The views expressed in this magazine are those of the individual contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views of Park United Reformed Church.

Minister’s Letter

Dear Friends,

Firstly, let me begin by wishing everyone a Happy Easter. This Easter I hope and pray that we are all inspired by the message of Jesus – that death is not the end but a new beginning – that life with God is full of surprises and full of new opportunities. The tomb was empty because Jesus was not dead but alive. Even the disciples who had been with Jesus for three years were shocked and amazed by the resurrection – the God of surprises was found to be alive and showing new ways of seeing the world.

It is always wonderful to have many people involved throughout the Easter weekend. This year we hosted the joint Maundy Thursday Communion service. We also joined in the Good Friday walk of witness with our friends from local churches, followed by our Good Friday meditation service in the afternoon. On Saturday we had our usual efficient team to decorate the church and lay tables for our Easter Sunday breakfast. On Easter Sunday we had around fifty people at the early service, most of whom stayed to enjoy fellowship over breakfast – it is wonderful to see the numbers at breakfast increasing year by year!

It is good to be part of a growing church, growing in many different ways! We have welcomed several new families into our church and it is such a joy to see more new faces each week. We are pleased to welcome new families from Nigeria and the Cameroon. We rejoice in the growth of our latest group for children called ‘Pilots’ which currently caters for children aged 7-11 years old. We’ll be looking to start the Deckhands section for 5-7 year olds in the near future!

We have also seen a growth in the number of regular bookings in our community halls. As some people have noticed this has caused some congestion in our car park on certain days of the week. Obviously it will help if we can encourage one another to share lifts, to cycle or walk – and that’s good for the environment too.

At our church meeting on 28^th March the Treasurer highlighted the challenge we face in trying to balance the books financially. We have a budget for this year which anticipates a small deficit, so I encourage everyone to reflect on ways in which you can help meet the projected shortfall.

May I remind you that tithing is a Biblical principle for giving and is based on giving 10% of a person’s income to God. Many Christians have found this to be a helpful guide, some give 5% to charities and 5% to church. Whatever your approach to giving, it is always worth reviewing at least once a year, especially if you give by standing order. We all like to know that our money is being wisely used, which is why we the budget was circulated at church meeting – copies are available if you were unable to attend church meeting.

Another area of growth during this Vision4Life year of prayer, has been the increased prayer activity in our fellowship. We had an excellent prayer week at the beginning of March with many imaginative ways of engaging in prayer. We welcome Jack Salter to the group of leaders for our Wednesday morning prayer group. The Elders have also agreed to be more involved in leading prayers in our morning worship, which is a great encouragement. Our Elders share in the ministry and leadership of our church in a great number of ways, this is another good sign of growth.

The continued growth of our evening congregation is a matter for prayer for all of us. This new approach has been a brave step for our fellowship, but the God of surprises has been one step ahead of us – leading the way and calling us forward. Please pray for the many people who have enabled the IGNITE worship and meals to happen and pray that God will draw more people to join us each evening next term.

May the God of surprises continue to bless us and may the Risen Jesus encourage and inspire you in all that you do and say! Yours in Christ,

Robert

Treasurer's Report to Church Meeting - March 2010

The preparation of the Church Accounts for 2009 is well under way, together with the delayed finalisation of the 2008 accounts. At this stage, I can give you an indication of the bottom line figures. These are still liable to minor revision but are fairly accurate.

The main thing to bear in mind is that we deliberately spent the Ron Bosher legacy of nearly £25,000 during the year on things agreed by Church Meeting – mostly in updating the interior of the Church and repairing the Church Roof.

As the legacy had actually been received in 2008, this means that we had extraordinary additional expenditure of almost £25,000 in 2009. If we exclude this, our operational deficit for 2009 was £4,749.

This is lower than we might normally expect, as we had deliberately used the remaining balance of the Ridley legacy in the first half of the 2009 to subsidise “the maintenance and upkeep of the Halls”, in accordance with the terms of that legacy.

The financial situation in 2008 and 2009 looks like this:

2009 2008

£ £

Surplus/deficit for the year - 29,545 25,974

Extraordinary income - Major Legacies 0 49,859

Extraordinary expenditure – Ron Bosher Legacy 24,796 0

Deficit excluding extraordinary items -4,749 -23,885

Cash and Bank balances at 1st January 31,388 5,414

Add net receipts (subtract net payments) -29,545 25,974

Cash and Bank balances at 31st December 1,843 31,388

You will see that these two years are both quite unusual, but the extraordinary items had all worked through the system by the end of 2009.

The figure for Cash and Bank balances at 31st December 2009 excludes the £4,634 balance of the Wessex Trust loan and the £6,000 of loans received from members in November and December 2009 to ease our cash flow.

A balance of £1,843 would definitely have been quite insufficient to see us through the first four months of this year, when energy expenditure is at its highest, so these loans from the Wessex Trust and from members have been vital to keep the Church alive.

The March Elders' Meeting approved a Budget for 2010, which is shown on the third sheet. You will see that this budget, based on the current rate of giving, shows an anticipated operational deficit of £6,500 by the year end.

In order to eliminate this, the Elders are now recommending that everyone should seriously review their giving.

An extra £2 per week per adult would bring in around £10,000 additional income and this would enable us to show a modest surplus in a full year, rather than a deficit.

Alistair Knox

Stewards Rota April and May 2010

April 4^th	Sally Street	Paul Street
April 11^th	Joan Pearson	Barbara Mathers
April 18^th	Maureen Plummer	Mick Plummer
April 25^th	Maureen Johnstone	Roy Johnstone

May 2^nd	Janet Pritchard	Alan Pritchard
May 9^th	Julia Marsh	Rod King
May 16^th	John Davey	Chris Gayford
May 23^rd	Rose Gillett	Lynda Fox
May 30^th	Sally Street	Paul Street

Aladdin & Jeanie the Genie

P1050902_1 We don’t normally expect to go to a pantomime in March, but as the producer writes in his introductory notes, pantomimes are great fun at any time of year, and one does sometimes have an overdose of seasonal fare in midwinter. It was something of an innovation in that the script was written by a local playwright and producer, Steve Atkins, and the music (nearly all of it original) was composed by Simon King. Steve undertook the direction for the first few months, and then Simon took over, directing as well as accompanying the whole show from the piano.

P1050778_1 The familiar plot and characters were all there, but with many entertaining twists. It is good to see so many people of different ages and backgrounds coming together to produce such a successful evening. Many of the cast were making their debut performances with DRAPES, and the backstage crew also benefited from some welcome first-timers.

Alan Pritchard and his team produced a wonderful set; special mention must be made of Widow Twankey’s washing machine and its internal operator, Richard Trout.

P1050918_1 The costumes, produced by Janet Pritchard and her team (Maureen Johnstone, Alison Stichbury, Jane Bennett and Lynne Curtis), were truly amazing and took us straight back to Old Peking.

It is impossible to mention all the cast, but Gordon Bird was a fantastical Widow Twankey, Joan Pearson an imposing Empress of China, and Edwin Trout a truly wicked Abanazar. Cloe Stiven charmed us all as Aladdin, in love with the beautiful Princess Lotus Blossom, played by Hannah Trout.

And who could forget Adri Mbugua and Cameron Stichbury as Wishee and Washee, or the policemen Nah Then and Nee Naw, played by Gaye Rees and Karen Bird, (who also assisted Simon with the production). Apologies to anyone I haven’t mentioned, you were all wonderful.

Many congratulations to all involved, particularly to Steve Atkins, Simon King and Karen Bird, for a very entertaining evening.

Park Church Library

6a00d83451586c69e200e55382012a8833-800wi The new Park Church Library is now open! Already we have been donated over 240 Christian books covering a wide range of subjects. There should be something there for everyone – all ages and all interests.

The books are there for all to borrow, just fill in the details of the book that you’re borrowing in the white folder on the bookshelf – there’s no tickets, no deadlines, no fines, just drop them back when you’ve finished and pick up some more!

Many thanks to all who have donated books - there’s always room for more, so just drop any more off with Rob, Rod or Doreen and we can add the titles to the index and the books to the shelves.

This we believe is a most fitting tribute to the memory of Kathleen Hewett and Mavis Cordery, two sisters, two headmistresses and Park’s two longest serving members.

Music, Movement and Fun!

Music Movement and Fun is a new course designed for 3 to 5 year olds and their Mums and/or guardians. Join the group and each week you and your child will explore another world through movement, music and art.

After the class you will get the opportunity to relax with the other Mums/Guardians and have a cup of tea while your children play in the crèche! It’s on Wednesdays from 10:00 -11:00 am. Week 1 & 2 - Come and join us for ‘The Three Little Pigs’:

·Act out the story with your little ones

·Learn the 3 little pigs dance

·Create their houses

Zsuzsi

Iona Worship at Anderson Baptist Church

On Sunday May 16th we are running a Worship Day at Anderson where some of my Iona Friends are coming to help lead. This is an open invitation to everyone at Park URC

Alison Adam (who came to a Centenary Event at Park URC) is coming to help facilitate and lead the day – she will send us the final programme soon.

Our theme will be Body Function (ie all parts of the body working together, picture from 1 Corinthians 12)

10am Coffee and cake..

10.15 Body Functions…introductory session for all ages led by Alison Adam to include age appropriate activities,

11.00 Workshops

· Musicians – Alison to lead (Tracy and Phil to assist)

· Creative Writing – Pat

· Floral Art – Debbie

· Games in the Park – Judith

12.30 International Lunch (Nepali, African, Albanian, Jamaican, Welsh, Scottish and English Food!)

2 pm Workshops

· New Songs – Alison to lead (Tracy and Phil to assist)

· Art – Dave

· Dancing - using your body to worship - Sedge

· Nepali Folk songs and dance – Alina and team

· So what? Action Group - Rob, Camilla, Kenny, Emma, Laura, Gabby

Body part craft, games and activity group

3.30 Tea and cake

4pm Worship Together - all participating in an act of worship designed by all and led by Alison and the team.

5.30pm Refreshments

Judith Wheatley

April Calendar

Thur	1^st	7.30 pm	Communion Service for Maundy Thursday
Fri	2^nd	10.30am	Good Friday Walk of Witness leaves St Luke’s Church, calling at Park, St Peter’s and Our Lady of Peace. Lunch
		3.00 pm	Service of meditation
Sat	3^rd	9.30 am	Preparation for Easter Sunday
Sun	4^th	8.30 am	Holy Communion followed by breakfast
		10.30am	Morning Worship with Holy Communion
		4.00 pm	Songs of Praise at Sutton Court
			No evening service
Wed	7th	9.30 am	Morning Prayers
Thurs 8^th – Tues 13^th Church Group at Spring Harvest, Minehead
Sun	11^th	10.30am	Morning Worship led by Madeline Diver
			No evening service
Wed	14^th	9.30 am	Morning Prayers
Sun	18^th	10.30am	Morning Worship
		6.00 pm	Holy Communion with a time of prayer for healing and wholeness
Wed	21^st	9.30 am	Morning Prayers
Sun	25^th	10.30am	St George’s Day Church Parade
			Church Lunch in aid of fundraising for Andrew Weston’s journey to Zambia with the URC party
		6.00 pm	Evening Meal
		7.00 pm	IGNITE! Evening worship
Last Day for items for the May magazine
Wed 28^th 9.30 am Morning Prayers

Healing and Wholeness Services

Following the note about these services in the February magazine, the Elders have decided to move the time of the services in March and April to 6 pm. (i.e. on March 21st and April 18th).

A decision about future timings will be taken later.

News from Christian Community Action

CCA have opened a new furniture outlet, selling furniture to the general public, at 79 Silver Street, Reading. They will sell items of furniture which are surplus to requirements, or do not match their client needs. All proceeds will be devoted to their core work of helping needy people in Reading.

At the moment CCA's Oxford Shop is suffering from a lack of donations of items to sell:

We need bric a brac including china, knick-knacks, pots and pans, crockery, cutlery; Clothes and accessories - for men women and children; Books

We also accept bedding towels and curtains. All items to be dropped off at 369-371 Oxford Road.

Volunteers are needed, particularly at the Silver Street outlet. Details of the work:

· People to work in the outlet any day Monday – Saturday, particularly Saturdays (even once or twice a month would be helpful). The role may involve some lifting.

· Drivers for our vans – you don’t need an HGV licence. The role involves lifting heavy furniture.

· Crew for our vans, if you don’t fancy driving but enjoy being out and about. This role also involves lifting heavy furniture.

For more information , please ring 951 2339 or email; mail@ccam.org.uk

General Election Meetings

In preparation for the general election Reading Faith Forum is organising a “hustings” to give a chance for people from faith communities to ask questions of key candidates.

Initially questions will be selected from those sent in advance to jan@volaction.demon.co.uk or RFF c/o Reading Voluntary Action, 35 – 39 London Street, Reading, RG1 4PS

This is a chance to make our concerns known and to see candidates.

The meetings are planned for:

· Reading East 7:30pm 19th April Reading Hindu Temple

· Reading West 7:30pm 26th April Tilehurst Methodist Church.

Both speakers and audience are expected to act with respect and under the direction of the Chairs who will be from the two local papers.

Final date for submission of questions is April 6th.

International Women’s Day - did you celebrate?

One group of women who have reason to celebrate is those who are working with fair trade organisations such as Traidcraft. Many fair trade organisations have a focus on women. This is partly because they are often discriminated against and working with women brings greater benefit to families.

Rural women are responsible for half the world’s food production and produce between 60% and 80% of the food in most developing countries. 70% of those who live in poverty are women. Let’s look at one woman’s story.

Joyce is a member of Kasinthula Cane Growers Ltd in Malawi, which supplies Traidcraft with sugar. She and her neighbours in the village of Chinangwa already know about the benefits of fair trade, as they enjoy clean, fresh water from a borehole paid for with the Fairtrade premium.

"The fair trade programme is doing good things here," Joyce said. "The village where I live has one borehole and is to receive electricity. It is very exciting. We never believed this would be possible!"

So what difference will electricity make to Joyce’s life?

"Now when we are going to cook we use the firewood. When we have electricity we will be able to use it for cooking. Now I need to use a lamp but we will be able to use electricity for light and we will have fridges to keep food fresh."

Joyce wants to provide the best for her son, Chiyembekezo. His name means "waiting for something good" and Joyce believes that people in the UK can play a part in helping her son – and other sugar farmers' families – to enjoy something good as they grow up.

"I want my baby to have a good future," she said. "If I am able to get more money, I could send him to high school so he may stand by himself in the future.

Kasinthula is an association of farmers in the very disadvantaged southern region of Malawi, prone to both drought and flooding at different times of the year.

Its sugar became Fairtrade certified in 2003 and they have since received significant fair trade orders. The sugar is processed and marketed through Illovo sugar.

The Fairtrade premium is enabling farmers to install boreholes in their villages, which have relied, until recently, on contaminated water supplies from the crocodile-infested Shire River. It has also enabled farmers to adequately prepare for the recent food shortages and continue to feed their families. And all because people choose to support Joyce and the Kasinthule women and buy Traidcraft’s Fairtrade sugar- certainly something to celebrate!

Pam Thompson

Five and Under Summer Holiday Club

So many activities run during the summer holidays for children aged 5 and over, but one is hard pushed to find anything for younger children. If you happen to be a parent, grandparent or carer with one, two, three or even sometimes four children under 5, six weeks of summer holidays can be quite a challenge! Over the past couple of years, we have been thinking about how we could respond to this need...

Last summer, a group of us at Anderson Baptist Church decided to provide a meeting point during the summer holidays for parents, carers and children aged 5 and under. This was very much an adventure in terms of testing the waters and seeing if there would be a response in our community.

A Bible Holiday Club seemed like the ideal platform to provide both an event for this age group and their parents, but also a means to share something of our Christian faith. A Bible story, Christian songs and prayers would give those parents who wished to share a bit more about Jesus with their children an opportunity to do so. We offered Thursday mornings for the first three weeks of the holidays followed by a picnic in the park, for those who wished to stay on.

The feedback we got was tremendous: great cakes, fabulously well thought out crafts, and children being engaged – “yes, please do it again next year!”

Following on from this response last summer, we are now aiming to provide more sessions and more venues for summer 2009 and are in touch with local churches to see who would like to take part in the initiative...

If you would like to help with the Summer Holiday Club for Under 5s, please do not hesitate to contact Robert who can pass you details of Lydia Bauge or Angela Lawrence for more information.

We will be meeting soon after the Easter break will all those interested to work out how this will operate in practice.

Lydia & Angela - Anderson Baptist Church

Church Lunch

As many of you will remember, last summer a group of 24 young people from the United Church of Zambia, L'Eglise Reformée, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church began the first part of a three year exchange programme at Park URC.

Well, I was in China on a World Challenge expedition for the first two weeks that the group were in the UK, but I was fortunate enough to be offered the chance to join the group! It was a brilliant week that I was able to be involved in. This summer, we’re all going to be travelling out to Zambia for three weeks.

Unfortunately, we haven’t received an itinerary yet, but we have asked that it involves doing a social action project of some form, and include visiting different churches and the work that they are doing. However, before I am able to leave the UK, I need to raise around £1000.

On Sunday the 25th April after the service there will be a Church Lunch, with all funds raised going towards my fundraising: tickets cost £5. If you would like to come, or would like further details, then please get in touch!

Thank you in advance for your support.

Andrew Weston

An Afternoon Exploring Prayer

The Sextet Mission Partnership present ‘An Afternoon Exploring Prayer’ with Revd John Proctor, the Director of New Testament Studies at Westminster College, Cambridge

Covering:

· Shades of Prayer,

· Senses and Prayer,

· Songs of Prayer

At High Cross Church Camberley on Sunday 16^th May 2010 2.30pm - 6.15pm

It would be helpful to know numbers by 10^th May contact Robert.

Street Dancing Lessons at Park

We are pleased to announce another new group using our premises on a regular basis!

Street Dancing Lessons begin on Tuesday 20th April at Park URC.

The classes for children every Tuesday (during school term time) will be £4 per session, with the first class half price and every fourth class half price too.

· Mini Feet for 3-6 year olds will be 4pm-4.45pm

· Little Street Feet for 7-11 year olds will be 5pm-5.45pm.

For further details contact by email info@streetfeetdance.co.uk and/or phone 07590473461

CIRDIC

Many of you may not realise that Cirdic depend on the generosity of gifts for the preparation of lunches for the drop in centre from Churches Together in Earley and East Reading (CTEER) of which Park URC supports.

Client16 Brian Wooldridge kindly takes these gifts from Park along with any men's clothing to the centre at St Saviour's church hall, Berkeley Avenue.

As well as receiving a lunch the clients are able to have a bath/shower and receive some clean clothing.

Come on men - make some space in your drawers and sort out some of your unwanted clothing!

Generally they require tins of meat, vegetables, sauces, tins of fruit or tins of rice pudding to make up simple lunches and a pudding for those in need at the drop in centre. No fresh food is to be donated. The baskets for these donations are by the front entrance and the side entrance into the church.

Cirdic are having more people arrive now than ever before so if everyone bought one tin of something a month it would help them to be able to prepare and serve lunches more effectively.

If anyone is led to volunteer please contact Mabel Boyd on 0118 9602516

Gaye Rees

Park Prayer Chain

In the URC 2010 has been designated as the Year of Prayer, which is the second part of the Vision4Life programme. Our focus is to re-engage with prayer with the purpose of bringing transformation for mission to the denomination. As one of the prayer initiatives taking place this year, Park will restart or re-energise what was called the telephone Prayer Line, but now will be called the Prayer Chain.

The Prayer Chain is a group of people who will pass information by phone quickly to those who are links in the chain, so that they can pray immediately for any situation or need in the fellowship. If someone in the fellowship has a prayer request, they should get in touch with the minister, who would then contact the first person in the chain, who then telephones it to the next person in the chain and so on. As each person receives the message, they put the situation into their prayers, and intercede for the individual or family. Each one in the Prayer Chain commits to spending a few minutes in prayer both immediately on receiving the prayer request and over the next few days. Whatever the nature of the prayer request, it is treated confidentially.

One of the aims of the Prayer Chain is to make an immediate response to a specific need, and because there are several people in the Chain, it makes possible a concentrated prayer effort on any issue or concern, including emergency situations, such as illness, hospitalisation, death and family crises. Scripture tells us to ‘carry each others’ burdens’ (Gal. 6:2), and passing on news through a congregational Prayer Chain makes possible this kind of caring. A Prayer Chain is ideal for urgent requests that are short-term and definite in nature, which often cannot wait until the next Sunday service.

Yet the Prayer Chain can be used for more than emergencies; prayers could be offered for special events in the life of Park, for people who have particular pressures, for a meeting at which a crucial decision will be made, or for needs in the wider community. The true purpose of praying for others is for those in the Prayer Chain to offer themselves as channels of God’s grace; as intercessors they are forming a link in the chain, so that God’s healing love may flow towards those for whom prayers are being said.

Prayer is the power-house of the church and talking and listening to God also needs to be at the heart of personal ministry; a Prayer Chain can motivate and encourage personal as well as corporate prayer and spiritual growth. Seeing and sharing answers to prayer is an important part of the process of intercession, and this will promote greater praise in prayer and worship.

If you feel called to the ministry of praying regularly, confidentially and individually for the people and concerns that are requested of you, and can commit time to be a link in the Prayer Chain at Park, please get in touch with me. If you were part of the old Prayer Line and would like to continue in the new Prayer Chain, I would be grateful if you would confirm this. Once names are in, a more detailed procedure will be issued.

Please contact Rachel via Robert.

Rachel Lee-Johnson

Bacon Sandwiches & Salvation

Some further definitions...

Christening Service - naming and dedication ceremony in some of the traditional denominations. Attending non-Christian friends and relatives can be easily identified by the fact that they are so much more smartly dressed than the regular congregation.

Creche helmet - type of protective headwear that should be compulsorily worn during perilous work with very small children in church.

Easter Eggs - edible reminders of the resurrection made of chocolate, filled with sweets and wrapped in shiny coloured paper, just as Our Lord was.

Adrian Plass

Solar Panel Project

At Church Meeting we heard details of a company that is interested in providing a church with a large scale solar panel installation. Robert first met with Tim Clewer, of the Reading Christian Ecology Link and was put in touch with the solar panel installation company called Solstice Energy.

A site survey was carried out on 2nd March and we have just received the full report. We are able to have an 8 kWh system given the constraints of the buildings.

The Church Meeting on 28th March gave approval for the elders to continue pursuing this as possible project, which is anticipated to cost £35,000. If we are successful in our grant applications then we will only need to find around £5000 from church funds. Based on the current feed-in tariffs we would recoup our investment in 3-4 years and the solar panels would contribute to our income, in addition to reducing our carbon footprint.

At the Church Meeting, the question of ongoing maintenance costs was raised – our research has found that solar panels require virtually no maintenance. They are self-cleaning, rain washes the dust from the panels. Snow can be a problem in some areas, but snow is not usually a big issue in Reading!

We have been in touch with St Paul’s Church in Bracknell, our closest URC which already has solar panels installed, for further advice and support.

We are looking a Park URC rep to join the Reading Christian Ecology Link group, who are keen to support our project and even help with the fundraising!

Robert Weston

Churches Together in Reading

All the committee will be standing down at the AGM in June which includes our Graham Fuller as treasurer who has done some outstanding work. The good news is that a new Chair has been approached along with a treasurer, so there will be more news of this at the AGM.

There will be no 8.00am Easter Day service at Forbury Gardens as there has been no one able to commit to organising.

There is to be a cross town project during Easter where crosses will be placed against posters of for example, a mobile phone, graffiti, a car or a computer. Look out for these when visiting Reading.

Pentecost for all is on the 23rd May where a service will be held at The Globe, timings still to be advised.

Bishop Stephen will be hosting an All faiths meeting on 9th June at 2.00pm in the council chamber, Reading. All are invited.

Churches Together in Earley and East Reading

The church leaders and lay leader’s lunches with prayer and discussion continue to take place and last week there were presented partial results from the Mission Survey that each church had been asked to complete. These were then analysed into categories such as youth, children, the elderly, etc. The purpose of these joint times together is to listen to what God is saying to the united church and to find a new project that we may all work on together such as REInspired. However, it may not be work with children, but a completely new enterprise. Watch this space.

On May 22nd St Andrews are holding a 24 hour prayer day when all Christians are invited to take part and provide prayer stations where the time will be spent in praying for the CTEER and how we may develop mission further in the local area.

We await the ‘still small voice of calm’ to descent on us.

Gaye Rees

Wessex Synod Meeting

A new church was welcomed to the synod, Bournemouth International Church, which serves a multi-national congregation and meets in the building of East Cliff URC. It will be recommended to General Assembly that this church be recognized as a Mission Project of the URC.

The Synod has reviewed its structure and strategy and the revised strategy was accepted and approved.

The Local Mission and Ministry Review (LMMR) procedures were discussed. It was agreed that the revised guidelines would be presented to the next meeting of Synod, for adoption. Training sessions are being run for people interested in becoming Outside Facilitators and/or Appraisal Partners, it would be excellent if we could supply two or three people to attend these sessions to find out what is involved – 22nd May session in Basingstoke, 12th June session in Southampton. If anyone is interested please see me.

Synod Appointments – a huge number of people serve voluntarily in different posts and committees of the Synod and a number of vacancies are still to be filled:

· Human Resources Consultant

· Inter-Faith Advocate

· Local Training Co-ordinator (NW area)

· Ministerial Review Co-ordinator

· Racial Justice Advocate

· Rural Link

· Synod Financial Advocate

· Youth and Children’s Work Committee (NW rep)

· Synod Panel for Ministerial Discipline (NW rep)

If you know of anyone in our area who might be approached to fill one of these positions please let me know.

Ministry & Mission Contributions to URC – a formula has been devised to help standardize the contributions from churches across the Synod – the suggested formula is based on scoping and membership figures. We are asked to continue to contribute at our current level while the new system is introduced. Pastorates that receive a significant regular or occasional income from sources other than the congregation should expect to contribute some proportion of such income to the M&M Fund. At the Synod meeting several concerns about the formula were expressed, including a request to take ‘reserve funds’ into account in the formula, all the comments were noted for further consideration by the Synod’s M&M Committee.

Several good news stories were shared at the Synod meeting by churches that had seen their mission develop including at Avenue St Andrew’s in Southampton and their work with asylum seekers, at Petersfield and their work with children, at Lymington with the development of their buildings.

Rob Weston

Christian Aid Week

Christian Aid Week this year will be from May 9th to May 15th.

There is good news that the House-to-House collection will go ahead. A group of people, led by Colin McBean of St Andrew’s URC, plan to work together to organise the distribution of envelopes to individual churches and the co-ordination of money collected.

Please think whether you could help with the collection; we shall have a number of roads, mostly in the area immediately round the church, to cover – delivering envelopes and collecting them later in the week. The more people who can help, the more the work can be distributed. Please contact me if you would be able to help.

Doreen Woods.

Church Contacts

Minister:

Rev Robert Weston office: 0118 926 5003

e-mail: minister@parkurc.org.uk

Church Secretary:

Roger Clark

e-mail: churchsecretary@parkurc.org.uk

Centre Manager:

Julie Cameron

e-mail: centremanager@parkurc.org.uk

Weekly Activities at Park

Sunday	10.30 am	Worship
		Young people’s groups
		Crèche facilities
		Holy Communion (1^st Sunday)
	4.00 pm	Worship at Sutton Court (1^st Sunday of month)
	6.00 pm 7:00 pm	Ignite Meal Ignite Worship
Monday	9.15 am	English Language School
	10.00 am	Monkey Music
	1.45 pm	Mayfield Singers
	6.45 pm	Cub Scouts
	7.30 pm	Housegroup
Tuesday	2.15 pm	Friendship Club
	7.30 pm	Badminton Club
	7.30 pm	Housegroup
Wednesday	9.30 am	Morning Prayers
	10.00 am	Ready, Teddy, Go Toddlers
	12.00 pm	Reading Lunchtime Choir
	2.00 pm	Reading Macular Society
	5.00 pm	Beavers
	7.30 pm	Mostly G&S Singers
Thursday	11.45 am	Senior Citizens’ Lunch Club
	2.00 pm	U3A Madrigal Society
	2.00 pm	Active Retirement Group
	6.00 pm	Rainbows & Brownies
	7.15 pm	Guides
	7.30 pm	Scouts
	7.30 pm	Housegroup
Friday	6.30pm	Pilots
Saturday	9.00 am	The Allenova Ballet School
	10.30 am	Councillor Surgery
	7.30 pm	FIZZANG(Youth Club)