As we head towards the new Missional Partnerships we were asked to prepare our church profile.
This is a document we created towards the end of last year and it assesses our strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities.
We hope you find it realistic.
You can find it here
Christmas started off early at the end of last month with 62 carefully packed boxes of love collected so that they can be distributed to children who really need evidence that the world cares for them and values them. There were also very generous donations to help cover the transport costs – so thank you all very much for those as well.
Thank you, Ruth, for coordinating all this!
I think she was giddy, she thinks I’m a useless cameraman – you can decide!!
I heard about this on Thought for the Day this morning…
Thy Kingdom Come is a global prayer movement, which invites Christians around the world to pray between Ascension and Pentecost for more people to come to know Jesus Christ. What started out as an invitation from the Archbishops’ of Canterbury and York in 2016 to the Church of England has grown into an international and ecumenical call to prayer.
The hope is that:
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses …to the ends of the earth. When he had said this…he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight…Then they returned to Jerusalem … and were constantly devoting themselves to prayer…
When the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place… All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit… and that day about three thousand persons were added.” Acts 1,2
“In praying ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ we all commit to playing our part in the renewal of the nations and the transformation of communities.”
Archbishop Justin Welby
There are a wealth of resources here
Never again…
Big fanfare from 76 trombones!
On Sunday 20th November we collected 76 little boxes of love for the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child – the Shoebox appeal.
If you want to know more about Samaritan’s Purse click here
Thank you, Ruth for helping to organise this!
Out-takes….
Samuel stands guard with only some minor interference off-stage!
Amid divided opinions, we continue to build community, offer friendship and share the love of Jesus.
Amid neighbours of many races and cultures, we believe in fellowship that crosses every boundary of frontier and nation. So we value especially the friends whose roots are different from our own.
We support our MPs, who now have new tasks to tackle, and surely feel fragile after the death of Jo Cox. They deserve our prayers, and perhaps a word of encouragement, in the work they do for us.
We keep up our personal and church contacts in other lands. Britain still needs good relationships with the countries around us, and personal connections are part of that.
And we continue to keep our eye open to the needs of the weak, in our own land and in the many poor and troubled countries around God’s world.
All of this we do, for Jesus’ sake, in the world he lived in. In difficult times, Jesus spoke, acted and loved with the grace and goodness of God. So may we, the morning after.
John Proctor, URC General Secretary
– See more from the URC here
