A BIG READ!

 On Wednesday evening 18^th November at 7.30pm you are invited to join us in ‘a big read’ of the Gospel of Mark.  Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the Gospels, only sixteen chapters long.  It is concise and to the point.  It begins in its opening verse with a summary of the whole gospel: ‘This is the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’ (Mark 1:1) This describes Mark’s gospel: it is focused on Jesus who is God’s ‘Good News’, revealed in the first half (Mark 1-8) as the Son of God and in the second (Mark 8-16) as ‘the Christ’.  The halfway point is marked by the question which Jesus asks his disciples at Caesarea Philippi, ‘Who do you say that I am?’  A question for us all.

Mark takes us on a rollercoaster of a ride, often uncomfortable, unsettling and challenging – but never boring.  Story after story after story.  Stories of healing and teaching, of meetings and changed lives. 

Reading the gospel like this is a whole new experience and well worth doing.               

Here is an opportunity to hear for ourselves the story as it is meant to be heard.  Not in bite-sized chunks – but as a whole.

The whole reading will last no more than an hour and a half.  There will be drinks available and if you wish to come and go during the reading that is fine.  It would be good to have as many readers as possible but if you prefer just to sit and listen that is not a problem.  Transport available if needed.

Please join us!                                                                                                                             Angela

Elder for November – Sandra Smith

DIARY FOR NOVEMBER 

FAMILY AND FRIENDS

It was so good to see Bob and Jackie Watt in Church on Sunday. We hold them both in our prayers as Bob progresses through his chemotherapy treatment.  Bob and Jackie thank everyone for their support and friendship at this difficult time.

We also pray for Surendar Nalli, Sujana’s husband, who continues to be unwell and who is having further tests before surgery; for Susan Horsey, still in the LGI but now in Ward 39, where she is now comfortable and hopes to regain some mobility before too long; and for Mike Roberts and Helen.  Mike is now in a hospital in Sheffield where he has received further surgery and treatment.  He now seems to be making some progress towards recovery and we pray that this time his convalescence will have a positive and lasting outcome and even that he will be back home before this reaches you. 

We were sorry to learn of Peter’s accident while on holiday last month but pleased he is recovering and trust that in due course all will be well.  (Eds. All friends urged to ‘be careful’ when on holiday!)

Other friends have been/are suffering from seasonal coughs and sneezes and we wish them all better soon.

David and Emmanuel’s business ‘WoodB’ has now joined up with 3 of Yorkshire’s top makers  to set up a Gallery of Contemporary Furniture, called Designer Makers. The  Gallery is showing a wide range of wooden furniture designed and produced by the 4 makers.  Why not visit Blubberhouses for a day out, visit the gallery, see furniture being made in their workshop and treat yourself to lunch at Mackenzies Yorkshire Smokehouse?

Judith Taylor tells us that Josh has settled well in Carlisle where he is taking a Degree in Graphic Design.  He is living in the Halls of Residence this year, has made lots of new friends and is thoroughly enjoying his new life.  Well done Josh and best wishes with your studies!

HERE AND THERE

Looking back…….

Many thanks to those who participated in our chapter of The Yorkshire Gospels, particularly our children.  The book was on display at the recent Synod meeting – still not quite completed.  It is hoped that we will be able to show it at Stainbeck sometime in the coming year.   The October Yorkshire Synod meeting dealt with many important matters regarding the ordering of our churches, including proposals for future Synod Financial Policy (outlined by Peter at the Church Meeting).  Papers are available.  Please ask Ann or Angela.  [The minutes of the Church Meeting are on the Church Notice-board and copies are available on request.  Please note that the Communion Wine we use now is non-alcoholic – talk to Angela for further clarification if you need it.]

Stainbeck led the opening worship for this meeting which included a talk by David Arscott ‘Where do Christians impact on our generation?’  David is the Community Mission Advisor with the Livability Community Mission team to members of Synod.

Livability is the new name for the Shaftesbury Society whose community work over 160 years will be familiar to many. Livability in partnership with Tearfund forms a Community Mission Team which seeks to help churches and Christian groups transform their communities.

David’s talk was full of moving stories of lives, situations and places being transformed.  He spoke of needs being recognised and addressed.  Local churches who have worked with Livability include Christ Church Armley where ‘Meeting Point’ is hosted. This is a place which befriends, supports and cares for asylum seekers. It is a drop-in centre with advice, food, clothes, football, Bible study and other activities. Just one example of a church transforming itself as it seeks to transform community.

Community Mission believe in faith in action and that a commitment to integral mission is at the heart of the gospel. The partnership seeks to help churches and Christian groups grapple with issues of injustice and poverty.  David spoke of Christ’s description ‘You are the salt of the earth……..the light of the world….. a city built on a hill.  We are here with a call to make a difference.

We have invited David to visit Stainbeck in the New Year.                                                     Ann Coates

Opening of Meanwood Children’s Centre:

Last year a fire, caused by an electrical fault, destroyed Scott Hall CC Community Room.  This has now been rebuilt, with additional offices and entrance area and the Centre renamed to reflect its present working area.

On Friday October 9^th the Centre was re-opened and re-named.  A happy, busy day when I was delighted to be asked to perform the ‘opening’ ceremony.  This was a privilege accepted on behalf of Stainbeck

Church in recognition of the way Church and Centre work together within this local community.  More photos are on view in the Upper Room.                                                  Angela

As ever the After Eights Quiz Night was a huge success.  Thanks are due to Steve and Simon for devising and presenting the quiz.  An enjoyable and entertaining evening with a good supper.  The winners this year were Cynthia and John Harrison’s team.  The After Eights look forward to seeing everyone at next year’s quiz.                                                                                                                                 Sandra Smith

Thanks to all who came to share with the After Eights in listening to Alun Pugh speaking of his father’s wartime experiences.  It was a well supported and much enjoyed evening.  We hope to be able to invite Alun to come again next year.                                                                                              Ann Coates

The Community Payback Team have been working in our grounds during October and done a good job cutting and clearing the undergrowth and weeds.  They will also be planting bulbs – a gift from Groundworks.  We are hoping for a good display in the Spring and thank all concerned. 

We also appreciate the receipt of a further grant from the Well-being Fund to enable us to refurbish the present Gents Toilet so that it can be used by both children and adults, and to build a large walk-in storage cupboard to provide better storage for the groups using the Church hall – in particular the Children’s Centre.  Look out for these new facilities coming soon.

Looking forward:

Climate Change is high on our national agenda – at least in words.  Want to find out more?  At Leeds Church Institute on Wednesday November 4^th 5.15- 6.45pm, ‘A briefing on the significance of the UN Climate Change Conference of 2009 - Countdown to Copenhagen’.  Poster in Upper Room or ask Angela.

If you are involved or interested in the MENA Sunday Lunches there is a meeting to review them on Thursday 5^th November at 2.00pm, Stainbeck Lounge.  An opportunity to meet the new Community Development Worker at MENA, Joan Okutu and hear from Sandra Leivers who is the WRVS organizer for our area.  If you value the impact of these lunches for the local elderly please try to attend.

This month we are hosting our second evening of Taizé Prayers at Stainbeck.  This is on Sunday 22^nd November at 8.00pm – note the later start time. This is a time of quiet reflective words and music, music which comes from the community set in Taizé but also that which comes from the Iona and Northumbrian communities.  The words are those of prayer, the Bible and reflection.  It is an evening which we share with friends from St Matthew’s, from Chapel Allerton Methodist Church and with others who appreciate a time to be still and know that God is indeed present.  If anyone needs transport, please ask Angela.  Why not join us – all very welcome.  For those who wish to stay afterwards there is tea, coffee and fellowship.

On Friday 13^th and Saturday 14^th November Stainbeck Players are presenting ‘An Evening of Comedy 2009’.  Admission is £5 which includes one glass of wine or fruit juice on arrival and nibbles.  Everyone is welcome to bring their own drinks for the rest of the evening.  We are following the same format as last year, two one Act Plays and some sketches.  

One play is about a disastrous Village Fete and the other an accident prone entry in a Drama Festival.  Tickets are available from Sandra or speak to any member of Stainbeck Players.  Come along for a relaxed entertaining evening.  See you there!

Don’t panic when you see this early announcement!  Remember we hold this fundraiser as early as possible in December so we can get the money to Children in Distress for their Christmas treats.

Post Script:

Please list any property or fabric matters needing attention on the board under the calendars in the back entrance area.  They will be attended to as soon as possible.  Thank you.

REFLECTIONS

27^th September 6ish Beach bar. Not a care in the world! I walked up the road, arriving at the area favoured by ‘non-textiles’. I couldn’t resist a dip in a cold pool, which wasn’t nearly as cold as Taylorgill Force, my favourite spot for such moments.  And, unlike in the Lakes, I could just stand there and let the sun dry me off!  The blue skies and hot sun, a diet of fish, and good company have all helped me to forget one broken arm, two broken teeth, and a split lip.  “Enjoy your trip?” Well, yes and no!

29^th September 8ish (watch broken too) Having read the last of the eight Wallander novels, I found Mankell had written a collection of short stories about Wallander before 1990, the date of the first novel.  In the forward he tells us of the subtitle he’d been looking for, ‘Novels about the Swedish Anxiety’.  Can democracy survive?  Each of the eight novels tackles a facet of modern society in the form of a detective mystery centred round the life of middle aged, divorced, and overworked, Kurt Wallander.  All too familiar are the components of the anxiety which forms a backcloth to our modern life: violent crime, childhood abuse leading to irrational crime, cross-border crime, terrorism, and the vulnerability of modern society. Can our changing society, based in some ways on Christian ideals, survive the seeds of destruction within, and the waves of calamity from without?

14^th October 9.48am Woke this morning after an intense dream which seemed to gather together all my lifetime accumulated scenes of anxiety, from being late on the first day somewhere, not knowing where to go, to ‘Milly’, a small child of ours (?!), running across a wet busy street.  And how about the anxiety expressed in the scene of a stone, ornamental, urinal in the street in which were sat a colourful cat and a dolphin?  All these things have meaning but it was the intensity I was most relieved, and yet reluctant, to escape from.  And what was the anxiety my brain had been searching to illustrate?  I suddenly realised I’d turned off my mobile to charge it up overnight.  Two minutes after switching it back on and getting into bed a text arrived.  It was from Sarah.  ‘Boardingx’. She was about to board an early morning flight to Fuerteventura and the Beach Bar, with Glen and Leon.  I hadn’t felt anxious, at least not consciously.

It’s now 11.30am and another text has told me that they’ve safely landed. I’ve been reflecting on the intensity of such dreams. In the dream there is a single minded focus, eg on the experience of being lost, whereas in reality, hurrying along the street, wondering which way to go, you, nevertheless, are taking in all that’s happening around you, as well as remembering what has previously happened, and looking forward to what will happen.

In the first few chapters of her book, The Case for God, Karen Armstrong takes us up to the establishment of Christianity and Islam. A striking theme is that, from the beginning of time, religion has been about practice, not belief.  Even Jesus, when talking about ‘faith’, uses a word which should be translated as ‘trust, loyalty, engagement, commitment’.  His was an active mission.  The message was not to ‘believe’ in him, but to follow him, to practise his way of life.  Only later would ‘doctrinal correction’ become Christianity’s Achilles heel.

Throughout this history, the practice of religion assumed that there was an ultimate reality, transcendent and beyond language.  Descriptions, and stories, could only be symbolic, never to be taken literally.  The way to experience something of this ultimate reality was to ‘leave self behind’. Free of a life which was self centred one could begin to practise compassion, central to all religions.

Over the years, we’ve often heard the complaint, ‘church is boring’ or ‘I don’t get anything out of the service’, but to practise religion, to practise Christianity, means much more than this.  It’s a lifetime’s project, a part of everyday life.  And occasionally, as people have done over the centuries, you might take yourself out of ordinary life, via ritual, or contemplation, or, as Cecil, through silence, or up into the hills even, into a space where you might experience the mystery that makes spirituality more than just another mode of thinking. For a fleeting moment, as in a dream, your consciousness becomes focussed totally on that which is beyond.

27^th October 10.53am “Rise up this morning. Smiled at the rising sun. Three little birds pitched by my doorstep, singing sweet songs of melodies pure and sweet, saying (this is my message to you), singing: ‘Don’t worry bout a thing, cause every little thing gonna be alright.’”

Bob Marley’s interpretation of Luke 12 vs 24.                                                                                        PLC

Views expressed by individuals are personal and no necessarily those of Stainbeck Church.

Revd Angela Hughes, Minister: 0113 225 3766

Avril and Brian Bellwood, Church Secretaries: 0113 293 5847