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CONTACT

Magazine of Erdington Methodist ChurchStation Road - November 2012

ContentsRemembrance 3Home for Travellers through December 4Vision Pens 4Did Noah Fish? 4November Vision Update 5Please Help 8WWII Monopoly (a fascinating true story) 8Family Beetle Drive 10Insight 11The Lord is my shepherd 12Christmas Dates 13Don’t forget the other half 13The Life That I have 14Canoldir Male Choir Christmas Celebration 15Children’s Pages 16The Diamond Jubilee Challenge 18Godbaby - the must-have Gift this Christmas 19Natural Britain 20A Thought Provoking Visit 21State Opening of Parliament! 23Let’s make 20 million Christmas trees more meaningful 25Lord, prop us up! 26Can you write a prayer for the Methodist Prayer Handbook? 27Problem Solving 27Yorkshire churches enter groundbreaking partnership 28Choice chores for winter! 28Natural Britain - the answer 30Ground 30November 2012 Regular Meetings 31Weekly Church Activities 32

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RemembranceA number of years ago Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear, presented a documentary, ‘The Victoria Cross: For Valour’. This told the stories of some VC heroes, including his own father-in-law, who he never knew. Moved by these stories, Clarkson went on to ask, ‘How can we call the likes of David Beckham a hero for scoring a goal? I wonder who your heroes are today?’

In this season of remembrance we think especially of those who have sacrificed their lives in war. However, Jesus calls us all to a radical heroism when he says, ‘You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.’ (Matthew 5: 43-45).

God calls us to love even those we regard as our enemies. It’s easy to love those we get on with or find attractive. The love of which Jesus speaks, as throughout the New Testament, is agape love. This quality of love seeks and works only for the good of the other person. When we can pray for someone we don’t get on with, God begins to answer your prayer by softening our attitude toward them. We love them because they are individuals created in the image of God and in need of God’s forgiveness and grace, just like us.

This month marks the 25th anniversary of the Enniskillen bombing in Northern Ireland on 8th November 1987. An IRA bomb exploded during a Remembrance Day service, resulting in 11 people being killed and 63 injured. What is remembered most from this day is the interview Gordon Wilson gave only hours after the bombing. It brought him to international prominence, as he described the conversation with his dying daughter Marie, as they lay buried in rubble. To the astonishment of listeners, Wilson went on to say, ‘But I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge… She's in heaven and we shall meet again. I will pray for these men tonight and every night.’ The impact of his words lay in his willingness to forgive the bombers, and as a result Wilson went on to dedicate his life as a campaigner for peace and reconciliation. He perfectly models Jesus words for us. ‘No words in more

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than twenty-five years of violence in Northern Ireland had such a powerful, emotional impact.’

Jonathan Bardon - from the Parish Pump

Home for Travellers through DecemberMary and Joseph are olive wood figures who wish to travel aroundthe area from 1st December.

Mary and Joseph are looking for people who will have them in theirhome for one night.  They need to be taken to a another family the next day(you will be told where) and this continues up to the 24th Decemberwhen they return to Erdington Methodist Church.

Please give this some thought, and in November a list will be on thenotice board for people to sign up.

                                       Thank you

Margaret Hillman

Vision PensAs part of our vision project we have Vision biros for sale. £1 each, available for Jan Payne

Did Noah fish?The Sunday school teacher asked James, “do you think Noah did a lot of fishing when he was on the Ark?

“No”, replied James. “How could he? He only had two worms.”

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November Vision UpdateMoving on – An overview of the proposal for the project was presented to the Church Council meeting on October 10th. The existing group were officially appointed to proceed with furthering this project and there was full agreement to proceed with applications for grants. The Vision group is Gerald Peel (chair), Hilary Price (grant applications), Jacky Scott (fund-raising), Jan Payne, Lesley Morgan, Rev Jane Ashplant (ex officio ) and Sue Foster was co-opted onto the group.

The main areas of the proposal are:-

• Re-siting the front door, improving the frontage, new notice boards and wheelchair access

• Replace all windows with double glazing• Refurbish all the toilets including upstairs• Install glass screen inside worship area• Replace existing doors into worship area, and those half way down the corridor

• Replace yellow church chairs, and carpets in worship area, foyer and corridor.

• Improve lighting where necessary

Starting work! – Some of this project inevitably overlaps with general church maintenance and this is what has been achieved so far:

• Trees pollarded• Parlour and games rooms redecorated (mostly done by members of the Prince’s trust),

• New carpet in parlour. • It is hope to upgrade the upstairs toilets soon, replace flooring on the landing, and then the upstairs will be completed.

Applications – We are restricted by Methodist rules in how we progress with a large project. We have learnt that progress will have to be made in ‘bite sized’ chunks. No work on any item can proceed until we have half the

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money for it safely in the bank. So parts of the project will be prioritized and advanced in stages.

The Church Council agreed that our first stage will be the alterations to the frontage. We will be employing an architect for this and exact details of this part of the proposal will be made known after another Church Council meeting, hopefully in November.

However we can NOW start applying to appropriate funders for grants for this work, at the same time we will make applications for funds to replace windows.

We already have a calendar of fund-raising events and each event will get as much publicity as possible in the run up to the event.

Your help will be vital in achieving each goal. Please support our events as much as you are able. This means giving your time, helping to advertise an event selling tickets where necessary, and organizing your own event. This can be at church or in your home. Ask your family and friends to sponsor an activity.

If you don't have a savings box they are available at the back of the church and are a way of having small amounts grow into large ones!

Lastly (for now!) We hope to hold an ‘upmarket’ raffle. If you can donate a quality item, or more easily give £1.00 to one of the group, then we can put this together to buy a meal out, cinema tickets, concert tickets etc. To encourage you we have already been offered two crates of Shloer grape juice for such an occasion, from the company!! Do you know anyone in a position of influence – or wealthy – who could help us in this way?If you can help in any way, or have questions you wish to ask, then please speak to one of the group listed in the first paragraph.

Hilary Price

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DATE and TIME VISION EVENTSUp to March 2013

October 27th10:00 – 1:00

EARLY CHRISTMAS SHOPPINGHandbags & jewelleryChristmas wrappingQuilters’ workGoods from PalestineCakes and more…

November 10th10:00 – 12:00

COFFEE MORNINGRun by the Tuesday Club

November 10th6:30 pm

BEETLE DRIVEWith Supper

November 24th10:00 – 12:00

CHRISTMAS FAYREWith Father Christmas

December 8th10:00 – 1:00

SHROVE SATURDAY!Watch this space!

2013January 26th6:30/7:00

QUIZ NIGHTWith fish and chip supper

February 23rd7:30pm

THE ACCORD SINGERS

March 16th10:00 – 12:00

COFFEE MORNING and GIFT DAY

March 16th7:30PM

AUDIO-VISUAL SHOWPresented by Malcolm Imhoff

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Please Help Handsworth Gang Show is one of 200 non-profit organisations that are hoping to win a percentage of £25000. From Tuesday 2nd October until November 17th the Birmingham Evening Mail will be printing tokens for 40 consecutive days.

Please, please can you cut out these tokens for us and save them. The more tokens we have the bigger the percentage we could win. When you have collected tokens please pass to Gerald Peel or Elizabeth Baizon

Thanks in anticipation

WWII Monopoly (a fascinating true story)Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the Crown was casting about for ways and means to facilitate their escape.  Now obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and accurate map - one showing, not only where stuff was, but also showing the locations of 'safe houses' where a POW ‘on-the-lam’ could go for food and shelter.

Paper maps had some real drawbacks - they make a lot of noise when you open and fold them, they wear out rapidly and if they get wet they turn to mush.

Someone in MI5 got the idea of printing escape maps on silk.  It's durable, can be scrunched-up into tiny wads and unfolded as many times as needed, and it makes no noise whatsoever.

At that time, there was only one manufacturer in Great Britain that had perfected the technology of printing on silk, and that was John Waddington, Ltd.  When approached by the government the firm was only too happy to do its bit for the war effort.  

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By pure coincidence, Waddington was also the UK Licensee for the popular board game Monopoly.  As it happened, 'games and pastimes' was a category of item that qualified for insertion into 'CARE packages' dispatched to prisoners.

Under the strictest of secrecy, in a securely guarded and inaccessible old workshop on the grounds of Waddington's, a group of sworn-to-secrecy employees began mass-producing escape maps, keyed to each region of Germany or Italy where Allied POW camps were in a regional system).  When processed, these maps could be folded into such tiny bits that they would actually fit inside a Monopoly playing piece.  As long as they were at it, the clever workmen at Waddington's also managed to add:

1. A playing token, containing a small magnetic compass2. A two-part metal file that could easily be screwed together3. Useful amounts of genuine high-denomination German, Italian, and

French currency hidden within the Monopoly money!

Before taking off on their first mission, British and American air crews were advised on how to identify a 'rigged' Monopoly set - by means of one tiny red dot, cleverly fashioned to look like an ordinary printing glitch, located in the corner of the ‘Free Parking’ square on the playing board.

Of approximately 35,000 Allied POWs who successfully escaped, an estimated one-third were aided in their flight by the rigged Monopoly sets.  Everyone who did use these was sworn to secrecy indefinitely since the British Government may want to use this highly successful ruse in yet another war in the future.  The story wasn't actually ‘de-classified’ until 2007, when the surviving craftsmen from Waddington's - and also the firm itself - were finally honoured in a public ceremony.

It's always satisfying when you can play that 'Get out of Jail Free' card!

This is one of those items that are often sent me which sound too good to be true but . . . . on this occasion it is True - though sources aren’t sure about all the facts being completely accurate - ed

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ERDINGTON METHODIST CHURCH – VISION PROJECT

FAMILYBEETLE DRIVE

SATURDAY 10TH NOVEMBER 20126.00pm - 8.00pm

Come and join the fun at a great family night for all the family

The game involves rolling a dice to draw a beetle, you must roll a six to start for the body, a five for a head and so on, you can’t add feelers or eyes without a head and the first one to complete a full beetle wins a prize. We will be playing 12 games. Each table is set with 4 places and you take it in turns to roll the dice. All will be explained on the night – very easy, exciting and good fun.

The evening will include Jacket Potato & filling and Dessert

TICKETS£5 Adults £3 Children

£15 Family (2 Adults & 2 Children)

Please see one of the church stewards to buy your tickets

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InsightWhilst I was away recently, walking in Wales, I came across a wonderful piece of forethought. On a drystone wall along a section of a gated lane someone had painted a white line on the wall, to indicate the position that the gate should be in for the retaining bolt to slide directly in to its keep. Presumably there were too many possible holes in the wall which would not be deep enough to retain the bolt satisfactorily, especially after dark. Similarly, recently, I watched whilst a steward rearranged the wire for the electric piano to minimise the trip risk for those going up for Communion. At about the same time I noticed a headline in my newspaper highlighting the case which could be regarded as showing a lack of forethought. The report was of someone who had been assessed as fit for work despite the fact that they needed constant care. Maybe the suggestion was that the carer should go with them to work.

The world is full of situations which require forethought and insight. It is not applying such intelligence which leads us to treat someone with a broken leg differently to someone with acute back pain. For a similar reason we have difficulty in dealing with a person who has a hidden medical problem, such as deafness rather than the obvious allowances that we make for someone who is blind. At the beginning of the Internet age there was an autobiographical poem that did the rounds, reporting the life of a lady in a care home who was disabled. It was entitled ‘See me’. In his recent Conference speech David Cameron talked about the same thing when he referred to his experiences of pushing a wheelchair where the people he met reacted to the chair and not his son sitting in the chair.

It is so easy to be thoughtless in our actions and words and we are only too ready to excuse ourselves with ‘stressed’ or ‘too busy’. However this really cannot absolve us from our responsibilities when we upset or offend someone with our words or actions. Such unguarded comments about differences, however small, often say rather more about us than our subject. In effect they reveal what we are really thinking about the person who is different. This I believe is what is at the heart of the Andrew Mitchell affair.

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As Christians we have a head start with all of this because of Jesus’ command to love our neighbour as ourselves. However personal experience tells us that we can always do better and now, maybe, is an appropriate moment to decide to aim higher. We will all have watched at least some of the Paralympic Games earlier this year. Suddenly we were forced to see past the problem, the disability, to the achievements. Obviously we need to avoid thinking that all disabled people are elite athletes. However, suddenly we have all been presented with the sight of disabled people achieving things in spite their disability: cycling, running, swimming and basketball. What they can do rather than what they can’t.

What a difference it would make to those who are different from us in one way or another, if we would each resolve to got it right just once more each week.

Peter Farley  

The Lord is my shepherdA Sunday school teacher decided to have her young class memorise one of the most quoted passages in the Bible - Psalm 23. She gave the youngsters a month to memorise the short psalm.

Little Richard was very excited about the task – but he just couldn’t memorise things very well.

On the day that the children were scheduled to recite Psalm 23 in front of the congregation, Richard was very nervous. When it finally came to his turn, he stepped up to the microphone and said proudly, “the Lord is my Shepherd “, and… That is all I need to know.

  

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Christmas DatesI know that by the time you read this magazine we will be celebrating with the bangs and whoops of November 5th - they may have already started . . . ! However - time marches on and so here are dates for your diaries over the Christmas period - ed

2nd December at 4.00 pm - Christingle Service

16th December at 10.30 am - Gift Service

22nd December from 10.00 am - Carol Singing outside church

23rd December at 4.00 pm - Candlelight Carol Service

Christmas Eve - at 5.00 pm - Children's Nativity Service

Christmas Eve at 11.30 pm - Midnight Service

Christmas Day at 10.00 am - Christmas Morning Worship

6th January 2013 at 10.30 am - Covenant Service

Carol Singing at Tesco’s New Oscott - details to be confirmed

Don’t forget the other halfWhen my daughter said bedtime prayers, she would bless every family member, every friend and animal (current and past). Then one night, after she had finished that nightly prayer, she added “and all girls.”

This soon became part of her nightly routine. Finally my curiosity got the best of me and I asked her why she had begun adding the part about ‘all girls.’ Her response! Because at church the minister only ever says “all men.”

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The Life That I HaveThis is a poem written by Leo Marks after his Canadian girlfriend was killed in a plane crash. Later, during World War 2, it was used as a code poem. In June 1944 it was issued to Violette Szabo, a secret agent in occupied France. These agents had to memorize poems in order to code their highly confidential messages before they were sent back to Britain. Sadly, in 1945 when she was 23 years old, Violette was captured in France where she was tortured and shot by the Nazis.

I first became aware of The Life That I have when ‘Carve her Name with Pride’ first hit the cinema screens in 1958. The film is based on the true story of the courage of Special Operations Executive agent, Violette Szabo. Virginia McKenna played the lead role. This beautiful poem achieved great acclaim through its inclusion in the film where it was said to be the creation of Violette's husband Etienne.

Barbara Rawson

The life that I haveIs all that I haveAnd the life that I haveIs yours.

The love that I haveOf the life that I haveIs yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall haveA rest I shall haveYet death will be but a pause.

For the peace of my yearsIn the long green grassWill be yours and yours and yours.

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The Diamond Jubilee ChallengeIn June and July this year the Guides worked on The Diamond Jubilee Challenge Badge. One activity we did was to design badges showing something about guides or what we do. We arranged them into a collage on a large card, wrote messages to the Queen and everyone signed it. It was sent off to Buckingham Palace to Celebrate The Queen’s Jubilee. Soon we got a reply from the Queen’s Lady-in-Waiting at the Palace. It is on lovely paper and says thank you to us all. We really enjoyed doing this and getting a reply because we made direct contact with the Queen.

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Godbaby - the must-have Gift this ChristmasA very different image of baby Jesus is due to hit the streets this Christmas, with the new Godbaby poster from ChurchAds.net - the Churches Advertising Network.

The striking image of a fictional ‘Godbaby toy’ aims to make the Christmas story appeal to the younger generation, and puts Christ at the centre of conversations.

"It’s another strong and arresting image. It will surprise some and disturb others,” said Bishop Nick Baines, giving the image an enthusiastic thumbs up.

He went on: “Which is exactly what the real Jesus did. And it forces us beyond the tinsel to the human reality of 'God among us.”

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The cute brown-eyed boy doll in a blue baby grow represents the baby Jesus, and plays on the idea of Christmas being a time when everyone is searching for that ‘must-have’ Christmas gift. It carries the slogan – ‘GodBaby - He cries, He wees, He saves the world’ and is the latest advert from the ‘Christmas Starts with Christ…’ campaign.

The Christmas Starts with Christ campaign has been running for four years and research shows that 42% of people seeing it say ‘it makes me think more about the true meaning of Christmas’. It is supported by all major Christian denominations and many large Christian organizations, including Premier Christian Media and The Jerusalem Trust.

So what do you think of Godbaby? Irreverent? Amusing? Offensive? We’d be interested to hear your views in the December/January Contact - ed

Natural BritainAs we come to the end of yet another mixed bout of weather I came across an interesting fact. It is the answer to ‘how much of the UK do you think is no longer natural and therefore built upon in some way.’ We will all have our opinions about that, but remember how green it is when you look out of a plane window.

Anyway the answer needs you to take into account gardens, parks and allotments in the natural section. So what do you think?

Peter Farley

Answer on page 30

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A Thought Provoking VisitOn Thursday 27th September, Barbara and I turned a business trip to Chesterton into a mini holiday. We visited Little Moreton Hall, a local 16th century house owned by The National Trust. This is a beautifully preserved half-timbered building with oak panelling and internal plumbing, very unusual for that date of building. A courtyard is surrounded on three sides by the three floor wooden building. It is absolutely full of character with wonky floors, spiral staircases, leaded lights and some very ancient wall paintings which are badly faded. Externally there is only one straight line to be seen - the main roof ridge which is held in place by concealed steel beams. Everything else is delightfully sagging, bent or just not level, and most important … the restaurant is excellent!

Next we went on to Sir Bernard Lovell’s’ 1957 Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope.

This is a very large, fully steerable parabolic reflector designed to ‘see’ radio sources such as stars, novae, pulsars and a whole range of other objects in the radio spectrum. It doesn’t actually see anything as it is designed to ‘see’

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in radio wavelengths. The dish is made of galvanised sheet steel, its main purpose being to study radio sources within the universe. It is 76 metres in diameter and can amplify very faint radio signals up to one million/ million times.

There is an excellent Discovery Centre with lots of hands on experiments, guided tours and films for the younger visitor. Outside there are two small (about 2metres diameter) parabolic sound dishes sixty three metres apart facing each other. So with Barbara facing one dish and me at the other dish we could converse quite easily using the focussing ability just like the big main radio mirror.

It made me reflect upon what it all means. Space is very big! It is full of … well … space, plus some other bits and pieces such as planets, interstellar star stuff, galaxies, dark matter, photons, pulsars, gravity … it’s a weird place!

I cannot conceive that everything just happened. How did it happen? We know when it happened - 13.4 billion years ago. As to ‘how’ or ‘why’ is well beyond me. This where faith comes in. God creates. Science demands irrefutable and repeatable physical evidence for its beliefs. It simply isn’t possible to create something from nothing … so far as we know. Faith only requires a simple belief. I can see no other solution other than God.

Don Rawson

Footnote: Sir Bernard Lovell died on 6th August 2012 aged 98.

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State Opening of Parliament!When we were planning this edition of Contact someone said what about the State Opening of Parliament, doesn’t that happen in November? Well I can now tell you that it used to! Because Coalition have agreed to move to a fixed term five year Parliaments term the State Opening has now moved to the spring. But having looked into it there are one or two facts which I came across and which I think will bear retelling.

We all learn about Guy Fawkes’ attempt to blow up the King in 1605 from early childhood because of the association with the excitement of Bonfire Night. But did you know that before the Monarch goes to the chamber for the State Opening they take a hostage from the Commons to ensure that they are allowed home again after the proceedings have finished. This started in 1642 when Charles 1st tried to arrest five members of the House of Commons. Since then the Monarch has not been allowed to enter the Commons chamber, which is why the Opening happens in the House of Lords.

The Peers and the Commons assemble in their own chambers and then after the Monarch has arrived the members of the House of Commons are summoned to the Lords Chamber. They are summonsed by Black Rod or the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod to give him his full title. He is initially denied access to the Commons Chamber, a symbol which originated from the time when Charles had tried to arrest those five MPs. He then beats on the door with his symbol of office, the black rod, and is then admitted. The presence of the Commons is requested and they process in pairs across the lobby to hear the Queen’s speech.

The post of Black Rod originated in 1350. Ordinarily either Black Rod or his deputy the Yeoman User of the Black Rod have to be in the Chamber of the upper house for ceremonial security purposes. Until very recently the post holder was a retired senior military officers. Now the post is openly advertised at a salary of £81,000. How long before we have a female rod bearer?

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The speech which the Queen reads, more correctly ‘The Speech From the Throne’ is written on goatskin vellum and passed on to her by the Lord Chancellor. It was only during the last Labour government that the tradition of the Lord Chancellor walking backwards down the steps away from the Queen was abolished.

The State Opening of Parliament is one of those ceremonies that we seem to do well. A teaming of pageantry with history and tradition. Some see it as outdated and time-wasting but others see it as a fundamental reminder of the role of our constitutional monarchy, not to mention a nice reminder of the colourful history that the crown and parliament has. A bit like the opening of the Olympic games. A moment to savour being British.

Peter Farley

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Let’s make 20 million Christmas trees more meaningfulMeaningful Chocolate Tree Decorations are now available and are an opportunity for parents, grandparents and Godparents to buy a gift that allows the sharing of the Christmas story while making the family Christmas tree a bit more Meaningful.

Each box contains a new limited edition Christmas story booklet, a nativity character sticker set and five hand-wrapped blank chocolate discs.

The Christmas story booklet allows adults and children to share the Christmas story while placing nativity character stickers on the blank discs. Once completed, the five decorations can be hung on the tree as a reminder of the real meaning of Christmas. Each decoration is made from Belgian Fairtrade chocolate so the biggest problem will be keeping them on the tree for any length of time.

David Marshall, from The Meaningful Chocolate Company, says; “Research has found that only 12% of adults, and only 7% of people aged between 18-24, know the Christmas story. So these decorations can help adults communicate the essentials of the Christmas story to the next generation.”

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The Meaningful Christmas Tree Decorations cost £4.20, or £4 if more than 20 boxes are ordered at a time. Church orders can be made through www.MeaningfulChristmas.co.uk or exclusively from Traidcraft. Orders should be made by the end of November 2012 as supplies are limited.

Did you know? The use of evergreen trees to celebrate the winter season began before the birth of Christ. However, in Britain the custom of decorating trees to mark Christmas did not begin until Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's German husband, brought the tradition from his home land to Windsor Castle in the 1840's. 161 years later it’s hard to believe that most of the UK’s 20 million Christmas trees have nothing religious hanging on them.

Lord, prop us up!There is a story of an old farmer who always prayed the same prayer at his church meeting. 'Lord, prop us up on our leanin' side’. After hearing this many times, his minister asked him one day quite what he meant.

The famer replied: “Well, it's like this... I’ve got an old barn out in one of my fields. It's been there a long time, and gone through a lot of storms. One day a few years ago I noticed that it was leaning to one side a bit. So I went and got some poles and propped it up on its leaning side, so it wouldn't fall. Then I got to thinking about how much I was like that old barn. I'd been around a long time, and seen plenty of storms in life. I was still standing, but I was also leaning a bit. So I decided to ask the Lord to prop me up, too, on my leaning side.

Our ‘leaning side’ is where we are weakest in ourselves. Sometimes we get to leaning toward anger, bitterness, bleakness in life. Then we too need to pray for God to prop us up, especially on that leaning side. He wants us to stand tall and free, in him.

from the Parish Pump

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Can you write a prayer for the Methodist Prayer Handbook?

The 2013/2014 Prayer Handbook will look at hopeful discipleship, celebrating signs of hope in the Church, the world, our communities and our lives.

Contributions should be emailed by 15 January 2013 to primi@quantrillmedia.com or posted to Prayer Handbook Editor, Methodist Church House, 25 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5JR.

Prayers must not exceed 120 words or 12 lines, and should be relevant for use from August 2013 to August 2014. Shorter prayers and prayers for particular countries or needs are more likely to be published.

from the Methodist Church News Service

Problem solvingThere was an engineer, manager, and a computer programmer driving down a steep mountain road. The brakes failed and the car careened down the road out of control. Half way down the driver managed to stop the car by running it against the embankment narrowly avoiding flying off the cliff. They all got out, shaken by their narrow escape from death, but otherwise unharmed.

The manager said, "To fix this problem we need to organize a committee, have meetings, exchange ideas, develop a solution." The engineer said, "No that would take too long, besides that method never works. I have my trusty pen knife here and will take apart the brake system, isolate the problem and correct it." The programmer said, "I think you’re both wrong! I think we should all push the car back up the hill and see if it happens again!"

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Yorkshire churches enter groundbreaking partnershipA new and groundbreaking regional partnership in Yorkshire between the Church of England and Methodist Church was inaugurated earlier this month.

The agreement between the Leeds Methodist District and the Ripon and Leeds Anglican Diocese will lead to greater sharing of clergy, more joint services, working together to support mission and ministry and greater consultation over future deployment of staff and resources throughout the region.

“The lives of both Churches have already been greatly enriched by our determination to work, worship and grow together,” said the Revd Julian Pursehouse, acting chair of the Leeds District. “The new Covenant Area Partnership is a fantastic opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to one another and to live out our calling to serve our communities in a more dynamic and coherent way.”

Choice chores for winter!When the weather is cold and frosty and it is rather dangerous for me to be out and about, I often think that it is a good time to spring-clean my bathroom, washing down the tiles and all the ‘bits and pieces’ that I scatter around to put my individual stamp on it! It may seem, to some people, an odd thing to do during the winter, but that’s exactly the sort of thing I do in winter, because I want to be outside in the garden when the weather is milder.

To me, it isn’t as tedious as one might expect. For one thing, the little ‘bits and pieces’ are mementoes of holidays. Scattered on the vanity unit are a cluster of polished stones and some shells. Now you may wonder why one would scatter such in a bathroom. Well, I love to think of my holidays during the year, and scattering things like stones, shells, pieces of wood, etc. around the house, reminds me of where, and when they were collected.

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Most were gathered whilst on holiday, and some of you will recall an article I wrote of my ‘Memories of Scotland’ in a previous Contact, when I recounted Norman and I collecting chunks of ancient wood from the Scottish hillside from which to make lamps.

Back to the stones! Most were gathered from the beaches on the Aberdeen coast. Elizabeth, my daughter, asked for, and duly received a stone polishing kit for one of her birthdays and enjoyed the following months collecting pretty stones from our holiday beaches. The stones had to be turned in water with four different grits, for a week at a time. The grit was changed each week becoming finer than the last, until after the fourth week, the polished stones were finally washed and dried. Some of them were like gemstones. I couldn’t really believe how beautiful ordinary stones could look, and I’m sure they would be interesting to geologists too. Some have white layers crossing them, indicating a layer of shells of long-dead shellfish, compressed in the silts of time! One, collected above Aberdeen, is pink merging into blue. Most unusual! But it must be common to the east coast because when Elizabeth and Nigel lived in Lincolnshire, we visited the coast at Sutton-on-Sea and I again collected a few ‘bits’ off the beach. One was another blue turning pink stone, almost identical to the one collected many years before from Aberdeen. So I have both of the stones in my bathroom, one polished, one unpolished.

I have always been intrigued and fascinated with anything to do with the natural world, and the variety of shapes, colours and functions of the various shells are no exception. When I was in Northern Ireland on the two occasions I visited, I was taken to a tiny, sheltered bay on the Irish Sea called Kearney. The bay, in which were the most jagged rocks imaginable, covered with vibrant yellow and orange coloured lichens, swept down to the water’s edge, and the beach consisted mostly of tiny shells of periwinkles, sunset shells, necklace shells and limpets. Everything appeared in miniature!So, of course, I had to bring home a pocketful of shells and they now appear in the glass pot which graces the windowsill of my bathroom. Some are blue, some sunshine yellow, others red-brown as if going rusty, but stunningly beautiful. How little we know as to what governs their colour whilst they are alive. Are they always that colour or do the colours change

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after the death of the creature living within them? Alongside the stones and smaller shells are a couple of bright, red-brown scallop shells, sometimes left with their pearly side uppermost, depending on my mood! These were collected, again in Northern Ireland, from a beach outside a seafood restaurant in which we dined called “The Quays.” The beach was feet thick in scallop shells everywhere one walked (or tried to)! It was rather tricky walking on them. Because of their shape they slithered around. I, in my ignorance thought they had been slung from the kitchen of the restaurant, but no such thing happened. It appears that the restaurant was built on the quayside of a once thriving shellfish industry, which went into decline some years ago. But I had to bring a couple of scallops too!

But back to my cleaning! Oh, do I have to? I was enjoying such a lovely memorable time.

So now you know why I tackle jobs such as this in winter: I have more time to dream!

Ann Tomes

Natural Britain - the answerThe answer according to this BBC webpage is 2.27% i.e. more than 97% is still natural in some way.

GroundLong ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks it was called witchcraft….

Today, it’s called golf!

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November 2012 Regular Meetings

Coffee Mornings Each Saturday 10.00 am to 12.00 noon

Tuesday Club Every 4th Tuesday in the month at 2.30 pm

Sunday Worship All worship starts at 10.30 am unless stated otherwise below

4th HOLY COMMUNION - Rev Keith Webster

ALL SAINTS SERVICE at Stockland Green at 6.30 pm

11th REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY - Angela Constantine

18th ALL AGE WORSHIP - David Hewitt

25th Rev John Ingyon

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Weekly Church ActivitiesSunday 10.30 am MORNING WORSHIP and

Young Church

Tuesday 9.30 - 11.30 am9.30 - 12.30 pm2.00 pm

Stay and PlayPre-School : Karen HomerTuesday Afternoon Meeting : Ann Tomes (4th)

Wednesday 9.30 - 11.30 am9.30 - 12.30 pm12.30 pm

Stay and PlayPre-School : Karen HomerLuncheon Club - (1st and 3rd)

Thursday 9.30 - 12.30 pm Pre-School : Karen Homer

Friday 9.30 - 12.30 pm5.00 - 6.15 pm6.15 - 7.45 pm7.45 - 9.15 pm7.45 - 9.15 pm5.30 - 6.30 pm5.00 - 6.30 pm7.30 - 9.00 pm

Pre-School : Karen HomerBeavers : Lynn TurnerCubs : Elizabeth BaizonScouts : Lisa PorterExplorers : Caroline JoyceRainbows : Louise RawsonBrownies : Lesley CarterGuides : Helen Rainsford

Saturday 10.00 - 12.00 noon10.30 - 11.30 am

Coffee Morning : Lesley MorganChurch open for prayer : Margaret Curzon

Please hand any items for the December/January CONTACT to any of the Editorial Team (Peter Farley, Christine Rankin, Ann Tomes & Nick Riley) by 15th November 2012 at the latest please or alternatively email me:nickriley@blueyonder.co.uk with the word ‘CONTACT’ in the title.

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