Please
note that there is a Nursery Service every Wednesday during termtime.
NB:
Evening services are now at 7pm.
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.
Well, what’s
happening in March? Quite a bit is
the answer to that!
Firstly,
Trinity is saying farewell to Nina and Roger Mead.
I’m sure my letter would consume the whole magazine if I were to
write about all they have both contributed to the life of Trinity.
Nina has been Associate Minister here since 2004 when she took
responsibility for the URC/Methodist Church at Three Mile Cross which Trinity
had responsibility for until 2006. As
Associate Minister, Nina has played an important part in the worship life of
Trinity and has been a great help to me in settling in.
Nina has also been on the Education and Nurture Committee over the
years and helped recently to revive the Pastoral Links.
And Nina was ordained at Trinity back in 1988.
Roger’s
involvement goes back to day one. He
was one of the sending elders from Park URC in 1983 and he played a major role
in setting up all kinds of things. He
says this was a very exciting time. He
was Senior Steward in 1988-89 and then Church Secretary from March 1989 to
July 1990 when he and Nina went to
New Zealand
for a year. And Roger has been
Church Secretary for the last three years!
A massive
THANK YOU goes to Roger and Nina from me, on behalf of Trinity, and I hope as
many of you as possible will be at their farewell lunch at Trinity on 2 March.
Everyone, I’m sure, would join with me in wishing them a more restful
and very happy future. They plan
to move on from Trinity, at least for a while.
Moving on, the
Lent Groups seem to have started with energy and enthusiasm which is good to
hear. I hope those involved will
enjoy the opportunity to discuss and pray about Trinity’s
key words and our vision and purpose. The
aim is to have a post-10am service gathering to begin drawing together the
ideas and thoughts coming from the groups (a kind of stock taking).
This is pencilled in for 20 April, so some advanced notice of this.
Please make use of the leaflets that have been produced, whether you
are in a Lent group or not, and do use the questions at the back of it to help
get the most out of reading the Bible.
And of course
March involves Easter this year! What
an amazing event Easter is. It
seems to play second fiddle to Christmas all too often but as Christians we
should be really enthusiastically celebrating the significance of Easter.
If it weren’t for Jesus’ sacrificial and excruciatingly painful
death, on behalf of each one of us, and his resurrection and ascension, our
faith and future would be very different.
At Trinity, to celebrate Easter we’re having a Passover meal on
Maundy Thursday. On Good Friday,
we’re hoping to have an outdoor service in the car park by church at 11am.
Currently, I’m waiting to hear back from Wokingham Borough Council
about closing the car park. Then,
at 2pm, we’ll have an hour at the cross in church.
The Worship Committee is hoping that some of you will stay and have
lunch at “The Earley Retreat” between the two services.
It was so good that so many of us went and sang carols in the pub at
Christmas so we thought this could be another opportunity to support Helen at
the pub. Then, on Easter Sunday, a
sunrise gathering is being organised (venue to be confirmed) with breakfast to
follow at church before an all age communion service at 10am.
We’re not having an evening service on Easter Sunday.
I really hope
we can make Easter a real time of celebration.
Lastly, the
two experiments described in the February magazine kick off in March.
It’ll be interesting to see how they develop.
Please do feed your comments back to me.
Publicity for P3 is just about to go up and I’ll be developing the
congregational teams gradually over the next few weeks.
Wishing you all a very, very HAPPY EASTER.
Every blessing,
Jon
This year, it has been decided to give
our Easter offerings to a charity called Barnabas Fund for their work with the
persecuted church and particularly with Iraqi Christians. They
say:
“Despite reports that security in parts
of
Iraq
is slowly improving, the situation of Christians remains precarious. With
the constitutional vote coming up in April, the probability of warlords taking
power increases significantly. Even
now, Iraqi Christians continue to be faced with harassment, violence and
threats to their life. Many have
been kidnapped and killed by Islamic extremists who seek to ‘cleanse’ the
country from Christians. What is
happening in
Iraq
is basically genocide - ethnic cleansing.”
Many thousands of refugees have escaped
to
Syria
where Muslim agencies are building housing for Muslim refugees. Barnabas
Fund is building a new community for the Iraqi Christians in cooperation with
Christian leaders in both
Iraq
and
Syria
. The building work to construct
350 apartments, a clinic, school and community hall will cost £2,850,000 and
our Easter offering will be sent to help our Christian brothers and sisters in
that troubled part of the world.
Barbara Carrick
Missions Committee Secretary
What
a privilege it is to be called to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament.
My call, initially, was to the Auxiliary Ministry of the United
Reformed Church. Before
my training was complete, this had become the Non Stipendiary Ministry and my
call had become specific. God was
calling me to the ministry in the newly growing church at Trinity Lower Earley,
to join a team of one Methodist and eventually one Anglican minister and thus
to provide the infant church, in the rapidly growing area of Lower Earley,
with a full range of ministerial input.
Those
were heady times, Roger was deeply involved in the church plant, we were both
learning not only about ourselves and the URC but also about the Methodist and
Anglican Communions. When the
building opened, the congregation doubled from about eighty to one hundred and
sixty. Rev John Stephens, the
Methodist Superintendent, was joined by Rev Neil Davies, our children's work
was developed, with Pilots, Boys’ Brigade and Scouts while the Guides in the
area chose to meet elsewhere but to develop a relationship with us. The
Junior
Church
grew and we divided the church roll into pastoral groups to better know and
care for one another. Much of my
time and effort was spent in visiting people to encourage them to take various
responsibilities and in leading the Pilot Company and encouraging the work of
Junior
Church
.
On
17 September 1988, training complete, I was ordained at Trinity to serve this
church within the
Reading
and Oxford District of the URC. After
two further years of intense activity, learning and growing, loving and
serving, Roger was enabled to take a sabbatical from his work at
Reading
University
and to visit the
University
of
Otago
in
New Zealand
. We were sorry to go but God
certainly had plans for us. I was
invited to support the minister of a Presbyterian Church in Caversham,
Dunedin
. Ian's son had recently been
killed in a climbing accident and he was finding life very hard. Working
with Ian was very like working with John and Neil in
Lower Earley
. At the time, I was certain that
team ministry was the only way and working with Ian was tremendously
empowering. I learnt about
New Zealand
, I learnt about loving and caring for people from a different culture, I
conducted countless funerals, a few splendid outdoor weddings and several
infant baptisms, I was welcomed into many, many homes and my ministry skills
grew and developed.
Back
home, a year later, I was asked by the Synod to take on the role of Children's
Work and Pilot Officer and enabled therefore to travel the length and breadth
of the Wessex Synod, training and empowering those who worked with children
and in the Pilots organisation. I
also took responsibility for the church at Grange as their Interim Moderator
and eventually became part of another ministry team in the West of Reading
Group.
I
was called to serve as Interim Moderator at Aston Tirrold as they worked out
their vision for the Centre of Reflection and then to become the Interim
Moderator for Thatcham, eventually to serve them in full pastoral charge for a
further four years.
Eventually,
the energy ran out, with responsibilities for children's work and a local
church, as a member of the District Pastoral Committee and with a passion for
developing ecumenical relationships wherever possible, I suffered a series of
mini strokes and a clear directive to slow down.
Imagine our joy when the church at Trinity made it very clear that we
would be welcome here for rest and resuscitation.
Within
a few months, God was calling me to further service. I
was asked to serve as the URC ecumenical officer for
Berkshire
and fairly soon to add to that the role of Convener for the District Pastoral
Committee. I was well placed at
Trinity for the first and my Synod work, together with my youth spent in
Oxford
, meant that I knew most of the forty churches in the District well. This
was a time of challenge and choice for the URC.
A reduction in numbers of ministers and a shortfall in finance meant
that the distribution of ministry must be equitably and sensitively made.
God's
hand, though, is ever present, guiding and caring, equipping and enabling us
to serve him in his world. As I
approached the end of my term as both ecumenical officer and pastoral
convener, I served as Interim Moderator at Twyford and oversaw the closure of
the URC building at Spencer's Wood and the eventual signing of a Covenant
between the URC there and the Methodists at Three Mile Cross. The
next thread in the tapestry was obvious. As
stipendiary ministry at Trinity was reduced, I was enabled to take Pastoral
Charge of the
Three
Mile
Cross
United
Church
and to offer support to Nick as he worked out the implications of a single
stipendiary ministry at Trinity.
The
church at Trinity graciously invited the District to extend my appointment as
Associate Minister at Trinity for a further eighteen months in order to cover
a possible vacancy and to welcome a new Anglican minister.
So now, perhaps, the tapestry is complete and I can retire in earnest. The
threads which dominate my ministry are of Jesus' prayer that the church should
be one, and of his inclusion in all that we do of children and young people. Like
Abraham, we step out, not knowing where we will go. It
will be good to worship nearer home and with our neighbours sometimes. It
will also be good to worship with others in the District of which we have been
so much a part. It will also be
good to return to Trinity, where we would like to retain our membership, from
time to time, for you are our family. May
God bless you and keep you as you take the next step on the journey.
Nina
The
Chapel Group have been considering ways in which the “chapel” might be
used to achieve a greater outreach into the community.
A
Suitable Name
The
Chapel Group have been giving much thought to a name for the new chapel room
which will assist our desire to use this room more effectively in our outreach
to the community. Church Council
supported the idea that a shortlist of about 10 or so names will be provided
at the morning and evening services on Sunday 9 March, where you will have
an opportunity to state your particular
preferences. Please do not
miss this opportunity to express your views so that Church Council can take an
informed decision.
Promoting
Exhibitions and Displays
One
idea that will be taken forward is that this new room should be used for
staging small exhibitions, displays and events, etc.
Such events will receive appropriate publicity in the community.
While any topics would be considered, provided they were not totally
inappropriate, many would doubtless have a theme of some sort related to our
concerns and beliefs, etc.
Examples
of such events could be:
·
A display
related to a special collection taking place in the church, such as Christian
Aid, National Children’s Home, etc.
·
An
exhibition by the church or other community organisation promoting their work
in the community, such as the Church Walking Group, a Trust, Guides, Scouts or
a local school, the Contact Centre, etc.
·
Church
members or others in the community may have a hobby, such as painting,
photography, pottery, or a collection of some kind that they would like to
display.
·
There may
be special causes that members of the community would like to advertise.
·
Other
ideas could be small concerts, a local film show, etc.
Since
our main objective would be to further our assistance and outreach in the
community, there would be no charge for approved use of the “chapel” in
this way. Material advertising
church activities and worship should always be available at any such events. Arrangements
for each event will be agreed initially on an ad hoc basis as required.
The church would hope to provide coffee and tea.
If you have any specific ideas or know of groups or individuals outside
the church who might like to have an exhibition or event, or if you would just
like to help get this project off the ground, please contact
John Goddard or Jon Salmon. Nevertheless,
if you run a group in the church, you may well be approached to mount a
display of some kind at some time.
Chapel
Group: Jon
Salmon, Vronwyn Hutch, Joan Guile, John Goddard
Monday
18 February 2008
Saturday
8 March 10am
We
are struggling to find storage space in the church, so we will be
reorganising the walk-in cupboard and throwing out anything that is not
essential.
If
you have things stored there, please arrange for someone from your group to
attend, to help decide what to keep.
Jonathan
will be directing proceedings on the day.
We
are very pleased to report that the target of £231,000 has been exceeded! Many
thanks again to all who have been involved; this has been a tremendous effort.
Unfortunately,
we are not in a position to let you all know exactly where we are with the
finances as a whole, as we are still waiting for the builders to submit their
final account. Until such time as
they provide this, and also until we are informed about one or two other costs
as well, we do not know exactly where we stand.
We are pushing hard for the final account, via David Ensom, but Coles
have not been forthcoming so far.
As
soon as we have a confirmed figure, we will let you know what the situation
is. We do not anticipate a deficit
overall but, equally, it is not possible to say what the surplus could be.
Finally,
we continue to push Wokingham Borough Council for a reduction in the charge
that they have levied in connection with the closure of the footpath and,
again, we will advise further when we know more.
They have already offered a partial reimbursement but it remains to be
seen if this will increase.
Once
again, many thanks to all who have assisted with the raising of the monies for
the building work.
The
Buildings Project Finance Team:
Richard
Munday, Alex Robinson, John Medcraft, Sandy Catchick, Richard Cocks
1
December 2007
Our
Craft Fair at the end of last year raised £661.30 for the Buildings Fund.
I just wanted to say a huge THANK
YOU to all who helped make this happen.
The singing group very kindly moved chairs on Friday evening after
practice, and some others helped put them back on Saturday and clean up ready
for worship next day.
A
special thanks to Kay, Catherine, Andrew and all our wonderful people who so
willingly served refreshments and washed up – you did a brilliant job,
folks.
We
had several Trinity stalls this time around which was brilliant, so many, many
thanks to all of you who worked so hard with your craft to sell for the
Buildings Fund. I list below all
the money that was made:
Stallholders’
table hire:
14 @ £13.00 per single table =
£182.00
5 @ £23.00 per double table =
£115.00
TOTAL
for table hire =
