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Month: September 2022

And now… all set for the main event!

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I’m sure Shelley will be as fed up with me going on about it as you are reading about it but this Sunday, October 2nd, Shelley takes on one of the biggest physical challenges she has ever faced up to  – and that’s running the London Marathon. 

Shortly after 11am, the exact time we begin our morning Service she crosses the start line and then all that lies between her and a finishers medal are just over 26 miles of unforgiving London streets. 

As with the Great North Run, which Shelley completed just three weeks ago she is once again seeking sponsorship for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation – a link to which you can see below. 

Shelley Dring is fundraising for Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation (justgiving.com)

I’m not telling you Shelley’s target figure – you will need to visit her Just Giving page to find that out but wouldn’t it be wonderful if that were not only reached but surpassed. 

Good luck Shelley.

Terefe heads up a Mission Trip to Europe

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As you can see from the flyer above Terefe Tadesse is leading a Mission trip to Europe between the 6th and the 12th of November. 

We ask that if you have anything at all that would help or be of benefit to a refugee or an asylum seeker that you being it to church and drop it off with the words Mission or Terefe clearly marked on it.

Many thanks.

September 18th – informal church meeting, all welcome 12noon.

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This coming Sunday, September 18th, after our Service at aroundabout 12 noon we are holding an informal church meeting.

This is designed to give you a chance to ask any  questions you may have and to hear from your leadership team about whats going on at MBC right now and in the future.

All welcome.

Transformation – Jane Coates explains what lays behind our beautiful new dragonfly banner

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One of the series of ‘I Am’ studies at church was ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life’ and as I was working with the children on that Sunday, I chose to link the story of Lazarus with the fictional story of Water Bugs and Dragonflies, a book written by Doris Stickney. Water Bugs and Dragonflies is a beautiful modern parable about transformation, that explores the challenging topic of death and loss that even young children can access and may find helpful.

The story begins with a colony of water bugs who spend their lives at the bottom of the pond, although occasionally one of the colony of these strange looking creatures, would climb out of the pond, up the stalk of a water lily, disappear, and never come back. The water bugs are curious to know what happens to each friend, why they leave and where they go. So, the water bugs promise each other that the next water bug that climbs out of the pond must return and tell the others what happens to them above the surface of the pond.

The next water bug to leave the pond, discovers that a startling change has occurred to his body, that he has grown four beautiful wings and a tail, and that he is able to fly freely in the air and the sunshine. He has become a dragonfly. Moving his beautiful silver wings, he finds himself flying above the pond where his friends the water bugs live. Then he remembers the promise that he made while he was still a water bug at the bottom of the pond.

The dragonfly attempts to return through the water surface of the pond but realises that with his changed body he cannot return to the pond, the water, and his friends. The beautiful dragonfly also realizes that even if he could go back, not one of the water bugs would recognize him and know him in this new, changed body. He would have to wait until they become dragonflies too and join him beyond the water of the pond.

After listening to the story on that first Sunday morning, the children and young people prepared their cut outs of leaves using real leaves, and their drawings of dragonflies, that were to be transferred to a piece of silk, ready for them to add the silk paint into their shapes on the silk fabric.

The dragonfly and leaves banner, with Jesus’s statement, “I am the Resurrection and the Life” is the result.

Shelley’s message for 11th September and MBC’s plans for the week ahead

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Dear friends

In the light of the last few days I wanted to keep in touch.  I knew when I was writing my last message on Thursday that things were not good in relation to the Queen’s health.  As I sat in church amongst the bustle of craft group and set up for Space that evening we knew that there was something happening that would affect the nation.  Everyone is different so will have reacted to the news in different ways.  We do know that for many in our country and across the world, the news will have brought sadness and uncertainty, especially with all the other changes that seem to be happening.  It may have brought up feelings of loss in our own lives from people we miss who have died.  I know I have been talking to my children a lot more over the last few days about death and heaven as they link the death of the Queen to the loss of their two Grandads last year. It reminds me again that however we feel, there is an opportunity to acknowledge those things but also to stand with others in their loss and confusion as well as speak about the hope we have in the storm.  We have an opportunity to pray for our nation, our leaders, our neighbours, our families and friends.

Tomorrow the service will reflect some of the things that have been going on this week as well as looking forward in hope.  It’s designed for all and I want to thank all who are leading.  There will be an opportunity for people to share tomorrow too if you have a prayer or thought.  We have a book that people can write in with their thoughts about the Queen and prayers for others. It will be available in the foyer all week.  The church building was open on Thursday evening and Friday evening last week and we have met some of our community who wanted a space to think.  Next week the building will be open Monday 10-12, Tuesday 10-12 and Wednesday 6.30-7.30 for anyone to come and be and pray. If you want to come yourself, come with others or be around for any of our local community who may want to come in then it would be great to see you. We want to be a church without walls and this is one way we can be there for people at this time.

“The Christmas message shows us that this love is for everyone.  There is no one beyond its reach.”  (Queen Elizabeth II, 2013).

Keep in touch

Shelley, Rachel and the Leadership Team

Stepping Stones returns Tuesday 13th September

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Stepping Stones, our fun session for 0’s to under 5’s is back next Tuesday the 13th September from 10am till 11.30.

No need to book. If you’re a mum, dad, grandparent, child minder, carer just turn up.

You’ll be most welcome. 

SPACE – on a very special night SPACE became a place for reflection and for hope

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By chance it less than an hour after the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II was announced that MBC’s doors were open for SPACE, an evening set aside for anything and everything: singing, dancing, drawing, crafting, flag waving, doodling, playing a musical instrument, reading the bible or simply praying. 

In total about a dozen of our regulars joined us, plus a man we didn’t know who was passing by saw the doors open and the lights on and asked if he come come in to pray. 

To say the news had shocked us all was an understatment. For the little ones the Queen was perhaps just a portrait that you see on a stamp, a mug or on bunting. To others she was someone they themselves might recall seeing when she visited somewhere local, whilst to some she had been a constant throughout their entire lives. 

Whatever the personal memory and despite the underlying hope for the future this was, nevertheless, a sad night, a night filled – indeed for some overflowing with bittersweet memories. 

I don’t think anyone bothered to look at a clock but I reckon SPACE finished somewhere just after 9pm, but that didn’t matter. Indeed by the time we were all cleared away and everything was back in its cupboard we didn’t lock up until 10.

But that was the beauty of SPACE. You see there was no running order, there was no panic when the live link went down, there were no pregnant pauses in which we figeted in our seats and looked down at our shoes. That isn’t to say there weren’t gaps – there were – plenty of them but they were filled with a mix of sadness for what we were all feeling there and then and of hope.

Ruth and Andy did a marvelous job organising SPACE – an uneviable task at best and to do it under those circumstances deserves even more credit.

As we started to tidy away we all sang the National Anthem – God save the King. For those under seventy this was a first, for those over we were reprising something we no doubt did in our own childhood. 

Thank you for SPACE.

In loving memory… Shelley takes on not just one but two arduous runs in memory of her dad

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Over the course of the next four weeks our Church Lead Shelley Dring is set to face two enormous challenges; this Sunday she lines up for the Great North Run, a half marathon that leads out from Newcastle city centre to the coast and back again and then just three weeks later, on Sunday October 2nd she laces her trainers up again to tackle the daddy of them all the 26 and a bit mile London Marathon.

Obviously it goes without saying that Shelley wouldn’t have entered these two events if she didn’t love running. However, there’s more to it than that. As many of you will recall Shelley’s dad Steve died last November and it’s in his memory that she has signed up with the fund raising site Just Giving to try raise as much money as she can for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.

If you would like to help Shelley reach her £2,200 target just click on this link HERE or alternatively I’m certain she wouldn’t be too embarrassed if you were to give her your donation in person.

Thank you.

Make space for space! Thursday 8th September. 6.30pm at MBC.

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If you have ever wondered what a genuine all age event would look like here at MBC? well here’s your chance to find out. And here we’re not just talking about something in which the adults learn one thing and the children and young people learn a slightly more “age appropriate” version in another room… no this is our attempt at hosting a genuine all age, multifaceted event. 

You see here and now, as near as we dare say post Covid, being a Christian and worshipping God is even more about connecting with people, it’s all about being a community that’s outward looking, that’s warm and inviting. It’s all about being people who are prepared to try out new things, to take risks and who knows possibly even unearth new gifts and talents. 

So if you are free at 6.30pm on Thursday the 8th of September why not come up to church, bring something you want to share, to play, to dance to, to sing etc. etc. and enjoy the freedom of space. 

At MBC we are lucky enough to have enough rooms to spread out, so forget the fact that one of them has a sign on it that says it’s a Sports Hall, and that another is called the Music Room; if a bunch of musicians find themselves in the Corner Room and a palette of painters end up setting up in the foyer so be it.

We’d like to think this is the sort of event you could invite your friends and neighbours to, and for those who have been saying “let’s do something new,” well here it is.

So, put the date in your diary now, (either digital or analogue), put your thinking caps on, chat to yur neighbours and friends and if there’s something or anything you, your children or your grandchildren might enjoy come along and be prepared to be church in the broadest and most loving sense of the word.     

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