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Showing posts from 2019

Let's talk about dementia

Thackley Methodist Church 29 January 2-4pm  We all know someone with dementia, or perhaps we ourselves have a diagnosis. Let’s talk about it, and about how we can best help people in our churches to cope with what it means for them. Revd Gaynor Hammond , a Baptist minister who has presented workshops and written books on growing dementia-friendly churches, will come to Thackley Methodist Church on 29 January 2-4pm to lead a workshop. Come and share your experiences, ask your questions, find support. Please let Rev Christine Crabtree know you are coming, so we can be sure of making enough tea!

Julian Meeting

We’re starting a new Julian Meeting Monday 6th January 7.30pm at Bolton Methodist Church, Bolton Road (near the junction with Idle Road) Hear some music; listen to a reading; spend 30 minutes in silent reflection; share together over tea and coffee Meetings will be on the first Monday of each month For more information please contact Rev Christine Crabtree

Prayer Column - December 2019

December! Christmas! But what can be said about Christmas that has not been said 2,000 times before? It’s the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus – the impossible conception, the miracle of miracles that changed the world for ever. But then, perhaps the old things need saying again (and again, and again), for memories need jogging, minds refocusing, hearts rekindling. God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year, but it often doesn’t feel like that. The good news stales, and the much vaunted joy pales. So we need reminding. Jesus came and was cradled, but he did not stay there. He grew up, and spoke truth and hope, and lovingly mended broken lives. He showed what God was really like: a Heavenly Father. Then he did the impossible once more: he died and was raised to new life. And from there God’s great rescue goes on – through Christian believers of any kind, to reach and restore this whole world he created in the beginning. The Christmas tree grows to maturity. Th

Prayer Column - November 2019

For what and for whom? What should I be praying for? Well, I suppose whatever’s going on round me, what I care about – what God has laid on my heart. Pray for my part in it, and for a good outcome, that which would please God (that’s what ‘good’ is) even if I don’t yet see what that should be. Pray that God will find a way through obstacles and brick walls,. And I mustn’t forget to thank him for good things already seen, nor neglect to praise him for those answers he hasn’t yet revealed. That would show proper faith. And then who: for whom should I be praying? There’s those I have some responsibility for: my family of course; and friends, especially any who’re sick, or struggling, or who’ve asked me to pray for them; and then those I just meet and mix with through work or hobbies or wherever, and feel concerned about; not to mention ‘kings [or queens] and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life’ (1 Tim 2:2). And... But hang on! That’s getting

Prayer Column - October 2019

Whither? And with whom? I sometimes worry that I do more writing about prayer than actually praying! I heard a talk recently by Edna Gibson, who’d been a Christian believer from the age of nine and had risen successfully in the ranks of her chosen profession to managerial level, when at 40 she felt the desire to know God more. Not more about him, but to know him better as God, as Heavenly Father, as Lord and Leader – drawing closer, and that meant prayer. She went on to describe her journey then, with God calling her to do things for which she felt quite inadequate, unsuited, and ill-equipped – indeed impossible. But how at every protest God would challenge her to trust him. And he had led her to become a missionary teaching English as a second language to young people in many parts of the world, so they could mission better too: the fruits of her prayer. A second prompt to me, of much longer standing, arises from our closing churches, shrinking congregations and vanishing youth

Prayer Column - September 2019

Circuit Prayer Letters For the last seven years I have been preparing and distributing by email a weekly prayer letter for those who wish to pray for Bradford North Circuit. The letters offer brief thoughts on prayer, a short prayer, and a list of prayer points: a rota of ministers, office holders and churches; and Circuit events. Some congregations are well represented on my mailing list, but most have very few and one has no intercessors at all. So, to mark the seventh anniversary I’m having another go at publicising the letters in an attempt to strengthen our joint prayer efforts for the Circuit. I think prayer matters. I think God wants us to pray. Indeed I think we actually need to engage with him in prayer if we are ever to reach our full maturity as Christians. Prayer is one of our main means of relating person-to-person with God as our Heavenly Father: in praise and thanks, as well as saying sorry for our slips, trips and flips – and of course asking him for things. Odd