CHURCH NEWS - May 2009
An evening of light music will be presented by The Ouse Valley Singers with soloists Naomi Hudson (soprano) and Senthuran Bhuvanendra (tenor).
Refreshments and a glass of wine are included.
Tickets £7.50 - call 01234 720587, 01234 720261 or 01234 720113.
Children from Monday club decorated the Easter cross at All Saints’ Church
Dear Friends,
There is a small group that meets at The Rectory, every couple of weeks on a Monday night, to discuss aspects of faith and related issues. We call ourselves ‘Pilgrims’ because we recognise that we are all on a spiritual journey, and at different stages on the way – but it is good to walk in company with one another.
Recently, sparked by the resurgence of violence in Northern Ireland, our thoughts turned to the various intolerances between people of different faiths, cultures, and race. Through education and awareness we have generally become more tolerant of our differences these days, but it is not always the case. Perhaps the euphoria surrounding the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States has something to do with the fact that in his person he combines black and white, African, European and American. In him we see someone who is well-educated, fluent and capable but who also identifies closely with the poor and disadvantaged. And the election of such a president inspires hope for a better future.
Tragically the church has much to answer for when it comes to intolerance, and terrible injustices have been committed in the name of Christ of which we are right to be ashamed. Yet in the person of Jesus Christ we see the whole of humanity, with all our differences and intolerances, all our brokenness and imperfections, embraced by him and offered forgiveness and new life through his death and resurrection.
Jesus came to reconcile us to himself, to God our Father, and to one another. The closer we get to him the more our eyes will be opened to see how all humanity can be redeemed and made one in him. We may never reach the point of being in complete agreement, but through his love at work in our lives, we will be more ready to accept one another and to strive for a better understanding.
We are still in the Easter season – a good time to remember that forgiveness and new life don’t come cheap – they cost Jesus everything. But his resurrection and victory over death and the power of evil point us to what is possible. As John’s Gospel puts it “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out.”
With love and prayers, Christine.
PS: If you would like to know more about Pilgrims, or to discuss any of the points raised, please do get in touch (Tel:720234).
What is the Prayer Group? It is made up of members of All Saints Church who undertake to pray regularly, on an individual basis, for people who ask us for prayer support.
Who do we pray for? Anyone whom we are asked to remember; these might be people from our church, from our local community or others known to us.
What will we pray about? Anything which you would like brought before God; maybe anxiety due to illness, stress or loneliness. You can also tell us of a special day you wish to be remembered – perhaps for an interview or an exam. Any information will be treated in strictest confidence.
How can you let us know if you would like us to pray for you? You can either telephone Christine (720234), or drop a note through the Rectory door, or complete a card (anonymously if you wish) and place it in a box kept near the church door. Prayer requests will be collected from the box each Sunday morning after the 10.00am service.
Tea-Point & Toilet Project
It has been very encouraging to see our appeal for donations get off to a good start. At time of writing we have been given (or promised) around £3,000, and donations continue to come in. Please remember our special Gift Day on Sunday 7th June.
We are also encouraged to have received £500 from Allchurches Trust (a branch of the Ecclesiastical Insurance Company). We are not likely to hear the result of other grant applications (to Wixamtree, SITA, Beds Borough Council, and National Churches Trust) until well into the summer, but we are still hopeful that work can begin in the autumn.
Christine
Adopt a Grave
Thanks to all who regularly tend the graves in our lovely churchyard. There are still some old graves that have no one to tend them and which are sadly neglected. If you could spare an odd half hour every few weeks to care for one of these old graves, we would be most grateful. Contact Christine (Tel: 270234) or any church member.
Odell Village FeteAnd Dog Show
Saturday 13th June 2.00pm
(In the Scout field, Horsefair Lane, Odell)
Entry: Adults £1.50, Children Free
2.00 pm Grand Opening
2.00-4.00pm Dog Show
4.00pm Raffle Draw
Teas Ice Creams
Tombola Cakes Books Refreshments Bottle Stall Coconut Shy Children’s Sports
White Elephant Raffle
Produce Gifts Many Side Shows
Dog Show
FAMILY DOG SHOW
(entry fee - £1 per dog per class)
Classes:
1. Children’s Handling (14 years and under)
2. Puppies under 1 year
3. Country Sporting Dog or Bitch
4. Best Rescue or Re-homed Dog or Bitch
5. Best Condition Dog or Bitch
6. Dog or Bitch with Most Appealing Eyes
7. Best Cross-bred Dog or Bitch
8. Most Handsome Dog
Prettiest Bitch
Festival Weekend Family Service Sunday June 14th
11.00am in the Main Tent at the Fete Field
Everybody welcome
Painting of signs etc. for the fete will take place at Jim and Doreen Wheeler’s, Linden House, High Street, Odell, on Monday 4th May from 10.00am.
There will be a lunch time bar-b-q for helpers – please let Doreen know (720358) if you wish to stay for this. Bring your own meat, salad and puddings will be provided
Our Giving in May is to The Church Army.
The Church Army is an International Evangelical Movement, based on Biblical teaching, with a mission to meet human needs, without discrimination, in the name of Christ. Their far-reaching work includes preaching the Gospel,working in hospitals, prisons, eventide homes, hostels and counselling, to name but a few examples. Wherever there is poverty or need, the Church Army is there. Please give generously to this movement which is very generous with its time and love.
Suttons Seed Catalogue
Thank you to everyone who ordered from the Suttons catalogue. We have raised £121 approximately from the charity price of 20% off, which will go to our Tea point and Toilet fund.
All Saints’ Flower Rota
3rd Caroline Scott
10th Rachel Halton
17th Jill Cheadle
24th Carol Ormond
30th Wedding
Christian Aid Week, 10th – 16th May
Sri Lanka Crisis Appeal
Everyone deserves a decent life. Christian Aid works with the world’s poorest communities in 49 countries, exposing the scandal of poverty, helping in practical ways to root it out, and challenging and changing the systems that favour the rich and powerful over the poor and marginalised.
In these poor communities Christian Aid invests in projects that provide benefits for years to come, for example, a water sanitation project that has brought clean water and greater security to the women of Ethiopia. The project, run by a Christian Aid partner organisation in Ethiopia, EOC-DICAC, has given people in the towns and villages access to a clean water supply, food security and sanitary conditions. It has increased access to water in the areas it works in from 3.8% to 70%, reaching more than 58,000 Ethiopians.
Christian Aid is also very much involved in responding to humanitarian crises around the world, as in Gaza, Zimbabwe and DR Congo. Now, as a matter of urgency, Christian Aid is involved in crucial work giving aid to those affected by the conflict in Sri Lanka. The long-running civil war between the government and the Tamil separatists has caused the death of over 50,000 people, (an estimated 100 men, women and children dying each day) with some 200,000 civilians trapped in the conflict zone. Those who manage to flee the conflict can only take refuge in transit camps, but these camps are not equipped to deal with the influx of up to 2000 people each day.
Christian Aid’s three local partners in northern Sri Lanka are doing what they can to provide food, shelter and medical help to the refugees, but desperately need more resources to reach thousands more men, women and children in need.
A donation of:
£33 could provide ten blankets and mosquito nets for families with nothing.
£48 could provide an entire month of specialist medical assistance to injured and sick women and children.
£125 could pay for nutritious, cooked meals for ten families for a week.
Christian Aid condemns the violence inflicted on civilians in the region by each side involved in the conflict, and as a matter of priority is working to provide food, shelter and medical relief to those most in need.
Please give generously to this very urgent appeal.
If you would like to make a contribution please rsend donations to Jill Cheadle a, Ann Hudson or Steve Robinson at , no later than 17th May. If you prefer, you may bring the donation to church on Sunday 17th, within its envelope, where it will be gratefully received. Thank you.
Jill Cheadle
Stewards not owners
“He must increase, but I must decrease”: John 3, verse 30.
When the crowds left John the Baptist to follow Jesus, he said ‘this is the moment for Jesus to move into the centre of the crowds and I will just slip into the sidelines; this is stewardship: simply manage until the owner comes back.’
John’s view of stewardship presents an important principle. Consider our careers, our assets, our natural and spiritual gifts etc.: are these things owned by us or managed in the name of the One who entrusted us with them? If you are called today to manage rather than own, when called you don’t worry. Why not? The reason is because you are not called to claim a position but to honour a person, the person of Christ. We are stewards and we don’t aspire to anything beyond that.
May we carry out cheerfully and willingly the things God has called each one of us to do, so we can truly say: “Father, I have done what you have called me to do”. We may then reap the rewards and blessings He has in store for us. Sarah Bennett
Coffee Morning in aid of All Saints’ Tea-point and Toilet Appeal.
A coffee morning will be held at Rectory Farm on Saturday 23rd May from 10.30am.
Bedding plants will be on sale. There will be a Bring and Buy and a Raffle. All proceeds will go to the Tea-point and Toilet Appeal. All welcome.
Amblers – if you would enjoy a walk in the country followed by a pub lunch, do join us on our next walk on Saturday 16th May – meet at 9.45am outside The Bell
Meeting Point - May
6th 10.30am at Doris Bannard-Smith’s, Goodly Heritage, The Bury, Pavenham.
20th 10.30am at Jane’s, Newton House, Avenue Rd., Newton Bromswold, Rushden.
June
3rd 10.30am at Catherine’s, Manor Cottage, Harrold.
All Saints’ PCC APCM April 2nd All Saints’ Church
The APCM of All Saints’ PCC took place on 2nd April in the church, following the Annual Vestry Meeting.
Events of the past year were reviewed and found to be encouraging. A second Alpha course had run from January to March, out of which had developed the ‘Pilgrims Group’, which meets fortnightly at The Rectory.
The children’s ministry has also been doing well, with Monday Club thriving. Monday Club, for children aged between 4 and 9 years, meets from 5.30 – 6.30pm every Monday at The Rectory. They have enjoyed many activities including a picnic held with children from churches in Harrold and a Bonfire Night celebration in the churchyard. Pathfinders (for 11-15 year olds) meets at Abigail House on Wednesday evenings and continues to flourish.
The church has been able to continue to support the mission work of Dick and Caroline Seed, with their new post with CMS in Ghana, largely through the gift from the Sure Foundation Trust, and also to support Geoffrey and Helen Ochana in their ministry of reconciliation in Kenya.
A good relationship has developed with neighbouring churches through the formation of ‘Churches Together’. It was good to welcome Rev’d Jane Fox to the churches of Harrold and Carlton, and all churches involved have benefited from the sharing of resources, and the occasional joint services and the sharing of Lent Group meetings.
High on the agenda of the meeting was the Tea-Point and Toilet Project in the church. The estimated cost of the project was higher than expected at £65,000 but fundraising is in full swing. The project will benefit not only the congregation of All Saints’ but also the wider community as it will allow the church to interact more fully with the community as a whole and allow the church to become an integral part of village life.
The next PCC meeting will take place on Wednesday May 20th at The Rectory.
O, Surely when springtime
Appears in profusion
We’re getting a glimpse of
Perfection in May.
When earth before Adam
Stood heavenly perfect,
When evening and morning
Were just that first day.
In that great garden
That Adam was put in
With Eve, were they able to see
Just how lovely pure goodness
Was there in completion
Where no evil minds and no evil could be?
So often we wonder and marvel at beauty,
And beauty is often all there to be seen;
But what of the wonder that makes us to feel it,
The gift of beholding, to see what I mean.
Beholding is not just dependant on seeing;
Our eyes are the start of that miracle chain;
Response and a sensitive eye of beholder
Depends on the inner eye time and again.
Roger Jackson
E
4th 10.00am Fete Painting Day, Linden House.
6th 10.30am Meeting point at Doris’s, Goodly Heritage, The Bury, Pavenham.
9th 7.30pm Irish Night, Odell Village Hall.
12th 7.30pm W.I. AGM, Village Hall.
13th 7.00pm N.E. Beds Conservative Assoc. Presentation by The Princes Trust, St Peter’s Room, Sharnbrook.
14th 10.30am HOCP health walk.
16th 9.45am All Saints’ Amblers meet at The Bell.
16th 7.30pm Songs for a summer Evening, All Saints’ Church.
18th 10.00am HOCP Conservation Tasks.
20th 10.30am Meeting Point at Jane’s, Newton Ho., Avenue Rd., Newton Bromswold.
20th 7.45pm PCC Meeting, The Rectory.
23rd 10.30am Coffee Morning for Tea-Point Appeal, Rectory Farm.
28th 10.30am HOCP health walk.
Magazine Deadline
Please send all entries for the June 2009 magazine to Tricia Hudson (mag1 at odellbeds.net) or Catherine Corkery by May 12th 2009 at the latest. May we remind you that the editorial team exercises the right to edit, shorten or alter any items that are submitted. Also, the opinions expressed in the articles are those of the contributors and are not the responsibility of the editorial team.