Huge congratulations to everyone at The Leeds and Moortown Furniture Store on being awarded The Duke of York’s Community Initiative – for the second time.

This prestigious prize is awarded to community groups and charities throughout Yorkshire who are deemed by the Initiative’s Assessors to be making a very real difference to the communities they serve.

The Store, as many of you will already know, began life here at MBC in 1986. Today, more than thirty years on it is based in a 10,000 sq ft warehouse in Seacroft, collects and then gives away more than 6,000 separate items of furniture every year, runs a wholly owned retail arm and employs seven staff.

The Store first collected the DOYCI award in 2011, and as is the scheme’s practice it was invited to reapply in 2016.

This year’s ceremony was held in St Paul’s Hall at Huddersfield University and was attended by more than two hundred representatives from the 42 successful organisations. Presenting the award to LMFS’ General Manager John Gamson, Dr Ingrid Roscoe The Lord-Lieutenant of West Yorkshire commented on how vital the type of work the store does is and thanked everyone for their commitment.

With John at Huddersfield were driver Robbie and two of the store’s volunteers Peter and Danny. Next month, however, three of the team will be travelling to St James’ Palace, London to attend a reception hosted by the scheme’s Patron HRH The Duke of York.The picture above shows John Gamson (second left) with Dr Roscoe (centre) and representative of the other sixteen West Riding based organistaions that were presented with the award.

Last Monday evening we hosted the second of our Being Baptist, Being MBC sessions and fifteen people met here at MBC to look at church membership and what it means to be Baptist.

Here’s a link to a summary of some of the stuff we thought about and shared. If having read it you find that this is something that interests you have a chat with Shona Shaw, Graham Brownlee or with any member of the leadership team, they would be delighted to tell you more.

The publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in 1962 first raised the alarm about the perils facing food and the countryside. This book high-lighted the effects of spraying the countryside with chemicals, and over 50 years later the problems that she raised have not gone away; indeed, they now form part of the latest approach to the so-called ‘industrial farming’ business.

Industrial farming has arisen from the large supermarkets’ desire to sell meat (beef, pork, chicken, etc.) at the lowest prices to the consumer. These supermarket chains are very large with a great deal of economic clout; they have the power to drive the agenda around food production and the supply of ‘cheap meat’. However, as with everything in this world, there is a price to be paid for this. The dictates of the low shelf price feed right back along the supply chain to the farmers producing the food, and this relentless pressure to cut costs has led to the development of ‘industrial farming’.

In terms of agriculture, the current trend is to create very large fields. Turning small fields into large ones involves the removal of miles of hedgerows and this has a very damaging effect:   

• It destroys the habitats of millions of insects (including bees), birds and small animals, many of which help the growing process. Bees are essential for pollination.
• The hedgerows act as windbreaks, and their removal aids soil erosion.
• The farmer uses heavier machinery which compacts the soil, further promoting erosion.
• The farmer needs to use more fertilizers, weed-killers, etc.

In terms of rearing livestock for food, in those parts of the world given over to industrial farming, the fields contain no animals (cows, pigs, sheep, poultry). Animals are kept under battery farming conditions, penned inside large barns, where they are fed by machines dispensing grain and corn laced with antibiotics. This way a calf can be fattened up ready for slaughter in half the time taken by natural grazing. Huge volumes of manure are generated that have to be stored in ponds, and any leakage can contaminate local drinking water supplies. It has been estimated that sufficient food to feed around two billion people is now fed to farm animals under these conditions. This is done to provide supplies of low-price steaks and burgers for the affluent half of the world, and not to feed the poor.

What can we do? Consumers have certain power, and the simple advice is

• Buy foods from the land – reared on farms, not factories;
• Use leftovers where possible to reduce food waste,
• Choose a balanced diet, without eating too much meat, and especially red meat.
• Avoid labels that say things like ‘farm fresh’, ‘country fresh’, ‘natural’ or just ‘fresh’, they probably come from factory farms.
• In the EU, eggs have to be labelled to indicate their origin, so look out for free range and organic, the hens will have been given access to the outdoors under these terms. ‘Barn’ eggs come from hens kept in barns, and also avoid eggs labelled ‘eggs from caged hens’ or ‘enriched or colony cage’ eggs. These are rare examples of labels that tell you they are factory farmed.
• When it comes to fish, sustainably caught salmon and trout is much better than farmed fish, wild salmon contains up to 60% less fat than the farmed variety.

This is important for several reasons. Firstly, industrial farming reduces biodiversity, this is bad for the reasons given last month. Farm produce should go to feed hungry people, rather than providing luxuries for the affluent. Industrially-produced meat contains more fat and less protein than naturally-reared meat. Factory-farmed meat contains high levels of antibiotics, and factory farming accelerates soil erosion.

John Sturges         j.sturges@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

Julia Hyliger        Julia.hyliger@hotmail.co.uk

February 2017

You may well have noticed that over the last few weeks a number of new signs have gone up in the MBC car park. These, together with a request that when ever you park at church – or over at Leafield clinic you leave one of our ID cards in your window are part of a strategy to make our grounds safe for motorists and pedestrians alike.

If you haven’t already got an ID card there is a supply of these both in the foyer and on the shelf that runs along the back of the sanctuary. All we require is that you put your name on the card and pop it on your dashboard. This way in the event of a steward needing to contact you he or she can do so without having to find a live mic, make an announcement and/or tour the building shouting out a registration number.

There is of course unlimited, free parking on the Queenshills. In fact if you turn right as you walk out of our main entrance and then right again at the telephone box you are on Queenshill Avenue in less than a minute (and with no roundabout to cross).

Dateline Tuesday 5pm… As I write Cas Stoodley and her team of Rewind volunteers are exactly half way through their four sessions. Abridged from an original Scripture Union template Rewind to Easter is a tried and tested project that this year will once again present what we as Christians believe to be the true meaning of the Easter story to more than 300 Year Five school children.

With MBC’s Youth Worker Chris Hyliger playing Jesus (see main pic) Rewind to Easter is a mix of story telling, quizzes, video clips, drama and craft which just like its winter counterpart, Rewind to Christmas, provides us with a great opportunity to bring together children of all faiths and none to share one of the Christian church’s richest traditions.

Here’s a gallery of some of the pictures taken during our first two sessions. To view a larger version simply click on the image.

As has become customary in March in recent years with the weather improving and before the air fares become too pricy, Rod Russell has arranged for another group from Romania to visit us. We are pleased to welcome eight people from the churches we are involved with in Romania for a 12 day visit. Four are from Cserefalva where we have had longstanding links through Pastor Noemi Soos and her husband Csaba. The other four are from the village of Bikafalva where Zsuszi and Andor (who previously spent a year with us) now live and Zsuzsi is pastor.   All speak Hungarian as their first language and attend the Hungarian Reformed Church.

They arrived on Monday on a direct flight from Cluj to Doncaster courtesy of Wizz Air – a much more straightforward journey than previously. They were even in time to come to the church for the Monday morning coffee (and cake). After meeting their hosts they spent the afternoon at Roundhay Park and visiting the meerkats at Tropical World.

Tuesday saw a trip to the Dales via the Cow and Calf rocks, with a stroll by the River Wharfe at Burnsall. Some were a bit more adventurous than others – fortunately a change of clothes was not needed.

Although winter in Romania can be very cold, having on a picnic in Upper Wharefdale in March can also be a little on the chilly side.

On Wednesday a long day, for the obligatory trip to London to see the Queen or more likely the Changing of the Guard. For most it is their first visit outside of Romania or Hungary and so it is an opportunity both to meet people at Moortown and see how we do church and also to see something of the country.

The group will be joining us for the morning service on Sunday so do look out for them and say “hello” and try out your Hungarian! They return to Romania bright and early on Friday morning next week.