If After Church You Wait A While
Seen in Lidgett Park Methodist Church
If after church you wait awhile,
Someone will greet you with a smile,
Though if you quickly rise and flee,
We’ll all seem cold and stiff maybe
The one beside you in the pew
Is perhaps, a stranger too,
All here, we have our fears and cares,
All of us need each others’ prayers.
In fellowship we bid you meet
With us, around God’s mercy seat.
In recent months Ann Woodhouse has been sharing poems that she has seen as she visited churches and she has researched the poets and given us details of their lives. We thank her for her interest.
We could find no attribution for the verse above, but some churches use it not only in their buildings but also on their web sites to encourage visitors to enjoy the ‘fellowship’ of the church they may plan to visit.
Perhaps it is a reminder that ‘fellowship’ is complex; we have to be willing to accept it as well as offer it – and to offer it when we are the one seeming to need it. One of the ‘Holy Habits’ we should try to keep.
‘They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread…’
Acts 2: 42 (NIV)
Dear friends,
You may be thinking I’ve used the above verse in the February magazine. I have, having added the next 4 words to the verse (more in May). We are beginning this month to explore the next Holy Habit, which is Breaking Bread.
The 10 Holy Habits can be explored in any order, but it just so happens that the first four in the verses in Acts 2: 42-47 fit in well with the flow of our Church life. Breaking Bread coincides just about with the season of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, 6th March, and ends with the celebration of Easter on 21st April.
We will be exploring it in a number of ways, introducing the Habit in worship on 10th March. It is planned that the young people will take a lead in that service, using the story of the feeding of the 5,000, where Jesus broke the 5 loaves to distribute the bread to the crowds. Bread rolls will be fashioned, cooked and broken.
For Communion on 17th March, we will be using a liturgy from the Holy Habits resource book, and unpacking a bit about how Jesus broke bread at the last supper. At some point we will be sampling different breads, thinking about the ones we like and the ones that especially remind us of family times, of meals with friends, and of the place of bread in our faith.
We will be making bread at the March Guild afternoon with thoughts and discussion along the way. We will be inviting other Churches to that afternoon, having a good time of Fellowship as well. The young people will also be making bread in the form of pizza dough for their Sunday evening fellowship group in early April, and creating their own pizzas to eat together during the evening.
In our Coffee & Conversation groups we will also be exploring other times Jesus broke bread in the gospels. There are a number of passages to explore, so I’ll make the material available on the Sunday before so we have a chance to thinking about those passages and come with our thoughts.
At some point we’ll also be exploring how the early Church broke bread, and it became formalised into Holy Communion, where Churches have gone from the breaking bread at a meal to remember Jesus, to the formalised service it is in most denominations today.
As we come to journey through Lent, we journey to the last supper Jesus had with His friends. There are a number of images we may have of it. For me, I’m very aware that He broke bread with those who were going to betray or desert Him. Yet He shared that meal with them. In that symbolism we can discover that He invites anyone and everyone to share fellowship with Him, to come as they are to the table He has spread. It is an invitation to share in His joy of being with us, His friends, and to see in the broken bread that He loves us, that He identifies with the messiness of our lives, and that He calls us into a new way of being.
Love in Christ,
Clare <><
| Clare’s Service themes and readings: | |
| 10th March | Holy Habits – Breaking Bread |
| John 6: 1-15 Feeding of the 5,000 | |
| 17th March | Holy Habits – Breaking Bread |
| Mark 14: 12-31, The Last Supper | |
CHURCHES TOGETHER in HEADINGLEY
LENT 2019:
LENT LUNCHES commence on Friday 15th March for 5 weeks and will be held in Headingley Methodist Church Hall at 12.15pm for a 12.30pm start.
The overall theme will be “Encountering Jesus.”
Flyers will be available in the near future giving details of speakers/themes for the individual sessions. Headingley St. Columba’s turn to prepare & serve lunch is on Friday 22nd March – all help much appreciated.
LENT STUDY COURSES:
St. Michael’s Parish Hall commencing Wednesday 13th March at 7.30pm for 6 sessions.
Extracts from the film ‘Broken’ will be used during the sessions and it is a “course about real life and real faith that will help us to engage with the realities of life and how they can be framed by faith in Jesus Christ”. Please see poster on the Notice Board for further details of individual sessions.
St. Chad’s Parish Centre (Drummond Room) commencing Wednesday 13th March at 7.30pm for 5 sessions.
“A series of reflections on Prayer, covering Contemplative, Creative and Ignatian Prayer, the Lord’s Prayer and Praying with Icons.”
Details re Holy week and Good Friday Walk of Witness will be given in the April Newsletter.
Everyone welcome to all of these events.
Christine Tweedie & Joan McShane
| VESTRY ELDERS | 3rd | March | Elissa Grant |
| 10th | March | Ian Henderson |
| 17th | March | Joan McShane |
| 24rd | March | Pat van Lemmen |
| 31st | March | Susan Bollon |
Please let the relevant Elder know if you have a notice you wish to be read out in church that Sunday; if possible, by the previous Wednesday.
WORLD DAY of PRAYER SERVICE
FRIDAY 1st MARCH 2019 at 1.30pm.
The Service this year is to take place in St. Chad’s Church, Far Headingley at 1.30pm on 1st March.
The Theme is ‘Come – Everything is Ready!’ and has been prepared by the Christian Women of Slovenia.
Do come and join in this ‘Day of Prayer’ Service – everyone is welcome.
Christine Tweedie
| FLOWERS FOR MARCH | |||
| ARRANGEMENT | DISTRIBUTION | ||
| 3rd | March | Mrs P Hood | Mrs P van Lemmen |
| 10th | March | Flower Fund | Mrs J McShane |
| 17th | March | Mrs R Reid | Miss C Tweedie |
| 24th | March | Flower Fund | Miss G Strawbridge |
| 31st | March | Mothering Sunday | Mrs K Henderson |
The flowers are very much appreciated, both in church and by those who receive them. Grateful thanks to all who help in this part of our church life.
AUDREY JONES
THE GUILD
Please make a note that the monthly lunch will be a week early in March so that we may celebrate Shrove Tuesday together with pancakes for pudding. So, the date to put in your diary is Tuesday 5th March, meeting at 12.30pm for lunch at 1 o’clock.
The Guild meeting on Tuesday 26th March will reflect the Holy Habit of ‘Breaking Bread’ and Clare will lead the afternoon talking to us about ‘The Mystery of Bread’. We meet as usual at 2.30pm and you are all welcome to join us; do not feel you have to attend each month – just come if you can!
Prayer Meeting
Our monthly prayer meeting is on Wednesday 13th March, 10.30-11am, a time to draw aside for a short time in God’s presence to pray in the quiet together, for those in need and for our Church. If you can’t come to the Church, how about setting that time aside at home to pray.
Coffee & Conversation
Come and join in the conversation about the Holy Habit of Breaking Bread, exploring when Jesus broke bread:
Tuesday 19th March, 2pm
Wednesday 27th March, 7.30pm
A reminder that the annual Church Dinner will be held at Moortown Golf Club on Wednesday 13th March, meeting at about 7 o’clock.
The cost is £25 per head payable to Jim Throssell on the evening.
APRIL NEWSLETTER
Please may I have all articles for the next edition by Sunday 17th March either directly to me or to mjbrownjohn@ntlworld.com.
Thank you.
Margaret Brownjohn
“THOUGHT FOR THE DAY….EVERYDAY”
Yesterday is history,
Tomorrow is a mystery,
But today is a gift,
That’s why we call it ‘The Present’.
Roger Morley sent these words for inclusion in the newsletter and it is good to remember them when every day does not feel like a blessing but more of a trial.
– – 0 – –
Doreen Sowden so often expresses in words what we can only feel, and the following is a wonderful companion to the thoughts above.
LIFE IS A GIFT. I did not earn it, did nothing to deserve it, yet it was given to me without strings. And such a gift. I have seen the sun rise on a morning, still with wonder, before birds have started their chorus. Seen the evening sky bright with stars before the night erased the last moments of day.
I have seen the lingering roses of high summer, blooming in profusion, just before the frosts of winter snatched away their beauty and have known with passing time, they will return.
And such is this gift, that I have known all manner of loving. The soft gentle love of my earliest memories. The wild all giving love of youth, and, as life goes on, the returning, gentle loving of quietude and understanding, when heart and body are at peace. A gift to treasure. How can I ever show enough gratitude for such a gift?
DOREEN SOWDEN