Walking the Way

Walking the Way

An initiative for discipleship from the United Reformed Church

Walking the Way: Living the Life of Jesus Today

To quote from the URC website:

Walking the Way is the umbrella term for the United Reformed Church’s exciting focus on lifelong Christian discipleship and mission. When you engage in Walking the Way, we hope that your own understanding of what being a Christian disciple is deepens. You may grow beyond your dreams in living as a disciple when you are in church and, perhaps more importantly, when you are not. 

There are resources available on the URC website for us to use - individually and when we meet together - as we prepare for Advent and Christmas, especially Prayers for the Season of Preparation which you can find here.

 Here is part of the first of these prayers, prepared by the Scottish Synod:

God of grace,

Through the life, suffering, death and resurrection of your Son Jesus, you revealed your love for us.

Through the gift of the Spirit you give each one of us the strength to face the journey ahead.

Ready and prepared to consciously go Walking the Way – living the life of Jesus today; we respond to his words of invitation, ‘follow me’.

...

Enable us to work together; collaborating and sharing, encouraging and supporting, all with generosity, compassion and love; as we go Walking the Way – living the life of Jesus today.

Each week, the prayers take a different theme 

The prayers for Week Five (2nd October)

for those working with manual, retail and catering and hospitality workers

 
were prepared by the East Midlands Synod.

URC News / The Bridge Centre

URC News
From the East Midlands Synod of the United Reformed Church

The latest newsletter can be found here

The November 2nd edition of the newsletter starts with news from The Bridge Centre in Hyson Green at the Boulevard URC church on Gregory Boulevard. There is a lot going on. 

Here is an extract from the newsletter:

The Bridge Centre, hosted by Gregory Boulevard United Reformed Church, provides a community space, with a computer room, children’s play area, prayer room and cafe. 

On Mondays you can find a ‘cook and play’ session, on Tuesdays it’s ‘Tums and Toddlers’, on Wednesdays an interfaith group serves 60-70 free vegetarian meals, on Saturdays there are classes in maths and English for Romanian children and adults and the Law Centre provides weekly advice sessions for Romanians.

A monthly group funded by the City Council supports destitute and vulnerable people from Eastern Europe.  On 16th October the national Co-op HR team held a tea party in the Centre for the local community.  After years of struggling the Bridge Centre is thriving once again.

 The newsletter also has a lot of other news from around the East Midlands.

It's well worth a look!

Jesus says: I Am the Light

Jesus says: I am the light of the world

What did he mean?
In what sense is Jesus the Light of the World?

These questions take us to the heart of the Christian message. 

On one level it is very simple: If you are in the dark, switch the light on. 

As the days draw in at this time of the year, I find myself reaching for the light switch earlier and earlier in the day. When I go out in the car, the lights come on automatically. To speak of light presumes darkness. 

Jesus recognises that we often find ourselves in the dark or, at least, we feel as though we are in the dark. Often we don't know what to do for the best. We blunder around 'in the dark' making things worse rather than better. 

Into this 'dark', Jesus comes as 'the light'. 

Reach out for the switch: Let there be light!

Light, of course, shows things up. It shows how things are. This can be uncomfortable, even embarrassing and it is probably one of the reasons we avoid getting too close. If Jesus shows us up for what we are and shows what a mess we've made of things, we don't want to know.

Don't worry. He knows. He wants to help. 

Turning on the light is the first step in clearing up the mess and it is good to have someone helping who knows what they're about. The good news is that God knows what life is like and wants to help. It really is as simple as that.

Reach out.

And ... Light!

A prayer

Lord Jesus, you are the light of the world
Shine in our lives
Help us clear up the mess
And keep on shining and keep on helping
Keep us close to you
Stay close to us now and every day. Amen

Christmas is coming

Christmas is coming

At last! The order for our Christmas publicity has been placed with CPO of Worthing in Sussex. I've been working on this order for two or three weeks, umm-ing and aah-ing over what to include and what to leave out, trying to confirm dates and times, checking which events were (are, will be) happening and which were not. At last, it is off, sent and paid for courtesy of the internet and the wonders of modern technology. 

Time for a cup of tea.

If you want a sneak preview of what will be happening in the run-up to Christmas, check our Through the Year page. Details for Advent and Christmas are at the top. 

The posters and invitations from CPO should start appearing during the first week of December. Keep an eye open. Then Christmas really will be coming.

 

Lots of things happening

There are

Lots of things happening in the run-up to Christmas

Now the days are getting shorter and the evenings are drawing in, thoughts turn almost inevitably towards Christmas. It is still some way off of course but it helps to be prepared and so that is what we are doing, preparing for Advent and the Christmas season - if for no other reason that if we don't it will all happen so quickly that it will be over before we realise.

Here are some of the things happening between now and the big day.

One World Week: Sunday 22nd October 2017
United service

Charity Christmas Card Sale: Saturday 28th October 2017
Coffee morning

Halloween (All Hallows Eve): Tuesday 31st October 2017
All Saints Day: Wednesday 1st November 2017
All Souls Day: Thursday 2nd November 2017
 
Bonfire Night: Sunday 5th November 2017 


Remembrance Day: Saturday 11th November 2017
Remembrance Sunday: Sunday 12th November 2017

Autumn Lunches: Saturday 18th November 2017
Homemade soups and desserts. Raffle & Christmas novelties stall

And then in December, the four Sundays of Advent lead up to Christmas Day itself

Advent Sunday & Advent Carol Service: Sunday 3rd December 2017, 10.30 am
Gift service: Sunday 10th December 2017, 10.30 am
Gifts for The Friary, the Nottingham charity for the homeless 
(See leaflet on notice board in the hall or the charity's website)

Framework Coffee Morning: Saturday 16th December 2017, 10 - 12noon
Raffle, 'Make me an offer' stall, Cake stall + coffee and cakes
All proceeds in support of the Framework homeless charity

Carols by Candlelight: Monday 18th December 2017, 6.30 pm

Carols round the crib: Saturday 23rd December 2017, 4.30 pm
Churches Together event

Christmas Eve : Sunday 24th December 2017, 10.30 am
Morning worship 

Christmas Day: Monday 25th December 2017

Our Harvest Festival 2017

Harvest Festival at BJCC

This year our service of Harvest Thanksgiving is Sunday 8th October at 10.30am. 

The preacher is Revd Ruth Orton a retired minister from Carlton Main Street Methodist Church and a good friend of BJCC. 

The service will be followed by a Bring and Share lunch.

Our Harvest gifts of food and produce will go to Emmanuel House 
Donations of money will be sent to Water Aid

Join us if you can.

Big MacMillan Coffee Morning

The Big MacMillan Coffee Morning

Friday 29th September 2017

in the Community Church Hall, Meadow Lane 
09.00 -12.00h

Pop in for a coffee on Friday morning on 29th September and join in the money raising effort for MacMillan Cancer Support