Wedding Dance with a difference!

The wedding season is upon us now and I look forward to the joy and privilege of taking a marriage service.
Watch this link to see a flash mob dance within a recent wedding service taken by someone I trained alongside.

Welcome Back Jane Jerrard

After the service yesterday (23 June) the parish’s link Mission Partner with the Church Mission Society (CMS) spoke of her work in Pakistan. She described the work of setting up primary schools for the least privileged communities. Education offered the chance for these children to rise above their lowest level in society. For a girl, it offered the prospect of marriage to a man who was equally educated and a home where education was valued. Using role-play the children were also trained to stand up for their own rights and for the rights of others.

Over a simple lunch afterwards, people were able to ask Jane more about her work.

The IFCampaign Rally – the Batchelors Report Back

The banner outside the church at present reads: “enough food for everyone, IF we act and pray.” The action of one family in the church, the Batchelors, was to go to London support the IF Campaign Rally on 9 June in Westminster Central Hall, Westminster, and then in Hyde Park. There, they joined 45,000 other like-minded people from 200 different charities.

At our service yesterday, Matilda presented a PowerPoint of their experiences. She described what it was like to be in the huge crowd. The rally was particularly calling for the developed world to Give enough Aid; for multinational companies to Stop Tax Dodging, which was depriving Third World countries of much-needed revenue that was rightfully theirs; for a Stop to Land Grabbing which meant that rather than being used for food, the land was growing biofuels; and overall for Transparency, so that it could be seen what companies were doing what.

 It was a scandal that one in eight people in the world went to bed hungry when there was actually enough food for all, and 3 million children died of malnutrition each year. The rally had been supported by many celebrities such as  Danny Boyle, Bill Gates, Rowan Williams, Justin Welby, Eddie Izzard, and other religious leaders.

The family brought with them the banners that they had carried on the march and invited other children in the church to come and wave them.

Let’s continue to pray for this campaign.

Father's Day

On Sunday it was Father's Day. At St Paul's we took the opportunity to mark this day by praying for all the men, especially the Dad's in our congregation.
The news in the past week reported the 'desert' of fathers in children's lives today. Statistics show the importance of having a father, a positive male role model in the life of a child.
As well as praying we gave all the men a gift, a bar of chocolate that has been advertised with the slogan 'its not for girls'!
At our evening prayer meeting we prayed for home and family life and for the work of the Mothers Union, Care for the Family and others who work tirelessly to support and uphold marriage and family life.

Garden Party

On Saturday 8th June we hosted our second Garden Party in the Vicarage garden. For those of us not able to travel to London and join in the IF rally we used this opportunity to raise some funds for the IF campaign.
Home made cakes were enjoyed, with tea or Pimm's! There was a raffle as well as a well stocked plant stall.

Over 50 people attended through the afternoon including neighbours from St Paul's flats. It was lovely to welcome such a wide variety of the local community. It also gave people a chance to meet the new Chicken's in the Vicarage garden, Orange & Borange!
Many thanks to all those who worked so hard to make the afternoon a success.

Enough Food for Everyone IF...

The campaign "IF" is a campaign run by a coalition of relief and development agencies, some of which are Christian. The belief is that the cause of malnutrition and starvation in the world is not a lack of food – in fact there are often excesses, and land may even be "set aside." Rather, the problem is he is one of inequality caused by poverty, where people lack the ability to pay for what is available – a problem of equality. The problem is often made worse when multinationals in Third World countries avoid paying the taxes to those countries which would help lift the poor out of the gutter.

Yesterday, hoping to gain the attention of the G8 meeting of the finance ministers of leading economies, a large (many tens of thousands) rally was held in London by the organisers.

St Paul's has supported the campaign since its inception, and one family travelled to London to join the rally and show their support.

 We continue to pray that the IF campaign may make a real impact.

This is Discipleship

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk8ERxqCZqQ
Click on the link above to watch a thought provoking clip about Discipleship.