Cathedral Square, Leicester

Leicester's new Cathedral Square project now has an updated website.

The project as a whole consists of the creation of a new public square, the internal re-ordering of Leicester Cathedral, and the refurbishment of the St Nicholas Building, formerly part of Leicester grammar school.

New venue for Oadby's General Election Hustings - 20 April 2010

Update at 12:30 on 20 April 2010 - It looks like the event at Manor School tonight may be cancelled. We'll update with further information when available.

Update at 13:30 - We can confirm that the meeting has been cancelled.

Update 27 April 2010 - We understand that the Hustings is now being arranged to take place on Monday 3 May at 7.30pm at Kibworth School Hall, School Hall, Kibworth.

Original post: With a General Election just weeks away, arrangements have been made for local voters to meet with candidates standing in the Harborough Constituency. A Hustings event has been planned for Tuesday 20 April, at 7:30pm at Manor School on Severn Road, Oadby.

The prospective candidates who have announced that they will be coming are :

• Dave Ball (English Democrat)
• Geoff Dickens (BNP)
• Edward Garnier (Conservative)
• Zuffar Haq (Liberal Democrat)
• Marietta King (UKIP)
• Kevin McKeever (Labour)
• Jeff Stephenson (Independent)

In a separate development, the Make the Cross Count campaign has been launched to help Christians in particular explore the issues which are being debated.

Update 14 April 2010: Evangelical Alliance have extensive General Election coverage on their website and the Church of England has published a set of prayers for the campaign.

Were you there?
Our Easter Morning Communion service was a sell out, nearly every chair was taken and the Children’s groups were well subscribed. The singing was rousing and the air of celebration a constant reminder that people had come with the expectation of receiving something special. Simon spoke about believing the resurrection and explained that it was hard for those such as Peter who were there, so today one should still expect it to be hard, but if you take the time to study the evidence you will probably come to the same conclusions that the disciples did. That Jesus, having been crucified and died, was resurrected and is alive today. I took some pictures at the end of the service and thought this selection might just remind those who were there what a great occasion it was.

The shock of resurrection

Easter Day begins not with joy, but with shock.

Luke describes how the women who went to the tomb of Jesus were anguished to find it empty and terrified by the presence of angels.

As the message of resurrection sank in, the women rushed to tell the disciples who were hiding. But their message seemed to the men like an idle tale and they were dismissed.

Only when Peter saw the empty tomb for himself did he realise the astounding truth - Jesus had been raised to life. Luke records that he was amazed. No wonder, resurrection takes some believing. The dead, in the normal course of events, stay dead. There is nothing more certain.

Yet within hours, rumours of Christ's resurrection were confirmed by his appearance in person. And since that first Easter, millions of men and women have encountered him in their own lives.

A cheery "Happy Easter!" hardly does justice to the shock of resurrection. Feel the shock of it. Then let your astonishment give way to awe and joy.

Photo reproduced under Creative Commons attribution licence, credit: FranUlloa

Principal Services April to June

In this season of services we follow the disciples from their fearful and feeble worst, through their discovery of the miracle of Christ's resurrection, to bold and powerful acts of witness.

Come and join us through Easter, Pentecost and beyond in exploring the possibilities of resurrection faith.

1 April 7.30pm Holy Communion for Maundy Thursday
The Servant King
John 13.1-35

2 April 7.45pm Good Friday Service with Churches Together in Oadby
Mine the tomb wherein He lay

4 April 10.00am Holy Communion for Easter Day
Jesus has risen
Acts 10.34-43 and Luke 24.1-12

11 April 10.00am All Together Church and Baptisms
God's way
Acts 5.27-32

18 April 10.00am Holy Communion
Turned around by Jesus
Acts 9.1-20 and John 21.1-19

25 April 10.00am The Word Service
Tabitha lives
Acts 9.36-43 and John 10.22-30

2 May 10.00am Holy Communion
No limits?
Acts 11.1-18 and John 13.31-35

9 May 10.00am Parade Service
Where next, God?
Acts 16.9-15

16 May 10.00am Holy Communion
Believe and you will be saved
Acts 16.16-34 and John 17.20-26

23 May 10.00am The Word Service
Pentecost Celebration
Acts 2.1-21

30 May 10.00am The Lord's Supper (Book of Common Prayer)
Justified by faith
Romans 5.1-5 and John 16.12-15

6 June 10.00am The Word Service
Jesus raises the widow's son
1 Kings 17.17-24 and Luke 7.11-17

13 June 10.00am All Together Church
Forgiven!
Luke 7.36-49

20 June 10.00am Holy Communion
Simon Harvey's last Sunday as Vicar of St Paul's

27 June 10.00am The Word Service
Looking forward, not back
1 Kings 19.5-16, 19-21 and Luke 9.51-62

Don't be late for church

With the clocks going forward this Sunday (British Summer Time begins on 28 March 2010) chances are the first thing affected is the time you need to leave home for church.

We'll ensure that the heating clocks are changed, it'll be nice and toasty inside so don't roll over and pull up the covers. Come to church for ten and you'll gain a whole extra hour in your weekend.

Church Grounds Clearing

It all began with a call to arms, “the garden is taking over” Mick planned and Anita booked a Saturday morning. These professional gardeners! Who else would choose a day when it rained, and rained, and rained! Some people were there before 9.00am, probably hoping it would be postponed. Mick just allotted tasks and provided tools where necessary. There were 6 of us at 9.05am. Then our faith was rewarded and more and more people began arriving until every task was given out and that young chap David began snapping us. I have included some of the pictures, with one of Vivien trying to blow other members of the team away. Many thanks to all those who gardened on Saturday, the grounds are looking good again.
Paul

Big Church Day Out - Saturday 29 May 2010

It's billed as "an event for all ages and across all church backgrounds to gather to celebrate Jesus and the faith that is bigger than us all."

This year we're heading off to Stanford Hall, Loughborough. The day includes corporate worship hosted by Pete Greig (24-7 Prayer) and Diane Louise Jordan (Songs of Praise); the Saltmine Theatre Company; The Kids Tent for age related worship, drama and fun; exciting bands for younger people; The Tea Tent featuring music from Graham Kendrick and Stuart Pendred and most importantly cream teas and cakes! Leslie is willing to purchase tickets but needs to know numbers by next Sunday 21 March (payment by 27 March). The price of a ticket is dependent on numbers but will hopefully be approx. £18. Please contact Leslie as soon as possible if you wish to go.

More details at www.bigchurchdayout.co.uk

Grounds and gardening morning - 20 March 2010

Dave does a fabulous job in keeping things neat and tidy around the Church. Now that spring is finally approaching, we're seeing flowers appearing.

Every now and then we get a bigger team together to tackle some of the larger jobs. We've had an encouraging response but no one need feel left out as many hands really do make light work. Jennifer has kindly offered to provide bacon butties and a cup of tea to keep us going. Come along from 9.00am.

Google Street View comes to Oadby (and most other places too)

View Larger Map

Google's Street View now includes the whole parish of Oadby, except for a number of the smallest streets. The enormous amount of new data is likely to generate further concerns about privacy and not everyone will be keen on having their front gardens on display to the world. Google's camera car snapped someone outside the church carrying his paper but while I have a hunch who it might be, at least his face has been blurred.

What do you think? Is this a leap forward in digitizing our world for greater convenience, or a step in the wrong direction?