Christ Church, Longridge » General

Advent and Christmas Services

The Editor — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:21:12 +0000

This year Advent begins on the 29^th of November.
The evening service on December 6^th will be led by Apples of Gold.
The Park House service at 6.30pm on December 13^th will be a Carol Service (All welcome).
Following the pattern of recent years, the Church Carol Service will be on SATURDAY December 19^th at 6.30pm. On the following morning (Sunday December 20^th) we will have our Family Nativity Service but there will not be an evening service on that day.
Fulwood Methodist Church will be holding a midnight Communion on Christmas Eve at Fulwood URC beginning at 11.00pm.
The Christmas Morning Service will be at 11.00am at Christ Church.
Please note that the CTL Epiphany Carol Service will be held on Sunday January 10^th at 6.30pm at St. Lawrence’s Church. As this is the second Sunday of the month, the Park House Service will move to the first Sunday of the month (Jan. 6^th) just for January.

How Things Change But Stay The Same

The Editor — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:03:00 +0000

After trying to explain to a member of Junior Church why we say ‘dialling a number’ when we actually press buttons to use a telephone these days, reminded me of something I read recently.

We Were Brung Up Proper!

First we were born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos. They took asprin, ate cheese that had seen better days, ate raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat (probably containing sawdust and other unmentionables) and nothing had a ‘best by’ date.

Once we were born our cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets. We drank water from the stream not from a bottle; we shared one soft drink from the same bottle with four friends. We never had a whole Mars bar until 1971. We collected old drinks bottles and cashed them in at the corner shop and bought toffees that pulled your teeth out, gobstoppers and bubble gum. We ate white bread with real butter half an inch thick, but we weren’t overweight because we played outside all day. Even though all the shops closed at 6pm and didn’t open on a Sunday, somehow we didn’t starve to death! You could only buy Easter eggs and Hot Cross buns at Easter time. We rode bikes without wearing helmets or even shoes. If we had a car it didn’t have seatbelts or airbags. We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were home before dark. We would spend hours building go-carts out of prams and then ride them down hill, only to find out we’d forgotten the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in the river. We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and nobody sued anybody! We got catapults and toy guns for our birthdays. We didn’t have TV, Playstations, Nintendos, X-boxes, Videos, DVDs, mobile ‘phones, text messages, internet. We had real friends that you could go out with and talk to. Our teacher used to hit us with gym shoes and throw the blackboard rubber at us if they thought we weren’t concentrating and our parents would side with the teacher! How did we survive! and how different things are now. Through all this one thing remains constant – God and His love for us all.

Elijah, Man Of God

The Editor — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:59:00 +0000

On the morning of Sunday, 29^th November, ADA, (Adults Disability Arts) will be bringing their latest play to Christ Church. This time, it is based on the Biblical account of the prophet Elijah who lived in the 9^th century BC when Ahab was King of Israel. Now you may not be able to write a 10 page essay on the life and times of Ahab but you will certainly know the name of his queen, a woman whose name has survived for the best part of 3 millennia….Jezebel!

Elijah is a man whose heart is definitely in the right place, with God, but he can also see very clearly that he hasn’t a cat in hell’s chance of surviving the tasks that the Lord God keeps asking him to do! His only options are to give up on God, or trust him absolutely. And in the end, this is also what each one of us, in all sorts of difficulties and dangers, has to do.

The banners at the front of church are also a tribute to the importance of Elijah. He lived in dark and violent times, yet he is acknowledged as the precursor of Christ, whose crib appears at the bottom of the left hand banner. The right hand banner shows Jesus with Elijah and Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration, from which the light spreads upwards towards the 2^nd coming.

We make our apologies that the group’s taste in music is somewhat different (!) from our usual Sunday morning hymns and hope that you will listen to it in the context of a story which proves the power of God to protect and re-assure his people. Our brief finale appears on the notices as the week’s Prayer from the Congregation.

With many thanks to everyone at Christ Church who has made our visit possible. ADA.

“Let All The World…

The Editor — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:01:00 +0000

…in every corner sing” – and they certainly did in this particular corner. For four hours on a hot May Sunday in Kailahun, Sierra Leone, I joined with the members of the congregation to celebrate the life of Rev Victor Nabieu. Victor was the Methodist Minister in Kailahun when I first visited Sierra Leone in 2006, and on my return in 2008 I found him a very ill man. He succumbed to his illness in March and after the traditional forty days of mourning; I was privileged to attend his Memorial Service.
I was back in Kailahun to try to make some progress in the Skills Training Centre we helped start building in 2006. The first time I went, I was part of a team of sixteen from the North Lancashire District of the Methodist Church, but this time I went on my own. With my experience working in Training Centres in this country it was becoming hard to get away from the feeling that God was telling me to use my skills, such as they are, in Sierra Leone.
After a long day’s travelling from the UK; I landed in Freetown, the capital, and was taken to a Roman Catholic Hostel for the night. Being male, travelling on my own, staying in a Roman Catholic establishment, I was addressed as ‘Father’, I was too tired to start explaining!! The following day was hectic, meeting people, changing money, buying supplies, organising transport, purchasing a new tyre for the church vehicle and eventually setting off for Kailahun – three hundred miles on very poor roads!
During the next two weeks I helped complete the building and started organising equipment, some of which we had sent out via a container from this country. The local church had gone some way to establishing a Management Committee and after a number of meetings with them and the local government Director of Education we started to arrange interviews for staff and potential students. We were looking for a Manager for the centre plus a Tutor to teach tailoring, one to teach carpentry and one to teach literacy. After many a hot day’s interviewing we eventually appointed a tailoring tutor, Victoria Gallia and a carpentry tutor, Julius Banya and Prince Kafala, the Methodist School Headmaster, to organise the literacy teaching – but no manager. I was very concerned that we had not seen anyone with the potential to run the centre. We continued to interview for students and after yet more hot days we had a manageable number of students to commence training. I was still concerned about not having a manager when the President of the Methodist Church in Sierra Leone contacted me to say he might have a solution. Someone in Freetown, who is a teacher of many years standing, is wanting to return to Kailahun, her home town, to look after her ageing father. I returned to Freetown to meet Sarah Mowio and knew at once that she was the right person for the job – why do we doubt that God will provide? By the way I returned to Freetown in an ambulance! Not that I was ill, but it was the only vehicle available. Having been mistaken for a priest on my way out, I was now being mistaken for a doctor on my return journey!
The time I spent in Sierra Leone was such a rewarding experience in many ways. To work with people who have so little but give so much is very humbling. Please remember the people who will work and learn in the skills training centre and thank you all for your support both financially and prayerfully.

John Spencer

Ladies’ Guild

The Editor — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:07:00 +0000

On August 17th we shall end our summer activities by having a meal at the Corporation Arms. We started with a night at the theatre in May. A beautiful sunny June evening saw us walking along the canal at Bilsborrow, followed by a meal at Owd Nells, and in July some of us enjoyed a shopping trip to Pendle Outlet Centre in Brierfield and Oswaldtwistle Mill. Now we are planning to start the 2009-2010 programme with a coffee evening in the Church Foyer on September
7th when you will be able to see the full programme of talks etc. I do hope you will support this as our funds are quite low after the purchase of the new font.
The first meeting will be on September 14th – look out for the programmes in the Church foyer. We hope to see all our present members and maybe some new faces joining us in September.

Olive Hurlstone

Tuesday At Two

The Editor — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:00:21 +0000

The organization called Tuesday at Two began at Longridge Methodist Church about 25 years ago. At the time, it was felt that there was a need for a day time fellowship meeting, as most church activities took place in the evening. It was open to anyone at home during the day and to begin with attracted both men and women, retired people and young mums. The fortnightly meetings have continued ever since but are now mainly attended by women although men would always be welcome. There have been a wide variety of interesting speakers and trips out over the years and for the last twenty years the team of Mary Hughes, Margaret Mohyla and Sheila Freeman has kept things running smoothly. Not surprisingly they are looking to hand over the task of finding speakers, organizing trips and making sure that all the practicalities of running the meetings are taken care of.

On behalf of everyone at Christ Church and especially those who have attended the meetings over the years, we want to say a really big THANK YOU. If any one would like to help run Tuesday at Two in the future, please see Helen Higgin-Botham, Carol Spencer or Margaret Mohyla.

New Font

The Editor — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:54:16 +0000

Since Christ Church was formed, we have had two fonts – one from each of the joining churches. These were both rather small and both had damage to them but served the purpose. However, they were not very visible and for some time there had been discussions about the possibility of a new font specially for our joint church which is now 20 years old!! Earlier this year, we received an incentive to move more quickly when the mirror in the vestry fell on to one of the fonts and smashed it into tiny pieces. We are grateful to the Ladies Guild who provided most of the money to purchase a brand new font in wood to match the rest of the church. A special word of thanks goes to Janet Sommerville, who researched designs and found the supplier and to all who made a financial contribution. If you have not been in church recently, do come and look at this beautiful new addition.

We have also recently purchased a new book trolley so the hymn books are no longer under the chairs and have to be collected as you come in and returned to the foyer at the end of the service. Bibles are available under the end chairs of each row.

The library has been discontinued but the library cupboard is now being used to store fair trade products which can still be purchased from Carol Rose. The bookstall is available on a seasonal basis which means there are new books to be looked at the significant periods of the church’s year.

Christmas Greetings

The Editor — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:40:47 +0000

“Sylvia & Peter Thomas send Christmas Greetings to all at Longridge from Brigg and wish you a Happy & Peaceful New Year”

Longridge Field Day

The Editor — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:27:48 +0000

Visit the Longridge Field Day Photo Gallery

Worship

Helen — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:29:41 +0000

How do you feel about the Worship at Christ Church?

Whether you are actively involved in preparing worship or just an interested party – it is important that the worship we experience is meaningful and engaging.

At our last Church Council meeting, we discussed the possibility of setting up a Worship Consultation Group – a group of people with ideas and thoughts about preparing for the major festivals within the church year.

If you would be interested in becoming part of such a group – please speak to me, so that I can report back to the next council meeting on the 18th March. Thank you.

Yours in Christ, Helen