Welcome to Wokingham Methodist Church

Many pages updated with material from the 2025 annual reports.

Café Mosaic - new opening hours
   Tuesday - Friday, 9.30am-1pm, from 1 October

Monday Evening House Group restarts 7 October
   1^st Monday each month, 7.30pm at a member's home

10.30am Morning Worship - Revd Catherine Bowstead

Future worship and recorded services are on this page.

from Revd Catherine Bowstead

Dear Friends,

I came across an interesting piece of research recently.  It was commissioned by the Church of England for “Thy Kingdom Come” – an initiative to encourage people to pray in the lead up to Pentecost.  More than 2000 people from across Britain were asked to choose from multiple choice options to give the source of well-known phrases.  The answers included famous quotations from literary works, songs, speeches, films and prayers.  The research concluded that words from the Lord’s Prayer were the most recognisable words, beating “May the force be with you” from Star Wars into second place.

An astonishing 80.3 percent of the people surveyed recognised that “Give us this day our daily bread” comes from the Lord’s Prayer, although a further 7 percent of the people claimed never to have heard this line.  Overall, 89 per cent of those surveyed said that they had previously heard of the Lord's Prayer or the “Our Father.”  This was highest among those who described themselves as Christian (95 per cent), but also by 88 per cent of those who said they had no religion.  58 percent said that they had used it in daily life, and many added that they found the most meaningful line was “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.“

Stephen Cottrell, The Archbishop of York observed that “In a world of shifting cultures and changing circumstances, the Lord’s Prayer remains a steady guide - perhaps never more so than now.”

I remember learning the Lord’s Prayer as a very young child, and we said it daily in assemblies at Junior School.  My guess is that fewer and fewer children and young people will learn the Lord’s Prayer.  So I wonder what we might be able to do to use the prayer ourselves and also pass on this treasure to the next generation.  Perhaps you could write or print out copies of the prayer to give to others or tell others how helpful you find it.

I hope that you have a good week

With every blessing

Catherine

A Reflection from Angela Burrell, first published in the church notices of 20 May 2018

Dear Friends

Do not put out The Spirit’s fire

Today we are celebrating Pentecost.  Jesus had returned to The Father and sent His Spirit to remain with us for comfort and guidance.

Talking with a Christian friend recently, he was wondering where the gifts of The Spirit were that had been promised to the Church, such as Prophesy, Healing, Speaking in tongues.

The Rev. Brian Hoare, one time Principal of Cliff College, a Methodist ministerial training college, had returned to the college to lead a seminar on “Music in Worship”.  He had just written his latest hymn as yet unpublished (in our hymnbook), “Born in Song”  [now number 21 in Singing the Faith].  This coincided with the celebration of the 200^th anniversary of John Wesley’s visit to nearby Sheffield.

He had asked the London Emmanuel Choir to sing it during the closing service of the seminar.  A coach was hired to Sheffield and as many members of the choir who were free that weekend travelled to Cliff College.

It was a memorable service.  The choir sang “Born in Song”, still in manuscript form, then in a moment of silence, someone spoke in tongues.  There was a pause then Brian Hoare asked if anyone had an interpretation.  Someone else said that he had.  It was, as far as I can remember, a message of encouragement for God’s people, to keep going, to keep singing.  Brian thanked the speaker and added that it was the message that he also had received.

What I learnt that day was that The Holy Spirit can come in gentleness as a breeze, or as a dove, not always as a mighty wind and is not to be feared.  It was good to experience that day the reality of His living presence.

In Thessalonians 5 it says: “Do not put out The Spirit’s fire.”

Do we fully recognise His presence and power in our lives today?

Angela Burrell

Some previous Pastoral Letters are available here.