Bradford North Circuit

  The Very Disappointing Nativity Service sheet  (pdf) Welcome. Welcome to Baildon Methodist Church’s nativity service. Today’s worship team is Nicki, Amanda, Naomi and me – Rachel. We are delighted that the worship also involves a host of children from across the circuit Thank you to Laura and Adele for working with families from around the circuit so that as many children as possible could take part in this story about everybody’s favourite Christmas service – The Nativity! Prayer And so, with everyone watching, listening, or reading. We open our worship with a prayer. Lord, we pray for each person watching, listening or reading this Nativity service, and each family that is represented. We give thanks that you hold every single one of us in your hand. We pray that you will join us together in your presence as we worship via YouTube, socially distanced in church, or at home with these notes. Help us to take the blessing we receive out into our community and the wider worl...

2nd Sunday in Advent - Preparation in this year’s wilderness Service Sheet (pdf) Call to worship Advent is a time of preparation and already well underway. In the busyness it is easy for us to forget to prepare for Christ’s arrival. The impact of his coming on our lives can only be as much as we have prepared for. Reader 1: So much to be done – the list is getting longer, time is getting shorter. Reader 2: But all of it can wait. Make straight his paths, the Lord is coming. Reader 1: I’ve had to buy all my presents online this year; and they still need wrapping. And with the constantly changing Coronavirus restrictions, I don’t know when I’ll get chance to deliver them! Reader 2: But all of it can wait. Make straight his paths, the Lord is coming. Reader 1: We must get things done, we need to be ready! Oh yes, our preparations must begin for the King. Reader 2: That cannot wait. Make straight his paths, the Lord is coming. Reader 1: Get ready. Reader 2: Prepare your hearts. Make strai...

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. ...