Future ministry in church under discussion

Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership welcomes you and warmly invites you to attend our services and events

St Andrew’s held a congregational meeting on December 11. Following are some notes from the meeting.

Apologies for absence – none.

Minutes of last meeting. Accepted as a true record.

Matters arising.

PB announced that the successor to Mary Coates is the Rev Canon John Robertson, pictured,

who is currently working in Wantage.

JP announced the Gift Day at St. Andrew’s culminated in achieving the amount £1400 plus the additional tax.

This is a tremendous achievement bearing in mind our Parish Share for next year will rise to £42K. It should be noted that over the years St. Andrew’s has always underpaid.

PB mentioned that the recent confirmation service, St. Andrew’s submitted 5 candidates.

The main purposes of this meeting was to raise the issue of the impact of clergy and its future resources. As everybody knows Rev. Chris Collinge will retire next year, and will not be replaced.

Below are part comments at the recent SEP Meeting.

‘The Deployment Group together with the Ministerial Team, by majority decision, recommend to SEP the following congregational pairings.

New Bradwell + Willen

Bradwell + Downs Barn

Stantonbury + Great Linford

Revd Liz Baker to concentrate on Willen, Revd Mindy Bell to maintain contact at New Bradwell and David Wilson to continue with work at Great Linford.

It was agreed that Church Councils/Congregational Meetings should be asked to consider the proposals and, if in agreement, to inform the Chairman by early January so that measures could be put in place to implement arrangements.

SEP would be asked for formally ratify the proposals without further discussion.Revd Paul Smith asked the Chairman to prepare a written paper for the Church Councils explaining the background to the proposals and Revd Andy Jowitt offered to assist by making available his notes from the discussions. Bob Cross thanked the working parties for their work and difficult decisions.’

PB therefore put to the meeting how each one of us, thought of the proposal, bearing in mind there will be eventual changes in the future.

There will be for instance possible sharing of resources, with swaps, Sunday services maybe more defined.

Another point is that the retirement age for clergy is 70!!

DK asked the question of the three church ministers employed – do they have contracts? PB responded by saying that contracts are mainly open ended.

For example the Rev. Chris Howden has a 7 year contract, also at the moment there is nothing concrete set out.

One aspect of the Rev. Chris Collinge jobs was CRB checks. It was announced that Judy Thorpe will be taking on this job.

Response of what may go – would be less visiting by the clergy.

We would have re -prioritize what can be done ongoing, but maybe there could be help from lay people.

AT commented that the role of evangelism would have to be dropped, because there would be no time for it.

Funerals/Weddings/Baptisms will have to be reviewed and organised, therefore we will have decide the important things we wish to continue to have.

Comment from JP we have a need for extra people, and is it because of the current climate at the moment. Answer quite simply is there are no new clergy coming through.

General comment was that at St. Andrew’s for example, there are people within our congregation who have certain talents.

In the short term there will be no immediate impact, however David Wilson will eventually retire, and we may see less of PB.

PB put to the meeting their overall reaction, response was in general quite positive, but the impact would be in the the other Churches in the Group.

Maybe in 5 years time could we be linked with Willen!

The meeting considered if there were people in the congregation who felt they could help with some of the churches activities, they would be very welcome, and that training would be given.

Also in the early part of next year Mary Coates and Peter Ballantine will be holding a training day for people who would like to read in church.

NB commented that as members of the Church Council it will up to them to come up with roles in certain areas of the church services.

TH gave a vote of thanks was given for the work of David Wilson. DW said that we have talented people in the congregation who could taken on certain roles. Training would be given.

In view of the above PB was given a positive outcome from the meeting.

One comment made was “As long as we care for one another”

Building report.

Comment from SH the stone work will begin in January.

JT mentioned about Leaflets for the Christmas services had anybody been over to the new housing development. Believe the matter is in had.

Comment from the meeting was the Christmas leaflets, whilst giving dates/times of the services, would it be possible in future to give information on the normal times of services.

First Easter egg with a Christian message

Have you ever gone in search of an Easter egg which specifically has a Christian message and failed?

Well now you can buy one which gives the Easter story thanks to the Meaningful Chocolate Company Ltd – orders are now being taken. Don’t forget to order early – Easter Day is April 8.

More than 80 million Easter Eggs are sold a year and until 2011 not one mentioned Jesus on the box.

The Real Easter Egg gives churches a chance to buy an Easter Egg that explains the Christian understanding of Easter on the pack and gives money to charity and development projects.

In early 2011, the Meaningful Chocolate Company asked churches to mail order a supply of Real Easter Eggs. The aim was to prove demand so that in future years, people would have the choice of buying the egg from their local shop.

More than 50,000 eggs were ordered in the first 12 weeks of the egg being on sale and shops began placing orders when they saw what was happening.

The company donated more than £4,000 to Baby Lifeline in 2011. More than £21,000 was donated to Traidcraft exchange in 2011.

In 2008 one of the company’s co-founders, with a ten year record of promoting ethical trading and even longer working for the faith and voluntary sector, came up with the idea of The Real Easter Egg.

The company developed the egg and with the help of bishops, schools and parents it was launched to a warm welcome in September 2010.

The Real Easter Egg costs £3.99 and is made from 125g of high quality Fairtrade milk chocolate which has an approval rating of more than 95%.

Now The Real Easter Egg in 2012 has had a make-over.

Brighter colours

The three crosses on the front are bigger

The Easter story is a colourful visual story board as opposed to last year’s text only version

If you open the lid, you will see ‘Happy Easter’

Under the lid, and for the first time ever on an Easter Egg, there is a quote from the Bible-the resurrection text from Mark.

Inside the box is a copy of the Easter story in booklet form for children to keep and parents to share.

Supermarkets and independent retailers across the UK are being inundated with calls from customers searching for The real Easter Egg, the first and only Fairtrade egg to mention Jesus and the events of Holy Week on the box.

Morrison’s, Waitrose, Co-op and Booths are stocking a limited ‘trial listing’ of the Real Easter Egg and selling it in their biggest stores. Ensure you ask at your local store and maybe the message will get through that there is a demand for The Real Easter Egg.

Traidcraft’s network of 6,500 retailers, a number of independent shops and a selection of cathedrals are also stocking The Real Easter Egg.

Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ben Kingsley and host of Coronation Street stars have backed the egg and ecclesiastical funded a national competition for schools and churches.

With their help, with the support of Archbishops, bishops and hundreds of school and churches, The Real Easter Egg became the biggest mail order egg in the UK before going into stores.

With seven million people going to church regularly and millions supporting the ethos behind Fairtrade products or attending church schools, we thought demand might be high but the response has been overwhelming and we have gone to four production runs to meet demand.

Supermarkets are reporting that people are walking past the two for one offers to buy the egg or ordering dozens of eggs for home delivery.

To find out more about The Real Easter Egg and to order visit the Meaningful Chocolate Company’s website.

Special service aids Soup Run

Milton Keynes Soup Run team members held a successful service publicising the work at Bradwell Church on January 15.

Team members would like to thank all those who attended - especially for their generosity in giving to the collection for the Soup Run which totalled £74 as well as those who give gifts for the homeless and needy.

The Soup Run received some valuable publicity on BBC local radio recently.

The Rev Andy Jowitt, minister at Bradwell Church, spoke on the Ernie Almond programme about the work of the run which delivers soup, sandwiches, coffe, tea and more to the city's homeless and needy on four evenings each week.

The Soup Run is jointly run by churches in Stantonbury and Woughton ecumenical partnerships - delivering outside Argos store at Grafton Gate, in Avebury Boulevard by the old Sainsbury's store and outside Milton Keynes Library in Silbury Boulevard.

If you would like to contact any of the Soup Runs to offer help or donate please follow the Contact MK Soup Run link at the top left of this page.

Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership welcomes you and warmly invites you to attend our services and events