Bradford North Circuit

That they may be with me where I am When Moses asked God (at the burning bush – Ex 3:13-14) for his name, God said “I am”, the essence of life and being. And Jesus spelled out what that meant in his “I am” metaphors: the bread of life; the light of the world; the door of the sheep; the good shepherd; the resurrection and the life; the way, the truth and the life; and the true vine; and there may be more. (These are all in John’s Gospel, see: 6:35; 8:12; 10:7; 10:11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1) So when he prayed for his disciples, that “they may be with me where I am”, he might have been referring to our eventual heavenly destination, but he might also have been praying that we would follow him in the here and now in his “I am” roles on earth. So we can pray for gifting and guiding that, in his name and by his Spirit, we may, for instance: Feed and sustain others in their need, spiritually and materially Shine the light of his truth and goodness, wherever we are Lead others to faith in Jesus...

Service Sheet (pdf) We welcome you, wherever you are, to this Advent Sunday Virtual Service in Bradford North Circuit.  This very unusual Advent season may be devoid of shopping in busy city centres to the strains of Mariah Carey and Slade, but I hope that this means that we will all find more time for reflection before Christmas comes upon us.  We have one reading this morning about how some people greeted the birth of Jesus, and we have another from St Paul in lockdown in Corinth, pining for his distant friends in Thessalonica.  We hope you will find something in the next forty minutes that will make you feel a more able to face the weeks to come. Collect for today Great God of Love, in this time of separation and loneliness, we pray that our hearts, our homes, and our churches, may be filled with love, so that we may shine like a floodlight over this darkening world. Amen The Gospel The Gospel story today from Luke 2:25-39, reports how two people greeted the baby Jesus...

Service sheet (pdf) Today is the Sunday before Advent, traditionally known as ‘Christ the King’. It’s also a Sunday when lots of Methodist Churches have ‘Toy Services’, when gifts for children are brought by worshippers to Sunday service to then be redistributed to families in need in time for Christmas. Baildon Methodist Church will be receiving/have received toys this year during Friday and Saturday (20th/21st), which will be delivered to Windhill Community Association for distribution. Saltaire were ahead of the game and received toys a few Sundays ago. Other circuit churches will have different ways of sharing and giving at this time, such as Allerton’s 151 Challenge for Action for Children. Today we think about where we might find the King. We might be surprised. Call to worship As a Call to Worship today we look to Paul’s Prayer at Ephesians 1:15-19 “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love] towards all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give t...

Service sheet (pdf) Welcome to our Service of worship this morning from the Bradford North Circuit. I am Ruth Kerr, a worship leader at Baildon, and today we are pleased to welcome the Chair of our Yorkshire West Methodist District, the Rev. Kerry Tankard who will be preaching on parable of the talents in Matthew’s gospel. As a scattered group we can nonetheless know that we meet together in spirit, to worship our God. In these extraordinary times we no doubt come today with a variety of emotions, fear, confusion, anxiety but we can be thankful that we have a God who is for us, who loves us and will not abandon us.  Reading Psalm 62, v. 1,2 and 5 – 8 .  Hymn Come people of the risen King, who delight to bring Him praise. Come people of the risen King, who delight to bring Him praise. Come all and tune your hearts to sing to the Morning Star of grace. ...

Service sheet (pdf) Today is Remembrance Sunday, when we traditionally remember all who have suffered and died in war, pray for those suffering in the conflicts of our day, and commit ourselves to work for peace and reconciliation. As we join in worship today, we do all these things, and acknowledge our need of God’s grace if we are to do them well. Prayer Holy God, giver of life and bringer of peace, in this season of remembrance we ask the help of your Spirit, that we might remember clearly, pray earnestly, and work tirelessly for your kingdom. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.  Psalm 46 1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fall; Go...

Of teacups and water meters I’m quite good at facing life’s storms, until they actually happen! The latest was the water bill. It showed our usage was up when we were confidently expecting it to be less. Once I probably wouldn’t have noticed, but now they highlight such things, pointing to possible reasons, none of which applied except the possibility of a leak in the pipe on our side of the meter. Oh dear! Could we have a leak? How could we find out? And if we had, who could we get to fix it? A day and a night of worry before sheltering sense came to our rescue. I looked at past bills to compare usage, and that revealed that our current bill was not unusually high after all, especially as we haven’t been away on holiday recently – so, no leak, much relief, calm restored, silly me! Oh, but I was thankful. But can that really rather trivial storm in a water meter be applied to more important worries? I think so. We live in a world of upsets. It just is. Jesus told us to exp...