RAYLEIGHMETHODIST

CHURCHEastwood RoadRayleigh SS6 7JPMinister Rev. Phil Warrey 01268 770333

THE NEWSLETTERJUNE 2017

FROM THE MINISTER

Dear Friends,

Time has come for me to write my last article for this newsletter, a difficult task for me. What do I say, what final advice do I give?

Firstly, I need to thank you all for your support of us, we arrived in August 2012, all new and eager and scared and hopeful and a whole host of other feelings and emotions. You warmly welcomed us, and we began a five-year kingdom building journey together. Not my kingdom nor your kingdom, but God’s kingdom.

Together we have worshipped well, tried new things, kept going the good things you were already doing, maintained and improved our buildings, welcomed new folk to journey alongside us and said farewell to some dear friends. Thank you for journeying alongside us, and allowing us to journey alongside you. It has been a privilege to be your Pastor and minister.

Now is the time for us to move on to pastures new. As you know we were only moving because we needed to move back west to be near our family. This has coincided with the Methodist church needing more superintendents, and hence my appointment in Hereford (South & east) Circuit. I have been on the superintendents training, and we are now making our arrangements to move in early August. It was a hard thing early this week to sign the paperwork for the removers! It suddenly made the move feel very close.

As we think about moving there are many new challenges to think about, how will we be received, will I manage all the new responsibilities, will Caroline get another job? Then we have the huge positive of being closer to our grandson Eric, our 2 daughters and our sons-in-law. BUT! We will also miss you all greatly.

Now is also the time for you to prepare for the coming of your new minister. Inevitably you will be making comparisons, but you’ve had enough changes of ministers to know that each of us comes with our own different gifts, skills and charisms. There will be things that Stephen will do

better than me, and things he will do differently to me. Most of all give him and Valerie your best Rayleigh and Hockley welcome. Love them, journey with them, and build God’s kingdom with them.

Stephen and Valarie are coming for another visit in the middle of June, so please pass on to me any requests you may have for him to lead or speak at any events or gatherings. We are keeping a diary for him, and it would be good to create opportunities for you to get to know them.

As for what advice I would leave you, I would ask simply that you continue believing in God your Father, following the way of Jesus, and listening to the Holy Spirit. Simple!....

When I was at the Superintendents conference we had a talk by John Bell who wrote all those wonderful songs with his colleague Graham Maule. He told us as a church we need to challenge the fate rumours. He told the story of the church who said they could not sing, they had been told so many times by their previous pastor that they could not sing, they had come to believe it. He said sometimes we listen to bad rumours so many times we begin to populate and live the rumours out. So, what did John and Graham do? They sang to them, and sang to them, until they began to join in, and then they realised they could sing. Quietly they did away with the rumour...s.

So please don’t listen to the bad rumours, and when and if you hear the bad rumours challenge them. If someone says, “It’s no good we’re an ageing congregation!”. Don’t let this rumour propagate. Who would want to join an ageing congregation! See the new life permeating into and on the edge of our church and draw them in. You are not an ageing congregation any more than any of us are all ageing. (Oh yes, I’ve just noticed I’ll be 54 next week!)

Here’s another one: “I’m too old to do anything now!” Squash that rumour. Look in the bible at Abram and Sarah, Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna. Look how God used them in their old age. Become a prayer warrior, be the encouragers of the new things that God wants doing, be the midwives of the new birth of the church. Be encouragers and not nay sayers.

Whenever a negative rumour is spread it denies our faith in a God who loves us, and a God who has a plan for a better way of life, a new way., a new kingdom where there is no pain and no more crying. Squash the rumours and let’s be positive and let’s grow into God’s kingdom.

Look at how God has blessed our churches, we see new people coming through our doors, God has provided us with the resources to maintain and improve our building, we have fantastic times of fellowship and worship together, we have a care and a love for each other. We have been blessed by having Clifford and Linda join our congregation and bring their ministry, skills and talents, gifts and charisms. Who else has God got waiting in the wings to join us and bring their gifts, skills and charisms?

And best of all, in our time of need, when things were beginning to look a bit difficult God encouraged Stephen to stand up again and come back into the active work, and to travel to Rayleigh with Valarie to be your new minister. Praise God from whom all blessings flow...

Journey on, be positive, continue to live in God’s blessing and live life to the full with Jesus as your Lord and saviour, and we will always remember and love you all.

Every Blessing Phil and Caroline.

SERVICES for JUNE 2017

4 JunePentecost

10.45 am Local Arrangement (Keith & Pat)

16:00:00 Circuit Easter Offering ServiceThundersley

11 JuneTrinity Sunday

10.45 am Rev Phil Warrey [P]

4.00 pm Rev Phil Warrey [Café Church]

18 June 10.45 am Rev Brian Gameson [S]

25 June 10.45 am Local Arrangement

4.00 pm Rev Phil Warrey [Messy Church]

[S] = Sacrament of Holy Communion [P] = Parade

4 JUNE Whit Sunday - Pentecost

Pentecost took place on the well-established Jewish festival of Firstfruits, which was observed at the beginning of the wheat harvest. It was exactly 50 days after the Passover, the time of Jesus’ crucifixion.

A feast day to celebrate the country’s wheat harvest does not sound exactly world-changing, but that year, it became one of the most important days in world history. For Pentecost was the day that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit - the day the Church was born.

Jesus had told His apostles that something big was going to happen, and that they were to wait for it in Jerusalem, instead of returning to Galilee. Jesus had plans for his apostles – but He knew they could not do the work themselves – they would need His help.

And so the apostles and disciples waited in Jerusalem, praying together for several days. And then on that fateful morning there was suddenly the sound as of a mighty rushing wind. Tongues of flame flickered on their heads, and they began to praise God in many tongues – to the astonishment of those who heard them. The curse of Babel (Genesis 11: 1- 9) was dramatically reversed that morning.

That morning the Holy Spirit came to indwell the apostles and disciples of Jesus: and the Church was born. The Christians were suddenly full of life and power, utterly different from their former fearful selves. The change in them was permanent.

Peter gave the first ever sermon of the Christian Church that morning: proclaiming Jesus was the Messiah. His boldness in the face of possible death was in marked contrast to the man who had denied Jesus 50 days before. And 3,000 people responded, were converted, and were baptised. How’s that for fast church growth!

Of course Pentecost was not the first time the Holy Spirit had acted in this world. All through the Old Testament there are accounts of how God’s Spirit guided people and strengthened them. But now, because of Christ’s death and resurrection, he could INDWELL them. From now on, every Christian could have the confidence that Jesus was with them constantly, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

.11 JUNE Trinity Sunday – celebrating our God who is Three Persons

Trying to explain the doctrine of the Trinity has kept many a theologian busy down the centuries. One helpful picture is to imagine the sun shining in the sky. The sun itself – way out there in space – unapproachable in its fiery majesty – is the Father. The light that flows from it, and which illuminates all our lives, is the Son. The heat that flows from it, and which gives us all the energy to move and grow, is the Holy Spirit. You cannot have the sun without its light and its heat. The light and the heat are from the sun, are of the sun, and yet are also distinct in themselves, with their own..... roles to play.

The Bible makes clear that God is One God, who is disclosed in three persons: Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit. For example:

Deuteronomy 6:4 ‘Hear O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one..’Isaiah 45:22 ‘Turn to me and be saved… for I am God, and there is no other’

Genesis 1:1-2 ‘In the beginning God created…. And the Spirit of God was hovering…’ Judges 14:6 etc ‘The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power…’

John 1:1-3 ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word wa..s with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.’

Luke 24:49 actually manages to squeeze the whole Trinity into one sentence. Jesus tells His disciples: ‘I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power (the Holy Spirit) from on high.’

In other words, the sun eternally gives off light and heat, and whenever we stand in its brilliant light, we find that the warmth soon follows.

18 JUNE Fathers’ Day – time to celebrate male role models

In the UK, USA and Canada, the third Sunday in June is Father's Day. It’s a good time for sons and daughters to take their father to his favourite restaurant, or to watch a favoured sport, or whatever else he enjoys doing.

How will you celebrate it this year? If your own father cannot be with you, is there a ‘spare’ father somewhere in your church or your circle of friends whose children cannot be with him, and who would welcome some special treat on the day?

How do these special days ever get started, anyway? Well, Father’s Day began because way back in 1909 there was a woman in Spokane, Washington, named Sonora Louise Smart Dodd. That year she heard a church sermon about the merits of setting aside a day to honour one's mother. Mother's Day was just beginning to gather widespread attention in the United States at this time. But Sonora Louise Smart Dodd knew that it was her father who had selflessly raised herself and her five siblings by himself after their mother had died in childbirth. So the sermon on mothers gave Sonora Louise the idea to petition for a day to honour fathers, and in particular, her own father, William Jackson Smart.

Sonora Louise soon set about planning the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane in 1910. With support from the Spokane Ministerial Association and the YMCA, her efforts paid off, and a ‘Father’s Day’ was appointed. Sonora Louise had wanted Father’s Day to be on the first Sunday in June (since that was her father's birthday), but the city council didn't have time to approve it until later in the month. And so on June 19, 1910, the first Father's Day was celebrated in Spokane.

Gradually, other people in other cities caught on and started celebrating their fathers, too. The rose was selected as the official Father's Day flower. Some people began to wear a white rose to honour a father who was dead, and a red one to honour a father who was living. Finally, in 1972, President Richard Nixon signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father's Day - a permanent, national holiday.

Today, Father's Day is a great time to celebrate any sort of male role models, like uncles or grandfathers, as well as dads. Certainly Father's Day has become a day for greeting card companies to rejoice, and sales of the most popular gifts for

Dad (shirts, ties, and electric razors) increase considerably. Perhaps most telling of all, though, is how children continue to see their fathers: in America, for example, more ‘collect calls’ to home are recorded on Father's Day than on any other day of the year!

24 JUNE John the Baptist – preparing the way for the Messiah

John the Baptist is famous for baptising Jesus, and for losing his head to a woman.

He was born to Zechariah, a Temple priest, and Elizabeth, who was a cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus. John was born when his mother was advanced in years, and after the foretelling of his birth and the choice of his name by an angel, we hear nothing more of him until he began his mission of preaching and baptising in the river Jordan c27.

John was a lot like an Old Testament prophet: he lived simply on locusts and honey in the wilderness, and his message was one of repentance and preparation for the coming of the Messiah and his Kingdom. He went on to baptise Jesus, at Jesus’ firm request.

When John went on to denounce the incestuous union of Herod Antipas with his niece and brother’s wife, Herodias, he was imprisoned and eventually beheaded at the demand of Salome, Herodias’ daughter.

John is the only saint to be remembered three times in the Christian calendar, in commemoration of his conception, his birth (June 24), and his martyrdom. When John saw Jesus he said that Jesus was the “Lamb of God”, and he is the only person to use this expression of Jesus. In art John is often depicted carrying a lamb, or with a lamb near him.

ALL IN THE MONTH OF JUNE80 years ago: on 3rd June 1937 that Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, married Wallis Warfield in France.

Also 80 years ago: on 30th June 1937 that the 999 emergency telephone service went into operation in London. It was the first such service in the world.

75 years ago: on 4th – 7th June 1942 that WW 2’s Battle of Midway took place. The USA defeated Japan in the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign.

Also 75 years ago: on 12th June 1942 that Anne Frank received her famous diary for her 13th birthday. She used it to document her life over the next two years as her family hid from the Nazis.

60 years ago: on 27th June 1957 that Britain’s Medical Research Council reported that there was a cause-and-effect relationship between smoking and lung cancer. As a result, the Minister of Health said he had a duty to warn the public of the risks smokers faced.

50 years ago: on 1st June 1967 the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released by the Beatles.

Also 50 years ago: on 5th to 10th June 1967 that the Six-Day War began. Israel launched pre-emptive air strikes against Egypt and then pushed into Jordan and Syria. Israel captured the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.

30 years ago: on 11th June 1987 that Margaret Thatcher became the only British Prime Minister of the 20th century to win three consecutive terms in office.

15 years ago: on 3rd & 4th June 2002 that Queen Elizabeth ll celebrated her Golden Jubilee.

10 years ago: on 29th June 2007 that Apple released the first iPhone.

Crossword Clues

Across8 Laban complained he had not been allowed to kiss them when Jacob fled with his family (Genesis 31:28) (13)9 In favour of (3) 10 ‘The child’s father and mother — at what was said about him’ (Luke 2:33) (9) 11 Swagger (Psalm 12:8) (5) 13 ‘Terrors — him on every side and dog his every step’ (Job 18:11) (7) 16 Bay bits (anag.) (7) 19 Preach, address an audience, speak in public (5) 22 Holy Communion (9) 24 ‘On their way to — out the land, Joshua instructed them, “Go and make a survey of the land”’ (Joshua 18:8) (3)25 Joseph advised Pharaoh to appoint these to administer his grain storage plan (Genesis 41:34) (13)

Down1 ‘Assyria’s pride will be brought down and — sceptre will pass away’ (Zechariah 10:11) (6)2 ‘And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in — with God and men’ (Luke 2:52) (6)3 The descendants of Esau (Genesis 36:9) (8) 4 The components of the crown that Jesus was made to wear before his crucifixion (John 19:2) (6) 5 Colour of cloth which was to cover holy objects in the tabernacle when moving camp (Numbers 4:6–12) (4) 6 One of the gold articles plundered from the Midianites offered to the Lord by the Israelite army ‘to make atonement’ (Numbers 31:50) (6) 7 ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set — — ’ (Jeremiah 31:29) (2,4) 12 Ate (anag.) (3) 14 ‘We ourselves... groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our — as sons’ (Romans 8:23) (8) 15 Abram’s nephew (Genesis 14:12) (3) 16 Rupture (Job 30:14) (6) 17 ‘Yet to all who received him... he gave the right to — children of God’ (John 1:12) (6) 18 ‘I... asked him the true meaning of all — . — he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things’ (Daniel 7:16) (4,2) 20 Military units (Exodus 14:20) (6) 21 ‘Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to — her to public disgrace’ (Matthew 1:19) (6) 23 Diva (anag.) (4)

WESLEY GUILD.

Our regular meetings in the Wesley Room do not take place during the Summer months; coffee evenings/afternoons have been arranged as follows:

15 June 8pm Coffee evening with Pat & Les Oatley' 43, Grove Hill, Eastwood.

22 June 2pm Coffee afternoon with Irene Calver, 69, Daws Heath Road, Rayleigh.

29 June 8pm Coffee evening with Marion and Sheila, King George,s Court, Rayleigh.

All friends welcome to join us.

Pat Oatley..

You are invited to a COFFEE MORNING

at Rayleigh Methodist Church for

MYAWARE(June and Les)

onSaturday 17 June 2017

10.00 to 12.00 noonIt will include the following stalls, cakes cards, books, bric-a-brac,

and much more

FREE PRINTERI have an Epson printer to give away SX515WIt will need new cartridgesIt is WI FI but not comparable with IPad Air

Pat Shephard 01268 770221patshephard72@gmail .com

SOME SIMPLE TRICKS TO HELP YOU EAT LESS THIS SUMMER

Drink more water – especially a glass about 20 minutes before each meal.

At home, keep as much food as possible out of sight – ‘out of sight’ can really help with keeping food ‘out of mind’.

Use smaller plates. Large plates encourage large portions.

Split your portions up – cut the pizza or cake into six pieces, and put only one on your plate at a time.

If possible, eat in front of a mirror – it helps you acknowledge how much you are eating.

If you eat in front of your TV, beware: you will probably eat 15% more.

*Some of these tips come from Gastrophysics, by Charles Spence, Penguin.*

TAKE A NAP – AND BE HAPPY

If you want to be happy and smarter, grab a 30-minute nap during the day. Recent research has found that a nap of that length is ideal for boosting your performance and your personal feeling of happiness.

‘No-nappers’ can struggle through the day, and ‘long’ nappers risk some health problems, but a nap of up to 30 minutes in length seems to be the perfect ‘down-time’ your body needs to get up and running again.

As one scientist put it: ‘Naps of under 30 minutes make you more focused, productive and creative… and you can also become happier just by taking a short nap.’ The study was carried out at the University of Hertfordshire.

RAYLEIGH METHODIST CHURCH

PRAYER GROUP MEETING DATES2017;

JUNE: 14th & 28th JULY: 12th & 26th

AUGUST: 9th & 3rd SEPTEMBER: 6th & 20th OCTOBER: 4th & 18th NOVEMBER: 1st, 15th, & 29TH DECEMBER: 13th & 27th.

ALL MEETINGS ARE IN THE WELCOMEAREA, COMMENCING AT 9.30AM, FOR ABOUT 45 MINUTES.

FROM THE EDITORS WE NEED YOUR ARTICLESJULY / AUGUST 2017 EDITIONThe deadline for this edition of the Newsletter is Sunday 11 June 2017 ( in

Welcome Area) or Wednesday 14 July (through our letter box or by email).johnward816@gmail.com

BIBLE STUDY

Bible Study at Clifford and Linda's house 10am Friday 30th June. Stories of David - 1 Samuel Chapters 21- 24