CHANGING PATTERNS OF WORSHIP
Not so long ago music at a typical morning service in a village Methodist Church consisted of five hymns from the hymn book. While older members of the congregation were probably content with that it did not reflect that changing musical styles of the last 60 years and the vast amount of new material that is available. Worship songs have been an important part of my Sunday services for my entire circuit ministry. I introduced Scripture in Song to my first church in 1983 and this was fairly soon superseded by Songs of Fellowship. Since then, in many of the churches where I have been minister, I have either introduced worship songs or co-ordinated our use of both hymns and worship songs by completing computer records so that we feel that we are getting a blend of hymns and songs and not learning songs only to sing once and never sing again. With 823 hymns and 1690 songs visiting preachers can feel lost when trying to choose from over 2000 items (there is some overlap between the books but I, for one, have never counted). Therefore, visiting preachers receive a list of our core worship – hymns that are an important part of our heritage and
songs that express Christian faith in a more contemporary style.
TOP OF THE POPS
For copyright purposes we keep detailed records of all the hymns and songs that we sing. In the year ending 31 January 2010 the most frequently chosen song was SF 10 All heaven declares (8 times), followed by SF 40 Be still for the presence of the Lord, SF 441 Only by grace can we enter, SF 544 There is a Redeemer and SF 1404 King of kings, majesty (both 7 times). We had both SF 780 How deep the Father's love and SF 1030 The Lord's my Shepherd (I will trust in you alone) six times (both quite 'hymny'), and SF 935 My Jesus, my Saviour and SF 1009 Spirit of God, show me Jesus five times. Along with several other worship songs, the two most chosen hymns (four times) were SF 219 (HP 19) Amazing grace and HP 463 To God be the glory. Ten more hymns were chosen three times: HP 13 Praise my soul the King of heaven, HP 16 Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation, HP 66 Great is thy faithfulness, HP 69 The King of love my Shepherd is, HP 77 Joy to the world, the Lord is come, HP 106 Hark! The herald-angels sing, HP 268 My heart and voice I raise, HP 278 Ye servants of God, your master proclaim, HP 437 Guide me, O thou great Jehovah and HP 465 We have a gospel to proclaim. I think that's a pretty good list – it includes two hymns of Charles Wesley but if I told you which two I would be doing all the work for you!
GENERAL CHURCH MEETING AND CHURCH COUNCIL
We are holding our General Church Meeting forward to Sunday 7 March at 5.00 pm. At this meeting we nominate members to the church council and appoint stewards for the coming year (beginning 1 May). Any member is eligible to serve in this way. Nominations for stewards should be with me seven days in advance of the meeting. Our church council will be held on Wednesday 10 March at 7.30 pm.
CHURCH GIVING
When I first became your minister I asked the church to catch the vision of giving one tenth of our Sunday offering to wider Christian work. I believe that this is an important spiritual principle and I am glad that as a church we have a wider vision of God's work. We do not want to be inward looking. Consequently, I thought you would like to know that we have made donations to Methodist funds for Home Mission, World Mission and Property which support Methodist work in Britain and beyond. We give to Methodist Homes for the Aged, Action for Children and LWPT, the Local Preachers' and Worship Leaders' Trust (which offers support to those who serve or have served the church), and the Auxiliary Fund which supports ministers or their families who need special help in retirement. We also make donations to Christian Aid and the Methodist Relief and Development Fund (MRDF). I am very pleased to report that we made a further £370 through our Shrove Tuesday soup and pancake lunch and this will be sent to MRDF to be forwarded by our mission partner churches in Haiti to those who need help the most. Thanks to all who organised and attended this splendid event.
EASTER CELEBRATIONS
Details of all our Easter celebrations will be included in next month's diary. However, the Young People's Band from Ridgeway have offered to come to us on the Wednesday of Holy Week (31 March at 7.30 pm) to lead the music for a special service that will include Holy Communion. I hope everyone will try their hardest to attend. On Good Friday afternoon, the Ridgeway members hold a treasure hunt concluding with a short act of worship – please watch out for more details. On Easter
Day (4 April) our morning service will be conducted by Mr Nigel Graham from Barry and as it is the first Sunday of the month we shall also be having an evening service. This gives me an opportunity to thank Nigel and Esther for their support of our work and witness with their regular visits to Millbrook.
OTHER SPECIAL EVENTS
This year the Women's World Day of Prayer (5 March at 2.30 pm) is being held at St James' Church, Torpoint, when the speaker will be Julie Simpson (Headteacher of Antony School). In our own church, on Saturday 13 March at 7.30 pm, the RNLI are putting on a concert with the Rame Peninsula Male Voice Choir. The cost is £4 and refreshments, tea and cake, will be served during the interval. I am pleased that we can host the concert for this most worthwhile cause and hope it will be well-supported.
AND FINALLY...
We have prayer and Bible study groups in the daytime and in the evening. Please try to get to at least one of these groups. Jay and Alison have also asked me to mention that they are planning to have an open house on Friday evenings – if you are interested in going please see Jay or Alison.
God bless,
