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News
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| Wellspring at Christmas | ||
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Christmas & Carol Services |
Youth Choirs Concert |
Nativity Play |
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Christmas celebrations at Wellspring commenced with a visit from the North Shropshire and Altrincham Youth Choirs. |  |
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At the Carol Service we sang a selection of well- known favourites inter- spersed 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 |
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, which was followed next day by a Harvest Auction. |
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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.
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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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| 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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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) |
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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 The latest results show that for the sixth year running, Traidcraft has 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 one month 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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News & Current Affairs Archive – Page 1 |
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