News & Views May 2015 Elmers End Free Church, Goddard Road, Elmers End, Beckenham, Kent
The shared ministry of Elmers End Free Church & Emmanuel URC, West Wickham Minister Rev. Bill Bowman B Th. FCIBS Telephone: Office 020 8777 1150 E.mail: wfbowman@hotmail.com Monday is the Minister s day off. Please do not disturb him except in the case of real emergency. Services The Sunday service is at 11am. Holy Communion is usually held in the morning of the 3rd Sunday of the month. Junior Church at 11am. Children from 3 years old are welcome. A crèche is available for younger children. Weddings, Funerals and Baptisms Please contact the Minister. Elmers End Free Church is a member of Churches Together in Beckenham. 2
Services in May 3rd 11am Morning Service led by David & Katie Hall Organist Peter Dowling 10th 11am Morning Service led by Rev. Bryn Thomas Organist Peter Dowling 17th 11am Morning Service led by Rev. Bill Bowman to include Holy Communion. Organist Anne Clements 24th 11am Morning Service led by Rev Graham Thomson Organist Peter Dowling 31st 11am Morning Service led by Rev Jack Beeson Organist Peter Dowling Dates for your May Diary 16th Quiz Night 6.30pm 8.00. Hosted by Dave Jordan. Tickets from Barbara 17th AGM after Morning Service June News & Views Any articles or news you wish to include in the June 2015 edition of News & Views should be with Barbara by Sunday 24th May. If you would like to email your article please send this to b.heppell@btinternet.com 3
Pastoral Letter Dear Friends This month sees our country vote in the General Election. The right to vote is a privilege that we tend to take for granted in the UK and despite the imperfection of our democratic process with all the pollsters predicting a hung parliament and the uncertainty it brings, I still tend to go along with the observation of Winston Churchill: Democracy is without doubt the worst possible form of government apart from every other one that has been tried!! When we vote in elections people tend to take into consideration what outcome would be best for themselves and this country during May Christian people in this country turn their attention to improving the lot of people in other countries and what we can do for them. I am referring to Christian Aid Week and I am sure you will support it as you are able. Christian Aid Week is from 10th 16th May. Please see elsewhere in the magazine a request for a church rep for EEFC regarding Christian Aid. We are grateful to Ellen Barbet for doing this for us in recent years. If someone could take up the challenge that would be wonderful. Please let myself, Eunice or Ellen know. Christian Aid seeks to ensure that all people everywhere can have their Daily Bread. We pray each time we meet for worship as Jesus taught us, Give us, this day, our daily bread. Note the prayer says US and OUR not ME and MINE. This is the essence 4
of Christian Aid Week to bring this section of The Lord s Prayer to worldwide reality. When the risen Jesus, met with his disciple Peter by the Sea of Galilee, he told Peter the way to show his love for him was genuine was to, Feed his Lambs. I am sure Jesus meant that Peter was to take this to heart in the literal and practical sense as well as figurative and spiritual sense. Jesus still says to his Church today, Feed my Lambs - wherever they are and whoever they are!! Shalom, Bill A date for your Diary When Jeanette and I were married on 31 May last year, our friends at Elmers End clubbed together to give us a most generous gift towards our garden. We decided then that an appropriate thank you would have to wait until this Spring, not least because it would take until then for us to get the garden into some sort of order. Now the time has come, and this is to give plenty of notice that you will all be most welcome to join us for afternoon tea on Saturday 6 June so that we can thank you properly for your gift. (Going public with that date will also spur us on to get some weeding done and plants bedded out). We shall be having open house from 2.30 to 5.30 pm with refreshments of course and hopefully the weather will be kind and we can spread out into the garden. The address: 129 Croydon Road, SE20 7TT. It would be helpful to know how many people to expect, so that we have as large enough teapot ready and don t run out of anything. So if you can come, can you please e.mail Jeanette on jeanette1c@yahoo.co.uk or call us on 020 8778 7957. We do hope you can make it. Nick & Jeanette Comfort 5
AGM Just a reminder that our Church Meeting after the service on Sunday 17th May will be our Annual General Meeting and I would ask that as many members and friends as possible attend this important milestone in our Church s year. Bill Easter Thanksgiving I would like to thank everyone who contributed to our Easter Celebrations at EEFC. Thank you to Katherine, Eunice and Barbara for preparing the Easter Cross and flowers and to Tom and Jack for placing it in the garden as a colourful witness of Jesus resurrection to the local community. Thanks to Jenny for playing the guitar for several of the hymns on both Easter Sunday and Palm Sunday. Thanks also to Peter on the organ. Having inaugurated the Easter Breakfast, I am unable to get to eat it with me taking the services at both churches, however, I am reliably informed it was as appetising as ever as well as good fun. Grateful thanks go to Linda and her team for all their hard work!! I hope I haven t missed anyone? I am sure we would all like to send thanks to our much loved friend, Phil Wall, for the thoughtful (and delicious) gift of a giant Easter Egg. Diolch yn fawr, Phil!! Bill Prayers for the Church Family It has been wonderful to have Ellen Barbet back with us over the Easter period. 6
We continue to pray for Ellen s return to full health and strength and we also continue to remember in prayer our other friends who are not in the best of health Jean Dawson, Jean Ede, Chris Parsons, Ruth Fitzpatrick, Jonathan Val-Macauley and Jenny s daughter, Vicky. I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost (I Corinthians 16:8) These are the words of St Paul as he writes from Ephesus to the church in Corinth around 57AD. As Marion and I and 29 others leave for Turkey (including Ephesus) on 5th May I can assure you we shall not be staying on till Pentecost 2015 (24th May). We shall, however be in Ephesus on Ascension Day (14th May). Home on the 15th!! Ascension Day is a Christian festival that we tend to overlook in our Reformed Tradition, perhaps because it is always on a Thursday. You can read the account of what took place on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem forty days after the resurrection of Jesus in Acts 1:1-12. Because of his ascension Jesus is no longer bound by the limits of space and time as he was during his earthly ministry. He, like ourselves and all human beings could only be in one place at one time. Since Pentecost through his Holy Spirit, Jesus can be with us and all people in every place and time. The events of Jesus life culminating on the cross on Good Friday and the events of Easter, Ascension Day and Pentecost all are interrelated in God s plan of salvation. They are all to be remembered and celebrated. Because of Good Friday you can look back and not be afraid. Because of Easter you can look ahead and not be afraid. Because of Ascension Day you can look up and not be afraid. Because of Pentecost you can look in and not be afraid Bill 7
Worth pondering!! I know the resurrection is a fact and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed the truth for 40 years or so never once denying it. Every one of them was beaten, tortured, stoned, put in prison. They would not have endured all that if they knew the resurrection was not the truth. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world they couldn t keep a lie for three weeks!! You re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie secret for 40 years? Absolutely impossible. Charles Colson (1931-2012) Colson was a Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon and was personally involved with the Watergate scandal and attempted cover-up. He became a Christian in 1973. My thanks to Bryn Thomas for bringing this to my attention on the back of a service sheet I found at Emmanuel after my return from holiday in Scotland. Bryn had been leading the evening service at Emmanuel on 12th April and I guess this was shared with the congregation that night. I thought it deserved a wider readership!! Thanks, Bryn. Bill The Difference I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day; I had so much to accomplish that I didn t have time to pray. Problems just tumbled about me, and heavier came each task, Why doesn t God help me? I wondered, He answered You didn t ask. 8
I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on grey and bleak: I wondered why God didn t show me, He said You didn t seek. I tried to come into God s presence, I used all my keys at the lock, God gently and lovingly chided My child, you didn t knock. I woke early this morning and paused before entering the day; I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray. Borrowing the Car A teenage boy had just passed his driving test and inquired of his father as to when they could discuss his use of the car. His father said he d make a deal. You bring your grades up from C to B average, study your Bible a little and get your hair cut, then we can talk about the car. The boy thought about that for a moment, decided he d settle for the offer and they agreed on it. After about 6 weeks his father said, Son, you ve brought your grades up and I ve observed that you have been studying your Bible, but I m disappointed you haven t had your hair cut. The boy said, You know dad, I ve been thinking about that and I ve noticed in my studies of the Bible that Samson had long hair, John the Baptist had long hair, Moses had long hair and there s even strong evidence that Jesus had long hair. His father replied, Did you also notice they all walked everywhere they went? Looking to the Future A few dates for your diary to keep clear for fund raising for the Church. Saturday June 20th Jenny hopes to hold one of her famous Games Nights and Saturday November 28th she is to arrange something loosely called Christmas Crackers. Next year over the weekend of April 16th and 17th we are hoping to reprise the exhibition. Please watch this space! 9
What Doesn t Kill You. What doesn t kill you makes you stronger, Stay that way and you may live longer. Out of adversity there does come strength, A life not short but great in length. Being helpful gets you places, Keeps you in every ones good graces. Being nasty means you are alone, Leaves you as one on your own. Being happy means you have loads of friends, Being angry means your world s at an end. Be patient and your reward will be waiting, Be the opposite and you ll find it endlessly grating. You ll find that life is what you make it, If you see opportunity, then take it. Remain mad you will get zip Be always happy - now there s a tip. Andrew Karakanna 10th April 2015 A Prayer God give you more than I can ever think or ask; God use you far beyond the sounding of your task. God lead you further than the vision yet can see; God mould you day by day more perfectly. God bless you - bless you in the way He seeth best, God bless you that each life you touch may be more blest. 10
Weekly Activities Brownie Guides Monday 6.30pm Leader Miss Katherine Bayley Langley Pre-School Monday Friday Please contact Mrs Jenny Jupp Telephone: 020 8402 8320 E.mail: langleypreschool@hotmail.com News & Views Editors Mrs Barbara Heppell Distribution Miss Katherine Bayley 11