Bradford North Circuit

St Andrew’s current church building was opened in October 1954. To celebrate our 60 th anniversary, we decided to invite former ministers to return to lead worship, which they did over a 6 month period from May until October. We were delighted to meet again with Revs David Priestnall, Darren Garfield, Keith Hunt and Nick Blundell and also to welcome former members of the church who are now ministers, Revs Simon Sutcliffe and Derek Grimshaw. Each returning minister received a garland, in keeping with the culture of our friends from Pakistan. Our annual Anniversary service was held on 2 nd November. It was led by Rev David Bonny and was attended by the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Cllr Mike Gibbons and the Lady Mayoress, and a former Lord Mayor, Cllr Howard Middleton and Mrs Middleton. A displa...

Thank you to everyone who came along and supported the Festive Fairtrade Fair at BoltonMethodist Church on 22 nd November.  We made £549.40 in Fairtrade sales and took £52.15 in donations for Traidcraft Exchange.  The next event planned is a Fairtrade Big Brew to take place on Saturday 28 th February in the morning at Thackley Methodist Church .  This will coincide with Fairtrade Fortnight, which takes place from 23 rd February to 8 th March.  The message for the 2015 campaign will be, “Choose Products that Change Lives” – to celebrate the power of everyday choices by telling the other half of a product’s story – the producer’s – to show the difference Fairtrade makes.  This is a difference that I saw first-hand on my recent trip to Ghana, where I met cocoa farmers, palm oil producers and banana farmers.  Fairtrade really does make a difference! Ruth H, Calverley

‘Every scribe that has been trained for the kingdom of God,’ said Jesus, ‘is like a master of a house, who brings out of his house what is new and what is old’ (Mt 13:52).  Come January, then, what do we want that’s new without losing those old treasures we should keep for ever? There’s new clothing of Christ to replace the old, worn-out rags of our former conduct: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, not forgetting mutual forbearance (Col 3:12ff).  New clothes may feel a bit stiff to start with, but with a bit of wear we soon fit them – and they offer a warmth that the old ones never did.  Clear out the old wardrobe. Then there’s a new sense of purpose which comes from understanding the will of the Lord, shedding the folly of self-determination, which leads only to self-destruction (Eph 5:15ff).  New too is the world we wait for with such hope (never outdated), i.e., this one which the Lord is even now making new and righteous through our obedi...

Ladies from St Andrew’s helped to create 1,700 textile poppies, each one representing a soldier of the Bradford Pals who died within one hour of joining the fighting in the First World War. A display of the poppies has been created in the Industrial Museum , Moorside Road which also contains emories, from our ladies, of how their lives were affected by the war. It is a very moving exhibition, which will be on display at the museum until June 2015, when it will be moved to Bolling Hall . We recommend you visit the museum to see the display. Wendy B, St Andrew’s

West Yorkshire Methodist District is twinned with the Diocese of Multan in Pakistan. The Chair and Deputy Chair of the District have recently paid visits to the diocese, accompanied by others from the District and in early October, the Bishop of Multan, Rt Rev Leu Paul and his wife paid a return visit to the District. They were in Bradford North circuit on Wednesday 8 October, when they attended the circuit communion at Thornton and visited Haworth Road and St Andrew’s churches, after lunch at Wesley’s in Baildon. The visit to St Andrew’s coincided with Wednesday evening worship and was attended by many Asian Christians who live in West Yorkshire, some of whom had known Bishop Leu in Pakistan. The evening included a splendid Asian meal, prepared by members of St Andrew’s. Life is very difficult at present for Christians in Pakistan. Please remember in your prayers all Christians, around the world, whose lives are at risk because they are followers of Jesus Christ. Martin B, St An...

January 6th is the day in the Christian calendar on which we traditionally commemorate Epiphany. The word epiphany is derived from a Greek word meaning ‘to appear’, ‘to come’ or ‘to give light’. That is why the word is associated with those moments of sudden and great revelation or realisation; when we ‘see the light’ and have one of those ‘light bulb’ moments. In Christian tradition, Epiphany is the climax of the Advent/Christmas season and marks the end of the twelve days of Christmas. On this day, western Christians commemorate principally the visitation of the biblical Magi to the child Jesus, i.e. his revelation to the Gentiles, one of the first indications that Jesus came for all people, of all nations, of all races, and that the work of God in the world would not be limited to only a few. It is a time when we can look ahead to the mission of the church to the world in the light of the nativity. It is interesting that Christian tradition and art have frequently depicted the s...