Christ is risen - perhaps the most mysterious and yet the most important tenet of our faith. Christ is risen - but what does it all mean?
Christians have engaged in long debates about the true meaning of the resurrection.
Did Christ rise a re-animated body? The risen Christ could eat and drink, he could be touched and felt. Or was the resurrection a `spiritual experience'. The risen Christ was able to come and go. He could appear in locked rooms.
Perhaps the final and difinitive answer as to the nature of the resurrection must remain a mystery. However one thing cannot be challenged. After Jesus' death, the disciples were a disheartened and disillusioned group of people but the resurrection changed all that. Suddenly anything was possible for them. They went out, took on and changed the world.
Perhaps that is the meaning of the resurrection fo us today. In the strength of the risen Christ - Christ who overcame even death - anything is possible for us.
Martin
Just a few important dates for your diary :
Sunday April 23 Easter Sunday*
Saturday May 6 Methodist Synod at High Street, Witney
May 13 - 20 Christian Aid Week*
June 3/4 Missionary Weekend
Sunday June 11 Pentecost Sunday : 10.30am United Celebration in the Market Square
Fri - Sun June 23 - 25 Church Camping Weekend
Sat/Sun July 1/2 Hopes and Dreams
Sunday July 23 Debt Decision Day*
*more details elsewhere in FOCUS
Christian Aid Week is from Sunday May 14th to Saturday 20th, and volunteers are needed for house to house collection then. Please see Dave or Jill if you are able to help. Please read the important article on Millennium Gift Aid - your collection this year could be worth 28% more to Christian Aid.
On the Saturday before, May 13th, our regular coffee morning will be to raise funds for Christian Aid.
Don't forget the Christian Aid Service which will be held at Blessed Hugh RC Church on May 14th at 6 p.m.
Easter is at very the heart of our faith. Please make every effort to share in as many of our Easter Services as possible.
Palm Sunday : 16th April
10:30am Morning Worship, Creche, Junior Church and Teenagers. Led by Mr Phil Shaw
6:00pm Evening Worship. Led by Martin Whiffen
Maundy Thursday : 20th April
6:00pm United Family Agape (at the United Church)
Good Friday : 21st April
11:15am United Walk of Witness (meet in the Market Square)
Easter Sunday : 23rd April
6:00am United Sunrise Service (on Folly Hill) followed by Breakfast at the Baptist Church
10:30am All-age Celebration and Communion. Led by Martin Whiffen
6:00pm Evening Worship led by Mr Pete Haskins
We still have plenty of free gospels for you to give away to friends, neighbours, colleagues, family... well let's be honest, absolutely anyone.
Please take a few and with them take our cards giving details of the Church and our Easter services.
Martin
After morning worship on Sunday March 19th, a meeting was held with Mr John Webb at which outline plans, prepared by Dearle Henderson were presented to the Church.
The plans suggest that we :
· Retain the existing (1975) Church but remove the glass partitions, toilets, vestry etc. and replace with a moveable partition. This will provide us with three possible configurations - namely with the partition in place (i) a Church as now and (ii) a permanent Chapel area roughly half the size of the existing Church and with partition pulled back (iii) a worship area roughly 50% bigger than now.
· Retain the former Methodist Church as it now is, but with the stage removed and other cosmetic improvements to highlight the Victorian features.
· Demolish the former school room, kitchen and toilets and replace with a new two storey building on the same level as the Church, Link and Hall. This will provide new toilets, kitchen and five new meeting rooms. The ground floor areas will enjoy level access from the rest of the premises. The second floor will be accessible by lift. This building will extend into the car park slightly, though space will be released on the site of the former kitchen for the provision of an enclosed garden.
Drawings of the plans can be found on the centre pages of this edition of Focus. Remember that they are "ideas" only - planning permission has not yet been sought. That's our next big decision...
Martin
Although Debt Decision Day, July 23rd, is when announcements will be made on cancellation of debt relief, the decisions will have been made long before then.
Here are a few pieces of news from the March update of the Jubilee 2000 campaign that you might use in a letter of support. First the good news:
· US Congress in November approved a budget enabling President Clinton to fulfil his pledge to cancel all debts owed to the USA.
· In December Gordon Brown promised to cancel 100% (£2 bn) of bilateral debt owed to Britain.
But...
· Much of the debt cancelled is not being paid anyway,
· The $123 m Congress funding was for one year only and does not apply to money owed to the IMF and World Bank.
What can we do in our church to convince the G8 summit? Well...
1. Read the Debt Decision Day letter writing guide at the back of the church.
2. Write to our MP, Robert Jackson, at the House of Commons, London SW1 1AA asking him for details from the Chancellor on how the Government intends to push for a new deal on Debt Decision Day.
3. Write to the Managing Director of the IMF, 700 19th Street NW, Washington DC 20431 to congratulate them on their new Poverty Reduction facility and urge him to ensure it lives up to its promises.
It is estimated that every letter a politician receives is indicative of 1,000
people supporting that cause. So go on - add another 1,000 people to the Jubilee
2000 campaign!
Thank you all for your response concerning the flower rota. Only a few vacant dates are still remaining. Please feel free to add your name to the list.
Jane Rimmer
At the end of January Mrs Joan Boreham read from Proverbs 31, speaking about our families including her own brothers and sisters. A poem by a 13 year old girl was read by Ruth Angell. Rev Martin Whiffen read John 1 v 35-49 at our February meeting; this tells of the choosing of the disciples.
Mrs Beryl Cooper took us travelling to Orkney, visiting St. Magnus' Cathedral and crawling on her back into one of Europe's oldest burial chambers. At our missionary meeting Mrs Nancy Reeves took Matthew 2 as her text, telling us that we in England need to have missionaries tell us the way to the Lord.
At the end of February we welcomed Mrs Isobel Weller and her daughter Harriet. She spoke of her stay in Australia and how her family loved living there, how the Lord was with them through the ups and downs, and when the time felt right to return to Faringdon.
At our AGM we thanked Mrs Lily Kimber* who retires as secretary, after 15 years. Mrs Reeves reminded us of Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Mr Cyril Thomas returned with an informative talk on Madame Speaker Betty Boothroyd.
Rev John Ouko from Kenya spoke first about our "Life Policy with God." He continued his talk by saying how fortunate we were in England with all our amenities, compared to the lifestyle of his people back home. How on Sundays all roads lead to the church and how the Christian message is becoming popular amongst the younger generation.
A flower basket was presented to Betty Thomas on the occasion of her diamond wedding. Congratulations, Betty and Cyril.
Jane Rimmer
I would like to add my own appreciation of Lily Kimber's work over the years as the Women's Fellowship "reporter" for Focus. Her copy NEVER FAILED to be with me before the due date; in fact it was often Lily's envelope through the door that reminded me that the next Focus was due!
DH
Advance date: Outing on 26th April with a Cream Tea at Friars Court.
Chancellor Gordon Brown's Millennium Gift Aid initiative has got bigger and better. From this month onwards, churches and charities can reclaim tax on any gift, however large or small.
The scheme originally allowed tax to be reclaimed on gifts of £100 or more. Now, provided the donor is a UK taxpayer, all gifts will qualify. This means that charities will be able to claim an extra 28% over and above the amount donated - making a £10 gift worth £12.80. When you give, all you need to do is to make sure that the charity to whom you are giving money has your name and address and the amount you are giving.
Among the first to benefit will be children in India, Nicaragua and Rwanda, who are the focus of this year's Christian Aid Week appeal. In order to increase the value of people's gifts this year, donors will be encouraged to fill in their names and addresses on their Christian Aid Week envelopes. If Christian Aid raise as much as last year, the detail of just half the givers would mean an extra £1 million for children in the developing world.
From our church's point of view, loose money put into the offertory bag each Sunday is now losing us that 28% of reclaimed tax. If you are a regular attender, and give the same amount each week, please join the envelope scheme now - see our church treasurer (Liz Kilpatrick) or Nancy Reeves for details.
Britain's first Fairtrade Mark bananas went on sale on Monday, 17 January at the Co-op. The move signals a breakthrough in the campaign to support small, independent producers: now they can by-pass the multinational corporations to supply Britain's favourite fruit.
Despite world demand doubling in 10 years, banana producers don't get a fair deal. They are badly paid, while many workers suffer the effects of harmful pesticides and endure poor working and living conditions.
Fairtrade Mark bananas have been traded and produced to enable disadvantaged producers to get a fair deal. The independent mark is awarded by the Fairtrade Foundation - the UK's fair trade labelling body.
Bananas are now the most popular fruit in the UK, with Britons eating an average of between 25 and 30lbs each year; more than double the amount consumed 15 years ago. Annual UK sales are at a record £750 million, representing more than a quarter of all fruit sales.
Phil Wells, Director of the Fairtrade Foundation says: "Six out of ten UK shoppers say they would like to buy Fairtrade bananas. If they do, and the other supermarkets follow the Co-op's lead, tens of thousands of banana producers can look forward to a better future."
Terry Hudghton, Co-op Marketing Manager, says: "Britain is going bananas about bananas. But many people are unaware of the misery which can lie behind their best-loved fruit."
Co-op's Fairtrade Bananas, available in more than 1,000 Co-op outlets, are sourced from Costa Rica and Ghana. They cost £1.30 per kilo (59p per lb) as opposed to 99p per kilo (45p per lb) for others - the higher prices paid to producers supports them in their struggle for a better life.
The Fairtrade Foundation
You thought the biggest event of the year was the Millennium? Wrong! After all those weeks of hints and anticipation, it finally came - the night Martin celebrated his fortieth birthday in the Corn Exchange.
As a general invitation was issued, Martin and Karen were not sure up to about 8 p.m. exactly how many were going to come, but as it turned out every seat was taken yet no-one had to stand to eat their supper - how's that for forward planning!
After the ordeal of "Martin Looks Back" (come on, you knew it was going to happen) with contributions from friends and family the house was brought down by Adam Vogt's Birthday Song. The evening rounded off with a disco that eventually got all ages on to the floor (just about).
Thanks again, Martin and Karen, for a really enjoyable evening.
Dave Headey
P.S. Martin was threatened, if his articles didn't arrive by the (delayed) copy date, with having the words of "Ministerial Duties" published in Focus. They didn't, so here it is:
Tune: "A Policeman's Lot"
We were once a quiet church in Oxfordshire,
But in 1992 we changed our plans.
That's when Martin said he'd set this town on fire,
But we didn't think he'd start off with the Manse!
Now you might think that his life is ruled by females
But Martin is a New Man, that's for sure.
His service planning starts with loads of emails
And ends with drama scripts - the night before!
But when ministerial duties have been done, have been done
He'll be sailing his canal boat in the sun!
Now everyone was tuning in and listening
When the TV crews converged upon our town.
But now every time that Martin does a christening
We hope the baby's not held upside down!
It's good to see our population soaring
And Martin says these children all belong
So expect to hear him say one Sunday morning:
"We're going to sing a Nappy Clappy song!"
When there's ministerial duties to be done, to be done
We're glad that Martin's here in Faringdon!
Our Church is remarkably fortunate. We have a talented and dedicated team of people who are willing to share in leading all-age worship. Although they never complain about it (well not to me), I am aware of having to ask the same people time after time to take part.
All-age family worship should ideally be just that - all-age and led by the whole family of the Church. I could ring round and ask other people to share in the music, the prayers, the drama, the readings etc., but I really hate having to put pressure on people. It would be really nice to have a list of volunteers willing to help.
So how about it? `If not you, then who? If not now, then when?'
Martin
Bible competition regulars will be sorry to hear that with Nancy Reeves not having been well for the last few weeks the results of the last Bible Competition are not yet available.
We all wish Nancy a speedy recovery and hope that she will soon be back quizzing us on the Bible again before too long. However I hope she will not mind if, just this once, I repeat a competition from a few years ago which I thought had an "Easter feel" to it. No cheating and looking at back issues of Focus for the answers!
Competition No 91 - Alive, Alive 0!
I hope this indicates what answers to look for. I have tried to help you by giving clues in most questions regarding where in the Bible to look!
1. What creature was used by Jesus to enter Jerusalem?
2. What creature's repeated call caused a fisherman to "weep bitterly"?
3. What creature swallowed Jonah?
4. In one of the resurrection stories 153 were counted. What?
5. What creatures fed Elijah when he was hiding by the brook Cherith?
6. What creatures in Proverbs are given as examples to the lazy?
7. Zechariah saw a red one. What?
8. Isaiah prophesied that this would feed with a bear.
9. Jesus said that it was easier for this to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.
10. What insects did John the Baptist eat?
11. What creatures did Mary offer when she took the baby Jesus to the temple?
12. Where did Samson find a swarm of bees and honey?
13. Jesus said two were sold for a farthing.
14. St Paul told the Philippians to beware of these.
15. What creature did Eve blame for her disobedience?
Answers to Nancy by Sunday 21st May please.
Dave Headey
