“However, a new report from the Methodists, Baptists, URC & Church of Scotland demonstrates that this is very far from the truth. (see: ‘The lies we tell ourselves’)”

Writing in the Spring 2013 newsletter, Alan Hargrave, Chair of the Board for Church in Society, goes on to list some of these myths which the report debunks. To read the full article download the newsletter here (pdf).

It’s the Annual General Meeting of the Lordsbridge Team – we will open with a short act of worship, and then hear from local lay and clergy ministers about four key areas of our life together as a team ministry:

1. Youth ministry (Teresa Taylor)
2. Marriage preparation (Alison Myers)
3. The Lordsbridge School of Theology
4. Our finances

What is Coton Parish Room?

In 2000 Ely Diocese acquired 70 High Street, Coton as a new Parsonage house. The house had previously been the village shop and during the refurbishment the shop area was converted into two rooms with a connecting kitchen and lobby space with its own separate entrance.

Bishop David (the Bishop of Huntingdon) writes:

We had facilitated discussions and heard many views expressed, reaching through the routine of business to the deeper issues that we face.

For me, it feels a little like Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. On Good Friday we were stopped in our tracks by the Cross. Only in Jesus Christ and through Jesus Christ will we find our way forward; only in Him dare we find our way forward. We can sense the promised Day of Resurrection. But now we are busy in both preparation and prayer, getting ready for that Day, listening for just what its call to us will be. We don’t have the action list yet: but we are actively working towards it.

Key messages that came out of Bishop’s Council were reported to us:

• Be disciples not churchgoers
• Be attractive and inclusive in the community
• Let go of old attitudes
• Grow leadership

At Synod themes from our wide-ranging discussion included:

• Change needed – but handled with care
• A coherent message, well communicated
• Flexible ways of working, suiting circumstances
• New models of ministry needed, for ordained and lay
• Meeting people where they are
• Working together: differences not divisions
• Leadership the empowers and supports
• Authentic transformation

In our closing worship we heard again how the Word started to burn in the hearts of the disciples on the Emmaus Road, and propelled them back to the city, full of hope not gloom. Easter is not the end: it is the beginning, and there is work for us to do.

+ David

The following annual report by Mike Booker our Rector was distributed at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting. For those who were away or didn’t get hold of a copy, we’ve made the text available here.

We look back on a year when a great deal has happened. The life of the church has continued to flourish in its distinctive, and numerically small way.

Soon after last year’s APCM, a work party did a great deal to tame the wilder parts of the church yard. I remember Matt Brown and Eleanor Butcher being in the thick of the work, as they have been in so many other ways as treasurer and PCC secretary, and we were sad to say goodbye to them as they moved away at the start of 2013.

We now have a water supply to St Michael’s, and look forward to us installing the sink and finishing the project over the next few months. I would like to thank Brian Drayton for his help and expertise in this project. Progress has been slower with the planned church gate, and we have been help up by disagreements between architects and conversation officer, but I hope we will see progress on this too very soon. Annie Nason has done an excellent job in keeping this moving now she is back from Spain.

Our regular Sunday congregation has, once again, been far larger on special occasions, especially Christmas and Easter. We have also seen a number of remarkable special services in the Village Hall, in particular those marking the Queen’s diamond jubilee, Remembrance and Mothering Sunday. I would like to express my thanks to the team who make this possible each month.

Robert Stephenson has continued to provide regular and faithful help in maintaining our Eucharistic worship, and I would like to express my thanks to him for all he does. It has been good to welcome other members of the wider Lordsbridge ministry team too, and also to get to know Richard Attew, who has joined us as an attached ordinand from Ridley Hall. Rosanna Mahmood has started training as an Authorised Lay Minister, and we have already benefited from her imagination and creativity in leading all-age services.

The location of St Michael’s Church makes funerals and weddings far less frequent than in other parishes. We had no weddings in the year that has passed, and funerals took place at the crematorium. We did, however, have the joy of sharing in four baptisms, and I am pleased to note that two weddings have been booked for 2014.

It has been very good to pop in and see some of the exciting things going on in the monthly after-school church club. We are contacting a significant number of children and families in this way, and I would like to thank Rosanna and Hester for the imaginative and exciting way this has developed. I am pleased to have had several opportunities, along with Steve Gaze from Hardwick Evangelical Church, to visit Caldecote School for assemblies and also for RE lessons.

I would like to thank the Friends once again for all they are doing to raise funds for the fabric of the church. The quinquennial inspection is now in the process of being written up by our architect, and we are likely to have work to be undertaken in the coming years. But this is not the only value of the Friends’ work, and the engagement between church and community through concerts, open gardens and Burns Night especially, has been so valuable.

Few parish churches face quite the combination of location, parking and heating problems which we have with St Michael’s in Caldecote. I have been greatly encouraged by the energy, openness and determination shown by the PCC, by Dona our warden, and by so many others in and around the congregation. Through on-going efforts to make the church building welcoming, through Village Hall services and events, through a superb online presence, and through Chloe Jenkins’s kind welcome to Childerley Chapel for some very special quiet services, the Good News is lived and proclaimed.

The Lordsbridge Team Ministry hosted the largest joint marriage preparation day to date in February. The School of Theology completed its first year, including some excellent teaching from Mike Higton, and is now into year two, which is focusing on the Bible. Our team’s coming year will be demanding, as Rev Michael Matthews announced his resignation in March, and will be leaving at the end of June. Covering the vacancy may be a challenge, although we have an impressive range of gifts and ministers across the parishes. We do not yet know whether Michael’s replacement will be full-time. We wish Michael God’s blessing as he moves to Nassington to take on a group of parishes in Peterborough Diocese.

Locally, we had an excellent joint churches’ service in November. I hope all members of Caldecote church will join in the service this year. It is such an inspiration, as members of a small congregation, to join with hundreds of other Christians from all the local churches.

At a diocesan level, Bishop Stephen has been unwell, but is now back in action, and will continue to seek to guide us as we re-imagine our mission in the light of our changing society and the changing realities of church life.

In the year ahead the PCC will be revisiting our own parish’s mission action plan. The exciting thing is that so much has already been happening before we have updated the plan! Our resources are limited and our specific setting challenging, but God is good, and we trust in Him as we look forward.

Rev Mike Booker

In the fourth of his ‘This Week’ series, student vicar Richard Attew reflects on another aspect of living as an everyday Christian, taking 1 Peter 3:15 as his inspiration.

‘This Week’: Living as an Everyday Christian
Mr Bump and the Story of Hope

It was my birthday just before Easter. Birthdays, like Christmas, New Year and Television Awards Shows are opportunities to look back at the exploits of the past – and to look forward to the potential of the future.

This birthday I did a lot of reflecting. The past year has been one to remember. A year ago I was neither expecting to be moving to Cambridge nor had any idea what my immediate future held. This is not meant to sound melodramatic. I had simply reached a crossroads in my life, faith and career which meant serious change was going to happen, but circumstances meant I had no way of knowing exactly where that would lead. The last twelve months have seen all my doubts, concerns and fears completely evaporate as God has changed my circumstances from one kind to another. Yes, some of those old doubts, concerns and fears do occasionally rear their ugly heads again from time to time. The others have merely been replaced by new ones! Yet, the past year has been one I will not forget for all the right reasons. As I have become fond of saying: “Adversity is a testimony in the making”.

I also spent this birthday reflecting on years much further back than the last one. One distinct individual appeared large on the horizon – Mr Bump. I am assured that the Mr Men and Little Miss stories remain popular both in print and on television – although, as I am also fond of saying: “They don’t make them like they used to”! Good old Arthur Lowe (of Dad’s Army fame) has probably been replaced as narrator by some Reality TV star and Mr Tickle may well speak with a Mexican accent!

Mr Bump was my favourite Mr Men character. I think it was because he was blue. If you can, rewind to the halcyon days of the mid-1980s where yours truly is celebrating his third birthday with a specially-commissioned Mr Bump cake! If things get a little hazy around 1993, here’s a photo to help:

In the intervening decades my Mr Bump cake has become embedded in my memory, finding a special place all of its own. I do not remember anything about that birthday – not what gifts I received, who came to my party, whether I even had a party – all I can remember is my Mr Bump cake. This year my Mr Bump cake was a major talking point as I celebrated becoming (slightly) older. To paraphrase my earlier comment: “Memory is a testimony in the making”. Major memories from our past – ‘Mr Bump Moments’ – are stories worth sharing.

The Bible is full of ‘Mr Bump Moments’. It is a collection of life stories; life stories not unlike yours or mine. They track the ups and downs of people as they work, make friends, marry, have children, die – all with God’s intervention and involvement. Jesus – God’s own son – has his own tale told, climaxing with his death on the Cross yet followed, miraculously, by his resurrection and ascension. Like our lives, his life intersected with many others. Sometimes for years. Sometimes only for a few seconds. Following Easter, with Jesus resurrected and living today, our life can intersect with his also. If we choose to know him, he will be with us always.

Someone who knew Jesus best was his close friend Peter. After Jesus left Earth, Peter helped start the first churches. He wrote letters to them to help them know what to do. In one, Peter writes:

“. . . in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you …”

1 Peter 3:15

Peter is reminding the churches that no matter how tough life gets, no matter what people might say is wrong about Christians and Christianity, being a Christian means having the one thing that is unobtainable anywhere else. Hope. Because of who Jesus is and what he has done, those who believe in him have hope for the future. This hope is for today, tomorrow, the next day, and forever. As we live out our life of faith, we can remember that we have this hope. As we meet others, we can share this hope with them. We can share how Jesus has performed ‘Mr Bump Moments’ in our lives – and how he wants to perform them in theirs as well.

This week, may we look back on the ‘Mr Bump Moments’ from our past. May we remember the joy of what Jesus has done for us in these times – the hope that he gives us. May these memories inspire and encourage us to keep going in faith when life is tough. May we remember that no matter how hard life is, Jesus can turn our adversity into testimony. A ‘Mr Bump Moment’ may only be a few seconds away…

Prayer

If you would like to ask God to help you have hope, why not pray this prayer?

God,

I thank you for all the things you have done in my life. I thank you that you give hope to all, especially those who want to know you. I pray that you would continue doing wonderful things in my life. When life is hard, help me to remember the good things that you have done. Help me to keep going in the future by reminding me of what you have done in my past. I ask you for more hope today.

Thank you.

Amen.

It’s been an absolute privilege to have served as churchwarden through a period which has seen people and faith blossom at Caldecote Church (not to mention the flowers!).

The report I gave at the APCM can’t do justice to the experience of being at St Michael’s over the past 12 months, but whether you are new to the church or an old hand, I hope it sketches a general picture of some of our recent developments, both in terms of the building and our community. Click here to read the report (pdf).

During the service itself we marked the past year creatively on a visual ‘timeline’ of personal and church events. It was fascinating to journey through the year together in this way, and wonderful to use the timeline as the focus of our prayers. View the photo slideshow below.

Dona McCullagh

It’s a brief overview of the past year’s meetings, but I hope it gives a taste of the local church scene beyond Caldecote and Childerley.

Read the 2013 Deanery Synod report (pdf)

As I mentioned at the meeting, I’d very much like to strengthen the link between the church in Caldecote and the deanery of Bourn, by offering short reports after each meeting right here on the website. I’ll link to the reports as they are posted through the Caldecote Catch-up email (subscribe via the link on the left of this page if you aren’t yet on the e-newsletter list).

Dona McCullagh

But I am thrilled now to be joined by Rosanna Mahmood, who was elected alongside me at last week’s APCM. Rosanna brings many gifts – and not least ones that I most definitely lack!

Together we are thoroughly looking forward to the year ahead. Needless to say, we will value your advice, support and prayers throughout our time as churchwardens.

Dona McCullagh