About the new member of our ministerial team…..

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 the communities where our Churches are to be found and especially so where people, battered and bruised by the storms of life, may be in greatest need of care or support.

Recently, we have brought into the Crag Road Church a group of local residents who obtain close-dated food to distribute to local people, once a week. They started this work from a local bus shelter, but now have the comfort and security of working from the Crag Road building. We also are preparing to re-open the weekly Drop-in, which has run for around eighteen years. We have been very grateful for Christine F for her work in recent months contacting many local people and organisations and there is now a real potential to be involved in more activities in the area. Do please get in touch with me if you, or anyone you know, might be interested in joining with us as a volunteer.

I began this letter by calling you friends. Friends support one another when they try new things or struggle with old things. Now, more than ever, that phrase describes where we all are: trying new things, struggling with old things. I hope we can support one another across all our churches, as we ask God to guide us into the future.

Every blessing

Deacon Merry

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Bradford North Circuit

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