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.

Mothering Sunday

For centuries, Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent, has been the opportunity to remember mothers. In a bygone age, it was the one Sunday when servant girls were allowed to go to visit their mothers. Whether or not we have all been mothers, we have all had mothers and in the majority of cases, the memory is a happy one.

In our service yesterday, the children took posies of daffodils to their mothers and then to all the other ladies in church.

The service coincided with the third of our series of sermons on the Creed, in this case “We believe in the Holy Spirit.” We noted that not only is the Hebrew word for the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament (ruach) feminine, but also that her role in caring and encouraging Christians is parallel to that of a mother.

The service concluded with Holy Communion, with opportunity for prayer for healing; healing of all sorts being another role of the Holy Spirit.

Thanksgiving for Ida Williams

Today, we held the Thanksgiving service for Ida Williams. Originaly from Jamaica, Ida moved to Oadby from her adopted town of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands some 10 years ago when her son-in-law, Simon Harvey, had become vicar of St Paul's.

Despite being transplanted from original surroundings, Ida rapidly established roots in Oadby being a much loved member of the congregation. Sadly, in recent months, her health had deteriorated and she left Oadby to join her daughter, Jennifer and Simon in their new vicarage at St Mary's Islington. However, she became even sicker and died two weeks ago.

Her funeral was held in Wolverhampton and although a few people from St Paul's were able to attend, many could not. Therefore, we held a service of thanksgiving for her today, which is the day of coffee pot, of which Ida was a regular member. About 40 people gathered to remember her.
The service was led by our vicar, Steve Bailey, using much of the background that Simon Harvey had provided. We sang two hymns which had been sung and two readings that had been used at her funeral and Gill Williams gave the same appreciation that she had used then.

People had the opportunity to talk of her love of the Lord Jesus, her very personal prayers and her prodigious knowledge of Bible texts. They also spoke of the warmth of her welcome and her pride in her flat. In concluding prayers, we thanked God for her life.

Ida, it was a privilege to know you. Now you are with your Lord.

Ruth Valerio speaks of A Rocha on 27 April

As Christians, we believe that the God we worship is the creator of heaven and earth. It’s therefore important that we steward the resources that he has given us in a sensitive way. A Rocha is a Christian environmental and conservation movement.

It is therefore a great privilege to have Ruth Valerio, who is the Theology Director for A Rocha, to speak at our morning service on 27 April. She will be introducing us to A Rocha and helping us to think about how we can live in a way that honours our creator God and his creation.

She has written an excellent book ‘L is for Lifestyle’ and runs the A Rocha programme ‘Living Lightly’ as well as having recently finished her PhD! She is also part of the leadership team of Spring Harvest, the Christian conferences.

Website for A Rocha