Guest Service with Max Wigley

We very much hope to see you in Church this coming Sunday when the preacher for our regular 1st Sunday of the month 'Guest Service' will be Max Wigley. As well as being a well known Vicar in Bradford for many years, Max was Chaplain at Bradford Alhambra, and will no doubt have many entertaining stories and anecdotes! Join us at 9.30 for our Holy Communion, and at 11.00 for The Gathering and hear what Max has to say.   Please stay with us after the service for coffee & chat.

Update on Sunday, July 5, 2009 at 01:22PM by Paul Walker

If you would like to listen to Max's sermon then click on the 'Sermon' link in the sidebar and a page will open where it will 'stream'. Turn up your sound, and enjoy!

New Series on Mark's Gospel Kicks Off

For quite a while I have been looking for the opportunity to preach through a Gospel - and with all the special services of Easter, Ascension and Pentecost safely out of the way, and a long stretch of 'Ordinary Time' before us, it seemed like a good time.

So, starting on June 21st, we are going to be working our way through the Gospel of Mark. To get ready, here is a slideshow of the presentation that I gave in a talk called 'Nine things you maybe didn't know about Mark - but might come in handy for the new series' (how about that for a descriptive sermon title!!). This was given at the Evening Worship on June 14th. Here goes...

Nine Things You Never Knoew About Mark

View more PDF documents from Paul Walker.

Have a look at the presentation - I think it will help you to get into the mood for the series, which starts with a look at Jesus' dramatic arrival into his preaching ministry in Galilee in Mark chapter 1.

Guest Service with Andy Bowerman

We are hosting the first in a new series of Guest Services this coming Sunday at The Gathering.

Guest Services have a twin purpose. First, we can invite a really good and interesting guest speaker - maybe someone with a specific or unusual ministry who can come and share something that we wouldn't normally hear.

Second, they provide a specific opportunity for us to invite guests. Now, on one level, every service is a guest service - because guests are always welcome. But, nonetheless, it is a good idea to have specific services that are aimed at people who wouldn't usually come to Church.

So, for a guest service, we tend to pull back on things like sung worship, liturgy and prayers - stuff that regular churchgoers like, but which sometimes seems odd or strange to visitors!

Instead there will be things like interviews, video clips, testimonies and visual presentations. There'll also be coffee and cookies after the service so people can meet and chat...

This week we welcome Andy Boweman as our guest speaker. Andy heads up Vicar's Bistro in Saltaire, leads the emerging church called 'Gracespace', and is chaplain to Bradford City FC. It's an interesting CV - and Andy is a particularly interesting and engaging speaker.

You are invited to join us at 11.00 am for an hour of conversation, video input and exploration of what it means to be a Christian who happens to like football! Everyone welcome!

Getting Started in Prayer

The series of sermons and small groups on prayer has been interesting, to say the least - and many people have been challenged or encouraged to take a step of faith in their own prayer lives. Here are details of the two remaining weeks.

 Firstly, on Sunday May 24th there will be a basic primer in prayer called '8 things that I can do THIS week to get my prayer life moving'. It's the Bank Holiday weekend and I know that a lot of people will be away, so if you want to catch up, I have posted the 'hand out' leaflet to the 'Resources' section of the site. Go to the left menu and click 'Resources', then download 'Prayer leaflet' to your computer. It's in PDF format which most people should be able to open (using the free Abode Reader that everyone has) and print it out for yourself.

Then on Sunday May 31st we wrap up our series with a 'Liquid Prayer' event at The Gathering. For those who havent been to a Liquid Worship, it bascially consists of a series of 'prayer stations' that you move around in your own time, and in any order, trying out different and sometimes unusual forms of prayer. Join us at 11.00 to experience something just a bit different!

Why doesn't prayer get answered?

Here is the Keynote for this mornings sermon on 'The Top 5 reasons why it seemed my prayers never got answered'.

Top 5 Reasons

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Teach us to pray

There's no doubt that most Christians find it hard to pray. Some people find it hard to find the right words, others struggle to keep going when it seems that our prayers go unanswered, whilst some just find it hard to even get started with prayer.

During May, the sermons at The Gathering will be taking a fresh look at the subject of Prayer. This started on Sunday May 3rd with a look at the basic question of 'Why do we pray' - this took the form of a bible study. Next Sunday we are looking at 'The top 5 reasons why it seems that prayers don't get answered', and the following week we change gear and look at what it means for a church to be a praying church!

Allied to the sermon series in a short series of practical workshops on prayer that will be taking part in the small groups. Here is a chance to talk about prayer in a safe environment, and to try out a few new forms of simple prayer. Look out for details in Church.

New Administrator Appointed

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Natalie Whiteley as our first ever paid Administrator - this was announced on Sunday, and Natalie actually started work today.

The post is for an initial 12 hours per week, flexible as regards time, and will be partly based in the Church Office (which be totally revamped and improved) and party at home. Natalie will taking over things like producing the church weekly bulletin, monthly rotas and other church materials with immediate effect, and will shortly be taking on many other roles such as the management of the Hall, this web site and other roles.

This is an exciting appointment and should lead to improved communication and resources, as well as freeing up time for the Vicar to do things like leading the church into growth - which is what he is supposed to be doing with his time!

You'll be hearing more about this shortly, but in the meantime you can contact Natalie via email on her new church email address of natalie@stcuthbertswrose.org.uk.

Gift Day next week

Next week is our 'Gift Day' when we are asking all of our regular members to contribute to the forthcoming church hall project.

This work will involve completely replacing the hall floor - it has been there for over 70 years and has now reached a point where it is starting to degrade badly. At the same time we are going to replace the front door of the Hall. Again this is the original - and the weather has caused it to wear and rot. Although we'll be doing the work 'in house', the materials and other associated costs will amount to about £4000.

Will you consider making a contribution to the costs of this project via our Gift Day? Envelopes have been given to everyone, but if you lost yours simply put the cheque (made payable to St Cuthberts Wrose) or cash in a clearly marked envelope. Please don't put it in the plate or in the regular giving envelopes. We'd also be grateful if you would indicate that we may reclaim the tax on your gift via the Gift aid scheme, and there are slips available at church for this purpose.

Thanks for your support - and we'll keep you posted with progress in due course.

Update on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 at 09:49PM by Paul Walker

Big thanks to everyone for their support on Gift Day. The current 'running total' is £2862. There are a number of people telling us that there is money to come in still - so we are very much hoping to top £3000 which would be an amazing response.

Of course, there is a decent chunk of Gift Aid to come eventually, but we won't get that until 2010. A reminder that the project will cost about £3700 and will happen in July. Any balance will be made up by the Building Fund and maybe a top-up from General Funds. Either way, we are 'full steam' ahead...

Easter Day

Which came first... Jesus or the Egg? That's the question that we are asking as we prepare for our Easter Day services this year at St Cuthberts.

We've been out and delivered more than 2000 invitations to the people of Wrose - so a special welcome if you received an invitation and typed in the web address that was on there!

We have two great services to celebrate Easter this year.

At 9.30 am we have our Festival Eucharist of Easter, when we shall bless the Paschal Candle for the year, sing rousing hymns of the resurrection, and hear the time-honoured Easter story in words, prayers and liturgy. The preacher will the Vicar.

Then at 11.00 am there is a distinct change of mood when we have our All Age Easter Celebration  - we'll sing some lively Easter songs and join in a range of family-based activities and stories. Our highly-popular puppets will be on hand, and there will be free Easter eggs for all children who come

Easter is a great time to come along to Church - you are warmloy welcome to join us at St Cuthberts, the Anglican church for the people of Wrose.

Oh, and in case you are wondering - the answer to the question at the start of this post is 'Jesus'. That's why they called him Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last...

An Hour at the Cross

This year we are doubling up on Good Friday - two options for worship around the cross will be offered at St Cuthberts on Friday of Holy Week.

The 'Hour at the Cross' is a lovely time of reflecting on the events of the last hours of Jesus' life.

Words, images, music, prayer and silence are combined in a service which lasts for one hour, but the time flies by and it seems a lot shorter!

Join us at either 2.00 pm or 7.00 pm.

The two services will be the same, although there will additionally be live worship led by our music group in the evening service.