Barnes in Common

the magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
March/April 2005

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Church News

Baptist Church   |   Holy Trinity   |   Methodist Church
St Mary's   |   St Michael's   |   St Osmund's

Baptist Church

The beginning of the new year is a time when we, along with other denominations, will be renewing our Christian vows in the form of a Covenant Service. In the Bible 'covenant' describes an agreement made between two parties; the over-riding covenant being that between God and His people, "I will be your God and you shall be my people." Lev 26:12. It is the initiative of God that lies at the heart of this covenant and this initiative of grace is therefore at the heart of our Baptist Covenant Service,

Minister: God makes us a people:
Church: we are shaped by God's will
Minister: Jesus calls us together:
Church: we meet in Jesus' name
Minister: The Spirit binds us together:
Church: and leads us into truth.

The Service then proceeds through five stages: We Gather, We Believe, We Serve, We Covenant, We Share, concluding with a celebration of The Lord's Supper.

The first of our '2005 Baptist Celebrations' will take place at the Ham Christian Fellowship on 30 January. In early February we will be holding our annual Fellowship Meal and later on that month we'll be running a four-week Lent Course using C.S. Lewis' book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, to explore some of the Bible's most important and exciting themes. (Further details will be available nearer the time.)

Finally, a big 'thank you' to all who supported our Alpha Course. Your presence and contributions made it the enjoyable and worthwhile event it was.

Graham Pulham

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Holy Trinity

For an extended period our Parish Administrator, Edwina Naughton, has been in hospital and unwell at home. Rosemarie Pearce, our PCC secretary, has been doing an excellent job in the parish office, for which we are all most grateful. We hope that Edwina will soon be restored to health and back with us.

John Levy, after a spell in hospital, has now gone permanently to Ashmead in Roehampton, where he is well cared for.

Charlie Angel is to be baptized on Sunday 16th January.

We shall soon be starting classes for Confirmation; the young people from the Barnes Team will be prepared together here at Holy Trinity.

We have applied for a faculty to lay up at the west end of the church two banners of the Holy Trinity Seascouts, who were associated with the church until the 1960s.

A working party has been meeting with the Team Rector to draw up a profile for a new Team Vicar at Holy Trinity some time after July, when I shall be moving on.

At a PCC meeting £3000 was voted as a contribution to the cost of a new Team Youth Worker, to work at the Castelnau Centre and across Barnes. The PCC also approved the terms of a new lease to be negotiated with Richmond Council, to give control of the Centre to the Castelnau Centre Project. The new Community Development Worker there takes up her post in January.

Godfrey Holdstock

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Methodist Church

The builders are coming. At long last, after what seems an age, we have an agreed start date for our major redevelopment. For those of you who are not aware of what we are doing – or have forgotten, because it has been so long – we are making major alterations to the inside of the church. The Methodist church is very large, with a lot of space upstairs we do not use. So we are moving the worship area upstairs, with a small chapel, hall and meeting rooms downstairs. We will have disabled access throughout, and a flexible space that we are keen to put to the service of the community. The outside of the building will not change – our beautiful stained glass will remain, and we will be using as much of the carved pine as possible to maintain the 'feel' of the architecture.

Although there will be no outside work, there will be deliveries etc during the project, so we ask your patience if you are neighbours in Station Road. We will try to keep any disturbance to a minimum.

The work is due to begin on 10 January and will take about eight months in all to complete. Well in time for our Centenary year – 2006! There will be a final Communion Service in the church as it is on January 9th at 6.30 p.m., and from then on our worship will take place in the hall.

Veronica Faulks

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St Mary's

The highlight of the last two months has undoubtedly been the Remembrance Service of November 14th, when we were joined by a party of Le Pecquoise, who were in Barnes to inaugurate the twinning of Barnes with Le Pecq in France. We had already decided to change the format of our Remembrance commemoration by starting with the Act of Remembrance and following that with a Service of Thanksgiving in church, accompanied by the Barnes Concert Band, so the presence of the French contingent fitted in well with what we were doing. The Mayor of Le Pecq, Senator Alain Gournac, laid a wreath, as well as reading a lesson; two of the hymns were sung simultaneously in French and English; prayers were offered in French by an eight year old member of our congregation, Gwendoline Rouault; and the sermon was preached by the Bishop of Kingston. The only negative to my mind was that we ran out of standing room and some people had to be turned away. It was not just a superb start to the twinning of our two communities but a demonstration of all that is best in European relationships and that, for all our wrangling about Iraq, constitutions and the CAP, we have come a very long way in the last 60 years.

Ross Collins

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St Michael's Church

We enjoyed a wonderful build up to Christmas, first with the Advent Carol Service which was shared by all the churches.This was followed by our Community Carol Service where the Barnes Concert Band led the singing and afterwards entertained us with several pieces of seasonal music while drinks where served at the back of the church. I would like to thank them and everyone who came to share in these events making them such a special occasion.

We have some good news to report. Richmond Council have given us permission to build our new Community Centre. This will herald in a new and exciting time in the life of St. Michael's, as we look forward to new ways of serving the community. There will be an organ recital by Jonathon Bunny, Director of Music of St Giles in the Fields on Saturday 29 January at 7.30pm at St Michaels in aid of our new Community Centre

On the Saturday 22 January we shall be having a Guild Christmas Party. Tea will be at 4.30pm followed by musical entertainment, all are welcome but please let the Parish office know if you intend to come.

Paul Holland

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St Osmund's Church

As we prepared for the Advent Season, which commenced on Sunday 28th November, we also celebrate the Feast of St Osmund on Saturday 4th December. The School came to the Church and we celebrated together in honour of our patron at Mass on Monday 6th.

Father Logan has recently been telephoned by Father Romano from Uganda, who told him that he had baptised 65 infants that day. He also said that there were some cases of cholera in one camp in his parish. The total contributions raised from the collection to benefit his parish and flock amounted to £977.80.

The Annual Parish Bazaar on Saturday 20th November, in aid of Father Dan Cashman's mission in Tanzania, was a great social occasion for the parish and the school. Proceeds can be confirmed as £1,757 although further contributions have appeared since the last count. Father Cashman at present is based in Cork but is in contact with the missionaries who are continuing his work.

The Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th is a celebration of the Church opening out to the whole world. This year we have a unique opportunity to demonstrate this by contributing to the huge need for funds to help the peoples of SE Asia recover from the Boxing Day earthquake.

Fiona Keen and Riq Willitts

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