Sunday Morning Worship guidelines updated.

Starting 6th March, Tea and Coffee will be served after Sunday Morning Worship on the first Sunday of each month.

Many pages updated with material from the annual reports.

Sunday Morning Worship in the church resumed on Easter Day, 4^th April 2021.  Current guidelines.

10.30am Holy Communion - Revd Catherine Bowstead

Wokingham Methodist Church Community News.

A reflection from Kim Tame

Martha and Mary of Wokingham

A friend was recently in just the right place at the right time to do a good deed for someone; that someone thanked him and told him he was sent by God.  He was somewhat sceptical about that; it was surely just a coincidence.

Yet God's will seems to be done in those tiny coincidences that lead us to a certain place at a certain time to do a certain thing, and who knows what more is happening in the innumerable moments when we are blissfully unaware of anything happening at all, when we are just people doing what we do.

I was reminded of a scene in Elizabeth Gilbert's book, "Eat, pray, love."  On hearing of a tragic event in their neighbourhood, one person says, "That family needs grace."  Another says, "That family needs casseroles."  The question is put, "what's the difference?"  Martha and Mary, just doing what they do, are doing the work of grace everyday.

The world in general seems to be in a dark place at the moment; so it was good to attend the recent AGM of Churches Together in Wokingham, and learn about some of the work the churches are doing to support the community.  Christians are sharing food, sharing time, sharing resources with people in need of extra help.  We heard about the work of the Foodbank, Soulscape, Share, Christian Aid and support for refugees from Ukraine, and how hundreds of volunteers, those who would call themselves Christians, and those who wouldn't, make the work happen.

Martha and Mary are alive and well, in praying, providing, supporting, mentoring, advising.  The practical and the spiritual are sometimes clearly delineated, sometimes merging into one as each shares their light.

Our service this Sunday will be Holy Communion, led by our minister, Revd. Catherine Bowstead.

Kim Tame

From Revd Catherine Bowstead

Dear Friends,

We had a brilliant time at Breakfast Church last Saturday.  Our theme was the story of Nehemiah, how he worked with the people of Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city and how they completed it in an amazing 52 days.  We thought about the wonderful things that we can achieve when we work together and cooperated to build our own wall which we inscribed with our favourite verse from Nehemiah: “The joy of the Lord is your strength”.  We had a delicious breakfast too.  The wall is on display in the café if you would like to see it.

This Sunday is All Age Worship and we’ll be taking the theme of “Pilgrimage” inspired by the pilgrimage walk that I took a few weeks ago.  We’ll be exploring how we can apply the principles and lessons from a pilgrimage in our Christian Journeys.  Maybe you would like to think of journeys and pilgrimages that you have been on and what you’ve learnt along the way.

I hope that you manage to keep cool in the heatwave and that you have a good week,

With every blessing

Catherine

Some previous Pastoral Letters are available here.