Lower Cumberworth

All are welcome to join with us this Sunday as Revd Biggar takes our service at 10.30am which will include Holy Communion.

The President of the Methodist Conference, the Revd Helen Cameron, and Vice-President, Carolyn Godfrey, have released the following statement and prayer as a response to the violent disorder that has taken place over recent days.

The Methodist Church celebrates diversity as a gift from God. Every day we work through churches, schools and community projects to build relationships of respect, care and love in communities across Britain. Watching the news from towns and cities across our nations, where people motivated by hate have caused harm and fear, has been shocking and distressing. The Methodist Church deplores the use of violence and intimidation against displaced, marginalised and vulnerable people. We are appalled that the tragic killing of three young children and the injuring of others has been used as an excuse for riots and disturbances. Honesty and trust are at the heart of the Christian life and the abuse of social media in spreading lies to stir up anger and hate is despicable.

Those with hate in their hearts will never have the last word. As communities reel from unrest and disorder, Methodists will continue to work with our ecumenical and interfaith partners, as we join in clearing up, restoring trust and building communities of love, in which people can live in peace.

God of love,
We pray for your Spirit of peace to move in our communities,
that those who are targets of hate might be safe
and that people of good will might work together in love and respect.

We pray for your Spirit of healing,
that those who grieve, might be comforted
and those who are injured might be made well.

We pray for your Spirit of hope,
that those who despair might see a way ahead
and those who live in fear might find sanctuary and freedom.

Soften the hearts of those motivated by hate
and help us all to love our neighbours as those made in your image.
In Christ’s name.

Amen

All are welcome to join us this Sunday as Revd Nick Biggar leads our worship at 10.30am which will include the sharing of Holy Communion.

We extend a warm welcome to everyone as Denby Dale's congregation join us this week as Rev Nick leds us at 10.30 on Sunday.

Job advert for around the district!
If you or someone you know may be interested, please pass the details along.

We join together at Skelmanthorpe Methodist Chapel on Sunday for our quarterly circuit service led by Revd Dr Philip Bee at 10.30am

Join us for a service of Holy Communion this Sunday led by Revd Stephen Barnett. All are welcome.

Just a reminder that we will be joining with our friends at Denby Dale Methodist for our service this Sunday at 10,30am.

All are welcome to join this exciting new project which is being run by Thurgoland Community Choir and will be taking place at St Andrews Methodist Church, Pen*stone over the next few months.

Happy New Year!
As we enter 2024, we reflect on where we saw glimmers of God’s love in ourselves and those around us, and how we may step into the new year with anticipation of seeing God’s extraordinary love in our ordinary lives.

We join together with some other churches in our circuit tomorrow,
Revd Philip Bee leads worship at Denby Dale Methodist Church.

We join together with some other churches in our circuit this Sunday.
Revd Philip Bee leads worship at Denby Dale Methodist Church.

All are welcome to celebrate Christmas Day with us as we join together with other churches in the circuit.

10am - Clayton West Methodist Church with Revd Nick Biggar
10am - Cawthorne Methodist Church with Ian Morris
10am - The Church In West Bretton with Revd Philip Bee
10am - St Andrews in Pen*stone with Revd Paul Bettison

In the last of our advent reflections today we hear from Methodist Women in Britain , a self-financing volunteer-run charity within the Methodist Church in Britain. Hear Ruth Dawson, Social Media Coordinator, speak about her experience.

Methodist Women in Britain | Listening (Advent week 4) It's great to see you here. Why not follow us on socials to find out more?X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/methodistgbInstagram: https://instagram.com/methodis...

Sunday 24th December - Meet at 3.30pm
All are welcome to join us as we make our own Christingles, whilst taking a short walk around Withy Woods. We will meet by the school gates by Denby Dale First School.
We will light our candles at the end of our walk and warm ourselves up with a hot chocolate and marshmallows!
The walk should last around 20 minutes. Please bring torches and sensible footwear. We look forward to seeing you there.

Week four - Listening - Day 27
On a Saturday during our Advent reflections, we'll be listening to and watching a song, to think about how it relates to the weekly theme. This week it's Hearing Voices by the Foo Fighters, from the 2023 album But Here We Are . The reflection was written by Tom Osborne, who is a Superintendent Minister of the Tendring Circuit in Essex

Foo Fighter’s Hearing Voices’ is clearly about grief. The whole album feels as though it is a form of processing grief, that of the deaths of drummer Taylor Hawkins and Dave Grohl’s mother, Virginia. But Grohl is on record as recognising that part of the joy of music is that people find different meanings in the same song. For me, the song, and the idea of seeking out a particular voice, brings to mind a different experience.

Now, to tell this story I need to be clear that while I grew up in the Church, the son of an Anglican parish priest, it was very much the rational, reasonable, liberal-to-radical part of the Church. To put it bluntly, I was more likely to think someone who told me God had spoken to them was psychotic rather than a saint!

It is important to know this because I have no other way of describing the situation I found myself in other than saying that God spoke to me! And I know how crazy that sounds because I grew up thinking the same. In fact, the cynic in me is probably still more likely to lean towards hearing God’s voice as a sign of mental breakdown than of divine revelation.

Yet, this is my story. As I say, I grew up the son of a ‘preacher man’ (to coin a phrase), and faced the usual comments from usually well-meaning folk, asking, “When are you going to follow your dad into the ministry?” In my late teens and early twenties my stock answer was that “the only kind of minister I plan on being is the kind who sits on a green leather bench.”

However, as my non-political career developed, I found myself in a job that I loved, working with a team of people I loved working with. It’s important to know that – I’d done jobs I didn’t enjoy, but I loved this one. Then, one afternoon, sat alone in my office, at my desk, working on a particularly exciting project, I heard a voice in my head say, “You should be a minister.” Now, I could have ignored this. It was, after all, a nonsense – I was doing a job I loved and heading in a good direction both in terms of work and social life. Why would I let go of all of this to head in an entirely new, and to my way of thinking entirely undesired, direction?

Yet the voice was insistent, and I took it seriously precisely because I could not consider it my own voice – I would never have said that! So, as stupid as I thought it sounded, I told my then-girlfriend (now wife), my minister, my dad, some friends I trusted (faithful, agnostic and atheist). None denied the idea was somewhat amusing, but also none suggested it was unreasonable. So here I am, closing in on 20 years later, an ordained minister, in circuit for over 11 of those years.

Since then, I’ve continued to hear voices – as a depressive and sufferer of anxiety, Black Dog’s voice is a familiar one, sometimes quiet and sometimes overwhelmingly loud; my own voice is also familiar to me as someone who has a very keen internal monologue; and there are the voices of those who have helped or hindered me down the years, who continue to echo around my mind. But only that once would I say I heard the voice of God speak straight to me.

The journey since has not been easy, but I know what I heard, and I will never regret listening to what it said. And I keep listening, just in case…

Lyrics

I think I spoke too soon
It's time to clear the air
It's quiet in my room
The silence is unfair

I've been hearing voices
None of them are you
I've been hearing voices
None of them are you

Late at night, I tell myself
Nothing this good could last forever

No one cries like you
No one cries like you

I've been hearing voices
I've been hearing voices now
I've been hearing voices
None of them are you
None of them are you
None of them are you
None of them are you

I've seen you in the moon
I wish that you were here
You promised me your word
A whisper in my ear

Every night, I tell myself
Nothing like you could last forever

No one cries like you
No one cries like you
No one lies like you
No one lies like you

I've been hearing voices
I've been hearing voices now
I've been hearing voices
None of them are you
None of them are you
None of them are you
None of them are you

Speak to me, my love
Speak to me, my love

I've been hearing voices
None of them are you
I've been hearing voices
None of them are you

Speak to me, my love
Speak to me, my love

Foo Fighters - Hearing Voices (Lyric Video) From the album 'But Here We Are' // Out NowListen here: https://FooFighters.lnk.to/BHWAID See Foo Fighters Live: https://FooFighters.lnk.to/Shows Connect wit...

Week four - Listening

Day 26
On Fridays, we are hearing from students at Cliff College and The Queen's Foundation, our two learning centres that develop dedicated Methodist and ecumenical training. This week, we hear from Obeth Thevanesan from the Queen's Foundation.

Students | Listening (Advent week 4) It's great to see you here. Why not follow us on socials to find out more?X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/methodistgbInstagram: https://instagram.com/methodis...

Daily Advent Reflections _ Listening

On a Thursday, we hear from one of our Mission Partners based around the world and working in partnership with the Methodist Church. This week, we hear from the Revd Ray Borg, Mission Partners in Central France.

They were all throw-away comments, each one in a succession of events which led us to this point of serving God as Mission Partners in France. Each one was innocuous enough, but God took them and used them to extend God’s kingdom.

The first seemed far-fetched, but it was born out of financial necessity; “Let’s go and live in France. Houses are cheaper there.” So we spent nearly two years looking for a house. We didn’t find one, but God knew where we should be and led us there. Eventually, we found what we were looking for.

The next came during a meal at a local French restaurant with 12 English speakers who had moved permanently to France in the preceding few years. It was a pharisaical-type question which was intended to put me on the spot; “So what’s so special about Methodism then?” asked the loud American. The answer came to mind easily; an open table. And that sparked a lengthy conversation where we fielded many spiritual questions. It’s like God amplified the volume during that portion of the meal, and just to be sure we didn’t miss the point, a woman said as we were leaving; “Your ministry is sorely needed here.” There was little hope in her voice, but we heard God’s clear call to mission.

We shared what we thought God had laid on our hearts with our sabbatical committee. They encouraged us to explore possibilities. At the end of the meeting someone said; “You should seek help from the Methodist Church.” So we sent two blind emails into the head office abyss. Our expectations were low, but a while later we got a phone call.

“Thanks for your email,” said the man with the Northern Irish accent “it’s really interesting. But to be honest, your idea is a bit outside the box for the Methodist Church.” Ah well, I thought as we talked, we weren’t expecting much so that’s okay. Then at the end of the 45-minute conversation the man asked, “Have you ever thought of doing this full-time as a Mission Partner?” And immediately the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I didn’t know that God was from Northern Ireland!

And here we are, in France, doing full-time mission with people of faith and no faith. People who are grateful that God has provided spiritual nurture and community in a language they know and understand. A series of ordinary throw-away comments which have resulted in an extraordinary journey of ministry and mission that has completely changed our lives and the direction of our ministry.

Author
The Revd Ray and Karen Borg are based in central France, working in mission with the Eglise Protestante Unie de France. Ray is a Methodist Presbyter and a Mission Partner, with Karen sharing in ministry

Week four - Listening
Day 24 - Each Wednesday during our Advent reflections, we'll be reading a reflection on one of the bible passages for the week. Today, we hear from the Revd Naomi Oates, based 2 Samuel 7:1-11.

When David became king of the Israelites, he triumphantly retrieved the Ark of the Covenant from Kiriath-Jearim, where it had languished since Israel was defeated by the Philistines. David then felt embarrassed that he lived in a splendid palace, while God’s dwelling-place was a mere ‘tent.’ He proposed to build God a magnificent temple instead. The prophet Nathan initially gave David’s plan the go-ahead, but then received word from God firmly declining David’s offer. Instead, God promised to build David a ‘house’ – a great dynasty.

In 2 Samuel 12, we see that Nathan was not afraid to challenge David, so we can assume that, at first, he genuinely believed that God would approve of David’s plan. When we have a bright idea and want to know if it is God-inspired, it is not enough to rely on our personal understanding of God alone. God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). We need to hold our understanding alongside Scripture, reason and doctrine, and allow for God to surprise us, just as God surprised the wise men who (understandably) sought a new king in a palace, not a stable.

Today, Poverty Truth Commissions are designed to ensure that well-meaning politicians can listen to the voices of those with lived experience of poverty, so they don’t devise policies that aren’t what those living in poverty want or need. At Christmas, as we remember the gifts offered by the wise men, this story is a reminder of the importance of listening to God to ensure that what we offer to God, however well-intentioned, is what God is asking of us at this moment. It reminds us too that, at Christmas and always, it is God who blesses us first, and more richly than we could ever imagine.

Author
The Revd Naomi Oates is a presbyter, currently serving in four churches in the North Kent Circuit. Previously, she worked for seven years in a variety of guises for the Connexional Team.
When not being entertained by her two small children, she enjoys baking, cycling and reading Agatha Christie books (but not usually at the same time).

Week four - Listening
Day 23
Today, Andy Fishburne, who works for the Methodist Church, takes us through our forth Advent craft activity. These will be available as videos every Tuesday and contain a follow-along activity that you can do at home, in a service, at a small group or wherever you think could work!
We would love to hear about how you get on with this craft. Make sure you take some photos or film a short video and share it with us on social media, by tagging our account on X (formally Twitter), Facebook , Instagram or TikTok and using .

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Week four - Listening
On a scale of one to ten, how angelic are you?

I wonder what criteria you used to judge that: kindness? Holiness? Shininess?

I’d like to suggest that a good, if unexpected, measure of angelic-ness is how you talk and listen; how you have conversations with people.

An illustration of a speech mark in green.
The Gospel passage for this week (Luke 1:26-38) is the beautiful, if terrifying, two-way conversation between Mary and the angel Gabriel.

The word angel in the New Testament simply means ‘messenger’ and its used roughly equally as often for regular human messengers as supernatural, divine ones. The same word deals with both, as if the distinction between them isn’t as clear cut as we might expect.

Be open to others. Conversation about God is powerful. We can act as an angel to others, they can act as an angel to us.

This week’s craft activity is to make angel Christmas tree decorations for people in your faith community, to remind them that they can act as angels by talking and listening. Check out the video in tomorrow’s email.

A angel made of a lolly stick and cupcake cases.
This week we invite you to ponder these questions and explore them with others.

Who have been the human angels in your life?

What’s the best way to be open to new people?

Name a time when you listened to someone properly and learned something meaningful.

We listen in the midst of noise and silence.

We listen in aloneness and togetherness.

We listen to the everyday, the ordinary,

and there within it all, we listen to the voice of God.

God of all,

listen to my cries and let me hear your voice.