Good to be joined by those from the other churches in Frodsham for our annual New Year's Eve Ecumenical Service today.
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A very Happy and Blessed Christmas from all at Frodsham Methodist Church.
Pictures from our Christmas Service this morning at 10am when we shared the Good News of Christ, and our presents, with others! Church is packed with over 150 people this evening for the annual Singalong at Christmas with ‘Equinox’. Right now it is time for mince pies and tea/coffee!
Good to see so many at our Community Nativity Service 2017. See you at 4pm today for Carols by Candlelight!
The President and Vice-President of the Methodist Conference, The Rev'd. Loraine N. Mellor and Jill Baker, have released their 2017 Christmas message on the subject of visitation. Jill:
Visiting is at the heart of Christmas. In the birth of Jesus, God became a guest in God’s own world - what an amazing truth that is! The familiar Bible stories which will be told and re-told again this Christmas in churches, schools, homes and on television and radio will remind us of many other visits too; Gabriel visits Mary, Mary visits Elizabeth, the angels visit the shepherds, the shepherds visit the Holy Family, the magi come from distant lands, following a star to visit the new-born King... some of those visits were long-planned, others happened spontaneously. Whether or not we feel organized and “ready” for Christmas now, there is a place for everyone at the manger. In these first six months in our roles as President and Vice-President of the Methodist Conference, Loraine and I have also been doing lots of visiting. Between us I think we have been in around 25 different districts for one reason or another, Loraine has also been to Fiji and Uganda, I have been to Ethiopia and, earlier in the year, to Russia. We think we have slept in around 50 different beds in total! We are both so grateful for the hospitality shown to us and the generosity of individuals, churches, circuits and districts who have always made us welcome – who have always ensured that there is “room at the inn”. Often there have been special little touches to make us feel at home; decaffeinated coffee for both of us, for example! Loraine: Already during this year we have made new friends, spoken with many of our Methodist people, had some challenging and wonderful conversations, visited churches and cathedrals, holiday camps, food banks, palaces, new buildings, historic buildings, homes, shopping centres, new urban villages, rural villages, and so much more. Very recently we joined in with the brilliant3-Generate weekend in Southport. I loved every minute and learned so much about how our children and young people, all 1200 of them, from all around the Connexion, have so much to offer us and how they want to change the world. They were ‘wonderfully prophetic’ (which was the theme of the weekend) as they made their voices heard and talked about the things they believed God was calling them to and how God was moving through them in the world today. They were truly inspirational; I stood in awe and admiration; that visit has changed me. So we want to reflect a little further on this idea of visitation as we share greetings with you this Christmas. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Coggan said, ‘When God intends to make something wonderful he begins with a difficulty. When he intends to make something very wonderful, he begins with an impossibility. I often think about the visit which started off the whole story; Gabriel being sent to Mary in Nazareth and wonder what it might have been like from Gabriel’s point of view: On a very dusty humid day in late April I found myself standing outside a simple home. As I just sort of landed in front of Mary she looked nervous and afraid and backed away. ‘Do not be afraid, I bring you greetings’. I sounded a bit like a taped message so I lowered my voice and changed the script a bit, ‘Mary love, you are going to have a baby… now I know this is a bit of a shock. She looked horrified! ‘This baby is very very special and it's God's son’. By this time she was as white as a sheet; I ploughed on, ‘Mary you have been especially chosen’; I knew what that felt like! Boy was this hard; I was beginning to wonder if she would ever speak to me. ‘God has chosen you to give birth to his Son, you are a special person, you are precious to God’. At that moment the whole atmosphere changed, and at last she spoke, this young girl, this vulnerable, frightened person spoke and her voice was soft and gentle, ‘Me chosen, why?’ Of course we know how the story continues; that visit changed the course of history as Mary found the courage to accept her role. Praise the Lord! Jill: Perhaps not quite so dramatically, but at a different level, every visit has the potential to change things. Making each visit count, making each visit special, learning and sharing something significant in each place, is part of the joy and challenge of our year, but perhaps also part of the joy and challenge of this season for all of us. As we receive visitors, can we show the grace and openness that Mary showed; and as we visit others, can we do so with the care of the magi? Christmas might also be a good time to make an unplanned visit – perhaps to someone who will be spending time on their own, or in hospital – let’s do that with the enthusiasm of the shepherds! As we all reflect on the visits we have made in this last year in the light of the Christmas story, I find myself thinking about a shepherd I met on a remote mountainside in Ethiopia in August. Through the work of All We Can and their partner organization on the ground, he was now rearing a different breed of sheep, which was more profitable. This meeting had a timeless quality about it. It was not difficult to imagine angels appearing, good news being announced, a journey into the nearest town ensuing and I again felt wonder and joy at the ordinariness which runs through the extraordinary story of the birth in Bethlehem. No-one was excluded then. No-one should be excluded now. The shepherd, Gretachew, told us that he was also a part-time priest in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. "You're a shepherd and a priest?" I asked; he nodded, “A bit like Jesus?" I suggested; he beamed. Loraine: This Christmas our prayer is that you might visit the manger once more and know in your hearts the coming of the Christ child, to worship and to hear again this fantastic story of incarnation, of joy and of wonder and give thanks for this marvellous gift and that we might all, through the visits we make and receive, change the world. O come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant. Come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem; Come and behold him, born the king of angels; O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. To view on YouTube, please click here. For an audio only version of the message, please click here. Our Church family is always extremely generous in giving at Christmas to our chosen charities, and for that we thank you. This year we will be supporting the following:
Boaz Trust with gifts of bags, gloves and hats, toiletries etc. Boaz was our Charity of the Year in 2016. Based in Manchester, they work with refugees and asylum seekers, offering night shelter, accommodation, English and other classes, and legal assistance with asylum applications. A vital service for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. boaztrust.org.uk/ The socks and underpants from our sock tree go to Chester Aid to the Homeless (CATH). They provide food, clothing and warm bedding to those living on the streets in Chester, or in temporary hostel accommodation. With the changes to Universal Credit adding to the many problems some of these people face, the situation is not likely to get better very soon, and CATH is always very grateful for what we send. Any items they cannot use will go to the Salvation Army. The cash collection at our Carols by Candlelight service on December 17th is for Action for Children. Founded by Methodist minister Rev'd. Thomas Bowman Stephenson nearly 150 years ago, the organisation originally ran orphanages, of which the home in Kingsley Road, Frodsham, was one. Today all residential homes have closed, but the charity continues to help many thousands of children through its day centres, Sure Start schemes, playgroups, and one-to-one support for individual young people and families. On Christmas Day we will be supporting Christian Aid, whose work is wellknown. Their Christmas appeal this year centres on South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, where years of conflict and drought have led to huge problems. Famine was narrowly avoided this year, but still more than 6 million people are severely malnourished. Our gifts will help towards alleviating this problem, and the UK government has pledged to match our giving pound for pound – an opportunity not to be missed! |
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