The Magazine, May 2006 (Section 1)

Magazine Production Team
Deadline for June magazine: 15th May

Team News

The Annual Parochial Church Meeting
Thank you to all those who shared in the Annual Meeting, particularly to our treasurers Mark and Cathy Carson. There was, of course, stark news on the financial front and the PCC and each one of us will be addressing that.

Elections and Thanks
We elected Andrew Fairhurst as our new Parish Warden in succession to Brenda Mullins. We acknowledged the debt we owe to Jenny Aellen for her 18 years as our Gift Aid Secretary and elected Marcia Head as the new district warden of Holy Trinity, and Maureen Beadsley as the new district warden of St Andrew's.

Team Values
Andrew Cope has charted up our deliberations on the team values and these will be discussed at the PCC meeting on 24th May.

What We Do
Also we split into groups and looked at the two questions “What we do well as a Parish?” and “What we could do better as a Parish?”. The results of this ‘brain-storming’ session are reproduced here.

What do we do well?

• Support different styles of worship and services


• The civic services (Team approach from HT)


• Work with children (Sunday school, 11+, 14+)


• We welcome and are supportive


• Mothers Union


• Giving of our time


• Baptism preparation


• Marriage preparation


• Utilise the Tea House as a resource


• The parish magazine


• Work in schools

• Follow up with those who “use” our services (weddings, baptisms)


• Parish prayer group


• Nurture and encourage house groups


• Make the churches more accessible


• Team worship


• Youth participation in services


• Working with Ranelagh


• Men’s group – Bracknell Blokes for God


• Fund raising


• We don’t mix well between the three churches


• We don’t evangelise

[ Top Of Page ] [ Section 2] [ Section 3]

News from Holy Trinity

Building
Thank you to the many people who shared in the debate about the church building. It was a very positive discussion and the DCC understand that we have the mandate to start asking questions and finding out more about an alternative site. So much depends on the valuation of the present site, because if that is not right then we cannot proceed with any further discussions. All of this is the proverbial 'chicken 'n egg' situation so please pray for the group who will be seeing this through. No decisions will be made without the fullest consultation both in the parish and beyond.

Patronal Festival
Please put June 11th in your diary. On that day we shall celebrate our Patronal Festival when the Archdeacon of Berkshire will be our preacher. There will be a garden party in the Rectory garden afterwards.

Thanks
Thank you to all those people who shared in the Easter services, musicians, flower arrangers, readers,...................so many people. We had a record attendance for Easter Day with over 200 people in church and quite a few visitors and first time attenders.
At the Annual Meeting we said thank you to Daphne for her 22 years as our verger. A presentation will be made at some point during May and contributions can be given to the wardens.

Congratulations
Congratulations to Steve Halls and Sue Divall on their wedding last month. It was a splendid occasion and a lovely celebration.

David

[ Top Of Page ] [ Section 2] [ Section 3]

News from St Andrew's

New Team Vicar
We pray for Andrew Frearson as he prepares to join us as Team Vicar for St Andrew's in the Bracknell Team Ministry. His Licensing Service will be at St. Andrew's on 23rd May at 7.30 pm.

Andrew has great breadth of experience in his work as a priest, including several years in the USA (Atlanta, Georgia) and in the north of England (Blackburn).


Peter
We thank Peter Bestley for his ministry at St. Andrew's during the interregnum. He is an exceptionally devout and conscientious priest, and a man of great education. His preaching is memorable and challenging, but always "user friendly". We pray that he will find a more permanent, suitable position as a priest responsible for a church.
100 Club

At our Annual District Meeting on 2nd April, we discussed the future of the 100 Club, which we started up in April 2005. So far the Club has raised the net amount of about £635. The view of the meeting was that the 100 Club should continue, although a sufficient number of people will need to renew their membership before we can have any further draws. We need to have at least 30 people in the 100 Club to make it worthwhile, although we would obviously like to have more than that number.

Holy Week and Easter
It was good that St. Andrew's was able to "host" so many of the services for the whole team during Holy Week. In this season of Easter we look forward with hope, and we rejoice as we see the rapid growth of the Church throughout the world, particularly in China. We pray that this growth will inspire us in our outreach to the people of Priestwood.

Thelma Gadsden and Irene Sainsbury
We are very sorry to say that Thelma and Irene died recently. They were both very faithful and loyal members of our congregation who contributed greatly to the life and witness of the Church.

When our Christian friends pass on, while we mourn our loss we also celebrate their lives. And we remember that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has overcome death by His resurrection.

District Wardens
We thank Brian Davies for all his work as one of our District Wardens, and we have benefited greatly from his wisdom and sense of humour. He
contributed a great deal during the process of selecting a new Team Vicar for St. Andrew's. Brian has had to stand down as he has completed the three-year term during which District Wardens hold office.

When John Jayaseelan moved to Kent in September last year, Simon Sellick agreed to serve as District Warden for the remainder of John's term of office until March/April 2007.

We welcome Maureen Beadsley as our new District Warden in succession to Brian. Maureen loves St. Andrew's and we are very fortunate that she has agreed to take on this role.

Simon Sellick
District Warden, St. Andrew's

[ Top Of Page ] [ Section 2] [ Section 3]

News from St Paul's

Easter Services
Most of our services at Easter are shared with the United Reformed Church.

Palm Sunday
Our Palm Sunday Service was led by Catherine and Ann Baker. It was Ann’s first time leading a shared service, and the good atmosphere in church is a tribute to her skills as a service leader.
The theme of the service was ‘Meekness and Majesty’ and we used the Graham Kendrick song of the same name to explore how Jesus – a king – rode into town on a donkey to die for his people.

Maundy Thursday
Maundy Thursday was led by Jenny Colby and Catherine and included an offer to wash feet. This was something of a first for St Paul's and as the Maundy Thursday service is often seen as an Anglican service it was great that members from the URC were there to share the service, and it was a privilege to wash their feet in our shared church.

Good Friday
Good Friday was a thoughtful service called ‘Voices Round the Cross’ and included five meditations from characters that were around when Jesus died. Fiona Greer and Catherine composed meditations on the possible thoughts of a Pharisee, a soldier; Mary, John and Barabbas. This with moments for silence and a slideshow done to Graham Kendrick’s wonderful Good Friday hymn ‘Come and See’ all allowed the congregation to ponder on the weight and gravity of the day.

Special thanks are sent to Tricia and her crew who provided a lunch after the Good Friday service.

Easter Day
We are of course looking forward to Easter Day, the eggs have been bought and Catherine is plotting to use a camping stove during her Easter Day talk…!


Sad News
Other news includes the sad news of the death of Don Wilkins, one of the former ministers of the United Reformed Church at St Paul's and we extend our condolences to Jill Hardy, one of the URC Elders whose brother-in-law died at the age of 33.

Tidy Up
We have also had another big tidy up, especially in the old vestry, and we carted off to the tip old electrical equipment, empty bottles, candle wax, a zillion spent matches and a pink cardboard cut out car, used during a rendition of ‘Greased Lightening’, from ‘Grease’!

Catherine Blundell

[ Top Of Page ] [ Section 2] [ Section 3]

Parish Register

Please remember them all in your prayers

Baptisms

We welcome into the God's family

St Andrew's
Aidan John Levi Sellwood
Chloe Marie Westwood

St Paul's
Lewis Edward Tatum
Kieran James Jasper

Funerals

We commit to God's care

Holy Trinity

Marjorie Winterbottom	Aged 100
Ronald Willis (Ron)	Aged 87
Irene Willis	Aged 86
James Davies (Gilbert)	Aged 86
Irene Garnder (Renee)	Aged 83
Anthony Rogers (Tony)	Aged 80
Frederick Rowden (Fred)	Aged 72
William Ashcroft (Bill)	Aged 52

St Paul's

Irene Hambleton

Aged 59

[ Top Of Page ] [ Section 2] [ Section 3]

May Diary

This can be found in For your Diary...

[ Top Of Page ] [ Section 2] [ Section 3]

May Prayer Diary

This can be found in Prayer Diary

[ Top Of Page ] [ Section 2] [ Section 3]

Taizé Meditation

These meditations are meant as a way of seeking God in silence and prayer in the midst of our daily life. During the course of a day, take a moment to read the Bible Passage with this short commentary and reflect on the questions which follow.

John 12: 20-28
We can discover in this scene described by Saint John an account of a temptation Jesus experienced in Jerusalem. His life is seriously threatened (see John 11:53) and then all of a sudden people come from a different world than that of Israel, and these Greeks are interested in him. Who knows? Perhaps they will listen to his message in a more sympathetic and far-reaching way. Perhaps something more universal can begin. All Jesus would have to do would be to turn away from what seems doomed to failure and to refuse what is in danger of leading to death.

Jesus acts as if he doesn’t understand. He does not establish any contact with these Greeks. For in order to reveal to people who God is, he has to go beyond dialogue and teaching. What God’s love is, what can draw all people (v. 32), will only become transparent in the gift of himself, when in death he joins the lowest of all, those furthest away. A grain of wheat can only bear fruit if it falls into the earth and dies.

This road from below will reveal who God is; it will “glorify his name” (v. 28), making God’s deepest identity shine out. But at the same time, Jesus too will be glorified (v. 23). His resurrection and his recognition by people will thus not be a revenge after being humiliated, but this end will make his true nature shine out, that of a man whose existence is not founded on his own being, rights, or reputation, but on God.

What John describes here recalls the combat of Gethsemane. There, too, Jesus was deeply troubled (v. 27). There, too, his prayer had to cross a threshold: at first dominated by a situation that seemed impossible to pass through (“save me”), it was subsequently filled by God to such an extent that Jesus prayed for him (“glorify your name”). This road of Jesus prefigures our own. Clinging at all costs to our own life will cause us to lose it. Clinging to Jesus more than to ourselves will open a road to eternity. Serving him will not simply be an opportunity to learn something from him; it can only be achieved if we share his fate completely (v. 26).

- If Jesus committed himself so deeply for us, what is our reaction? Interest? Admiration? Or does it go further?

- How does the little parable of the wheat grain (v. 24) apply to my existence? Am I ready to ask God: “Give me the gift of giving myself”?

Take time at the end to pray, thanking God for his presence, asking for what you need for yourself, and for those things close to your heart.

Further information on Taizé can be obtained from the Community's website.

[ Top Of Page ] [ Section 2] [ Section 3]