Ukelule group makes return visit to Willen Church’s lunchtime concert session

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The University of the Third Age’s popular U3lele group make a welcome return to St Mary Magdalence Church, Willen, later this month.

The group will be the guests of the Third Tuesday and Twelve Thirty event on Tuesday April 16, playing music from that time until 1.15pm. They will be playing popular music from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

There is complimentary coffee with donations welcome towards the Church Restoration and Hooke Heritage Project. Entrance is free.

An Easter message: Why we grow when we struggle

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An Easter message from Dave Haseldine, pictured, the Methodist Circuit minister working part time in the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership.

Dear Friends,

Happy Easter to you! Christ who was crucified is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! We believe in the goodness of God that we see all over the place: in the natural world; in the the Bible; in the person of Jesus; and when we are aware of and see the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit. And we believe: ‘all things shall be well’; and in a new heaven and a new earth where there will be no more illness or death and God’s love will reign unopposed.

But we live with the tension that this Kingdom of God is coming, it is not here fully yet, and for too many people it seems a cruel fantasy.

Paul of Tarsus knew of this almost unbearable tension and wrote of it and of how Jesus: knew of it; lived in it; faced it; what it cost him to overcome it; and calls us to live with the same tensions and trust him by following him. In Romans 4:25-5:5, Paul writes:

            Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.  Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Life is a struggle! But we grow when we struggle. Maybe that is the only time and way we grow. I wish it were different, that Jesus could make me grow without it being so costly, without me having to ‘die to my self’, to the worst that is in me, or the ‘me’ that most resists Jesus’ call to trust him in and above absolutely everything.

So there is no short-cut to resurrection by-passing the crucifixion. Jesus says that losing your life is the only way to find new life. And everyone who takes even small steps on this mad way of his grows as perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.

I confess that I only take small steps trusting Jesus in this way, but when I do, God’s love seeps into my heart. And I take huge encouragement from others who take bigger steps and it is clear that the Holy Spirit does indeed abundantly pour God’s love into their hearts. As we face all the challenges that we do at this time, may we encourage one another in this way and look for the outpouring of God’s love through us! Amen! Dave Haseldine:-)