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News &
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Affairs Archive |
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| December 2005..... | ||
| Wellspring at Christmas | ||
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Christmas & Carol Services |
Youth Choirs Concert |
Nativity Play |
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Christmas celebrations at Wellspring commenced on 16th December with a visit from the North Shropshire and Altrincham Youth Choirs. |
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The Carol Service took place on 18th December. We sang a selection of well-known favourites interspersed with six Bible readings. A choir sang the Coventry Carol, Infant Holy and From the squalor of a borrowed stable. Wellspring were joined on this occasion by members of Holy Trinity Church, Mossley.
[Pictures
shown are from |
The music included excerpts from The Messiah, traditional and modern Christmas carols and calypso music. The singing was accompanied by keyboard, organ, violin and drums. There was audience participation in various carols and the excellent evening was concluded by a splendid supper. Many thanks to all concerned |
On 18th December, Wellspringers were treated to the annual nativity play, entitled Surprise, Surprise. This was in the format of the television programme of that name and had four scenes from the nativity story. The production was by impresario William Cooper and Sunday Club leaders, Pippa and Louise.
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Sunday
Clubs Service
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Harvest Festivals 2005 in Congleton Methodist Circuit Davenport enjoyed another successful Harvest Festival this year, which was followed next day by a Harvest Auction. |
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On 16th October, children and leaders from the Sunday Clubs at Wellspring led the morning service . The theme for the service was 'Back to Basics', encouraging us to think about the essential parts of the Christian faith. Various sketches were performed and we enjoyed a short and funny video clip from 'Father Ted'. |
There, we raised £395 for East Cheshire Hospice, nearly twice as much as we have ever raised before. Folk got into to habit of bidding generously, over and above what things were actually worth. | |
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Congleton Edge had a successful Harvest once again. Our special services are the occasions when many people still turn out. Next year it seems likely that our services will be restricted to Easter Sunday, the Church Anniversary, Harvest and the Christmas Carol Service. |
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At
Trinity,
the theme of the Harvest
this year was 'Water'. An array of imaginative displays appeared from all quarters of the
church family.
Our Harvest Festival explored the wonder and power of water, our ease |
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| On November 21st 2004 the annual service for the Operation Christmas Child shoebox appeal was held at Wellspring Church. | of access to this great gift of God and the problems many people discover in finding such luxury. The collection this year was given to WaterAid. | |
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The
service was led by Rev. Randall Smith, assisted by Rev. Kathy Lamon who
was visiting from Washington, Georgia.
There was a magnificent response to the appeal this year: 217 Christmas shoeboxes were received from Wellspring and Rood Lane churches plus pupils from a local school. [Wellspring
Link Magazine] |
As in previous years at Wellspring, gifts of tinned goods and toiletries received at the morning thanksgiving service went to the Wellspring Kitchen, Stockport. Gifts of fresh produce were sold after the evening service, the proceeds again going to the Wellspring Kitchen. |
 Wellspring (more pictures) |
| December 2004..... | ||
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In summer 2004 Judith Talbot of Trinity Church went with Traidcraft to Thailand. The group visited some of the hill tribe villages where the women make silverware, silk weaving, embroidery and basket work.
These tribes are often near the borders of Cambodia, Laos and Burma and many have come over as refugees, bringing their skills with them. |
'Fair Trade' Status for Trinity Trinity Church actively supports a way of trading which gives producers a fair return for their products. In the graph below, 'conventional' pricing of bananas condemns growers to live below subsistence level.
What it means is that all parts of Trinity, as an absolute minimum, commit to using Fair Trade tea & coffee at all meetings and events. Trinity must also continue promoting Fair Trade, for example by supporting the Traidcraft stall, and by encouraging church members to buy Fair Trade products. A group has been formed, with the support of Churches Together in Congleton, to promote Fair Trade in Congleton and surrounding area. A major aim is for Congleton to join the growing list of towns and cities which have achieved Fair Trade status. |
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The men are subsistence farmers but the money earned by the women provides the extras such as schooling, medical care and extra things for the home.
Providing regular orders means that they can plan for the future. [From Trinity 'Messenger'] |
Ethics help Traidcraft buck the trend Results for 2003-04 showed that for the sixth year running, Traidcraft had bucked High Street trends and rung up the best pre-Christmas trading figures in its 25-year history. While retailers and mail order companies across the UK complained of poor sales and a late start to the annual spending spree, Traidcraft saw bumper order levels and turnover growing by more than 12% compared to the previous year – which was itself a record. “Growing numbers of UK consumers continue to give the clearest possible indication that principle is as important to them as price,” said Traidcraft chief executive Paul Chandler. In November 2003 alone, Fair Traders – the 5,000-strong national network of volunteers selling Traidcraft products in their churches, schools, and homes – clocked up £1m of sales. Such increased sales are especially good news for the hundreds of small craft producers and farmers across Africa, Asia and Latin America who supply Traidcraft. The value of products sourced from them jumped by more than £1m to £7.75 million. Best
sellers were the fairly-traded paper and cards range (up 32%) and
jewellery and accessories (up 29%). Food sales were up by 17% to
£4.5m; teas and coffees up by 22% to more than £1.6m, while the
recently introduced mail order wine business grew by nearly 10%. For the full story, see Traidcraft's web site |
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MAYC, the youth section of the Methodist Church, has agreed that it will now be known as "MAYC - Supporting Youth Work in the Methodist Church". |
Alpha Course Controversy In September 2004, the Archbishop of Canterbury gave the Alpha bible study courses their most glowing endorsement yet by launching the latest series. However, the marketing methods used to sell the courses have been |
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| MAYC,
the youth section of the Methodist Church, has agreed that it will now
be known as "MAYC - Supporting Youth Work in the Methodist
Church".
The decision was taken by the Council for Methodist Youth Work (CfMYW), representing all the groups which MAYC works with. This change acknowledges that in the sixty years since its foundation MAYC has evolved from its initial presence in youth clubs to a much wider role, which includes youth develop- ment and training courses, campaigns work and various music projects. As part of these changes MAYC has launched a new web site. |
criticised for
aligning them too closely with the world of commerce.
BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott has reported that some claim that Alpha's use of modern marketing techniques aligns it too closely with the world of marketing and commerce. On the other hand, a course called "Journey" has been prepared by the Reverend Dr John Vincent of the Urban Theology Unit in Sheffield. Dr Vincent believes Alpha presents too narrow a version of Christianity, and one too centred on what theologians have said about Jesus, rather than allowing students the freedom to draw their own inspiration from studying Jesus's life and teaching. "The Alpha course, because of its didactic style, its narrow mindedness and its closed nature, doesn't facilitate alternative views," he says. "I happen to believe it therefore leads people into a self-centred religion which is not the same as the genuine Christian discipleship".See
BBC
web site |
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(see original article in web site of Methodist Church of Great Britain) |
The Methodist Church is the primary sponsor of the Church of Fools, a three-month experiment in an on-line church, launched by Ship_of_fools.com on 11th May 2004. The Church of Fools is shown on-screen as a 3D animated church building. Visitors pick a cartoon character, walk him or her into the church, sit in a ‘pixel pew' and interact with other visitors through speech bubbles. The church is open 24 * 7 for prayer, discussion and exploration, but at scheduled times a short act of worship will take place, led by a minister, with a guest preacher. |
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Jonathan Kerry, Co-ordinating Secretary for Worship and Learning at The Methodist Church, said: “The Methodist Church is trying to meet the challenges of the present day. We want to engage seriously with the ‘missing generation’ of under-40s, and explore new and fresh forms of being in church. The Internet is a major source of information, news and debate, and we feel it could be a way of involving people in church life.” Sponsoring the Church of Fools comes on the back of the 11th Commandment Initiative, jointly organised by The Methodist Church and Ship of Fools, which was a text messaging competition aimed at finding out what matters to young people. |
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A US-style Harvest Thanksgiving at Wellspring In honour of their American minister, Rev. Randall Smith, Wellspring Church held a Thanksgiving supper and church service.
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Thanksgiving supper, on 20th November (Saturday), was celebrated by having
a buffet, followed by entertainment from Trinity Choir and Wellspring's
Dramatic Society: 'Peppery'. The choir sang a medley of hymns and
songs and the Peppery produced a humorous sketch on the theme
of cowboys and native Americans.
The following morning, the main church service had a strong Thanksgiving theme too. The service was led by Rev. Randall Smith with the support of his good friend Rev. Kathy Lamon who had travelled especially from Washington in Georgia, USA. Randall's sermon explored the origins and history of American celebrations, from the Pilgrim Fathers onwards. Kathy described the part that Thanksgiving had played in her own life and that of modern Americans. The congregation sang one traditional Thanksgiving hymn, 'Come thou fount of every blessing'. Later, Kathy preached on the same theme at Key Green's evening service. The aim of these occasions is that through the sharing of culture we can all grow in understanding and in spirit. |
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Church of Fools by |
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This is a 3D church with a crypt downstairs, where you can log in as a cartoon character, sit in a pew, talk to other people from around the world, kneel, cross yourself and take part in regular, short services. It is a cross between a computer game and an 11th-century Romanesque sanctuary. One week into the experiment, 8000 people were entering the Church of Fools each day (that's a cathedral's worth), and there were some lively theological discussions in the crypt and heartfelt prayers being exchanged. On the minus side were sorties by small groups who wanted to post racist slogans and religious abuse, and to experience the joy of shouting the F-word in a church. Then a phenomenal second wave of publicity about the church went all round the world generating a peak congregation of 41,000. This was stimulated by headlines such as "Internet devils smite virtual church" (The Times, London) and "Cyber church reacts to 'Satan' visit" (CNN), as the world's media reported on the hacking and mischief-making that went on in the church earlier in the week.By the first Wednesday, Church of Fools had to shut to outsiders its pulpit, lectern and space round the altar to stop less than religious types giving messages definitely not from the Almighty. The Church introduced a team of 12 'Wardens', armed with 'smite' buttons which can be used to eject people who log into the church simply to cause trouble. The church is now offering services of morning and evening prayer (UK time) each day, and the response from visitors to the cyber sanctuary has been mostly positive. |
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On 11th May 2004, The Church of Fools was launched as an experimental online church, sponsored by The Methodist Church. |
from Ship of Fools |
The experiment ran for three months, ending 8th August. See above for Methodists Sponsor On-line Church and Church of Fools Early progress report . |
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Running
the church has been a rollercoaster ride. The highs included the church
environment itself, the inventiveness of the preachers and worship
leaders, and the unexpected way worship and prayer actually worked
online. The lows included waves of attacks by 'trolls' and hackers
in the middle weeks of the project, which at one or two points
threatened to close the church's doors early. A team of security
experts and 'church wardens' managed to head off the very real threat of
early closure.
Thanks are given to all the supporters, regulars and visitors who made up the congregations, and especially to those who contributed to the collection plates. So what happens now? Ship of Fools have decided to continue the Church of Fools and explore whether there's a long-term future for the project. During August and early September, the team who ran the church evaluated the experiment and took some time off after three months of hard work on the Church. It should have returned to full strength by late September. |
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Westminster Central Hall is now free to apply for a licence to serve alcohol following a decision by the Loughborough Conference to lift the ban on alcohol in churches where a significant part of their work and mission is as a 'conference centre'. Rev Martin Turner said the conference centre side of their mission and work was consistently turning away people of all sorts, and therefore "seeming to judge them because we were unable to offer hospitality which included a glass of wine – the sort of hospitality that many of us would offer in our homes". |
Key Green Christmas Fair and Jumble Sale
On Saturday, November 13th, this ever popular event raised roughly £535 for church funds. As always people came from far and wide, as the high reputation of the sale has travelled by the 'grape vine'. The sale is famous for offering anything from a wardrobe, bed or desk, to cakes and soft toys. Refreshments were also on sale and the hall was decorated beautifully with flowers. There was also a tombola. Frank Dean, Key Green |
Our Civic Year by Douglas & Hilary Parker, Mayor & Mayoress of Congleton Borough for 2003/04
What a year, or rather what a thirteen-and- a-half months we had. We attended almost 300 engagements during our term of office. These covered a wide variety of events and venues, including play schools, homes for senior citizens, hospitals, youth organisations, conferences, bike rides, fairs and civic services and balls. We even had to test grave-digging machines. We would like to thank all those people who have helped to raise funds for our charities. |
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These are... |
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Mr Turner said that it had become clear that the issue also applied to a small group of Methodist premises where a "significant part of their mission and work was to offer hospitality through a professionally-run conference centre". The amendment excluded worship areas and made it clear that the supply of alcohol was for a specific event only. [from www.methodistrecorder.co.uk]
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Remembrance Day Memorabilia
The Remembrance Day Service at Trinity is rapidly becoming one of the major events in the church's calendar. To a considerable extent this is due to the annual exhibition of wartime memorabilia put on each year by Keith Hassall. It has now grown to considerable proportions and features photographs and stories of local people as well as uniforms, equipment, general items from the period, models and a host of other exhibits. |
'When you wish upon a Star', and 'Heart Start'. We feel very humbled by all the help we have received. The Mayor's chosen charity fund raised over £13,000. The money went towards eight defibrillators to be placed around the borough. In addition, over £6,000 was donated to 'When you wish upon a Star'. Doug
Parker |
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This is News Archive Page 1 |
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