Wednesday Fellowship
Wednesday 19 January
2.30pm
to 4pm
Join us in Room 1 for a time of fellowship as we explore what happened
at Ephesus in the early Church. If you are able, please carry out a Covid flow
test on yourself before coming and wear a mask whilst moving about.
Centenary
Singers
Friday 21 January
5pm
Centenary
Singers continues, with new singers welcome. £5 per session. Come and enjoy an
hour of singing of music from John Rutter to Frank Sinatra.
Holocaust Memorial Day Service
Sunday
23 January
6pm
At Hospital Bridge Methodist Church,
led by Rev. Ann Lett
Holocaust
Memorial Event
Sunday 30 January
3pm to 4pm
District
Event at St Hugh’s RC Church, Monks Road, Lincoln. An event to commemorate the
Holocaust and subsequent genocides. Open invitation to all.
God
in Love Unites Us
Dear
Friends. On Monday 10 January, there was a gathering at Zion to talk about how
we felt about the ‘God In Love Unites Us’ report, which was brought to a
conclusion at the 2021 Conference. It
was a fruitful evening, and several people shared their thoughts on whether we
should allow same-gender marriages to take place at Zion.
It
was felt another opportunity to discuss this would be helpful, and so it was
decided to spend a little time at the next AGM would be the best time. This is set for Sunday 20 March 2022
after morning worship. So please add this date to your diary. We have much to discuss about the way forward
for our church, and it would be useful if as many of our congregation could
attend. Revd Ann
Eastside
Fellowship Group
Thursday 10 February
2pm to 4pm
Unfortunately,
what was lovingly known as the ‘Eastside’ Fellowship Group ceased to meet
during lockdowns, and was struggling to get going again, and so I sat with my
diary to see if I could fit it in.
I
will be holding monthly fellowship sessions at 2pm to 4pm at Zion (Room 1) on
the following dates:
Thursday 10 February 2022 Thursday 8 September 2022Thursday 13 October 2022Thursday 10 November 2022Thursday 8 December 2022
Initially,
we’ll be looking at the Methodist Church’s material on ‘The Methodist Way of
Life’. Do join us if you’d like – the
more the merrier! Revd
Ann
Songs of Praise at Centenary
Sunday
13 February
4pm to 5pm
Join an all-age community BIG SING
for body, mind and soul! Be blessed by the words and music of local choirs and
artists. Celebrate the 109th birthday of Centenary’s outstanding
pipe organ. Free admission. Refreshments. Donations. We look forward to seeing
you!
Centenary
Organ Recitals
from Monday 7 March
1.05pm
Thank
you to all those who supported the Centenary Organ Recitals. Following its
success, the next series will run from Monday 7 March to 30 May at 1.05pm with
refreshments served from 12.15pm. The recital on Monday 7 March will be David
Hill MBE. Details of all upcoming recitals can be found at www.organrecitals.com.
If you would like to volunteer at
the recitals, please contact the Circuit office.
Trip to Auschwitz and Krakow
26 to
30 September 2022
District Event led by Revd. Bruce
Thompson. For more information or to register your interest please email chair@lincolnshiremethodist.org.uk.
Thank you
During December:
Centrepoint Collection £43 (made up to £50 by the
Church Council)
Action for Children on 19 December £120
Rainbows Hospice for
Children & Young People £74.
Badulla
update
In
September the Circuit committed to raising funds for Badulla Girls Home in Sri
Lanka hoping to raise £400 to send to support their ongoing projects. We are
pleased to say that current fundraising now stands at £238 and it would be
great if we could have a final push to reach our target.
New
Place for New People
The
District are putting together a team to develop New Places for New People
(NPNP) projects in the Lincolnshire District. For further information, or to
express an interest, please contact Mrs Alison Godfrey on 01522 370126 or email
PA@lincolnshiremethodist.org.uk
Notes
on the Mission and Outreach Committee Meeting on 4 January
The
Committee formally initiated work on our church Mission Plan at its October
meeting, and the main business of the January meeting was to look at progress.
The
main points being:
V The Mission Plan is divided into
eight stages, and drafts of the first two stages i.e. Process, and Community
Audit were presented. 'Process' is concerned with how we intend to carry out
the entire project, while 'Community Audit' considers the nature of the
community around us, and the community facilities that they currently have
access to. Both documents can be found on the church website.
V The next stage (3) is 'Church
Review' which identifies those Church activities that members of the
congregations have valued most in the past and present. It also assesses the
resources that the church now has which can be devoted to serving the
community.
V This work will start straight away,
and the first aim will be to speak with as many members of the congregation as possible
about what aspects of church life they have most valued and felt most involved in – so please
be ready with your answers – you may be asked for your opinion very soon!
V The stage 3 paper needs to be
complete well before the Committee has a meeting with local Borough Councillors
on 29th March. There will then be a month-long consultation on all the 3
completed stages, involving the congregation, the users of our accommodation
and the community. This will be assisted by a church 'Fun Day' to be held on
June 4th (Jubilee celebration weekend).
V Later, in Stage 4, we will start to
determine future plans – but that is another story for another day!
Other
items looked at by the Committee were:
V The need to change our website
provider due to continuing technical difficulties in making up-dates and
refreshing the content.
V The possibility of having a holiday
club during the October half term.
V The success of the new 'Coffee and
Craft’ group which meets on a Monday morning, with upwards of 16 attenders.
Older Notices
Rev Brian Newton
Rev Brian Newton passed away
peacefully on New Year's Day at a Care Home in Lincoln. His Funeral is expected
to take place in Boston at Holy Trinity. Please remember the family in your
prayers.
Flowers
If anyone wishes to provide flowers
for the church there is a new calendar on the table as you come in to church
for you to add your name to. You can either provide them yourself or if you
would rather someone else gets them for you please speak to Irene.
RoadHoG
News
January
2022
If
we had thought that 2020 was a strange year for the roadHoG Project, then 2021
had more than enough surprises (and stresses) in store for us. The year started
with the Bus under lockdown, but we were thrilled to be able to get back out on
the Streets in April/May - and we were quite literally out on the streets - as
we weren’t allowed to have the youngsters on the Bus. Tony Coe excelled himself
by producing a range of outdoor games and activities that allowed us to
entertain the youngsters and having the gazebo, meant that we didn’t get too
wet whilst we were doing it.
Whilst
many of our Team Members had to isolate for their own safety, those that didn’t,
turned up for duty as usual. Being unable to have the youngsters on board, and
reducing our Stop time to a half hour, and visiting two Stops per night, we
needed less staffing for each Stop anyway.
The Lord truly blessed us, both by
keeping us all safe from the virus and by sending along quite large numbers of
youngsters to most of the Stops. To our amazement quite a lot of parents began
to come along too, to have a Hot Chocolate and a chat. Passers-by, seeing the
parents there, also began to stop for a Hot Chocolate and a chat and in that,
we widened our outreach to encompass adults too. November saw us being allowed
to invite youngsters back onto the Bus - and numbers have grown steadily ever
since at all of the Stops.
We have also begun a new Stop at
Sutton St James – their first evening saw some fifteen youngsters turn up –
sadly though the next time we were scheduled to be there, the village was
subjected to a huge rise in the number of Covid cases and so we had to postpone
the work there until 21st Jan, getting back there is something that
we are all looking forward to.
We have also begun a new Stop at
Fenside in Boston and we are indebted to the Fenside Community Centre for
allowing us use of their car park and for advertising our presence to the local
community. Sadly we haven’t been able to commence a Stop in Wyberton as yet,
but if you feel the call to minister to young people there, please do get in
touch, either with me (kevin.smithbone@btinternet.com) or with Rev Sudharshan
Sarvananthan at: sudharshan@wybertonandframpton.org
We have managed to visit Spalding
three times in the year, supporting Spalding Police in their work amongst young
people, which was a privilege. We also attended Skate Jam in Boston – to
support Boston Police, Boston Borough Council and The Community Alcohol
Partnership - that was such a fun day!
Sadly, Maisie W. Audrey B.
and Helen S. retired during 2021, which left a huge hole in the Team at
Tunnard Street, but we have been blessed by the support we have received there from
Members of other Teams. We are so grateful for the years of service that
Maisie, Audrey and Helen have given to roadHoG and our love and our prayers go
with them.
Sadly, half way through December the
Bus decided it needed a bit of a rest and blew oil out through an axle seal and
onto its brakes. How on earth do you find parts for a 32-year-old Bus? Simple,
you turn to the “John Cropley & Kevin Mothers Detective Agency” and when
they’ve scoured the UK (& the USA) for the parts, you turn to the spanner-wielding
genius that is Ben Jeffery and within two weeks we were back on the road –
thanks Gents!! Sadly though, we missed the Swineshead Christmas Fayre, but
there’s always next year!
So – it’s been a strange year, but
one in which we have seen God work so many times and in so many ways, of
particular note is the number of folk who have come forward for training to be
Team Members – we now have over 80 trained staff – Praise God!! Now if we could
only get this Covid thing out of the way in 2022 as quickly as Ben fixed the Bus………………………
May I thank you all for your amazing
support throughout 2021 and wish you a wonderfully blessed and peaceful 2022. Blessings,
Kev!
Mental
Health and Emotional Wellbeing helpline
Lincolnshire
has a confidential mental health and emotional wellbeing helpline. It is available 24/7, is free and can provide
emotional support, advice and guidance for anyone feeling low, anxious or
stressed. Call 0800 001 4331 if you would like to talk to someone. Please
remember it's ok to ask for help - these are difficult times for us all.
Also...
If you need support and are unable to call on members of your household or
friends and family members to help for food or supplies, you can still get
help. Call 01522 782189, 7 days a week.
Publicity
Summary
The
Mission and Outreach Committee met for the first time since lockdown on the 19 October.
Results of the meeting can be summarised as:
- The Committee will concentrate on
Mission Planning in the immediate future and at its next meeting aims to
approve early parts of the Plan for wider consultation. A meeting with local
councillors is also being sought.
- The congregation will be invited to
fill in a questionnaire aimed at re-assessing / re-vamping the Zion weekly
notices.
- Work is under way on improving
arrangements for the Zion website, and reducing costs.
- Rev. Ann has conducted a harvest festival at Boston
West school on 12 October. Hopefully in
future similar contact can be achieved at Staniland and Carlton Road schools.
- An application has been made for a
group from Zion to go and sing carols at Asda on Wednesday 15 December at
3.15pm. (Singers – please make a note in your diary!)
- Meet and Eat is due to return on 18
November, and also with Christmas dinner on 16 December.
- It is intended that children's
'extravaganzas' will make a return during appropriate school holidays over the
coming year.
- Looking forward to September 2022,
it is intended that the Holiday at Home should also return with an African
theme.
- Date of next meeting: 4 January 2022
at 7pm
Action for Children
Action for Children has received the
wonderful news that we are a step closer to becoming Morrisons’ next charity
partner. We are one of the final two charities in the running to win! The final
stage is for Morrisons’ staff to vote on which charity they would like to be
their next partner.
If we were to win, this partnership
would be worth an incredible £10.5 million, giving us the potential to help
more than 3 million children. Winning this partnership would be game-changing
for us and millions of children. Staff voting is now open and closes on October
27 and we need your help!
Please visit https://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/support-us/partner-with-us/corporate-partnerships/morrisons/ and help us reach three million
disadvantaged children.
