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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
With an early Easter it’s hoped that a long summer will follow. Creation beckons. That was one of the things we were looking at on Easter Sunday as the morning sermon reminded us that Jesus’ resurrection was a bodily and historical event of both individual and cosmic significance. A beckoning creation also means that the Church garden will soon once again need attention and there are a number of other practical jobs that will be vying for attention. May is Church Anniversary month with a social to fit the occasion. We’ll be continuing to make our way through Luke’s Gospel on Sunday mornings and in June we hope to begin a six session DVD led course entitled ‘Christian Life & Why it makes Sense’. Our new notice/leaflet board is up outside the Church with copies of our ‘outreach’ newsletter ‘A Word in Passing’. Hopefully it will provide another means of getting the Good News out from what sometimes feels like an hermetically sealed Church environment. Faint hearts never reaped a good harvest. We shall see. Graham Pulham
Holy Trinity
Holy Trinity is a little like the ugly duckling at present! By the time you read this it is probable that a network of steel poles and girders will have appeared both inside and outside the church to form the scaffolding necessary to begin vital and long awaited repairs to the building. Much of the internal plaster will be removed to address problems of damp and so it will be a while before we emerge as a beautiful swan! However this will not prevent us from having an exciting time on 7th and 8th June as we open our doors to a community weekend. On Saturday 7th we shall be presenting a performance of Captain Noah and his floating zoo! with many of our community taking part. On Sunday 8th we are holding the Barnes Team Ministry family festival which will begin with an exciting service entitled Following God’s Heartbeat. Be ready to drum, dance and sing your way through this service! Workshops and a BBQ for all ages (including an African drumming workshop) will follow and we hope you will join us. Also in June, Holy Trinity will be beginning a weekly time of fellowship, bible study and prayer as part of our Vision plans for the year – do see our diary for full events. Jean Boulton-Reynolds
Methodist Church
As I write, I need to read all the documents for the London District Synod of our church. Now that Methodists within the M25 are all part of one Synod (instead of four regional Districts stretching from the south coast to Oxfordshire and into East Anglia), we’re gradually getting to understand the various opportunities which an all-London organisation gives us. The Synod is a meeting of hundreds of people, lay and ordained, so inevitably it’s impossible for everyone to speak from the podium! It’s good, though, to hear stories from Hackney, Barnet, Ealing or Walworth, and to recognise and rejoice in good news from all over the city. It’s also good to know about Korean, Chinese, Nigerian, Ghanaian and other Methodist communities who now meet in this international city Ultimately, the whole Methodist church answers to the Conference, which meets each year in June/July. It wanders around the land, meeting sometimes in the church’s Central Halls or large churches, sometimes in universities or similar centres. This year’s Conference, in Scarborough, will confirm as the new General Secretary the Revd Martyn Atkins, who is this year’s President. He’s taking on a big job. Locally, we look forward to the celebration of Barnes on June 29th, in the knowledge that if it rains we’ll be opening our church doors to all our Christian neighbours! Roger Hutchings
St Mary's
The Diocese of Southwark is twinned with several Dioceses of the Zimbabwean Anglican Church, our own Kingston Area being linked with the Diocese of Matabeleland. I was sent by our link committee after Easter to help with the development of the relationship between the two churches, see at first hand what was going on and what there is that we can do to further our partnership. It hardly needs to be said how difficult things are – inflation is so rampant that budgeting for any organization has become virtually impossible: one independent Anglican boarding school I visited had an effective income of just £3,000 to cover an entire term for 600 girls. The political situation is, of course, well-known, but I was taken aback at the sense of hope of the people I met. Hope not just that the writing is on the wall for Mugabe (even if it takes longer than desirable for him to go), but also in the strength of the church. After the effective removal of the renegade Bishop of Harare, Norbert Kunonga, from the scene, there is a unity in the church which is proving more effective in engaging critically with the regime. Much lies ahead, but our prayers continue to be with our brothers and sisters serving our Lord in times of great persecution. Ross Collins
St Michael's
We had a splendid Easter at St Michael’s with a sprinkling of snow on Easter Day which came down just after the Dawn Mass while we enjoying a splendid breakfast in the Community Centre. There was a sense of celebrating the Incarnation and the Resurrection at the same time. One of the most moving recent events in the centre was a production of Romeo and Juliet performed by Paddocks School for our Wednesday lunch group. Staging was brought from the school and the cast were in full Tudor costume. Shakespeare’s words had been turned into an extended poem with audience participation. The experience was extremely captivating. We are fortunate to have this link with the school. We are looking forward to our Jazz Dance in May, one of our major fund raising events. If you have been in the past you will know it is a great opportunity to dance the night away. If you have never been before why not take the plunge and join us this year or next. Last month our book group read The Enduring Melody by Michael Mayne. This is a very inspiring meditation on life by a man facing his own death. It is not at all gloomy but rather a testimony to the power of faith and hope growing alongside pain and loss. Some members of our group found it a wonderful experience to read. Paul Holland
St Osmund's
The memory of Easter is fading now, it was cold but the people came in force to celebrate the feast. It was unusual insofar as the primary schools delayed their Easter holiday taking just a long weekend. This meant that there remained more families around who might otherwise have gone away. There is a special honour for us in that this is where the Procession of Witness finishes and we see a large number of you acknowledging the price paid by Jesus in redeeming us. Looking ahead now, we are preparing for the First Holy Communion of a group of year 3 children on Saturday, May 10th. This is also the eve of Pentecost, the day for the Pentecost Banquet. At the present moment our archbishop, Kevin McDonald is recovering from surgery - a heart bypass operation which took place just before Easter. It meant that he missed the Holy Week and Easter ceremonies, including the Maundy Thursday morning mass when he would have presided at the blessing of the oils used throughout the diocese in the administration of the sacraments. We do have three auxiliary bishops however to carry on. In the meantime we are praying for the archbishop’s recovery. Fr Anthony Logan
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