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Magazine of Erdington Methodist Church Station Road - October 2015

CONTACT

Contents Minister’s Letter 3 Growing up 4 Vision report for October 2015 5 The Little Blue Tea Shop 6 The WI 9 What makes the perfect bedtime story? 12 Prayer for the situation in Calais 13 Erdington Foodbank 14 ‘A Bell is no bell till you ring it’ (Oscar Hammerstein) 18 Your prayers are needed 21 Definitions 21 THE WAY I SEE IT: Who are the ‘Heroes’? 22 Duct tape 23 Help Needed! 24 Our Friend 25 Miscellaneous one-liners 25 All in the month of OCTOBER 26 October Regular Meetings 27 Coffee Mornings 27 Tuesday Club 27 Sunday Worship 27 Weekly Church Activities 28

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Minister’s Letter

Dear friends

Lots of people have asked what I did on my sabbatical in May-August, and rightly so! A sabbatical is a gift to ministers from the Church, and you’re entitled to know what I did with mine!

The purpose of sabbaticals is refreshment: spiritual, physical and mental. I hope I’ve managed all of those! My sabbatical started straight after the Walk Through the Old Testament. I had booked to go for 4 days to a little secluded place with no tv, radio or phone signal, and ‘Walk Through’ inspired me to take a chronological Bible and read through from the death of King David to the end of the Old Testament. It was great to be reminded of the big sweep of history, and God’s workings in it! It was good to read the Prophets in historical context, too. I returned to that retreat place later in the sabbatical, and also made time to retreat alone to the Quaker Woodbrooke Cente and to Rydal Hall in Cumbria.

Refreshment also came through walking. I went with 2 friends to the Lake District in June and we spent 7 days on a circuit that took in over 70 miles, with more than 22,000’ of ascent! Alex and I had a lovely sunny week in the Brecon Beacons and a lovely rainy week in Snowdonia. Over the summer we were also able to catch up with family and a number of friends we rarely see. That’s vitally important, especially for those of us who work weekends!

For my studies I focussed on ministry to people of Caribbean heritage who live in the UK (‘Anglo-Caribbean’ folk). (Apologies

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to people with different heritage, but I had to focus on something specific!) This involved some reading and some interviews. It helped me to understand the heroic faith, grace and patience of people who have seen enormous change in their lives, and it enabled me to see more clearly some of the challenges that go with being a pilgrim people.

There were other highs, as well, including a Methodist ordination service in Liverpool Cathedral, and there were some lows, not least seeing Alex struggle with her health. We’ve come back with renewed determination to make our time here count – to achieve all we can for the God who has given everything for us. Not everyone can have a 3-month sabbatical, sadly, but it’s important for us all that we step back and take stock. We all need to recharge our batteries, and to give time to our relationship with God. Thankfully, that needn’t take 3 months: a few minutes listening to God here and there can be wonderful and can really help us. In fact, I would say it’s essential and I hope you are able to make those times for yourself.

So I’m deeply grateful to the Church for the gift of a sabbatical. It’s been good to be away, and it’s good to be back!

God bless

Rev Paul

Growing upYour child has started growing up when he stops asking you where he came from and starts refusing to tell you where he's going.

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Vision report for October 2015

We are even closer to the end---honestly!

You will have noticed that we have wonderful new lighting in the church. The two outside noticeboards SHOULD be up by now, and the rest of the windows and new back doors are on their way and may have been started by now. So that will mean we have done everything we set out to do and that is a cause for great rejoicing . . . however, there could be one more thing that would be ‘the icing on the cake’ but much more discussion is needed before we reveal more - so you can guess what that might be. What about £5 a guess for Vision? No, maybe not!

By the time you read this we will be nearing Ethan’s concert with the Rep Opera Company and the coffee morning and photograph competition. Both should be enjoyable occasions in their own way. More details elsewhere. Peter and Margaret’s House group are running a coffee morning on November 7th and our last event of 2015 will be the Christmas Festival.

We have agreed that we need a final wind-up date for the Vision Project and we have chosen March 31st 2016. We want to end with one last fundraiser to involve everyone and end on a ‘high’.

Details have not been thought through yet, but we envisage some sort of sponsored activity that everyone can take part in. I don’t think we will ask Kate to be silent again, though!!! More about this in the next issue of Contact.

Hilary Price�5

The Little Blue Tea Shop

My three companions and I alighted at the coach park in Pershore, scheduled to go on to Tewkesbury later in the day. The latter I had known fairly well from my childhood, but Pershore I had only visited once before to my knowledge, and that was a quick trip down the main High Street.

From the motorway we travelled through the delightful undulating Worcestershire countryside, the newly emerging leaves showing their freshness and variation from lime greens to bronze reds in the spring sunshine. Hawthorn hedges in their spring attire of May blossom romped over hills and down dales, and fields of new-born frisky lambs gambolled crazily around their mothers, butting their underbellies when needing sustenance, wagging their tails gleefully when successful. The orchards wearing their wedding white blossom were humming with bees and pollinating insects.With the sun shining through the windows the air in the coach was hot and stuffy, so by the time we alighted in Pershore we were spitting feathers!

We emerged into the High Street and to the left appeared to be the market square where, in past centuries one could imagine a weekly general market, and from time to time a livestock market where shepherds sold their sheep and lambs, this area having been developed as a wool town as were many of the Cotswold towns. Shops and cottages jostled each other down each side of the High Street, some in golden stone with modest windows, others in red brick with more modern frontages. Once through the car park we began to hunt for a coffee shop. A few hundred yards to our right a small bright blue table and chair presented themselves on the

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pavement proclaiming that ‘morning coffee was now being served if we cared to step inside’. We did care to step inside and ventured through a small subdued room hung on either side with rails of assorted clothes - dresses, skirts, T-shirts and trousers along with a selection of bric-a-brac and object d’art. Up one step and a similar room presented itself, so we burrowed our way through evening dresses, many bright and dazzling in their gaudiness, some bejewelled with sequins and beads, confirming our views that this was a second-hand shop and that it was definitely an affluent area. It was like entering a Persian market, or should I say in this instance, a Pershore market! Certainly with all the garish and exotic clothing on display it resembled an Eastern bazaar and would have been equally at home in the Orient.

One more step brought us into a bright and delightful tiny tea shop where in this very small space the proprietors had managed to fit in some four or five tables with chairs, each beautifully laid with embroidered tablecloths and pretty non-matching china, cutlery and all the accoutrements necessary for morning coffee. Some tables were already occupied and their very accommodating occupants were happy to move and adjust their seats to fit everybody in, including my friends and me.

We were greeted by a cheerful lady who assured us ‘we could certainly have coffee, and if we wished,' she continued, 'freshly baked scones with jam and butter or jam and cream.' So we wished and naughtily indulged - taking our time to relish our scones, lattes and cafetière as well as drinking in the ambience of the place. It was apparent that the tea shop was popular among the locals too as people were constantly popping-in, either to exchange a piece of

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gossip, bring along a cake or take a seat for coffee, and it was obvious from the chat and banter they knew one other.

Our aim was to visit Pershore Abbey, situated on the the land which was donated by Ethelred of Mercia to Oswald, Bishop of Worcester for the establishment of a Benedictine Order in 689AD. But it was a disappointment to find it closed due to a service being in progress, so we strolled round the abbey and the surrounding Park with its ajestic trees, enjoying the space and peace. How lovely to live in such a delightful place.

We were unable to explore further as the coach awaited us and we were soon on our way to Tewkesbury with its quaint half-timbered jetted buildings overhanging the main street. There was so much to see whilst exploring the vast and ancient abbey, founded by the Benedictine monks in 1087 although the present building did not commence until 1102, the beautiful art work of sculptures, carvings and stained-glass windows and of the florists who daily arrange and refresh the huge floral displays. The new Abbey Restaurant built in the abbey grounds also was well worth a visit.

Although I enjoyed my visit to these historic towns awakening my memories of the Tewkesbury I once knew, it was the Little Blue Tea Shop which lingered in my mind as the highlight of the day with its cheerfulness and chattiness and comfortable feeling of intimacy.

Ann TomesPershore Abbey

Tewkesbury Abbey�8

The WI

At the moment the media seems to be full of the centenary of the WI. This is an institute about which, I have to admit, that my knowledge is limited to the WI stall in Lichfield market and Calendar Girls.

Apparently it all started in Canada in 1897. The initial meeting was at Stoney Creek, Ontario as a branch of the Farmer’s Institute. The Ontario government encouraged this new development as a means of reducing rural isolation. They then used it as a means of offering training in home economics and childcare as well as those skills normally undertaken by women in small rural communities, at that time poultry keeping and small animal husbandry.

The WI arrived in the UK in 1915. The initial meetings were held under the auspices of the Agricultural Organisation Society (ASO), which appointed a Canadian Madge Watts to try and extend it across the country. The first recorded meeting of the new organisation took place in Llanfair PG on Anglesey, North Wales on September 16th 1915. The original aim was to encourage ladies to grow and preserve food as part of the war effort. By the end of 1916 there were 40 active branches which had expanded to 199 by the end of the war.

The popularity and therefore growth of the WI was so great that in 1918 the first national training event was organised at the Horticultural Halls in Westminster. Later that year, at the AGM a resolution was passed urging Local Authorities to take advantage

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of the Government's scheme for state-aided housing. A portent of what was to come.

Amazingly by the end of 1919 there were 1,405 branches across the country. The Government empowered the WI to take over responsibility for its own organisation and gave a generous grant from the Rural Development Commission. This was continued until 1926 when the WI became financially self-sufficient. In another portent of what was to come, the first WI market opened in Lewes.

The development continued apace in the 1920s. The movement grew to 4,244 groups. The first English born women MP was elected in 1921, Mrs Margaret Winteringham, Honorary Secretary to the Lindsey Federation (Lincolnshire). Then in 1922 the AGM passed a motion urging more public health education to prevent venereal disease.

In the early 1930s the WI campaigning continued apace with resolutions about improving water supplies in villages, better supervision of pregnant women in rural areas and more local support for unemployment and distress amongst both men and women. Later in the decade the focus moved to preparations for evacuation and war.

During the second war the Ministry of Food allocated a sugar ration to WI preservation Centres to facilitate jam making from produce that would otherwise have gone to waste. But the campaigning continued. ‘Town Children through Country Eyes’ a report about the plight of evacuees led, after the war, to the setting up of family allowance. Then in 1943 a resolution was discussed

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urging the government to consider equal pay for equal work. After the war was over a grant was made available for the creation of a WI group in the Channel Isles. Total number of WI groups stood at 7,281.

After the war and during the hopes of the peace, the WI contributed a tapestry mural of the Country Wife to the Festival of Britain. And still the campaigning went on. In 1950 a resolution urging hospitals to allow parent to visit children. The WI was also instrumental in the Keep Britain Tidy campaign, offering the fledgling organisation office space until they found offices for themselves.

The lists go on and the number of groups continued to rise. Concerns were raised about toxic sprays, children and drugs/ pornography/violence, free family planning, nursery education, equality, homelessness, single sex wards and AIDS.

The new century brought new slants on an old idea. There are now urban WI groups, with 30 in London. In a different way the Iron Maidens WI in Liscard Merseyside with members sporting tattoos, piercing and gothic styles.

Other achievements include being one of the founders of the Fair Change Foundation and the suggestion that the 215,000 members of the WI contribute almost 3.5 million hours of voluntary service each year.

It is an organisation that aims to be inclusive. Dedicated to education, voluntary service and campaigning, thoughtful, intelligent and vociferous in support of the causes it espouses. It is

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then probably little wonder that when Tony Blair tried to bring them onside he was given the very vocal thumbs down

Peter Farley

What makes the perfect bedtime story?

Here is the recipe for making the perfect homespun bedtime tale, which promises to have your offspring drifting off to sleep in contentment:

First, aim to create a story that is just 8.6 minutes long. Second, whatever characters you use, you need to include: a dragon, a wizard, and a fairy. If you can possibly manage it, put them all in or around a mythical castle.

Third, get ready to adapt different voices for each character, and if you are really aiming high, act out as much of the story as you can. Fourth, stir in a big dollop of trouble – the tense bit in the story where things are all wrong for the hero, and danger looms.

Fifth, and most essential, the hero needs to win and the story needs to have a happy ending. The happy ending for you? A happy child, going off to sleep! The research was done for Butlins.

from the Parish Pump website

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Prayer for the situation in CalaisThe Rev Phil Jump, Regional Minister for the North Western Baptist Association and JPIT Team Member from the Baptist Union of Great Britain, has prepared this prayer to coincide with the publication recently of a joint statement by our church leaders on the situation in Calais.

God of all humanityWhen your people were enslaved and displaced,You led them to a land that they could call home;When your people were in exile;Your promise was that one day,They would live in streets of play and laughter.When your disciples were afraid and uncertain,You spoke of a Father's HouseWith mansions and places prepared.

We pray today for all those who have no place to call home,Hearing the heart-cry of your wordFor those who are without refuge.Where shelter is ours to offerGrant us the will and resolve to reflect the generosity of our Creator.Where others stand in the way of those who need safe havenMay our cry for justice never falter.May the idols of self-interest and economic gainNever deflect us from the ways of your Kingdom.Through Christ our Lord.

Amen

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Erdington Foodbank

First of all, thank you so much for all the support you give us. Two things we are very sure about are that Erdington Foodbank is a community venture and that the need in our community is still very much there!

We are at that time of year where you might be considering donating foodstuffs from your Harvest Festival. We would be delighted to receive food from you – it will not go to waste. But to get the greatest impact from your giving we would ask that if possible you donate the following non-perishable items which are our current shortage foods:- Granulated Sugar Fruit juice (carton)Pasta saucesRiceTinned meatTinned fishTinned vegetablesRice pudding (tinned)Tinned fruitCoffeeToiletriesNappies

Gerard GoshawkChair Erdington Foodbank

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ERDINGTON METHODIST CHURCH

COFFEE MORNING and

PHOTOGRAPHY RESULTS and DISPLAY

SATURDAY OCTOBER 17th from 10.00 am – 1.00 pm Winners announced at 11.00 pm

Refreshments with BACON BAPS CAKES for sale Browse the BOOK STALL

ALL PROCEEDS FOR THE VISION PROJECT – helping to reach our target with another £7000 to raise.

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‘A Bell is no bell till you ring it’ (Oscar Hammerstein)

Earlier this year Don and I attended morning worship at St John’s Church, Shenstone. As we drew closer to the church, our conversation steadily ceased as we listened to the church bells pealing jubilantly. What a wonderful welcome! I cannot imagine a more delightful way to greet parishioners on a Sunday morning. Bells hold an attraction for me, be they church bells or hand bells, so it is hardly surprising that following my retirement from teaching, I set out to buy my own set of hand bells. It took many months of saving hard to buy my two octave set, but I have never regretted scrimping and saving to buy them. What pleasure they afford me and my team of ringers!

About two or three months ago I discovered that on September 9th a coach company was running a trip to Taylor’s Bell Foundry in Loughborough. Taylor’s foundry is the largest in the world. I knew a visit would be right up my street so I booked the day’s outing for four of us - three members of my hand bell choir plus myself.

As we entered the huge, dusty old building I spent a few moments taking stock. Just about everything was grey … the bells, the walls, the machinery … probably my face too! Frankly, I wasn’t in a state of frenzied excitement as I gazed at umpteen grey bells of all sizes strewn over an uneven, greyish concrete floor. Following our first glimpse inside the factory, the afternoon’s guided tour became more and more interesting. After about an hour and a half of walking, (my left knee was giving me jip!) we had witnessed the many stages of all that is involved in casting a bell. Unfortunately, I can’t remember a lot of what we were told and Hilary wasn’t much help as she had left her hearing aids at home!

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En route through the premises, our well informed guide played a small selection of fairly large bells, each one cast from a different metal. The variations in tone were quite significant, but the one which was cast in iron gave us a bit of a shock. Our guide wielded a large wooden mallet and gave it a mighty THWACK! A hideous clang assaulted our eardrums. Not pleasant! Bells are supposed to ring, not bellow!

Finally, we were given some time to look round the factory shop where we made one or two purchases. I bought an informative book about casting bells and I discovered that the bell named ‘Great Paul’ in St Paul’s Cathedral is the largest in Britain. It weighs over 16 tonnes! How on earth was it hoisted up into the bell tower? The mind boggles.

Our visit to Taylor’s Bell Factory was worthwhile, but a word of caution should you decide to visit. Comfortable, sturdy shoes are essential. Furthermore, if rain looks likely, take a rain hat with you. Apparently the roof leaks!

Barbara Rawson

Photo courtesy of Hilary

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AT ERDINGTON METHODIST CHURCH

“TIMELESS CLASSICS” with ETHAN and BROC Birmingham Repertory Opera Company

On Saturday October 10th at 7.30 pm

Tickets on sale £7.00 Including refreshments

Please support VISION and enjoy a lovely evening.

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Your prayers are needed Primavera Quantrill, the editor of the Methodist Prayer Handbook is on the lookout for new prayers. These should be up to 120 words or 12 lines long, and ideally related to specific Methodist topics or for particular countries or needs.

The theme of the 2016/2017 handbook is ‘Freedoms to share’, which looks at how we find freedom in Christ and share the freedoms he gives us with others, by listening, learning and responding. We remember not only those fragile lives crying out for shelter from persecution, fear and suffering, but also those ensnared by materialism, selfishness and sin.

The title comes from Graham Kendrick’s hymn 'God of the poor' (Beauty for Brokenness) (Singing the Faith 693).

You can find information on the Methodist Church webiste. Prayers should be submitted by 12 January 2016.

DefinitionsChoir: A group of people whose singing allows the rest of the Congregation to lip-sync.

Hymn: A song of praise usually sung in a key two octaves higher than that of the congregation's range.

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THE WAY I SEE IT: Who are the ‘Heroes’?

‘Hero’ has become a familiar word in modern life – much more so than I can remember from 20 or 30 years ago. We are all familiar with the ‘Help for Heroes’ charity, supporting our military personnel who have been injured and the families of those who have been killed serving their country. That one’s simple. ‘Hero’ seems entirely fitting. But then some football fans have insisted on a new category of ‘hero’ – a highly paid footballer who sacrificially decides to stay with a club and stagger along on a mere £50,000 a week. Banners in the stands proclaim such ‘heroes’! It really is quite difficult to regard the two examples as similar in any serious way.

I’m also impressed, however, with another kind of ‘hero’, one that can be recognised in every community. These are the heroes (or heroines, to be pedantic) who make it their duty and joy to serve and care for others. I’m thinking of the vast army of ‘carers’, people who week in and week out dedicate their lives to someone who without their help would live a very diminished life. Such carers do it for love, not money. They may be supporting a seriously handicapped child who needs constant loving attention, or an older person with dementia who is physically well but incredibly demanding in terms of acceptance and emotional care.The carer-heroes also include many who are paid to do it, though rather less than a Premier league footballer.

I have a relative who spent much of her working life as a home help. She loved the job and was loved by the people she visited day by day. She wasn’t a clock- watcher, but seemed to them like a friend who popped in to see how they were and help with getting

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up, washing, snacks and bed-time. It was a mutually rewarding experience. Carer and client were both rewarded, but in different ways.

Greatly to her surprise, my relative one day received a letter from 10 Downing Street telling her that she had been awarded the MBE for services to the community. Apparently some of her clients had got together and written to the Prime Minister recommending her for her long years of service to the people in her town in south Wales.

It was a lovely gesture, though she liked to make the point that there were probably thousands of home helps and support workers offering similar service who equally deserved the award. I preferred to think of her MBE as a token representing all those unseen and anonymous ‘heroes’ in our cities, towns and villages.

My dictionary defines a hero as ‘a person who is admired for their outstanding achievements’. By that definition our men and women in Afghanistan qualify. So do the military medics who recently risked fatal infection to fight ebola in West Africa. And so do all those unsung carers. But not, for me, a well-paid footballer.

David Winter - from the Parish Pump website

Duct tape

Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

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Help Needed!The team that produces the ‘on-screen’ material each week has suffered by one or two people dropping out recently. Not only that but those who have volunteered have limitations on what they can do. Nick can produce the PowerPoint and can set up the equipment on a Sunday but can’t operate the display on a Sunday because his hands are otherwise occupied playing the organ. At least one of the team can’t manage the stairs and so can prepare the PowerPoint and can operate the display but can’t set up the equipment.

You can understand, therefore, that drawing up a rota for these people can be somewhat complicated (thanks to Hilary for doing this for us).

So what do we need?We would be delighted if other people would step-up to build PowerPoints for each Sunday, set up the equipment, operate the display and be on the regular rota.

But it would also really help if you would be prepared to be on the rota to:

• Set up the equipment• Operate the display on a Sunday

Full training will be given - and if you want to help produce PowerPoints ongoing support will be given.

If you can help then please speak to Nick Riley

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Our Friend

You’re the Alpha and OmegaThe beginning and the end.The God in whom we place our trustAnd utterly depend.You’re the One who’s all forgivingAnd kind and just and true,So merciful and powerful –Who can compare with You?

You are mighty and majesticYet gentle as a dove,Delighting in Your childrenEnfolding us in love.Compassionate and full of graceAnd faithful to the end,We come with hearts of joy to serveOur Saviour and our Friend.

By Kathleen Gillum - from the Parish Pump website

Miscellaneous one-liners

• Exercise daily - walk with the Lord.• We don't change God's message - His message changes us.• For every minute you are angry with someone, you lose 60

seconds of happiness that you can never get back.

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All in the month of OCTOBER

100 years ago:- on 12th Oct 1915 that Edith Cavell, British Nurse and WWI heroine died. She saved the lives of injured soldiers regardless of which side they were on. Executed for helping British soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium.

80 years ago:- on 12th Oct 1935 that Luciano Pavarotti, Italian operatic tenor, was born. Considered one of the finest tenors of the 20th century, and one of the most commercially successful, of all time. (Died 2007.)

65 years ago:- on 7th Oct 1950 that Mother Teresa founded what would become the Missionaries of Charity, in Calcutta, India.

50 years ago:- on 8th Oct 1965 that the Post Office Tower in London (now the BT Tower) was officially opened. It was the tallest building in the UK until 1980.

Also 30 years ago:- on 6th Oct 1985 that the Broadwater Farm housing estate riot in Tottenham, took place. Metropolitan Police constable Keith Blakelock was killed – the first constable to be killed in a riot since 1833.

Also 25 years ago:- on 3rd Oct 1990 that East and West Germany were officially reunited as the Federal Republic of Germany.

from the Parish Pump website

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October Regular Meetings

Coffee MorningsEach Saturday 10.00 am to 12.00 noon

Tuesday ClubEvery 4th Tuesday in the month at 2.30 pm

Sunday Worship

All worship starts at 10.30 am unless stated otherwise below.

4th HOLY COMMUNION - Rev Alan SmithsonAlpha Course - 5.00 pm

11th Lynette JonesAlpha Course - 5.00 pm

18th ALL AGE WORSHIP - HARVEST FESTIVALRev Paul DunstanAlpha Course - 5.00 pmChurches Together Service - Six Ways Baptist - 5pm

25th WORSHIP GROUP - David HewittAlpha Course - 5.00 pm

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Weekly Church Activities

Please hand any items for the November CONTACT to any of the Editorial Team (Peter Farley, Christine Rankin, Ann Tomes & Nick Riley) by 15th October 2015 at the latest please or alternatively email me: nickriley@blueyonder.co.uk with the word ‘CONTACT’ in the title.

Sunday 10.30 am MORNING WORSHIP and Young Church

Tuesday 9.30 - 12.30 pm 2.00 pm

Pre-School : Karen Homer Tuesday Afternoon Meeting : Margaret Hillman (2nd)

Wednesday 9.30 - 11.30 am 9.30 - 12.30 pm 12.30 pm

Stay and Play Pre-School : Karen Homer Luncheon Club - (1st and 3rd)

Thursday 9.30 - 12.30 pm Pre-School : Karen Homer

Friday 9.30 - 12.30 pm 5.00 - 6.15 pm 6.15 - 7.45 pm 7.45 - 9.15 pm 7.45 - 9.15 pm 5.30 - 6.30 pm 5.00 - 6.30 pm 7.30 - 9.00 pm

Pre-School : Karen Homer Beavers : Lynn Turner Cubs : Elizabeth Baizon Scouts : Lisa Porter Explorers : Lucy Porter Rainbows : Debbie Barnett Brownies : Lesley Carter Guides : Helen Rainsford

Saturday 10.00 - 12.00 noon 10.30 - 11.30 am

Coffee Morning : Lesley Morgan Church open for prayer : Margaret Curzon

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