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Ordinary Time Parish Communion – LIVE BROADCAST!

Join Rev’d John Dracup for our first attempt at a live broadcast of our Parish Communion for the first Sunday of Ordinary Time – 14th June. The service will be broadcast on a live YouTube stream at 10:30am. Despite lots of preparation and testing there’s a possibility that it may not completely work, due to current issues with the mobile network around Meltham, so please forgive us if it doesn’t happen as planned or the quality is not the best – there’s bound to be some technical issues!

If it does work, the video will also be available for viewing at any time convenient to yourself afterwards 🙂

The service can be viewed here via YouTube:
https://youtu.be/YvslxZNEipk

Trinity Sunday – Parish Communion now on-line!

Sunday 7th June – 10:30am
Join Rev’d John Dracup for a special service of Holy Communion for Trinity Sunday. This can be viewed at any time but he will conduct the service from the vicarage at 10:30am so that the worship may be considered spiritually live. This week, the service features lots of ‘Holy Holy Holy’s’ in the hymns (30 to be exact!) led by our Virtual Parish Choir who have kindly recorded 2 well known hymns that we normally sing on Trinity Sunday as we didn’t have any previous recordings of these.

The service can be viewed here via YouTube:
https://youtu.be/mSZbHrjITN0

Weekly News Bulletin for Sunday 7th June

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)

To say anything at all about the Holy Trinity is tricky, how can you compare the all powerful and eternal God to anything? But our Triune God is unquestionably the God of loving relationship. He did not start to look for relationship and love when he made creation, the oneness of God is eternally found in the perfect loving relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, within the Holy Trinity.

It is our God’s desire to share this love with all people and as Christians we are called to relationship with our God as both three in one, and with each person of the Trinity.

Most of us find it easier to imagine the idea of relationship with the Father and The Son than we do with the Holy Spirit. Too often we speak of the Holy Spirit as an it rather than as a who. The Holy Spirit becomes a power or gift to be received rather than a person with whom we are to develop a loving relationship.

The Holy Spirit is our councillor, comforter, and enabler. He is not a power to be mastered, but a person of the Trinity that we must receive into our lives if we are to be the people that our God calls us to be.

Reverend John (Vicar)

Social distancing, services and buildings.

I am aware that some of the recent anouncments from the government were not as clear as they may have been. However, the position of the Church of England and the diocese of Leeds remains to be that all of our buildings must remain closed for now. If any body feels that they need to access any of our buildings they must contact me so to see if it will be safe for them to do so, and so that I can maintain an accurate register of access.

Magazine
The parish magazine is now available on our parish website.

Website
Our parish communion will be posted on our website www.melthamparish.co.uk this will be pre-recorded but Rev John will be repeating the service at 10:30am so that it may be considered spiritually live. Please join in if you are able.

Zoom
There is a weekly service available at 11:15 via Zoom or sometimes in the evening. The link is available on our website. Help can be given if you haven’t used Zoom before.

#melthamprays
Many people are looking for a simple way to pray. I hope that this will offer an opportunity to do so. Please look at the magazine, facebook, or our website for more details.

Weekly News Bulletin for Sunday 31st May

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:37-39 (NIV)

On the day of Pentecost all the members of the very first Church were gathered together. We think of them as being a holy lot. They were certainly good; they were committed to Jesus’s teachings and to prayer, they shared in loving fellowship and were generous towards each other, but were they the perfect Church? Of course not; some of them like Peter, were still brash, and some like Thomas still had doubts, they all had imperfections.

So, why is it that God considered them ready to receive the Holy Spirit? They believed that Jesus was there Lord and saviour. They knew that Jesus was their king, enthrone for all eternity in heaven, and they knew that he had died on the cross to win forgiveness of sins for them.

The early Church didn’t receive the Holy Spirit because they were “good enough”. The Holy Spirit came to them because they needed help to become “good enough”.

Like the early Church we must be ready to acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and saviour, and to receive the Holy Spirit as a gift of grace. Only with the Holy Spirit’s help will we ever be the kind of Church that Jesus, our king, is calling us to be.

Reverend John (Vicar)

Social distancing, services and buildings.
I am aware that some of the recent anouncments from the government were not as clear as they may have been. However, the position of the Church of England and the diocese of Leeds remains to be that all of our buildings must remain closed for now. If any body feels that they need to access any of our buildings they must contact me so to see if it will be safe for them to do so, and so that I can maintain an accurate register of access.

Website
Our parish communion will be posted on our website www.melthamparish.co.uk this will be pre-recorded but Rev John will be repeating the service at 10:30am so that it may be considered spiritually live. Please join in if you are able.

Zoom
There is a weekly service available at 11:15 via Zoom. The link is available on our website. Help can be given if you haven’t used Zoom before.

#melthamprays

Many people are looking for a simple way to pray. I hope that this will offer an opportunity to do so. Please look at the magazine, facebook, or our website for more details.

Apologies that this was not published last Sunday as originally intended.

Parish Magazine – June 2020

Hello!
Welcome to the June edition of the #Meltham Parish Magazine. Firstly apologies for the delay in getting this month’s magazine published. Family life in ‘lockdown’ is very busy in the vicarage! The main thing is, YOU are able to read this now so it all came good in the end!

I hope you enjoy this Lockdown edition, there are a number of updates from different groups, as well as many pictures taken for a number of different reasons.

If you would like to take part more in our future editions please do let me know, I am currently a team of one as Kirsten has had to step down. I personally want to say a big THANK YOU for all she has done for this magazine since taking over from Amelia. All ideas and articles are welcomed and you can contribute as much (or little) as you feel able.

God bless, Fiona

Pentecost! (Whit Sunday) – Parish Communion now online

Sunday 31st May – Pentecost (Whit Sunday)
Join us for a special on-line Parish Communion for Pentecost! – 31st May. This week, not wanting to miss out, Jack, the youngest member of the Dracup family gets in on the act following the appearance of his older brother and sister last week. This can be viewed at any time but Rev’d John will conduct the service from the vicarage at 10:30am so that the worship may be considered spiritually live. Today’s service again features our Virtual Parish Choir who have attempted singing 4 part harmony for the first time.

The service can be viewed here via YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqACAIdz5Uk

The service booklet can be downloaded here:

FUN Parish activities during LOCKDOWN – please join in!

There are two special Sundays still to come before we enter the period in the church liturgical calendar that is known as ‘Ordinary Time’ – these being Pentecost (or Whit Sunday) and Trinity Sunday.

Rev’d John would like you to join him in some fun activities to co-incide with these special days and if you’re willing, he would like you to provide photos so he can use them in our online services:

“My hopes for the next few weeks are;
Sun 31st May – Pentecost – make yourself a hat of flame(s) (not real ones) and wear on your head.
Sun 7th June – Trinity – examples of the trinity i.e. things that come in Three’s or work in Three parts.
Sun 14th June – 1st of Ordinary Time – examples of people being normal doing ordinary things (or not) requires personal interpretation 🙂

Please provide photos of yourself (doing) (flame / ordinary person stuff) or of your Three’s.
In providing these photos you understand that you are agreeing for them to be used in the online Parish Communion services between the above dates and which may remain available through our Parish website for some time and the Parish YouTube channel”

Please include the following statement along with your photos in your email replies:
I agree for these pictures to be used in the Parish Communion service for (date) and I do have the permission of all those who appear in the pictures.

Please email your photos to Leigh-Anne Willitts at parishofchristtheking@gmail.com before or on the preceding Friday for each of the Sunday services.

We hope you enter into the ‘SPIRIT’ of these ‘THREE IN ONE’ fun activities during these extra-ORDINARY times 🙂

Have fun!

Weekly News Bulletin for Sunday 24th May

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
John 17:1-5 (NIV)

On the day of ascension Jesus went up. He went up to heaven and sits on the throne of glory. John 17:5 makes it clear that he shared the Fathers glory from before the world was made, ascension is when he returned to that place of glory.
When he came to earth as a baby in Bethlehem the angels declared that he was king, throughout his ministry on earth he remained king, and he was still king when he was lifted up on the cross.
Jesus’s sovereignty over all of creation is never in question. The question that we all need to ask ourselves is, whether we accept Jesus as our king? Do we acknowledge his sovereignty in our own lives?
This means accepting his plan for us and acknowledging that we don’t always get things right. The good news is that as our ascended king, fully God and fully human, he understands our struggles and is always ready to forgive us and help us.
Reverend John (Vicar)

Social distancing, services and buildings.
I am aware that some of the recent anouncments from the government were not as clear as they may have been. However, the position of the Church of England and the Diocese of Leeds remains to be that all of our buildings must remain closed for now. If any body feels that they need to access any of our buildings they must contact me so to see if it will be safe for them to do so, and so that I can maintain an accurate register of access.

Website
Our parish communion will be posted on our website www.melthamparish.co.uk this will be pre-recorded but Rev John will be repeating the service at 5pm so that it may be considered spiritually live. Please join in if you are able.

#melthamprays

Many people are looking for a simple way to pray. I hope that this will offer an opportunity to do so. Please look at the magazine, facebook, or our website for more details.

Ascension Sunday – Parish Communion now online

Sunday 24th May – Ascension Sunday
Join us for a special on-line Parish Communion for the Sunday after Ascension – 24th May. This can be viewed at any time but Rev’d John will be conducting the service from the vicarage at 5pm this evening so that the worship may be considered spiritually live. The service words will appear on the video to enable you to join in easily. Today’s service features our Virtual Parish Choir singing a new song for us all to learn and a special demonstration of Jesus going UP! – don’t forget to watch the funny out-takes at the end.

The service can be viewed here via YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSXnlH6Mh1Q

The service booklet can be downloaded here if required:

DELAYED – Parish Communion for Ascension Sunday – 24th May

Today’s service will be delayed due to technical issues with YouTube. We are hoping to overcome them and aim to have the service online later this afternoon. Rev’d John will conduct the service at 5pm from the vicarage.

Don’t forget, you can still join our online Zoom worship which will be a service of the Word starting at 11:15am using this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87082121856?pwd=Y0hDc0RWNVFhOWI3TFY2U0xEdmowUT09

Further updates will follow……….