October 27, 2009
Teenagers can teach us oldies a thing or two!
Most of our members are 50+ with only 1 teenager who is now a member of the Church Council. At a recent meeting there was discussion on merging circuits and the advantages and disadvantages were made by various people. One of the most obvious was missed by everyone until our teenager pointed out to us how both the spiritual and social life of the church would be improved due to the proximity of a very large , successful church. She was looking forward to contact with fellow committed christians of her own age which she misses in our small circuit.
The same principle applies to us oldies because we can share ideas on worship, bible study, activities, serving the community etc with a much wider age range. We will meet up with other enthusiastic and energetic individuals who may well re-ignite the passion of our faith. So instead of fearing the merger we should be looking forward to it and seeing opportunities rather than obstacles.
It started me thinking again about the future of our traditional church and the conservatism of so many of my age. We need to take note of the reduced membership, the age of the members and how many faithful servants will still be with us in 10 years time! Why do we so easily dismiss new ideas of worship, use of modern technolgy or more flexible use of the buildings or changes to them? We need to encourage the younger generation to have a vision for the future of our church. Many are very intelligent young people, often nervous of speaking out when in the presence of elderly people. Their voice must be heard- debated yes – but in a positive manner, encouraging and supporting them in their actions. Shouldn’t we be the wise counsellors and give advice from experience rather than condemnation or dismissal because they are young.
I get so annoyed when some of us oldies say things like “but we have always done that or Mrs so and so gave us that and we don’t want to hurt her feelings etc.” How much more hurt will she feel when her beloved church closes.
We all long to see families, teenagers and children in our churches. They will be there if they feel that they are treated as equals and their opinions will be truly welcomed. The young have important contributions to make to the christian life of any church. It’s so important to dicuss our future with parents and young families. They should be loved,nurtured and given respect for their views. Above all LISTEN to YOUR TEENAGERS in your church. If you don’t – you won’t see them for long nor will your church exist much longer. That is my worry for my church.
July 31, 2011
One Church, one Faith, One Lord
Well, the Pageant is over! It was a lovely atmosphere with a packed church. Everyone enjoyed playing their part, as did the audience. We achieved its aim of having the church family working together to produce a great evening for everyone and throughout the narration and scenes the theme of being part of one church, one faith and one God shone through. Indeed that statement was left showing on the screen, after singing ” Thy hand, O Lord, has guided” at the end.
With over 50 of our members taking part. there was excitement, enthusiasm and togetherness in abundance. But what now? Do we just carry on and remmeber a lovely event or do we use the success as an incentive to perhaps develop a Performing Arts group to present, say Christian musical plays to share the message of God’s love for us and the demand on us to love other people as we would want to be loved.
The message that their is one church, one faith and one God for everyone in this world seems a wonderful message to share.
July 24, 2011
Philippians 4 v 8
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”
This is my favourite passage in the bible and I used to have it on the wall of my science laboratory when I was teaching (would I still be allowed to do so these days?).
This verse was the subject of Ali’s talk tonight at our Praise and Worship, an ecumenical and informal worship). These words are very apt for all the many members of our church who are working so hard to perform the 150th Anniversary Pageant on Saturday night. There is much which is praiseworthy, lovely, excellent and admirable. It is wonderful to see the church family working enthusiastically together . I am sure some of these words will be used when our Minister says a few words at the end of the Pageant next Saturday.
A remarkable coincidence occurred today! Shortly before our 5.30 pm Praise and Worship, I received an email from a friend in Australia. Now her mum,Dora, died 2 years ago at the grand age of 102. She was a well-loved member of our church until the day she died.
One evening in the 1980′s I was the steward on duty when Dora was the leader of the service. The above verse was her text for her talk. She so inspired me by what she said that I placed that verse on my Laboratory wall for the first time. It completely changed how I treated the children in my class.I learnt that night what love and care for others really meant as a Christian and I have tried (not always successfully) to follow the message of loving others as you would wish to be loved. What I do know though is that, even if I found loving some people extremely hard, if not impossible, I rarely failed to give praise to any student for something I felt deserved it, no matter if I liked that person or not. Today I believe I still hold that principle very high in my daily contacts with people in the community.
So was it coincidence that email or the Lord reminding me that there are some people who haven’t been given the praise they deserve and for me to do something about it.
This is just one aspect of that beautiful verse and Ali showed by wonderful photos from the world around us how much we have to thank God for in our lives. After the terrible events in Norway and worries about the financial markets – take a look around us at the “Fine good things we see” and thank God for them.
July 19, 2011
150 years Anniversary Pageant. The church family comes together.
I have very much neglected my blogs, so thought I would start again and attempt something each week. So here goes with news about our Pageant.
On March 18th 1861 the cornerstone of our chapel was laid. An event re-enacted on March 18th of this year-150 years ago, with a Victorian Coffee Morning. During June and July there were 8 special services taken by previous ministers, as well as current ministers in the circuit.
On Saturday July 30th we are performing our 150th anniversary Pageant in the church. We shall be telling the history of the church as well as including some important national events in 14 tableaux scenes, narrative, music and songs plus powerpoint pictures.
However, the most exciting and rewarding outcome has been the “togetherness” of the church family. Around 60 members and friends are taking part in some way. Many are coming in costumes from different eras ranging from Victorian, Edwardian to the 60′s.
Our chapel holds 120 with reasonable comfort and there are only 10 tickets left. What a sight and memorable occasion it will be for everyone. Not since 1987 when we performed St. Mark’s Gospel in words and music have we seen the church full to capacity. Part of the 1987 event is reprised in one of the scenes by 10 members of the original cast. It was the inspiration behind the idea of this Pageant – to reproduce the same family unity and spirit. We have certainly achieved our aim!
There is a buzz and enthusiasm among us all at the moment, as elderly as we are, and we pray that it will spur us on to spread the message to others of God’s love for us and our love for others around us. I pray that, now there are some younger faces in our church and activities, this enthusiasm at the moment will spill over and bring new ideas into our church life.
Thank you Lord for providing the inspiration to do this, the willingness to put it together, the enthusiasm of evryone ntaking part and the joy of presenting how muvh we love this church and what
February 12, 2011
You can’t have Resurrection without a Death
Currently a small group, with our minister Rev. Bill Robertson, are reviewing the Church and its future in terms of “Our Calling”. The 4 elements of this calling are Worship, Learning and Caring, Service and Mission/Evangelism. Today we met for the second of our Breakfast and Discussions on Learning and Caring.
During the course of our discussions, Bill made the comment that “You can’t have Resurrection without a Death”. Having reviewed all the groups operating in our church in terms of how effective they are in linking faith to everyday life, those which we considered successful all had fellowship, warm friendship, mutual support and care featuring in these groups. In all honesty we have groups which have outlived their usefulness but have been part of the life of the church for years. However, there is no growth and they do not appeal to many people today. So- is it time to say enough is enough, move on and try something different.
The same argument applies to new ventures, which we are trying but have not really been successful – so why continue when there is no perceived interest within the church family and the community.
Where have we seen growth with new faces coming into our fellowship? Within worship, the Sunday evening Praise and Worship, which is informal and ecumenical has drawn in people with quite different church (or non-church) experiences. Unfortunately, the Morning Worship numbers are in decline because it has a predominately elderly congregation. During the past year several have died and only a handful have come new into the church. Young families are few and far between and any new families coming along soon go elsewhere to find larger numbers of their peers. What will happen in 10 years time when many more of us have died?
The choir is another area of deep concern because most of us are elderly. Choir practices are held on Friday afternoons, so no younger working person can possibly come along!! No chance of growth there unless there is a willingness to have evening practices once again and so encourage younger people to form the next choir. The type of music and songs will also have to be more modern than it is now.
It’s interesting to look at other churches and denominations, not only in the locality. Would some of their ideas be right for us or not? Are there some activities which we should stop and try new things? Hence the reference to death before resurrection. An analogy is that of pruning rose bushes in the garden-getting rid of dead growth and weak stems.
During the last 2 discussions in this series we will see similar examples of growth and no-growth in reviewing activities in the areas of Service and Mission. At the end of all this we will, however, be in a better position to move forward, with faith, that this lovely church is alive and healthy and growing.
A postscript to the above that comes as a warning to the latter positive ending! Someone said in our discussion ” It’s such a shame that we have no new younger people coming to our Morning Worship. What can I do because I am too old?” If everyone thought the same, the church would die but there would be no resurrection! So we can’t afford to sit back and continue with the activities which are dying but look to encourage those which are growing or are new things to try (successful or not).
February 5, 2011
Mr. Cameron is right about core British values.
The Prime Minister states that” members of all faiths must integrate into wider society and accept core values”. A statement with which I totally agree.
All of us should believe in the basic values of freedom and equality. As a Christian we have the commandment to love everyone as we would ourselves like to be loved. The Christian faith also teaches tolerance.
Putting aside extremists in Christian and Islam faiths, you will find little difference in the attitudes towards freedom and love for others between the 2 faiths. The previous Labour government emphasised the need for this country to be a multicultural one. I have no argument with that but the big mistake was to allow the Muslims to form their own communities isolating themselves from our British culture and often education. Extremists have flourished in such communities.
I cannot understand why Christian and Muslim leaders do not work together more and openly because there is so much common to each faith. When there has been some atrocity committed by extremists how often do we hear the Muslim community speak out against them and Christians daring to condemn the extremists (probably because we are accused of racism).
Immigrants to this country must learn to speak the language of the country in which they live. How can you integrate into the British society without doing so?
Hopefully the change in Government will swing the anti-Christian, let’s not offend the Muslims attitude to one of fairness to all religions . In the multicultural society we have all got to work together to ensure fairness, equality, freedom and care for each other. Those who have no religious faith of any kind cannot be impressed by all the petty differences between us.
So, well done Mr. Cameron for attempting to redress the balance and if he succeeds, then Christians will be less afraid to speak out for their faith, Muslims will be seen to be an important part of the community and extremists will no longer be able to flourish.
January 30, 2011
Two different talks
The beauty about Sundays at Dawlish Methodist Church is that you have variety in the worship. Today there was the traditional Methodist morning service in the hall and this evening the informal ecumenical Praise and Worship in the hall and finally an Iona service of meditation with our friends from the URC.
What was so special and wonderful today were the 2 different preachers in the traditional worship and in the Praise and worship. Rev. Edgar Daniels is brilliant and when he talks it’s just as though he was having a quiet conversation with you. He uses no notes-just stands or walks around the church in a relaxed manner but speaking from his heart. You know that he has no doubts about his faith. Furthermore he relates what he is saying to the world today and challenges you to show that you are using your Christian beliefs in every part of the day, in every meeting with others etc. Being in church on a Sunday morning is meaningless if we don’t live, breathe and act out our faith in everything we do each day.
Rev. Bill Robertson took the Praise and Worship in his usual relaxed, informal way. Once again – no notes but with another wonderful simple, short message of God’s love and the need to show our love to others.
So 2 very different preachers in style but great to listen to at any time. What a pity that there aren’t more people of all ages to hear what they have to say.
January 28, 2011
Another busy week
Dawlish Methodist Church is always busy and this week is no exception. The Open DAW operates in the Vestibule during Monday to Friday mornings (see www.opendaw.wordpress.com or www.opendaw.co.uk for details).
The Black Swan hand bell ringers will be practicing in the hall on Monday morning between 10-12noon. Later in the day at 5.30 pm we have short mat bowls. This is very informal, great fun and keen competition between the gentlemen and the ladies. This month it looks like the men will be the champions – it’s a long time since that happened. Got to be prompt finishing beore the Choral Society come to practice at 7.30
Tuesday starts with the Fun Fit group at 10.30 doing gentle exercises. In the church at 11.00 there is a short informal “Pause for Thought” – open to anyone. In the afternoon at 2.30 quite a large group meet in the Vestibule for the Fellowship meeting. In the evening Slimming World meet at 7.00 in the hall.
Wednesday is the highlight of the week for a good number of people in the community. This is when we have the Wednesday lunches and is open to anyone, with no booking in advance required. This week the choice is Soup and roll, Roast Pork, Chicken and Ham pie, curried lamb, All Day Breakfast, Sausage-Beans -Mash or Sausage-Eggs-Mash plus a vegetarian dish.Then there is a choice of 3 desserts plus tea/coffee/organic soft drinks. What does this cost? Soup £1, main meals £4, desserts £1 and teas 50p. What a bargain! Any visitors and holidaymakers are most welcome. In the afternoon there is the Crafty Afternoon group, who do their own handicrafts in the hall, whilst in the Vestibule, Bosom Pals meet to talk and chat about their cancer problems, treatments and support for each other.
Surestart are in the hall on Thursday morning and we have Table Tennis in the hall at 7.30pm.
Friday morning is our Wesley’s Cafe morning with the usual tea/coffee plus a choice between toasted teacakes, crumpets, bacon/egg/sausage baps and a mini breakfast. There is a table sale for Home Missions this week. The prayer group meet in the Choir Vestry for a 15 minute session. Finally, in the afternoon, Buddies hold their playgroup in the hall. While the children are enjoying themselves, the choir meet at 2.15 for their weekly practice in the church.
No rest for some on Saturday! We have a 4 mile walk around Bolham (nr. Tiverton) with the first part of the walk gently ascending to splendid views at the top. Then it’s all downhill to enter the National Trust property and grounds of Knightshayes Court. At the end of the walk we go off to lunch at a nearby pub.
As I said – it’s quite busy and lively at Dawlish Methodist Church.
For further information emal:harrycatmore@ btinternet.com
A day of worship – your choice
Sunday January 30th
At 10.30 am Rev. Edgar Daniels leads the traditional methodist worship. He is the Superintendent of our new Teignbridge circuit and is a fantastic preacher, very inspirational – no notes and speaks from the heart.
At 5.30pm there is the informal, ecumenical Praise and Worship in the hall. This is such a joyful time and proving quite popular with an increasing number of people coming along.
For an alternative and something very different why not try the lovely and moving Iona service. This is a joint service with our good friends from the URC.
February 21, 2010
Jesus – The same as us?
Don’t be so stupid you will say? But Jesus was born through Mary. Joseph and Mary were his parents. He was a baby, had brothers and friends to play with and worked with his father learning to be a carpenter.
Then he left home, made new friends who were with him until he died. There were girls and young women whom he met and was admired and loved by many of them.
When a baby his family were refugees in Egypt. When he left home he lived like a hermit in the wilderness where he was subjected to temptations.
When he began his ministry he was rejected by people who had known him as Joseph’s son – a mere carpenter and was rejected by others in his travels and the final rejection by the Pharisees before they crucified him.
At times he could get very angry, as witnessed in the Temple in Jerusalem but he displayed so much love. He witnessed sadness and joy in his life. He must have been exasperated at the way people behaved or refused to listen or act on his teaching.
Aren’t these things we can possibly experience in our own lives? Reading about Jesus’ short life we see that he has experienced things which we have experienced . So Jesus is the same as us?
Well – NO! It is a great comfort to recognise that Jesus became human in order that we may know that God has a full understanding of Humans, their strengths and weaknesses. Yet for all the mistakes and mess we create in our lives and the lives of others, God still loves us deeply. Jesus is not like us because he forgives someone’s sins, heals the sick and disabled, loves people we could not possibly love as Him.
Then there is the horror of his death, the resurrection and his ascension. All of this to show that if we follow the path of Jesus, truly accept that God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, love God with all our very being and love others as we would have others love us, then we will experience the resurrection and life everlasting that is our dream and our faith.
Thank you God for giving us Jesus.
February 14, 2010
The joy of working with youngsters
Since retiring from my science teaching, people often ask whether I miss being at school. My answer is always the same-”I don’t miss it at all but I do miss the contact with the students.”
All my teaching was with the 11-18 ages and I miss their energy, sense of fun and enthusiasm ( not always in my lessons unfortunately). On Facebook I have regular contact with a number of my ex-students and enjoy hearing their news.
Over the past 2 years, we have established a lovely Messy Church with our friends across the brook from the URC. Once a month there are 20-30 Primary School children who come along on a Friday afternoon, after school, and they enjoy a variety of handicraft activities ( based on a bible theme) for an hour before going into church to have songs, sketches and a story or message for 20 mins. This allows us to transform the hall into a dining room so that when they return we sit down for a simple family meal. Last Friday was sausages, beans and mash. It’s good to see some parents staying and joining us in Church.
Recently I have been doing some simple science activities with them, which I have enjoyed immensely. Although much younger in age than my school students I am enjoying the same qualities plus their curiosity about everything. Mind you I don’t have to face them each day and all day and I have a month to recover.
Today in Church at morning worship we had only 3 children from 2 families but the time with them present in the church is so wonderful. The congregation adores seeing them there and they always look forward to seeing some of the work done in Messy Church and hearing about the theme.
The church is not a complete family without the young people and importantly their parents. I consider Messy Church is now our Junior Church and was never meant to be a recruiting ground for Sunday morning. It is however an opportunity to talk with parents and display our Christian values to them. It also de-mystifies the church to people who have rarely entered one in their lives. We hope and pray that our love and care for them and the children will shine through and act as a catalyst for them to seek to find out more about why we are committed Christians-maybe they will join us on our journey through life too.
At the moment we are trying to get a Christian Drama group out of the Messy Church group but also open to others over 7 years old. This operates on the other Fridays after school too.
Yes – working with these youngsters and being with their parents is a joy. May it be the same for them.
