Barnes in Common

the magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
January/February 2008

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

Baptist Church

The diary is already filling up - especially for the first part of this new year. That's kind of scary. Do we spend so much time planning and thinking of the future that we fail to live as we should in the present? Well, if you're feeling tense about the future remember that God is always present!

So event-wise we will be starting our year of Sunday worship with our Covenant Service and once again taking the opportunity to affirm our faith and invest it in greater hands then ours for the days to come before coming to the Lord's Table to take the bread and wine: the deepest expression of our Covenant with our Saviour and with each other. We look forward to joining with our fellow Christians at the Churches Together Unity Service later on in January. Then on into February and our annual Fellowship Meal to be followed on 10th Feb by the first of our 2008 Cluster Services with East Sheen and Ham Baptists. We will be hosts and the speaker will be Dr Pat Took, Superintendent of the London Baptist Association. Visitors welcome. We will also be continuing our monthly 'first Saturday in the month' Tea/Coffee mornings - an opportunity to sip, snack and chat (10am - 12 noon) and continuing also to make our way through Luke's Gospel on Sunday mornings.

A happy and peaceful New Year to you all, from the fellowship at Barnes Baptist Church.

Graham Pulham

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Holy Trinity

It seems that no sooner have we embraced our Christmas Celebrations and welcomed in the New Year, we are hurtling towards Easter! However, at Holy Trinity, we continue to offer a monthly opportunity to take time out from the pressures which surround us through Space To Be. Do read the article in this edition of Barnes in Common and come along to experience this for yourself. We are now offering led meditations in the spiritual space and these have proved rewarding for those attending. We are also now offering a Relax Kids™ session for children up to the age of 10 led by a trained facilitator. Please note that our January Space To Be will take place on 8th January and on 5th February pancakes will be on offer in the social space.

For Holy Trinity this is a year of development. We are seeking to better understand our community so that we can plan ways to fulfill our Vision: 'To be a haven in our community through which all may grow in love for God, self and one another'. We hope that the outcome of our process will enable us to develop our buildings and activities in ways which will meet the needs of all ages.

Jean Boulton-Reynolds

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Methodist Church

Like lots of other people, we'll be making decisions this new year about what to do with the Christmas printed letters we receive. Those which came by email we can just delete - or save. But do we chuck the paper ones in the bin? There's a fondness for making jokes about them, and it's true that some are self-indulgent. Many, though, we're delighted to read, because they represent genuine, important relationships. In 2008, it's common for people to move around over the years, and friendships become long-distance. They still matter, though, and who knows when a friendship may be picked up and become more significant again?

All sorts of other leftovers of Christmas (and not just the spare bits of turkey!) will linger for a while. We had a great time when the Village Nursery used our church for their (necessarily rather early) Christmas nativity. The reactions of children and parents will live on in the memory - helped by digital photos and videos. We'll remember the candlelight of Midnight Communion. We'll remember some of the music. Who knows, some may even remember a sermon! At a simple human level, moments of joy are precious, and we hold on to them long after they're past. The memories of 2007 are part of what we all take into the new year. Let's hope the presence of God-with-us in Jesus Christ will remain as a precious, continuing gift.

Roger Hutchings

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St Mary's

We have had a couple of months of packed churches, which is always very welcome. Our Bishop, Tom Butler, came to preach at the Friends of St Mary's annual Choral Evensong and showed he had done a considerable amount of research on the history of the church. On Remembrance Sunday, when we ran out of standing room, Bishop Richard Harries (the former Bishop of Oxford who has retired to Barnes and whom we are lucky to have lead our worship regularly) preached on the nature of peace as being not so much the absence of tension but the presence of justice (quoting Martin Luther King). You can read a part of his sermon elsewhere in this edition. Add in a couple of very large baptism services and a phenomenally successful and well-organised Christmas Fair which raised a record £8,000, and we seem to have spent an enormous amount of time moving chairs and furniture!

Ross Collins

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St Michael's Church

In November we were able to host a new play by John Gorrie Private Lilywhite`s Dead. The performance worked very well in the building as the play itself takes place in a deserted Church. It was a very imaginative play about a group of soldiers lost on Salisbury plain and taking refuge in a deserted church. St Michael`s was stripped for the occasion giving a very apt space for the performance.

We have also had a very successful Christmas Fayre with the emphasis on activities for the children, this was well attended and a very happy morning. Our Advent carol service went well despite the road works that Elm Bank Gardens is now caught up in. We also had a return visit of the choir Cantus Firmus conducted by Nicholas Harries singing Choral music for Advent and Christmas by candle light. This as always saw pure delight. The Barnes Band joined us for our Community Carols followed by refreshments which now can take place in our new centre. The lead up towards Christmas is the time when we host several schools, Barnes Primary, Paddocks School, St Michael's Nursery and the Nursery School beside the bowling green. All these events are wonderful ways of preparing ourselves for Christmas.

Paul Holland

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St Osmund's Church

Attempting to return from Hammersmith at teatime yesterday, I discover absolute gridlock around the gyratory, every vehicle stationary, its engine idling away. No buses in the bus station but directions out to Hammersmith Bridge Road to join the waiting throng. Little is being said, yet I hear voices addressed to me now and then - 'Hello Father' - it's secondary school boys and girls on their way home. It made me think with appreciation of the courage of clergy and faithful in the 1940s who fought to secure the best possible outcome from the Butler Act to secure a network of aided Catholic schools to equip our young parishioners for adult society. Courage is called for in our own time to silence voices opposed to that concept. It required, and still does, a financial commitment to provide our share of the cost of buildings and maintenance. Transfer time at eleven remains an anxious phase, particularly in this borough that does not now have such a secondary school. Education has ever been an essential part of the mission of the church, derived from the command to teach and baptise all nations.

Father Logan

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