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Mission Partner Prayer Update
This Sunday (and in tonight’s central prayer meeting) we will be praying for our mission partners in St. Peter’s Church, Rockferry.
But the best time to pray is always NOW! Dave Casson has sent us the following items for prayer:
• Pray for wisdom and clarity as we start to open up various activities
• Pray for the new KidZone for primary age children that we have started at the Vikings Community Centre. This centre is very close to the primary school and we have advertised it in each class. Pray for the just the right number (we had 20 last week) and the leaders to run the club well and safely.
• Thank God for youthy which has restarted and several members who we haven’t seen for months have come back.
• Please pray for the team of people who have volunteered to go weekly to the primary school to help with reading. That DBSs would be quick, the volunteers and children would enjoy it, and it would further enhance our relationship with the school.
• Please pray especially for Lucy Slavin as she tries to work out how to start the toddler group up again bearing in mind all current and changing regulations.
New Content on the Discipleship Page
We have added more content to our discipleship page this week. Do head over and take a look. New content on fear and anxiety and on encouragement (giving and receiving) has been coloured in red text, though the previous content is still well worth a look at.
The end goal of discipleship is that we become more like Jesus; that we move further up and further in as C.S. Lewis puts it in The Last Battle. It is great to know that we are in this together. Discipleship is for everyone and everyday. Every Christian should be discipling someone else, be discipled by someone else or be doing both.
Sunday Evening Communion
The Prime Minister has said repeatedly that people value ‘certainty over urgency’ and although it is impossible to be completely certain about anything, it does appear that we are on course to follow that initial roadmap out of lockdown. This means that come 17 May we should reach Step 3 and by 21 June all lockdown restrictions should be lifted. Personally, I am looking forward to being able to sing in church once again. In the meantime we need to be thinking about how we continue to open up as a church and the various ministries we will reengage as restrictions ease. These are issues we will be considering over the coming weeks and months. One thing we can do straight away is start a new evening service.
As I have spoken to a number of people, it seems that there is an
appetite for an evening service, in a sense, to replace the old 9am and 6:30pm services. Very much in keeping with the style of these services the new service will be a weekly communion following Common Worship. It will be at 5pm, which may seem a little early but if the service becomes established this may help those who are bit worried about coming out in the dark during the winter months and it also leaves open the possibility that, if ever the time is right, we can start a more contemporary evening service at 7pm. We can start this service on a trial basis and if it doesn’t work it can always stop but if you have been eager to get to an evening service for a while or you would appreciate a Sunday Common Worship communion then do come along to St Michael’s beginning on 16 May at 5pm. As always do get in touch with Cecelia if you would like to come, because, at least to begin with, we will need to observe our various lockdown protocols.
Why are we studying Galatians?
We are about to start a new sermon series in the book of Galatians and we may wonder why this particular book is particularly relevant right now? The short answer is that the book of Galatians is about the gospel and whatever our circumstances the gospel is always relevant.
The slightly longer answer is in three parts:
* The gospel is good news not good advice
* We don’t need to make the gospel relevant: the gospel is relevant
* We can never hear the gospel enough
To read more about these three parts please click here, and please turn up or tune in to our sermon series in Galatians between now and mid-July, beginning this week with Galations 1:1-10.
Social Media Channels
Do remember to connect with our church through our social media channels. We use these to help us Make Jesus known and grow together in him as well as to communicate about news and events, broadcast services and encourage one another with scripture.
We can be found on Youtube, facebook, twitter and instagram.
The best way to connect is to search for Christ Church Barnston or BarnstonPensby, locate our profile(s) and follow or subscribe.
This is also a fantastic way to share our church with friends and family or to invite people to consider joining us.
Praying for Neema
We have received the April prayer update from Joshua and Miriam and Neema Children’s home.
“The Lord has lovingly taken care of us. With all the children at home, we have to make sure they are positively occupied and engaged. We spent the whole of Friday (Good Friday) playing out
door games with them, the same as 12/4, resurrection Sunday. It’s been fun, it’s been great. The children also enjoyed fellowship, two (2) whole days! We decided just to relax and enjoy the weekend with them. From Monday, 13th, they go back to homework. They are given text books from where they get homework and supervised. When Schools open, the teachers will check and mark the work.”
God’s grace has been sufficient amidst covid-19 challenge. All the children do not leave the compound. The care givers only leave the compound if and when necessary. We are trying to get used to masks. Feels strange, but good for our health and protection.
Parish Bookstall available for use
The bookstall in the Parish Hall at Christ Church remains available to use for all parishioners, and as we begin to get out and about again, it’s a good idea to consider whether you might be able to make use of it. There are some books for reference or order only but the majority can be signed out and borrowed entirely free of charge.
Whether it’s Bible reading materials or encouragement, Bibles and books for children and families, Christian biographies, books to build faith, books to help us identify sin or bad habits, books to help us understand God better, book to help us understand ourselves better, books to help us understand and love others better, books about evangelism, books about generosity, books about the church – we’ve got them and many more. The picture shows just some of the range available.
Aspiring to the regular reading of Christian literature helps us to be renewed by the transforming of our minds. It helps us to live in the world but not be of the world.
The books are quarantined after they have been returned, and there is hand gel available for use when selecting a book. Just pick something to read, sign it out of the bookstall and enjoy! If the book really impacts you feel free to review it in one of our services soon or here on this news page.
The best time to borrow a book is during the main office hours of 9am-2pm Monday to Friday.
Parish ‘iPlayer’ launched
We have recently made the back catalogue of services from May 2020 through to March 2021 available to watch again on our you tube channel.
You can visit our you tube channel by clicking this link and the services are arranged on playlists labelled by the month of each year. You can remind yourself of a service you particularly enjoyed or look for a service from a special day or watch them all like a box set! These services could also be shared with wider friends and family, and give a flavour of life in our Parish, certainly during a pandemic.
The possibilities are endless…
New Term Card available with details of our services and The Hub for the summer term
Our new term card with details of the term to come is now live on this website. It can be found under the WHAT’S ON menu from our homepage or by clicking here.
In short, our Sunday services will focus on the book of Ruth for 4 weeks, before turning to Paul’s letter to the Galatians running until the 18th of July before we start our Summer holidays programme.
At the Hub, in order to capitalise on the helpful Prayer Course held in the Spring Term we begin (from April 29th) online with Prayer Revisited before starting a series called Rejoice from June 6th. This is a series of carefully planned events which are designed to fit in with the easing of the Coronavirus restrictions to enable us to spend time together again as a church family including walks prior to June 17th before a healing service, quiz and praise night once restrictions are completely lifted. What a joy it will be to sing again together!
Mission Partner Update | Christians against Poverty – Wirral
Our support of CAP contributes towards the role of Jess Parkhouse as a Debt Coach working in Wirral. Please see below for a short update from Jess about the work she is involved in:
Since my initial training in the summer, I have been very active learning about CAP as an organisation, about CAP Wirral, and my role as a Debt Coach. I am busy helping clients through the three-appointment process that enables them to move towards a route out of debt.
We have just delivered Easter gift bags to all of our clients and ‘The Real Easter Egg’ to all of the children. I feel very privileged to be part of such an amazing debt relief charity that helps people on the road to financial freedom, and to able to give them the opportunity to hear about the life changing love of Jesus. Thank you so much for your support and prayers!
The advert for our new Vicar is now live!
Bob and Rob, our Church Wardens, are delighted to say that the advertisement for the new Incumbent has gone online today. You can see our Parish profile by clicking this link. Please continue to pray that God will lead the person of His choosing to join us here!
For further information, the closing date for applications is the 9th of May with interviews taking place on the 26th of May. The applications will be sent to the Archdeacon of Chester and shortlisted by the team as explained in the previous update from our Church Wardens freely available on these news pages.
Pastoral Letter at Easter from Rev. Chris Murphy
Amongst an update on his upcoming paternity leave, Chris writes about how Easter shapes us as people, even during a pandemic:
“We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song”.
“My hope, as we emerge from lockdown, is that we will be the people God has called us to be. That we will be an Easter people. That we will, whatever our circumstances, be able to rejoice and cry “Alleluia.” And as we rejoice at the ending of lockdown; at the arrival of Spring; at the incredible roll out the Covid vaccine; and most importantly, at the resurrection of Jesus, we will be able to testify to the goodness of God.”
Please click here to read the full text of the letter.
New Discipleship Page
Introducing our new Discipleship web page. Here you will find discipleship resources collated by our Discipleship Co-ordinator, Joanna Hill.
A mixture of articles, podcasts and links to help us individually and corporately in our mission to ‘grow together in Jesus’.
Check it out – barnston.info/discipleship
Church Services filling up
We long for the day when we see more people than seats during our services again. At present the bookings for our services are increasing and the need to book your seats has unfortunately become a necessity.
If you would like to attend any of our church services, please contact Cecelia on either, cecelia@barnston.info or, 0151 6482404 by 12 noon on the preceding Thursday. Over the past few weeks church services have been getting busier and we may move to a rotation system soon.
Even if you have been attending weekly please still book in every week since we really don’t want to have to turn people away on a Sunday. The capacity at Christ Church is 21 and the capacity at St Michael’s is 45.
