Thought for the month                                

Each month we publish in the Church Magazine a message from our Minister

You will be reading these words in Advent, season of preparation for the coming (advent) of Christ. We remember the old stories and ponder their meaning; we sing familiar carols and plan our family festivities. All very cosy.

But at the heart of it is something big; something which is not safe or cosy or familiar, but dangerous, revolutionary and life-changing. Mary got it right when she sang of the mighty being cast down and the lowly lifted up, the hungry being fed and the rich sent away empty.

We have recently celebrated the 400^th anniversary of the King James version of the Bible, and been reminded-that it was successor to the work of pioneer translators Wyclif and Tyndale who had-in earlier centuries given English-speaking people the Bible in their mother-tongue. It was dangerous work because the Bible is not cosy but unsettling, giving the poor hope, and a voice. There are inevitable political consequences to taking the Bible seriously.

Our worship will take us on a journey towards Christmas, a journey in which the spiritual and physical worlds meet and meld. Angels and shepherds, babies and tyrants take the stage. God breaks in to a world of oppression with good news.

In an attempt to break out of our safe world, Churches Together are this year delivering Christmas cards all across the town. Each church is asked to cover the same roads that we visit in Christian Aid Week, but not to expect our usual collectors to do all the work! John Nicholls has kindly divided the cards up into roads and they are in the church porch. Please can each of us take some –perhaps your own road, if it's on the list, or somewhere you walk past. To be of maximum effect, since the cards advertise all the main Christmas services, they need to be delivered before Sunday 18th December. This is an effort (and it will be an effort!) to link the Church better with the community. Let's do what we can. Who knows,. God may break in with good news.

Happy Christmas and a joyful New Year,

Liz. 3

The November message

The clocks have gone back and we are heading into the darkness of winter – next stop, Christmas. But in the darkness there are gleams of light. At the recent Synod everyone was asked to write their longing, their aspiration, for their local church. We then stuck all the prayers on large flame shapes and at the end of the day took one "prayer'' anyone's prayer, home with us. The one I took says, "Hope".

Someone, in some URC in the West Midlands Synod, is praying for hope – for light in the darkness, a way forward, a sense that we have, as churches, a purpose; that God is calling us into the future He is preparing for us.

Or perhaps it was more personal than that, perhaps their own needs overwhelmed them and they were expressing a longing for hope in their own, inner darkness – illness, perhaps, or grief, or depression, or unemployment.

The apostle Paul wrote of the sufferings we all endure as those who live in a universe still in the making (Romans 8.22). Yet, he says, we have hope, we are saved by this hope we have in God's eternal purpose and our place in what God is doing. Despite everything, we discover that nothing can separate us from God's love. Our hope, grounded in the ultimate, gives us courage in the present – a torch in the darkness.

Church Meeting in October gave us all grounds for hope as we endorsed the Elders' further work on three priorities for church life: communicating more effectively who we are, going deeper in our spirituality, prayer and faith-sharing, and developing our involvement in the local community.

We also affirmed our readiness to enter the next phase of the Welcome Campaign, which will involve us in learning and reflecting together over the next few months. We shall also be exploring the possibility (and cost!) of having glass front doors for the church, and updating the church web-site.

And, book the date now, there will be a Flower Festival on the theme of Healing on 9th June 2012. Quite a few hopes, then, as we press on in our service of God.

Yours in Christ, Liz.

Pastoral Letter                        October 2011

Harvest beckons. This month we celebrate our Harvest Festival on the weekend of 8th and 9th October. On the Saturday evening at 6pm there will be a Harvest Supper: a light meal with country dancing, a quiz and some entertainment – a relaxed evening for all ages. Tickets are now available.

On the Sunday at 11 am we will enjoy our worship celebration focused on the beauty and wonder of creation. This is also our time to make our gifts to Commitment for Life, the URC's Christian Aid project. You will find an envelope for your gift in this magazine (others will be available at church).

This is a golden opportunity to offer practical, loving support to people who are trapped in poverty. The county to which our Harvest giving is channelled is Zimbabwe, where political tensions lead to injustice in the distribution of food and aid, and where the high incidence of HIV means that large numbers of children are orphans, many being cared for by grandparents.

Local charities can help with health and education, and monitor politically motivated human-rights and food-related violations. They need the support we can offer to maintain their work. As we thank God for all we have, let's also take this opportunity to share our prosperity with others. The tinned and packaged goods brought to the Harvest Festival will be distributed to local needy families through the Leamington Mission.

On Sunday 23rd October -we are delighted to welcome the Revd Michael Jagessar to lead our One World Week Service. Michael is a URC Staff Secretary, and a Moderator-elect of General Assembly. He's also a lively and thought-provoking speaker.

And then, a week later, the clocks will go back....................... Well, each day and 

each seasons has its own blessings for us all to enjoy.

Yours in Christ, Liz.

There are two seasons of remarkable change in a temperate climate: Spring and Autumn. Each has its own distinctive beauty: the rising sap and fresh growth, the green and yellow of Spring; the riot of reds, browns and golds, the crunch of frost, the berried fruitfulness of Autumn. And between them lies Summer.... But more of that next month.

Easter is the spring-time of the church year, as well as of the calendar year. It is the dawn, the early morning, the dew on green grass; it is the new life calling us, the rising sap of faith, a new way of living beyond the old, wintry fears of death and despair. And "this joyful Eastertide" goes on through the fifty days that lead to Pentecost.

For us at Abbey Hill this Easter season will see the beginning of our exploration of the Vision4life theme of evangelism – the sharing of good news, inviting other people to explore with us the change that Christ makes, to our understanding and to our relationship with God.

Change is also afoot in other ways. In Churches Together we are beginning to explore how we can work together in a more focussed way to serve the needs of young people – those who are already part of the church and those who are not. If this prospect interests you please let me know- people willing to commit a bit of extra time, energy and love will be needed.

We are also moving towards the time when we will need to decide as a church whether or not we wish to participate in the URC's 2012 media campaign of radical welcome.

Both these matters will be on the agenda of Church Meeting on Wednesday 22nd June. Please put this date in your diary, as one of the glories of our kind of church is that we seek God's direction for us together. (Incidentally, something else we need to explore is whether or not to move Church Meeting to a Sunday morning slot on a regular basis.)

In the middle of this month we have the opportunity to show our concern for others by collecting for (and giving to) Christian Aid, and showing the value we place on all that Abbey Hill church is to us as we contribute to Gift Day on 15th May. Vitality, energy, change – it is springtime, and God is growing new things.

Yours in Christ,

And people from all the Kenilworth churches, young and old, will have walked behind it, carrying our Palm Crosses, bearing silent witness. And quite a few will come back to our hall for a drink and a hot-cross-bun.

All my adult life has seen Good Friday take such a form: walking and worshipping together, all the churches, young and old. Bearing quiet witness to the extravagance of God's love revealed in the cross of Jesus.

Easter is late this year so we shall definitely notice that Lent is the season of lengthening days. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (9^th March) and we shall, as always, have the opportunity to worship together that evening with Churches Together. The following week the Lent Groups will begin —you will find details of all the groups on the notice board in the lobby. When you have chosen your group please contact the host so that they know numbers. The course being used is "Rich Inheritance: Jesus' legacy of love", and can be bought (£3.50) at the King's Table or online www.yorkcourses.co.uk. Our own Good Book Club will not meet during Lent (no March or April sessions) to allow people to attend the Lent Group of their choice.

Pastoral Letter   February 2011

Several of our older members have recently moved, and another is shortly to move, in order to receive more support and have fewer difficulties in coping with everyday life. I am sure that each of them would pay tribute to the loving care of family, friends and neighbours in recent years, but for them the time is right to move to somewhere more suitable.

Of course, even when our minds say "yes' our emotions may take a while to catch up; moving house is always an upheaval, and moving to a new community can be difficult. Some things help: having one's own comfy chair, seeing familiar pictures and photographs around the room, visits and phone calls from family and friends. The church will do its part in keeping in contact, and whenever possible in offering transport to services and other activities. We are all grateful to John and Loma and the transport team for their caring work.

But what makes 'church' feel like home? In a few months time the United Reformed Church is launching a media campaign to welcome people into the life of their local church. To prepare for that, all our local congregations (and any from other denominations who wish to participate) will be asked to give serious consideration to the kind of welcome we really offer, and how 'at home' different people may feel.

We shall return to this theme as the year goes by, thinking about small but important steps we can each take to make the church a welcoming place. Here's a first suggestion: if you see someone you don't know at church, why not go and introduce yourself to them? And if you see someone standing on their own at coffee time, why not ask them to come and _sit with you and your friends?

Church can be a spiritual home for old friends and new. We will do our best to maintain our friendships with those who move, and we will do our best to forge new links with the strangers who will soon become friends, given half a chance.

Yours in Christ, Liz.