Branching Out magazine Spring 2015
Letter from the Manse
As a probationer, the Districts send us off on retreat around this time of year to give us rest after Christmas and before Lent starts, and to give us some space and reflection time before filling out probationer’s paperwork and attending the District Probationer’s Committee. I’ve just had my first couple of weeks back after retreating with the other Yorkshire region probationers and the space provided by a retreat seems a long time ago…
While I was away I was struck by the words of Gill Newton (our district chair) used in worship, in her reflection on the Samaritan Woman from John 4: ‘To be loved is to be known and to be known is to be loved.’
Such a simple phrase, yet these words have left me thinking. How do we as the church let people know they are loved and known and do the community surrounding us know they are loved and known?
I am left thinking about all this because (at the time of writing) you can’t go anywhere at the moment without being confronted by chocolates, flowers, CD’s, cards and all sorts of other things people are encouraged to purchase to proclaim to the world how much they love someone.
I’m afraid I’m not a big Valentine’s Day fan, it’s another day which has St. Clintons or St. Hallmark written all over it. I personally don’t see the point of having one day dedicated to saying to someone ‘I love you’, when they are words we should personify and say each day of the year. Although if anyone feels like buying me chocolates… ! To me the over the top nature of Valentine’s Day overshadows what love is really about. It makes love sound like something that involves buying presents, or overpriced flowers, or spending money on a romantic night out when love is something much simpler than that. If love can ever be simple… because that’s the problem, love in English can mean so many different things to different people.
To me at this time of year, we are preparing to celebrate the most extravagant, generous, unconditional gift of love. The love God expressed for the world through the death and resurrection of Christ. A love that is completely inexpressible and incomprehensible, that is mind-bogglingly awesome! A love that allows us to realise we are known and loved by God, that the world God created is known and loved, a love that challenges us to allow others to know they are known and loved also. Ok, perhaps this isn’t really simple, but it’s simpler to experience! Because the love of God is for all people, no matter who we are. It doesn’t count on that special someone buying us a card or presents or chocolates. It counts on knowing that we are loved and known by God.
So as we head through the preparation time of Lent and the celebration of Easter, know you are loved and known by God. It’s your job to let others know they are loved and known by God too. Because that’s love… actually and love is all we need!
God Bless, Katie
A Jesus Hug
Have you ever had a “Jesus hug”,
do you know what one feels like?
If you’ve never had a “Jesus hug”,
I pray one day you might.
A “Jesus hug” is different,
as far as hugging goes;
it’s a little taste of Heaven,
here on earth below.
Only those who love the Lord
can give a “Jesus hug”;
it conveys God’s grace and mercy
and unconditional love.
Those who give out “Jesus hugs”
always seem to somehow know
just when you’re in need of one
to make your spirit glow.
And if you ever need one
I hope that I will see,
so I can give you a “Jesus hug”
just like someone did for me.
©1996 J M McIntosh
Love, Katie.
Musical Notes!
‘See, how great a flame aspires, kindled by a spark of grace.’ So begins Charles Wesley’s great hymn and he was writing from experience. Both he and his brother John had experienced the ‘spark of grace’ in 1738 and their lives were transformed and here we are, 277 years later, as a result.
Charles Jennens (1700-1773) was a patron of the arts and a librettist, born at Gopsall Hall in Leicestershire, educated at Balliol College, Oxford where he matriculated in 1716, aged 15! He was a Protestant Christian and a Jacobite – a curious mix. A member of the circle of Handel’s admirers, he was a constant and generous subscriber to Handel’s published works, amassing a large collection of the composer’s creations. He was one of the first owners of the then new pianoforte in England and had an organ made to Handel’s specification which is now in Great Packington Church in Warwickshire. His collaboration with Handel was extensive, including the librettos for ‘Saul’ and ‘Belshazzar’. During his lifetime he was known for his picture and sculpture collections, comprising over 500 items showing his religious commitment, his support for the deposed Stuart royal family and an enthusiasm for Italian art and support of English artists. His final engagement with dramatic literature were his forward looking editions of Shakespeare’s King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and Julius Caesar – the first time each play had appeared in a single volume with suitable footnotes.
However, the reason for this potted biography of Jennens is a throwback to my first paragraph referring to the ‘spark of grace’. In the late 1730’s Jennens was inspired to produce a libretto based on Biblical prophesies and other meditations of Christian thoughts and beliefs which he called ‘Messiah’. He presented this libretto to Handel who was equally inspired and set it to music in the astonishing time of 30 days and the rest is history. Note the dates! Wesley brothers’ conversions 1738; Jennens and Handel’s Messiah 1740. As a modern hymn says ‘There’s a spirit in the air…’. Jennens died in 1773 at Gopsall Hall but a further link is Charles Wesley’s hymn ‘Rejoice the Lord is King’ which is usually sung to Handel’s tune ‘Gopsal’.
John Garrett
The New Ringo
On Boxing Day I was privileged to be walking on the path alongside the River Wharf just above Bolton Abbey. Along the path were a series of tableaus depicting the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ and at the end, near the famous ‘Strid’ was ‘Twelve Drummers Drumming’. Two full drum kits were there with an invitation to try them out. Unable to resist, I did so. It’s amazing… what a feeling of power is felt when sitting behind a set of drums. Lots of noise… being in control of the beat and the rhythm! Wow! I didn’t think that I’d be ‘beetling’ off to be the new Ringo – but I did enjoy it.
John Garrett
The RIVA Project
RIVA was formed back in 1998 by Pat Kinsey as a weekly youth club provision for young people with disabilities. The first members of the club had the honour of naming it so had a group discussion while enjoying a cuppa and a biscuit. On the table were a variety of snacks including the old McVities Riva biscuit. The members liked the name and it has stuck!
Over the past couple of years, RIVA has begun to evolve to meet the need for more quality provision for disabled adults in Sheffield looking to gain work-based skills. The youth club aspect has been absorbed by Sheffield Futures, leaving the committee of RIVA to focus on growing something much bigger.
RIVA now has a Coffee Shop (The Old Library Tearoom) and Charity Shop, which are open to the public Monday-Wednesday, 9am-3pm, an educational training room, craft workshop and community garden area and is currently developing new woodwork and sewing workshops. RIVA is all about offering Recreational, Imaginative, Vocational Activities.
Pat Kinsey is still involved with the project as a Trustee. The day to day management is undertaken by Cheryl and Denise, two very capable, friendly and enthusiastic ladies.
I have the great pleasure of working with RIVA from time to time and I went to interview Cheryl and Denise for this article. Here is what they had to say:
How many students do you currently have? What kind of things do you get up to together? Some students come just one day a week, some come three days. All in all, we have the equivalent of 18 students over three days a week. We do a lot of arts and crafts. We have a big focus on recycling – we don’t throw anything away. That also means we have a lot of sorting and organising to do with all the donations that come in for the charity shop. (As an example, the afternoon I was in this week, we were sorting coat hangers into bundles to sell in the shop). We also do life skills for independent living, such as cooking, cleaning, looking after yourself and decision making, eg. what to eat for lunch.
How many volunteers help you out? What are their roles? We have 12 AMAZING volunteers from the community and a growing number of young student volunteers from local colleges etc. They do all sorts: helping in the café, tidying and stocking the charity shop, sorting donations, supporting students in their activities and even doing DIY jobs for the old library building and the old caretaker’s house, which also now belongs to RIVA.
When I first started working for Wisewood Methodist Church in August 2013, I spent some time helping you to refurbish the library of the old Wisewood Secondary School to become the premises you have today. What are your plans for developing the site in the future? We have successfully bid for funding for planning permission for the final bits of renovation of the old library building in order to complete a toilet block and, at the same time, we will be expanding slightly with a conservatory and decking. We have been working on the caretaker’s house as well, the renovation of which has now been completed. Funding is also secured to fit the house out with furnishing and machines for both woodwork and sewing. We are also responsible, currently working with the Garden Committee from the Friends of Wisewood and District, for the patch of Community Garden between the old library building and the caretaker’s house. There are plans to hire a landscaper to help design a proper community garden space according to the feedback from the public we had at our consultation events.
Has the RIVA Project in Wisewood developed as you expected when you began? Yes and no! There have been a few surprises along the way, for example we didn’t expect to have students from day 1 of opening! We thought there might be a 3 month gap. Also, although our primary focus is the students, the public side of things with the coffee and charity shop took off much quicker than expected and has become really quite popular! Generally, the way the community has absorbed RIVA has been a really great and positive difference from how we might have expected. The building has been used for community Christmas events, Garden open days, a local church hired it as a venue for a marriage course and we have regular customers who come in for lunch or a cuppa every week: it has become a real community centre for the local area.
That’s really awesome. Lastly, what is your favourite part of the job here at RIVA? Denise – on Monday’s, it’s home time! Cheryl – No, we’re just joking. It doesn’t really feel like work! I never get the feeling when you wake up and groan about going in to work today. There are never two days the same and something happens every day to make you smile, especially with the students here. We have such a family feeling.
Is there anything else you want the people reading this to know? May we also please say to the Wisewood community a massive Thank You! The RIVA Project has been so welcomed, we are very grateful.
Becca
Wadsley Village
According to the earliest Ordnance Survey map of Wadsley village, published in the middle 1850’s, villages around this part of what was the then West Riding were very different from what are often considered to be typical English villages. There was no village green, no one cluster of houses, no central village pub and no old parish church in the centre. Wadsley Parish Church was opened in 1834, fifteen years after Wadsley Wesleyan Methodist Chapel; now Wisewood Church.
Instead there were several clusters of buildings, a large one around Luke Lane and others at Townhead, on Far Lane, around Wadsley House and at Dial House. Wadsley was typical of these scattered villages on the eastern flanks of the south Pennines which can be seen in Bradfield, Holdworth, Dungworth and Worrall. In later times the original layouts have been changed in some places by building large numbers of houses so that the villages have become more nucleated and this is certainly true for Wadsley.
However, many other things remain unchanged. The road layout of old Wadsley can still be seen today although many of the road names have changed. Laird Road was then Crabtree Lane and Rural Lane was Fox Lane. Water Lane and Coal Pit Lane are now Aldene Road, although this change was not made until the 1950’s.
Other changes are that Dykes Hall no longer exists, although the road name survives and the name Knowle Hill, just to the east of the Wesleyan Chapel, where Laird Avenue joins Ben Lane is now rarely used. The name of Far Lane then extended to Knowle Hill in the 1850’s. At that time the village would have been much noisier than it is today with many people working on farms, in blacksmiths’ and cutlery workshops, with children playing outside and dogs wandering around the village. Wadsley was famous for its knife making but notorious for their poor quality. They were often referred to as Wadsley “knocked ons” as the handles of many knives, which were only “knocked on”, often fell off the blades during transport to Sheffield!
Those who built the Wesleyan Chapel must have taken a risk, building the chapel in a field well away from any houses. This was probably because they were given a free piece of land to build upon. I wonder what those inspired Methodists would think if they could return to Wisewood Methodist Church today.
Ray Battye
Readings in the New Testament
Matthew Chapter 19.
Verses 1-9 might seem a very hard stand to be taken by Jesus, but we need to understand the circumstances. As we have seen elsewhere, the Pharisees were eager to discover Jesus’ views on current topics of interest, ‘paying the temple tax’, ‘who is our neighbour’, and, here, what does he think about the statements of Moses regarding divorce?
The questions from the Pharisees may be mischievous, but they may also have been part of the current debate on the subject and Jesus is an important person to give a view.
It will be of little surprise to learn that the Jews regarded women as more or less possessions of the men. There was divorce, but mainly available to men. Amongst reasons for a divorce being granted was that the wife could have fallen out of favour. This particularly was being suggested by a leading Rabbi of the time. It could be used to replace an ageing wife with a bright new model. This was a topic under discussion and (surprise, surprise...) this was proving very popular with the men.
This is the background to verse 3. Jesus replies with the statement that God had created the union of man and wife, it was not to be treated lightly. The Pharisees reply by stating that Moses had instituted divorce (verse 7). Jesus replies, first by correcting the Pharisees, this was not a Law, but a permission to manage the frailty of humans. He reminds them (verse 8) that this could not have applied at the Creation, because there was no person for Adam or Eve to turn to as a second partner. Today we are becoming well used to relationships which are fully accepted and yet are not the same as we would have expected only some thirty years ago or so. A few years ago, the Principal of Cliff College, in his address to new students at the beginning of the year, told them that they should respect the trust of those to whom they have made real or implied promises and that this included married as well as unmarried partners.
The disciples are perplexed, perhaps it is better never to marry? Perhaps the idea of being stuck with a wife for life was not what they had expected.
Jesus is trying to present marriage as more than a vessel for child production or for sexual gratification. Marriage is so much more than those that it is hard to know where to finish the list. It is given, not so that two people should do just those things together, but that they should do all things together. It is the total union of two personalities, a sharing in all the circumstances of life, a growing acquaintance of the person and the personality of each other, an investment in togetherness and in considering the wishes and needs of each other.
This is deliverable in formal marriage and today is also being delivered in other forms of relationships. Jesus is holding this out as a goal which should remove the need for divorce.
Verses 13-15 are recorded in Mark and Luke, it is obviously an important issue for the Gospel writers.
The disciples regarded the children as a nuisance. Jesus says that the people must realise that the kingdom of God belongs to the children. Sometimes we need reminding in church that the services are not just for those with age behind them, they are for all and not all will necessarily behave in the service as we believe they should. Sometimes I cringe when I see the hostility shown to children by worshippers, it certainly is not what Jesus would wish for. He goes on, in the other books, to say that people must become like children. He wants us to have open minds, to be stunned by the wonder and the majesty, like children.
David Battye
Shoeboxes
On Sunday 23rd November we held our Shoebox service which was conducted by our own minister Rev. Katie Leonowicz. Following the opening hymn and prayer, the shoeboxes and fillers were taken forward to be dedicated. Each child presented a shoebox and the remainder of the shoeboxes and fillers were brought forward on trollies. We were pleased to welcome a number of Brownies who had filled shoeboxes.
The story of the teddy bear which was purchased by a lady, to be put in a shoebox, had everyone listening intently whilst looking at Katie’s teddy which was in a rather large shoebox.
Following the second hymn, we watched the video of a woman, now living in Canada, who received a shoebox, as a Middle Eastern child. She told of what it meant to her and how she became a Christian. The video then went on to show her with her husband and 2 children, packing shoeboxes.
After the reading of the story of the good Samaritan from St. Luke’s gospel, Katie gave a short address.
Following the next hymn, there was an Ionian service of Holy Communion in which all were invited to partake.
On the Monday morning, two gentlemen from the Shoebox Appeal Depot came to collect our contributions. These were: 109 shoeboxes, 59 sets of hats, scarves and gloves, 50 mix ‘n’ match combinations of hats, scarves and gloves, 12 toiletry items, 17 toys, 70 pens40 rubbers, 50 pencils, 80 notebooks and 23 packets of crayons and coloured pencils, which were then used to fill other shoeboxes at the depot.
In addition, Wisewood Church donated £217.40, of which £70.00 were from the sale of knitted goods, as shoebox fillers.
We also included various knitted articles which just ‘appeared’ in the knitting cupboard and a large stationery contribution from the church stationery supplier Universal Office Products.
I would like to thank everyone who has contributed in any way, whatsoever. What a splendid response to this appeal which helps unprivileged children at Christmas! Again, thank you very much.
Enid M Bishop
Gift Day - Sunday 22 March 2015
Please mark the date 22nd March 2015 in your diaries. This is our next Gift Day and the third year towards the continued employment of our Layworker, Becca.
As you know, following a very generous grant from the previous Circuit for the post, our Church Council pledged to add a further £5,000 per year to extend the number of hours worked. Consequently we needed to raise £5,000 for each Gift Day. Last year we finished with a wonderful total of £5,494. We need a further miracle this year to complete the funding and so I ask you all to consider prayerfully your gifts and also to continue praying for Becca and her wonderful work with us here and in the Community.
Thank you and God Bless.
Di Bowns