St Nicholas Restoration

John Taylor Funeral Service are entering a team into the Leamington Raft Race to raise funds for the St Nicholas Restoration.

The Raft Race between Leamington and Warwick takes place on Saturday 13th June 2009.  More information can be found on the Warwickshire County Council website.

Sponsor forms will be sent to your local Minister - ask them for details, or go direct to John Taylors:

• 1-3 Russell Terrace, Leamington Spa 01926 426052
• 178 Warwick Road, Kenilworth 01926 854261
• 9 St. John’s, Warwick 01926 490780

Sponsor forms for the team can be downloaded here.

Thank you for your support, by helping us to help others.

Due to the hosting company performing scheduled upgrades, it is likely that the site will be inaccessible for a few minutes at approximately 8pm on Wednesday 11th March.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Dear Friends

First, may I apologise for the gap since the last Bulletin I issued in November. The trouble is, as you will have noticed, there has been very little activity at the church, except the replacing of the plastic sheeting over the tower roof whenever the wind has torn it off!

The current snowy weather reminds me of the snow we had last April, just a few weeks after the fire, when it looked quite stark and ominous – that was when the photo was taken that was on our Christmas card. (Thanks to Fiona who took the pictures …)

You will, I hope, be pleased to know that in this apparent absence of action, we have been busy behind the scenes, preparing detailed documents that will form the basis for the insurance company settlement. This has now been submitted, and I am anticipating that once their engineers have looked over the paperwork, we shall enter a not-too-lengthy process of negotiation to reach an agreed settlement.

Once this is done, we will know what budget we have to work with to rebuild the church.

Alongside this, we have been exploring the next stages in rebuilding, and the architect has been working on an initial brief gathered together from a comprehensive survey we did some months ago with church members.

Some of the important elements which we hope will be part of the new church are as follows :

• The view of the church from the main road should remain unchanged
• The new church should have toilet facilities and basic kitchen facilities (currently in the old church room, which is on its last legs)
• There should be more flexibility within the building so that it can be used more during the week by the local community (without compromising the excellent facilities already in the village).
• There should be some basic office facilities for future incumbents (currently a deteriorating shed in the garden of the Vicarage !)
• There should be the opportunity to have the church open more during the week for people to visit for pastoral and spiritual needs.
• We should use sustainable energy sources for heating and lighting where possible

Basically, this brings together the facilities that are currently in the old church room and the shed into one place, providing more regular access and more flexible use for the church and community.

There will of course be some structural differences – it is almost certain that we will not be able to replace all the stained glass windows with the original designs, through the Millennium window can be remade as it was. Modern building regulations will also determine how we proceed with construction, especially for these extra facilities.

At the moment, these are ideas rather than specific plans, but once permissions have been given to go ahead with this idea and detailed plans are drawn up, there will be a public consultation to present these plans and fine-tune any specifics. I will, of course, let everyone know when that will be once we get to that stage.

In the meantime, if anyone has any creative suggestions, do please get in touch (email is probably best if you can – revmcg@kerrins.net) and we can add them to the general discussions.

The restoration of St Nicholas Church gives us the opportunity to provide a thoughtful and prayerful facility for the village which can be used, enjoyed and loved by the community for future generations. Do please pray for us as we move ahead slowly, even when you can’t see anything happening at the church – and thank you once again for all your support.

With my best wishes

Rev Martin Green

All services are in the Community Hall, unless otherwise stated

QUALITY TIME - CHRISTINGLE
Dec 7th, 10.00am

Christingle is always a special moment in the Christmas calendar, and ours will kick off the season in our village. Proceeds from the service will be sent to the Children’s Society, to help disadvantaged children in the UK.

CAROLS BY CANDLELIGHT
Dec 21st, 6.00pm Candlelight Carol procession begins outside St Nicholas Church, 6.30pm service starts

Christmas this year will feel very different without the special atmosphere St Nicholas church gave us. You will see though that we plan to congregate outside the church at 6.pm on Sunday 21st, and walk through the village to the Community Hall, singing carols. It is a mark of acknowledging what has been lost, and also of determination and hope for what is to come. Do please join us, either at the church or along the way …

CAROLS ROUND THE TREE
Dec 24th, 5.00pm

This is always a special Christmas Eve time – it’s an informal carol service for all the family

CHRISTMAS EVE COMMUNION
Dec 24th, 11.30pm at Radford Semele Baptist Church

We are delighted to be sharing again with the Baptist church, and very grateful for their support and fellowship over this year – a year that has seen significant change for both of our church families.

CHRISTMAS DAY CELEBRATION
Dec 25th, 9.30am

Do join us – it may seem early, but if you have children, you will have been up for hours anyway ! A lovely break from opening presents !!

CAROL PRAISE
Dec 28th, 10.00am

An informal joint service to sing and celebrate.

… and can’t get enough of singing carols and celebrating the Christmas story, Christmas services at Radford Semele Baptist Church are as follows :

Carols by Candlelight Service : Sunday 21st at 4.30pm
Christmas Day Service: Christmas Day at 10:30am

Hope is rising

As I write this, there is a great tide of hope rising in America. They have a new President Elect, and they have been given promises of change and new, even historic, beginnings.

But there are also many who are struggling to find hope … people for whom the economic problems of the last few months have meant a loss of jobs, pensions, and maybe even homes.

As we enter the Christmas season, many have hopes for Christmas – some may be excited about a gift … others may be longing to see a loved one … and we will certainly have that annual hope that it might even snow on Christmas Day !!

Hope is something that runs through the Christmas story.

It begins with the hopes of an elderly priest and his wife, longing for a son, and hoping beyond hope that God would hear their prayer, and of the first encounter with the angel Gabriel.

We discover long-held hopes for freedom and justice for a downtrodden people, and God’s response to their cries – elements that resonate with so many parts of our world today.

We find hopes for a better life, for a new King, for a Saviour, for purpose, for change …

Some of this sounds all very familiar … these are hopes many still look for.

The Christmas story tells us that God understands the deep-felt hopes we have … and answers them in a baby; in something so fragile and dependant, hope comes.

Many will tell you today that this is nonsense – that God “probably” doesn’t exist anyway, so why bother. But many will also say that God has met their hopes and dreams in ways that were way beyond their imaginings ! So who is right ?

Hope can be dashed if our hope is based in the wrong things. As we have seen clearly this year, people whose lives are based in financial security have been seriously challenged. As banks have been shaken, and some collapsed, the effects are felt right across society.

Hope can be dashed too if we see hope as “wishful thinking”, like the child hoping for a new bike, or the latest computer game, or the buying of a Lottery ticket.

But for God, hope is about looking forward to something which is assured … It is about the value that God places on us, a value that comes out of His love for us.

And so Christmas is full of hope, because it is at Christmas that we celebrate God entering our fragile and vulnerable world, and walking alongside us through those uncertainties with an unchangeable and unassailable love.

With His love giving us value, we can face the uncertainties with a new perspective, unafraid of the changing and falling values of the world around us. We can dare to reach out to help others struggling under the weight of their lives. Hope in God helps us see things differently, and respond generously to one another.

May God open our eyes to the hope of Christmas, and live in that hope together in a new way.

Wishing you God’s blessing of hope this Christmas,
Martin