God.

Good morning. I was thinking along similar lines this morning kandj - I looked out o the bedroom window and the sky is a wonderful panorama of pink, blue and grey. Quite fantastic.


Take Time To See

It seems so hard to understand,
As I look across the land,
That all I view belongs to me,
I ought to take more time to see.

The distant hills and mountains high,
The rolling clouds and bright blue sky,
No one can take these views from me,
As long as I have eyes to see.

A timid deer with a haunting look,
Who stands refreshed by yonder brook,
Knows not that he belongs to me,
Oh, what a thrilling sight to see!

The song of birds so gay and clear,
That fill the morning air with cheer,
And fragrant flowers of every hue,
That stand erect bedecked with dew;
All these and more belong to me,
If I but use my eyes to see.

When evening shadows gather night,
And twinkling stars light up the sky,
I hear my Master say to me,
"I made it all for you to see!"
My heart grows warm with faith and pride,
To know that He is by my side.

~ Author Unknown



Cx :-)

Wonderful words Cynthia and I often take time
to look around me and also to smell the roses. :-)

We are all in a hurry to get things done that we miss
out on such a lot. Hopefully I will always remember to
take that time and be thankful to see and hear things
around me.

Emma :-)

Emma, I second your sentiments and to Cynthia,... Amen... to this mornings words.

Good morning.....everyone. :-)


I spent some time yesterday sorting through the Baptism application forms. Bearing in mind that we are still in January, I counted that we have 22 families applying for Baptism up until June. Goodness knows how many more we will get in in the meantime, but it is heartening to know that we have the opportunity to touch so many lives with the Good News. :-)



Some familiar and soothing words for today :


The LORD is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness

For his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley

Of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil:

For thou art with me;

Thy rod and thy staff

They comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me

In the presence of mine enemies:

Thou anointest my head with oil;

My cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy

Shall follow me all the days of my life:

And I will dwell in the house

Of the LORD for ever.



Cx :-)

Thanks Cynthia for such familiar words this morning.

I shall no want

He restoreth my soul

I will fear no evil

My cup runneth over

I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Amen to that!

Our village church has Baptism services every fortnight, the families are returning to church for this important ceremony in great numbers now we have Rev Jan in our midst.

Funeral services are also increasing as relatives bring their loved ones into church again and not going straight to the town crematorium which has happened for years. All good and positive when our church family can provide support and comfort to village community at two very special times in their lives.

Just catching up on the lovely messages. Drove son down to pick up his new shiny sports car yesterday. 320 miles round trip, and I thought retirement would be more restful. Saw a lovely small town for the first time - Stockbridge, I think. Quite near Winchester. Absolutely beautiful parish church built with pebbles - a bit like churches I am more familiar with in Norfolk area. And artists shops and antique shops. And some lovely restaurants and cafes. Only one cash machine and that is in the Post Office - so that tells you the village has a lot of class.

Another passage from the reading this week from 1 Corinthians. Verses 4-6:

"I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ.
That in everything you are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge.
As the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you."

What a reading to encourage our prayer in this week of prayer for Christian Unity. :-) :-)