Bradford North Circuit

Interceding with the Lord A sick friend asks a group to pray. You do, and they get better. There is pleasure, rejoicing and praise: God is good. Someone else beseeches you to pray their house will sell, because it’s been on the market for ages and things are getting a bit desperate. So you say you will, but then doubts arise: ‘For Sale’ signs festoon every street; can God really intervene? You reflect on Scripture for a few days: God is Almighty, he’s the Creator he makes the blind see and heals the lame; with him nothing is impossible! With strengthened faith you ask – and a few days later, ‘I’ve got a buyer!’ Oh, glory! And so it goes. You pray and God answers: sometimes very soon, other times later. Even with such chronic world ailments as poverty, figures show the evil tide seems to be ebbing, gradually, overall. Some plights seem especially affecting: a young family torn apart by debility or death; or the children themselves struck down in some horrid way; or addiction s...

Service Sheet (pdf) Welcome Welcome to worship today. Currently, on the first Sunday of each month, we are being encouraged to consider our environment, the climate crisis, and the forthcoming United Nations Conference on climate change (COP26), due to be held in Glasgow in November. Material included in today’s service has been provided by the World Methodist Council  through its project ‘Climate Justice for All’ (CJ4A). The material for this week has been written by Methodists in Uruguay in South America. Song:  Read or sing, For the beauty of the earth (Singing the Faith 102, Hymns & Psalms 333) 1. For the beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies, Lord of all, to thee we raise this our sacrifice of praise. 2. For the beauty of each hour of the day and of the night, hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon and stars of light, Lord of all, to thee we raise this our sacrifice of praise. 3. For the ...

Parables for Bradford - Week 7 Service sheet (pdf) Today is the seventh Sunday of our series exploring Parables for Bradford, listening to some of the stories told by Jesus with an ear to what they might say to us in the places we live, work, worship. Today’s stories (and there are three of them) are well-known and take us into the experiences of losing and finding, of being lost and being found. We follow a lone sheep wandering away from the safety of the flock, hear a coin rolling under a cupboard, and meet a young man squandering both his present and his future. Thankfully (spoiler alert here), we also witness a shepherd searching for and finding that lost sheep, a woman sweeping until she finds the missing silver coin, and a father whose compassion makes it possible for his son to come home. As we begin to engage with these stories, and the reactions they provoke in us, let’s notice their original context, and swallow hard. The religious people of the day are complaining about ...

Parables for Bradford - Week 6 You are invited Service sheet (pdf) Welcome:  Hello and welcome to worship today. My name is Claire Nott. I’m part of the lay pastor team at Baildon Methodist Church and am currently training to become a local preacher. If you’ve been fo llowing the Parables for Bradford series of services, this is week 6 and our parable today  contains a personal invitation from Jesus and a reminder that there is a place in Heaven for each of  us. During today’s service I’ll be posing three key questions. You may like to pause the video at those  points to think about your answer before continuing or you could discuss them with others at the  end of the service.  Call to worship Our call to worship comes from Psalm 47: Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of  joy. How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth!  Songs Let’s celebrate in Jesus being our Lord and saviour with two songs, ...

Parables for Bradford, Week 5: Where True Wealth Lies Service Sheet (pdf) Welcome and Call to Worship Ps 84:1-4 Hymn:  Jesus is Lord! Creation’s voice proclaims it (StF 353; H&P 260) Children’s address: Over recent weeks, here in Bradford we have been looking at the parables Jesus told, those special stories about everyday people, things and situations that Jesus used to challenge his listeners to really think about the points he was making. The theme for this morning’s services is ‘Where true wealth lies.’ I wonder if you can guess which of Jesus’ parables we are going to be thinking about today? I’ll give you a clue. It involves ‘Bigger Barns’! For those not able to watch that video, the story of the rich farmer getting bumper crops and building bigger and bigger barns is very cleverly retold with the aid of Lego bricks and figures, starting with a shed, demolishing it for something bigger, and then bigger still, and finishing up with a gigantic building that dwarfs the huma...

Hedge clipping time I have hedges round my garden. They please the eye and suit the birds. In different places I planted beech, hawthorn and Lawson cypress (not Leyland) 40+ years ago, but other species have since crept in. Some are welcome, others tolerated but kept firmly in check, but a few I do my best to eradicate, though it’s almost impossible. And whereas with the passing of the years hedging has got a bit easier because I’ve learned how, it’s also got harder because the trees stubbornly want to revert to their native form and knottily resist my efforts to correct their natural tendencies. Once or twice a year the shears and loppers have to come out, or I’d soon have rows of rather misshapen specimens struggling onwards and upwards – and also outwards, as our pavements testify. Not infrequently the Bible likens us to trees: oaks of sturdy righteousness, the planting of the Lord (Is 61:3). What does God want of such trees in his garden? The metaphor varies a bit, but it’s quite c...

Climate Justice for All The Methodist Response Service sheet (pdf) Welcome to on-line worship from the Bradford North Circuit. We are interrupting our series on Parables for Bradford by using the first Sunday in each month to prepare ourselves for the COP26 conference about the Climate Crisis. In these five services, we shall be using materials produced by Methodist young people from around the World. A collect for today: Lord of Life, on this day called Independence Day, we know that we are not independent, but dependent on all the other creatures of this beautiful Planet, and we ask that we may remember this in all our dealings. Amen. A story Let me take you forward 100 years in time to 20th January in the year 2121, in numbers that is twenty, one, twenty one, twenty one. My granddaughter is now a very old lady, not too old, however, to read a story to her great grand child, Greta, who is just five years old. They bask outside in the warm January sunshine, regretting that it w...