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The real love story

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We are planning to celebrate the Real Love story of Easter ( see https://vimeo.com/509894747/9feb33b1d7 ) and we need your help. Felt hearts will be given out to school staff and children and to care home staff and residents. We need about 1000! They will be accompanied by a card with an appropriate message. They are very simple to make (see the picture above). If you think you could make some felt hearts, we will provide the materials.

Please send me a message via email stating how many you can make. I’ll then email the pattern.
We know that the schools and the care homes think it’s a good idea, so we now need to get busy!


Thanks.


alisonwhiteley@ntlworld.com

Parish Magazine for March 2021

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Welcome to March edition of the #Meltham Parish magazine. There’s lots of love and kindness flowing around this months edition with a history of Mother’s day and lots of examples how we have shown kindness to each other during the past year.

Read all about it here: ParishMagazineMarch2021Download

We have managed to get copies for delivery printed again this month. These can be collected for distribution as normal.

MCT prayers 22.2.21

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Hello everyone

LENTEN REFLECTIONS WEEK 2

Last week Ash Wednesday heralded the beginning of the Season of Lent. Almost over a year ago we sent out our first prayer letter to our Churches Together. We have journeyed together praying for the world-wide pandemic Coronavirus and its effects on us all. On the journey we have had the opportunity to deepen our relationship with God through the many different avenues of prayer that we have been using. We have prayed, meditated, and reflected on God’s Word through the Scriptures and the thoughts of others.

Recently we have been using P.R.A.Y praying in the shape of LECTIO 365 a National & International Aid which exists to help us pray in groups or as individuals. The aim is that our prayers, wherever we are, at whatever time we pray, are being prayed to our Father in heaven 24-7 every day of the year.

Our opening Prayer will serve us for each week of Lent.

Christine and I are following the “Lenten Reflections on thirteen lesser reported followers of Jesus’ passion” By Rosemary Power’ A Wild Goose publication. www.ionabooks.com We invite you to join us each week for seven of these  Reflections as we lead up to Easter Day.

Opening Prayer

Lent is a time to learn to travel

Light, to clear the clutter

From our crowded lives and

Find a space, a desert.

Deserts are bleak; no creature

Comforts, only a vast expanse of

Stillness, sharpening awareness of

Ourselves and God

Uncomfortable places, deserts.

Most of the time we’re tempted to

Avoid them, finding good reason to

Live lives of ease; cushioned by

Noise from self-discovery.

Clutching at world’s success

To stave off fear.

But if we dare to trust the silence

To strip away our false security,

God can begin to grow his wholeness in us,

Fill up our emptiness, destroy our fears,

Give us new vision, courage for the journey,

And make our desert blossom like a rose.

From – ‘Waiting for the Kingfisher’ – Ann Lewin

WEEK TWO: A  SEEKER:  – MARTHA, PROPHET,

Martha (Luke 10:38–42; John 11:1–44,12:1–3)

I spread a table before him within reach of his foes. God called me to that.

I learnt at the hearth. God called me to that.

I witnessed his truth, I spoke the Word, Christ in the world, Resurrection and Life.

My sister surpassed me.

All time has remembered me.

When they retold the tale, they made Martha the fusspot, the irritant, interrupting the serious business with domestic detail. This was Martha, one of the few women Jesus called by her own name, dropping the usual formal title. ‘I have called you by your name, you are mine.’ ‘You are the Christ, who was to come into the world.’ ‘Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.’ Against all convention her name comes before her brother’s.

Martha the homemaker witnessed before them, that Jesus is the Christ. Who could bring the dead to life. Simon Peter witnessed in front of Jesus’ followers when he made his declaration of faith; Martha spoke it before the village and the visitors, some doubting, others hostile. When their enemies plotted to kill Jesus, and Lazarus too, Martha and her sister were in danger. She came to the party and served the meal, knowing of the plotting and what impact her words had had.

Jesus had once calmed Martha his host, brought her back to the central matters. Martha stood aside and let her younger sister surpass her. She cared for her brother, served Simon the Leper, saw Jesus for what he was,  and  risked repercussions.

We meet her in hospitals and churches, in the kitchen, in the meeting-place, in the wrong place, at the wrong moment, rustling the papers, keeping the church running, ordering the necessities, speaking the startling word of truth and generosity that comes from a lifetime of understated prayer. Martha is the necessary irritant, the reliable voice, the host with a heart for Christ. She hid Jews from Nazis, Tutsis from Hutus, Yazidis from Daesh, the trafficked from gangsters. The fusspot at the cooking served Christ in the world.

We give thanks …

For the people we underestimate, for those who appear to have no specific

talent but who make other work possible.

For those who have made the Word of God the study of a lifetime.

For those who take the call to hospitality to its fullness in welcoming the

needy and life-worn, the hurt and the homeless, the refugee and stranger.

We pray …

For the silent witness of courage and the public act. That we might have the

insight to speak of Christ in the right place, at the right time.

For the times when we see our work as undervalued by our fellow humans

and by God when it seems that the easy path is on the road of others.

For the people in our lives who have been scarred by sickness, isolation, and

neglect, that they may enjoy the fullness of life and may serve our society.

For the insight to understand and bear witness to God in the world, in the

light of the Resurrection.

We give thanks …

For the unsung witnesses who have passed to us the stories that make our

faith real.

For the steadfastness of friends who have stood by us in our times of trial.

For the joy that breaks through in unexpected ways.

We pray …

For those who follow, pray and pray and keep us practical.

For those who walk through the corridors of power and keep their eyes on

goodness.

For the strength of the marriage bond, that it may bring blessing on its partners

and on all whose lives it touches.

That we may be able to recognise the risen Christ in our daily lives and

among the people we meet.

Our own prayers …….. Lord’s Prayer ……

KEEP SAFE ….KEEP PRAYING……

Peter

Lent Reflections – Part 1

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During the period of Lent, Rev’d John is encouraging us to think about fellowship. You can find further information in the links below. You can watch the first of these reflections by Rev John using this YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWgFJnzRiQM

Although we can’t all physically meet together currently, there will also be an opportunity on Sunday Evening at 6pm to virtually meet together on Zoom to reflect, pray, share thoughts, and ask questions. You can join via the link below:

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78999432826?pwd=OUR4WkVPUU82RVM1TDRZVzNQcmsrZz09

Meeting ID = 789 9943 2826
Password = 5EBn91

Lent 2021 Introduction Download
Lent 1 transcript Download

Service of the Word

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Topic: Service of the word
Time: Feb 21, 2021 11:00 AM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87033932319?pwd=V2dnRWpJNjU1ejlyN0JQbDlmbU5GZz09

Meeting ID: 870 3393 2319
Passcode: 452804

MCT PRAYERS LENT 15 FEBRUARY

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Hello everyone

LENTEN REFLECTIONS

This week heralds the beginning of the Season of Lent. Over the past forty-eight weeks we have journeyed together praying for the world-wide pandemic Corona virus and its effects on us all, deepening our relationship with God through many different avenues of prayer and we have prayed and meditated on Gods Word through the Scriptures and the thoughts of others.

Today Our opening Prayer starts with “Lent is a time to learn to travel”

Christine and I are going to follow “Lenten Reflections on Thirteen Lesser Reported Followers of Jesus’ Passion” By Rosemary Power – A Wild Goose publication. We invite you to join with us for seven of the Reflections as we lead up to Easter Day. www.ionabooks.com

Lent is a time to learn to travel

Light, to clear the clutter

From our crowded lives and

Find a space, a desert.

Deserts are bleak; no creature

Comforts, only a vast expanse of

Stillness, sharpening awareness of

Ourselves and God

Uncomfortable places, deserts.

Most of the time we’re tempted to

Avoid them, finding good reason to

Live lives of ease; cushioned by

Noise from self-discovery.

Clutching at world’s success

To stave off fear.

But if we dare to trust the silence

To strip away our false security,

God can begin to grow his wholeness in us,

Fill up our emptiness, destroy our fears,

Give us new vision, courage for the journey,

And make our desert blossom like a rose.

From – ‘Waiting for the Kingfisher’ – Ann Lewin

WEEK ONE:  Joseph the carpenter

I come in at the start.

I didn’t hear the end.

Or say a word.

Many a man rears another’s child.

My bride told me. After the pain, the strain,

of living the best I should, and loving more than I could dream.

Called like Ruth to leave the land, my people and my home

to work in tears among the alien corn

that filled my barns with joy.

When the years turned

and we returned to milk and honey

we followed the path through the scrolls

together, in synagogue and home

in dim evenings or the hot night

under the rooftop stars. I taught him.

I told then how we’d fled

for our lives, under the dark; the stark fear and loss of leaving,

saying nothing, fearing all

on the long road to Gaza, chariots kicking dust in the face,

and us parched, but afraid of the proffered lifts and drinks

and hidden costs,

me powerless to protect: he’d seen with toddler eyes.

We reached the sea and the coast ahead – but no waves parted,

though the full boat foundered on the further shore. We lived.

Storytelling’s in the family. I taught him.

In the workshop I taught those hands

to carve and turn, bind and loosen

and work the best, for neighbour, traveller and friend,

soldier and sinner, stranger, leper, child;

then lost him to the vineyards and the hills

and that other father, and to prayer

too silent for a labouring, dreaming man.

He saw me carrying the soldier’s pack in the heat, I sensed

the quick tense anger for his dad, then

his voice soft, curious,

asking the man’s story, listening to wandering years

till the stilled thug found his mile complete.

‘Your lad’ll go far,’ he told me.

I found him talking in the temple, once,

among the men.

I saw the smiles of passing rich, the priestly youth

tolerant of a bright boy and tradesman’s accent.

Was there one

who’d listen in the years he’d come to teach?

It was clear from then

there’d be no compromise,

but love, consideration and firm purpose

that would cross the world in its strength

and cross the powerful in their pride.

He’d join and try the heart and the grain

of the wood for its place

in the workshop of the world.

My time was over and the work passed on,

so, called to other work, I said:

‘Just mind your mum’ to a strong smile, the shine of eyes

wide enough for a region.

We give thanks …

For those who hold families together, who labour that we may eat.

For those who tell stories, where God dwells in the depths.

For the gift of reading the scriptures, and for teachers.

We pray …

For children seeking an education, that their desire might be fulfilled.

For parents seeking to protect their children, through hunger, war or lack of

opportunities.

For children who head families, holding in their loss and putting their hopes

aside.

For refugees on the road and on the sea; for those who have lost loved ones on

the journey, for those prey to people-traffickers, that they may find freedom.

Our own prayers …….. Lord’s Prayer ……

KEEP SAFE ….KEEP PRAYING……Peter