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The Rock Church Centre, Online Newsletter |
March 2001
The lent talent scheme has started and many people are working creatively and hard to raise money in order to finish off the refurbishment of the worship area.
Work on the toilets and showers is progressing well and should be finished within a couple of weeks. Thanks are due to Julia, who gave up valuable free time, and Steve, who came for a visit and offered to help, for painting the toilet walls thereby improving the appearance and saving us money.
February 2001
Over the weekend of 2nd to 4th February 23 members and friends of The Rock Church Centre enjoyed a time away at The Windermere Centre. It was an excellent and as well as enjoying free time in beautiful surroundings we were inspired in sessions led by Peter McIntosh (Director of The Windermere Centre) and by Ian Ring (our minister). The hospitality was wonderful and the food excellent. It was a time of great blessing and refreshment. God did not forget those left behind. Worship that Sunday morning was led by two elders, Wynne and Joe, with other people participating and eight visitors were in church making a total of 21 worshippers. All in all it was a great weekend.
We are really being blessed by God at the moment. A mother and her two young children from Rwanda and a lady from Malawi have started worshipping with us recently. Three people , a teenager, an elderly man and the lady from Malawi have asked to become members at The Rock Church Centre, increasing our membership to 22. This is an increase of of 46.67% in just over three years.
Synod has approved the release of funds and a grant so work on the toilets and showers started as scheduled in the second week of this month.
January 2001
The new tables for the coffee bar have arrived. They are a vast improvement on the old ones. Work on the toilets and showers should start towards the end of February.
The Christmas Gifts so kindly donated by the churches at Hinckley and Blundellsands were much appreciated by those who received them. This year as well as distributing to needy childrten in the area and pensioners at the Boxing Day Dinner for those who otherwise be alone we were able to deliver gifts to a number of refugee families living nearby. It was a real joy to see the gratitude on the faces of the refugees as they received a small token of love at Christmas.
December 2000
Half our Christmas Offerings are being sent The Home of Hope in Brasov, Romania for the the provision of refrigerators in bedrooms at their Home for Elderly. So far we have raised £175.
Our Christmas Worship has seen mixed fortunes. The attendence at the Carols by Candlelight was 35% down on last year with very few visitors, however Imola and Martina, both from L'Arche, spoke very well of Hungarian and Czech Christmas respectively. The Midnight Communion attendence was 25% up on last year and the Christmas Day attendence was 28% up, on both occasions we were pleased to welcome visitors.
The carpet for the worship area has been delivered and fitted. In addition we have carpeted the stage in the main hall with the same material
The Christmas Fayre has raised £712. An excellent total. Thank you to all who helped to acheive this result.
November 2000
The new chairs for the worship area have arrived and were used for the first on Sunday 19th November. All we have to do now is cover the three communion table chairs in matching material and raise the money for matching curtains and carpets. In faith we have ordered the extra material and the carpet which means that we have overspent by £750.
On Thursday evening 16th November the Newsham Group of Churches hosted Neva Russicum a five piece choir from St Petersburg. They sang a mixture of church music and folk music. It was an excellent evening. Our thanks are extended to all who helped by way of transporting or hosting the choir.
On Tuesday 14th November our minister, Ian, attended a special service in St Marks High Howdon (Newcastle-upon-Tyne District) to commemorate the ordination of Annie Isabella (Ella) Gordon the first women to be ordained to ministry of word and sacrament within the Presbyterian Church Of England. Ella was ordained on 17th November 1956. In the mid 1960's Ella was minister of Rankin Presbyterian Church, Norris Green, Liverpool and was instrumental in retaining the former Queens Road Church Youth Club and in finding it a permanent home in the former Breckfield Inn. Without Ella The Rock would not be here today. It is interesting to nate that when the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches joined to form the United Reformed Church on 5th October 1972 the Presbyterian Church had 4 women ministers and the Congregational Church, having ordained women since 1919, had 75. Today the United Reformed Church has 341 women ministers, 19% of the total ministers.
August 2000
New Kitchen
United Reformed Church Issues
Districts and Synods have now voted on Resolution 34 from the 1999 General Assembly. 6 Synods and 26 Districts have rejected the statement so we now have no policy on the ordination of practising homosexuals. The way forward is very uncertain as only 25% of local churches, 40% of Districts and 50% of Synods rejected Resolution 34. This is a sad day for those of us trying to uphold the authority of Scripture. We do not know what will happen next. Please pray that the church will see the error of its ways and produce a clear statement confirming the authority of Scripture and declaring homosexuality to still be a sin before irreparable harm is done to the United Reformed Church.
Environmental Concerns
We still continue to care about our environment through the recycling of aluminium cans. As well as helping to convserve the earth's resources it raises a small sum for the church each year. Our thanks are due to Lindsay Crawford for taking the cans to the recycling point each week.
World Issues
Along with many churches and other organisations we continue to support the Baby Milk Action and the boycott of Nestle products (see links page for further details). We do not purchase any Nestle products for church use and many of our members support the boycott when shopping.