HeartEdge Introductory Day: St John’s Parish Church Hamilton

The most recent HeartEdge Introductory Day took place in Scotland at St John’s Parish Church Hamilton. 

As is usual on these occasions, the programme began with Sam Wells speaking about biblical approaches to money and the ways these impact on mission and ministry. Liz Crumlish, Co-ordinator for the Path of Renewal in the Church of Scotland, Doug Gay, Lecturer in Practical Theology at University of Glasgow, and George Whyte, Principal Clerk of the General Assembly of The Church of Scotland, gave responses to Sam’s presentation.

The mood lightened with the opening bars from the Heart and Soul Swing Band who shared their music, in addition to sharing about their ministry which is providing new musical resources to Church of Scotland congregations while raising funds for the Church of Scotland HIV Programme. 

More examples of the 4 Cs followed as we heard about Coffee, cake and colouring at St John’s Hamilton, The Wild Olive Café at St George’s Tron, Hyzone Youth Project – Hamilton’s Youth Project, and Drama Kirk at Hamilton Old Parish Church. 

The day ended with reflections from Susan Brown, Moderator of the General Assembly of The Church of Scotland.

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Heart and Soul Swing Band.

Homelessness Sunday and Bread for the World

This Sunday is Homelessness Sunday where we reflect upon the increasing rise in the number of people who are homeless. In the 10.00 am Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields we will remember all those who have no home and feel they do not belong. We will also remember today migrants, asylum seekers and refugees and those who are poorly housed and live in fear of homelessness, especially all those who come to this country seeking a home and have ended up destitute on our streets. During the service we will reflect on what the Gospel teaches us about poverty and the longing for home and also what is the transformation we are all called to make.

The collection at the 10.00am and 5.00pm services will be going to The Connection at St Martin’s. In support of Homelessness Sunday you can also buy the Connection Cookie available every day in the Café in the Crypt. £1 from the sale of each cookie goes towards the Connection.

Wednesday evenings at St Martin’s are where we build our community, through a simple Eucharist called 'Bread for the World' with reflections, discussions, input from members of the community and from groups across St Martin’s.

The music for the evening is led by the Choral Scholars and we gather around the altar together as the first disciples did to share in the Eucharist together. The time in church is followed by a simple soup supper in the Austen Williams Room, No 6 St Martin’s Place, followed by the opportunity to reflect on and explore the bible together. It’s a great way to find focus during a busy week, to be close to God, make friends, pray and explore faith.

This Wednesday I will be sharing some thoughts on ways in which the Arts can teach us how to pay attention. We will pray, 'Purify our sight, Creator God, that we may see your glory in every place.'

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Gungor - Every Breath.

Update: Sophia Hub Redbridge

Ros Southern writes:

'Hi there,

We had a really great Timebank social on Tuesday and fantastic offers will be coming up online soon. Guest blog by Sam Cowan - must be read! Info on Timebank surgeries included.

East Thames has started a fab new social enterprise providing cheap, recycled furniture and house items. Click here for info.

We are looking for cafes/venues for co-working spaces and an enterprise-club-on-the-road show. Your help is needed - please read here! Times/dates of 2 summer enterprise clubs to be advised!

The Ilford market opportunity next week, including Saturday 8th, stilll has stalls available. Prime location. You will need to ring the organiser. Info here.

Have a good weekend!

Best wishes,

Ros Southern
Coordinator, Sophia Hubs Seven Kings
M: 07707 460309 T: 0208 590 2568 (answer phone)
ros.southern@sophiahubs.com'

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Belle and Sebastian - Seeing Other People.

Bee connected

ASNet's free Internet cafe opened yesterday at Kenneth More Theatre. It's an opportunity to connect with the Internet as well as others with arthritis. Drop in and any time between 11 and 4 pm for refreshments and one of their volunteers will help you on a one to one basis with your computer needs. The cafe will be there every Wednesday except during the four Wednesdays in December.

 

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Paramore - Ain't It Fun.

Between the Image and the Flame

Between the Image and the Flame - painting and sculpture is an exhibition by Paul Hobbs at Danbury Mission, 54 Maldon Road, Danbury, Essex CM3 4QL from Wednesday 8th to Saturday 11th May, Wed-Fri 10-6, Sat 10-3. Church Tel No. 01245 227428.

This is a large 27 exhibit show with floor installations, including:

- 'Hard hearts waiting for a miracle';

- 'Ten Words';

- 'Holy Ground'; and

- 'Attitudes'.

(see www.arthobbs.com to look these up)

There are late cafe evenings on 8th & 9th May 7.30 - 9.30pm with coffee, cake, wine and nibbles.

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Eric Satie - Parade.

Miriam Kendrick: Some Things I Thought Of

The Private View for Miriam Kendrick's Some Things I Thought Of - a selection of her varied work including comics and paintings - was held tonight at The Living Room Soho.

Miriam is an artist living and working in Kent. She studied Theology in London and has always worked on a variety of projects. Most recently she has been writing a popular daily comic called ‘Miriam’s Daily Adventures’ which documents her daily life and imaginings. She is also a painter, contributed sessions on comic art at Greenbelt 2012 and was one of the organisers of the 'Run with the Fire' exhibition for the Pentecost Festival.

In addition to viewing Miriam's exquisite bird paintings and witty comic strips, the Private View also featured live music from Luke Bacon. The Living Room Soho is a cafe, performance venue and meeting room in the heart of the West End. Miriam's show is their autumn exhibition.

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Luke Bacon - Hope. 

TASK Newsletter (25)

From Chris Connelley:


It has been a while so here is a rather packed TASK e-news follows. We hope you enjoy it.

Monthly meeting: Tuesday 5 April from 7-8pm at Gizem bakers, Seven Kings High Road

Each month, a group of us meet up to share news and plan our local activities over a cup of coffee in a very friendly and informal gathering, where all new faces are guaranteed a warm welcome. Last time we talked about improving the quality of the rented sector, crime and policing and how we can support the continued working of our local libraries as part of the Council's effort to improve community input into their running.

This month, amongst other things, we will be picking up on the recent changes at the Downshall Centre, planning our presence at the upcoming St. John's Community Day in May and deciding if we want to be part of the Council's local community festival in September.

March and rally for King George Hospital - Friday April 8th

It feels like the A and E and maternity services at KGH have been under threat for an eternity, with the government now demanding a full review on the closure threat, as pressure mounts on Queens at Romford following a number of bad news headlines and apparent difficulties even satisfactorily meeting existing demands upon it.

The latest public stage in the protest, which TASK has fully supported from day one, is a march and rally next friday, April 8, starting from Queens Hospital and processing along the Romford Road all the way through to Ilford Town Centre, where a meeting convened with local MPs will follow from 615pm at the Town Hall.

Recognising the ambition of the march, and the difficulty for many of us joining in during working hours or taking part over such a long route, organisers are asking residents to either join in from their home location or to turn up outside the Town Hall for a short rally at 6pm for just a few minutes to welcome the hardy marchers and demonstrate the maximum show of strength.

Library next steps: top authors come to town

Having saved our local Goodmayes Library after a fabulous cross-community campaign, we are now keen to see more book readings and events hosted locally here in the south of the borough, having been surprised at the dominance of libraries in Wanstead and Woodford and the north of the borough as host locations in the upcoming book and literature festival. That said, we do have some author sessions in our local sites, including

• May 7: Sagheer Afzal, author of The Reluctant Mullah at Seven Kings Library from 2. 30-4.15pm: a free event bookable online at 07931 740
• May 18th: Nikesh Shukla, author of Coconut Unlimited, at Goodmayes Library from 7.15- 9pm. Tickets £2.50 from 0208 708 7750

We ask that all our supporters attend if they can; and share this information with family and friends so we can secure best possible turnouts. We also welcome your ideas for future readings and events to this email address, which we promise to pass on to our contacts in library HQ as part of our regular conversations with them. And with the first anniversary of Seven Kings Library coming up in July, we want your ideas on how you think we can best celebrate its first birthday.

Redbridge Citizens

Looking forward a little, to May 18, TASK will be taking part in a public meeting for faith and community group leaders organised by top London community organising group Citizens UK, the aims of which are to develop relations between different parts of our diverse community sector, to share areas of interest and- if the will is there- to forge a common front to improve our borough in partnership with each other. The session will happen at the Kenneth More theatre from 6-8pm and more details can be obtained from Sheilla Patel at London Citizens on Sheilla.Patel@cof.org.uk.

Cafe de amore

We always like to support local small businesses and welcome the new owners at our Seven Kings station cafe, rebranded in smart new livery as cafe de amore, and offering great coffee and snacks at highly reasonable prices. They are now open until 2pm each weekday, and on Saturday, so even if you do not commute regularly, why not pop down to the London platform and give them a try.

That's it for now. See you all soon, Chris

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Lift To Experience - With Crippled Wings.

This week on the C4M webpage

This week on the commission4mission webpage we have featured:

• profiles of Anne Creasey, Michael J. Creasey and Jonathan Evens;
• the story of Café Refresh and C4M's initial links with them; and
• C4M's forthcoming exhibition at the Pentecost Festival.

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Rickie Lee Jones - Nobody Knows My Name.

Reducing oil dependency (and other resource scarcity issues)

Redbridge Faith Forum have published a report from the meeting held with Redbridge Green Fair on 'What can Redbridge do to reduce oil dependency?'

At St John's we have decided, following our PCC Away Day, to look at some materials giving a Christian perspective on peak oil in our homegroups in the New Year and will be using materials that Sam Norton has posted to do so.

On Monday I attended a very useful day's training on 'Energy Efficiency and Community Buildings', again organised by the Faith Forum and delivered by the Energy Saving Trust. Their national support programme, Community Action for Energy, is a network of like-minded people with an interest in community-based energy projects. Membership of the network is free and offers:

• Community helpline;
• Community support network providing 1.5 days of professional consultancy;
• Travel bursaries;
• Training courses;
• A guide to energy efficiency projects;
• Website;
• Case studies;
• Newsletter;
• E-news updates; and an
• Annual conference.

Finally, last night I went to the Tomorrow Network event on 'The Future of the Food Crisis' at the Royal Society where I heard Duncan Green, Director of Research at Oxfam, and Alex Evans, of the Center on International Cooperation, discuss the current food crisis throughout the world and its future prospects.

Among the points they made were the following:

• Recent food price rises represent a structural shift not a temporary blip because of four resource scarcity issues: energy (tight supply fundamentals and effect of bio fuels); water (demand has tripled over past 50 years); land availability (only 12% usable arable land left and pressure for other uses of it); and effects on agriculture of climate change (low crop yields and emissions from agriculture).
• The cost of high food prices is 850m + hungry people selling their futures (e.g. livestock); getting credit from loan sharks; sending children to work; and parents eating too little in order to feed their children.
• Agriculture must be made pro-poor through: small farmer-based agricultural growth (e.g. Viet Nam and India); effective states with active citizens (e.g. consumer associations such as the grain banks in Uganda); shifts to low carbon production; addressing the challenges of supermarketization, biofuels and outmigration; and solving the dilemma of food vs feed vs fuel.
• Property rights matters for poorer people and women in particular. A fairer distribution of land leads to greater growth (e.g. Taiwan and South Korea).
• Build community resilience to climate change i.e. addressing the loss of inherited knowledge when climate patterns change.
• Actions needed now include: raising yield and making food production more sustainable, resilient and fair; invest more in agriculture; focus on small farms (largest employer in the world); aid donors to focus on the four resource scarcity issues; social protection for poor people; develop security of supply through buffer food stocks and equitable trade agreements with developing countries; address effect that Western lifestyle (bio fuels and diet) has on the rest of the world.

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U2 - Love and Peace or Else.