MySmallHelp Thank you Fairtrade Fortnight Enid Tindall ... · Rae. We hold their ... Thanks also for all the lovely cards and telephone calls I have received. ... from Malcolm Atkinson

WORSHIP AT CHRISTCHURCH

March 2015

1st 8th 15th

09:00am On-line@9 On-line@9 On-line@9

10:30am

Rev Rob

Hilton

Inc. Holy Communion

Mrs

Margaret

Cook

Rev Rob

Hilton

Evening -

6:00pm Circuit Service

At Burley

-

SHOPPERS’ SERVICE EACH FRIDAY at 10:30am

A 20 minute time of reflection

6th — Rev Peter Willox, 13th — Rev Rob Hilton,

20th — Mr Michael Noble , 27th — Mrs Margaret Cook

22nd

On-line@9

Deacon Liz

Day

-

29th

On-line@9

Palm Sunday Service

-

The deadline for the April 2015 edition of Wider Horizons is

1st March.

Items (maximum 350 words) preferably by email, please, as an MS Word attachment to both:

Mike Fawcett ([email protected])

and Steve Amos ([email protected]).

4th March The Other Side of the World

Speaker: Val Appleton

18th March Anne of Green Gables

Speaker: Anne Gilyead

11th March My Year as Lord Mayor of

Bradford

Speaker: Paul Hockney

25th March Anniversary

Building a Better Haiti

Speaker: Anne Wilkinson

Wednesday Fellowship Programme

Meeting every Wednesday at 2:00pm

Need a Room?

If you would like to book one of our rooms please contact Val Worrall our booking secretary. Val is in the office on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings (01943 603209) or contactable via email on [email protected]

The Methodist Church / The United Reformed Church THE GROVE, ILKLEY, LS29 9LW

� [email protected]

� www.christchurchilkley.org.uk

℡ 01943 603209

March 2015

In This Issue

Rob’s Blog

Fasting and Feasting

Toddler Group

Same Group Different Location

George, Andrew,

David and Patrick

Who are these people?

Ever Tried Simnel

Cake?

You know you want to!

Walking 1000 miles

Crossing ‘The Line’

Dear Friends, Once we’re into March we’re well and truly on our Lenten journey. This year we’re taking the theme of “Fasting and Feasting”.

Christians throughout the centuries have followed Christ’s example of self denial in order to go deeper with

God. In three of the gospels we read that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert where he was tested by God, hungry, thirsty, and pushed to the limits.

It’s a good reminder to consider voluntarily choosing some self denial, and letting God teach us something through fasting - in today’s world where fruit and vegetables, rich food and luxuries are available all the time, we hardly ever naturally fall on fallow and difficult times, or understand the seasons and their rhythms, and so the lessons of those times go unlearnt. Waiting, sharing, dependence………

Jesus discovered great and deep faith, and returned with a passion and drive that took him through his life from then on. He was by no means a misery guts; he knew how to celebrate and feast, indeed a feast was his most often used image of the Kingdom of God - often with a twist because of who was invited or included. But he had learnt his relationship with the father through those desert times and longed for that solitude, if not the hardship, so often.

So, in our Sunday worship we are paring back on coloured fresh flowers, and asking for visual aids of desert times, fasting and denial. We’re planning the 10.30 services to explore some of these themes - including inviting Naweed Hussain to come and speak to us about Ramadan and why fasting is such an important part of his Moslem faith.

But we’re also feasting, we’re celebrating our national British patron saints this year which means we get to celebrate St David and St Patrick in March - with food, social events, and appropriate worship. Look out for the Celtic Harp!

We live in such a wonderful world, our experience is often that of plenty. We need

March at Christchurch

Week Beginning Sunday 01 March

Our regular weekly activities continue, with Christchurch Café open each weekday from 10:00am until 4:00pm, and on Saturday from 10:00am until 12:00noon. Also:

Sunday – Scope

Monday – Toddlers

Tuesday – Music Movers, Meditation & Welcomers

Wednesday – Wizards, Welcomers & Wednesday Fellowship

Thursday – Prayer Fellowship & Welcomers

Friday – Shoppers’ Service & Jigsaw Fellowship

Also:

Wednesday - Housegroup Leaders’ meeting

Thursday – Leadership Team meeting

Week Beginning 08 March

Regular activities continue

Housegroup week – our ten housegroups meet

Friday – April edition of Wider Horizons published

Week Beginning 15 March

Regular activities continue

Monday – Trustees’ meeting

Week Beginning 22 March

Regular activities continue

Housegroup week

Sunday – Congregational meeting at 1:00pm

Week Beginning 29 March

Start of the Easter School Holidays

No Scope, Toddlers, Music Movers, Wednesday Fellowship

Friday – Good Friday Walk of Witness

www.christchurchilkley.org.uk/calendar

Fairtrade News

As you are aware, sales at our monthly stalls and also bulk orders from the Christchurch Café and Ilkley Moor Medical Practice produce a profit which we are able to pass on to other charities. We have recently made three donations of £250 each to:

Traidcraft’s Fair Necessities Appeal, helping families across the developing world to grow more, earn more and eat more. Up to 3 April 2015 the government will double any donations under their Match Aid scheme so if you are interested in making a really worthwhile donation yourself please visit traidcraft.co.uk/fairnecessities for more information.

Kerala Crafts who support marginalised girls and women in southern India. To learn more visit keralacrafts.co.uk.

MySmallHelp to support the Bus Project in the Sacred Valley in Peru. This provides transportation for a group of 11 special needs children to travel to school. The children benefit from lifeskills training and a warm lunch each day as well as access to a social worker and psychologist, all of which makes a huge difference to their lives.

Thank you to everyone who has made these donations possible.

Please continue to support our stall in the Café each month – buying fairtrade is so worthwhile. We are always set up by 9.50 am and would be pleased to see you either between the morning services or after the 10.30 service.

If you don’t normally buy fairtrade goods, perhaps Fairtrade Fortnight which runs from 23 February to 8 March would be a good opportunity for you to make changes in your shopping habits. There’s so much to choose from – rice, pasta, chocolate, rubber gloves, cleaning or paper products – available from supermarkets, Oxfam or our own stall.

Wherever you buy, the result is the same, helping to lift producers and their communities out of poverty, giving them self-esteem, education and access to health care.

Looking further ahead, we will be stocking The Real Easter Egg again this year, costing £3.99. Of the 80 million chocolate Easter Eggs sold every year, this is the first and only one to explain the Christian meaning of Easter. Our stock will be limited so if you require a specific quantity, please let us know on 609132.

John and Judith Bray

Comings and Goings.

We are sad to record the deaths of Jane Burrell (Juliet Amos’s Aunt in Glen Rosa); Doris Ellis; Michael Kay; Joyce Rae. We hold their families and friends in our prayers at this sad time. We welcome Christine Feather (David’s sister) who now lives in Glen Rosa and Edward Hagg from Cleveleys who has come to live in Abbeyfield. We send our best wishes to them both and trust they will be happy in Ilkley. On the move are Eileen Barraclough to Glen Rosa and Margaret Lantaff, who has left Abbeyfield, and is living with family at present. We think of them as they settle into their new surroundings. Please continue to pray for people in special circumstances and let the Pastoral Team know of any new concerns. Please keep your directory up to date by noting down the comings and goings. Thank you from the Pastoral Team.

Enid Tindall — Wishes to say a big thank you to all the people who came to my rescue when I had the bad fall on 9th January, especially to Neil and Val who carried two tables out to keep the high winds off me.

Thanks also for all the lovely cards and telephone calls I have received.

A very special thank you to Pat and Peter Stockdale for all they have done for me.

to take time to stand with God and see ourselves as we truly are in His presence, and look at the world as it truly is, and live in harmony with it.

Then at Easter, our celebration of Resurrection will be all the fresher and more meaningful.

God bless,

Rob

Same Toddler Group – Different Location

This month construction has begun on Dan’s Den, our community soft play project. These are exciting times! But as the Riddings Hall is rapidly turning into a building site, some existing activities have had to move venue for the moment.

Our weekly Toddler Group is one of those activities. We are now meeting in the Lower Hall from 9:45-11:15am every Monday in term time.

It’s a little noisier, and a little warmer, than the Riddings Hall. But the children have still been having a great time with a range of toys and activities. Each week we have an open-ended craft activity like squeezy bottle painting, collage with stickyback plastic or glue and glitter. There’s also a messy(ish) tray with sand, water or playdough. We’ll have the slide, the tunnel or the stepping stones to give older children a chance to move around and there will be quieter activities too such as jigsaws, Duplo, toy cars or the Brio railway.

Our dedicated baby area is smaller in the Lower Hall but still very much a feature, with soft toys, discovery bottles and a baby gym. Each week we provide a healthy snack for the children and tea and coffee for adults. There is a short story for those who want it. Some weeks we use a classic children’s picture book; other weeks it will be a story from the Bible. We finish with a time of singing together – including one Christian song – before sending people home with a rousing rendition of the Hokey Cokey.

For adults I think the group provides a valuable opportunity to meet other parents/carers and their children and to catch up with friends. Our helpers try to speak to everybody who comes along each week and to offer support and a listening ear where it is needed. Christchurch Café can be very popular when the group finishes.

On the whole the new location for Toddler Group is working out very well. And if you sometimes spot a little extra glitter on the carpet in the Lower Hall, you’ll know why!

Kate Mitchell

Patron Saints

What do you know about the patron saints of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland - George, Andrew, David and Patrick?

In a nutshell:

St George and St Andrew were martyred for their faith. St David and St Patrick died of natural causes. George was a Roman, Andrew a Jew, David a Welshman and Patrick was born in England of Roman parents.

They are remembered on March 1st (St David), March 17th (St Patrick), April 23rd (St George) and November 30th (St Andrew)

But there’s more to it than that! And by the end of 2015, through worship and some special events, we hope you’ll have learned more.

We make a start with St David. Bring on the daffodils and a male voice choir!

Tickets for the Steeton Male Voice Choir St David’s Day concert (£8) on Saturday 28th February are still available

from Malcolm Atkinson or the Christchurch Café.

The Tour de Yorkshire—May 1st to 3rd 2015

As part of the legacy following the excitement and exhilaration of last year’s Grand Deprt, the Tour De Yorkshire will see some of the world’s best cyclists compete in a three day race in God’s own county.

On day three of the race (Wakefield to Leeds) the riders will zip through Ilkley along the Grove past Christchurch, before flying up the “Côte de Cow and Calf” on their way to the finish line in Roundhay Park.

In addition to the main race, there will be a Sportive ride on the same route before the pros set off. A sportive is not a race as such, more a challenge for amateur cyclists to get around the route and set the best time they can.

Although it is not anticipated that the level of disruption will be quite as high as we experienced with the Tour De France, Ilkley will no doubt be very busy on the day!

� STEWARDSHIP RESPONSE FORM 2015

Your Confidential Response – After prayer and thought I/We have reviewed our giving:

Name –

Address –

Tel No/Email -

� I/We commit to give £ each week/month

� A new commitment of £ each week/month

Weekly or monthly envelopes can be provided or details to set up a Standing Order. A Gift Aid form can also be supplied if you are a tax-payer.

� Remains the same at this time.

Churches Together in Ilkley events

Lent talks

All at 7:30pm in the Christchurch Café, under the title 'To Do Justly' Micah 6:8. There will be time for discussion and refreshments after each presentation.

• Wednesday 25th February — Matthew Nice (member of All Saints) will talk about St George's Crypt and issues of homelessness

• Wednesday 4th March — Rev Pat Reid (member of All Saints) will talk about prayer

• Wednesday 11th March — David Brown (former Baptist minister and member of All Saints)

• Wednesday 18th March — Rev Rita Armitage (member of Christchurch) will talk about the work of Beacon and asylum concern

Good Friday— Friday 3rd April Walk of Witness Meet at All Saints church (time to be confirmed) to walk around Ilkley praying for the town and bearing witness to the events of Easter. Easter Sunday— Sunday 5th April Son-rise Service 6:15am at the quarry entrance above the Cow and Calf Rocks Car Park General Election Hustings

Wednesday 22nd April at Ben Rhydding Methodist Church Hall (corner of Wheatley Lane and Ben Rhydding Drive) at 7:30pm If you would like to have a question considered to be posed to the candidates please email [email protected]. Questions will be selected beforehand by a small panel. You must be prepared to ask the question on the evening and will be notified if your question has been agreed for use. Christchurch representatives on CTI are Helen Singleton and Gary Knamiller. Ruth Jones is the CTI secretary.

Women’s World Day of Prayer Service

This service will be held at Ben Rhydding Methodist Church on Friday March 6th 2015 at 2:00pm.

All will be very welcome.

Mary Robinson

What the Candidates Say – Poverty & Wealth Inequality

As editor of Wider Horizons, I wrote to each of the prospective Parliamentary Candidates for the Keighley & Ilkley constituency, asking for their comments.

I have had no response at all from the Conservative, Liberal Democrat or UKIP parties, even after a second try.

Both Ros Brown (Green) and John Grogan (Labour) responded and the following are quoted from their letters.

Ros Brown

‘Our soaring inequality is not an inevitability. It is the result of political decisions... The economic crisis, the environmental crisis and the democratic crisis we face are intertwined’ (Europe Manifesto 2014). The need to transition towards an economic system which structurally supports fairness in trade, the flourishing of communities, local and regional innovation and our beautiful finite planet is of utmost importance. This is why, amongst other measures, we will:

• Oppose austerity. There is an alternative – investment in a low carbon economy, creating real jobs of the future.

• Turn the national minimum wage into a genuine living wage so that everyone can put food on the table and pay the bills.

• Build truly affordable housing, and stop demolishing existing homes.

• Scrap the welfare cap to ensure that we can truly help the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.

• Enforce a cap on bankers’ bonuses and reduce the pay gap between those at the top and those at the bottom.

• Oppose the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the proposed free trade deal between the EU and US, which threatens our public services, environment and democracy.

John Grogan

Over the last 30 years the share of wages in our national economy has declined and inequality increased. Many people in full time work do not earn enough without state benefits to feed and clothe their families.

• Labour will increase the minimum wage to £8 and use the purchasing power of Government to encourage firms to pay the living wage.

Christchurch Stewardship Response 2015

… Or how we encourage each other to give to God through Christchurch

We believe God’s vision for us is Christ at the centre of the

Church at the heart of the town. In order to sustain this vision we each need to think about our regular financial contributions, after due consideration of our own resources and commitments.

We have much to thank God for! The people of Christchurch have an excellent record of giving, but we are concerned that income from offerings has been static at around £120,000 over the last two years and there is a fear that we will not be able to support the ongoing activities of Christchurch in the same way in the future.

It is also to be noted that if volunteering within the Church declines then more income will be required to maintain the services we currently provide (e.g. to provide more paid help in the Christchurch Café or to act as Health & Safety Officer if nobody responds to a request to fulfil the role on a voluntary basis). More details of the current financial situation are provided in the report from Tom Collins (Church Treasurer) in February’s Wider Horizons.

If you currently give to Christchurch on a regular basis we invite you to revisit the level of your giving to consider if you can increase this.

If you don’t currently give on a regular basis, you may wish to consider setting up a Standing Order - over two thirds of those who give to Christchurch do so in this way and it ensures that your gift is received even if you are unable to attend each week.

By responding using this form you will greatly help our financial planning.

Bank details for Christchurch are:

Barclays Bank - sort code: 20 11 81;

Account Number 30637610.

Simply give these details to your bank, or contact Helen Singleton (Stewardship Secretary) to discuss any questions in confidence.

Thank you!

Walking 1000 miles

Thank you very much for your support for ‘the Walk’ during 2014 through encouragement, prayers and some walking. Thank you too for your very generous donations which helped to raise £3,450 for Alzheimer’s Research UK and £1,320 for the Beamsley Project.

The walk was completed with some of the family in North Berwick on Boxing Day. We crossed ‘the line’ as we looked over the Firth of Forth, across the wonderful view of Bass Rock and coastline of Fife, with a surprise bottle of champagne to mark the moment.

Thank you.

Lynda Duttine

Fasting and Feasting

As you will see from the Rob’s letter this is to be our theme over the Lenten and Easter periods.

At 10.30 worship we will explore these themes led by different people taking us on a Lenten journey.

During Holy Week we are to explore the Stations of the Cross beginning with a visit to St Margaret's on the Monday afternoon, a walk to Calvary on Tuesday early evening and a reflection on Wednesday evening at Christchurch.

There will be a Maundy Thursday event at 7.30pm and 2 services on Good Friday - an all age worship at 10.00am and a reflective service at 3.00pm. All will be completed with the Easter services of celebration. Full details will appear on the noticeboards and in the notices shortly.

Do not forget that we are invited to join our friends at St John’s Ben Rhydding on Ash Wednesday to begin our Lenten journey — 18th February at 7.30pm.

Margaret Cook

Fruitful Sources

Did you work out which hymns (in Singing the Faith) matched these tunes?

Carlisle (370) – Breath on me, breath of God

Warwick (390) – My God! I know, I feel thee mine

Wiltshire (638) – Through all the changing scenes of life

Rimington (328) – Jesus shall reign where’er the sun

Moscow (106 and 691) - God, whose almighty word/What shall our greeting be?

Down Ampney (372) – Come down, O love divine

Thornbury (692) – Your hand, O God, has guided

Hatherop Castle (563) – O Jesus, I have promised

Ottowa (666) – Master, speak! Thy servant heareth

Yorkshire (195) – Christians, awake, salute the happy morn

Margo Atkinson

• We will clamp down on zero hours contracts and improve employment rights.

• As the MP for Keighley I would be keen to work in partnership with others to provide greater educational and training opportunities particularly for those in the Constituency who come from poorer backgrounds.

• More needs to be done for those who through no fault of their own cannot work.

• I would vote to abolish the bedroom tax and change the current punitive system of benefits sanctions that is driving families into dependence on food banks.

• On the other hand we need to clamp down on tax evasion to ensure everybody pays their fair share and raise the top rate of tax back to 50%.

So you have two candidates’ positions, and you can judge which you think fits best with your faith position, how you see them measuring up against the gospel – what would Jesus say?

Critical perhaps is the ‘how’ question that underpins these aspirations, and that is one to ask them yourselves at the Ilkley Hustings in April.

Next month – Immigration & Asylum.

Ever tried Simnel cake?

We like it so much we use the recipe any time of year but it is traditionally associated with Mothering Sunday when young girls in service would make one to be taken home to their mothers on their day off. The word simnel probably derived from the Latin word simila, meaning fine, wheaten flour.

Simnel cake is a light fruit cake with two layers of almond paste or marzipan, one in the middle and one on top. Conventionally eleven, or occasionally twelve, marzipan balls are used to decorate the cake, with a story that the balls represent the twelve apostles, minus Judas or Jesus and the twelve apostles, minus Judas.

We would like to mark Mothering Sunday 2015 at Christchurch by sharing simnel cake. If you could make one to contribute to the celebration, please let me know.

There are recipe variations, the one I usually follow is:

225 g butter, softened

225 g sugar

4 eggs

225 g plain flour

225 g sultanas

110 g currants

110 g glacé cherries, quartered

grated zest of 2 oranges

grated zest of 2 lemons

2 tsp ground cinnamon

450 g almond paste

2 tbsp apricot jam

1 egg, beaten

Pre-heat oven to 150°C /gas 2. Place the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, sultanas, currants, glace cherries, orange zest, lemon zest and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl and beat together until thoroughly blended .

Place half the mixture in a buttered and lined 20cm deep round cake tin and level the surface. Take one-third of the almond paste and roll it

out into a circle the size of the tin. Place it on top of the cake mixture. Spoon the remaining cake mixture over and smooth the surface.

Bake the cake for about 2 hours 30 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch. Cover with foil after 1 hour if the top is browning too quickly. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

When the cake has cooled, brush the top with the warmed apricot jam and roll out half of the remaining almond paste to fit the top. Press firmly on the top and crimp the edges to decorate. Mark a criss-cross pattern on the almond paste with a sharp knife. Form the remaining almond paste into 11 or 12 balls (depending on your theological point of view!) and arrange them around the outside.

Preheat the grill. Place the cake under the preheated grill to turn the almond paste golden.

Margo Atkinson

Keighley Women’s Aid

Following our donation of cups, saucers and household goods back in October, Keighley Women’s Aid wrote to us saying:

“I would like to thank you for your kind donation of household goods. Donations such as these make such a difference to the women and children that we support. These donations are especially useful when a woman is ready to be rehoused. As you can imagine, building a home from scratch can be a very difficult task.

Many thanks again for your kindness and generosity.”

Susan Clements (KWA Staff)