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Barnes in Commonthe magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
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Church NewsBaptist Church | Holy
Trinity | Methodist Church Baptist Church
The news has recently carried tributes to Sir Edmund Hillary, who, together with Sherpa Tenzing, was hailed as the conqueror of Mt Everest in 1953. But were they the first, or did Mallory and Irving reach the summit some 29 years before them in 1924? If they had made it back we would have known. Easter Day is a celebration of the triumph of another conqueror - Jesus of Nazareth. The man who did make it back. Risen from the dead, we celebrate His return to us from death - that state of deepest mystery and fear. Or, to be more accurate, we celebrate the life of the One who passed through death and came out the other side "because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him" Acts 2:24. This is the conquest, the final victory He promises to all who put their trust for salvation in Him. Granted, this word does not strictly represent our Baptist Church News in the limited sense, but it's the Church News that we are commissioned to proclaim and the news that needs to be heard. So we offer an open invitation to anyone who would like to join us for Holy Week and Easter worship to look once again at the climax of the greatest event in history. But wherever you choose to celebrate the victory of God's Son this Eastertide, we pray that you may know His risen joy, peace and eternal hope. Graham Pulham
Holy Trinity
As I write this we have just celebrated Candlemas and taken one last, lingering look back at the Christmas event of Jesus entering our world. Candlemas offers us the opportunity to choose to turn and walk with Jesus through his teaching and ministry to the sorrow of the cross and beyond to the joy of Easter. This is a time when all our churches come together through our Lent groups and gather together to silently walk our witness of faith on Good Friday. At Holy Trinity we are continuing to build on the plans within our vision for the next two years. We shall soon be beginning a short term project (3 months maximum) to identify the needs in our community in North Barnes. The information from this project will help us to shape our growth and development so we shall be looking forward to listening to the many different voices of those who live with and around us. If you might be interested in being a part of the small group to undertake this project we would welcome a conversation with you. Please phone me on 020 8748 5744. Please do consider also becoming one of our 'guinea pigs' for an exciting new course being offered by CTiB: The offer of Jesus - Life in all its fullness. You can read more about it in this edition of Barnes in Common. Jean Boulton-Reynolds
Methodist Church
As usual during Lent, we'll be using our rough cross made from the trunks of two Christmas trees, and placing on it week by week on Sunday mornings some of the symbols which remind us of the approaching Passion of Christ. The purple cloth, the money taken by Judas, the nails and crown of thorns are just some of those symbols. And then on Easter Day, the cross will be transformed into a symbol of the Resurrection as we remove the Lenten elements and replace them with flowers. Christmas services had some of the highest attendances for years - as we heard was also true for most of the Barnes churches. Let's hope the same will be true at Easter! Somehow the popularity of Christmas, with its candles and carols, is never quite matched by the Easter events. But for Christians, this is such a wonderful festival, and we're glad that CTiB marks it with the joint march of witness on Good Friday. Our First Sundays continue month by month, and we'd just like to repeat that anyone is welcome to any part of the day. If you just fancy a light breakfast and a read of a Sunday paper, that's fine - and breakfast is at 9. Our guest interviews at 11.45 are popular. Details are on the website or the church notice board. Roger Hutchings
St Mary's
One of the recent trends in St Mary's has been seeing ourselves as part of a worldwide church in more than an abstract sense. Central to this has been the Under Tree School project in Southern Sudan and the presence of Joseph and Karin Ayok-Loewenberg amongst us. The support for this from the congregation and community has been phenomenal and it will be a major beneficiary of the ball we held a few days ago that raised over £50,000 for the church, UTS and the Castelnau Centre Project. However, it has been good to see a number of other contacts with the church overseas develop. We had a visit from a priest from the Anglican Church in Bolivia whose words on the development of the church and theological education there were inspiring. A common theme that seems to come from visitors from different parts of the globe is the quest for theology that engages profoundly with the local culture yet remains true to the heritage of faith we all share. Barnes is a natural place in this country for engaging in an intelligent and open manner with this quest and I look forward to seeing where it takes us. Ross Collins
St Michael's Church
One of the most joyful moments at St Michael`s over Christmas was the "Spontaneous Nativity Service". Here all the children were simply invited to come along to St Michael`s ready to start and dressed for the part. The children were asked up to the front of the church to be with the Holy Family by a series of processions in the traditional manner, shepherds, Angels and the Magi. We also had a few animals present. It was amazing how well behaved everyone was. The only part practised was the music sung by the choir and the children responsible for the readings. It was a very moving occasion and we will be repeating it next year. We are now looking towards Lent. This year the team are putting on a series of introductory talks about the Christian Faith. These will be held in our new Community Centre every Wednesday evening at 7.45pm. There will be an opportunity for both conversation and questions. These events have in the past been great fun as well as stimulating. Every Monday evening at 6pm during Lent there will be "Stations of
the Cross". Here we will follow in the steps of Jesus as he approaches
the Cross through prayer and reflection by walking around the church,
pausing at each carving set on the walls. It is always a peaceful and
prayerful experience. Paul Holland
St Osmund's Church
The celebration of Candlemas, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus, is the last of the feast days associated with Christmas. In no time, Lent was upon us, but not before we marked on February 3rd the feast of St Blaise with the blessing of throats. St Blaise was bishop of Sebaste in Armenia and martyred in the fourth century. In general terms Lent is characterised by the call to put more into our prayer life, as well as fasting and almsgiving. Almsgiving nowadays is more significant as through the aid agencies we are well aware of the plight of those living in primitive conditions in third world countries. Our canon law sets before us rules concerning fasting and abstinence. Fasting days are days when we should take only one full meal, on days of abstinence we refrain from eating meat. The rules as we have them now are but a dim reflection of a tougher regime in the past. Every weekday in Lent was a fast day, each Wednesday and Friday in Lent was a day of abstinence. This was relaxed in the days of rationing in the war and never reinstated to anything like that extent. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the two such days that remain. The obligation to fast only affects those between the ages of 21 and 60, abstinence binds everyone over the age of fourteen. Our prayer and worship, and the activities of Lent are directed towards a worthy celebration of Easter, catechumens will be in the stages of preparation for baptism, the faithful recall their own baptism and its responsibilities, and do penance for their sins. Fiona Keen and Fr Anthony Logan
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