Finance – Our Parish Contribution.

It costs a lot of money to keep a church like St Paul’s running – over £107,000 last year. While a lot of that is spent locally on costs like lighting and heating, cleaning and secretarial support, a large sum of money (nearly £56,000 in 2013) is given to the Church of England Diocese of Leicester each year.

In return, the diocese pays the stipend (salary) of our vicar and his housing, trains new vicars, and provides assistance to us with additional expertise. It also contributes to the central running costs of the Church of England.

The diocese of Leicester has recently made a video explaining how all this works. To see it, click this link.

We are part of the Parish of Oadby and the figures for the whole parish are well over twice those for St Paul’s. We are very grateful to all those who have given generously to help God’s kingdom he built here.

Hallelujah

Hallelujah or its alternative spelling Alleluia, meaning Praise the Lord! is a frequent response to the joyous news of Christ’s resurrection on Easter Day. Alleluia is a frequent response in our Easter hymns, such as “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today. Alleluia!”

 As part of his sermon on the joy and hope that is given by news of Christ’s resurrection, Steve Bailey, our vicar, played the well-known YouTube recording of a Flash Mob that sang the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah in a Canadian Food Hall in 2010.

 As Christ is risen, he is still active in the world. Alleluia!

You can see and hear the You Tube clip here

Christ Is Risen – He Is Risen Indeed. Alleluia!

Today is the most important day in the Christian calendar when we remember that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. The grave could not hold him. Christ’s sacrifice of himself for the sins of the whole world on Good Friday had been accepted.

We started our day of celebration with a sunrise service in the open air in Brooks Hill Park as we remembered how Mary Magdalene went to Christ’s grave early in the morning on the first day of the week, but found it empty – but then Jesus met her and called her name. We had a time of meditation and prayers of thanksgiving. And we also sang two Easter hymns unaccompanied.

Then it was back to St Paul’s for breakfast together, before returning for the main morning service.

Light in the Darkness

On Friday 11 May 2014, the Youth Group that met that night spent a moment considering what the Christian Good News, the gospel, is. The group used glow sticks to demonstrate the 4 principal points of the gospel - 4 symbols that explain the Gospel message. The picture on the left shows the four symbols that they saw:
1. God loves us
2. We have sinned and deserve punishment
3. Jesus dies to take the punishment for us.
4. Will we accept the gift of forgiveness and live for him.

A simple explanation? Perhaps. But one that make the truth real.

 

Here We Are – This Is Us!

St Paul’s Church is rather hidden and cannot even be seen from the nearby Severn Road. However, when we went for a church picnic in Knighton Park, we were impressed by the banner that another church group had erected beside where they were picnicking. We knew who they were, but no one knew who we were. 

So we felt it would be useful for us to get a similar banner for use when we were away from our church building, as a group, so that people should know who we were. The District Church Council agreed. Thanks to the organisation of Ruth Smith and the artwork of Anona Griffin, we have now been able to obtain one. (See poor picture on the left) 

So, if we’ve found a way to increase our visibility away from the church, has anyone a good idea for how we could increase the visibility of the church building?!

Tough Questions

Our new programme from April to June is now available in print form or online (here).

During the Easter season, we naturally turn our thoughts to the wonder of Christ’s Resurrection which demonstrates the truth of his promise that we can now relate to God as a consequence of his death by crucifixion.

However, after that we are going to be looking at a series of “Tough Questions.” These are the sort of questions that people who do not claim to be Christians often put forward as an objection to faith. They include questions about other religions, “what happens when I die?” other spiritualities, the compatibility of science and religion and the Trinity. Tough questions, yes! But we hope that the answers will lead us on in our faith.

If this sort of approach would interest you, please join us at our 10.0 a.m. Sunday morning services. You would be very welcome.

Welcome to the Mayor

On 27 April we look forward to welcoming Sarah Dickinson to our morning service. Sarah is currently the Deputy Mayor of Oadby & Wigston and will become Mayor in May. She has asked our vicar, Steve Bailey, to be her Chaplain for her Mayoral year. She will be coming to St Paul’s to meet us all, so that we can pray for her as she becomes Mayor.

This is a great opportunity for St Paul’s to become more involved in the work of the wider community and for us all to support Sarah in this civic role. St Paul’s will host her Civic Service later in the year.