| CALENDAR | AUGUST | ||
| 2nd | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by Rev Phil Chilvers |
| 9th | SUNDAY | Partnership Sunday – no service at Headingley St Columba | |
| 11th | Tuesday | 12.30pm | Guild Lunch |
| 16th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by Rev Phil Chilvers We shall be joined by our friends from Headingley Methodist Church |
| 23rd | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by our Minister, Rev Dr Nicola Robinson |
| 30th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by Mrs Terri Raddings, Beeston Hill Free Church |
CHRISTIAN AID WEEK COLLECTION
CHURCH COLLECTION:- £385.00 (GIFT AIDED:-£370.00)
GARAGE COLLECTION:- £52.20
TOTAL COLLECTION: £437.20 (GIFT AIDED:-£370.00).
VENEZUELAN EARTHQUAKE APPEAL
TOTAL : £600.00 (GIFT AIDED:-£410.00)
A big THANK YOU to all who contributed. Joan McShane
CHURCH CHARITIES
The varied fund-raising activities from December 2025 to the end of June 2026 have resulted in the excellent sum of £660 being raised. Cheques have been posted out or delivered to the Retired Ministers Housing Trust (£220); Caring for Life (£140); Wheatfields Hospice (£140); the Bible Society (£80) and the Leeds Samaritans (£80).
My thanks as always go the other members of the team: Brenda and David Stephenson who help so much all year round; Susan Bollon who on top of everything else she does for the Church still collects in the Sunday Morning tea donations; Christine Tweedie who continues to assist with the Festival Chorus T Bar mornings (sadly they don’t come quite so often as they once did but they are coming again in October) and Norman Madill who plays his part in the fund-raising group and who supports me to do my part.
Several bags of unsold books have been donated to Oxfam recently. We have been given a rowing machine as an item to sell if possible so if anyone is interested or knows of someone who could be then please let me know.
My thanks go to everyone who donates items for the table and to all those who purchase those items, the books and the magazines. Every penny raised by the purchases goes to the five charities so every penny does count.
On we go . . . Margaret Madill
meet the team: Rev Tim Lowe
I was born and grew up by the seaside, in Southend-on-Sea. My family had always been Methodist, until we decided to move to our local United Reformed Church. In time I helped lead the youth group and served on a committee to redevelop our old church buildings. I became a Church Member at the age of nineteen, just before heading off to university.
In my mid teens, after spending six months working full time as a Studio Junior for the graphic design studio at Barnardo’s, I returned to sixth form college to study art, social biology and communication studies. In 1989 I moved away from home to study Media & Design at Portsmouth Polytechnic. When I left university in the early 1990’s design work was scarce, so I worked in a warehouse to pay off my student debts. It was during this time that I got even more involved in church life, especially with FURY. After taking our youth group to the URC’s new National Youth Resource Centre at Yardley Hastings, in Northamptonshire, I had unwittingly reached a pivotal moment in my life.
In 1993 I started an adventure for thirteen months as a full-time volunteer Community Team Member at Yardley Hastings. I got involved in office work, domestic and kitchen work, leading groups, daily prayers and worship. It was whilst here that I felt a call to train for ministry (and I also met my future wife – Rachel!).
I moved to Manchester, to study full-time for ministry on a contextual theology course, which linked academic study with church and community placements. I was ordained in 1998 into a single pastorate in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex. Our first two children – Jacob and Emma – were born whilst we were living in Hastings. From there we moved to Stafford, where I was minister to a large church in the busy town centre, which ran a volunteer staffed tea room for six days a week. In time I also took on two Methodist churches. Our youngest daughter, Esther, was born whilst we were living in Stafford. We were sent to Coventry in 2011 (yes, I’ve heard all the jokes!), serving as part of the Coventry group of URCs.
I have served the wider church in various ways: on the URC Children’s and Youth Work Committee; Pilots Management Committee; Big Day Out, leading worship at Warwick Castle; I’ve been the URC representative on the Roots worship and learning resource Editorial and Management Groups; I enjoy writing 3-4 times a year for Roots online material, and have written larger pieces for the magazine resource twice; I served as Chaplain to URC Youth Executive from 2016-17, which included leading worship at URC Youth Assembly; and I have worked for the URC at Greenbelt Festival.
2017 brought us to Leeds, when I accepted the call to serve with St Andrew’s Roundhay. Then came the formation of the Leeds URC Partnership in 2022 and the opportunity to be part of a wonderful ministry team across eight churches. I have always felt my ministry is based on co-operation, friendship and equality, not authority – which is why I love the whole URC ethos! I feel called to work with and alongside other members – a ministry of all believers in the truest sense. I see it as my role to enable and encourage the gifts of others in all areas of Christian discipleship.
In my ministry I particularly enjoy: creative, collaborative and reflective worship; opportunities to use visual arts and reflect upon contemporary visual culture; campaigns for justice issues; writing for worship resources, such as Roots; making links between our faith and popular culture; informal discussion/study groups; and being part of the wider URC.
I believe in a church: that has no boundaries or limits; that gives space for people’s imagination and chance to be awesomely creative; to be a Christian community where all are ministers and story-tellers, using our collective gifts to share God’s kingdom of love with those we live alongside.
My personal interests in the past have included tennis, sailing, karate, art and taking part in dramas/musicals. Nowadays I try to go out with my father-in-law’s walking group most Wednesdays, whilst my more nerdy interests include cars, Lego and watching adventure films.
Whilst my faith in God and my ministry have been central to my life for so long, my family has always been equally important to me. It would be fair to say we have faced some serious challenges together in recent years. As we look forward to attending this year’s big Roundhay Festival, I find myself enthused and encouraged by the lyrics of one of Lewis Capaldi’s more recent songs:
“I swear to God, I’ll survive
If it kills me to
I’m gonna get up and try
If it’s the last thing I do
I’ve still got something to give
Though it hurts sometimes
I’m gonna get up and live
Until the day that I die
I swear to God, I’ll survive“
GUILD LUNCH
We still plan to hold a Guild Lunch in August if you are happy to join us – we’ll ask around to make sure that, as we are in the midst of the summer holidays, friends are not hiking in the Alps or on ‘Round the World Cruises’ – or have a better offer! The date is 11th August, gathering together at about 12.30pm for lunch at 1 o’clock. If you are free this month, why not join us for a reasonably priced lunch and a natter; no commitment needed, just let us know you would like to come.
ST AIDAN IS REMEMBERED IN AUGUST
When Oswald became king of Northumbria, he set about the conversion of his peoples to Christianity. He requested the Irish to send a Bishop, but their original ‘austere’ choice met with little success and in 635 the gentler Aidan was sent in his stead. From his stronghold in Bamburgh, Oswald gifted him close by Lindisfarne as his Episcopal See. A small monastery grew; a church, wooden huts, and workshops and. as well as their life of prayer and study, the community prepared for their task by learning ‘English’, aided by Oswald who spoke their native Irish. Aidan’s method of missionary work was to walk the lanes, talking to those he met and telling them of his faith. His monks then visited and revisited the villages where he had sowed the seed and, in time, Christian communities grew. Aidan built firm foundations for the spread of Christianity.
Cuthbert became Bishop of Lindisfarne some 15years after the death of Aidan in 651. Loved as Aidan was loved for his humility and sharing his faith by walking and talking with those he met. On retiring in 676, he would have spent his life as a hermit but was then recalled for a period as Bishop before again living a life of complete austerity on an island close to Lindisfarne. Malcolm Guite celebrated him in his Sonnet ‘Cuddy’.
‘Cuthbertus’ says the dark stone up in Durham
Where I have come on pilgrimage to pray.
But not this great cathedral, nor the solemn
Weight of Norman masonry we lay
Upon your bones could hold your soul in prison.
Free as the cuddy ducks they named for you,
Loosed by the lord who died to pay your ransom,
You roam the North just as you used to do;
Always on foot and walking with the poor,
Breaking the bread of angels in your cave,
A sanctuary, a sign, an open door,
You follow Christ through keening wind and wave,
To be and bear with him where all is borne;
The heart of heaven, in your Inner Farne.
No sign of the ‘keening wind and wave’ when our grandson spent a day on beautiful Holy Island this month.
