Lent Lunches

It has become a tradition that every year, during the season of Lent, each of the Oadby Churches provides a Lent lunch, to which all the congregations of the Churches Together in Oadby are invited. This is a modest lunch of soup, roll and butter, cheese and tea or coffee. A contribution of £3 is suggested, which is sent to the work of Christian Aid.

This usually takes place on a Saturday and on 29 February, the first Saturday in Lent this year, it was the turn of St Paul’s to provide the lunch.

It will take place each Saturday during Lent, rotating through the churches, and everyone is warmly invited.

Visit from Jakin

St Paul’s Charity of the Month this month is Jakin, a Christian Pregnancy Care and Counselling service for all those for whom pregnancy causes a problem. The charity’s founders included people from St Paul’s and the charity initially used St Paul’s premises.

During the Sunday morning service on the 16^th, Rose Scott, Jakin's counselling coordinator, introduced the charity to us. She used two anonymized case histories, one of a person considering an abortion as the only option and one of a person who had had a termination.

We were encouraged to pray for the work, including its clients and its counsellors

Good News for the Poor

Apart from today’s service having a multicultural theme, it was also a gift service. Presents of about £15 had been bought for nearly 70 children who will spend this Christmas in mother and baby homes, and women’s refuges, near to the church.

Those who had bought and wrapped these gifts brought them forward during a song. In addition, people brought unwrapped gift for the “Welcome Project” for asylum seekers, based at St Martin’s house.

All these gifts will be distributed in the next few weeks.

Giving a Voice to the Voiceless

Today, our rector, Steve Bailey was not in church. Instead, he was taking part in the Great North Run – a half Marathon which starts in Newcastle and runs to South Shields via Gateshead. He was doing this to support the work of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, whose work of trying to give everyone the right to worship, wherever they live in the world was described by our speaker last week. Many of the congregation had taken sponsor forms or had supported him by the Internet.

We wish him, and the work of CSW, well.

The Right to Believe

The charity on which we are focusing our thoughts and prayers this month is Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). We take for granted our freedom to worship, or not, as we like. This is not true in many parts of the world, where believers may not be allowed to congregate to worship, may be deprived of civil rights and may even be imprisoned or killed. CSW seeks to oppose this. As the website says: "CSW's team of specialist advocates work on over 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, to ensure that the right to freedom of religion or belief is upheld and protected.

Our vision is a world free from religious persecution, where everyone can practise a religion or belief of their choice. The right to freedom of religion or belief is also known as the ‘first freedom’ given to humanity by God. It’s a touchstone human right, often serving as a ‘litmus test’ for whether other rights are at risk of being abused.

It's a right we must protect, defend and restore. CSW seeks to challenge and change the laws, behaviours and policies which lead to abuses of the right to freedom of religion and belief. We have over three decades of experience advocating for freedom of religion or belief around the world."

May we be grateful for our privileges, pray for those where it is very different,. And support CSW as it seeks to uphold their rights.

Gifts for Christmas

We have just had our gift service. During the course of the morning service, people brought up gifts and left them at one of two tables. For one table, people wrapped gifts, for which tags with the age and sex of a child in a hostel or refuge (but no names) had been issued in advance. These had been notified to us by the institutions concerned.

On the other table were unwrapped gifts of items that would be special for asylum seekers being cared for by the Welcome Project at St Martin’s house, the diocese of Leicester headquarters. All those organising the gift service were thrilled by the generosity of the congregation.

Giving is an integral part of the Christmas festivities as we remember the greatest gift of all; the gift by God of his only Son, Jesus. It’s a joy to be able to share these gifts with those who might otherwise receive little, this Christmas.

Bible Society

The charity supported by St Paul's, that we are  concentrating on in our prayers and presentations this month,  is the Bible Society. On the website, they explain their work as follows: "Working in over 200 countries, Bible Society is a charity on a global mission to bring the Bible to life for every man, woman and child. We believe that when people engage with the Bible, lives can change – for good."
We will be celebrating Bible Sunday later this month.

Running to Help

By happy coincidence to the subject of our service today (the Christian charity Tearfund), our Rector, Steve Bailey, was running in the Great North Run to raise funds for Christian Aid. This is another charity that seeks to help the poorest in society in the name of Christ. Steve has been sponsored by many members of the congregation of St Paul’s.

Light for Those Who Are in Darkness

When Jesus came, he promised light to those who are in darkness. Of course, he meant spiritual light to those who were in the darkness of sin, but who could now come into the light of relationship with his father through the forgiveness he was able to offer by his death on the cross. But he also came to the poor and needy, and in this world, some of the poorest have no physical light.

Our service today was led by Karen Johnson, who highlighted a project by the Christian relief agency Tear Fund to bring light to poor communities. As an example, she told us of a community in DRC Congo where a solar panel, feeding batteries was able to provide a light for reading and security. It also provided light for a small nursing station which the project had built. The combination of the light and the clinic meant that a 19 year old was able to avoid a three-hour journey to the nearest other maternity.  The service was held in a church without lights (on a very grey day) to emphasise the importance of light. And a cross covered in baking foil was surrounded with lit T-lights, making it shine in the darkness.

We were all encouraged to think of something that would help make a difference for our world.

Helping the Poorest in Uganda

The focus of our charitable giving this month is the Friends of Africa International Christian Ministry, (AICM) of which one of our congregation is a trustee. AICM works in the south-west corner of Uganda among some of the poorest people there, especially the Batwa, the Pygmy people on the edge of society.

AICM has provided new schools for their children, and included a feeding programme, enabling to take advantage of the education offered. It also brings good news of the love of Jesus, who came to bring good news to the poor.

Buy Fair!

In many parts of the world our basic commodities like tea, coffee and chocolate are picked by indentured workers – at near slave salaries and conditions. The fair trade movement seeks publicise the problem and to rectify this. It has the support of many churches including St Paul’s.

It will soon be the Fair Trade fortnight, and at the service this morning there was a stand offering fair trade chocolate for gifts for Easter. One offering, the real Easter egg, had the additional benefit of having included in it the account of the Easter story. Without that magnificent occasion of Christ’s rising triumphantly from the dead, there would be no Easter eggs or Easter bunnies.
So, as you are doing your regular shopping, do look out for the Fairtrade symbol, and remember those who have harvested the commodity.

Free to Believe

Of the charities that St Paul's supports, the one that we feature this month is Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). They described their role as follows:

"CSW works in over 20 countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, defending everyone’s right to freedom of religion or belief. Three quarters of the world’s population lives in countries with severe restrictions on their religious freedom – in fact, it’s one of the most widely-violated human rights in the world. We think this is unacceptable. We’re working to change it. Our vision is of a world where everyone is free to choose their beliefs – to hold and practise any religion they like, or none at all.”

We believe that everyone has the right to choose their belief, but as Christians, we particularly support Christians who are being denied that right – often at great cost, with prohibition of meeting for worship, confiscation of the Bibles, imprisonment and even in some cases death. The least we can do is to support them in prayer, and support CSW financially.

Thank You to the Firefighters

Back on 25 November 2017 (click to view) we held our Christmas Fayre at St Paul’s. As is customary, we didn’t raise monies for ourselves, but for outside charities

The two we chose were the mayor’s charity, for the Children’s Hospital in Leicester, and, the other, the Firefighters’ Charity, which supports sick, injured and traumatised firefighters, and those in need

The mayor kindly visited us and received a cheque for for £600 for her charities some weeks ago. Now it was the turn of the firefighters, as Karl Anderson, a firefighter based at Wigston, visited our morning service. He expressed thanks for the cheque for £600 for the firefighter’s charity.

It’s good to be able to express our gratitude for all the hard work that the firefighters do. Let us never take it for granted.

Gifts with Love

Our next Christmas activity has been our gift service, today, when the congregation was encouraged to give gifts to people whose Christmas might otherwise be rather spartan. After contact with local women’s refuges and mother and baby hostels he got a list of children likely to be there at Christmas and the congregation took away gift tags with the child’s sex and age. They then went away and bought a present for a child of that description. The gifts were brought up during our service this morning and placed under the church Christmas tree. These gifts will be delivered to their homes in the next few days.

There was also an opportunity for those who had not taken tags to give appropriate gifts for the refugees in contact with the Welcome Project run at Leicester Cathedral.

At a time when we remember Jesus coming as the greatest gift of all it’s important to show his love bygiving to those who have much less than we do.

The Most Valuable Thing that this World Affords

Traditionally, the last Sunday before All Saints Day is celebrated as Bible Sunday. This year, this is particularly appropriate, as it is just 500 years ago that Martin Luther rediscovered the Bible’s teaching that we can approach God only through faith in Christ.

This is why, during the Queen’s coronation, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland presented the Queen with a Bible, while the Archbishop said: “We present you with this Book, the Most Valuable Thing That This World Affords.”

This month, our charity is the Bible Society, which seeks to make the Bible available to all. In the past this has been through the printed book, but now they also use literature and recordings to make the message of the Bible better known.

Many of us and multiple versions of the Bible. We are so fortunate as in many countries it is a criminal offence to own a Bible. In others, there are still many people for whom the is not yet available in their mother tongue.

We are pleased to help the Bible Society make the word of God more widely available.

The African International Christian Ministry

The African International Christian Ministry is a government recognised Ugandan NGO, working in the south-west of the country. The Friends of African International Christian Ministry is a UK charity which supports their work financially. It has been one of the charities that St Paul’s supports, and now St Peter’s Oadby is supporting it as well.

The inaccessible forests of south-west Uganda have some of its poorer citizens. In particular, there is a very high percentage of the pygmy people, known as Batwa. The Batwa are a despised group and are often excluded from society.  AICM provides support, training, schools (where there are none), feeding of schoolchildren (who are often undernourished) and Christian ministry.

A link here links to an article by the Archbishop of York which gives the background of the work in greater detail.

 

Last Sunday (15 October) we were joined by the congregation of St Peter’s. We were visited by Colin and Sue Townsend who are AICM supporters. Colin had just returned from a visit to the AICM work in Uganda and was still jetlagged. Sue explained the situation in the area and showed photos and videos of the work. For those of us used to the facilities we have in England, it was quite an enlightenment. But the scenery was magnificent!

There is more about the work with Batwa here.

We look forward to continuing to support this work and deepening the links with it.

 

What Have You Got in Your Hand?

Tear Fund is a Christian relief and development organisation that St Paul’s has supported for many years. In particular, we are linked to projects in a church in Uganda. Today, Charlotte Nobbs visited our morning service, to speak on their behalf.

The reading was about how Jesus fed the crowd of 5000 men plus women and children. But to do this, he used one child’s packed lunch of just 5 rolls and two fish. Charlotte admitted that as we looked out at the world the needs seemed as great as trying to feed the enormous crowd. But her challenge was to look at what we did have – what had we got in our own hands, and make that available for God to use. Charlotte illustrated with pictures and case histories from Uganda which demonstrated how investment of small sums of money have been able to recreate the well-being of families.

May we respond in generosity and prayer to all that we learned.

Wrath – Hope – Peace

A group of cyclists led by the 75-year-old minister, Revd Robert de Berry are cycling the 750 mile route from Cape Wrath in Scotland, via the Hope Valley to Peacehaven in Sussex. They are doing this to raise awareness of, and support, two organisations, Release International and Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Both are committed to raise awareness of the problem of hundreds of people worldwide (many being Christians) who are imprisoned simply for practising their faith and to intercede for their release.

The group is staying overnight in Leicester on 8 June. There will be a meeting at St Paul’s at 7.30 p.m. when they will be explaining their ride and publicising the problem of people who are not allowed to practice their faith.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide is one of the charities already supported by St Paul’s and it will be good to have this possibility of supporting their actions.

Welcome Stephen Catriona and Hannah

The Parish of Oadby – St Peter’s and St Paul’s churches – have supported the worldwide Anglican Mission organisation CMS (Church Mission Society) for many years. The previous partner, Jane Jerrard, has now retired from CMS, and we now have a new link with Stephen and Catriona Bennett.

 After introducing themselves at St Peter’s morning service they came on to St Paul’s and showed a few slides and spoke about their intended work. Stephen is a consultant surgeon from Fife and Catriona a consultant anaesthetist. In August they will be going out to work at the Mission Hospital of Gahini in Rwanda. Stephen will be the only surgeon there, but expects to be able to share his surgical skill with other doctors. Catriona will be working part-time (Hannah is a baby) and she hopes to increase the expertise of the anaesthetic nurses and undertake complex anaesthetics. Their presence will support the witness of this church hospital in showing God’s love to the community around.

After service they mingled with the congregation, answering people’s questions and then went on to an open lunch in one of the congregation’s homes, where we were able to get to know them better and hear more of their hopes and plans.

We look forward to supporting them both financially and in prayer, and in any other practical ways that we can.

The Leicester Welcome Project

The charity, which we are focusing on this month is the Leicester Welcome Project, based at St Martin's House, by the Cathedral.
The project says ” We aim to provide practical help and support to asylum seekers in Leicester by means of drop in sessions, staffed by supported volunteers and in partnership with other agencies.”
We hope that the workers involved know that they are supported in prayer and that the physical needs of their clients are catered for.

Pray for the people who collect foodstuffs and resources for them and for the leadership; that they will trust the Lord to give them knowledge and understanding to ensure that people are treated fairly and with dignity. Living in the relative comfort of a wealthy  country we can only guess at the hardships asylum seekers suffer. Pray that their anxiety for the future can be relieved.