News

Just over a year ago a campaign to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes from Oriel College in Oxford (above) was in the headlines, as it tackled the apparent honoured prominence given to an architect of apartheid. In the past week European athletics has proposed striking off records set before 2005, because drugs tests at that time weren’t up to today’s standards.

Apartheid and drug cheating cannot be condoned but it seems to be a bit of a gesture to assume that such actions will change a great deal. Indeed, it is easy to be wise after the event.

It seems that the greater value and yet the harder task is to reshape our current attitudes and future priorities.

It strikes me that Jesus was repeatedly pressed to apportion retrospective blame when faced with the injustices of his day. He refused to fall into this trap. Instead he focused upon attitudes, what can be done now, hopes and the future. “This happened so that God’s work might be revealed…” “Blessed are the poor, for yours in the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied”

In speaking in this way Jesus turned us to what is happening in the present, and what can be hoped for. He also directly confronted those who were oppressing in the present rather than those who had got away with it in the past. This turns us away from gestures and towards ongoing behaviour and what we seek to build for ourselves and future generations.

Now Christians can fall into a similar trap when reviewing our difficult past, as individuals and church, and when facing disconcerting passages in the Bible. Once again, their uncomfortableness should not be cheaply expunged but rather help us to be real about the past and better able to engage in the present.

Graham Brownlee, May 2017

This coming Sunday, May 14th, runners taking part in the Leeds Half Marathon will once again be streaming past us at just about the time our Sunday morning worship starts. This means you will need to plan your journey carefully as there will be a certain number of road closures.

However, unlike in previous years this time MBC finds itself sandwiched between two feeding/water stations which means there will be no need for us to give out drinks. We are though keeping up the tradition of handing out jelly babies.  If you want to help just turn up on Sunday, make your way onto the roundabout and join in the fun.

 

Sorry about the missing newsletter. A couple of weeks ago IT gremlins somehow managed to sabotage our last issue by wiping all the stored images from the website library. However, we are pleased to say normal service has been resumed and provided they don’t strike again there will be a newsletter tomorrow (12 May).

In it you’ll not only find links to a few new stories but also some which if you haven’t visited the website directly you may have missed.  

 

General Election Special Actions

Although some of us might have felt a bit like Brenda from Bristol, when the General Election was announced, it remains a great opportunity for us to build the power of Leeds Citizens and advance our campaigns.

We are running a special action over the next month to make the most of this and are asking for your help to make it a success.

Leeds Citizens is organising meetings with candidates in all Leeds constituencies in the run-up to June 8th. We will be asking them directly to:

• Support our priority campaigns (mental health, Living Wage, opportunities for young people) locally, within their party and at Westminster;
• Meet with us again within 100 days of being elected;
• Commit to an ongoing working relationship with Leeds Citizens through the duration of the Parliament.

How can you take part?

1. We need volunteers to join the teams to meet with candidates in their local constituency. The teams will be briefed and supported by our Senior Organiser, Tom. If you live in one of the following constituencies and would like to take part please contact us now:

2. We need organisations who are willing to host a meeting with a candidate on their premises. All we need is a hall or meeting room, nothing fancy. If you’re able to host, please let me know ASAP.

3. If you are a leader in your community, please promote this opportunity to people in your community and send us a list of people who want to join the team. We want to match people to meetings within their own constituency, so please ask volunteers to note their constituency (or post code, if they aren’t sure), so they can meet the right candidates.

4. For those who can’t make these specific events, but are attending other hustings or meet a candidate on the doorstep, we will be providing a short briefing on our campaign areas with key questions for candidates, to help you contribute to this action and keep candidates on their toes!

We are prioritising this action over the next month as it has potential to help advance all our campaigns. Please let us know if you can volunteer ASAP. We need to move quickly.

Please also remind people to register to vote. The deadline is Monday 22nd May. You can register online at: www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

As much as we seek relationships with elected officials, the most important office is the one which we all share: citizen. Let’s use this election period, through voting and action, to build a bit more trust and participation in our democracy.

There’s an old adage that says “you’re never too old to learn” and whilst that’s undoubtable true four MBC members are proving that there’s also no age limit when it comes to encouraging others to learn.

That’s why each week Jan Brown, Jan Fennell, Diane Sunter and John Sherbourne sign in at Allerton Church of England Primary School to hear pupils read.

Currently the two Jans are working alongside children in Year 5 whilst Diane and John are focussing on Year 6 – that’s the children’s final year in Primary school. The three ladies, as either former teachers or TA’s all have experience in the field of education whereas John who is also one of the school’s co-opted governors comes from a very different world: journalism.  

So if you can spare a couple of hours a week and would like to join the team have a word with John because he’s in absolutely no doubt that if you do either Allerton C of E and/or at least three other local Primary schools will snatch your hand off.

Abi Tilley is planning another outing for the Gospel Choir on Pentecost Sunday (4th June). Everyone is welcome to come along and sing in the Choir.

No audition required or need to read music – just turn up and sing!
We will be preparing 2 songs and will meet rehearsals at the following times:

Monday evening rehearsals 7:00 – 8:30 pm in the Music Room.
There are 3 Mondays before the service itself: 8th, 15th and 22nd May.

Two further rehearsals will be on the following dates:
Sunday 21st immediately after the morning service, and a final rehearsal on Pentecost Sunday morning itself before the service, from 9:45 – 10:15 am.

If in any doubt please contact Abi at church.

Thank-you

Many thanks to Martyn Gray and Kate Slater for sending in this brilliant set of pictures, and also to everyone who was involved in organising this great weekend.

Just one year on from its official opening The Barn Coffee Shop, a social enterprise café based in the grounds of Meanwood Valley Urban Farm, is proving so popular that it has been able to give three local community groups grants totaling £5,000.

They are: Stainbeck United Reform Church, InterACT (a joint church and community partnership) and the café’s neighbour Meanwood Valley Urban Farm.

At a party to mark the Coffee Shop’s first birthday project manager Andrew MacBean reminded guests that besides serving some wonderful coffee and cakes The Barn provides a warm and welcoming meeting place for a number of local community groups which in turn gives them the opportunity to develop and promote new and challenging initiatives.

“Today” he said, “on our first birthday it’s not only a real treat to be able to hand over such a significant amount of money, it’s also a chance for me to say a huge thank you lto our directors, our staff and to all our brilliant volunteers.”

We hear much about recycling, and everyone in Leeds has a Green Bin into which we are supposed to put all our household waste material that can be recycled. Please read the leaflet on recycling that our City Council has recently circulated. Why is this so important? When our various possessions reach the end of their useful lives, whether worn-out or not, we are faced with the tasks of disposal and replacement. If we take a moment to consider the natural world, we can see that nature recycles all of its materials. Dead vegetation decays, and the compost can be returned to the soil. Even large plants like trees are recycled by fungi when they die. Likewise dead animals are cleared up by scavengers.

Mankind however, produces mountains of waste materials, which can be unsightly and cause nasty, polluting effects. At the outset, we take huge quantities of virgin material from the Earth to make our products, and then discard items when we have finished with them. Increasingly, we discard things well before they are worn out, and they may be perfectly serviceable, but we just fancy the latest model. A large advertising industry now exists just to persuade us to continually up-date and to up-grade our stuff. At all costs, we must avoid filling landfill sites, and discarding useful and serviceable items. We must emulate nature, and ‘close the loop’.

What can we do?

• If you have items to dispose of consider donating them to a good cause such as St Gemma’s hospice, or St George’s Crypt, rather than selling them on e-bay. Last year St. Gemma’s raised 25% of their annual running costs via their chain of charity shops. They will take books, CD’s, items of clothing, household goods, TV sets, etc.
• Items of furniture can be given to the Leeds and Moortown furniture store.
• Recycle as much household waste as you can. The Leeds City Council green bin will take paper and card, empty food tins, foil trays, tops from jam and preserve jars, drink cans, empty aerosols such as hair spray, deodorant, biscuit and sweet tins, etc.
• Most plastic items carry the little recycling triangle symbol. Those bearing the numbers 1, 2 and 4, can be put into your green bin. Plastic magazine wrappers can be recycled at Sainsbury’s Moortown store. I have seen all these being recycled into useful, durable plastic products for the construction industry.
• Take empty bottles and jars to the bottle bank, they can be recycled as cullet to make more glass.

Why is this important?

If we recycle and re-use our materials, we reduce the demand for virgin materials that have to be extracted from nature. The extracting, transporting, and processing of materials consumes huge amounts of energy. If we recycle, we are saving both materials and energy, and cutting down on pollution – we are caring for God’s creation.

John Sturges                 j.sturges@leedsbeckett.ac.uk;

Julia Hyliger                 julia.hyliger@hotmail.co.uk;

April 2017