November 2004

Dear Friends,

November is the month for remembering. It begins with All Souls Day (Nov. 2nd) when we remember with gratitude our loved ones who have passed on and many people find the service in church for this purpose very helpful.
There then follows Armistice Day (Nov. 11th) with its two minute silence at 11am.
On Remembrance Sunday our churches will be filled with people remembering the war dead.
It is important to remember: it is an opportunity to express gratitude and to perhaps learn lessons from the past.

As we grow older we can find great comfort in remembering the past, both happy and sad memories. It is amazing how much the human mind can store. We can remember events from 50 or 60 years ago, as though it were yesterday, and yet the older we become we forget what we did five minutes ago.
It can be helpful to think back to the people who have shaped our lives, perhaps our parents, a school or Sunday school teacher or a special friend come to mind.
I am grateful to my Bible Class teacher who week by week shared the scriptures with a class of lively teenagers. He sowed the seeds that were later to take root and lead me to Christ.
Then there is my old vicar who gradually nudged me towards exploring God's calling into ministry.
Then there was my old university landlady whose example of Christian living set me thinking.
We should remember with gratitude all these people. Recently I have been reading a book by Philip Yancey called Soul Survivor (or how my faith survived the church). He writes with gratitude about the people whom he had met, or whose writings he had read, who had greatly influenced him and restored his faith in God following a bad experience of church.
Perhaps it is a good time to remember people who have influenced us and to thank God for them.

As Christians, central to our memory, should be our Lord Jesus Christ.
Each time we partake of Holy Communion we are reminded of what he has done for us and continues to do.
Not only is there the memory of Jesus but the experience of his continued presence in our lives. He left us with a very simple act of remembrance in the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine and with the instructions "Do this in remembrance of me". The Communion service is more than a memorial service it is a partaking in the life of the risen Lord. The memory becomes a reality here and now through faith in him.

This is indeed cause for celebration.

Yours sincerely
in Jesus' Name

Malcolm Convery

GROWING A HEALTHY CHURCH (part 2)

In last months review the first two marks of a healthy church were considered and those two marks centred on the first two commandments.
A healthy church is one whose members love the Lord our God and seek to express that love in serving others within and beyond the church.
This month we consider the call to follow Christ and the cost of that call.

Just as Jesus called the first disciples so he calls us as individuals and as a church to follow him.
He warned the first disciples of the cost of such a call; that it would involve rejection by family and friends, loss of livelihood, persecution and perhaps even death.
Even today this is the cost to many Christians around the world.

As disciples of Jesus we are called to discern his will, and following his will, is likely to lead to change. The Lord wants to transform lives and transform community. Christians are people whose lives are being transformed into the likeness of Christ and the Church is the corporate body that should also reflect this transformation.
Healthy churches are not necessarily those that have lots of activities which seem to be successful.
A healthy church is one that recognises that it is first and foremost God's church. Christ alone has died for his Church. It belongs to him. It is 'his church' long before it was ever 'my church' or 'our church'.
A healthy church acknowledges this by seeking to discover what God wants for and of his church.
Such churches spend time in prayer, in consultation and conversation as they seek God's will and it is God's agenda not their own that shapes the way forward.
Stopping long enough to discern what it is God is called us to, is a sign of health.
Responding to God's will may involve changing the way we see and do things and, as we know from experience, change is not easy, but change is a fact of life which it is difficult to hide from.
It is not so much the change in type of worship, or time of service or in the church building but real change, from the Christian point of view, involves a change of heart, and this is what is necessary if we are to do what God wants.
Healthy churches are those where choices are made, however painful, and they adapt to changed circumstances.
They are responsive rather than rigid and ploughing on regardless come what may.
The following is a story of a Church that responded creatively to what God was calling it to be and to do:

Open Doors, Open Minds, is a fine story of a church that had been described as a 'preaching shop' and which saw the pulpit as the focal point in evangelism. But they noticed that the local community contained a growing number of bedsits and an influx of people on benefits, often with drug or relational problems or suffering from mental or emotional disturbance. They came nowhere near the church. Courageously the church faced this fact and did something about it. They reordered the back of the church to create a meeting point where drinks, light refreshments and conversations were available. Unconsciously they thought they had done their part by opening their doors. But, once people from the community started to come for drinks, the church found that the conversations, and indeed the conversions, were two way. Their theology was being challenged. They came to realize that relationships rather than pulpits are the key to communicating the faith today. It was a major learning, and turning, point for the church. Here is creative and costly response to a changing world.

Over the next few months may we have the courage to seek to discover what God is calling us as a church, at this time to be and to do in this place.

Vicar

Thank you

The Harvest collections totalled £945.90 (topped up to £1,000 from PCC funds) which has been forwarded to Christian Aid for their Sudan (Darfur) appeal. We have received an acknowledgement from Phil Craine, Area Officer for Christian Aid who had advised us that the latest news he has received suggests that the seasonal rains are easing and that our money will be used for:

digging latrines (100 per week)
distribution of plastic sheeting for shelter, soap, blankets & water cans
running a camp school for 1,600 pupils
supplying handpumps and qualified engineers to bring clean water to the camps.

MOTHERS UNION

The evening members had a very enjoyable meeting at Wendy Allen's when they all turned their hands to making pots! The afternoon ladies were entertained by the Vicar and Valerie – what interesting lives they have both led and on the 19th October Erik White explained the work of the Fisherman's Mission which is extremely interesting but alarming how many men are injured or lost at sea.

A big thank you to the ladies who cleaned the kitchen, after all the workmen had finished fitting the new units and the other necessary works to the kitchen, in readiness for the Friendly Lunch on Wednesday 27th October.

In November meetings are as follows:

Tuesday 2nd at 2 pm Dot Tilbury – The IoM Philatelic Bureau
Tuesday 16th at 2 pm Tea and Chat with Raffle
Thursday 18th at 7.45pm Captain Graham Bibby – Church Army
Wednesday 24th at 10.30 am Corporate Communion
Wednesday 24th at 12 noon Friendly Lunch – Parish Hall – All Welcome

We continue to remember that 2004 is the International Year of the Family and our prayer for November is for Bereavement in families (from a prayer by William Penn).

We give back to you, O God,
those whom you gave to us.
You did not lose them when you gave them to us
and we do not lose them by their return to you.
Open our eyes to see more clearly and draw us close to you
that we may know that we are nearer to our loved ones,
who are with you. Amen.

LADIES FELLOWSHIP

The group started well in September with some new members swelling the numbers. The Vicar and Valerie came to meet everyone over a cuppa. Peter Knowles, Forestry Warden, explained his 'job' with DAFF looking after the hills, forests and glens of the Isle of Man, which was fascinating.
On 3rd November we are learning how to do Sugar Flowers and on 17th Hilary Corlett is giving us her Mozambique Memories.

The PCC have agreed that the Charitable Giving for 2004 be distributed as follows:

Church Mission Society - £750
Bible Society - £750
Children in Distress - £750
Uganda – North Mbale (our link parish) - £750
Onchan Live at Home Scheme - £300
Onchan Endowment Fund - £300
Salvation Army - £300
St. Luke's Hospital for the Clergy - £300

Other donations during the year have also included £500 Kenyon's Café, £100 Manifest and £50 Manx Alpha. A total of £5,000 donated in 2004.

ALL AGE WORSHIP

WHEN:
Sunday 14th November 4pm – 5pm

WHERE:
St. Peter's Church, Onchan

WHAT:
The service will have an informal structure and start with a time of worship using contemporary music followed by a time of teaching then prayer and finishing with more music at the end (similar in structure to STEM services or Manifest).

WHO:
These services are open to all ages. There will be activity sheets for children to complete during the address but the more informal structure may be an opportunity for young people to feel more comfortable participating in a service.

WHAT NEXT:
We will resume after Christmas on the 2nd Sunday and continue on subsequent months.

When was the last time you read from your Bible?

God still speaks to us every day. If you want the hear what he has to say to you, you can read it in the Bilble.

FROM THE REGISTERS

BAPTISMS

Cameron Thomas Moore
Hannah Olivia Lancaster

WEDDINGS

Stephen James Hinds and Sara Marie Thompson
Graham Colin Bates and Lyndsay Ann Shimmin
Mark Blayden and Sarah Louise Kneen

FUNERALS

Marjorie Mackie, Violet Evelyn Gudmanz, Sheila Hughes,
Edna Loader, Margaret Mary Crellin

OFFERTORY

The offertory for September totalled £6,932.02 and was made up of £5,496.88 pledged giving and £1,435.14 of loose plate giving.

Thank you.