The Survival of the Church: an interview with Linda Woodhead

From the Coventry Diocese monthly digest of interesting Church-related reports, this fascinating article seems to fit our recent discussions on why so many people are choosing not to go to church these days.

Holistic spirit: The Tablet Interview, with Linda Woodhead

One of Britain’s leading sociologists of religion, Linda Woodhead, tells Theo Hobson of the vital choices the Church must make to survive:

“I’d say: whose common good is it that you’re talking about, and why do people leaving the Churches, and perhaps getting involved in the holistic milieu, not feel that it’s their common good? Perhaps your common good is actually quite a narrow common good; and there’s a big group of people, mostly women, for whom it hasn’t been very good, and you have to understand why they are going elsewhere for the spiritual, which they’re still deeply engaged with. There’s a big gender element: I think the Church needs to be much more aware about the message it has given women about being selfless, and think hard about why many women feel that’s an unfair burden that’s been placed on them.”

Linda Woodhead in the Tablet (10/06/2006) discussing the emphasis currently placed by Christians on the 'common good'.

Why has church attendance slumped over the last 20 years? Your chance to address the issues ...

Church Attendance Discussion

On Monday 10th July at 7.30pm at Hillcrest House, we will be holding our third meeting to discuss the church report on why attendance at church services for most denominations has declined over the last 20 years.

It has been most interesting to get an insight into the problems faced by the church as it tries to make itself relevant in a secular world. Please join us at this final meeting. This meeting will take the place of our regular church services in July.

For more information contact Andrew Grant on 01788 891076.

Andrew Grant asks searching questions about the moral issue of global warming

'Global challenge' - a newsletter article by Andrew Grant (Churchwarden, Flecknoe)

"On a visit to the United States in May, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, used the opportunity to raise the moral issue of global warming. Much effort is spent by the church and Christian charities such as Christian Aid and Tear Fund to try and improve the lot of the millions round the World who lack the basic necessities of life that we take for granted. We dip into our pockets whenever we hear of humanitarian disasters and satisfy ourselves that we are doing our bit to help those less fortunate than ourselves. But is there a greater moral issue that we are not facing up to?

The evidence is now clear that our consumption of the Word’s resources and in particular of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas has taken the level of carbon dioxide in the air to the point where a significant rise in global temperatures is inevitable. What will be the consequences of this? There has been much publicity surrounding the increased hurricane activity in the Caribbean and destruction of New Orleans, but what of the impact on the poor of the World? Many tens of millions already live in marginal areas where rains frequently fail. For them life will become unsustainable. We, the more prosperous nations, are already saying we can not take in more immigrants and are devising ways to make our borders more secure. What is to happen to those who must move to survive? It is probable that this will number more than a billion people within 50 years, given current trends.

What is our Christian responsibility? We can not let them starve, but neither can our damaged planet enable them to live. Is this not the greatest moral dilemma facing our World today? We in the developed world must make sacrifices to our standard of living now to allow the less fortunate a life. Is it surprising that our Archbishop chose to raise this issue in the land that symbolises consumerisation?"

Andrew Grant.

Cream Teas: Sunday 11th June, 3 - 5pm

Please do visit St Mark's Church on Sunday 11th June for our annual Spring Teas event, though in June it should really be Summer Teas!

Tea, squash, cream scones and other refreshments will be available. There will also be a raffle in aid of church funds. Everybody very welcome, especially families with children!

Sunday 11th June
3 - 5pm

Come & Discuss the Church Report: Monday 12th June

St Mark's will be holding a second meeting in June to discuss the church report on why attendances at church services for most denominations has declined over the past 20 years. This will take place on Monday 12th June at 7.30pm at Hillcrest House, Flecknoe. All are welcome. This discussion meeting takes the place of regular church services during the month of June.

A third meeting will be held on Monday 10th July. For more information please contact Andrew Grant, Churchwarden, on 01788 891076.

Clay Prayer: Being a Disciple

For as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O House of Israel
Jeremiah 18: 6


CLAY PRAYER
Lord God, who creates all things for a reason,
shape us like clay to your purpose, tell us
our true names.
Fire us with the Holy Spirit, in darkness
and in light.
Guide us to the people and places
that can work your will in us.
For we are ready, Lord,
to be made your servants and your disciples
in Christ's name.

Amen


Prayer from Jane Holland, Warwickshire


Don't forget, the weekly meetings at Elizabeth House, Flecknoe, are continuing at 7.30pm on Thursday evenings, where you can follow a US-devised course entitled 'Being a Disciple: Counting the Real Cost.' These weekly meetings are being led by one of our new church members, Ann Absolom, who first suggested the idea and is now organising the course.

Christian Aid Week - please do give GENEROUSLY!

It's that time of the year again when you get the little red and white envelopes through your letter box and later someone should come round to collect them from you, hopefully filled with cash etc. But although it's only one week out of the year when Christian Aid is visible on your doorstep, the work of Christian Aid goes on 365 days of the year, year in, year out.

Christian Aid helps the world's poorest communities grow their own way out of poverty. Their motto for this Christian Aid Week: You add. We multiply. And you can see for yourself, with their 'multiplier machine' how Christian Aid uses your donations to invest in things that grow to help communities for years to come.

Visit Christian Aid online to see how your money is helping people in need around the world, by clicking Christian Aid.

Your donations can go a long way:

£7 / €10
pays the monthly salary of a teacher in Bangladesh

£19 / €28
can buy a sheep in Bolivia

£57 / €82
can buy a hive and train a beekeeper in the DR Congo

And, of course, much much more! So please do give generously this Christian Aid week ... or all year round, if you like, by visiting their site (link above) and seeing how your continuing donations can help.

Join us for monthly Monday meetings, starting 8th May.

Although there will be no services at St. Mark's for a few months, the Flecknoe PCC have arranged for monthly meetings of one hour approximately, to take place over the summer to ensure we don't lose touch with each other. The meetings will start on Monday 8th May. Subsequent meetings will be June 12th and 10th July. There will be no meeting in August.

The first meeting will be at 7.30pm at Hillcrest House, Flecknoe, Monday 8th May. We will be discussing why church attendance across all denominations is continuing to diminish, with reference to a recent ecumenical survey looking at statistics and possible reasons for this decline. Discussion will be informal and anyone is welcome to come along.

For more information, please contact our churchwarden, Andrew Grant, on 01788 891076.

'Being a Disciple': a six week course

You are invited to a six week Bible study course from the U.S. entitled 'Being a Disciple: Counting the Real Cost'.

The first meeting is on Thursday 4th May at 7.30pm and is being held at Elizabeth House, Flecknoe, by one of our new church members, Ann Absolom, who suggested and is organising the course herself.

Download a Sermon

There are to be no church services at St. Mark's from now until August 27th, but there's no need to go without spiritual guidance. All the new web-based technology (such as media players and mp3s) has led to a number of churches putting their sermons on the internet. The best examples are given below (including some sermons by John Ortberg).

Please note, all the church sites listed below are based in the US.

'MPPC Family' Sermons
'Peach Trees' Sermons
'South East Christian' Sermons

Encounters on the Edge - the rural church today

For those interested in the problems of contemporary rural mission, the Church Army recently produced a very helpful edition of 'Encounters on the Edge' that includes a summary of the situation facing the rural church (by George Lings). Issue number 27 (click here for further details) includes some very helpful reflections on patterns of services in rural multi-parish benefices.

He refers to the lessons we can learn from the Methodist Church who reduced the number of services offered in their smaller rural chapels in the hope that people would travel to a nearby chapel where regular worship was considered sustainable. He notes: "The policy became to close small local chapels and ask people to come together to form critical mass or joinable churches. Conversations I had with Methodist leaders tell me one third of the people simply stopped going anywhere, one third stayed local but transferred (usually to the Anglicans) and only one third complied."

Turning to the practice in the Church of England, he writes: "Many services became no longer weekly but monthly, creating a context which demanded esoteric knowledge to find them, discouraged that favoured Anglican bird of passage, the casual attender, and created patterns of irregular attendance as an unwelcome norm in spirituality."

He also adds that "it is better to provide simple but sustainable weekly lay-led services of the word, with Eucharist less frequently, than to operate with the priest as a whirling dervish Eucharistic machine, flying around the benefice, parachuting in for the magic words, splitting the integrity of word and sacrament and unable to build pastoral contacts."

Some thought-provoking remarks there and something, perhaps, for browsers from other rural parishes to pursue further. The suggestion of 'lay-led services' is particularly fascinating and apposite in these days of priest shortages.

Here at the small church of St Mark's in Flecknoe, faced with just such a shortage, we have already taken the difficult decision to 'close' in terms of regular services and only offer the four major services of Easter Sunday, Harvest Festival, the annual Carol Service and, of course, Christmas Day itself. It does mean that the 'casual attender' referred to above is going to be discouraged. But in a tiny rural community like ours, even the casual attender is practically extinct. And in the age of the car, worshippers are not worried by the idea of travelling a few extra miles to larger and more lively churches. It is our hope, naturally, that they will continue to worship in the absence of regular services here at St Mark's and not leave the Church altogether ...

Easter Lilies

Easter is almost upon us but there's still time if you would like to make a donation towards our Easter lilies in memory of a loved one. Donations for flowers to Sarah Jolley at Underwood Cottage, Flecknoe by Wednesday 12th April, please.

Prayer requests can be left in the secure postbox in the church porch.

And don't forget, our Easter Day service is a service of Holy Communion at 10.30pm Sunday 16th April. Everyone especially welcome for this, our last official service until the Harvest Festival in September, although a United Service for all churches in the benefice is to be held at St. Mark's on August 27th, 10.30am.

New Christian Aid logo and catalogue!

Christian Aid has just redesigned their logo and are launching various new fund-raising ventures in light of that change, including a catalogue packed full of handy everyday goods such as T-shirts, mugs, worship materials and a selection of books.

If you'd like to raise money for Christian Aid and own some of those goods yourself, click here to be redirected to the exact Christian Aid website page where you can download the new catalogue or order it to arrive through the post. You can also go on to explore their fascinating website with many useful resources for Christians and more ideas on charitable fund-raising ...

A Prayer for Mothering Sunday

Following on from the last post here, there is actually another Holy Communion service before Christmas ... on Easter Sunday, in fact, when you're all very welcome to join us at St. Mark's for our last service of the present schedule, at 10.30am. After that, the church will not be holding another Sunday service until the Harvest Festival celebration in September.

But before Easter Day, we have Mothering Sunday fast approaching! Which means breakfast in bed for mothers and carers everywhere, and a chance to show them how much you appreciate their untiring work.

Here is a longer version of a short prayer from the Mother's Union, specially adapted to be used on Mothering Sunday:


Dear God

We thank you for mothers.

We thank you for all those who care for us
in quiet, often unrecognised ways;
we thank you for all those who care for others
in patience and love.

We are sorry for those times when we have failed
to care for others
and pray that you will teach us
to care as you do

and that you will hold all mothers
and carers
in the light of your presence
and guide them to you.

Amen.


This prayer was produced by the Mother's Union. Used with kind permission.

Holy Communion 9am Sunday 19th March

St. Timothy, celebrated here in one of the beautiful stained glass windows at St. Mark's Church, Flecknoe


As many of you in the Leam Valley benefice will know, our little church in Flecknoe has decided to drop to four services a year, since the diocese will only fund a part-time priest for our benefice - two days a week to cover five parishes - and the small but loyal congregation here at St. Mark's, Flecknoe, cannot continue to pay a full Parish Share under those conditions.

So the time is now fast approaching when our usual schedule of services will stop, which is the Easter Day service. After Easter - apart from weddings, funerals and baptisms as required - there will not be another service at St. Mark's until the Harvest Festival. That will be followed by a Family Carol Service in December and a Christmas Day Holy Communion Service, with nothing after that until Easter 2007.

In light of that, we are extending a particularly warm welcome to all those in the surrounding area to join us for our last few services.

This Sunday, March 19th, will be a 9am Service of Holy Communion and you are all very welcome to join us.

Christian Aid's East Africa emergency appeal

The UN estimate that 11 million people across eastern Africa are in desperate need of food and water. There are reports of people dying of thirst. Christian Aid - amongst other charities - is responding but need your help to avert a region-wide catastrophe.

Christian Aid is working with partners in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda and Tanzania but more help is urgently needed. If you are in a position to make a donation, please do give generously.

Christian Aid estimates that:

• £20 / €30 will provide water for a family for two months
• £50 / €75 will help provide food for families as well as fodder for their livestock
• £100 / €150 will pay for a tanker to deliver 10,000 litres of water

You can find Christian Aid online - and hopefully make a donation - by clicking here.

Soup Kitchen for the Homeless in Rugby

We've just heard about the Hope4 Homeless Project, an excellent new venture being undertaken by Rugby Churches Together, providing food and support for the homeless in our local area.

As part of this project, the ecumenical group opened a 'soup kitchen' in the foyer of St Andrews Church on the 20th February. The kitchen will now be open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening from 6 – 8.30pm, when they will serve hot food and drink to the homeless people of Rugby.

We found this interesting information on the brand-new website for Rugby Quakers, one of our local church groups which is involved in the homeless project. You can find out more about the project by going to this webpage which is part of the Rugby Churches website.

Bishops Colin and John come to Rugby

Bishops' 'Vision and Values' Evening

Please note, for anyone hoping to attend the Bishops' 'Vision and Values' evening in Rugby Deanery on Sunday 19 March, the event is not to be held at St Mark's Church, Bilton, as previously advertised, but at St George's (just off the Hillmorton Road in Rugby).

The Bishops' visit to Rugby Deanery is open to all members of the church who might wish to listen to Colin and John, the Bishops respectively of Coventry and Warwick, as they focus 'on the nature of the God revealed in Jesus Christ and the kind of church that we are called to be', inviting the whole Coventry diocese to 'rediscover the priority of prayer and worship'.

If you do wish to attend, the evening will run from 6.00 to 9.00 pm. The Bishops' visit would be of particular interest to anyone in Rugby Deanery who is closely involved with the church, such as Readers and members of local PCCs or other church groups, as well as churchwardens and clergy.

Church Post Box for St. Mark's

Our Church Post Box Has Arrived!

This is our new secure post box, located for maximum accessibility in the church porch at St. Mark’s. The box is for posting prayer requests, comments and any other business you might like to bring to the attention of the PCC.

This is an idea many other churches have used successfully in a similar way, and one the PCC has been wanting to implement for some time, so it’s a pleasure to finally see our new post box in situ at St. Mark’s Church. We hope everyone will feel free to use it and let us have their prayer requests and suggestions.

Family Service tomorrow at 10.30am

Don't forget, there's a Family Service at St. Mark's, Flecknoe, tomorrow - Sunday 5th February - at 10.30am. Everyone is very welcome to attend, especially families. There is a games table for younger children at the rear of the church, with puzzles, games and colouring provided by the church.

It was good to see so many people at our United Benefice Service at St. Mark's last Sunday morning - hopefully we will see more new faces tomorrow!