Bradford North Circuit

Parables for Bradford - Week 4 Offering God’s hand of friendship Service Sheet (pdf) Welcome Imagine a love seat with just you and God sitting there. On the table is your Bible and the freshest , thirst-quenching summer drink. Come and worship God, relax with Him. All are welcome: if you are sorted or in a mess, feeling like it or anxious, come and worship God who holds you so lovingly in the palm of His hand. He invites each one of us, see His smile and His kind eyes welcoming you to worship Him. He enjoys our presence sitting beside Him. He befriends each of us with His love.  Let’s sing about that friendship and love now…. Song Hymn 88 STF: Praise to the Lord , the Almighty Opening Prayers Father God, we thank you for summer skies, that hold the sun, moon and stars, that give life and strength to summer. We thank you that you are our Creator God. As we gaze up and imagine where heaven is we thank you Father that you are a safe place of refuge, an oasis of rest and peace. We...

Parables for Bradford: Receiving wisdom Service Sheet (pdf) Call to worship:  O God of word and wisdom, parable and proverb, whose ways are beyond our understanding; open our ears to your hidden truths and our imaginations to the depths of your love, that we may know what is right and just and keep only to your paths, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Song:  Sing of the Lord’s goodness, Father of all wisdom (StF 65) OR Let all the world in every corner sing (StF 57; H&P 10) Opening prayer: Blessed are you, God our Father!
 We praise and thank you for your generous love From the beginning you have formed us in faith,
 and again, and again we have gone our own way.
 Yet the voice of wisdom always calls us back to lives of service and love, And we find forgiveness in you. We thank you for your love made visible in Jesus for giving us the words and the will to praise you. In the crib and on the cross you have showed how great your love is;
 you have come to share our life ...

Parables for Bradford - Week 2 Service Sheet (pdf) Introduction Good morning and welcome to this service from Bradford North Methodist Circuit My name is Peter and I am Lay Pastor at Baildon Methodist Church and a Local Preacher in the circuit. You are welcome, whoever you are; if you’ve been worshipping with us for the past year or so; if you’ve just found us as you sit there, curious to see what happens -you are welcome. And if for any reason, you would like to speak to someone we have contact details on the screen at the end of the service. Today we continue with our theme “Parables for Bradford” a parable is a short, simple story that teaches or explains an idea, especially a moral or religious idea this is week two and our parable today is the story Jesus told about two people who built houses – one on a rock foundation and the other on a sand foundation – we shall hear the story a bit later. Song HYMN (StF398) There’s a Spirit in the air… verse 5 gives a practical example of god...

Easter Morning 2021 dawned, it was the day we had been waiting for, for over a year. I woke up early to a hard frost and thought about all those who were preparing for sun rise services.  It was only the 2nd time this year that our building was opened up to worshippers. The Easter Cross and the Church had been suitably dressed for such a special day. Obviously, worship was very different from the usual; we were able to celebrate communion using covid-secure fellowship cups. It felt good to be back, as I reflected on the past year.  We have continued to stay in touch with each other by means of doorstep visits, phone calls and social media. When the rules allowed, we had a couple of social distancing walking groups organised by Margaret T. A monthly news bulletin is produced with news items, reminiscences, poems and of course prayers. David and Edwin looked after the building and Janet kept the finances up to date.  We have knitters and needle craft folk preparing shoe box...

What a difference a year or two makes!  The 2018 – 19 Strategy Questionnaire sent out by Nick asked “What factors guide our thinking and who can help?” Some negative factors are clearly present but we are not concentrating on them. We prefer to ask... ‘What are our strengths and weaknesses and where can we find help to improve the strong points and lessen the weaker ones?’  We went into lockdown quietly confident that the future was hopeful. We continued our prayer walks (virtually), held a Gift Day and contacted all our members to assure them of our support and love. We kept in touch with Drop-in members.  The last 2 years have been like a roller coaster ride full of ups and downs. However, climbing on the roller-coaster, creates no worries but going over the top and tearing down the other side is a different story, as we found out as we reviewed the situation.  2020- 21 Covid-19 and Lockdown  What a difference a year makes.  We outlined our position in t...

Friends,  Normally when I start work in a new appointment there is a fairly clear idea where I should start and what I should do. This time it has been very different because of the pandemic.  Initially I was asked to get to know folk and the areas around Calverley, Christchurch Windhill, Crag Road and Haworth Road Churches. I have been impressed by the faithfulness of so many people in each of these Churches and feel the high levels of longing and the burdens of responsibility, that leaders in these Churches feel for the immediate future. They are not alone in this, for such feelings are repeated in all our Churches across Bradford and beyond.  Thinking prayerfully about my role in the future, the Circuit Leadership Team have agreed that I should spend the majority of my time in the Windhill and Crag Road communities (I am only half time in the Circuit). As your Deacon, I am pleased to be able to do this. A Deacon is called primarily to serve Christ by reaching out into...

A lady went to her minister and said: “I won’t be coming to church anymore.”  The minister said: “May I ask why?”  She said: “I see people on their mobile phones during the service, some are gossiping, some just aren’t living right. They are all just hypocrites.”  The minister said: “OK. But can I ask you to do something for me, before you make your final decision?”  “What’s that?” she asked.  The minister said: “Take a glass of water and walk round the church with it twice, but don’t let any water spill from the glass."  She said: “Yes, I can do that.”  Afterwards, she came back to him and said: “I have done it.”  The minister asked her three questions:  Did you see anyone on their mobile phone? Did you see anybody gossiping? Was anybody living wrong?  She said: “I didn’t see anything, because I was so focussed on this glass, so the water wouldn’t spill.”  The minister told her: “When you come to church, you should be so focussed o...

Here we are, still in the same place as last time with Church services by Zoom or YouTube, but we can still make time for each other in many ways.  Once again Lent began and displays were arranged in the Church window for everyone to see. Items were added each week which retold the Easter Story. People were asked to decorate their own tree with leaves and we added people’s names who we were praying for and also things we were thankful for on them. They were then displayed in their house windows.  We did have a Church service for Palm Sunday, which was wonderful to meet up and see people again. On Easter day, the cross was arranged with flowers to celebrate new life & the risen Christ. The church family were all given an Easter bag with lots of goodies inside, which included a CD of Easter hymns, readings and reflections. Also a booklet telling the Easter story, a chocolate egg and a special card wishing everyone Easter Blessings. The children also were given their own East...

Parables for Bradford - Week 1 Service Sheet (pdf) Opening Prayers: O God of all, lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth. Lead us from despair to hope, from fear to trust. Lead us from hate to love, from war to peace. Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe. Amen . Peace to the nations, to east and to west. Peace to our neighbours, to rich and to poor. Peace to all races, all women, all men. The peace of Christ above all peace. The peace of the Prince of peace, to you and to me. Amen. Song STF 262 All glory, laud, and honour. Address: Mark 4. 34 tells us that Jesus did not speak to the crowds unless he used parables. Matthew 7:28  tells us “ Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching. ” In the gospels, there are at least 9 verses like this, where we hear that the Crowds were astounded at Jesus’s teaching. Much of his teaching was in Parables. In the next few weeks, we will be looking at some of his Parables, ...

I know that Good Friday perhaps seem a while ago now and in Baildon, as many places, we looked at how we could mark Good Friday in a way that was meaningful, yet kept ourselves and the public safe.  In "normal" times, whatever they were, we would gather round a large cross in the centre of Baildon with members of the other Churches to hold a short reflective service of prayer and readings together with a couple of appropriate hymns. There might have been thirty people there on a good day. I have had the privilege of leading this service for the past few years and I have been surprised how comfortable I felt making a public act of witness. What effect this has had on the general public is very hard to determine and I have always felt that this reluctant little group did not reflect the extent of the work and activities provided by four denominations of Christian people.  This was in normal times, but this year had to be different: no close contact, no singing, no groups gather...

At Allerton, having not met together for over 12 months, we decided to hold a short, outdoor service on Easter Sunday.  Virtually all our members and their families attended; all socially distanced & wearing face coverings. Flowers were brought to decorate the CROSS and luckily the weather was kind to us. I led us in prayer and reflection, whilst Margaret read the lesson. We finished with a rousing rendition of 'Thine be the Glory' before we filtered away home feeling uplifted, joyous and thankful to have had the opportunity to see each other again and worship together.  Helen H PS We gave all our Junior Church members an Easter Egg to take home with them!

Dear Friends,  The Yorkshire West District of the Methodist Church, of which Bradford North Circuit is a part, has launched an initiative for Pentecost and beyond called REAL LOVE . It is a challenge to all of us to ask how we, as individuals and Churches, can be real love to those around us, in our families, neighbourhoods, communities. In particular, to think about how we can visibly and tangibly express real love to those around us.  The initiative began in the Aire and Calder Circuit, with lots and lots of hearts being knitted and given to people around St Valentine’s Day, as signs of the Church’s and more importantly God’s real love.  At the District Synod last month all kinds of ideas were generated and shared of ways in which we might show real love. Some of those ideas were:  Put a message of thanks on your door for the post people, or give a thank you to other key workers; Organise a community event such as a litter pick;  Pop-up Sunday School, to give ...

A kingdom of priests? According to Peter, in Jesus we are a royal priesthood ( 1 Pe 2:9 ), and the words are echoed twice in Revelation ( 1:6 ; 5:10 ), drawing on a promise to the Israelites as they were being given the ten commandments ( Ex 19:6 ). It’s even implied in the making of humanity as the image of God and stewards of his creation, marred when they rebelled ( Gen 1:26-31 ; 3:1ff ). What does it mean to be a royal priesthood? As his image humans were to represent God. And as we love God, so we love his world. We treat it as God would, and raise its problems to him in prayer for healing. Our dealings with God are largely spiritual (prayer; heeding his word), but must also affect the way we live. Likewise, material problems on earth have spiritual elements too – hence the need for being a priesthood in our stewardship. Lest we forget this, the Old Testament is replete with references to the disobedience of God’s people harming the world, and the whole Bible looks forward to a ti...