St. Paul’s Church, Chippenham

WELCOME TO 2008 - another year that God has been gracious enough to give us! We should not take it for granted that each day the sun rises and we experience a rising to new life as we step out of bed and into whatever the day brings with it! Clearly there are times in our lives when we are able to feel more thankful for what we are going through - and times when things can be a bit of a struggle. But, I do believe we are born to be a grateful people who can daily praise God for the very gift of life itself.

I am very aware of just how many people make a massive contribution to the life and witness of our four churches - and am very thankful for the part that you play in this. All that we do and offer each other is important and it is part of being the Body of Christ - something quite wonderful and mysterious that we experience in our togetherness and our commitment one to the other.

As we enter 2008 can I please ask you … in your giving for God and his people how do you sustain yourself day by day? How are you maintained spiritually in your ministry and walk with Jesus? I trust by regular Sunday worship - and that surely is vital for anyone who is stepping out in God’s name and doing his work (we all need to be firmly rooted in a church congregation and regularly at worship with our brothers and sisters). But also what about during the week … how do you go about your daily life with Jesus? Do you find time to pray and simply spend peaceful time with him? Do you manage to regularly read his word (the Bible) and take time at home to chew over what it is saying?

Or, if you are honest with yourself, are you the sort of person who is constantly giving out for Jesus and his people but are not getting regularly refreshed yourself? A well that just gives out water without being replenished by showers of rain will soon dry up. The danger for busy Christians is that we dry up if we give out too much and don’t take time to receive from Jesus and his church. Maybe this could be your New Year Resolution … to spend enough time receiving so that you have something to give throughout 2008 and don’t simply dry up part way through the year!

THE VILLAGE HALL ON SUNDAY - I am looking forward to Sunday 20th January and our new initiative on the 3rd Sundays in Kington St Michael. Starting at 9.30am with a bacon butty and a cup of tea we will be in the hall and using it for our worship from 10am. (You may remember the time when the church met in the hall following the fall of the pinnacle through the church roof.) I am really enthusiastic about this new way of trying to engage with the current generation and feel it compliments our regular church worship well. Naturally, we will have Holy Communion celebrated on the Thursdays of 17th & 24th in the church at 10am. I will hope to use many opportunities to pray for this new venture. Please keep it in your prayers and come along to support what is happening!

GOD’S SMUGGLER - I have just re-read Brother Andrew’s “God’s Smuggler” which is a wonderful account of a man sharing God’s love behind the Iron Curtain. Clearly, with the political changes in Europe in the past decade, this is a somewhat dated book - but its message is still very relevant. Brother Andrew finds ways of taking the Bible into closed lands depending solely on God’s leading and intervention. It is a marvellous book of faithfulness to God’s call – and one highly recommended by Mike Pilavachi (of Soul Survivor). If you’ve got Christmas money to spend this is a great buy!

REVELATION SHOP - and the place to buy it is Revelation Christian Resource Centre & Bookshop (1 River Street) in town. The shop tries to supply all the needs of those buying books which develop our faith and witness and also sells CDs and other items. Run by Anne Showering from St Paul’s church it is part of the Christian life in Chippenham and I want to encourage you to use it. It is an important asset in our town!

SUNDAY 6th JANUARY - at 10am we will welcome Trevor Ranger (of Synergy Trust) to the service at St Paul’s church. It will be good to have him with us - he works mostly with children and will lead some all-age worship before preaching to the adults. It will be good to welcome him amongst us as we mark Epiphany.

ST PAUL’S MISSION & VISION GROUP - since I returned from Study Leave in June and the putting on ice of plans we had for church re-ordering (though I still trust God in his goodness will let us move on this before too long!) there has been a group looking at the MISSION & VISION of St Pauls. We have had some very good meetings and are getting to the stage when we are hoping to bring plans to the PCC. We have decided that we really agree with the diocesan vision and want to be a church that is CREATING COMMUNITIES OF WHOLENESS WITH CHRIST AT THE CENTRE.

With this in mind we are looking at ways of enabling our PCC to work better both in terms of efficiency and working together. We are considering an idea whereby the PCC would meet less often but we have a number of groups which are given specific roles. They would be in areas like finance, worship, outreach, the wider world, children & youth and caring for ourselves. Each group would have a person taking responsibility for those who are involved in these areas of church life. For this to work we would need to identify the right people to take on these significant roles and responsibility; people committed to the life, witness and worship of St Pauls.

THANK YOU & WELCOME - I want to thank Joy Webber who has just stood down as Treasurer of St Paul’s church – a role she has performed with much ability and good humour. Joy as done a really good job and been an excellent servant of the church. Thank you so much for all the time and effort you have put into the role, Joy. You will be missed! However, following the decision of the Standing Committee, I am hopeful that the PCC will agree to appoint John Moncrieff as our new Treasurer. Thank you for being willing to take on this role, John, we look forward to what you will bring to this post.

RISE & THE CHILDREN’S CENTRE - you will probably know that the RISE Trust takes over the Children’s Centre at St Paul’s school within the next few weeks. This is major step in the evolving of RISE and the culmination of much hard work by the Trustees. With this now opening the next phase of RISE work and outreach begins. Pauline Monaghan has been appointed the manager and Julie Swales is to be working with her. We wish you well as you take this significant step! Please pray for God’s continuing blessing on the work of RISE and the links with the school.

KIDZOWN @ ST PAULS - following our experiment during the autumn we have decided that the KIDZOWN children and leaders will once again start at 10am in the church. They will be together with the adults before going across to the hall for their groups. I have talked with the KIDZOWN leaders and we have decided that on some Sundays we will have about 20 minutes in church – on others it will be much shorter and then KIDZOWN will be able to worship together in the hall. We will see how this works – it will be good to gather once more as a fuller church family – it is surely what God wants for his church (all ages worshipping together).

GIVING (YOUR MONEY & YOUR LIFE) - we will be looking at the important theme of money during some of our services in January. We can’t escape the significance of money and how we use our wealth. Jesus said , “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21) and it is true that what we do with our money (however much or little we have) shows what our priorities are. The question for each of us is how much of our money do we use for God’s work and also what is our attitude to giving to the work of our church? Our churches only receive money from you and me and they depend entirely on us for the income. There is no support from the government or the diocese – we are the church and we need to pay for the work of our church. How do you decide what to give to God through the work of the church?

HOMELESSNESS SUNDAY - is on Sunday 27th January and we will mark this in our churches as we think about those who don’t have safe and warm homes. At St Pauls we are welcoming the Mayor & Council and Captain Mary Wolfe (from the Salvation Army & DOORWAY) will be preaching. A group of us are doing a 12 hour sponsored sleep-out from 7pm on Saturday 26th to 7am on the Sunday morning (so Mary & I may be rather sleepy and smelly at church that day!). We will be in St Andrew’s churchyard and would value your sponsorship for DOORWAY & their work with local homeless people.

LEE ABBEY 2008 - a date for your diary …..we are having our next Lee Abbey weekend 10-12 October 2008. We are very fortunate that our speaker will be the Rev Paul Bayes who is the National Mission & Evangelism Adviser for the Church of England. It should be very good indeed! And so, please pencil the date in your new 2008 diary.

HOME GROUPS - if you are interested in joining one in Langley Burrell please talk to Veronica Kilmister – for Hardenhuish talk to Barbara Wood – for Kington St Michael talk to John Woodward - and for St Pauls please contact Helen Pattison.

ST PAUL’S COCKPIT CREW - I find that as church life gets more complicated and more demanding it is really important to have people I can bounce ideas off and share with. St Pauls is a very busy church and for the past couple of months I have really appreciated meeting up with a group of people who have been most supportive and challenging – Martin Ellett; Karin Needham; Graham Pattison; Phil Crook; Michael Meilton; Ron Pool. We have met in the evening of the first Monday of the month – and will meet for a meal on Monday 7th January. Journeying with others, eating together and praying for one another is a vital part of our Christian faith and care for others. I greatly appreciate these folk and ask that you, please, pray for us as we meet up and grow together in Christ.

SNOWDROP LUNCH - at Langley Burrell will take place on Sunday 3rd February and if you would like to take part please contact Veronica Kilmister (tel: 650926). It is a lovely event and time to meet new people and to be invited into homes in the village.

WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY - during January 18th-25th we are encouraged to pray for unity amongst Christian churches. Throughout Chippenham there will be a series of opportunities for folk to pray with others and attend times of worship during the week. Also there will be a special service at 6pm on Sunday 20th January at St Andrew’s church. Please come and support this!

OPEN TO GOD @ ST PAULS - will take place on the 4th Sunday (ie 27th January) because of the united service on the 20th. It is held in the hall at 7pm and will also include the sharing of bread and wine in Holy Communion.

LENT GROUPS - there local churches are hosting a special series for Lent 08 in the Neeld Hall on Hot Topics and there will be speakers:

• Wed 13th Feb Nick Pollard on Sexuality
• Wed 20th Feb Gordon Stirrat on Responses to Abortion
• Wed 27th Feb Paul Valler on Globalisation
• Wed 5th Mar Bishop Lee on Gene Research
• Wed 12th Mar will be a forum

I really think these will be excellent evenings and opportunities to invite people along who might not normally come to church. These are all important and relevant issues and I hope our home groups will all want to support these events. Tickets will be available nearer the time.

SPARKS - one of the brightest lights in St Paul’s church is SPARKS – it is a mum’s & toddler’s time of meeting and worship. It takes place on Wednesdays at 10am in the hall and is open for anyone who’d like to attend. With refreshments and a great atmosphere it is a lovely way to enjoy company and share Bible stories with pre-school children. Come along if you’d like to!

SPARK ON SUNDAY - and we are also running a monthly SPARKS ON SUNDAY. We will start at 10am in the church and take part in the first part of the worship and then go over to the back hall for a time of SPARKS worship and refreshments. It will take place on Sunday 27th January. Come along and bring your friends!

TEAM VICAR APPOINTMENT - as I write this I am hoping to meet with Bishop Lee soon to see if he has any thoughts & bright ideas and I know that our Archdeacon Alan Hawker is also very committed to helping us find the right person. The process is moving slowly forward – please pray that we would get the shape of the job description right and that God would be drawing the person he wants to come and join in ministry in the North Chippenham Group of Churches.

THEMES & READINGS - we are following these themes & readings this month. These will be the main Bible readings:

• January 6th - Epiphany - Matthew 2:1-12
• January 13th - Giving I - 2 Corinthians 8:1-15
• January 20th - Giving II - 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
• January 27th - Homelessness - Matthew 2:13-18

MIDWEEK BIBLE READINGS - at our midweek services of Holy Communion (10am on Wednesdays at St Pauls – and 10am Thursdays at Kington St Michael) we are continuing a series on PARABLES ONLY RECORDED IN MATTHEW’S GOSPEL, ie not mentioned by the other three gospel writers.

• January 3rd /4th - The Net - Matthew 13:47-52
• January 10th /11th - The Unmerciful Servant - Matthew 18:21-25
• January 17th/18th - The Workers in the Vineyard - Matthew 20:1-16
• January 24th/25th - The Two Sons - Matthew 21:28-32

PRAYER FOR THE MONTH – as we start a new year and reflect on life’s journey this is a good prayer of thanksgiving to God …..

Thank you, dear Jesus,
For all that you have given me;
For all that you have taken away from me;
For all that you have left me.
Amen.

Simon Tyndall