May 2024
For Room Bookings please phone the church on 020 8550 1518
For all other inquiries, please phone Sue on 020 8500 5386
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Links for Sunday live-streamed services
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Gantshill (9.50 for 10.00am service) https://bit.ly/3bzMP4D
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Goodmayes (11.20 for 11.30am service) https://bit.ly/3eXHhml
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Sunday worship plan - May​
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5th May, 9.30am United service at Barkingside, with Holy Communion, led by Revd Kido Baek
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12nd May, 10.00am Christian Aid Week, Service led by Mrs Sharon Grundy
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19th May, 10.00 am , Service led by Mrs Lynn Packer.
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26th May, 10.00 am Service led by Dr Tony Russell
Advance Notice
There will be a celebration of all the work done by Carol for the Religious Education Resources Project on Sunday 24th June at 3pm. This will take place at Grange Hill Church, Burrow Road, Hainault, and we welcome Revd Keith Underhill who was instrumental in launching the project during his time as the Minister at Gantshill.
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Good news from the Circuit Leadership Team
We are pleased to announce that the Revd. Jacqueline Rivas Jones has been matched to our Circuit and will join us in September 2024. At present Jacqui is stationed in Florida so representatives from each church have met her on zoom. Jacqui will have responsibility for Barkingside, Gantshill, Goodmayes and The Drive Churches.
Please remember Jacqui and the Circuit in prayer during this transitional time as we prepare to work together and Kido as he prepares to move to Wembley.
Annual Christian Aid Concert
The New Redbridge Wind Orchestra will, again, be presenting an excellent concert to support Christian Aid on Saturday 18th May at 7.30pm at Holy Trinity Church Hall. Tickets: £10, including refreshments, will be available on the door.
Envelopes will be available in church on Sunday 12th May for your donations.
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Pentecost ‘Songs of Praise’
6.30pm on Sunday 19th May at St Francis Church 1G6 2LA
We join our friends from all denominations for a service planned by The North Ilford Fellowship of Churches.
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Weekly Pentecost Bible Study
"ACTS. Catching up with the spirit"
Week 3 Discernment and Change
Sunday 5th May 3pm at Old Dagenham Church.
Week 4 Opposition
Sunday 12th May 3pm at Gantshill Church.
Week 5 Saints around the edges
Sunday 19th May 3pm at Goodmayes Church.
Week 6 This changes everything
Sunday 26th May 3pm at Gantshill Church.
Open Thursday
All are welcome to our Thursday Café between 12 noon and 4pm. Come and enjoy real coffee and snacks, join in a game of Scrabble – or just come and chat.
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News from the Religious Education Project
Dear Friends,
I am writing this as the autumn term is finishing and schools are preparing for Christmas.
There have been 5 visits to our Circuit churches this month (2 to Ilford Methodist and 3 to Goodmayes Methodist). My thanks go to the church members who helped out with these visits. Once again Ilford hosted the children whilst they stayed on in the church to eat their packed lunches. There have been 2 whole Year group Zoom sessions for 240 children on the subjects of Christian prayer and the inspiration of Jesus but no specific lessons requested about Christmas.
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As you may be aware overall bookings for the Project have reduced since lockdown as schools have given less priority to RE in favour of catching up on the curriculum. In addition schools have increasingly put me in the classrooms with assistants, cover or supply teachers which has led to some very difficult situations involving me being unable to meet the brief of the RERP which is to advise and work with class teachers in their delivery and planning of Christian RE. This has been very difficult and has weighed heavily on me.
It has been agreed by my Management Committee that for this academic year I will respond to lesson session requests by offering Zooms with the church visits carrying on as before. This resolves many of the issues in the classrooms and still offers a wide range of support to schools. Furthermore it was agreed at the November Circuit meeting that the Project will finish at August 2024, the end of this Methodist year.
This decision has not been made lightly and my thanks go to the members of the Management Team, Kido and Mmasape, for their support as we have tried to find solutions together.
The work of the RERP has been my personal mission for 13 years and I have put my all into it. It has been a privilege to discuss faith with so many children over the last 13 years. I will continue to update you with the work undertaken over the next 2 terms.
God bless.
Carol
Circuit Religious Education Resources Project school’s worker
East London Model Railway Group
The Group meets in the Church Parlour on Tuesdays and Thursday from 10am to 5pm.
Bring your own models to work on, work on the Club layout, or just enjoy tea and a chat. New members are most welcome. For more information contact John 07414755365
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Letter to the Circuit: May 2024
Dear Friends,
As we transition from the freshness of spring into the warmth of summer, we find ourselves, once again, amid a season of growth and change. In the natural world, the buds of flowers burst forth, the leaves on trees unfurl, and the world around us seems to awaken from its winter slumber. Similarly, in our spiritual lives and in the life of our church communities, this coming season is going to bring us another time of change in many ways.
As May unfolds, our hearts and minds also turn towards the vibrant celebration of Pentecost. This sacred season marks the momentous outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, igniting a flame of spiritual fervour that has burned brightly throughout the ages, and we are going to dedicate the whole month of May for studying the book of Acts in our Circuit. If you haven’t joined the study sessions yet, please join us on Sundays at 3pm.
The Bible is filled with stories of people who navigated times of change with faith and courage. Abraham left his homeland and journeyed to a new land, trusting God’s promise to guide him. Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness, relying on God’s strength to sustain them. As Matthew Skinner has written in his book, Acts: Catching Up with the Spirit, in an era when many congregations are anxious about aging memberships, shifting demographics, and diminished cultural influence, Acts might reorient perspectives. In a period when many churches resist change, value rules more than grace, suffer from toxic ideologies that wreck Christianity’s moral credibility, and feel pressure to become more withdrawn or sectarian, Acts might cause us to notice new ways in which God makes the good news known through generosity, inclusion, and a willingness to offer bold or countercultural expressions of our faith in Jesus Christ. In a time when some congregations have stopped believing they have a future, Acts says: remember where you came from.
Friends, the stories we have in Acts are never about people of the past, but stories of how the Spirit is still active in the world today. Following Jesus involves much more than imitating a historical figure. Acts implies we still follow Jesus in the world today. Acts insists that Jesus remains present in human experience through the Holy Spirit, urging believers to keep pace so we can rediscover God among us in the midst of whatever will happen next. Acts, perhaps more than anything, is about God’s commitment to be present and active, transforming lives and societies still today.
As we enter into this season of Pentecost, let us do so with hearts open to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. May we be like the trees that stretch their branches towards the sun, reaching ever upwards towards the light of God’s love. May the flame of Pentecost burn brightly within us. And may we find joy and peace in knowing that through every season of life, God is with us, guiding us, and renewing us with his grace.
In the words of the hymn, let us pray:
“O thou who camest from above
the pure celestial fire to impart,
kindle a flame of sacred love
on the mean altar of my heart!
Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire
to work, and speak, and think for thee;
still let me guard the holy fire,
and still stir up thy gift in me.”
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Andy, Kido, Mmasape
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