The BBC will be recording Songs of Praise at Longton Central Hall, Stoke-on-Trent in June. If you wish to join the combined choir, there are two rehearsals on Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 June from 7:30 to 9:30pm. If you wish to take part as a member of the congregation, you are not required to attend these rehearsals. Actual recordings will take place on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 June from 2:15 to 5:45pm each day. Admission will be by free ticket only. An application form can be downloaded from the District Website under News & Events. Alternatively, e-mail songsofpraise@bbc.co.uk or telephone 0161 335 8429. The ticket application deadline is Tuesday 29 May. The programmes will be broadcast on 14 October 2012 and 13 January 2013. ‘in the image’ is an exhibition of pieces from the Methodist Art Collection, to be held at the Wesley Church Centre, St John Street, Chester, from 22nd September to 27th October. This renowned collection includes works by Graham Sutherland, Elizabeth Frink and Edward Burra – people I’ve spoken to who’ve seen it say how brilliant it is. The event is aiming to be more than just an art exhibition. There are already links with local schools and a programme of school visits is planned, with relevant material available for teachers. There is an exciting programme of workshops, including an art appreciation course and other events involving creative writing, music and drama as well as visual art. Wesley is looking for volunteers to help with a wide range of tasks, including transport, painting boards, etc., in readiness for setting up the exhibition; stewarding; helping with school visits. There are two briefing sessions for prospective volunteers, on Thursday 5th July at 2pm or Thursday 12th July at 7.30pm. By September we will be in the same Circuit as Wesley, the new Chester and Delamere Forest Circuit. It would be good to give as much support as possible to our new friends. There is more information on their website or in the flyer here, and there will be more details nearer the time. Liz Holmes As many of you will know The Methodist Church recently published a new hymn book called "Singing the Faith". It includes a balance of classic and contemporary hymns. The Church Council has agreed to buy a number of copies for use in Church and some people have expressed an interest in having their own copy. If you would like to buy a personal copy I will be placing an order on 26th March. Please let me know if you would like a copy by e-mailing secretary@frodshammethodist.org. Words only - £9 : Music Edition - £30. There is more information on the Methodist Church website. Ros Caldwell Church Council Secretary A Theme for Lent A special event was held for Lent on Sunday 4th March here at Frodsham Methodist Church when the Delamere Forest Circuit joined the Chester Circuit for a shared afternoon of CRAFTS, ACTIVITES and CHAT. There was a short time together in the Church for WORSHIP followed by an excellent HIGH TEA. Later this year, the two Circuits are merging to further strengthen ministry and mission across this part of Cheshire. For more details contact the current Delamere Forest Circuit Superintendent Minister, the Rev'd. Pat Christopher on (01928) 733180 or pat.christopher@frodshammethodist.org. Methodist Homes for the Aged (MHA) is a charity providing care homes, housing and support services for older people. We are looking for a chaplain (a lay person or an ordained minister) who will take the lead on pastoral care, and the spiritual and worship aspects of life within our Care Home at Chapel Fields, Frodsham, which provides nursing and dementia care. As a key member of the staff team, you will also be responsible for building good working relationships with local faith communities.
For an application pack and an informal discussion, please contact 01332 221831 or email spirituality@mha.org.uk. Closing date: 19th March 2012. To find out more visit www.mha.org.uk. Rev'd. Pat Christopher & Liz Holmes are running a Worship Leaders Course on the five dates below. This is for people who would like to explore the possibility of becoming Worship Leaders. For more details please contact Liz Holmes.
Thursday 1st March: ‘What is Worship? & Service Structure Tuesday 20th: March Prayer Thursday 19th April: Drama, Dialogue, Poetry & Worship Songs Thursday 3rd May: Special Services, Music & IT Thursday 17th May: General Overview, how to get started & liaising with other people. All at Frodsham Methodist Church, starting at 7.30pm Images of the escalating violence in Syria are all over our television screens, in our newspapers and across the websites we visit. At times such as this, one of the few things we can do is pray. A special prayer for Syria is available here.
The Methodist Church is a sponsor of More Than Gold, which was set up as a one-stop-shop to help churches make the most of the Olympic and Paralympic Games through programmes of outreach, hospitality and service. There are UK-wide training days and a free 48 page booklet which is full of resources and ideas available from the Traidcraft website or by calling 0845 330 8900. For more information visit The Methodist Church website. Dear Friends,
Greetings and a happy new year! Some of you may already know lots about Methodist Women in Britain, to others it may be new so a brief history: in July last year, “Methodist Women in Britain” was launched at the Methodist Conference – a new women’s movement incorporating what was Women’s Network, along with the British Unit of the World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women (!). I was commissioned as the first president of MWiB and so we have now been up and running for just over six months. To spread the word about the movement, we have organised a series of six roadshows around the country and are coming to Wesley Methodist Church, Chester on Saturday 18th February (2:30pm – 4:30pm). The afternoon will include worship, a re-affirmation of the launch of the movement which will be led by chair of the district, Rev'd. Peter Barber, a presentation by Deacon Kerry Smith about Human Trafficking and the Olympic Games, Dr. Jill Barber telling some stories of Primitive Methodist women, Rev'd. Ruth Gee (chair of the Darlington District of the Methodist Church) being interviewed about being a woman leader in the church today, drama from Peter Baker and more besides... There will also be a number of stalls, including the MWiB photo exhibition, and light refreshments will be served at the end. Add to all this the delights of some time in historic and beautiful Chester and it becomes a day out not to be missed! Do get in touch with me if you have any questions or suggestions, or with Sandra Wilson from Nantwich who is overseeing the local arrangements ( sandrajwilson@yahoo.com ). Every blessing, with love, Jill Baker President, Methodist Women in Britain Norley Church are holding a Christingle Service with Rev Sue Levitt at 4pm on Sunday 11th December.
You are warmly invited to the Christmas Tree Festival at Norley Methodist Church on: Friday 2nd December – 6.00 to 9.00 pm; Saturday 3rd December -- 10.30 am to 5.00 pm and Sunday 4th December - 12 noon to 4.00 pm Free Admission : Programmes £2 : Refreshments Saturday 26th November Coffee Morning with Bring & Buy at Ashton Methodist Church 10am-12 Wednesday 30th November 2pm Oakmere Methodist Church: Tea with the Hymn Writers and Others. Friendly Informal Discussion Group. All Welcome A Methodist-inspired viral video has scooped first prize in this year’s Christian New Media Awards. Tell.Show.Be is a short film with a simple message about the heart of evangelism: “Tell somebody; show somebody; be somebody.” The film, hosted on the website www.tellshowbe.com, was judged “the best use of new media in evangelism” by a panel of media experts at a ceremony in London on Friday. The Revd Joanne Cox, Evangelism in Contemporary Culture Officer, who accepted the award on the Church’s behalf, said: “We are delighted to have won; just being on the short list is a great achievement. “The whole project was conceived as a means of enabling people to talk about evangelism in their own languages. We are delighted that the whole concept has been recognised by Christians within the social media world, as well as encouraged by Christians around the world. Other entries in the category were of an extremely high standard. We are excited by the quantity and quality of exceptional work in the area of evangelism using social media.” Tell.Show.Be is also available in Spanish, Portuguese, Welsh and Mandarin and can be downloaded onto a mobile phone as well as a computer. The film was viewed over 4,000 times in its first two weeks, and has attracted visitors from around the world. The Original Christian Web and New Media Awards were the first ever exclusively Christian award ceremony for bloggers and web designers in the UK. They were established in 2007 by Premier Christian Media to recognise and reward Christian achievements on the internet. For more information, visit www.christianblogawards.com In early July representatives from all parts of The Methodist Church in Britain met in Southport for the annual Conference where discussion takes place and policy is agreed. The Methodist Church is part of the lives of over half a million people in Britain and over 70 million worldwide. The Rev’d. Dr. Martyn Atkins, General Secretary of The Methodist Church, spoke of Methodism as a discipleship movement shaped for mission. He talked about how Methodism does lots of things very well but that to continue to be shaped for mission is sometimes not a comfortable thing: sometimes it means stopping doing some things so we can do other things even better. He said: ‘Change is exciting and challenging, but also uncomfortable and unsettling and we need the gracious community of the Methodist family to explore the opportunities we, as a Church, face. I believe that because God is with us and guiding us we can go in this direction, and if we do, we will become a more vibrant, confident Methodist people playing a fuller part in God’s mission in Britain and with partners around the world.’ At Frodsham Methodist Church we are continually trying to do things better and look to the future. We are strengthening our existing worship and activities. After success last year we are hosting another Christmas Tree Festival from 9th to 11th December. We are starting new, exciting ways of being part of—and reaching out to—our community. In the past year we have started Messy Church and Messy Mice groups where there are lots of crafts and activities for young people as well as time to worship God and chill, eat & have fun together. As a response to the Alpha Group held earlier this year, a new Cell Group is beginning to meet. We have launched a new website and we have completed an extension to our premises, ‘The Annexe’, to allow more community groups to meet and to give our own groups more space to flourish. We are beginning several more groups for young people and adults in the near future so watch this space for more details. Setting out particular priorities for the future, Martyn Atkins called on all Churches to consider: 1. Worship—rediscovering our 'wonder, love and praise' at the heart of our longing to transform the Church & world 2. Evangelism & Outreach—putting a disproportionate amount of resources into this area of our Church’s life 3. Fruitful Field—ensuring excellence in leadership and expanding ministry by lay people in the local church 4. Governance—creating more flexible, more responsive & more permissive regulations & governance 5. Partnerships—with other churches and denominations, worldwide and within the Methodist family The leadership of the Church has a clear sense of where God wants us to go and to be: a movement that is more dynamic, flexible, and responsive; a discipleship movement that longs for ‘whole life, lifelong and world transforming’ followers of Jesus; a discipleship movement shaped for mission that wants to reach out in grateful response to God’s grace and sharefaith through loving word and deed. This is what we think the Church shouldbe about. And we believe—passionately, excitedly—that when we do all thiswe will start to see a healthier, more confident, more fruitful Methodist Church,more obedient to God and God’s mission. The story of the Methodist Church is your story, and we want to help thesestories to be shared. Our confidence in the future is based in our knowledge ofGod’s grace revealed already in amazing accounts of what is happening acrossMethodism and our community, and we will see more. There are lots of good things happening in our Church, but we want to do even more. We want to hear your stories and what you have to say as we begin to respond to Martyn Atkins’ call for us to be renewed in our calling to be a discipleship movement fundamentally led from the grassroots by our Church family. A summary of this Report to Conference can be downloaded by following this link. Alternatively, speak to Rev’d. Pat Christopher (pat.christopher@frodshammethodist.org), Matthew Barnard (matthew.barnard@frodshammethodist.org) or any of the Church Stewards for more information or to give your response to this document. The BBC will be celebrating the forthcoming publication of the new Methodist hymn book with two programmes scheduled to broadcast on 26 June. There is a ‘singing the faith’ themed Sunday Worship service on Radio 4 at 8.10am followed by a special edition of BBC One’s Songs of Praise in the afternoon. The programme will reflect upon what makes a truly inspiring hymn and features interviews with some of those involved in the production of the new hymn collection. For more details visit click here. What is happening?
The circuit meetings of the Chester and the Delamere Forest Circuits have agreed, after a vote, that the two circuits should merge together to form one circuit. Why is this happening? There is a national trend towards mergers like this. The driving force is to be able to make the best possible use of the resource we have available – financial, lay, and ministerial. Because there will only be one superintendent instead of two, the other minister who would have been a super will have more time for mission work in their churches and communities. When will it happen? The merged circuit will come into effect from September 2012. September is the start of the “Methodist Year”. Who will be the superintendent? The superintendent will be the Rev. Neil Stacey, who is the current superintendent of the Chester Circuit. This will provide good continuity as he is already in post. It was agreed during the discussions that although Neil would take up the superintendency in the first place (and remain in Chester to minimise disruption for him and his family), that wouldn't necessarily mean that the superintendent would always be in Chester. The next superintendent could be based somewhere else in the circuit. Simon Kelly, Senior Circuit Steward |
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December 2020
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