Bradford North Circuit

What does God require of us? The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2013 comes to us from an ecumenical group in South India. They have reflected upon their own context and offer to us a theme that calls us to respond to the obligations to act justly in the world. The text is taken from Micah 6.6-8. The materials have been adapted by the Britain and Ireland writers group and they have written additional material, including meditations for each of the 8 days, and two versions of the worship service.  The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is traditionally observed from the 18th to the 25th January - the octave of St. Peter and St. Paul.  Full details

Prayer for Bradford 6.30 pm Sunday 20 January 2013 at Bradford Cathedral All Christians are invited to come and celebrate together as we begin the New Year of 2013 and to pray for our City of Bradford. Prayer for Bradford web site

When the light goes Lord, where are you in this cold, dark, dank graveyard of a time? When I look up there is only darkness, like a thicket shutting out the sun. I’m shivering! There’s none of the warmth you’ve blessed me with before. Why do I have to suffer like this? Why is everything so dark and hopeless? Why do I have to cope on my own? What’s the point of it all? Why haven’t you answered my prayers and taken away the pain like you promised? And yet – promise: when I think, perhaps your promise is after all the key to the way out of this dungeon of despair. Perhaps I have to hold on to your promise that you are never absent, even in the scary shadow times, merely invisible, for reasons of your own: it’s a trial, not a life sentence. I have to endure and win through, torture though it feels like. Didn’t James say trials were a training programme building us up; didn’t Peter see them as a refining process, producing faith of pure gold? A crucible isn’t meant to b...

Under the guidance of a baker of 52 years experience, John  Anderson,  whose record is 76 000 rolls made in one night, and who has been making bread, on and off, (mostly  off) since 1959, join us in making your own loaf.  After all the jollities, fripperies and trimmings of Christmas, I am inviting anyone in the Circuit  to come and take part in a simple and fulfilling act of worship – making bread.  For the evening worship at Baildon Methodist Church Hall on Sunday 30 December we shall handle and discuss, mix and meditate on, all the ingredients of bread: for example, the oil will come from Palestine, the yeast and salt will remind us of the words of Jesus. We shall make and bake bread; then eat it with some delicious home-made jam. This cannot be done in less than three hours and so the service will start at four o'clock. When I last took such a service, many people said what a good idea it was and they were very interested in coming. A dark Decemb...

The December edition of Haworth Road's church magazine is now available.

I have begun to set up a network of intercessors to pray steadily for the Circuit.  I believe prayer makes a difference, and it's a way of supporting the Circuit and all its Churches, and also the Leadership Team.  What I have been doing is sending out a letter approximately each week, with a bit of comment on prayer plus a short list of points for prayer for the week. If you would like to join in with this, please let me know and I will add you to the mailing list. Roy

Our 'open invitation party' Christmas was not as well attended as the previous year but no doubt some of this was down to the extremely adverse weather conditions.  We were fortunate to have Nick Blundell among our visitors who were very surprised to discover that we had two Mormon young men call in for a cup of tea.  We will be holding another Christmas event on 14 December at 2.00 pm. Training :  We held a one-day training session with Project 6 who held a workshop on alcohol and drug awareness.  most of our leaders were able to attend and found the session informative. Publicity :  We have continued to produce new leaflets, bookmarks and newsletters to hand out to the nearby homes. Signs of Hope:   We are delighted to record that one of the men that started to attend the Drop-in-Centre has been frequently to church and has expressed a desire to be considered for membership.  Others have worshipped with us on several occasions. ...

Dear Friends Once again we will be rehearsing the Christmas Story, we shall be remembering a troubled land, remembering how occupying forces demanded a census for tax purposes.  And once more there is conflict in Israel and Gaza.  The 'Holy Land' once again seems to be less than Holy and more about political and military power struggles. Somehow it begs the question, 'Does anything ever change?' And then, we remember the Christmas Story, of how God became human in Jesus - quietly, almost unnoticed by many, born as he was, in a stable bare.  And with his birth the world changed.  Without huge fanfare, unless you could hear the choirs of angels.  without grand gesture but with the fragility and love of a new born child to a family, and with that intimacy of relationship we see so often on our Christmas Cards of the Holy family gathered there together. Here is perhaps the greatest hint we have that things can change, even nations can change, but it start...