February 2009

Minister’s Letter

Dear Friends,

Those of you able to be at our Church Meeting on 18th January will know that we have taken some bold decisions at the start of 2009.

Firstly, we have agreed to improve our worship space by improving the projector and screen.

Secondly, we have agreed to remove the majority of the pews, leaving a few rows at the back of the church.

We have also agreed to repair a part of the roof over the church and to get quotes to re-carpet the church.

All of these changes will improve the worship area, giving us far more flexibility; we’ll be able to worship in the round, to create prayer stations around the church, to try café style worship and to use more visuals (film clips, photos, slides) in our worship.

Worship is at the very heart of our life together and it is most appropriate that these changes will enhance our worship and increase our opportunity to draw in new worshippers.

It will take many weeks for all these changes to be implemented – we need to explore possible uses for our pews, we need to obtain carpet quotes, we need to test and choose the chairs that will replace the pews. As in all our strategic decisions, church members will be fully involved, so that we may discern God’s guidance together.

As part of our Vision4Life Bible year, we are looking at several books of the Bible in depth, starting with Paul’s letter to the Romans. Written around AD 57, Paul is addressing a small church which has different factions and concerns, he is urging them to unite and he is writing to share his theology. Some of his words are difficult to interpret in the 21st Century, some are offensive, some are like golden nuggets – but I urge you to take time to get to know the letter to the Romans; at home, in your house groups, in your prayer meetings, etc.

Here are some words to inspire us from Romans, Chapter 12:

‘Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another… Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.’

With all the developments taking place, we need to remain constant and faithful in prayer. I am totally convinced that it is the prayer life at Park that has directed, supported and made possible the changes in our church. For the ‘still small voice’ is constantly nudging us to be more like Christ, as we seek to develop our worship, our community service, our premises and our care of the world.

Those who take the local newspapers will have seen coverage of my new role as Convenor of the URC Youth and Children’s Work Committee. Your prayer support is vital as I take on this role, which I hope will enable the development of even more excellent youth and children’s work across the URC in the United Kingdom. Be assured that in order to take on new challenges, I am letting go of other responsibilities and roles. For example, I shall finish my time as tutor for John Lee who completes his Ministerial formation studies this summer. Please pray for John as he serves God in this way.

Pray also for our sisters and brothers at Our Lady of Peace Church, their church hall floor was badly damaged by flooding caused by a burst water main. Subsequently, we have been asked to help find room for various groups including their play-group that meets every morning. We welcome all the new groups and hope that things might soon be repaired at Our Lady of Peace Church.

Let us continue to be guided by the Holy Spirit and to catch up with our God who is always one step ahead of us, calling us onward!

Yours in Christ,

From the Church Registers

Funeral

Church Secretary’s Annual Report 2008

It is my great privilege to present my first Church Secretary’s Annual report for 2008. I feel I  must start with a huge debt of gratitude. This whole year I have felt carried by the good will and prayers of the fellowship at Park. I must thank Dave and Jenny for having passed on to me such a complete and valuable set notes for all the secretarial duties. I have valued the support and encouragement of the Elder’s throughout the year and the understanding and support from Carole.

This year has seen growth in the fellowship again.  We started off the year with a membership of 106 and at the end of the year this has grown to 110.  I think this a wonderful sign, especially when so many churches are looking at declining numbers.  But not only in numbers, I feel our fellowship has grown in so many other ways too, by the Grace of God.

This has been a very busy year for the life of Park. This was our Centenary year. “Celebrating the Past Building for the Future.”  Each month during the course of the year we celebrated with a wide variety of different events. Ministers who have been involved in Park’s history were invited to come and lead Worship again for us.

In January it was lovely to be able to welcome Rev. Kate Pride who came to preach to us it was lovely to be able to welcome her back and later in the Year, Robert and I were able to attended Kate’s retirement party at Marlow URC.  We also had an enjoyable time later in the month with an Inter Church Quiz. Many of the Reading churches attended and it was a fierce contest. However, the team from the Elders at Park won the day. 

In February we welcomed our Synod Moderator, Rev. Adrian Bulley who led our service. Also in February, an event that had been almost a decade in planning took place. It was a beautiful bright Saturday when we were at last able to witness the Marriage of Brenda and Michael Selman. Seldom have you ever seen a couple who looked happier. 

Later the same day we had an evening of thought provoking and moving entertainment from Talking Music’s Grace Notes: a presentation of music, drama, readings.

During March Rev. Pam Richardson led our morning worship. The Centenary event for this month was the production  by DRaPES of  an old time music hall, ‘Remember When…’  I think the ‘Men of  Easter Island’, the ‘Can Can’ and the Bright eyes of ‘the Rabbits’ will be remembered for a long time. Also in March saw the launch of another Alpha course. This was the fourth course that we had run. It mainly comprised of Students who had joined us from Reading University, two of whom had been visiting from USA. It is wonderful that we can reach out to people in this way.

We celebrated an early Easter by joining with other Churches in Reading for a walk of witness through Reading town centre on Good Friday. On Easter day we had an early morning Communion service followed by breakfast together before our Easter Moring service.  In April, a large group went to Spring Harvest and this year we were joined by other churches with 17 young people from the ‘Fizzang’ group. 

An old friend of Park, Rev. David Skit returned to lead worship and continuing our Centenary Celebrations this month, Alison Adam from the Iona Community came to present a “Big Sing”. This incorporated workshops during the afternoon leading into an Act of Worship in the Evening. This was an enjoyable and fun day where we learnt lots of new songs. Another special event was the return to Park for Dulcie Payton, who arrived for the weekend to allow us to join her in celebrating her 90th Birthday.

To celebrate May we went to Elizabeth Bullingham’s Garden in Grazeley for a family away day. “Lots of fun and games in the sun.” Cream teas and Croquet, (I’m still not sure of the rules), May Pole dancing and burgers. It was a fun relaxing day for the Park Family. Someone else who is also very much part of the Park family, Rev Nina Mead came to lead worship with us later in the month.

June saw the climax of our celebrations with the Reunion Weekend and Flower Festival. The Church looked absolutely stunning. Arrangements were on the theme of ‘Favourite Hymns’ they had been ‘Orchestrated’  by Members and associated groups at Park. My words are not enough to describe quite the atmosphere that was created in this place. It was a joy to be here all that weekend.

While the flower festival was on the Church was open for visitors and during that time various individuals and groups provided music. There were people in the church for the whole day admiring the works that had been displayed. That evening we welcomed over 100 guests who had returned to Park to join together to remember what a special place it had been in the development of their faith.

On Sunday, Rev Michael Jackson led our service. The theme of his Sermon was “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants”. Michael expressed how he was a living connection to so much of Park’s past. That so much in society at large had changed and he encouraged us as Christians to “Embrace change”. He also strongly advised us to “cherish our Minister”, to cherish Robert and his family.

In July we were joined by friends from other Churches the CTEER group to a “Picnic in the Park” a joint Celebration. There were Bouncy Castles , Climbing wall, cream teas and other fun and games. The afternoon finished with an act of worship. That month we welcomed  Rev. Stephen Orchard, former Moderator of General Assembly and Principal at Westminster College, who led our Morning Worship.  In August the Rev Peter Grimshaw led our service. Peter was Minister at Maidenhead URC and in fact Interim Moderator here at Park prior to Michael’s ministry here. We celebrated our final Centenary event in September with an act of worship “Singing through the Century”.

Our celebrations through the year were touched with sadness at the loss of some of our longest serving Members. We remember Marjorie Harvey, a long serving member who had moved away from Park 5 years ago, Joan Evans,  Kathleen Hewett, mother of Rod and Graham, and Eileen Abram each served Park’s fellowship faithfully, often quietly and out of public view.

We welcomed to the Church Family, Isaac Alexander Jenner who was baptised on 6th April 2008 and Alistair Matthew Connell who was baptised on 19th October 2008.

We rejoice at welcoming Maureen and Roy Johnston, Martin (Ted) and Alison Stichbury who join us as new Members. Alice Mdebwe, Lillian Oguna, Lilly Radeka and Laurence Spanu, who join us on transfer from other churches. We are also pleased to note that four more people have indicated their desire to become Church members.

Throughout the year we have continued to worship in a variety of different styles, aiming to meet the needs of all.  Apart from all our Centenary Visitors our services have also been led by; Drapes,  House groups,  Doreen and Elizabeth spoke to us about the work of REinspired and Kevin Crook from the Mission Aviation Fellowship came to talk to us about the work of MAF and challenging us, that although we might not be pilots landing in rough air strips we too are all ‘called’ to serve out Lord and to examine what our calling might be. The House Groups have continued to thrive and have now increased to 5 to include a group for young people. It is a blessing to see the spiritual growth taking place through these groups.

The work with young people has continued strongly at Park. It was with great pleasure that Robert accepted the ‘Child friendly Church’ award at Synod in March on behalf of Park URC.  We now have a large team of leaders and helpers for the Salt groups. The Joint Fizzang youth group continues from strength to strength. We were sorry to see the departure of Laura Pierce who had worked so hard with all the churches involved. We hope a new joint youth worker will be appointed soon.

During the year we have started to explore the URC program, Vision 4 life. At Church meeting we agreed to move forward with this program. The more I read and learn about the program the more encouraged I have become. I feel that this series of programs covering; The Bible, Prayer and Evangelism for each of the next three years is so right for Park at this time. This is something that I feel we all need and we will benefit from both as individuals and as a fellowship.

Last year, our Centenary – the slogan was ‘Celebrating the past, Building for the future’. Well last year we did a lot of ‘Celebrating’. Now is the time to start ‘Building’. I firmly believe that Vision4life can be significant building blocks to our faith and work for the next 100 years. 

God hasn’t finished with Park yet and by His Grace we will continue to flourish and grow as witnesses to His Glory.

Commissioning of REinspired Project Director

The ecumenical service for the week of prayer for Christian unity was an excellent occasion to celebrate our unity and to commission the new Project Director, Paul Haynes.

The service involved a great number of people representing the different churches and schools in our area. Elizabeth Knox from our church helped to lead prayers for Paul during the service.

Hand Basin Improvements

We are pleased to report that the taps in the Ladies’ cloakrooms have been replaced with special taps, which are able to cope with the low hot water pressure. It is expected that the problems we have experienced will not occur. All that remains is for the grouting to be completed and the mirrors installed.

March Events

Sunday March 1st - Gift Day to support our Youth Worker Project.

Friday March 6th - Women’s World Day of Prayer. There will be a morning service at the Salvation Army Citadel in Anstey Road at 10.30 pm. The service for Earley and East Reading will be held at Park at 2 pm, when the speaker will be June Hardcastle.

Used Postage Stamps

We are still collecting used postage stamps for the Berkshire Air Ambulance Charity; the collection box is next to the pigeon holes.

Elections in Ghana

With all the excitement of Barack Obama becoming the President of the United States, and all the tragedy in Gaza and Israel, I cannot really expect many members of the congregation to have noticed that there were elections in Ghana in December. After all, it is only one of more than 50 countries in the huge continent of Africa! It is situated in West Africa and the British ruled the Gold Coast, as it was then called, for many years. Many British people may have worked there but few ever settled there as they did in East and South Africa.

When I heard that elections were due to take place, I was naturally quite worried as I knew they could easily degenerate into malpractices and violence especially as the country seemed to be polarised into two  main groups  -- the existing government and the opposition -- almost in equal numbers.  I was anxious because I do have a dozen or more close members of the family living there.

However, the elections were conducted, according to outside observers, in a free, fair and transparent manner. Praise God! The opposition defeated the government (by a narrow margin!) and took over in January under the Presidency of Professor John Mills.

There are many people around (hopefully not in the churches) who consider “Africa” to be a basket case where nothing will ever go right! But Robert has many times encouraged us to remember that God sees the potential for good in every individual. And surely, this goes for nations too! It was good to see the elections going well in Ghana.

This is only the second time in Ghana’s fifty-year history that there has been a change of government by the power of the ballot (and not the bullet). There are many problems ahead for the new government, especially in these difficult times,  but surely this peaceful election is a cause for celebration.

According to the latest figures Ghana is 68.8% Christian (with a high proportion “practising”). In the past few months, the churches have been praying for peaceful elections and demanding that their members take their civic responsibilities seriously , and abide by the decision of the Electoral Commission (which did a wonderful job). Let us also remember them in our prayers.

If you want to learn more about Ghana you can look up ghanaweb.com

May Fair

Please make a note in your diaries, instead of holding a stall at the Woodley Precinct in May, this year we have agreed to hold a May Fair at Park URC using the halls (and the garden if it is dry enough).

The date will be Saturday 9th May and the format will be similar to our very popular Christmas Fairs.

Youth Worker Progress

Sadly, we were unable to find a part-time youth worker to work with us at Park URC and Wesley Methodist Church, when we advertised in November 2008. We are now ready to try again and the closing date for applications will be 13th February, with interviews planned for 26th February.

Please pray that we might find the right person for this important ministry alongside our young people. Full details of the person spec and job description are available on the website.

A Ceasefire - now we must work for a lasting peace

Peacemaking is a core commitment in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It is good then to give thanks for the ceasefire between Israeli and Palestinian. Yet, peace will only become permanent when the people of Palestine and Israel can live their daily lives, and raise their families, in safety.  

There now needs to be concerted effort to establish secure everyday living for Palestinians and Israelis.  This means securing supplies of water and food, and easing the blockade. It means improving access to education, employment and health care for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. It means diminishing the risk of attack on the streets and in homes, by all groups refusing to resort to violence. It means repentance for disproportionate violence carried out and the loss of life and injury done.

It is only when people feel that there is justice, and they have a sense of control over their everyday lives, that there will be the possibility of lasting peace. A lasting peace in which all people have what they need for daily living. A lasting peace in which – impossible though it may seem –  Israeli and Palestinian children can play side by side – brandishing not sticks and stones, but toys and smiles.

We have to recognise our interdependence on one another, and risk exposure of our different vulnerabilities, to play a part in making lasting peace a possibility. It is good that the immediate conflict is reduced; now we have to hope and pray for a renewed commitment to seeking this longer term just peace.

Challenge and Choice

For anyone wondering about where God might be leading them – whether you are wondering about serving the church in the UK or abroad, being a local preacher or an ordained Minister... this is an event for you and on our doorstep!

Saturday 3rd May at Leighton Park School in Reading. Roger Clark and Andrew Weston attended the last event in Bournemouth, please see them for further details.

News from St Matthew’s United Church of Zambia

During January, I received a letter from the Minister of St Matthew’s Church, Rev. Mwape Chilekwe, thanking us for the money we sent in 2008. Along with the letter was a magazine – the first one they have produced – partly inspired by our magazine which is sent to Mwape each month. Copies of their magazine called The Bridge are available in church, please do pick up a copy and use it as a basis for your prayers. We look forward to deepening our links with UCZ as we host a group of young people in August 2009. Further details of the youth exchange will be in forthcoming magazines.

Who is My Neighbour?

Our youth group FIZZANG is to present a drama about knife-crime at the Churches in Berkshire special event to launch a report about knife crime in the UK. The drama has been written by a group of A-level students at Trinity School.

This event is open to everyone, from 6.30pm at Greyfriars Church in the centre of Reading on Wednesday 4th February.

House Groups

House groups meet on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Please talk to Rev. Robert Weston if you would like to join a group.

Vision4Life

Peter Hurter (our Synod Development and Support Officer) has arranged a special evening to find out more about the Vision4Life Bible year on Sunday evening 8th May from 6.00pm at Christ Church, Crockhamwell Road, Woodley.

There will be no evening service at Park that evening to enable everyone to attend.

Child Protection Policy

All those who work with our children and young people have to have an enhanced disclosure from the CRB (Criminal Records Bureau). Please can you complete the relevant forms and return them to Bob Dewing as soon as possible? We have a few applications in the pipeline and it is important to process these as soon as possible.

We do appreciate the time and energy given by so many volunteers to help with our crèche, our SALT groups and our youth groups. It is a direct result of your efforts that we have such thriving children’s groups meeting each Sunday as part of our worship. Thank you all!

Fair Trade Fortnight

23rd February until 8th March is Fair Trade Fortnight – on both Sunday 1st and 8th March we will be serving Fair trade tea and coffee (as we always do!) after our morning service. We also hope to have a Fairtrade stall on one or both mornings.

Now, with the down-turn in the economy, we face a particular challenge of staying connected, and of not entirely self-centring and fragmenting.  One way in which this will affect us in particular will be when we are shopping.  Why?  Simply because shopping by its nature is such a self-centred activity – centred on ourselves, our partners and our families: ‘What can I afford?’  ‘What can I not do without?’  ‘What do I fancy?’

For the past fifteen years Fairtrade has invited us to think beyond our own wants and needs, while doing this very self-centred activity, by inviting us to connect, for example, with the woman who picked our bananas, or packed our roses; with the man who grew our coffee, or who drew our honey from his hives; and the woman who plucked our tea from her bushes, or our cotton from her fields.

Look on the reverse of a jar of CaféDirect coffee  and you will see just how explicit is this invitation, and how personal is that connection.  There you will meet one of the very farmers whose coffee has gone into this jar, Daniel Minaya Huaman, from Peru.  Daniel says – and it is there, on the label – “When we started selling our coffee to CaféDirect at Fairtrade prices, we really noticed the difference.  We can say with pride that due to the addition payments, we can now better educate our children.  It has meant our way of life has improved.”

Look on the back of a packet of Coop granulated sugar.  There it says – on the packet, “… direct from the Kasinthula Cane Growers in Malawi, a cooperative of small holders who receive a fair deal for their sugar cane to invest in their communities.”

So, our plea, in these tougher times, is don’t desert your Fairtrade principles.  Stick with Daniel, the Kasinthula sugar farmers in Malawi and the 5 million other farmers and their families in 54 countries worldwide, whose lives are infinitely tougher than ours will ever be, and whose livelihoods, in these uncertain times, will be much, much more vulnerable without Fairtrade.  Don’t cut them out of your shopping …

With thanks to the Keswick and district Fair Trade campaign

Administrative Assistant

I would like to record my thanks to Lynda Fox who has helped enormously with Church administration for over 12 months, it has been great to have regular help with those little jobs that pile up. Lynda has sorted out our coffee and tea orders, kept the photocopier company informed of our readings, sorted out leaflets, letters, mailings, printed thousands of magazines and much more! I’m delighted that Lynda now has the opportunity to take up further studies, even though this means that she’ll be unable to give the same level of assistance. Thank you Lynda, we wish you well with your new work and thank you for agreeing to continue sorting the tea and coffee!

After some searching, I’m pleased to report that we have a  replacement administrative assistant in Hannah Durrant, who takes over the printing of the Park URC magazines and some other duties from the end of February. It is a great joy to see people of all ages in our church growing and developing!

A Christmas Tail

On a chilly Christmas evening in 2008 a little girl named Megan and her mummy wrapped gifts and sang carols to the soft glowing candlelight beneath Jesus tender wings.

Outside in his hutch Fluffy the family rabbit contentedly munched on his seasonal vegetables. The night was calm and beautiful, stars twinkled brightly and the clouds huffed and puffed their celebration towards Christmas day.

Christmas Eve passed with Christmas day but the merriment and happiness abruptly ended on Boxing day, as Fluffy the rabbit had escaped his hutch and decided to leave home.

There were many tears and feelings of guilt but if Megan had helped her mummy to clean out Fluffy’s hutch then Megan would have secured the door safely unlike her dizzy Mum.

Poor Megan’s Mummy she was very upset about all this and spoke to her dear friend about Fluffy’s disappearance. “Don’t worry” said her friend chuckling, “I will pray for Fluffy’s safe return, I know how much you love that old bunny!”

That day Megan decided that searching the garden and alley was not enough, she had words with her Daddy and after prising him off the sofa and switching off the TV they sprang into action, the kitchen soon became as busy as Fleet Street, the copier and fax machine was popping and wheezing out posters and pictures of Fluffy and Megan’s Mummy supplied endless tea and cookies for the workers.

The following morning after much searching to no avail, Mummy and Daddy explained that Fluffy had probably made his way to the park opposite Gods special home, (the one led by a crazy ole minister named Robtail).  They assured Megan that Fluffy would have found a little bunny girl to love and would probably not come home.

Megan cried but eventually accepted that Fluffy would naturally prefer to be with his own kind than with us.  Just as her tears had stopped, she suddenly shrieked at the top of her voice “FLUFFYS BACK …HE’S IN NEXT DOORS GARDEN”.  The normally quiet home of Megan’s (Yeah whatever!!) was suddenly like the Guns of Navarone, everyone leapt to their feet and into the back garden, once Fluffy was safely back in his hutch he just nonchalantly looked out at us with his big  blue eyes, as if to say “GEE DOC WHAT’S ALL THE FLUFF ABOUT”

That magical night we thanked the dear Lord for miracles, friends and ministers like Rosebud & Robtail.

DRAPES

Advance notice of 'Showcase of Talent at Park' on Sunday 29th March following a Drapes' meal at lunchtime after morning service.  Please put this date in your diaries - more information in the next magazine

Dorothy Simmons 1913-2009

Dorothy was born in Littlehampton, Sussex, on 13th May 1913.  She married John on 6th June 1934, and they lived in Littlehampton, Aldershot, and in Somerset until their move to the house in Silverdale Road, Earley, where they both lived for the rest of their lives. John died in July 2003, two months after they celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary.

Dorothy continued to live there until she was admitted to hospital just before Christmas; she was reluctant to accept help and certainly found it a great blessing that she did not have to move from her home of so many years. She coped remarkably well with her failing eyesight and the consultations and treatments that this involved. She was always so positive and much more interested in other people than in telling us how she was managing. She suffered a great sadness when her daughter Pam died in October 2007, after suffering from cancer for most of that year, but bore this with her usual strength, patience and Christian faith.

John and Dorothy were brought up in the Church of England, but were introduced to the United Reformed Church by Dorothy’s sister, and so found their way to Park in the 1980s. They were received into membership on November 3rd 1985. They were very faithful worshippers, and active members of the Thursday Club. Dorothy continued this, with help with transport from many friends, until early in December. She was very glad to be able to attend the Scouts’ Senior Citizens Party on December 14th, meeting friends from the Thursday Club, who she hadn’t seen since the club closed at the end of 2007.

Dorothy’s capacity for helping people was boundless. She had long-service certificates from the British Red Cross; she worked for many years in one of the tea-bars at the Royal Berks Hospital; and was one of the helpers at a club for disabled people. At Park she was always ready to take a turn with serving Saturday morning coffee, to staff a Christmas Fair stall and to collect envelopes for Christian Aid.  While always ready to give of her own time and talents, she was very appreciative of any help which she received.

Children were her special delight; she often gave me a contribution towards the children’s parties at Christmas, and made a point of congratulating us after a Festival service.

She took a great interest in what was happening in the church; it was always a pleasure to help her with her Elders’ nomination paper, which she completed faithfully even when it had to be read to her. She was a part of my Elders’ Group for many years, and it was a privilege to get to know her so well.

We send our love and deepest sympathy to her son Brian (home from Australia in this chilly winter time), and his family there, and to Pam’s three sons Ian, Tony and Paul, who have looked after Dorothy so well over the past two years, since Pam became ill, and their families.

We shall all miss Dorothy very much, but rejoice that she is at peace.

Stewards’ Rota for February and March 2009

Letters

Dear Friends,

I would like to thank you all for so kindly remembering me at Christmas with so kind a gift.

I thought of you many times and was sad not to be able to be with you.

With very many thanks and best wishes to you all for 2009.

Following our monthly committee meeting yesterday, and after much careful consideration, we have reluctantly decided to call off the Fairtrade Feast planned for Saturday March 7.

A huge amount of planning has already gone into the event and we have had a good number of volunteers for the night itself, but we just do not  have enough active committee members with the time to organise cooking, shopping, liaison with speakers, auction donors, ticket distribution etc etc.

We had been fortunate enough to attract sponsorship from the Co-op and felt it important to do justice to this support by putting on a polished event. In the end we just felt we couldn't do it.

Thank you to all who offered support, I will see some of you at the network meeting at St Paul's on Thursday, 

February Calendar

Weekly Activities at Park

Further information from the Church Office 0118 926 5003