Apr 08

A Time of Prayer:

Every Sunday, 9.30-9.45am, in the Crèche Room

WEEKLY PRAYERS:

9.45am Wednesdays (Communion 4th Wed)

The Church Vestry is staffed on Saturdays between 9.30am and 11.00am.
If you would like to arrange a Thanksgiving for the birth of a child,
a Baptism or a Marriage, or discuss any pastoral matters, please come then,
or ring the Church Office on 0118 931 3124.
Jon’s day off is Friday.

Minister’s Letter

I can’t believe how quickly 2008 is flying by. Lent and Easter have come and gone, the clocks have changed and we now have our evenings back! Easter was a good time and it was great that the sun shone as we gathered in the ASDA car park for our service on Good Friday morning. I hope you all enjoyed Easter.

Thanks to those who hosted, led and attended the Lent groups this year. It sounds as though quite a lot of discussion was entered into about our key words and life at Trinity. The challenge now is to take the discussion forward. I’m gathering feedback from the group leaders and we’re going to have a plenary type meeting after the 10am service on 20 April to see if we can identify any clear threads from the groups which can help us distil our vision and purpose into the future. In other words, begin to make concrete sense of what it means to get out into the community and to make disciples. This won’t be fully achieved on the 20^th by any means but I’d like to encourage you to come along to that meeting whether or not you went to a Lent group.

March also saw us have our AGM which was a very useful time. It was great to have people share their feelings and views and have some meaningful discussion generated. Thanks to all who have served Trinity in a variety of ways but have now stood down. Welcome too, and thanks, to those among us who have taken on new roles. And welcome, especially, to John Goddard, our new Church Secretary.

We’re also getting into the experiments with our service pattern and congregational teams. I’m getting a range of feedback so far on the former so please do speak to me if you have thoughts. Please do come along to P3 on the first and third Sundays each month (see posters round the church and in this magazine) when we browse the papers and pray about what we read. We’ve not done too well at the praise “P” yet! Hopefully P3 will develop and evolve but it is only an experiment. It’s good to see a range of people coming to it. I’m very conscious that the changes to the evening schedule have been difficult for some of us. I’ve talked to some of those concerned and have been grateful for their comments and thoughts.

I am slowly making headway in talking to people about congregational teams which is encouraging but I would like to be moving a little more quickly. I’m hoping to be able to concentrate more fully on this now Easter has passed. The same is the case with digital projection which should make significant improvements on the present quality of OHP reproduction. A big thanks to Graham who, week in week out, battles to give us a half decent image on the wall.

Well, I can’t sit around at my desk too much as I need to get a few more miles under my belt before running the London Marathon on 13 April on the Christian Aid team. A huge thank you to all those of you who have so far sponsored me. I feel very supported by you. I need to raise £2000 for Christian Aid and am making good progress towards this. PLEASE KEEP THE SPONSORSHIP COMING IN. There’s a short article in the magazine about it but my Just Giving website address is www.justgiving.com/jonsalmon1

Lastly, as we move into April, we’ll be continuing our teaching series on our key words and will be starting with UNITY, not an insignificant theme! Please do spend time praying into this. Having just celebrated Easter, the following verses from Ephesians are helpful: “Now because of Christ – dying that death, shedding that blood – you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything” (Eph 2:13, from The Message), and back in Chapter One verse , we read “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for”.

Christian Aid:London Marathon Fundraising

As many of you will already know, our minister Jon Salmon is running the 26.2 mile London Marathon on 13 April. Christian Aid is a charity that Trinity has had links with for a number of years. They work with partner organisations to stop poverty and injustice. Our Christian Aid representative at Trinity is David Rains and he is currently liaising with Jon Salmon on fundraising which links in with the London Marathon.

Jon has run sponsored marathons before. In 2007, he completed, back-to-back, a treadmill marathon and a 25 mile 3 peaks hike whilst at his previous church in Bradford, raising over £1600 for street children in

Kenya

and Christians against Poverty. And in 2005, he raised over £1500 when he first ran the London Marathon for street children in South America .

Before ordination, Jon worked in international development and for several years was based in Southern and Eastern Africa. He says, “It’s a privilege to be able to run for Christian Aid and make a contribution to the lives of the wonderful people I used to work with daily”.

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Night at “The Earley Retreat” raised over £200 for Christian Aid. Well done and thanks to Helen, the landlady. Jon also spent some time at ASDA talking to shoppers about Christian Aid.

To retire surrounded by so much love and encouraged by so many good wishes is impossible to describe. We look forward to the continuing surrounding as we learn how to nurture our citrus grove. We look forward to welcoming many of you to share it whenever you have the time and fortitude to visit Ufton Nervet. Please telephone first for it is a long way to come when we are not here.

Many of you want to know how we are going to spend our time and where we are going to worship. The patterns are beginning to emerge and ,with God’s help, will begin, with the trees, to bear some fruit.

We plan to worship at the parish church of St Mary’s Sulhampstead. It was great to be able to walk there on Good Friday and to be welcomed by our neighbours.

I will continue to serve the local URC churches, including Trinity, with the general intention of not working more than one Sunday each month.

I have also agreed in the short term to remain on the Nursery Service rota but would like to relinquish that responsibility as soon as another worship leader emerges to join the present team of four worship leaders who ideally are supported by four assistants and four refreshment providers. All are in short supply. Perhaps you could help!

In addition to this, our Lent Group, meeting on Tuesday mornings, plans to continue for the time being, so we shall be kept in touch.

Our prayers and our love are with you all, as you step out on this new phase of Trinity’s development. Support Jon and the leadership team, remain faithful to our ecumenical principles and in touch with our parent denominations, praise God and give thanks to him in everything you do and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Lower Earley.

Help Needed

One or two people required to make tea and coffee at Church Meetings. This is a very small job, as Church Meetings only take place four times a year on a Monday evening. Margaret and Kay have decided to retire from this job after about 12 years!

I'm still in need of one more person to join the printing rota. It involves coming along on Saturday mornings on a monthly rota (1 month in 4) to print the Sunday service leaflets and fold them. At most, it will take an hour and probably less.

If you can help in this way or want to know more, please telephone me or see me in church.

Nursery Service is in desperate need of service leaders, volunteers to help set up, put away and welcome families and helpers to serve refreshments. We work on a flexible rota system according to your availability. Volunteers are not expected to attend every session.

It's not hard work, it's fun and very rewarding. If you feel you could help and you are free from 1.00pm until around 3.15pm on a Wednesday afternoon during term time, please contact Ann Baker or email annbaker01(at)ntlworld.com.

Trinity Library

We’ve recently added more books to the shelves. Here are some of them, in no particular order, with their subject codes:

REinspired Update

This past half term, REinspired Trinity team (covering Radstock, Hillside and Whiteknights schools) have had 2 visits to Radstock School to Year 4 using Godly Play to reflect on the Parable of the Great Pearl, and Radstock’s Year 3 came to Trinity to explore Holy Week last month.

A very recent trip to Whiteknights Year 3 saw us taking a journey through Holy Week and Easter, with particular attention to Signs and Symbols and with the use of the Stations of the Cross.

Comments received from teachers and pupils are always positive. Pupils find the sessions stimulating and fun – and seem to particularly enjoy their visits to Trinity Church . Thank you to all involved. Please continue to pray for REinspired’s involvement in our local schools and pray for the children in our neighbourhood.

Choosing a name for the Chapel

I would like to thank everyone who completed forms last month indicating their preferences for the name of the “chapel”. 111 forms were completed and returned (five were found after the analysis was completed and so were not included, but they showed the same trend.)

There is little doubt about the outcome, although not absolutely conclusive. In summary:

· Around 40% gave a 1st preference of Chapel. The rest were 16% (Bethany Chapel) or lower.

· Around 66% included Chapel as one of their four preferences. Bethany Chapel was next with only 40%

· Around 70% indicated a 1st preference of a name which included “chapel”, compared to 30% indicating a desire for a name with “room”.

· Of those who preferred a name which included the word “chapel”, 52% said they would prefer chapel on its own as against 48% who preferred chapel with another word in front of it.

· On the basis of the survey, the only possible course was to recommend that the new room be called the Chapel.

The recommendation will now be considered by Church Council in April. If you have any questions or would like to see a copy of the report or look at the database in Excel showing the detailed results, please contact John Goddard

Thank you, Trinity

Thank you very much for the delightful farewell lunch, and for the citrus grove whose coming we are awaiting eagerly. It will be lovely to have growing and productive plants to remind us of our growth at Trinity.

It has been a real privilege to have served Trinity as a member and in particular as your Church Secretary. Trinity is unique and special, and this is due mainly to its ecumenical nature, being three churches in one. Please keep the joy of that trinity in all that you do; there is so much strength in the combination of the three traditions.

Love to you all, from Roger

Children’s Ministry Conference 2008

I was fortunate enough to go to this year’s Children’s Ministry Conference Weekend in