News from the Churches

BAYSTON HILL

1st February 2008 – Emerging daffodils around the church symbolise the promise and hope we feel at the start of this New Year. Our membership continues to grow, as do bookings and regular use of our facility by the community.

We eagerly anticipate the imminent arrival of our new notice boards. They will clearly announce to the village who we are and the time of our main Sunday worship, whilst also giving us weatherproof spaces for posters. Three stewards and Frances travelled to Northwich to order the boards from the Church Notice Board Company who were responsible for manufacturing the millennium signs. One clergyman had seen the words somewhere and went to order a sign for his church. The shape was inspired by a commercial order. A bishop saw the one sign and ordered a hundred for his diocese. From there it went nation wide, even world wide.

On March 18th we will welcome for the 3rd time an ecumenical band of Pilgrims. This was begun by Roman Catholics from Liverpool and has spread to include a widening band. They will enjoy food, fellowship, worship and a good night’s rest at Bayston Hill before moving on for a Good Friday service at Cefn Mawr.

A new art group has begun strongly, organised by Rev. David Jones. They meet on Monday mornings at the church and welcome villagers and Christians from the wider community. It is an opportunity to meet and share and work together for a morning. I think an exhibition is already being discussed as a possibility for the future.

GREETINGS AND NEWS FROM BASCHURCH CHAPEL

One thing for certain these days, being a Christian and worshipping  in a small village chapel is not getting any easier.  In fact being a Christian anywhere is becoming more challenging day by day, We only have to look around to see the problems in the world. We don’t have the answers at Baschurch but trust in the Lord to guide us as we endeavour to witness in the village.  We continue to find encouragement in the way people in and around the village respond to fund raising events such as the Macmillan Nurses appeal, and more recently a coffee morning held to raise money for the local surgery equipment fund.  I am amazed by their generosity, Like the complete stranger who stopped his car outside the Church, called me to him and said he had spotted the notice: handed me a £5 note with the words hope this will help and was gone before I could say thank you. These are just two examples out of the many that take place in the village each year.

Unfortunately the congregations at Sunday Worship are not increasing as we would like but our fellowship remains as high as ever and we are confident in the future of Baschurch chapel.

I am delighted to report a steady increase in the use of the schoolroom by outside organisations since its refurbishment/ renovation which justifies all the money, time, and effort it required.  I have yet to find anyone who now thinks it was a waste of church funds.

One of the advantages of being a member of a small chapel is that everyone knows everyone else. No-one can be missing from church without their being a follow up as to why and so our fellowship continues to grow among its members and friends

The ladies are preparing to host a Woman’s Day of Prayer service on Friday March 7th when Mrs Olwyn Jones will be the speaker.

We would like take this opportunity to say thank you to all the ministers and lay preachers who week by week fill the pulpit at Baschurch; the spiritual uplift we receive is vital to us in these difficult times.

Well that’s my lot for now. God Bless everyone, we take strength in the knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ is with us always.   

COMING UP AT HOLY SPIRIT CHURCH…

Great Big God club continues to grow… more and more young people are getting to hear the good news about Jesus as they join in with the Great Big God club, every Wednesday afternoon in term time at the Church of the Holy Spirit… there are now about 30 kids coming every week as we join together under the enthusiastic leadership of Sam who is helping us as a part of the work of Shrewsbury Youth for Christ.

May 10th sees the Church of the Holy Spirit clearing away the pews and opening the doors to the local community for our Spring fair, crafts, activities and stalls for all.

Soul purpose is back, 24th- 26th May this year spreading the love of Jesus around the whole of the North Shrewsbury area. Over the bank holiday weekend we will be doing projects, litter picking and providing fun & activities in Ditherington, Harlescott  Grange and Sundorne. We are looking forward to hosting probably over 100 young people from the Shrewsbury area, sharing with them in worship and learning more about our faith and then going out with them into the community to demonstrate God’s love in action

For more information do contact Rev Mark Salmon on Shrewsbury 362883.

Methodism – a beginner’s guide (23)

Local Preachers have given great service to the Methodist Church. At Union (1932) there were c.34,000. Their origins show JW’s pragmatism.  He replied to a letter criticising his inconsistency in “tolerating lay-preaching and not lay-administration” in a long letter (3/9/1756). “I do tolerate lay-preaching, because I conceive there is an absolute necessity for it; inasmuch, were it not, thousands of souls would perish everlastingly.” He was convinced there was nothing in Scripture, his supreme guide, against it though he did not accept it easily. CW was more hesitant. From the 1740s it was necessary to put someone in charge of converts to help their faith grow. Margaret Batty (Workaday Preachers Ch 1 to which this article is much indebted) quotes from the Scots Magazine an example of how lay-preaching developed. The Society in Aberdeen met every morning at 5 a.m. JW sent two preachers on a short visit, and after that, “three of their principal men acted as public speakers. The first began with singing a hymn and praying extempore; the second read a portion of Scripture, with a commentary upon it; the third sung another hymn, and concluded with prayer.” Clergy objected they were uneducated, JW replied neither were the apostles, except Paul. He similarly replied to the objection they were not ordained saying the Reformation came about through “irregular preaching”. Some were made circuit preachers and all were examined, supervised and disciplined. Others preached locally but there was interchange. Itinerant preachers were part of the Wesley system but LPs grew like Topsy. The term exhorters was first used by CW in Cornwall 1746 (Journal). JW saw them (1747) examined 18 them, sacked 5, downgraded 10 and said 3 had “gifts and grace” and fruits. The distinction between a LP and an exhorter was “taking a text”. The only distinction between locals and itinerants in many cases was that ones “travelled” the other didn’t.  Some early ones were nearly illiterate but spoke “from the heart” about their experience. As years went by JW became more interested in the content of his preachers’ sermons, their conduct and effect. No account of preaching would be complete without the story of Thomas Maxfield who preached in London (1742). JW heard about it and rushed from Bristol to stop him. He was intercepted by his mother who told him “Take care, John, what you do respecting that young man, for he is as surely called of God to preach as you are.” As always he listened to his mother and to TM and was persuaded.

An A-Z of Methodism and its “peculiar” ways (23)

Guild, formerly The Wesley Guild.   This was formed in 1896 in response to Rev. Charles Kelly’s 1894 Conference paper “How to Retain our Young People”. Rev. W. B. Fitzgerald, the founder and secretary for 25 years, wrote the WG Manual alongside Circuit work in Leeds and at first ran it from his study. The motto was/is One Heart One Way. There followed The Charter for incorporated groups and a magazine. By 1910 there were 2,200 Guilds with 152,000 members. They aimed to reach young people and give them a Christian grounding. The programme was in 4 sections, Comradeship, Consecration, Culture and Christian Service. These became Devotional, Social, Literary and Service. It spawned various groups and activities including rambling, Pen and Camera club, national conferences and rallies (big in this District after the war, filling both Darlington Street and the Civic Hall exchanging preachers at half time!). 10 Guild Holiday Homes were opened of which 6 “Christian Guild Hotels” remain including Willersley Castle and Lindors. Organisation depended on the four committees working well thus giving training for later service in the church, LPs etc. Fitzgerald wrote in early “Wesley Guild Notes”, “Put a live man at the head of your society; if you can’t find a live man, select a live woman. If there is neither…get your minister to wake the dead”!

Essentially missionary in local activities (i.e. “Look-out committees) from 1912 the Guild began medical work in Nigeria. Young people pledged money to build the Wesley Guild Hospital at Ilesha. The first doctor working there from 1912, Dr. John Stephens, gave 8 years exploratory work while drumming up support at home. The foundations were laid in 1922. 1952 saw it rebuilt on a 34 acres site. In 1930 the Guild took responsibility for the Alderman Nixon clinic at Sebgwama in Sierra Leone, which became a hospital. Another at Ituk Mbang was opened in 1930. Guilds still support these projects and set a target of £100,000 in 1997 for a Nigerian Health Care Project.

 Decline set in around WWI. The rise of the Workers’ Education Association, Co-op Schools and Towns Women’s Guild and more available leisure contributed to this. Decline in Church membership was roughly contemporary. In the same way membership has become more “senior”. Shrewsbury St. John’s has a Guild. The ecumenical Christian Endeavour Union was the equivalent in the Primitive Methodist.

P.S. Two years ago Conference withdrew funding for the WG and the salaried National Secretary was lost. The WG Executive, all volunteers, has taken over and is planning a website. Despite this WG is enjoying a new lease of life in many places usually where the Guild has opened its doors to non-church members and then adapted their 'style' to accommodate people in a non-threatening way. This latter information was provided by Vice-chair, John Griffiths, jfgriffiths@dsl.pipex.com.