Wedding Dance with a difference!

The wedding season is upon us now and I look forward to the joy and privilege of taking a marriage service.
Watch this link to see a flash mob dance within a recent wedding service taken by someone I trained alongside.

Welcome Back Jane Jerrard

After the service yesterday (23 June) the parish’s link Mission Partner with the Church Mission Society (CMS) spoke of her work in Pakistan. She described the work of setting up primary schools for the least privileged communities. Education offered the chance for these children to rise above their lowest level in society. For a girl, it offered the prospect of marriage to a man who was equally educated and a home where education was valued. Using role-play the children were also trained to stand up for their own rights and for the rights of others.

Over a simple lunch afterwards, people were able to ask Jane more about her work.

The IFCampaign Rally – the Batchelors Report Back

The banner outside the church at present reads: “enough food for everyone, IF we act and pray.” The action of one family in the church, the Batchelors, was to go to London support the IF Campaign Rally on 9 June in Westminster Central Hall, Westminster, and then in Hyde Park. There, they joined 45,000 other like-minded people from 200 different charities.

At our service yesterday, Matilda presented a PowerPoint of their experiences. She described what it was like to be in the huge crowd. The rally was particularly calling for the developed world to Give enough Aid; for multinational companies to Stop Tax Dodging, which was depriving Third World countries of much-needed revenue that was rightfully theirs; for a Stop to Land Grabbing which meant that rather than being used for food, the land was growing biofuels; and overall for Transparency, so that it could be seen what companies were doing what.

 It was a scandal that one in eight people in the world went to bed hungry when there was actually enough food for all, and 3 million children died of malnutrition each year. The rally had been supported by many celebrities such as  Danny Boyle, Bill Gates, Rowan Williams, Justin Welby, Eddie Izzard, and other religious leaders.

The family brought with them the banners that they had carried on the march and invited other children in the church to come and wave them.

Let’s continue to pray for this campaign.

Father's Day

On Sunday it was Father's Day. At St Paul's we took the opportunity to mark this day by praying for all the men, especially the Dad's in our congregation.
The news in the past week reported the 'desert' of fathers in children's lives today. Statistics show the importance of having a father, a positive male role model in the life of a child.
As well as praying we gave all the men a gift, a bar of chocolate that has been advertised with the slogan 'its not for girls'!
At our evening prayer meeting we prayed for home and family life and for the work of the Mothers Union, Care for the Family and others who work tirelessly to support and uphold marriage and family life.

Garden Party

On Saturday 8th June we hosted our second Garden Party in the Vicarage garden. For those of us not able to travel to London and join in the IF rally we used this opportunity to raise some funds for the IF campaign.
Home made cakes were enjoyed, with tea or Pimm's! There was a raffle as well as a well stocked plant stall.

Over 50 people attended through the afternoon including neighbours from St Paul's flats. It was lovely to welcome such a wide variety of the local community. It also gave people a chance to meet the new Chicken's in the Vicarage garden, Orange & Borange!
Many thanks to all those who worked so hard to make the afternoon a success.

Enough Food for Everyone IF...

The campaign "IF" is a campaign run by a coalition of relief and development agencies, some of which are Christian. The belief is that the cause of malnutrition and starvation in the world is not a lack of food – in fact there are often excesses, and land may even be "set aside." Rather, the problem is he is one of inequality caused by poverty, where people lack the ability to pay for what is available – a problem of equality. The problem is often made worse when multinationals in Third World countries avoid paying the taxes to those countries which would help lift the poor out of the gutter.

Yesterday, hoping to gain the attention of the G8 meeting of the finance ministers of leading economies, a large (many tens of thousands) rally was held in London by the organisers.

St Paul's has supported the campaign since its inception, and one family travelled to London to join the rally and show their support.

 We continue to pray that the IF campaign may make a real impact.

This is Discipleship

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk8ERxqCZqQ
Click on the link above to watch a thought provoking clip about Discipleship.

Trinity Sunday – one God in three persons

Last Sunday was Trinity Sunday. The wonder of the Trinity, one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a concept that is wonderful, because it means that God is concerned and active in his creation and in each of our lives. It is, nevertheless, a difficult concept.

Leading the service, Hugh was faced with explaining this concept  for the children. He drew the comparison between the 3 persons of the Godhead with the three phases of H2O – the gaseous phase, steam, the liquid phase, water and the solid phase, ice.

So, we had a kettle steaming at the front of Church, close to the children (but not too close!), a jug of water and a thermos of ice cubes, which the children were asked to identify and name.

The parallels may not be exact, but it least they show how three very different things can nevertheless be one.

We Haven’t Got a Pointy Roof – but We Do Need Jesus

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was recently a guest speaker at a 5½ thousand member conference organised by the London Church, Holy Trinity Brompton – famous for being the birthplace of the Alpha Course which is used by many churches, including our own, to introduce the Christian Faith to those who want to know more about it. 

During his interview with Holy Trinity’s vicar, Nicky Gumbel, Archbishop Justin recalled the words of one of his Churchwardens: “If Jesus isn’t at the centre of the church, we are simply Rotary with a pointy roof.”

Being a 1980s church building, St Pauls doesn’t have a "pointy roof" – more resembling a school hall. But the churchwarden’s words are equally valid here. In everything we do and say, we must be pointing to Jesus, or we just risk becoming another social organisation. It is Jesus who came to earth, sent by God the Father, to die on our behalf and open the way back to God. It is Jesus who is the Good News we proclaim.

Pentecost

On Sunday the church celebrated Pentecost, the day we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is often thought of as the birthday of the church as it was the Holy Spirit that gave the first disciples boldness and courage to start sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and thus begin the life of the church.
At St Paul's I encouraged everyone to wear something red, the colour most commonly associated with Pentecost. Here is a photo of some of our congregation at the start of the service in their red outfits.
Mindful that the work of the Holy Spirit is not limited to one Sunday a year in the church calendar we began an 8 week sermon series on the Gifts of the Spirit. Our hope is to discover the gifts God has given each one of us for the building up of His body, the church.