Bradford North Circuit

How would a gingerbread church with icing doors and chocolate finger organ pipes appeal? Junior Church at Thackley had been busy building such an edifice for a couple of weeks, before the part-completed church was creatively used as the basis of an inspired service, put together by worship leader, Gill Dobson. Using the Lectionary readings and carefully chosen hymns, poems and prayers, Gill gave us a timely reminder that our churches are the people, not the building, and that we are all part of God’s Church – all our churches belong to Him – not us! We considered how the children were building their gingerbread church on the groundwork of the Junior Church leaders and how in a similar way we were building Thackley Church, in the sense that the church is who we are and what we do. We were asked to think how we might describe Thackley - a busy church? A traditional church? An ageing church? A lively church? A tired church? A caring church? Rev David admiring the ...

Our Christmas activities started in early November collecting donations for Christmas hampers for Bradford North Foodbank. Our Christmas Fair swiftly followed on a very chilly late November morning with the first snow of winter! The Fair raised over £600 and we are grateful to Monday Mums for serving refreshments, to the Ladies Group for their yummy cake stall, to the Brownies for their chocolate tombola, the Guides for their tombola and for making lip balm and to everyone else at Team TMC for the many varied ways in which they contri buted to the success of the morning. For several years we have shared one big Christmas card and given the money we would usually spend on cards to charity. The charity is Caring for Life which changes lives by sharing Jesus' love with the vulnerable; if you've not visited their wonderful coffee shop, make it a New Y ear's resolution to do so - http://www.caringforlife.co.uk/ . This year's fabulous Chr...

Sorted Youth Church, a fresh expression of church run by Rev Tracy Milne, of the Church Army, meets each week at Thackley Methodist Church. In their latest newsletter, they write: “Sorted will take up to 36 young people on their annual residential next year to Sneaton Castle. This will be a life changing experience for some of our local young people, as they struggle with a lack of self-esteem and confidence. Talking to a young person recently, Tracy mentioned the opportunity of going away next year with Sorted. The response is incredible: “I have not even been to Ilkley Moor or Baildon Moor ... never mind Whitby. I have never seen the sea.” The young person is nearly fifteen years old. “M y dad says if it costs more than £20 then it’s too much.” The overall cost for each person is £168 excluding transport. Please, if you are able to help us achieve the impossible by raising funds for young people to discover their potential, please use the d...

We were intrigued by an article that we had read in the Methodist Recorder dated 28th October 2016. This was from a Methodist minister who had tried to "Christianise" tricking and treating, and had been pleased with the response. On the evening of 31 October 2017, we put a few welcoming electric tea lights in our front-room window. We put a low table just inside our front door, together with a lighted candle, a lot of unlit tea lights, a taper - and a large jug of water, "just in case". So, each time that we had opened the door and been suitably afraid, aghast etc and been complimentary to the urchins outside, we said that this year we wanted their help. Would they come in and light a candle for us - whilst thinking about someone that they loved, like their grandparents? We asked that the parents would come in as well, to help their children with the taper and light a candle themselves. We explained to the parents that it was All Saints Day the following day, s...

On 25th February I attended the Quiet Day at Thackley organized by Rev Christine Crabtree. It was a lovely experience. I gave a lift to Rev Naeem Javaid, a Methodist minister visiting from Pakistan who is working with Barbara Glasson and the team at Touchstone. His church in Pakistan has four hundred members and a junior church of over one hundred. The day began with a variety of quiet activities. One of them, Impressions of Christ, was to look at eight different images of Jesus as represented by artists from around the world. They gave much food for thought. At another activity I made a “prayer bracelet” for the 23rd Psalm, complete with coloured beads for each verse and a small silver sheep. There were also texts from the Bible to illustrate and colour, as well as a “Welsh” themed table, as it was St David’ s day on 1st March and Christine is Welsh. There were also pictures of dragons. We had previously decided that there were good and not so good dragons and that these were exp...

We celebrated our Harvest Festival on 4 October and what an amazing service it was. Many of our community groups had decorated our windows with Harvest displays and the church was almost full, with lots of mums and tots from See and Know, mums and Brownies, and Guides. As is the way at Thackley, there was an air of flexibility about the service, with many last minute additions/deletions to accommodate various traditions, which included parading the flags, offering Harvest Gifts for CAP UK, our jam pan clatter for Water Aid and our monthly birthday box. It was a delight to have the little ones from See and Know sing one of their songs and empty their Smarties tubes of change into the clatter. What is this clatter? In the run up to Harvest, we collect jam jars of change and make a “clatter” as we pour them int...

Our anniversary weekend on 7/8 March 2015 turned into quite a celebration! After our Big Birthday Bash last year, to celebrate 125 years of worship at Thackley, we thought that this year's anniversary would be quite a low key affair in comparison. How wrong we were! We were delighted that Rev Christine Hawke had accepted our invitation to preach and plans were in hand for our usual Gift Day coffee morning on the Saturday - time to sit back and relax until the weekend came. And then ... a request came in from Brownies to book the room for a Brownie Fair and a parade service to celebrate their 50th Anniversary on the same weekend! Well, that threw us into an email frenzy with many "what if ...", "ah but..." until we finally reached "why not?" Why not share the celebrations? So we did! And what a wonderful weekend it was. The Brownie Fair provided a great opportunity for us to get to know one another and raised over £400. Rev Chris Hawke took...

Two of our Fairtrade champions A big thank you to everyone who came to the Fair Trade Big Brew at Thackley Methodist Church on 28th February. It was lovely to see so many people there from different churches in the Circuit. We took £316.35 in sales of fair trade goods. We also raised £75.57 by asking for donations for the refreshments and this money has been sent to Traidcraft Exchange for their Fair Necessities Appeal , which means that the money will be doubled by the UK government and used to improve the lives of smallholder farmers in the developing world. A special thank you to Thackley for hosting our event and to all who helped on the day. Thank you! Ruth H, Calverley

If you turn up at Thackley on the second Sunday in the month at 6.00 pm, you may find something that seems a bit disorganised and chaotic, but ‘Take a Second’ is going strong and is bringing ages from 7 to 70+ together in very special ways. If we were all to turn up at the same time (rarely happens), we now have a group of around 20. The focus is on fellowship and music. We have piano, guitars, recorders, percussion, ukulele, clarinet, saxophones and voices.  Our choice of music varies from Taize and hymns from Singing the Faith, through to songs from Rend Collective, and if you’re lucky, we’ll all play the same one at the same time! One thing we can ensure is a fun-filled evening with a loving church family. Our next “gig” is Easter Day worship. Ruth W, Thackley

Thackley Methodist Church , BD10 0RH Table top sale Saturday 26 January 2013 10.00 am to 12.00 noon Refreshments available including bacon butties. Our table top sales are one way of us supporting the local community.  Tables are offered free of charge to those in the local area and so far we've had a wide variety of talents on display with jewellery, crafts, crystals, bric-a-brac, baking etc. We hold the sales in church as the community hall is often being used by our groups.  Many have commented about the calm and friendly environment that this provides; it also provides a first look inside for those who have passed by on the outside many times.  We have been particularly delighted that our open doors have drawn in couples who were married or worshipped here many years ago. We hope you will join us.

Table top sale Saturday 27 October 2012 10.00 am to 12.00 noon Refreshments available including bacon butties. Thackley Methodist Church Thackley Road BRADFORD BD10 0RH

When we first mooted the idea of having a Scarecrow Festival it seemed months away – it was!  But the months passed so swiftly it was upon us before we realised.  Thank goodness for the Internet as September saw a flurry of emails from which materialised volunteer signup sheets, posters, flyers, leaflets and a most amazing weekend! A few of us went to church on Friday afternoon not sure who would turn up, whether there’d be any scarecrows and with no specific plans; they did, there were and gradually it all started to come together.  Having seen the work that our groups had put into making their scarecrows, we left praying that people would turn up on the Saturday to see them. We needn’t have worried as there was a steady stream of people both morning and afternoon and we were thrilled by the length of time our visitors stayed with us.  They offered prayers on sheaves of wheat, and the children’s table was a constant hive of activity as young and not so you...

Scarecrow Festival -  Thackley Methodist Church Saturday 6 October Church open for viewing community group scarecrows:  10 am to 12.00 noon and 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm Donations welcomed for church funds and WaterAid. Refreshments available at nominal cost. Sunday 7 October 10.30 am Harvest Festival service led by Rev Sarah Jemison - everyone welcome 2.00 pm Concert by the Glen Singers, an 80 strong mixed voice choir.  Tickets £4 adults, children free with a paying adult, otherwise £2.00 (includes refreshments). We are grateful to  Martin S Lonsdale  estate agents and Northern Lights hair studio for contributing prizes for the raffle - look out for a scarecrow in the village!  If anyone else wants to create and display a scarecrow during the weekend let us know.

Table top sale Saturday 29 September 2012 10.00 am to 12.00 noon Refreshments available including bacon butties Thackley Methodist Church Our table top sales are one way of us supporting the local community.  Tables are offered free of charge to those in the local area and so far we've had a wide variety of talents on display with jewellery, crafts, crystals, bric-a-brac, baking etc. We hold the sales in church as the community hall is often being used by one of our groups.  Many have commented about the calm and friendly environment that this provides; it also provides a first look inside for those who have passed by on the outside many times.  We have been particularly delighted that our open doors have drawn in couples who were married or worshipped here many years ago. The sales are usually on the 4th Saturday in the month; however, you'll have noticed that this is not the case this month.  This is because our church family weekend away at...

Swishing Party 7.00 - 9.00 pm Tuesday 7 August 2012 Thackley Methodist Church BD10 0RH Never heard of it??? This is how it works ... you bring good quality items of clothing/accessories/shoes etc from your wardrobe and for each item of clothing you will bet 1 ticket - this/these ticket(s) can be used then to purchase any item of clothing you decide on at the Swish. These items can be brought to Thackley Church on Monday 6 August between 6.00 and 7.00 pm. There will be a 'look and trying on' session from 7.00 pm - 8.00 pm and you will be able to have refreshments. Absolutely NO-ONE is allowed to claim items before the swish opens at 8pm. You can leave with as many items as you want - but each additional item will cost £2 Entry to the event is £5 and this will include refreshments.

10.00 am to 12.00 noon - Saturday 25 February 2012 Thackley Methodist Church Refreshments £1 Tel:  416044 to book a free table

10.00 am to 12.00 noon Saturday 9 July 2011 Thackley Methodist Church Session £3 including refreshments (please bring exact change) Please email thackley@bradfordnorth.org.uk to express your interest in attending. An opportunity to brush up on PowerPoint and share tips and ideas for using PowerPoint for worship. Although primarily a demo session, those with laptops are welcome to bring them along but please make sure they are fully charged as power supplies are limited.

10.00 am to 12.00 noon Saturday 18 June 2011 Thackley Methodist Church Session £3 including refreshments (please bring exact change) Email thackley@bradfordnorth.org.uk to indicate your interest. An opportunity to brush up on Word and share tips and ideas for producing documents efficiently. Although primarily demo sessions, those with laptops are welcome to bring them along, but please make sure they are fully charged as power supplies are limited.

10.00 am to 12.00 noon Saturday 27 November 2010 Thackley Methodist Church Entrance £1.50 including refreshments Highlights: Christmas gifts Tombola Raffle Books Refreshments

Please join us for our coffee morning and gift day on Saturday 17 April 2010, between 10.00 am and 12.00 noon as Thackley Methodist Church .