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ANNUAL CHURCH MEETING Sunday 8th May 2011, 4pm, at Church WRITTEN REPORTS
a) Church Worker Report – Janet Vipond p2 b) Ecumenical – Tim Boaden p3 c) Family Worship Team – Anne Rigby p3 d) Junior Church – Pauline Kershaw p4 e) Ladies Circle – Nan McCready p5 f) Leadership Team – John Westwell p5 g) Pastoral Group – David Roscoe p6 h) Scout Group – Tim Boaden p6 i) Social Activities – Ann Mears p7 j) Social Responsibility – Tim Boaden p7 k) Worship and Prayer – Andrew Clow p8 l) Youth Work – Tia Danning p9 Thank you to everyone for your reports. Update on life as a church worker Janet Vipond Hello everybody!It’s time to update you once again. Doesn’t a year pass very quickly these days? Or is it just me! My ‘official’ work outline still includes 2 main areas: TRAINING and HEALING, but I’ve also developed my areas of ministry in other ways: 1) TRAINING:
2) HEALING PRAYER:
I am also available as required to visit and pray for the sick at their own or their pastoral carer’s request and/or to meet regularly, alongside other prayer ministry team members with anyone needing or requesting more in-depth prayer ministry. 3) OTHER/OUTREACH WORK:
Some of you may think I am doing far too much and my family might agree with you. Please pray that I organise my work carefully as there is always more to do than we each have time for. It’s especially important that we know clearly what God wants us to be doing and focus on that. Thank you for those words of encouragement that have kept me going when things have got tough and thank you for letting me minister among you. In His love, Janet x PS If you wish to find out more about any of the above activities, please do ask! Ecumenical Tim Boaden ‘CAROL’, a modern take based on ‘A Christmas Carol’ and performed by the Lacey Theatre Company was very well received by just under 300 hundred people at Woodhey High School, on a treacherous icy winter night. Several churches joined in with catering, stewarding, music etc. to make it a success. Being planned, amongst other BIG events, is the BIG Tea Party on 12th June Sunday afternoon to be held jointly with St. John with St. Mark’s Church at the church hall in Parkinson Street, in support of Open Doors and Christian Aid. Offers of home-made cakes would be welcomed! Family Worship Team Anne Rigby Here at Seedfield Methodist Church we are committed to making our monthly Family Parade Services as child friendly and enjoyable as possible. We try to keep the services relatively short and make the music fun and lively. We encourage individuals, the uniformed organisations and families to contribute to worship through readings, prayers, drama, dance and quizzes. Our aims are to empower our young people to participate in church life and to provide an interactive, participative service for the whole congregation. Junior Church Pauline Kershaw Current Junior Church Classes: Creche - Pam organises the rota, approximately 5 toddlers. Linda Duxbury does “See and Know” (Bible study for toddlers – used at Mothers and Toddlers group) when on crèche. Beginners - only Lucas Rigby in this age range at the moment so not run on a weekly basis but Sue Sharples supervises under 6’s on Parade Services. Infants Age 5 – 7 (Reception to Year 2) - Leaders: Clare Clow, Grace Rothwell (Pam Swain has now asked to be on the rota for this class.) There are currently approximately 8 children in this class. Juniors Age 8 – 10 (Year 3 to Year 6) - Leaders: Louise Westwell, Alison Poytress, Dave Harrison There are currently approximately 8 children in this class. Youth Age 11 – 16 (Year 7 to Year 11) - Mostly lead by Tia but occasionally Pauline and whilst Tia on sabbatical Pauline and Gareth shared the responsibility. There are currently approximately 11 youth in this class. MORE VOLUNTEERS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME! WHAT WE DO IN JUNIOR CHURCH We start off in a circle to share news, general announcements and a prayer. We normally have a collection and recently started a fund raising activity of collecting change in Smartie tubes. After circle time the children then attend the appropriate class. Occasionally we have an all together Junior Church usually led by Tia / Pauline or another leader. This usually involves a particular Biblical theme with games, discussion and craft. Junior Church seems to be functioning ok although the leaders have not had a meeting in a while due to other commitments. Whilst Tia has been away Pauline (with some discussion with one or two leaders) has drawn up a rota and set Bible study topics and themes for each week. Pauline would like to thank all the leaders for their patience and acceptance of the co-ordination of the rota and topics. Whatever the topic, the leaders have managed to find their own resources and material which has saved a lot of time for Pauline. THANK YOU EVERYONE! Ladies Circle Nan McCready (Secretary) Our Circle continues to meet on Tuesdays with good attendances and some new members. Unfortunately we were badly affected by the snow and ice and had to cancel two meetings. A break in the bad weather enabled us to have a very successful Christmas party on 14th December. Sadly during the year we lost two friends – Mrs Beth Wood and Mrs Barbara Lang. Although these ladies have been unable to attend for some time they were part of our lives for many years and we miss them very much. It gave us great pleasure to celebrate several special birthdays and to meet on two occasions to enjoy lunch at local restaurants. While it is a delight to share in these occasions we do have a serious side and have appreciated subjects brought to us by members of our Church Family and other organisations. Our grateful thanks go to our Speakers’ Secretary, Mrs Dorothy Rothwell, who ensures that we have a wide selection of speakers. Once again we issue a cordial invitation to ladies who would like to join us. A very warm welcome is assured. Seedfield Methodist Leadership Team John Westwell The Leadership Team at Seedfield normally has seven members. Three have posts within the church: the minister (Mark Roper), the senior steward (Brian Sharples), a representative from the youth worker management committee (no rep this year, so five elected members). Normally, four are elected at the annual church meeting (Jem Wood; Sheila Warner, John Westwell, Rachel Vipond, Susan Boaden) The main role of the leadership team is to be clear about God’s vision for the church and to work with leaders of groups in the church in order to develop strategies and plans to implement God’s vision for the church. During the last year, the team has been doing this in a number of ways. The team meets monthly to pray together and discuss direction for the church. As we have done this, it has become clear that as a church we need to renew our vision and to change how we function as a church. At the September church council, we proposed that the church should take the next year to renew its vision. The intention was that together the church would consider where God was leading us and begin to change accordingly. Three principles seemed important at the time and continue to do so. We believed that as a result of any changes the church would: become more outward be more together and be simpler In the autumn, we organised the Great Big Seedfield Tea Party. All ages came together in homes to enjoy tea together and to talk and dream together about how we might move forward together as a church. Many important ideas emerged from the tea party and in the discussions that have followed. However, the most important thing to emerge from the tea party is how much people value the friendliness within the church. This has helped confirm some of the thinking of the leadership team regarding ways forward. The next stage of the renewing our vision is the Seedfield Big Breakfast on the 15th May. We then expect to bring clear proposals for change to the Church Council meeting in June. Pastoral Carers Group David Roscoe Through out this year we have continued to pray for and to support Members and adherents through our Pastoral Care Groups as part of our loving concern for each other. My thanks to those who take on the role of Pastoral Carer and to those who have stepped down including Elaine Wood and Mark Walsh . Our thanks to them as they have served us faithfully over several years. Our thanks also goes to Mark Roper our minister who has continued to chair our meetings and has continued training us in our role as carers. We remember those who have died during the past year including Isobel Brown, Nora Volante, Beth Wood and Barbara Lang. The membership stands at 142 and there are approximately 98 adherents. 53rd Bury Scout Group Tim Boaden (Group Scout Leader) Currently there are 5 Scouts, 11 Cubs and 15 Beavers. The 3 leaders do a sterling job giving of their time through most of the year, assisted by a number of adult helpers, including Neill Baglin now a Young Leader who helps with both the Beavers and Cubs – our thankful appreciation to all of them. There should in practice be Assistant Leaders who are warranted for each section to give support and relief cover for the leaders, particularly a male leader for the Scout section, to enable a wider programme of games, learning, badge work and events. Thanks, too, to Lucy Thompson who has been secretary for the Scout Executive for several years but has now relinquished that post. A new secretary is therefore required. Notable planned events include a float in the Bury Carnival, Saturday 11th June, the theme: Bury in Bloom. Make of that what you will. A trip to Sweden once again, last week in July. Also enquiries are to be made for bag-packing at local superstores, as funds are now low. You are warmly invited to the Scout Group’s AGM on Monday 16th May 7.30 pm at which you can find out more details about the Group’s activities, and to the Scouts barbecue on Wednesday 13th July. Social Activities Ann Mears While it may seem that the social side of things have been a little quiet of late, I have taken a little consideration to the fact that people have been recovering from the expense of Christmas, and for some, the cost of saving for the Church Weekend. The Church Weekend was a great success and we were very blessed with excellent weather. For the first time this year it was suggested that the children’s groups all worked together instead of splitting them up into age groups. I believe this was a great idea because the children worked together as a team and it gave some of the older children an understanding in trying to come up with ideas that all the children could do together. Well done to all involved with the children. We had a great time in the evenings with children and adults socialising together, this included games, setting off Chinese lanterns and generally catching up with each other. With the summer now on our doorstep, I intend to plan walks out in the evenings and some in house get togethers, not just for ladies but for partners too. Social Responsibility Tim Boaden As the Body of Christ, we have the joy and responsibility of sharing the Good News of Jesus by word and lifestyle of loving service, to be light and salt in a world of struggles, uncertainty and degree of darkness, pointing the way to Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. This becomes so much more needful in the experience of the spate of terrible disasters and economic recession. Whilst the faithful day-to-day giving of individuals in their time, energies and money goes on, the church at Seedfield has expressed social concern in several ways this past year. The following are just a few examples:- To help people suffering from the flooding devastation in Pakistan last summer, a bowl of poor radishes offered in church produced a generous response over the next few weeks of £120, though the radishes never did get eaten. Many signed the Petition last November against the ‘Defamation of Religions Resolution’ to be presented to the United Nations. Good news is that on 25th March the UN decided to drop this resolution, and you can read the detail about this on the church hall noticeboard. The Ladies Circle, as well as meeting socially, put a lot of effort into raising funds to help a variety of charities including Tear Fund, Christian Aid, Network, Church Mission in Ghana, Gateway, the Salvation Army; presents to Burrswood Court & Limefield Court. The valuable Mums and Toddlers outreach. Training of 3 money coaches (Heather Denney, Sandra Barrow, Tim Boaden) last November by Christians Against Poverty to run CAP-Money courses to help anyone in managing their home budgets against the backdrop serious debt problems nationally. The first course (each course has 3 sessions) is planned for Saturday mornings: 11th June, 18th June and 2nd July. This is a new and challenging venture in which we can express the love of God in a very way. Please support with your presence and prayer. Posters with more details can be found in the Church Hall. Christian Aid: Paula Wroe has very kindly agreed to organise Christian Aid Week for this year in place of Jean Hamilton. In March we had the privilege of the ministry of Rev. David Hardman from Christian Aid regional office who inspired us to do what we are able to do in visibly caring as the church in collecting funds for the desperate in so many countries. It is up to us to be obedient in our response. The more direct opportunities of locally impacting people around us need to be explored and embraced, such as street care, street pastors, and Redeeming our Communities (ROC) initiatives. Worship and Prayer Core Group Andrew Clow Quiet Waters events provide space and time for people to draw near to God. We hope to have Quiet Waters on a Sunday morning in the not-too-distant future, to give more people a chance to experience this. In June the theme will be "I am the truth", and in October, "I am the life". The monthly Wednesday evening prayer group (8-9:30 second Wednesday of every month) has been renamed “Waiting on God”. Different people lead it each month. There was a straw poll of congregations at 9:30 and 11, resulting in a slight majority in favour of at least as many or more joint services. Subsequently the church council has approved a slight increase in the number of joint services. In recent months, the choir and music team have been practising together much more often. The church purchased copies of the Songs of Fellowship songbook to replace The Source. This much wider range of songs has been enjoyed for its variety. Youth Tia Danning The Mix and Youth Club – we have changed the day and times of these clubs so they are both held on the same day – Thursdays during term time. The Mix is now for 9-11 yr olds between 6.30pm – 7.30pm; the youth club runs straight after on a Thursday at 7.30pm – 9.00pm. It is going well. Sunday school – is going well. During the year we have had many sessions with all the different age groups meeting together as one group which has been good. Uniformed organisations – I have started to help out at these with the boys on a Wednesday evening and the girls on a Friday evening. Mission trip – Naomi returned safely and enthusiastically after a successful mission trip – many thanks to everyone for sponsoring her financially and prayerfully. Events
Mothers and toddlers – I have contributed by running the craft activity, building relationships with toddlers, parents and carers. There are a good number of parents, carers and toddlers who come to the group each week. Once a month we have a bring and share lunch which is a great opportunity for parents and carers to relax and spend time together. Many, many thanks to Pauline Kershaw – who, since I was away on my Sabbatical, amongst other things at church she - took over from me and ran the 11-14 Sunday school group each week, re-vamped The Mix and youth club by combining them on the same evening, rallied up some general interest in youth work by having the focus group and managed to get some more regular volunteers to help at youth club which is great. She worked tremendously hard alongside having a full time job and running a family. Many Thanks to Kci Severs who also put lots of voluntary hours into helping with toddlers and the youth work since I was away. Many people work together to provide quality youth work at this church which is great, it cannot be done without you so a huge thank you on behalf of the young people.
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