During COVID-19 churches up and down the UK have been supporting their communities. You can support the National Churches Trust by joining in a joyful Afternoon Tea Party in celebration of National Cream Tea Day on 26th June 2020.

Dust off the best china, buy or bake the finest scones, select your favourite jam and cream and settle down for an entertaining afternoon.
• “The Holy and the Hilarious” – humorous reflections of life at a busy cathedral by re-knowned public speaker John Campbell, Verger of Lincoln Cathedral,
• Is it jam or is it cream first? Take part in the online debate
• Bake your own scones and take part in the “Scone-off” for a chance to win a luxury Cream Tea Hamper
• Tea Party Quiz
• Donations gratefully received

This event will raise funds for the charitable work helping churches and chapels across the UK. The focus during the coronavirus pandemic is to ensure churches can support their communities; your donation will allow help to be given where it is most needed. This funding keeps church buildings watertight, safe and able to re-open their doors when we are all ready to come back together.

The party will be held via Zoom. Do not worry if you do not have an account, you will be sent a personal invitation prior to the big day and help will be available if needed.

For more info please click the link below:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/virtual-cream-tea-with-the-national-churches-trust-tickets-108121550468

Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”

Genesis18:10-15

No matter how old or tired we may be or feel, our God has the power, will, and love to breath new life into his people. Even if there are times when we struggle to see how he might be able to do this, we can trust that he can, and I believe we can trust that he will.

Reverend John (Vicar)

Social distancing, services and buildings.
Last weekend the government announced that we would soon be allowed to begin opening our buildings for private prayer. Since then this has been clarified to, private prayer. We have been considering for some weeks, how we might facilitate various possibilities for opening our buildings. Unfortunately these plans cannot become concrete decisions until after we have received the governments full guidance. This was not made available until Friday. The diocese has made it clear that this decision must be agreed between the Vicar and the PCC.

As a result no decision has yet been made. I’m sure you will all agree that it would be inappropriate for us to rush a decision with so many possible implications as this, and that any opening up must be done with the greatest of care. We will however try to make a decision this week.

I fully understand the frustration and desire to return to Church, but please try to be patient, and please pray for all those involved in making these decisions over the coming weeks and months.

Reverend John (Vicar)

Weekly Service Online
Our parish communion will be posted on our website www.melthamparish.co.uk this will be streamed live at 10:30am though can be viewed at any time to suit.

Zoom!
There is a weekly service available at 11:15 via Zoom. The link is available on our website. Help can be given if you haven’t used Zoom before.

#melthamprays
Many people are looking for a simple way to pray. I hope that this will offer an opportunity to do so. Please look at the magazine, facebook, or our website for more details.

Join Rev’d John Dracup for our first attempt at a live broadcast of our Parish Communion for the first Sunday of Ordinary Time – 14th June. The service will be broadcast on a live YouTube stream at 10:30am. Despite lots of preparation and testing there’s a possibility that it may not completely work, due to current issues with the mobile network around Meltham, so please forgive us if it doesn’t happen as planned or the quality is not the best – there’s bound to be some technical issues!

If it does work, the video will also be available for viewing at any time convenient to yourself afterwards 🙂

The service can be viewed here via YouTube:
https://youtu.be/YvslxZNEipk

Sunday 7th June – 10:30am
Join Rev’d John Dracup for a special service of Holy Communion for Trinity Sunday. This can be viewed at any time but he will conduct the service from the vicarage at 10:30am so that the worship may be considered spiritually live. This week, the service features lots of ‘Holy Holy Holy’s’ in the hymns (30 to be exact!) led by our Virtual Parish Choir who have kindly recorded 2 well known hymns that we normally sing on Trinity Sunday as we didn’t have any previous recordings of these.

The service can be viewed here via YouTube:
https://youtu.be/mSZbHrjITN0

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)

To say anything at all about the Holy Trinity is tricky, how can you compare the all powerful and eternal God to anything? But our Triune God is unquestionably the God of loving relationship. He did not start to look for relationship and love when he made creation, the oneness of God is eternally found in the perfect loving relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, within the Holy Trinity.

It is our God’s desire to share this love with all people and as Christians we are called to relationship with our God as both three in one, and with each person of the Trinity.

Most of us find it easier to imagine the idea of relationship with the Father and The Son than we do with the Holy Spirit. Too often we speak of the Holy Spirit as an it rather than as a who. The Holy Spirit becomes a power or gift to be received rather than a person with whom we are to develop a loving relationship.

The Holy Spirit is our councillor, comforter, and enabler. He is not a power to be mastered, but a person of the Trinity that we must receive into our lives if we are to be the people that our God calls us to be.

Reverend John (Vicar)

Social distancing, services and buildings.

I am aware that some of the recent anouncments from the government were not as clear as they may have been. However, the position of the Church of England and the diocese of Leeds remains to be that all of our buildings must remain closed for now. If any body feels that they need to access any of our buildings they must contact me so to see if it will be safe for them to do so, and so that I can maintain an accurate register of access.

Magazine
The parish magazine is now available on our parish website.

Website
Our parish communion will be posted on our website www.melthamparish.co.uk this will be pre-recorded but Rev John will be repeating the service at 10:30am so that it may be considered spiritually live. Please join in if you are able.

Zoom
There is a weekly service available at 11:15 via Zoom or sometimes in the evening. The link is available on our website. Help can be given if you haven’t used Zoom before.

#melthamprays
Many people are looking for a simple way to pray. I hope that this will offer an opportunity to do so. Please look at the magazine, facebook, or our website for more details.

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:37-39 (NIV)

On the day of Pentecost all the members of the very first Church were gathered together. We think of them as being a holy lot. They were certainly good; they were committed to Jesus’s teachings and to prayer, they shared in loving fellowship and were generous towards each other, but were they the perfect Church? Of course not; some of them like Peter, were still brash, and some like Thomas still had doubts, they all had imperfections.

So, why is it that God considered them ready to receive the Holy Spirit? They believed that Jesus was there Lord and saviour. They knew that Jesus was their king, enthrone for all eternity in heaven, and they knew that he had died on the cross to win forgiveness of sins for them.

The early Church didn’t receive the Holy Spirit because they were “good enough”. The Holy Spirit came to them because they needed help to become “good enough”.

Like the early Church we must be ready to acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and saviour, and to receive the Holy Spirit as a gift of grace. Only with the Holy Spirit’s help will we ever be the kind of Church that Jesus, our king, is calling us to be.

Reverend John (Vicar)

Social distancing, services and buildings.
I am aware that some of the recent anouncments from the government were not as clear as they may have been. However, the position of the Church of England and the diocese of Leeds remains to be that all of our buildings must remain closed for now. If any body feels that they need to access any of our buildings they must contact me so to see if it will be safe for them to do so, and so that I can maintain an accurate register of access.

Website
Our parish communion will be posted on our website www.melthamparish.co.uk this will be pre-recorded but Rev John will be repeating the service at 10:30am so that it may be considered spiritually live. Please join in if you are able.

Zoom
There is a weekly service available at 11:15 via Zoom. The link is available on our website. Help can be given if you haven’t used Zoom before.

#melthamprays

Many people are looking for a simple way to pray. I hope that this will offer an opportunity to do so. Please look at the magazine, facebook, or our website for more details.

Apologies that this was not published last Sunday as originally intended.

Hello!
Welcome to the June edition of the #Meltham Parish Magazine. Firstly apologies for the delay in getting this month’s magazine published. Family life in ‘lockdown’ is very busy in the vicarage! The main thing is, YOU are able to read this now so it all came good in the end!

I hope you enjoy this Lockdown edition, there are a number of updates from different groups, as well as many pictures taken for a number of different reasons.

If you would like to take part more in our future editions please do let me know, I am currently a team of one as Kirsten has had to step down. I personally want to say a big THANK YOU for all she has done for this magazine since taking over from Amelia. All ideas and articles are welcomed and you can contribute as much (or little) as you feel able.

God bless, Fiona

Sunday 31st May – Pentecost (Whit Sunday)
Join us for a special on-line Parish Communion for Pentecost! – 31st May. This week, not wanting to miss out, Jack, the youngest member of the Dracup family gets in on the act following the appearance of his older brother and sister last week. This can be viewed at any time but Rev’d John will conduct the service from the vicarage at 10:30am so that the worship may be considered spiritually live. Today’s service again features our Virtual Parish Choir who have attempted singing 4 part harmony for the first time.

The service can be viewed here via YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqACAIdz5Uk

The service booklet can be downloaded here:

There are two special Sundays still to come before we enter the period in the church liturgical calendar that is known as ‘Ordinary Time’ – these being Pentecost (or Whit Sunday) and Trinity Sunday.

Rev’d John would like you to join him in some fun activities to co-incide with these special days and if you’re willing, he would like you to provide photos so he can use them in our online services:

“My hopes for the next few weeks are;
Sun 31st May – Pentecost – make yourself a hat of flame(s) (not real ones) and wear on your head.
Sun 7th June – Trinity – examples of the trinity i.e. things that come in Three’s or work in Three parts.
Sun 14th June – 1st of Ordinary Time – examples of people being normal doing ordinary things (or not) requires personal interpretation 🙂

Please provide photos of yourself (doing) (flame / ordinary person stuff) or of your Three’s.
In providing these photos you understand that you are agreeing for them to be used in the online Parish Communion services between the above dates and which may remain available through our Parish website for some time and the Parish YouTube channel”

Please include the following statement along with your photos in your email replies:
I agree for these pictures to be used in the Parish Communion service for (date) and I do have the permission of all those who appear in the pictures.

Please email your photos to Leigh-Anne Willitts at parishofchristtheking@gmail.com before or on the preceding Friday for each of the Sunday services.

We hope you enter into the ‘SPIRIT’ of these ‘THREE IN ONE’ fun activities during these extra-ORDINARY times 🙂

Have fun!

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
John 17:1-5 (NIV)

On the day of ascension Jesus went up. He went up to heaven and sits on the throne of glory. John 17:5 makes it clear that he shared the Fathers glory from before the world was made, ascension is when he returned to that place of glory.
When he came to earth as a baby in Bethlehem the angels declared that he was king, throughout his ministry on earth he remained king, and he was still king when he was lifted up on the cross.
Jesus’s sovereignty over all of creation is never in question. The question that we all need to ask ourselves is, whether we accept Jesus as our king? Do we acknowledge his sovereignty in our own lives?
This means accepting his plan for us and acknowledging that we don’t always get things right. The good news is that as our ascended king, fully God and fully human, he understands our struggles and is always ready to forgive us and help us.
Reverend John (Vicar)

Social distancing, services and buildings.
I am aware that some of the recent anouncments from the government were not as clear as they may have been. However, the position of the Church of England and the Diocese of Leeds remains to be that all of our buildings must remain closed for now. If any body feels that they need to access any of our buildings they must contact me so to see if it will be safe for them to do so, and so that I can maintain an accurate register of access.

Website
Our parish communion will be posted on our website www.melthamparish.co.uk this will be pre-recorded but Rev John will be repeating the service at 5pm so that it may be considered spiritually live. Please join in if you are able.

#melthamprays

Many people are looking for a simple way to pray. I hope that this will offer an opportunity to do so. Please look at the magazine, facebook, or our website for more details.