Frederick William Faber

Jesus! why dost Thou love me so?

What hast Thou seen in me

To make my happiness so great,

So dear a joy to Thee?

... Fredrick William Faber

Frederick William Faber (June 28, 1814 - September 26, 1863), British hymn writer and theologian, was born at Calverley, Yorkshire, where his grandfather, Thomas Faber, was vicar.

Right Hand Secret

You ordered spaghetti, but you were served steak and fries. You're not impressed with the restaurant. The left hand clearly doesn't know what the right hand is doing. The same is true for any organization where communication is poor. This saying has a positive side to it, though, which is how Jesus used it. He said that when we do good things, we should keep it to ourselves, rather than letting other people admire us. Here's how he put it...

When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Matthew 6:3-4

FAFF - Beetle Drive

A good night was had by all. Some people were definitely more lucky than others. While I moved a modest amount (by winning games) some people flew around the room like a tornado!



The person to blame (I mean thank) for the great idea!



All move!



What they should look like (above) and some of the monsters created (below)!





I think someone is telling me through gritted teeth, "I don't like my picture taken!"

CH Spurgeon

I can sympathize with Luther when he said, "I have preached justification by faith so often, and I feel sometimes that you are so slow to receive it, that I could almost take the Bible and bang it about your heads."

C.H. Spurgeon

I wonder how many Pastors feel the same way? Probably loads!!

Moving Church Update

Update on the moving church click here!

Happy Birthday John Cleese - A Local Lad

Cleese was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England to Reginald Francis Cleese and Muriel (Cross). His family's surname was previously "Cheese", but his father, an insurance salesman, changed his surname to "Cleese" upon joining the army in 1915.[1] As a boy, Cleese was educated at Clifton College in Bristol, from which he was expelled for defacing school grounds: he used painted footsteps to suggest that the school's statue of Field Marshal Earl Haig had got down from his plinth and gone to the toilet.

FAFF - Beetle Drive - TONIGHT!!

FAFF - Beetle Drive TONIGHT!!!! at 6:30pm in the Church Hall and you can find information on Beetle Drives here. Good fun to be had by all but don't forget to bring some nibbles! Brought to you by FAFF - (Fellowship and Family Fun) "If this were any more fun it would be illegal!!"

Psalm 119:18

Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.

Look at My Big Brain

Three summers ago Joni and I did not have to turn on the morning news shows for visual entertainment. Every morning as we got ready for the day we would hear a familiar THUMP! That was the sound of “the crazy bird” returning for his morning concussion. Our bathroom has a large half-moon shaped window near the ceiling. Every morning this bird would fly to the window sill, sit there for awhile, look at his Day-Planner, fly back a few feet and then hit the window full on. THUMP! He would do this over and over. Day after day.

Because I like to think I am smarter than that bird I would laugh and make fun of him mindlessly hitting the same window day after day after day. Stupid bird.
Then I would go out and do a pretty good imitation of this poor creature with my daily Christian walk.
Day after day I would go out and slam up against the same spiritual windows. Einstein was once quoted as saying that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” I am not quite willing to concede that I am insane. But the truth is that I too often approach my spiritual life the same way everyday while somehow expecting different results. If I am hitting the same window over and over maybe it is time to change my approach. Scripture tells me that I should be producing fruit in my walk with Jesus.
If I am truly grafted to the true vine I will be producing fruit. But I too often decide to THUMP against the window of my own desires and selfishness. Jesus said this in the Gospel of John.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other. (John 15, NIV)
Sometimes I make this so hard. I am asked to trust in Jesus daily. When I do that Jesus says I will produce fruit. Then the Father will give me whatever I ask in His name. Then He commanded me to love one another. That is not a “helpful suggestion“. That is a command. But that doesn’t fit my plan.
My strategy is to ask for the Father to give me whatever I ask first and then I will get around to producing fruit out of my happiness. THUMP.

Then I decide that there are some people I simply cannot love. God understands. THUMP.

I rationalize that I just can’t produce fruit right now because of (insert today’s difficult life circumstance here). THUMP.
Yep. I am a lot smarter than that bird. It has only taken me a little over fifty years to figure out I need to change my approach. Stupid bird.

Dave Burchett is an Emmy Award winning television sports director, author, and Christian speaker.

What really happened to the ark!

Moving Church!

I have heard of being moved in Church but this is ridiculous! and after I read the article I realised it was a sad story that people and their community were moved because of big business!



German church rolled to new home

An entire stone church is being lifted and rolled to another location, 12km (7.5 miles) away from its original home in the German village of Heuersdorf.
The 660-tonne church, built 750 years ago, is being moved so that coal deposits beneath it can be mined.
The church has been lifted from its foundations and lowered onto a rolling wooden base that is expected to reach the nearby village of Borna next week.
Heuersdorf's residents are also being relocated to make way for the mine.
The village's 59 inhabitants earlier lost a legal battle to prevent the Mibrag company from building its mine.
The firm agreed to move the church in order to secure the right to mine under the village, near the city of Leipzig in what used to be East Germany.
A spokeswoman for Mibrag told AFP news agency the church is expected to arrive at its new home on 31 October.
The cost for the project is estimated to be 3m euros ($4.2m; £2m).
Heuersdorf was built atop large deposits of lignite, a type of brown coal used to fuel power plants.

John Wesley

Let all our chapels be built plain and decent; but not more expensively than is absoulutely unavoidable: otherwise the necessity of raising money will make rich men necessary to us. But if so, we must be dependent upon them, yea, and governed by them. And then farewell to the Methodist-discipline, if not doctrine too.

John Wesley, instructions to Methodists in the U.S. [1784]

John Wesley, the son of the rector of Epworth, Lincolnshire, was born in 1703. After being educated at Christ Church College, Oxford, Wesley was ordained in 1725. After finishing his studies Wesley remained Oxford where he taught Greek. At Oxford University John became a member of a small group which had gathered round his brother Charles Wesley. The group of Christians, which included George Whitefield and James Hervey, became known as the Holy Club or the Oxford Methodists. In 1735 John Wesley and his brother Charles became missionaries in America. After three years with the English settlers in Georgia, Wesley returned to England and joined George Whitefield in Bristol. Wesley's passionate sermons upset the local clergy and he found their pulpits closed to him. To overcome this problem in 1739 Wesley built a Methodist Chapel in Bristol. Wesley and Whitefield also gave sermons in the open-air. John Wesley continued to travel the country where he mainly visited poor neighbourhoods, and most of the people who attended his meetings were industrial workers or agricultural labourers. Wesley's main message was of God's love. He told the people who attended his meetings that if they loved God in return, they would "be saved from sin and made holy". Wesley also had a lot to say about personal morality. In his sermons he encouraged people to work hard and to save for the future. Wesley also warned against the dangers of gambling and drinking. Although there were Methodist ministers, John Wesley encouraged people who had full-time jobs to become lay preachers. This gave working people valuable experience of speaking in public. Later, some of these went on to become leaders of trade unions and reform groups such as the Chartists. Wesley found time to write a large number of books during his life-time. This included collections of psalms, hymns and sermons. He also founded and edited the Methodist Magazine. Wesley received over £30,000 in royalties from his writings. This was used for charitable work including the foundation of Kingswood School in Bristol. Wesley and his followers became known as Methodists. By the time John Wesley died in 1791, the Methodist movement had over 76,000 members.

Asylum for Eritrean gospel singer

Helen Berhane was arrested after recording an album in 2004. An Eritrean Christian gospel singer who was tortured and detained without charge for two years in her homeland has been granted asylum in Denmark.
Helen Berhane was imprisoned inside a metal shipping container and beaten in an effort to make her recant her faith.
Freed in December 2006, she took refuge in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, before being granted asylum.
Ms Berhane uses a wheelchair because of severe injuries to her legs and feet sustained in prison beatings.
More than 90% of Eritreans belong to one of four recognised religions - Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran Churches and Islam.
All other religions were outlawed by a government decree passed in May 2001, though Jehovah's Witnesses had been denied their rights as Eritrean citizens as early as 1994.
Helen Berhane is a member of the unregistered Rema Church and had just released a cassette of gospel music when she was arrested in the Eritrean capital on 13 May 2004.
She was one of an estimated 2,000 members of illegal evangelical church groups in Eritrea who have been arrested in recent years, according to the human rights group Amnesty International.
Arbitrary detention
After an international campaign, she was released in December 2006 and fled with her sister to Sudan, fearing she could be killed to cover up what had happened to her at the Mai Serwa prison camp near Asmara.
Among the tortures she endured was the infamous "helicopter" position, in which the prisoner is placed face down with arms and legs tied behind the back.
Her account of the cruel and inhumane treatment she suffered is echoed by the testimony of hundreds of others persecuted for their religious beliefs.
Prisoners say they are routinely subjected to extremes of heat and cold, denied water and sanitation, according to testimony collected from exiles by Release Eritrea, an organisation that campaigns for the rights of religious minorities.
Ms Berhane's daughter, Eva, who joined her in Khartoum, accompanied her to Copenhagen where the two were greeted by campaigners and well-wishers on Friday.
Dr Berhane Asmelash, Director of Release Eritrea, said: "We are relieved that Helen and Eva are finally safe and would like to thank everyone who has supported them."
"We hope that Helen will now have the peace and space to recover her health and rebuild her life."
Initially Helen Berhane applied to the United Kingdom for asylum and was interviewed by immigration officials at the British High Commission in Khartoum in January 2007.
Seven months later, with no decision on her case by the British, Ms Berhane sought help from Denmark which took one month to determine that she was a genuine asylum seeker.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide's Chief Executive, Mervyn Thomas, said: "We are thrilled that Helen has now finally found refuge for herself and her daughter after so many years of suffering."
"We cannot forget, however, that 2000 other Christians still languish in Eritrean detention centres simply for holding on to their faith," Mr Thomas said.

The Shadow of Death

'The Shadow of Death' by William Holman Hunt

"I love this painting because it shows the whole of Jesus’s life in one image – his birth, his life and his death. Although it is ostensiby a Christian image, the cycle of life applies to all of us, whatever our beliefs."Holman Hunt, who was one of Britain’s greatest painters of religious art, travelled to the Middle East and did the painting in Bethlehem and Jerusalem to capture the exact light and atmosphere."The scene shows Jesus and his mother Mary in his father’s carpenters’ shop. We see Mary searching through the trunk for something amongst the gifts from the Three Kings, we see Jesus, as a young man, stretching his arms after using the saw in the foreground and in the background, we see the shadow cast by Jesus on the wall foretelling his crucifixion."We do not see Mary’s face but can imagine her fear, as she sees the shadow on the wall. The painting is unusual, as it shows Jesus as a working man in an ordinary setting. It shows the love between a mother and her child, which again is universal.
Masterpiece
"The painting is full of symbolism – amongst other things the skein of wool on the floor symbolises the crown of thorns, the arched window forms a halo above Jesus’ head, we see the star of David above the window and the plumb bob positioned on the wall gives the effect of being Jesus’ heart in the shadow.
"With its detailed observation and brilliant colours, I think this painting is an absolute masterpiece – come and experience it for yourself in Gallery 5, Manchester Art Gallery."

Blaise Pascal

If the mercy of God is so great that He can instruct us, to our salvation, even when He hides Himself, what a brilliance of light we must expect when He reveals Himself!

Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal (pronounced [blɛːz paskal]), (June 19, 1623 – August 19, 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the construction of mechanical calculators, the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote powerfully in defense of the scientific method.
He was a mathematician of the first order. Pascal helped create two major new areas of research. He wrote a significant treatise on the subject of projective geometry at the age of sixteen and corresponded with Pierre de Fermat from 1654 and later on probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science.
Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he abandoned his scientific work and devoted himself to philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensées.
Pascal suffered from ill health throughout his life and died two months after his 39th birthday.

Taking Snack Attack to the next level!!

Half pipe chapel opens officially- Tom Geilfus rides the new ramp.

A Methodist chapel in Cornwall which has broadened its appeal by building a skate ramp inside is being officially opened on Sunday. The Tubestation project is held at the Polzeath Community Church. President of the Methodist conference Dr Martyn Atkins, who is on a visit to the county, is performing the ceremony. Local Methodist minister Gareth Hill, who has also introduced a cybercafe, said congregations of more than 100 people now attend each Sunday.
He said that throughout the summer many people were coming into the cafe from the beach and studying the Bible and last month they celebrated three baptisms in the sea.
The ramp was built with the help of a £1,240 grant from North Cornwall District Council, provided through a community fund for young people.

Psalm 118:24

This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Beetle Drive this Saturday - FAFF

FAFF - Beetle Drive this Saturday the 27th at 6:30pm in the Church Hall and you can find information on Beetle Drives here. Good fun to be had by all but don't forget to bring some nibbles! Brought to you by FAFF - (Fellowship and Family Fun) "More fun than a person should be allowed to have"

Happy Birthday Delze

The church was invited over to Paul and Delze's last night for Delze and the boy's birthdays as well as a thank you get together for the house and fellowship. Well in true Church fashion we swarmed by taking over the house for a few hours last night. A wonderful time was had by all, hard to believe they have been here 2 months already. No pictures I'm afraid, so you will have to take my word for it.

Jonathan Edwards

A truly humble man is sensible of his natural distance from God; of his dependence on Him; of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom; and that it is by God's power that he is upheld and provided for, and that he needs God's wisdom to lead and guide him, and His might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.
-- Edwards, Jonathan

Snack Attack October 2007

What a great success this was, not only did 52 children from the surrounding neighbourhood show up but Eve's and my team, Orange, won the games. A great big thank you to all those who helped and a big hug to those who could not make it.
The theme was Daniel and the Lions, the kids heard a story about daniel and got to make lion masks after a hearty breakfast. The pictures really tell the story of the day.

John Shore examines John 1:1-5

Here's the NIV text of John 1:1-5:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

God, that's beautiful. It just rips your breath away.
Um ... but if I can say, I think that last sentence (which is verse 5) should stand alone as its own paragraph. There's a real break in thought there. It would really drive home the beauty of that sentence -- and enhance what comes before it -- if it was pulled out, and presented in isolation.
Anyway, as to the passage as a whole: If there's denser text anywhere in the Bible, I don't know it. What Christian hasn't deeply wondered at the word "Word" in that first utterance? Why word? Why ... such a common, everyday noun, right there? Why not tree, or Core Idea, or ... footprint, or something. Why word?
John! Whatup?
Well, here's my understanding of it: What the first four sentences of John are telling us is that the trinity is real. It is describing the fact that God comes in three modes: Absolute and unchanging ("God"), exuberantly creative ("Word"), and personally and specifically inside of each and every man ("the light of men").
And there's the unutterable mystery of the three-in-one God. There, in four simple sentences, is the entirety of our religion.
See, now that's writing.
Jesus, of course, is the Word. Jesus (um ... as I see it) is the active principle of God, the phenomenon through which God's unending potential is manifested in real space and real time; he's the perfect means by which God's absolute, undifferentiated power is Actually Expressed.
And "Word" perfectly captures that extraordinary dynamic. A thing doesn't really exist -- at least, not within the human realm of experience -- until it has been named, until someone has attached a word to it that, from then on out, refers exclusively to that thing. Naming something marks the finality of the process by which something gains its own separate identity; it's how a thing transforms from vague or unknown, to specific and very known.
Putting a word to something is how, essentially and substantively, that whatever-it-is gets created.
It's how a thing moves from the world of undivided and absolute God, to the differentiated, relative, human world in which God became Jesus.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
And there it is: by the power of the active, creative force of God which ultimately personified itself into the Jesus we today worship, all things that ever were or will be were created. Jesus is the Word through which God created us, and our world.
In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
And there you are.
And here we are!





Visit John online at www.johnshorebooks.com.

William Secker

When the wheels of a clock move within, the hands on the dial will move without. When the heart of a man is sound in conversion, then the life will be fair in profession.

William Secker

The Kiss of Judas

This phrase is always about betrayal, and goes back to the most famous betrayer in history, Judas.Judas was one of the 12 men chosen by Jesus as his closest followers. But for some reason (which continues to be argued about) Judas chose to betray Jesus to his enemies, who arrested, tried and executed him within a few hours. The crowning element in Judas' betrayal was that he identified Jesus to his enemies by kissing him – using a sign of love and friendship. It was a kiss to make the blood run cold...

Jesus was still speaking, when Judas the betrayer came up. He was one of the twelve disciples, and a large mob armed with swords and clubs was with him. They had been sent by the chief priests and the nation's leaders. Judas had told them ahead of time, "Arrest the man I greet with a kiss." Judas walked right up to Jesus and said, "Hello, teacher." Then Judas kissed him.

Matthew 26:47-49

18th October 1989

An earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, kills more than 270 people in San Francisco.

I was about to watch the "World Series" baseball. The stadium shook on camera and people ran onto the pitch.

Proverbs 15:15-18

All the days of the oppressed are wretched,
but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.
Better a little with the fear of the LORD
than great wealth with turmoil.
Better a meal of vegetables where there is love
than a fattened calf with hatred.
A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension,
but a patient man calms a quarrel.

Matthew 25:29

The person who uses what he has will get more, but the person who doesn't use what he has will have everything taken away from him.

15th October 1958

Britain's most popular children's television programme 'Blue Peter' is first broadcast on BBC TV. The first presenters are Leila Williams and Christopher Trace.

My memories of Blue Peter are Valerie Singleton , hyperactive Yorkshireman John Noakes and Peter Purves were like family when I was a kid. These three regularly shared their giant stamp albums with us and taught us how to make a nuclear reactor out of milk bottle tops.

Without Blue Peter
• I would have never have known how to make Christmas decorations from coat hangers and candles;
• I would never have realized that you can make guide dogs for the blind simply by collecting big balls of silver foil;
• I would have never have realized we needed seven hundred thousand Lifeboats on the British coast . . . and . . .
• I wouldn't have had Valerie Singleton to fall in love with

Don't take anything as gospel, except....

Teresa of Avila

God has been very good to me, for I never dwell upon anything wrong which a person has done, so as to remember it afterwards. If I do remember it, I always see some other virtue in that person.

... Teresa of Avila

Friday Friendship - 19th October

Birthday Tea from 1:15pm until 3:30pm in the Church Hall

Wisdom

That wisdom which cannot teach me that God is love, shall ever pass for folly.
... John Owen

Good Saturday - Great Sunday for Giving Thanks!

LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown congratulated the England rugby union team on reaching the World Cup final with Saturday's 14-9 win over hosts France.
Brown, a Scot, said it was a proud day as he sent his best wishes to coach Brian Ashton, captain Phil Vickery and the players.
Defending champions England will face either South Africa or Argentina in the final at the Stade de France in Paris on October 20.
"I want to congratulate Brian Ashton, Phil Vickery and the whole England rugby team on their fantastic achievement," Brown said.
"This is a proud day for the country and I wish the team the best of luck for the final."
Culture Secretary James Purnell was at the Stade de France as he watched England come from behind to knock out the hosts.
"When Jonny Wilkinson lined up his drop goal, the whole country knew what was about to happen," he said.
"England defended brilliantly and deserve their place in the final."
David Cameron, the leader of Britain's main opposition Conservatives, said: "What an amazing result. The England rugby team have made the country enormously proud with their performance in Paris."

UK Forces Memorial

Inspired by a television programme which featured the cases of British and Commonwealth soldiers (a number of them under-aged) who were shot at dawn during World War One, artist Andrew DeComyn, crafted the statue of a blindfolded boy soldier awaiting execution. It was accepted for inclusion within the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffordshire to form a section uniquely dedicated to the memory of these men.
The National Memorial Arboretum lies at the eastern edge of the newly-designated National Forest in Central England. It is a 150 acre site where planting began in 1997 and is dedicated as 'a living tribute to the wartime generations of the twentieth-century and as a gift in their memory for future generations to reflect upon and enjoy'. There are currently 56 individual areas commemorating many branches of armed and civilian services, as well as a Millennium Chapel, a Visitor Centre and restaurant.
Lying at the eastern end of the Arboretum, close to the River Tame, the Shot at Dawn Memorial Grove is, symbolically, positioned where dawn first breaks on the site.


The sculpture of Northumberland Fusilier Private Herbert Burden fronts a semi-circle of 306 wooden posts, each bearing the name of an executed British or Commonwealth soldier. At 16, Private Burden lied about his age in order to 'join up' and was executed for desertion, having lost his nerve during heavy fighting at Ypres. He was 17 years old. Read More

Magnanimous Muslims

A total of 138 of the world's top Muslim leaders, clerics and academics have written an open letter to the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and other leaders of the Christian world.
It warns that world peace depends on better dialogue between them, and points to the fundamental beliefs each have in common. But the real significance of the initiative lies in the creation of a powerful new lobby in world politics. It is certainly not the first time that Christian and Muslim leaders have referred to their shared values and traditions. In the years of tension since 9/11 it has been a frequent accompaniment to inter-faith meetings and projects aimed to mend the fractured and suspicious relationship between some Muslims and Christians.
But the letter, written by ayatollahs, muftis, sheikhs, sultans, professors and ministers, has taken this assertion of cousinly - even brotherly - relations to another level. That is partly because the signatories have a considerable personal influence, in countries as diverse as Russia, Egypt, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Yemen.
"Looking down the list of signatories, there is one person after another with large followings, often numbered in millions," said David Ford, professor of divinity at Cambridge University.
"The fact that they've signed it means it will be taken seriously at the grass roots."

Just what are the revelations that this impressive cast-list has signed up to?
The letter contains a clearly written account of the passages in the Koran and the Bible that illustrate close similarities in the most fundamental doctrine of Christianity and Islam.
For example each of them insists that followers worship only one God, and requires them to love their neighbours as themselves. Other passages strike a note of conciliation, even humility.
For example, there is the Koran's acknowledgement that the truths revealed to the Prophet Muhammad - the founder of Islam - had already been shown to the prophets of the Old Testament (the Jewish Torah) and the New Testament, including, of course, Jesus himself.
The document also picks out the verses in the Koran which tell Muslims that they should treat the followers of these Jewish and Christian prophets with particular friendship and respect.
It also cites the Koran's specific instruction that these "people of the Scripture" worship the same God as Muslims. But the real significance of this gesture, is that it is the first act of a group that intends to become the "international voice" of mainstream Islam, missing for so long.

It has been one of the problems of dialogue between Christians and Muslims that Islam has lacked a coherent mainstream view. It has little of the hierarchies that characterise Churches, headed by leaders who can credibly represent the faith. Not only is there no Muslim pope, but there is barely a single voice, or even group of voices, generally acknowledged to speak for "global Islam". It has produced a vacuum into which it has been easy for extremists to move, whether locally in a town or city, in a country or in whole regions. Extremists, from maverick imams to the leaders of al-Qaeda, have found it easy to claim to speak for Islam.
Response
"So often the extremists have been able to use the modern media," says Professor Ford.
"Now finally there is a platform, a mode, for the moderate, mainstream, traditional Muslim leaders to come together and find consensus."
Moderate Muslims have often been criticised for what is perceived to be their failure to speak out on more difficult issues than the shared basics of faith.

As well as Muslim terrorism, they include the lack of democracy in Muslim countries and the often violent treatment of Christian minorities, especially converts to Christianity. One of the authors of the letter, Professor Aref Ali Nayed, says: "We can't solve all of Islam's problems with a single document." However he agrees that what the 138 have begun with their statement is a powerful new voice in world politics in the making. "Now we have the mechanism of getting all these scholars together to speak with one voice really worked out, we shall build upon it," says Professor Nayed. "You shall see more scholars and more documents, and we shall address other issues, issues that are more difficult. But we must have the courage to face them."

By going back to fundamentals - the authors hope to undermine the fundamentalists themselves. Reiterating the shared view of a single God and the command to "love thy neighbour", the letter strips away the baggage of history and culture and produces a blank sheet for a new relationship. In a sense there is a greater potential for agreement across the religious divide than there is for healing the fractures within each religion, because no-one is asking or expecting the other for concessions. However some have questioned the letter as the basis of dialogue. The Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, himself born into a Muslim family, pointed out that Christians' view of God - containing Jesus in a divine trinity - is very different to that of Muslims. Dr Nazir-Ali said: "Dialogue should be on the basis of that difference. They appear to be saying 'this is what Muslims believe... if you agree, then let's have a dialogue'."
Christian leaders do now plan a response to the letter. Professor Nayed insists that the dialogue must at least take place, arguing that world peace, even the survival of mankind, might depend on it. He said: "Christians and Muslims make up more than half the world's population... and when you look at the weapons in the hands of those people... and the violence of terrorism, it's easy to see how dangerous it is for there to be so little understanding."

12th October 1492: Columbus reaches the New World

Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sights a Bahamian island, believing that he has reached East Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day, and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, who sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route to the fabled cities of Asia. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought might be Japan. He established a small colony there with 39 of his men. The explorer returned to Spain with gold, spices, and Indian captives in March 1493, and was received with the highest honors by the Spanish court. He led three more expeditions to the New World, making numerous discoveries, without ever realizing that the lands he explored were part of North and South America, continents unknown to 15th-century Europe.

Table Top Sale this Saturday 13th October

This Saturday 13th from 10:00 to 12:00. Great morning to shop and have a free cup of tea or coffee and some cake. Cake and goods donations warmly appreciated. Volunteers welcome!

Samuel Rutherford

They lose nothing who gain Christ.

-- Samuel Rutherford

Services and Regular Events

Sunday Services

10.30am Family Service & Children's Sunday School. Followed by fellowship (coffee, cakes and a good chin wag about the weeks events or even how excellent the sermon was) and book sale in the hall.
6.00pm Evening ServiceWeekday Ministries
Monday
8.00pm Keep Fit - One hour informal fun fitness session for all ages and abilities.
Tuesday
7.00pm Teenager Group (ages 10-14 years)
7.30pm Alpha Course
Wednesday
9.30am Parent and Toddler Group
10.00am Prayer and Bible Study (at the church)
6.00pm Children's Club (ages 5-10 years)
7.30pm Prayer and Bible Study (at the church)
Friday
2.15pm Friday Friendship every other week
Monthy Events
2nd Saturday of the Month10.00am-12.00pm Coffee morning and Table Top - Jumble Sale in Church Hall
SaturdaysFAFF Group (Fellowship and Family Fun) Once a Month!!!

Snack Attack 20th October

For local kids up from 5 to 10 years old. Held in the church hall from 10:00am to 12:00 starting with a great breakfast and then crafts, games and stories. See you there!

Pop Stars and Celebrity

You can’t turn on a news program without seeing their disheveled hair and makeup streaked faces. The Hollywood mystic has succeeded in turning bright, young, impressionable women into slaves of hedonistic heartbreak. From Lindsay Lohan to Brittany Spears to Paris Hilton the once brightly burning lights of super stardom have been reduced to little more than fragile candles blowing in the cultural wind.
What is it about these tragic lives that fascinate us so? Why can’t we seem to get enough of the latest superstar meltdown? Our voyeuristic appetites are fed daily by a news media that is more than willing to feed us a steady diet of the latest scandal. The fact that CNN, FOX NEWS, MSNBC, and every other cable network sees a ratings spike every time they show another police photo showcasing the latest exploits of these tragic young women says much about our collective appetite for the sensational.
At the risk of reviving a tired, overused and iconic question, “What would Jesus do?” We don’t have to guess because John’s Gospel records Jesus encounter with a young woman whose light was also burning dim. He met her at a well near the town of Sychar. She came to draw water from the well during the hottest part of the day (presumably to avoid the accusing eyes of the community). Jesus had stopped to rest while his disciples traveled on into town to buy food. As the woman approached the well, Jesus asked her if she would give him a drink of water. The woman was amazed this Jewish man would speak to her because not only was she a woman, she was a Samaritan woman. But Jesus wasn’t’ concerned about the religious or cultural differences of the day. He was concerned about this woman whose soul was riddled with the results of her search for meaning.
Just as the modern day Lindsey Lohan’a and Brittany Spear’s type characters go from party to party looking for something to fill the void of their lives, this woman spent her life going from man to man looking for meaning through a relationship. People who live in a desert land survive by knowing where the sources of water are located. They have to stay on the move hoping they can carry enough water from the last source to make it to the next. Their lives are in perpetual motion, never at rest but always searching.
Jesus walks into this scene and resists the woman’s attempts to talk about the hot button religious issues of the day (such as knowing the right place to worship). He puts His loving but prophetic finger directly on the hurt in the woman’s life when He says, “Go and call your husband.” When she responds sheepishly, “I have no husband,” Jesus responds, “You have well said that you have no husband for you have had five husbands and the man you are with is not your husband.”
It is interesting to note that Jesus didn’t beat around the bush but neither did He condemn her. He presented to her Himself as the living water that would eternally satisfy and then, almost as an afterthought, He added, “In fact, the water I will give will become a well of water springing up within for eternal life.” This is an amazing word from the Lord. Not only does the living water satisfy the longing of the soul it becomes a source of satisfaction for others. Never again would this woman have to bring her bucket from afar and come to the only source of water that she knew. Now, she herself would be a source of water forever satisfied and forever springing forth to those around her. She symbolically leaves her bucket behind because it is no longer needed. She goes into the nearby town and allows her newfound fountain of living water to flow freely to the people until they long to know the source.
If only someone would present this living water to these modern day seekers. Instead of satisfying our hunger for the titillating facts about the sordid lives of these young women in the spotlight who are being destroyed, we should pray that God would put someone in their path that has this living water. One drink would save their souls and satisfy their search. Then they would become sources of living water that could flow out to a whole generation of young women who are slowly destroying their lives by searching in all the wrong places for love.
The lives of these women should not be reduced to a perverse peep show for our entertainment. They should be seen as opportunities for true believers to allow the living water of Jesus to carry them to the cross.

Tony Beam

Hosea 8:12-

I wrote for them the many things of my law, but they regarded them as something alien.

Though the laws were written for them, Israel considered them "alien." It is easy to listen to a sermon and think of all the people we know who should be listening, or to read the Bible and think of those who should do what the passage teaches. The Israelites did this constantly, applying God's laws to others but not themselves. This is just another way to deflect God's Will and avoid making needed changes. As you think of others who need to apply what you are hearing or reading, check to see if the same application could fit you. Apply the lessons to your own life first because often our own faults are the very first ones we see in others.

11th October 1886

Other than of a member of the Royal Family, Britain's first statue to honour a woman is erected in Walsall in the West Midlands. Its a statue in memory of Dorothy Pattison - known as Sister Dora.

Sister Dora (born Dorothy Wyndlow Pattison, 16 January 1832, at Hauxwell, Yorkshire; died 1878) was a 19th century nurse in Walsall, Staffordshire.
She was the second-youngest child of the Rev. Mark James Pattison, and sister of the scholar Mark Pattison Jnr. From 1861-1864, she ran the village school at Little Woolstone, Buckinghamshire. In the autumn of 1864, she joined the Sisterhood of the Good Samaritans at Coatham, Middlesbrough. She was known for her compassion.

Ironically the hospital she worked in is run down and next to the site of the new Walsall Manor Hospital which is just under construction which I (the writer) am involved in.

R C Sproul

The issue of faith is not so much whether we believe in God, but whether we believe the God we believe in.
-- Sproul, R. C.

In the News - Opt-in or Opt-out?

The Church of England has declared organ donation to be a Christian duty, in keeping with giving oneself and one's possessions freely. Body parts should not be mistaken for the person themselves, and the best way to treat them reverently is to use them to heal others, the Church said. It was taking part in a House of Lords consultation on whether there should be an EU-wide position on organ donation. The Church said it would welcome the creation of a European donor pool. But its Mission and Public Affairs Division would not be drawn into setting out a position on whether an opt-out system, in which everyone is considered a donor unless they state otherwise, was preferable to an opt-in, when people state their wish to donate.
This was "not a question on which Christians hold a single set of views", said Reverend Tom Butler. "The opt-in system reflects our concern to celebrate and support gracious gifts, freely given," he said. "The opt-out approach stresses Christian concern for human solidarity and living sacrificially for others."
The UK is currently considering switching from an opt-in to an opt-out system, in the hope of meeting a chronic organ shortage. Making this change has dramatically increased the number of organs available for transplant in some - although not all - of the countries which have done so.
The Church said that were there to be an EU-wide donation policy, member states would have to adopt the same system of consent.
"Member states will need to ensure that there is a balance between the organs they can provide and those their citizens need for transplant otherwise some nations will be jeopardised and worse off than hitherto."
Many faiths support the principle of organ donation, including the Roman Catholic Church, although they are thought unlikely to support the notion of it being a "duty".

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The first service one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love of God begins in listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. It is God's love for us that He not only gives us His Word but lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother when we learn to listen to him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer [ˈdiːtrɪç ˈboːnhœfɐ] (February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism, and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plots planned by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He was arrested in March 1943, imprisoned, and eventually hanged just before the end of the World War II in Europe.

9th October 1974

German businessman Oskar Schindler, credited with saving 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust, dies at the age of 66. A member of the Nazi party, he ran an enamel works factory in Kraków, Poland, employing workers from the nearby Jewish ghetto. When the ghetto was liquidated, he persuaded Nazi officials to allow the transfer of his workers to the Plaszow labor camp, thus saving them from deportation to the death camps. In 1944, all Jews at Plaszow were sent to Auschwitz, but Schindler, at great risk to himself, bribed officials into allowing him to keep his workers and set up a factory in a safer location in occupied Czechoslovakia. By the war's end, he was penniless, but he had saved 1,200 Jews. In 1962, he was declared a Righteous Gentile by Yad VaShem, Israel's official agency for remembering the Holocaust. According to his wishes, he was buried in Israel at the Catholic cemetery on Mount Zion.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

What is the world coming to?!

Members of the clergy are being advised to take off their dog collars when they are on their own, to reduce the risk of being attacked. National Churchwatch, which provides personal safety advice, says vicars are attacked more often than professions such as GPs and probation officers.
The organisation's Nick Tolson said all clergy should consider the advice, including the Archbishop of Canterbury. The group also produces security advice for all UK churches and churchworkers. In the past decade, five vicars have been murdered.
And a 2001 academic study also found that 12% of clergy had suffered some form of violence.
'Attracts people' In a survey of 90 London clergy Mr Tolson carried out last year, nearly half said they had been attacked in the previous 12 months.

One vicar, from Willesden, north-west London, said his vicarage had been machine-gunned - but still did not believe he had experienced violence. Mr Tolson said: "For some clergy this is real radical stuff. The argument against it is it's their witness in the community - their way of saying, 'hello, I'm the vicar'. "That's fine when you're being the vicar. If you're visiting someone or going to an old people's home, wear your dog collar." He added: "When they are on their own, and when they are off duty - for example when they are doing their shopping in Tesco on their own - there is no need for them to wear their dog collars. "All that does is to attract people who see the dog collars, and if they are motivated towards violence, it puts them [clergy] in a very difficult situation." National Churchwatch also says that most police forces do not specifically record crime against places of worship. However, it says that crime against churches continues to be a problem, and there is "plenty we can do to help reduce it".

Table Top Sale

This Saturday 13th from 10:00 to 12:00. Great morning to shop and have a free cup of tea or coffee and some cake. Cake and goods donations warmly appreciated. Volunteers welcome!

Peace

O Lord,you love justice and you establish peace on earth.We bring before you the disunity of today’s world;the absurd violence, and the many wars,which are breaking the courage of the peoples of the world;human greed and injustice,which breed hatred and strife.Send your spirit and renew the face of the earth;teach us to be compassionate towards the whole human family;strengthen the will of all thosewho fight for justice and for peace,and give us that peace which the world cannot give. Amen.