Sunday, February 1, 2009 at 09:47PM With the 50th Anniversary Weekend now finished, we look ahead...
Sunday, February 1, 2009 at 09:45PM The St Cuthberts 50th Anniversary Weekend is now in the history books - and our thanks go to everyone who played a part in making it such an enjoyable and memorable time.
We welcomed back three former clergy to our worship - John White brought his gentle graciousness and wisdom to a bumper 9.30 congregation (it was great to see Marlene Wilkinson, a deaconess from the 1970's too), whilst Suzanne Irvine threw out a heartfelt and highly personal story-based challenge to The Gathering. In the evening, we welcomed back Paul Ayers, who did a great job in helping us to think about the future of the church. We also enjoyed a fantastic party (in two sittings) on the Saturday - big thanks to Graham and June Rendell, Natalie Whiteley and Bev Harvey in particular, for their hard work.
No doubt photos will start appearing soon - I see that Suzanne has already been loading photos onto her Facebook page, so people who are on Facebook will no doubt get to see plenty of action shots from the weekend soon! Here is the presentation that we saw in Church on the Sunday, compiled from photos of the last 50 years of St Cuthberts
Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 11:02PM Many people will remember our former curate Suzanne Irvine, who was here from 2003 to 2006, before leaving to take up a chaplaincy post in Lancaster.
I'm delighted that Suzanne has accepted my invitation to return to St Cuthberts as part of our 50th birthday celebrations, and will be preaching at The Gathering next Sunday (February 1st, 11.00 am) I hope that everyone will make a special effort to join us. There will also be a light lunch after the service to which everyone is inivted to come (no need to book, just turn up) and continue to chat and enjoy our time together
In the evening of the 50th Anniversary, we are thrilled that my immediate predecessor, Paul Ayers, will be joining us for an evening service of praise and commitment. This will be a service to look ahead and ask the question 'Where might God be leading us in the next 50 years?'.
Paul is great preacher, and together with an extended time of worship and praise this promises to be an excellent service - even though we don't regualrly have evening worship, we hope that many will join us on this occasion.
Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 10:57PM 
This next Sunday is, of course, our 50th Anniversary. As part of the lead up to the weekend, our 9.30 am congregation have been voting on their favourite hymns of the past 50 years - they were invited to choose five from a larger list of well-loved hymns.
During the service on Sunday February 1st, we will be singing the four favourite hymns as voted for - I hope that everyone will have at least one of their personal favourites!
As well as our favourite hymns, this service will be welcoming the return to St Cuthberts of our former Vicar, the Reverend John White who was here from 1972 to 1989. John recently retired and hasn't been in the best of health, in fact he is basically coming out of retirment just to come to St Cuthberts. John and Barbara are remembered with great fondness here and I hope that there will be a bumper congregation to welcome them next Sunday.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at 11:20AM 
On a cold, grey January day in 1959, Bishop Donald Coggan arrived in Wrose to dedicate the brand new worship centre of St Cuthberts Wrose. And, now, 50 years later, we are celebrating all that God has done through His people here - and reflecting on what God in store for us in the future.
We've decided not to have a huge series of events to mark the 50th Anniversary, but we do want to make a special occasion of the actual date of the anniversary, which falls on Saturday January 31st - hence the St Cuthberts Anniversary Weekend. We warmly invite all members and friends of St Cuthberts, past and present, to join with us in this time of celebration.
Here is what is happening.
Saturday January 31st
10.00 - 2.00 Church Prayer Day : the church will be open for prayer, do call in and give thanks for this church and pray for the future. Prayers and creative prayer activities will be provided - or just pray quietly by yourself! During this time, there will be tea and coffee in the Hall, and an exhibition of photographs and mementos reflecting the past 50 years of the Church.
5.00 - 7.00 Anniversary Tea : a buffet meal and chance to chat with old friends. Please let us know if you would like to join us.
7.30 - 10.30 Anniversary Party : let your hair down with an all-age party with food, a 50 year quiz, plus music from the whole of the last 50 years.
Sunday February 1st
We have three fantastic services that will reflect on the past 50 years of God's blessings as well as looking ahead to the future. We're delighted that three former clergy - John White, Paul Ayers and Suzanne Irvine have been able to come and preach here once more.
Do join us for these times of celebration, rejoicing, praise and reflection. For full details of the services see the Upcoming Services page.
Events Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 03:54PM 
This week sees the start of brand new small group series looking at the subject of discipleship, which ties in loosely with the current Sunday preaching theme.
We'll be using the new 'Discipleship Explored' course from the same stable as Christianity Explored that we ran last year. It's a DVD course based on the letter to the Philippians, and should provoke some interesting and lively discussion.
There are six groups currently in operation (we're always ready to start more if the need arises), with four of Tuesdays and two on Thursdays - and about 45 people are currently taking part. There's still room for more, so please ask if you would like to join!
If anyone is wondering how to mske the best use of the course materials, then there is a crib sheet that you can download from the site resources section.
Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 03:34PM 
Here are a few bits of news that are current at the moment....
News Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 05:02PM Next Sunday, January 18th, we are going to be looking at the calling of the disciples.
At The Gathering we will be looking at several Gospel passages that look at the times when Jesus called people to follow Him. The passage which speaks about the actual composition of the Twelve is Luke 6.12-16
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
How much do we know about these guys? We'll be looking at who these disciples were, how Jesus called people, and what we can learn for our own lives.
It happens that there is a similar theme in the readings for the 9.30 Morning Worship service - this time taken from the Gospel of John (1.43-51) and Jane Bennett will be preaching at the earlier service.
We hope that you can join with us as we focus on disciples next Sunday.
Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 04:56PM 
It's pretty rare for us to be in a situation where we genuinely seem to be physically running out of space - but that almost happened on January 11th at The Gathering.
With two baptisms - Molly Whiteley and Jesca Allen - we expected lots of people. Additionally, there was a great turnout from our regular folks, meaning that not only was every single chair taken, we had difficulty in bringing chairs through from the Hall fast enough to get people seated! I think everyone breathed a collective sign of relief when the children left to go into their groups, thus creating a bit of space!
This was the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, so the baptisms were blended into a service of Renewal of Baptism Vows. We offered the opportunity to respond to the sermon with the anointing with oil - I'm sure that most people - whether regulars or visitors - found it an enjoyable and challenging occasion.
Friday, January 2, 2009 at 05:10PM Welcome to 2009
And to mark the New Year, the site has been given a new look, a new colour scheme and has been extensively updated to keep members and friends of St Cuthberts right up to date with the latest events and happenings in the Church.
From this point onwards, the site has have a weekly update - either late on Sunday or first thing Monday. We'll update the resources available on the site. For example, you can now download and read the Church Bulletin 
which is given out during Sunday services! Similarly the monthly rota and the brand-new monthly newsletter can also be downloaded and read on your own computer.
You'll need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to do this, but it is now found on just about every computer (if you don't then drop me a line, and I'll help you get it installed)
Use the navigation menu on the left to access the various resources, or to look at the regularly updated pages for ministries such as Seconds and re:fresh. I'm hoping to add pages for the children's group, Noah's Ark and our small groups over the next couple of weeks.
We now also have a blog on the main church site - accessed via the link at the top of the main page. This is updated in the main weekly Monday update, and occasionally in between as well. Here is my own space to wax lyrical about topics that interest me, the wider church scene and news that catches my eye. The view expressed are purely my own, and may not reflect the views of the Church!!
Yes, there's a lot to read here on our Church site. Almost every page has been updated, and everything that gives out information is, I think, now right up to date. Do take some time to explore the various pages and sections - I think you'll find a lot of useful stuff out there...