LINK. The newsle er of Whitehaven Methodist Circuit January - March Services on or near Christmas Day. From the Editor

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1 Services on or near Christmas Day Friday 23 December 3.00pm Family service at St Mark s village church Moresby Parks Christmas Eve Saturday 24 December 4.00pm Crib service at St Cuthbert s Seascale 4.30pm Carols at St Michael s Lamplugh 9.00pm Christmas communion at the Mee,ng Place, Egremont 10.00pm Christmas communion at Cleator Moor 11.30pm Christmas communion at St Michael s Lamplugh 11.30pm Christmas communion at St Cuthbert s Seascale Christmas Day Sunday 25 December 10.00am Christmas worship at the Mee,ng Place, Egremont 10.00am Christmas communion at St Mary s Ennerdale Bridge 10.00am United Christmas service at St Cuthbert s Seascale 10.30am Christmas communion at St Bees New Year s Day Sunday 1 January 9.00am Communion at St Mary s Ennerdale Bridge 9.45am Worship at St John s Frizington 10.00am Communion at Seascale Methodist church 11.00am Worship at the Mee,ng Place, Egremont 11.00am Café church at Kirkland 11.00am Worship at St Bees 6.30pm Worship at Gosforth David Andrews From the Editor I would like to thank David Andrews for the prayers and all those people who have contributed ar,cles to this edi,on of Link. The deadline for the next Link is the date of the next Circuit Mee,ng, scheduled for 15 March. Alec Bounds LINK The newsle er of Whitehaven Methodist Circuit January - March 2017 In this issue: Page Pastoral le er 2 Demen,a friendly church 3 The Plan 5-8 Public issues 9 cafechurch and café style worship 10 Services on or near Christmas Day 12 Page 12 Page 1

2 Pastoral Le*er At this,me of year, I spend my,me making final arrangements for the blessing of cribs and the ordering of Carol Services. I plan my a endance at informal Christmas celebra,ons and various Church bodies and commi ees are mee,ng for the final,me in the year. So, I can't fail to no,ce that 2016 is ending and that 2017 will soon be upon us. For some 2016 has been a difficult year that has brought (unwelcome) life changes. As we relax and celebrate, we con,nue to hold in our thoughts and prayers those among us, and in our wider community of concern, whose family circle has become smaller this year and for whom Christmas brings bi er-sweet memories. In our churches, too, we see the gaps where some of our friends used to sit and we remember them. Some,mes I think that Christmas can be the saddest and loneliest,me of year. However, Christmas is also about new birth and the hope for the future that centres upon the coming of the Christ child and the promise of God's unfailing love for his world. Amid wars and disasters (and the rumours thereof) we of faith s,ll look for signs of hope in the ordinary things of life. So what will 2017 bring and how will we con,nue to regroup for mission? How will we inten,onally look beyond ourselves and embody the gospel? We've been thinking about our Mission here for a year now: so, if we had to do an 'audit' of our progress in the last 12 months, would we find ourselves to be more or less outward looking than of yore? As we diminish in number, are we growing in confidence in the gospel? Personally, I haven't yet decided what my New Year's Resolu,on for 2017 will be. I wonder what our churches will resolve? Let's hope we pending on numbers) and coffee and tea are always served with refreshments at some point. All the elements of a tradi,onal service are included so there are hymns to sing, there is at least one Bible reading and there are prayers although some,mes I invite the congrega,on to pray among themselves around their tables. There is always a message too although not necessarily a long sermon. To my way of thinking there is no point in having a café style service just for the sake of it. I feel it is important that the subject lends itself to such a service and that there is some point to the congrega,on si?ng around tables. So, people may pray around the tables, the Bible passage may be read with different tables taking on different Biblical characters or there may be very brief,mes of discussion around the tables. The table itself may be a useful tool too as people can rest on it to write prayers or they may create a worship focus on the table. During the advent café style services I led I had people make mangers which stood in the centre of the tables and which formed the focus of our thinking and subsequent prayers. I also aim to relate the snacks provided to the theme. When I preached about Jesus cooking breakfast for the disciples by the lake then we had gingerbread fish, lemon fish, cheesy fish and chocolate fish to eat and when the service was based around Zacchaeus then I thought roughly what Zacchaeus might have offered Jesus for tea. We ended up with flatbreads, feta cheese, olives, fig rolls and a variety of dried fruit. Then for the advent service amongst other things I made Brussels sprout truffles! cafechurch and café style worship aim to be informal and relaxed with no right or wrong way to do things but that does not make them casual or superficial. As people relax over tea and coffee they ofen say that they listen more carefully to the message and are able to respond at a deeper level than previously. Jesus ofen met with people over food, teaching and ministering to them in new ways at such,mes. If it worked for Jesus then my prayer would be that it works for us too. Gillian Bounds Page 2 Page 11

3 O sweet Child of Bethlehem, grant that we may share with all our hearts in this profound mystery of Christmas. Put into the hearts of men and women this peace for which they some,mes seek so desperately and which you alone can give to them. Help them to know one another be er, and to live as brothers and sisters, children of the same Father. Reveal to them also your beauty, holiness and purity. Awaken in their hearts love and gra,tude for your infinite goodness. Join them all together in your love. And give us your heavenly peace. Pope John XXIII can decide to be more outgoing, working with others in our nascent 'mission communi,es', and more visible to those who simply pass by. Wendy Kilworth-Mason Let the just rejoice, for their jus,fier is born. Let the sick and infirm rejoice, for their saviour is born. Let the cap,ves rejoice, for their redeemer is born. Let slaves rejoice, for their master is born. Let free people rejoice, for their liberator is born. Let all Chris,ans rejoice, for Jesus Christ is born. St Augusne of Hippo cafechurch and Café Style Worship Each month a group of people meet in Costa Coffee in Whitehaven for cafechurch. Cafechurch is unlike any other form of church. There is no singing, no sermon and no public prayers instead there is lots of coffee and lots of discussion around the tables. People gather for cafechurch half an hour before it begins and buy their drinks and pastries then chat to others si?ng near them. When the service begins it starts with a quiz (with prizes) followed by the guest speaker talking for about ten minutes on a topical issue. The topic is then discussed around the various tables. The discussion tends to begin from a secular standpoint and then move on to explore the issue from a Biblical and Chris,an view. Some,mes this is facilitated by the table host and on other occasions group members introduce the spiritual dimension. Before everyone leaves for home they are invited to leave prayer requests which the planning team pray through the following day. Café style worship is very different to cafechurch. I don t know how other people approach it but for me it is different each,me I take such a service. The congrega,on always gather round tables, (or a table de- Demen/a Friendly Church Churches Together in Cumbria hope that every church in the county will be demen,a friendly by I am on the Demen,a Reference Group which is tasked with making this happen. As the Demen,a Enabler for this circuit I have already run a session on Demen,a Friendly Church down in Gosforth and I will be doing the same in Egremont. The session will last about an hour and will look at demen,a, the characteris,cs of a demen,a friendly church and how to achieve such a church. It will be on Wednesday 11 January at 2pm in The Mee,ng Place and, although intended primarily for stewards and pastoral visitors, everyone will be very welcome. It will be quite informal and although I have quite a lot of personal experience of demen,a, I freely admit to having very few concrete answers. Gillian Bounds Page 10 Page 3

4 Today Christ is born of the Virgin in Bethlehem. Today he who knows no beginning now begins to be, and the Word is made flesh. The powers of heaven greatly rejoice, and the earth with humanity makes glad. The Magi offer gifs, the shepherds proclaim the marvel, and we cry aloud without ceasing: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to all. Orthodox tradi on Advent Cra5s at The Mee/ng Place Around 50 children (plus accompanying adults) took part in the free craf ac,vi,es, as part of Egremont town's Christmas Wonderland event. Gillian Bounds organised the event and people from other circuit churches helped out. Public Issues The NHS Success Regime is asking us to take part in a public consulta,on 'Healthcare for the future', which includes a proposal to remove 24/7 cover by consultant obstetricians at West Cumberland Hospital. It also includes many other changes to healthcare. I urge you to take part in the consulta,on, for example via the website: h p:// by the closing date, which is 19 December. You may think they won't listen, but I think we have to try to make our views known. There's another live consulta,on, 'North West Coast Connec,ons' about connec,ng the proposed Moorside nuclear power plant near Sellafield to the na,onal grid (h p:// In our area, the power lines will generally follow the exis,ng power lines, but the pylons will be nearly twice the height of the exis,ng ones! The construc,on site will be very long and thin, stretching from Heysham in Lancashire to Carlisle. This consulta,on closes on 6 January. And that's not all. There's also a consulta,on on the County Council's proposals for changes to residen,al care, closing some homes and replacing them with a new one - see h ps://cumbria.ci,zenspace.com/ all This consulta,on closes on 23 December. Alec Bounds If you don't have access to the internet, libraries should have informa,on on these consulta,ons. Lead me, O Lord; be my light in the darkness. Guide my feet to walk in your paths, that I may illuminate the way for others, and pave the ways of this world with peace. A gi of Christmas The journey has begun; the first candle has been lit. Let light and hope go with you; be light and hope for a wai,ng world. A gi of Christmas Page 4 Looking beyond Cumbria, the elec,on of Donald Trump to become President of the USA has surprised many. The President of the Bri,sh Methodist Church Rev Dr Roger Walton and the Vice-President Rachel Lampard have issued a statement that begins like this "Many of the statements made by President-Elect Trump during the campaign will prompt grave concern. Much of what was said was profoundly at odds with the beliefs and values of our Church.' Alec Bounds Page 9

5 WORSHIP LEADERS John Pryde (Cleator Moor) Jill Hudson (Gosforth) Lorrie Larkham (Gosforth) Mary Moody (Gosforth) Mary Snape (Gosforth) Grace Adamson (Hensingham) Philip Adamson (Hensingham) Syl Hunt (Seascale) Phoenix praise all-age worship band contact Jill Hudson PREACHERS FROM OTHER CIRCUITS Rev David Hasson Ian Mason Rev Nicola Reynolds Rev Keith Rushton LAY PREACHERS FROM PARTNER DENOMINATIONS Rosalind Amey David Rudd PREACHERS/WORSHIP LEADERS FROM OTHER CHURCHES Rev Allen Banks (for Cleator Moor/Frizington Anglican) Fishing Stone c/o Liz Bailey Rev Paul Kerry (Moresby Anglican) Rev Jonathan and Sheila Falkner Ven Richard Pratt Revs John and Lesley Riley (Gosforth Anglican) CIRCUIT DIARY January pm Dementia awareness Meeting place Week of prayer for Christian unity pm Messy church - Seascale February 6 Plan dates to Gillian Bounds 16 7 for 7.30pm Mission 2018 launch St Andrew s Mirehouse March pm Whitehaven united Ash Wednesday service St Peter s Kells pm Leaders of worship and preachers meeting Frizington pm Circuit meeting Cleator Moor pm Phoenix Praise followed by supper for Water Aid, this year s circuit charity Meeting place WHITEHAVEN CIRCUIT PLAN 9/4 JANUARY-MARCH 2017 CHAIR OF CUMBRIA DISTRICT Rev Richard J Teal richard.teal@methodist.org.uk MINISTERS Rev Dr Wendy Kilworth-Mason (Superintendent) wkilworthmason@gmail.com (day off Friday) Rev Herbert W Clark (Supernumerary) Rev Dr Lindsay Gray (Associate presbyter) lgray782@btinternet.com Rev Ian Parker (Supernumerary) blacksailvicar@outlook.com (day off Thursday) Rev Nan Pryde (Supernumerary) revnan1@sky.com CHILDREN S AND FAMILY WORKER Katrina MacEwan / katrina118@live.com CIRCUIT STEWARDS David Andrews davidandrews.12@btinternet.com Alistair Bell (Finance) circuitfinance@sandwithbells.plus.com Gillian Bounds boundsuk@gmail.com Mandy Taylor mandy.taylor@shacklesoff.org.uk LOCAL PREACHERS *not currently available to conduct services 1952* Mavis Clark Alan Moore mavismoore@hotmail.co.uk 1977 David Andrews davidandrews.12@btinternet.com 1977* Barbara Hunter * Graham Worsnop graham.worsnop@btinternet.com 1987 Alec Bounds boundsuk@gmail.com 1995 Douglas McDevitte dmcdevitte@gmail.com 1996 Jackie Davies tajdavies@aol.com 2006 Pam Carter pamcarter50@hotmail.com 2008 Gillian Bounds boundsuk@gmail.com 2009 Keith Hudson khudson@freenetname.co.uk 2010 Jean Millie milliejean67@gmail.com Page 8 Page 5

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