Held in Common

Christ Church Barn Dance 08

Go on! Have a look at our recent church Barn Dance photos on Flickr.

We stripped the chairs out of the church and had a good time of it! Click each photo in turn and you'll see them at optimum size!

Sing to the Lord...

Tricia Coleman and Tim Drummond gave this talk as part of "Everyday Church" at a recent service at Christ Church...

At choir practice, Esther [our Director of Music] helps us to make the most of our voices with vocal exercises and practice, and the younger members use the Royal School of Church Music Voice for Life workbooks to work on their musical knowledge. Recently, we all looked at the sessions designed to enable singers to develop their understanding of their choir’s role, its background and the motivation of its members; and to encourage singers to reflect upon their own experience as members of a choir...

Neighbours with Faith

We held a rather special event on Friday 28 March 2008 in Epsom, at St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church. With financial support via the Diocese of Guildford and the government's Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund, we were able to hold an event called Neighbours with Faith.

You can find a collection of photos of the event here.

The evening was planned and delivered jointly by the Epsom Anglican Group Ministry and the Epsom and Ewell Islamic Society.

We gathered together about 140 local Christians and Muslims (and a Rabbi!) and held a meal (Western and Eastern food) together. People naturally mingled, across gender and faith commitment. Our MP, Chris Grayling was present and spoke supportively, as did our Mayor, Cllr Jean Steer. Our keynote speaker was Rabbi Danny Rich, Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism, chair of the Kingston upon Thames Interfaith Forum, chair of the Dittons Branch of the Council of Christians and Jews, and a local magistrate. Local police Community Support Officers attended.

The aim was simply to encourage local Christians and Muslims to sit down, chat, eat together and enjoy each other's company. It was a great success, and it was vastly appreciated by all.

We don't know whether anything like this has been tried before, but it was certainly a first for Epsom!

We plan to hold another local event like this, perhaps in the summer - probably a barbecue across the Muslim and Christian faith communities.

Young People at Christ Church

Phil Goldby writes...

Sitting in the Baptism and Admission to Communion service on Sunday made me feel very proud to be part of a church that actively promotes the involvement of our young people in the life of the church. It made me even happier to see that two of our regular Passion members were up there with the others, declaring their faith and trust to God. 

The Vicar wholeheartedly agreed with me when I said to him how this type of service reinforces, to us all, how big an importance our youth can and do play in the fellowship of Christ Church. 

It seems that churches often leave a gap between the Sunday school age group and the "adult" home groups. However, where other churches potentially miss the opportunity, Christ Church has plenty to offer. 

So how do we support and grow our younger members enabling them to be surrounded by like-minded individuals, to learn about God and to value what we have to offer?

Our music is one way. Since Esther Jones joined Christ Church as our musical director, the choir numbers have increased. This is mainly due to the number of children that have joined and now regularly attend church. They add to the choir with treble, alto and even tenor voices. Esther also runs Song Squad – a children’s choir supported by the church and open to the wider community. There are over 20 regular members who rehearse weekly and perform regularly in church services. Song Squad also represents Christ Church at other community events in Epsom and beyond. 

Passion is another way that we support and guide our teenagers. Every Sunday at 7.15 pm Christ Church hall becomes a hive of activity. With a tennis table and pool table set up upstairs and silly games being played, some would say that it’s an ideal environment for the teenager between the ages of 12 and 18. The aim of the evening is for the young people to have fun, to interact with their friends and others in a Christian environment (run by Christians) and to get better at pool or table tennis! There is even a tuck shop available if they get the munchies. We have also been known to go bowling, or just have a party in the hall instead of the usual meeting.

The high point of the year is when we take the group down to the Christian festival “Soul Survivor”. Here the teens can let their hair down and really discover more about the Christian faith through the worship and seminars that are packed into the 5 days over August. We camp in tents during the event and normally eat as a group to cement the fellowship that has grown throughout the year. It can be an emotional roller-coaster for all of us (even the leaders) but the unanimous result is a group that is closer to their personal faith and to their friends.

Vicki and I also offer a bible study (CYFA) on a Wednesday evening. This is held at our home where we regularly get around 7 young people eager to discuss a vast range of topics from “burning issues of a teenager” through to “does heaven really exist?” The evening is about studying life in a Christian context though reference to the Bible and input from the whole group. I’m sure that the discussions we have are the reason why the teenagers come but I have a feeling that the cakes that Vicki bakes each week do have an influence! We even have a “Student Cook” evening before they go off to University so to equip them for life in more than just the spiritual way.

If there are any young people out there that want to find out more about any of the activities mentioned above then please contact me, Esther, or Andrew the Vicar, through this blog page or the church web site.

All these activities for the young people of Christ Church do not just happen. The leaders put in a lot of time and effort enabling the growth of these teenagers. It might seem like we have it all sorted and are not in need of anything. However, we are always on the lookout for more help. If you are a regular reader of the notice sheets, you will have seen that we have lost one of our Sunday night leaders, George Chetwynd, to Pakistan as she helps on a VSO project. This means that we really need another leader (preferably female for Child Protection reasons) to help out. No experience is necessary, just a willingness to come and try something new, to be challenged, to listen, and to expend a bit of energy. It’s a great opportunity to play a role at an important time in young people's lives.

Please pray for the work that is done in Christ Church for the young people and if you feel called to help in any way then please contact Phil Goldby (Passion/CYFA) or Esther Jones (Song Squad) for more information.

Omit, delete, ignore - and read the little words!

Here's something from our Heart and Mind session the other day. I'm putting it up here because I think there are some important guidelines we mentioned which deserve a wider audience.

We were looking at the Book of Romans, and focused in on chapter 1, verses 14 to the end of the chapter.

Those verses have often been read - and often still are - as a bit of a diatribe against the human tendency to sin, especially towards sexual sin. (It's apparent that this text is still being read in this way if you look as some of the more immoderate expressions in the current debate on sexuality across the Anglican Communion!)

James Alison, in his excellent, thought-provoking book "Undergoing God", points out (and I paraphrase!) that this is not the only, or even the most natural, reading of the text.

Putting it simply, he suggests that Paul is drawing his readers or listeners - and particularly his Jewish Christian listeners or readers - into a position where they find themselves fulminating against the vices of others, and especially others they do not like or agree with.

James Alison points out various principles of reading which lead his to this conclusion.

First - ignore what Paul (or whoever) did not write! Since we know Paul wrote all of Romans, this can only mean... the verse numbers, chapter numbers and paragraphs!

This is how our earliest copies of the New Testament look:

No verses, no paragraphs, no chapters. All written in uncial (basically capital) letters. No punctuation!

So what does this mean, here? It means: don't stop reading at the end of chapter 1! Just because there is a chapter break there, it doesn't necessarily mean that Paul has finished his argument.

Second - look out for tiny keywords! And - what do you know? - there's one of them at the very beginning of Romans chapter 2. "Therefore...", Paul writes. Where there's a "therefore", you can be sure that Paul was linking up what he's now saying with what came before. And that means that Paul's discussion hasn't stopped at the end of chapter 1, but carries on into chapter 2. And it means that Paul's BIG POINT, the climax of his argument, is coming now, in the first verses of chapter 2.

Here's what he writes:

"Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things..."

This means (according to James Alison - and I'm pretty convinced, myself) that this whole passage is not a diatribe against sin, but a warning against Paul's readers/hearers not to judge others, or to assume that they are themselves without fault. As Paul says in Romans 3:23: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..."

So: a radically different reading - and all because we remembered to ignore the markings in the text (which are a later, only sometimes helpful, imposition) and take more note of link words.

Worth remembering as we read?

St Mark, the lion

You might enjoy this photo from the east wall of Christ Church, which you can also find on my Flickr site here.

Harvest Celebrations at Christ Church: photos

We had a great time today with our Harvest celebrations, and you can find more photos of the church, the 10 am service and the barbecue here.

Thanks to Sue C, Jane F and all who made it such a fun occasion!

The past and the future

Sorry it's been so long, over the summer, since this blog was active. Time to address that now!

On a recent visit to Brighton, I saw this placard up on the hoardings of a building site (sorry about the quality of the photo).

""Excuse us while we remove yesterday & make way for tomorrow!"

In my view, this has it wrong in almost every respect - whether it's to do with buildings, or with past history or traditions in general.

'Yesterday' is not to be consigned to the rubbish bin, any more than it is to be grasped onto, come what may. Surely it's to be examined, analyzed, sometimes cherished, sometimes critiqued, and always looked towards as a potential source of value and of learned experience.

Equally, 'tomorrow' is not an excuse iconoclastically to blast through what's there just for the sake of newness.

I guess Luminar Leisure Developments thought they were being clever here. I have to say that they just made me groan.

Congratulations!

Many congratulations to Sue Curtis on her ordination yesterday as deacon at Guildford Cathedral! Sue returns after her period of training to the parish to take up ministry again amongst us, now as an ordained person. We look forward to working with her!

Open Afternoon

Christ Church held its first Open Afternoon for a number of years yesterday.

A great day, and many people came!

 

Thanks to Sue and all the team for organizing it.

 

You can find more photos here.