Knowle URC Magazine November 2007                                            Home

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Minister’s Letter

A couple of years ago I went to a conference on Media, Culture and Religion in Kentucky as part of my Sabbatical. One of the papers that was presented there was about a new internet game called “Second Life”. In this game you enter into a world on the internet with other players where you do many of the things that you do in this life, and where people have built houses, parks and even run businesses. Now it appears that the Church has decided it needs to operate in this “other world”. According to the Times newspaper (21^st September):

“The Churches Advertising Network (CAN) has created an island in the virtual world of Second Life and is inviting online seekers to come ashore and ‘Have a second go at life’. Second Life consultant Andrew Down has built the island as a version of first-century Palestine and furnished it with the St Pixels church, cafes, pubs and pools for meditating by. CAN member Simon Jenkins said that Second Life users generally ‘tend to be a bit hostile to organised religion’. So they deliberately incorporated some fun elements to the island, such as the Everlasting Arms pub, the We Three Kings of Orient Arbucks coffee bar and the Zacchaeus bonsai shop. The island will be linked to CAN’s ‘real life’ advertising campaign this Christmas inviting people to take ‘a second chance at life’.”

For many people this game is a form of escapism, a way to relax and get away from the pressures of everyday life. However I suspect for some people it is also because they feel they haven’t made a great success of this real life, and they want to start again. The Gospel offers an alternative solution: to put your real life right by making a fresh start with Jesus Christ. People don’t need a second life, they need a second chance. Our God offers each one of us forgiveness for the past, and a new life. While it is good that the Church is making it’s presence felt in cyberspace, the Church here on this earth needs to make sure that anyone who wants to make a fresh start with Christ discovers that God’s people are ready to welcome them in and help them on their journey of real life.

                        Kevin

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Discussion Groups “What we believe”

All the evenings are 7.30 - 9pm

Thursday 22^nd November

Thursday 29^th November

Thursday 6^th December

These evenings continue the sessions based on what we believe as the United Reformed Church using our Statement of Nature, Faith and Order (there is a version of this at 761 in Rejoice and Sing). Everyone is welcome and you don’t need to have come to the previous evenings.

If you can’t make Thursday evenings or will miss one of the evenings they will also be taking place at Digbeth-in-the-Field United Reformed Church again from 7.30 - 9pm on the following dates, and you would be most welcome to join:

Monday 19^th November

Monday 26^th November

Monday 3^rd December

Kevin

Friendships

Friendships come in all sizes, shapes, and ages. Several years ago at a Women’s World Day of Prayer service at St George & St Teresa’s compiled by the women of Lebanon, we from our church met a Lebanese lady at the service. Over the years this lady has driven by Bentley Heath School at least 4 times a day always with a smile and a wave. The afternoon we broke up for the summer break was the time when we had in an hour a whole month’s rain, we were all rather damp! A car stopped and a lady got out with a box of chocolates,” Hello” she said, remember me? For the last 7 years whilst my Son attended St George & St Teresa’s school you have waved to us everyday, he is now moving on and we won’t be coming this way very often in the future. It was the lady from the Lebanon.  Kath Vale

Edwards Trust Christmas cards are available and Mary is taking orders, details are at the back of church, if anyone from

“outside” the church wishes to order please ring Mary on 01564 776050.

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Holiday 2008

From June 1^st till 6^th there is a holiday organised by Joy & Alan Crumpler, tel 01564 776708, to Durham, it’s 5 nights half board inc en suite, travelling by Johnsons Coach, visiting Durham Cathedral, (where Rev Walter Oberly former Curate of Knowle Parish Church is based), Raby Castle, Beamish, and Alynwick Water Gardens, stopping in York on the return journey.

Cost is £435 based on 2 sharing, or £510 for single person, £50 deposit per person reqd, and these prices do not include insurance, Lunch or admission. Johnsons offer insurance for £19 per person     Sue Bateman.

Exercise for All

I came across this exercise suggested for seniors, to build muscle strength in the arms and shoulders. The article suggested doing it three times a week.

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have room at each side.

With a 5-lb potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides, hold them there as long as you can.

Try to reach a full minute, and then relax. Each day you’ll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato sacks. Then move to 50-lb sacks

Then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato sack in each hand and hold out your arms for a full minute.

Once you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each of the sacks……….       C. Harfoot

Jesus Knows How You Feel  from Never Alone found by Mauvine.

There were times, especially as He drew near the cross, when Jesus felt deprived of human companionship.  His disciples slept while he agonised in prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane, and when he was arrested they ran away.

Whenever you feel lonely, be assured that Jesus knows how you feel, He is able to comfort in a way that no one else can.  Ask him to draw close to you in those moments of loneliness – He understands fully.

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Feast of Tabernacles (Succotu)

On Sunday 7^th Oct our visiting preacher mentioned in his sermon the Feast of  Tabernacles (Succotu). This festival of late autumn commemorates the Biblical time when the Jews left Egypt to wander in the desert before reaching the Promised Land. They then lived in makeshift huts or “succotu” and observant Jews today build such a structure out of wood and branches with the roof intertwined with leaves and harvest fruits – yet open to the skies. The family eat their meals in the “Succah” which has been decorated with vegetables and autumn fruits by all the family.

During the Succotu Festival four symbolic objects are used – the esrog (a type of citrus), the lulov – (palm branch), the hadassim – (myrtle), and arovot (willow) twigs. These form part of the Succotu Synagogue service when Jews give thanks for the fruits of the earth. This was my favourite festival when I was small, because being at the time of my birthday I thought it was all done for me! One year in particular I remember well, I was about 5 years old and my Godmother set out all the wonderful food traditionally eaten at this time, honey cakes, almond cakes, and my favourite – strudel, the food was blessed and so were we! Wasps and bees seemingly in their hundreds descended, my aunt grabbed the food and ran into the house with me very close behind.  Do you know since that day I’ve never been very keen on picnics!!

Jan

 Oct 12 – 24 2008 celebrates 60 yrs Succot in Jerusalem.     Editor

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Modern Slavery

The trafficking business is now worth an estimated £10.5 billion globally. Traffickers are part of an international network supplying demand for sex as a commodity; the women and children whom they entrap are their food chain. The cycle is infused with deception and brutality.

There are a large number of different ways women are trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation, such as:

•   fictitious advertisements in the country of origin

•   fictitious advertisements for marriages

•    kidnapping, often in regions devastated by war, where economic and
      social infrastructures have collapsed

•   girls sold by their families

•   grooming of adolescent girls by so called ‘boyfriends’ who are part of
     the criminal trafficking network, and

•   women locked into paying off serial debt bondage.

Once in the hands of their ‘minders’, women face an appalling future. These exploited young women are kept in conditions akin to slavery.  Here in the UK we do have tough sentences for traffickers and the law is rigorously enforced against those who commit sexual crimes against women involved in prostitution; but if the demand did not exist, the numbers involved in trafficking would be greatly reduced.

Changing attitudes is never easy but campaigns do work. We can look back 200 years to the campaign that led to the abolition of the slave trade, or to the Jubilee 2000 campaign that put pressure on governments to take debt relief seriously for the poorest nations of the earth.

Our Christian beliefs must surely mean that we have to assert everyone's humanity? How can it be right for anyone to buy sex? Isn't it time we made it illegal?

I want to congratulate CHASTE, the Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking across Europe, and the Revd Dr Carrie Pemberton, who have been working to raise awareness of the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation.

Meg Munn, Member of Parliament for Sheffield Heeley, Minister for Women and Equality, May 2005 - June 2007

For more about how you can work for change visit www.chaste.org.uk

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Jason Smith and his wife Gill née Whittingham

Gill & Jason enjoyed a very happy Wedding Day, and had 4 days on their own in the Lake District while we looked after Ben, who is 2 yrs old, and he learned how to climb out of his cot while his parents were away!

They then went to Menorca for 10 days taking Ben with them while Chris & I looked after the house and 2 dogs!  Jason & Gill send their thanks to everyone for prayers, good wishes, cards and presents.  After all the anxiety of whether the wedding and honeymoon could go ahead we were all relieved, many many thanks from us also.

Church Family

We remember in particular Wayde, Jack & Marjory, Isobel, Keith, Marjorie Evans & Irene Ramsey who are all in need of our prayers, also the Congregations of Sparkhill United Church, and our Cluster

Churches.  We continue to pray for everyone and give thanks for prayers that are answered also.

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Church Family  continued.

Happy Birthday to anyone who has a B’Day in Nov. and Congratulations to Clive & Avril who celebrate their Golden Wedding on the 14^th. Our Sympathy and prayers go to Jane and Peter Ogle on the loss of their Mom Doreen only weeks after losing their Dad John.

Chris’s Daughter-in Law Gill is progressing well after her surgery, and now faces 7 months of Chemotherapy,

While in Liverpool we went to the nearest URC/Methodist Church one Sunday, the notice outside says service at 11.00 am.  We got there just gone 10 to 11 and found out it started at 10.45 am!  The congregation were roughly the same in number as our own, a lot of men, not many younger people, and one young person went out to crèche. We were welcomed and introduced to a few people one of which was Shiona.  As usual I read the information on the notice board and came across Shiona Porteous!  So I went back to speak to her and learned that her husband Ian is Alistair Porteous’s cousin, small world! Alistair & Jean attended our church for many years and in fact Jean was our organist, they then moved to Wales where sadly Alistair has since died RIP.  Jean receives our magazine every month.                                                                      Mary

Thanks

My thanks to every member of our church family for making the celebrations of my 70th birthday such a happy event. I had so many cards and beautiful flowers that our home was full to overflowing, so much so that I had to borrow vases. My thanks again and love                          Jan

My grateful thanks to all of you who reminded me that I had passed my three score and fifteen mark on my life journey.  The pot of plants sits happily outside my front door  to be shared by all visitors.

Thanks again                                                                    Ken Alway-Jones

 To everyone at Church I should like to say thank-you for the lovely flowers, cake and card I was given for my birthday it was, for me, a special occasion.

Can I also thank the warm welcome I received when I first joined

 you at Knowle and the friendship I have found.                             Sheila

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Clive and Avril’s Travels

Some of you may remember 3 years ago, Clive and I toured New Zealand and Australia with the Association of Welsh Male Choirs.  We have been off again, this time to South America.  Clive sang with the touring choir which consisted of 69 singers. The rest of the 120 group were family and friends.

We started our journey from Gatwick bound for Buenos Aires via Madrid.  After a long delay in Madrid we eventually arrived at our hotel in Buenos Aires the following day.  During our first three days we visited Eva Peron’s Mausoleum, had a train ride, a boat trip, attended a Tango show and a Gaucho Festival.

Our next destination was El Calafate (2700 miles south).  Here we visited some of the most awesome sights including the Perito Moreno Glacier.  From various vantage points we could photograph the glacier as huge chunks of ice crashed into the waters of Argentina’s largest lake.

Another flight, this time traveling North along the Andes to Briloche.  The shops here were full of locally made chocolates!!  We had a

lovely day touring this area including a chair lift which gave us some spectacular views of the snow-capped mountains and

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Clive and Avril’s Travels continued.

Rising early we started our coach journey by following the Andes to the capital of Welsh Pategonia Esquel.  We traveled through miles of barren land and the hideaway of Butch Cassiday and the Sundance Kid.  The area around Esquel was settled in 1880 and the nearby River Percy provided the power for the mills to grind the wheat.  Soon a town grew up around the mill and was called Trevillin (The place of the mill).  Welsh heritage is still maintained today including the language, customs and Welsh schools.

We attended a ceremony to celebrate the plebiscite.  This commemorates the day in 1902 when the Welsh settlers voted to remain Argentinians rather than become Chilieans.  After 3 days in this area we had another long drive to Puerto Madryn, the landing site of the original Welsh settlers.  We visited some of the locations where the settlers struggled to cross the harsh country in their wagons and saw some of the graves of the less fortunate who perished in the attempt to reach their “promised land”.

One of our excursions took us to Moriah Chapel.  They say when a few Welsh people gather together you soon have a Gymanfa Ganu (Singing Festival).  Within minutes of entering this Chapel, someone started singing one of the famous Welsh hymn tunes.  It was like bees to a honey pot, soon, some of the people who had been standing outside looking at some of the settler’s grave stones started gathering inside the Chapel and suddenly we had the most incredible sound in harmony.  One hymn followed another and by this time some of the locals had joined us and a wonderful atmosphere was created.  Eventually we had to leave but not before one of the group read a psalm from the Welsh bible and another gentleman, who was a lay preacher, concluded with a prayer.  It was a spontaneous and most wonderful thirty minutes.

After another day catching our breath we had to start our homeward journey with a flight back to Buenos Aires.  After an overnight stay we headed for Madrid and a final flight back to Gatwick.

We arrived home feeling very tired, but thankful for the opportunity to see such wonderful scenery and experience some awesome and unforgettable moments.

Avril Griffiths

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A Journey through the Bible with Tiglath.

Mauvine found this introduction to the bible, which we hope will be interesting to the older as well as to the younger readers – Hopefully we will have a reading each month:

Preparing to Depart When I was young, before the war, I used to pay visits to my relations and friends. In nearly every home you would find a large Family Bible. These Bibles were often very interesting as many of them had details of the family history in the end-papers.  The Bibles actually were read. My grandfather always read a portion of scripture to his family before they ate the principal meal of the day. Gradually the habit of Bible reading in the home died out. If it hadn’t been thrown away, the Family Bible lay neglected on a small table, covered with a cloth on which there was a vase of flowers. What a loss this has been! Our Bible contains all we need to know about God; its teaching, if followed, also enables us to live a fulfilling human and spiritual life. The Old Testament encapsulates much of the elements of the Jewish religion and in the Old and New Testament people are found who are also honoured in the religion of Islam.In an attempt to persuade you, my dear readers, to return to a study of the Bible, I invite you to come with me on a journey which will last for about five years as we travel through the Bible’s sixty-six books. We shall visit many countries and peoples. The whole drama of life will surround us. Where else can you find an ass that speaks to her master, or food being lowered from heaven in a sheet? You will hear of a famous king who had the husband of a beautiful woman killed so that he could possess her. There are many stories of high adventure and, if the weather is getting you down, you will find instructions for building a boat. 

Ladies, if you wish to cook like the ancients there are recipes. Most important of all we shall learn how God sent His only Son into our world to teach us how to live our lives. By His death we shall discover how He paid for our sins and by His resurrection offered us the prospect of eternal life. In the latter stages of our journey we shall meet St. Paul and begin to see the formation of what is now a great world-wide Church.

We set off next month through the book of Genesis. The nom-de-plume I am using is one of the names of a Middle-Eastern king —

Tiglath-Pileser.  It is also the name of a camel I brought back from North Africa!     I hope we will enjoy our journey together

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Dates of Interest:

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month

Murder Mystery Harvest Supper

Definitely a night to remember with amazing costumes, phony accents and truly fantastic performance by the characters involved in the murder “plot”.  They gave us a lot of laughs, especially when the lines were muddled and that served to confuse everyone, especially the cast!  A very big “thank you” to those who performed for us and to those who organized the supper, served and cleared.  One remarkable coincidence was uncovered that night.  Gordon Scott, who was a very convincing “Bobby Cuffs”, the police officer, brought along a truncheon which was a family heirloom.  Apparently a close relative was a Bow Street Runner!  How’s that for type casting?         Pat McKee

Christmas Fayre   SAT DEC 1st 10 am till 12.30 pm

Stalls include Bric a Brac, Cakes, Tombola, Christmas Items, Raffle and much more.

Refreshments of Soup & Rolls will be available.  Please support our main Fund raising event of the year.

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Birmingham Ecumenical News (BEN) Articles

Holy Week 2008       The BBC plan to show peak time half hour episodes of the whole passage narrative after Eastenders throughout Holy Week in 2008. The intention is to be as accurate as possible to the biblical narratives and include the Resurrection and Appearances on Easter Day.

Dialogues in Faith at Carrs Lane Church Centre 6 – 7.30 pm continues on...

Nov 1^st   Living as a Jew, talk by Rabbi Barbara Borts, from Kingston Liberal Synagogue & South Bucks. Jewish Community, and

Nov 8^th   Muslim Perception of God, talk by Professor Yayha Michot.

Ecumenical Interfaith Vigils in support of Asylum seekers and Refugees take place on 1^st & 3^rd Mondays of each month, from 17.00 – 18.00 hrs at the back of St Philip’s Cathedral by the Obelisk.

Socials at Christ Church Solihull...

Wed Nov 14^th 7.30 pm     Chaplaincy in Business (Ron Farish)

Wed Nov 28^th 7.30 pm      My life as a Triplet        (Mary Bloxham)

Wed Dec  5^th   7.30 pm     With Christmas in Mind (Finger Buffet)

Digbeth in the Field events…

Sat Nov 17th  10 – 12 noon COFFEE MORNING please bring a Christmas Gift for the Tombola stall at the Christmas Fayre in exchange for Coffee and Biscuits.

Sat Dec 15^th 2.30 – 4 pm  AFTERNOON TEA come and join us for tea and Seasonal Cakes in aid of Church Building Fund.

Sun Nov 25^th  Café Style Worship (evening)

THANKS to everyone who stepped in and helped out with our duties at church during our 6 weeks absence ( 2 weeks on holiday in Ireland).  It was much appreciated.                                 Chris & Mary

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Rotas

Vestry and Communion Elders

Door Stewards

Junior Church

Flower Rota

Lectionary Readings

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Church Diary

Sat Nov 10^th  10.00 am   COFFEE MORNING in the Church, with Cake, Book & Christmas Paper stalls, it is hoped that members of the Boy’s Brigade from Digbeth in the Field will be in attendance for Garden Tidy Up.  Please donate Cakes and Books and support us on the day.

Earlier this year as we celebrated our 75^th Church Anniversary it was mentioned that it would be nice to go and enjoy a meal at Knowle Indian Brasserie, originally the Congregational Church on the High St.  Well it is proposed that we go on Thurs. Nov 15^th when Kevin is available, so please give names to him ASAP.

Sat Nov 17^th         Elders Training Day (no details yet)

Thu Nov 22^nd, Nov 29^th and Dec 6^th  Discussions in the Vestry led by Kevin, all 7.30 pm.

Churches Together

Advance notice!  Jan 20^th 2008  6.30 pm  Service will be held at Knowle URC

Articles for the DEC/JAN Double Magazine to be with Mary by Nov 18^th Please.    Mary

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