John Sherbourne

As a church MBC has a long history of promoting and supporting worldwide mission and development work through the Baptist Missionary Society (now often called BMS World Mission). During the lockdown we are continuing to send a monthly donation from the tithed giving direct to BMS.

We also have a number of people who further support BMS through monthly giving and/or annual gifts through the Birthday Scheme. For those using envelopes placed in the collection, this type of giving stopped at the end of February. Whilst we are unable to meet for services, we would ask that you consider making your donations direct to BMS at www.bmsworldmission.org This will ensure that the money gets to the work among some of the poorest and most marginalised in the world immediately – including the frontline work of our partner missionaries Mark and Andrea Hotchkin in Chad.(below left)

If you could also let me know when you make donations with the amounts, they will be then recorded as MBC giving. roger.robson1@ntlworld.com or 07929100598.

Some of you, in fortunate circumstances like me, may have found that in lockdown you actually have more money to spare. (I know the opposite is true for others).

The recent government announcement of the decision to merge the Foreign Office and Dfid (Department for International Development) has dismayed the many charities (Christian and secular) which work in the poorest countries. Dfid, (and I declare a personal interest as my daughter worked in the Department for several years including a 2 year posting in parts of Africa), has a very good reputation in the world and is currently responsible for using 0.7% of GDP in aid and development – often channelled through Christian Charities including BMS.

There is already talk of moving funds away from the poorest countries to other potential allies or trading partners and references in the media to “Charity begins at Home” and “Looking after No 1” (hardly Christian aphorisms). As a result, 200 charities – including Tearfund, Christian Aid, Traidcraft, Save the Children and Action Aid – have written to the government saying:

“Abolishing one of the world’s most effective and respected government departments at a time when the world is in need of global leadership, undermines our response to Covid-19 and suggests the UK is turning its back on the world’s poorest people”

We each have to decide our own views on political decisions, but, if you do have money to spare perhaps you will consider donating to one of those charities to show that Christians are definitely NOT turning our backs on the world’s poorest.

Thank you.

Roger Robson

The ‘C’ word.
It used to stand for Cancer.
Will it ever again?

Life has changed, irretrievably.
Suits and dresses, swopped for scrubs.
Compassionate faces, hidden behind masks.
Searching eyes, the touch of a gloved hand.
Sweat pours.

Money spent, like never before.
A never ending pot?
Endless ward reconfigurations.
Ventilators.
The Nightingale.
Mothballed: forever?

Each day starts with uncertainty.
Where? With whom? Doing what?
Social distancing.
Remote meetings.
Endless ethical debates.
Staff working relentlessly, doing their best.
Days roll into one.
God give us strength, stamina, courage, kindness, patience.
And mercy for those returning home exhausted to self-isolation: alone, alone, alone.

The stench of death:
Bodies turning into corpses,
Lying helpless; baked by the sun.
Abandoned – yet never forgotten.

Communication.
By telephone, muffled.
‘I’m very sorry to have to tell you…’
Stark, painful words spoken and received through a hot wall of tears.
Man was never meant to be alone.

Colleagues off sick.
2 weeks with the virus.
Then again: months with stress and depression.
Or maybe more?

The ‘C’ word.
It used to stand for Cancer.
Will it ever again?

Claire Taylor
June 2020

Claire is a Consultant respiratory physician.

The picture at the top of this post shows Claire and her colleagues wearing full PPE at work in Harrogate.  

In addition to compiling and updating MBC’s online Covid-19 Notice Board, sending out regular newsletters and keeping up telephone contact one of the projects that Carole Smith, MBC’s Seniors Worker and coordinator of Lunch Club is currently involved in is promoting a magazine called Shine.

This is published fortnightly in conjunction with Ageing Better, a programme set up by The National Lottery Community Fund which aims to develop creative ways for older people to be actively involved in their local communities. 

During a recent conversation with Carole, John Sherbourne (now 71) mentioned that just before lockdown he had bought an old 35mm film camera from a charity shop in Harrogate, loaded it with a roll of black and white film and taken himself off to Headingley and Burley to record in words and pictures just how much the area had changed since he and his family left there when he was 7.

“That,” said Carole is exactly the sort of story Shine magazine is looking for, you need to send it in.” And that’s precisely what John did. Entitled It was all so black and white the article appears across 4 pages in Issue 4 and features many of Headingley’s famous old landmarks including: South Parade Baptist Church, the Lounge Cinema, the former Bennett Road laundry and even a shoe shop on North Lane which in order to guarantee a perfect fit zapped X rays through children’s feet. 

A copy of the magazine together with an up to the minute newsletter and a large print version of a story John wrote for our website about Lunch Club regular and bike mad nonagenarian Cynthia Chandler is currently being sent out to all MBC’s seniors. 

Shine magazine which at this moment in time only has funding until mid July is available free of charge both online or for those who prefer it that way on good old glossy paper. This is a shame as it is proving to be very popular. However, it’s important that while it is is with us we don’t think of it purely as something only produced for seniors. No, on the contrary it actively entourages contributions from them.

So if anyone has any memories they would like to share, and puzzles or poems you can either email them to hello@shinealight.org.uk or you can pop them in the post to Shine Magazine, PO Box 908, Elland, HX1 9WF. 

You can find out more about the whole Ageing Better project and download the magazines at https://www.timetoshineleeds.org/

If this article or the pictures below have whetted your appetite for a touch of nostalgia you read John’s story in full by clicking HERE

During lockdown Karen Ross has been busy making another banner for Moortown Baptist Church. However, she needs your help to finish it. For almost forty years Karen, often on her own at other times with others has been making the banners that we see displayed at the front of church. Over this time she has skilfully crafted flags and banners that proclaim the importance of specific Christian festivals such as Christmas, Easter, Harvest and Advent and other less ones that reflect certain themes like for example light, hope, love and peace. 

Right now Karen is putting the finishing touches to a spectacular piece of work which encourages us all to put Jesus at the heart of the matter. As you will see from our picture the heart theme spreads out from the centre, rainbow fashion. It’s not far off finished but rather than completing it herself Karen is inviting you to create the outer rim by making or cutting out hearts and sending them to her. 

The hearts which will eventually go on the outside of the orange ones must be red and no bigger than 2 to 3 inches in size. They can however be made of absolutely anything (felt, knitted wool, silk, card etc.) as long as it’s possible for Karen to either stitch or glue them on to the finished banner.

In total Karen is wanting 50 to 60 hearts and all she asks is that when you have done yours you write your name on the back, pop it in an envelope marked Karen Ross, Hearts and that you either drop it through the letter box at church or post them to her at Moortown Baptist Church, 204 King Lane, Leeds LS17 6AA. 

So let’s all get busy. 

When Karen contacted us and asked for our help recruiting heart makers I asked her how it all began. This is what she said.

I think I made the first banner at Christmas 1981: The Light of the World. Someone saw a card I had made for their birthday and asked if I could make a larger one to hang up!  I had a go and enjoyed it.

The last 13 weeks of social restriction and separation have been challenging to say the least. We are made for connection and communication and as our outer lives have been shrinking and our connections restricted to our own household we perhaps feel that we have ‘closed up’.

There may have been an opportunity for our ‘inner lives’ and our faith to change, to grow and to learn new things but this has been hard. But now we have the opportunity to meet in a new way.

On Sunday I had a welcome face to face catch up with a church friend, over a cup of tea, on a park bench, at the park, in the sunshine, 2 metres apart and in sight of other families meeting up in perhaps the same way. We both felt encouraged, enlivened and hopeful. We will do this again.

Can I make a genuine offer? I have a flask of tea at the ready and I know some wonderful, local open spaces with reasonably comfortable park benches. I would love to have a catch up with you.

We have a Pastoral Care Team who would be delighted to be called, have a cup of tea with you and pray with you.

If you are feeling disconnected or just need to meet face to face would you please take a little step and phone or message one of us so that we can have that cup of tea or pray with you over the phone.

Jane Coates and the Pastoral Care Team

07824 317 650   or   0113 2688642

jmcoates41@hotmail.com

The letter below was sent to press and media and to Tom Riordan (Chief Executive Leeds City Council), Judith Blake (Leader, Leeds City Council) and Mark Burns Williamson (West Yorkshire, Police and Crime Commissioner)

I (Graham Brownlee) support a video from Bishop Tony Parry, New Testament Church of God, Leeds. SEE BELOW THE LETTER. 

This is intended as a start and spur to building relationships, listening, prayer and taking action together.

With a zest for life more in tune with someone half her age Cynthia Chandler who last week celebrated her 90th birthday could well serve as an example to us all. Still driving and until just five years ago when a virus played havoc with her balance still riding a bike Cynthia, pictured here at one of MBC Lunch Club’s regulars Wednesday get-togethers is facing the rigours of lockdown with a mix of solid stoicism and good old  Yorkshire grit.

Born near Wakefield in 1930 Cynthia’s love of cycling has spanned eight decades. Her first bike, which owing to its robust build won itself the nickname “Roundhay Park gates” was a hand me down from her dad. However, by the time she was fifteen Cynthia not only had her own slightly less weighty Norton, fixed wheel and with just one brake, but along with some of her friends had become a member of the first ever junior section of the Cycling Club.

The friendships Cynthia formed in those teenage years were to last for years, or should that be for thousands and thousands of miles. Both on and off the saddle Cynthia and her friends became inseparable. “When we weren’t riding round the Yorkshire Dales or peddling to somewhere like York for a rally,” she says “we were on holiday together or at weekends out dancing at the Capitol, the Mecca or the Majestic.”

However, as the cycling bug bit harder, Cynthia, who would go on to work for Leeds Social Services for more than 25 years quickly learned that as far as competitive cycling was concerned she was never going to be a sprinter. “No,” she says, “time trials were my event – anything from however long it took to cover 25 miles to punishing 12 hour marathons.”

Cynthia and her late husband Reg married in 1950 and have a son who makes frequent visits from his home in Gibraltar. So thinking back over the last three months how I ask has she been? “I can’t say I’m suffering that much,” says Cynthia. “I have some lovely nieces and nephews who live in Meanwood and they make sure I’m OK, they do my shopping for me and despite me perhaps making it sound as if I’m a real live wire I’ve always enjoyed my own company.”

As restrictions start to ease, besides pottering in her garden and tending to her flower tubs one of the things Cynthia is particularly enjoying are John Hornby’s alfresco street concerts. “Even though we all have to keep apart” she says, “it’s lovely to hear him playing and to join in with the singing.”

As the uncertainty surrounding all things Covid continues, speaking with Cynthia and having been both touched and inspired by her outlook and spirit I have to say it’s a pity we can’t find some way of bottling it. Because if we could I’m certain that after just one small glass looking forward to what remains of 2020 would be a far more pleasant experience than many of us are currently imagining.The old pictures in the body of the story show Cynthia competing in the Isle of Man 25 mile time trial in 1959 and one taken in 1962 during a 12 hour time trial. The ones in the collage were taken at home in 1954, at Roundhay Park in 1959 and a snowy day in the Dales in 1958.

As if to underline my point I need to tell you that all our pictures you see here were copied and emailed to me by Cynthia on her Samsung tablet. The only exception being the much more recent one that I took on one of my visits to Lunch Club. 

The idea of a constructing a living wall sounds a fascinating idea. But for Kate and Howard Slater an idea is fast become reality. Let Kate explain: “We’ve started making a living wall in the rear garden and Howard is having a second go at growing tomatoes; his first attempt was curtailed when our dog dug them up!As you can see from the picture as and when it’s complete the wall will be covering what can only be described as a very boring fence panel. It needs more plants but its a start. The framework is made from some old metal wine racks that we brought back from France (huge expense, they cost us 5 Euros) and I have cut the bottom off some plastic tonic bottles, put pots inside to make them longer enough and slotted them in where the bottles would normally sit.”

How successful the Slater’s efforts will be is something only time will tell, but no one can say they don’t deserve 10 out of 10 for imagination and ingenuity. 

Staying with Kate she has also sent us this picture and a lovely bit of video, shot in her garden which she says shows two sparrows nesting. That might be one word for it Kate, but to me it looks as if these two love birds have their minds set on something far more romantic than building a nest. You can watch the video HERE 

Staying, loosely, on a nature theme many thanks to Susie Newhall for sending in two pictures that she took whilst walking Murphy in Roundhay Park. “They might be too boring,” said Susie half apologetically in the note that accompanied the snaps. Never, Susie, the day I tire of walking through the woods and watching sunlight dance you can nail the lid down.  

Thanks also to Jane Coates for sending us this link to another epic choral work. This unlike the UK Blessing and for that matter MBC’s own Penteost song reaches out across the entire world as singers from countries as far apart as Iran, Ireland, the USA and China come together to present their rendition of John Newton’s Amazing Grace.