Carols by Candlelight

Carols by Candlelight

Sunday 15th December 2019

A big thank you to everyone who helped to make Carols by Candlelight a success on Sunday afternoon. It was great. Thank you.

I wonder what was special for you.

Mixed in among the carols and scripture readings were poems and sketches including the almost inevitable joke about Cliff - "not that Cliff. A cliff" as one of the shepherd says - and a snatch of "Mistletoe & Wine". And that wasn't all. Later the two shepherds were at it again. This time they find the baby in the stable only to be told that it's a boy, weighing six pounds, seven ounces. How did they know? "Joseph gave him a weigh in a manger!" (Away in a manger was, obviously, the next carol.)

If that's your joke, I'd be happy to acknowledge.

The shepherds also featured in a poem by Godfrey Rust, Modus Operandi

[Perhaps I should say that no disrespect was intended towards shepherds, wise men, donkeys, lambs, mangers, angels or any other celestial characters.]

There were two musical interludes (in addition to Cliff Richard). One was an instrumental rendition of O Little Town of Bethlehem on the Joy to the World CD from the Kings Chamber Orchestra. The other was a track from the CD A Celtic Christmas by the group Incantation, a version of The Holly & the Ivy. 

One of the poems was Winter Paradise by Kathleen Raine, which is a meditation on age and our place in the world and how we are all connected with something greater. The poem ends:

You have looked upon me all my days
More loved than lover's face
More merciful than the heart, more wise
Than spoken word unspoken theme 
Simple as earth in whom we live and move

Thank you everyone. It was great.

Christmas at BJCC

Christmas

Yes, it's coming!

Join us for Carols by Candlelight on Sunday 15th December at 4.30pm

Or come along on Christmas Day at 9.30 in the morning for a short service

Burton Joyce Community Church

on the corner of Meadow Lane

Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion

Heading for Extinction - and what to do about it

One for your (new) diary!

We have arranged for a speaker from the Newark & Sherwood group of Extinction Rebellion to come and explain things to us on the evening of Friday January 17th, 7pm for 7.30pm. Coffee and tea available. Please come and join the discussion. Climate Breakdown and the Ecological Crisis are the most urgent matters facing us and our children. 

We need to do something and we need to do it NOW!

FRIDAY JANUARY 17th 
Burton Joyce Community Church Hall
7 for 7.30 pm 

HEADING FOR EXTINCTION
and what to do about it 

Christian Aid at Sunday Worship

Christian Aid

Sunday Worship

It was good on Sunday morning (November 3rd) to welcome Jan & Andrew Jenkins who came to share with us something of the vital work done by Christian Aid and its partner organisations. Jan & Andrew have spent 40 years working overseas especially in Bangladesh but also in Myanmar, India & Laos. Andrew is an agricultural engineer. He also assesses the effectiveness of development projects. Jan taught English as a foreign language. Andrew spoke to us during our morning worship.

More about the work of Christian Aid here.


The scripture reading chosen by Andrew included the parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke chapter 10. When someone asks Jesus "Who is my neighbour?", Jesus responds with this story. Someone is robbed and beaten up and left for dead at the roadside. One after another, two religious types come along but both of them, when they see the victim of the robbery, cross over to the other side of the road and go on by doing nothing to help. 

Then another traveller comes along. 

This traveller stops and helps the victim of the robbery, binds their wounds and takes them to an inn to recover, undertaking to pay hostelry whatever it cost to look after them.

"Which is the neighbour to the victim of the robbery?" Jesus asks.

Well, obviously ...

Andrew talked about our global neighbours who have been robbed and beaten up (in effect) by the global economic system (I'm riffing a bit here. Andrew didn't actually say this in so many words as far as I remember but I do remember that this is what I was thinking while I listened). He spoke especially about refugees and displaced people who have had to leave their homes and everything they know because of violence or disaster. They are our neighbours and we can help them by supporting organisations like Christian Aid who work with local partners to bring relief.

 Information about the CA Christmas appeal  (November 2019)

 Brother can you spare a dime *(YouTube. Martin Simpson, Cambridge Folk Festival 2011)

* We didn't actually sing this in our service but, hey, maybe another time.

What's going on?

What's going on?

It's a good question. The world seems to have gone more than slightly mad and here at Burton Joyce Community Church there seems to be so much going on that it is difficult to keep up. Or is it just me? Let's pause for a moment and rewind. What has been going on?

Counting on my fingers:

• 1. The local Methodist circuit (Nottingham East) is merging with Nottingham North to form Nottingham NorthEast. Have I mentioned this before?
• 2. The local United Reformed church is reorganising into two areas Notts South and Notts North. We fall into Notts North.
• 3. The local Anglican church (I know, I know. We're just good friends) has been reorganised into a group of six churches but (big but) they have now appointed a new vicar. Hurray!  
• 4. Several of our long serving members at BJCC have died this year and we need to pause and celebrate their lives & their contribution to the church & to the village over the years
• 5. At our last church meeting we declared a Climate Emergency and agreed to sign up to the Eco Church scheme administered by A Rocha, a Christian environmental charity
• 6. We held our Harvest Festival on Sunday 8th September
• 7. Last month, some of us went to the first session of Seasons of my Soul organised in the Methodist circuit. It was good. We might go again.
• And there's more. Enough for fingers 8, 9 & 10 

 There is a sense here that we are moving forward

We may not know exactly where we are going but we know the general direction. We know, at least, that to move forward you have to put one foot in front of the other and that is what we are doing.  Step by step we are moving on. 

A few specific things coming up:

• Friday September 27th. MacMillan Big coffee morning, 10.30 at BJCC
• Tuesday October 1st. Seasons of my Soul, session 2, 10.30 at St John's, Standhill Road, Carlton
• Sunday October 20th. Final fellowship meal & service, 4/5.30pm at Mapperley Methodist Church
• Saturday October 26th. Ordination & induction of Amanda, the new minister, 3pm at Dales URC Church
• Monday November 4th. Induction of Anna, the new vicar, 7.30pm at St Helen's, Burton Joyce
• Friday November 8th. Farewell service for Peter, the retiring Moderator, 2.30pm at Sherwood URC

So, you see, we are quite busy.
But that's enough for now. Go well.
 
 

 

Thursday mornings at BJCC

Thursday Mornings at BJCC

This autumn we may do something new. 

What do you think? 
Is it worth a shot?

Thursdays
9.30 am - 12 noon

Prayer & Share …………....  (in the hall)
An opportunity to meet and share, pray & talk, tea & coffee on tap

Sanctuary ………….........  (in the church)
Somewhere to be still or for private prayer (There may be music)

On the first and third Thursday, this would incorporate the regular Prayer + Coffee from 9.30 to 10.30 ish. Generally, what I see as the usual format is to have some sort of group prayer at 9.30 and then an opportunity to read scripture together at about 10.30, using the lectionary readings for the following Sunday. 

Otherwise, in the hall, there would be tea and coffee and a chance to chat and the church would also be open as a place to get away from it all and be still.

I'd like to give it a go. We'll see what happens.
Phil

It's an EMERGENCY! A Climate Emergency

It's an EMERGENCY!

BJCC declares a CLIMATE EMERGENCY

At our Church Meeting and AGM on Sunday 2nd June 2019 the church agreed to declare a CLIMATE EMERGENCY in recognition of the seriousness of the crisis facing our planet.

And we agreed to register as an ECO-CHURCH and work towards our bronze, silver and gold certificates under the scheme run by A ROCHA, a Christian environmental charity. Both the United Reform Church and the Methodist Church support these initiatives.

Watch this space for further developments at BJCC over the coming months

Declare a Climate Emergency

Sign the WWF petition

 "We must mobilise" - Guardian article, June 2nd 2019

It's Summer

It's Summer

And Pentecost is only a week away on Sunday June 9th.

Traditionally, this is Whit Sunday or simply Whitsun. 

We used to have a Whit Monday Bank Holiday but all that was changed by interfering politicians a long time ago now. 

Like the May Day Bank Holiday on the First of May with its festivities and its dancing round the Maypole, Whitsun has been consigned to history and we have lost another one of our connections with the past. Another of our roots cut off by political (economic) expediency.

End of rant.

So, what is Pentecost?

PENTECOST
Gk: pentecoste, Fiftieth
A festival taking place fifty days after

Easter Sunday

to celebrate the day the Holy Spirit
came like the WIND
to comfort & help the friends of
JESUS

 This year, Pentecost happens to be our fifth anniversary:

BURTON JOYCE COMMUNITY CHURCH is five years old!

Come and join us as we celebrate the coming of the HOLY SPIRIT:
10.30 Sunday morning, 9th June

Easter

Easter

 Easter has come and gone, but not quite. The season of Easter in church circles at least, lasts until Whit Sunday which this year is June 9th. Plenty of time to finish all those Easter eggs.

Easter doesn't stop on Easter Monday. The seven weeks between Easter Sunday & Whitsun are just as significant as the seven weeks of Lent leading up to Good Friday, if not more so.

It was in this period that Jesus' first disciples had to come to terms with what had happened. We tend to forget. In the New Testament, in the Bible, we fall off the end of the Gospels into an empty space. Following the Gospel accounts of Jesus and his life and death, the next book in the sequence, The Acts of the Apostles, only picks up the story with the Ascension and Pentecost, aka Whit Sunday. There is a gap. 

It was into this black hole that the disciples fell straight after that first Easter weekend. It must have been a very confusing time. Not so much a celebration, more distress and grief. Everything had changed.

You may have noticed in the weeks before and after Easter some kind of rumpus going on in London. Extinction Rebellion. Waterloo Bridge. Oxford Circus. Parliament Square. Marble Arch. And many other places in London were disrupted and disturbed.

One of the groups involved in all this disturbance is Christian Climate Action.

These good folk have taken the Easter message to the streets in the form of a protest against Government failure, as they see it, to act with sufficient urgency to avert impending disaster.

The disaster we face, as David Attenborough and others have told us, has three facets:

1. Global warming leads to climate breakdown
2. Destruction of natural environment is exterminating life in its myriad forms
3. Plastic is getting everywhere

Something must be done. And fast. But it is not just governments. It's all of us. We have to change our behaviour. This, believe it or not, is the Easter message.

Christian Climate Action Facebook page

Climate Action

Climate Action

Friday 15th March 2019

Friday 15th March is Climate Action day. Students and others will be marching from Trinity Square to Old Market Square in Nottingham on Friday:

NOTTINGHAM YOUTHSTRIKE4CLIMATE 

FRIDAY 15 MARCH 11.00 - 14.00 

Nottingham City Council House Old Market Square Nottingham NG1 2DT 

Nottingham march (Facebook) 

#YouthStrike4Climate 

#Fridays4Future 

#SchoolsStrike4Climate 

#ExtinctionRebellion 

#ClimateAction 

#Nottingham

So we'll be featuring Climate Action at the regular Friday morning Coffee Pop-ins at the Community Church hall this week. Come along.

The planet is in trouble

      but we can help

Use public transport, not the car

Don’t travel by air

Change to a green electricity supplier

Go for cardboard and paper

Avoid single-use plastic

Eat local and seasonal, with less meat

Lobby MPs, retailers & producers

FRIDAY 15^TH MARCH 2019
CLIMATE ACTION DAY

 

Sunday services for March -May 2019

Sunday services for March-May 2019

Sunday
March
3        Cafe Church with Phil Colbourn (BJCC)
10      Lent 1. Mick Radnall (Arnold Methodist Church)
17      Lent 2. Communion with Revd Louise Gee
24      Lent 3. Kevin Sharpe (Phoenix Farm Methodist Church)
31      Lent 4. Mothering Sunday with Dinah Dudley (BJCC)

April
7        Lent 5. Phil Colbourn (BJCC)
14      Palm Sunday. Luke Mellor (Arnold Methodist Church)
21      Easter Sunday. Communion with Geoff Ware (URC)
28      Revd Louise Gee

May
5        Songs of Praise with Dinah Dudley (BJCC) (to be confirmed)
12      Ed Lyne (St John's Methodist Church, Standhill Road, Carlton Hill)
19      Christian Aid Sunday, United Service at BJCC (details to be confirmed)
26      Communion with Revd Louise Gee

Sunday services for January & February 2019

Sunday Services Jan-Feb 2019

Jan
6th - Epiphany. Revd Louise Gee
13th - Revd John Wiseman
20th - Covenant / United Service.  Revd David Monkton
27th - Mr Geoff Ware

Feb
3rd - Mr Phil Colbourn
10th - Mr Maurice Turner
17th - Communion. Revd Louise Gee
24th - Rev Richard Byass 

Services start at 10.30am
Please come. You will be warmly welcomed
Coffee follows the service

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

A bit late, I know, but you know how it is:

All that Christmas stuff to put away. I haven't had a minute.

So, what's new?

Oh, but did you have a nice Christmas? I do hope so. But if not, you can always pop along for coffee on Friday morning or one of our other groups during the week. There's always something going on and you'd be very welcome.

Check out what we have Week by week

Or look at the longer term Through the year

That's all for now. Catch up with you later. Must run ...