DRAMATIM Hand Mime Easter Outreach (1st Performance)

How clever is this!!

Community Sermon

On May 16th we have our next Community Sermon. Everyone is invited to give thought to and come willing to share thoughts on the theme of JOURNEY. There are no real rules, except that the contributions be appropriate to share and brief enough to allow everyone a turn.

Contributions from anyone not able to be present could be shared here on the blog. If the contribution is artwork, please email a copy of it to Shaun.

The bible in 750 words

Thanks to Gill R for bringing these to our attention.  Maybe a challenge others might like to have a go at.

See top three entries here

Truth and Freedom

A poem from Karen seems to fit this picture.

Happy Easter

Alone with none but thee, my God
I journey on my way.
What need I fear, when thou art near
O king of night and day?
More safe am I within thy hand
Than if a host did round me stand.

Columba 521-97

I Have Placed My Hope in a Crucified Man

Here is a link to a song by Graham Kendrick called I have placed my hope in a crucified man. I find it quite moving. It acknowledges the mystery of what we believe and also discusses the power of God to turn everything upside down.

Community

Preparing for the quiet day on Good Friday, an artist among us was asked to make a poster we can put outside the church so people passing feel invited to join in.

I was really touched by the sketches of the pressures of life that he has produced for that. Isn't it great that we all have different talents and passions and isn't community an awesome thing when people are able to use what they are good at as part of our worship?

I can't draw like Steve, or create gardens, or play instruments but it is all the little bits of what we do that make up our worship and it is beautiful.

The centre of the bible!

You may have seen this before but it's still amazing.  I have prayed for anyone who reads this, that they will be blessed by God in the coming week.

Book Review - John

I have just enjoyed reading 'John' by Niall Williams. It is a novel about a group of people around the apostle John. They lived on Patmos with him into his old age and then just shortly before his death returned to Ephesus. They lived in the expectation that Jesus would return in power any minute now. When they returned to Ephesus they had to contend with the chaos of a city that was desperately looking for God, in some very strange places and things didn't go as they had expected.
The author writes that he was not intending to write this book, he just wondered one day what John was doing the day before he wrote his gospel and then couldn't leave it alone.

Another miracle under way

I was struck by these images and the way that new life continues to burst forth from the dead rotting matter, which in fact provides the nutrients required for the new life to begin. Without Jesus' death we are nothing but a pile of rotting matter but because of what He did we can do the same and have new life. We might think that our lives are a brown ugly mess but Jesus uses that and brings vibrant life and colour. My prayer is that whatever situation we find ourselves in we can remember that and that we will continue to see miracles in our lives and the lives of those around us.

A Valentines message - God's love

A moment with Jesus

Conversation requires talking and listening. As I talk to Jesus may I also learn to be still and listen. I picture the gentleness in his eyes and the smile full of love as he gazes on me. I can be totally honest with Jesus as I tell him of my worries and my cares. I will open up my heart to him as I tell him of my fears and my doubts. I will ask him to help me to place myself fully in his care, to abandon myself to him, knowing that he always wants what is best for me.

(taken from the 'sacred space' website - see right hand side for the link to helping find a little bit of time to contemplate our Lord)

Quiet Space

Thank you to everyone who took part in the reflective day this weekend. It was a real treat to spend time doing nothing with you all.
I had had a very busy week and it was great to be able to put all that aside for a while. I hope it was a useful space for other people too.

If there were any particular activities that you found helpful, or anything that was definitely not helpful, please let me know by email and we will give it thought before we do it again.

New year, new service!

Do you have situations and issues that you'd like more people to be praying about. Please use the link in the top right of this page to send prayer requests to us and we will bring them to God in our Saturday morning prayer meetings.

A new Year plan

My talk this morning was looking at what we can do to help bring a little God's kingdom to others we know using some insights from 'The Shack' and Paul in 1Corinthians. As I said I was mainly talking to myself.
Below is the slide show used this morning, my notes can be read here as the slide show doesn't make a huge amount of sense without them!