Christmas

It's nearly Christmas. Don't panic. 

I particularly enjoyed how the Coop this year had this (or something approximating it) as their slogan, starting in November. You tell me in November that it's nearly Christmas, and I'm going to panic. That's just a given. Then there's a few weeks when you might get on Christmas and get organised and maybe, just maybe, you're feeling cool and calm. However, then we reach this point when someone points out that this time next week, it's Boxing Day, and you think about hitting them, and realise that you're probably panicking again. 

I realise that today, I am that person. Sorry about that.

Here's the thing though. The big secret. The one that no one with a million pound advert on this year would like you to know. If you overcook your sprouts, if you forget to buy that present for that person, if your Christmas tree is wonky, if that decoration just will not hang where you thought it would, if you don't get to go carol singing, if your crackers don't crack, if there's someone there who you'd rather was not, if there's someone missing who you'd rather was there...Christmas will still happen. Not only that, but neither can you stop it happening, nor can you ruin it. 

It happened already. Jesus was born. Nothing that can ever happen will ever change that. 

Nothing.

Not even if you don't feel Christmassy. Even if you're having a horrible time. He was still born.

And not just born. Born for us. 

What a relief. 

 From www.freebibleimages.com

I hope you have a very happy Christmas.

Christmas is coming...

I'm sorry. At least it's November. A certain member of the Benefice, who shall remain nameless, posted Christmas Countdowns in September. SEPTEMBER. That's even too early for me.

Christmas services are going up on the website TODAY and as they are done (ahem) the posters will be here too! Look out for all of the festive jollity.

Your first notice of Christmas cheer, however, is this:

Messy Church Christmas is on Wednesday 4 December, 4.30-6.30pm at Mistley. Tell everyone you know!

Hello October!

I'm not quite sure what happened to September. I'm sure I put it down here somewhere...

In case you weren't there, here is what you missed at the Digby Fairweather Concert, held at Mistley, on the last weekend of September.

A big, huge, enormous thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make it such a great night.

Wish you had been there?

Events events events

Have you checked the Events page recently?

Can we encourage you to check it? Regularly. Otherwise you might miss a gem.

Like Digby Fairweather.

Don't miss out. Book your tickets now!

Happy Summer

Hello friends!

Isn't the summer zipping by? I think that can be the only explanation for why I have somehow managed to go so long without posting here on the website!

We're currently enjoying a (slightly) quieter August- we hope you have been too. That said, we did have the Pet Service down at Mistley this month, and we couldn't let it pass without at least one photo!

There are many more photos up in Mistley- go and have a look, and have a lovely rest of the summer. Long may it last!

Who we are...

Have you heard about Tea & Support?   We are really proud to say that this is a definite part of who we are.

It was designed to meet a need for people in the community who might have been bereaved, or are alone, and having to cope with tasks that feel like a struggle.

It doesn't just meet practical needs (changing a fuse, a battery, a light bulb...contacting electricians, gardeners, accountants...filling in forms, dealing with brown envelopes...) but also is here to provide emotional support, making friends and having a listening ear.

Tea & Support meets on the third Wednesday of the month, from 2.00pm-4.00pm at Mistley Church Hall in New Road. Transport can be arranged and meetings are free of charge.

We're really grateful for Hunnaballs (Paskell's Funeral Service) who have worked with us on this since the beginning.

But if all that wasn't enough, they also go on outings. Yes. Below is a picture from their most recent outing on the Felixstowe Ferry which was followed by fish and chips.

Thank you Tea & Support-ers and everyone who helps to run T&S!

Who we are...

Summer is here.
My wisteria is wonderful this year.
One of Gods blessings in the summer months are our wonderful flowering shrubs. 

Grace

I agree! Please keep sending us your photos to the Office, and have a lovely week. 

Coming soon...

Come to Messy Church! I've lost count of how many we've done now, but they've all been really fun, and since there are plans that involve ice cream and cones, I can't see how this will be anything less than marvellous.

The poster really says it all. Come along for crafts, games and activities all on our theme of building on the Rock, then join us in a time of celebration with a story and songs, and then finally, all sit down together for a meal.

We charge £2 per child aged 3+ (younger brothers and sisters and cousins are welcome, and for free!) but all children must be accompanied by an adult.

Now to tune my ukulele and work out what we're going to sing...hope to see you there!

Eurovision and Pentecost and why we should keep on keeping on

Dear friends,

If you receive the weekly email you'll probably have had the one a few weeks ago, when I might possibly have mentioned Eurovision once or twice. And a lot of you spoke to me over the next week with an expression of genuine concern that I might have finally lost it. Eurovision? Really? You actually like that?

Uh, yes. Yes, I do.

If you have half an hour free, take some time to listen to the complete winners. It's brilliant. Not least to note how much has changed since 1956. And how we used to favour mullets more.


The hilarity of Eurovision that we are just so good at noticing here does however detract sometimes from the brilliant message that is going on behind it all: it's not about the winning. Thank goodness for that. No, it's genuinely about the taking part. It's a visual (and delightfully audible) sign of what we can do together. The whole thing was designed to help repair what had been so horrifically broken in Europe through the first half of the 20th century, using both our common ability to make music, and our common need for justice and peace to great effect. If that wasn't enough, there's also something brilliant about the fact that we can't self-servingly vote for ourselves. We have to look for the good in others. Otherwise no one would win.

Was I the only one who felt slightly emotional during the opening of this year's Eurovision? What's that? You didn't watch it? Well. Here's your chance:

I don't know about you, but I loved this opening to Eurovision. It was epic and kind of serious, but so joyful. Everything that Eurovision always should have been and has maybe got bogged down in its own reputation for whackadoodlery. And the new Eurovision anthem sums it all up.

We Write the Story – Avicii, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and choir.
(Music: Benny Andersson, Lyrics: Björn Ulvaeus, Arranged by Benny Andersson and Göran Arnberg)

Justice and Peace and Liberty
We write the story
We can fulfil the Legacy
We write the song
Welcome a new Enlightenment
We write the story
We can re-cast and re-invent
We write the song

...

True to the ones who lit the light
We write the story
We have a torch to reignite
We write the song

 ...

Free and equal
Reason and conscience
We are humans
We are one

Copyright © 2013 Mono Music AB / Kopparnäset Förlags AB

(No those aren't all the words. The song is six minutes long! These are the highlights.)

Eurovision is about who we are- holding on to justice, peace and liberty, remembering where we have come from and striving for better. It's about showing that we're different but that we're one.

Now, doesn't that get even more brilliant when you realise that Eurovision regularly falls on the same weekend that the Church celebrates Pentecost? We spend all of the Saturday night remembering where we have come from and how much we have changed, and then on the Sunday we remember again when the Spirit was poured out on God's people and power was given for the work today and tomorrow?

So now go back and look at the song above and make one small (and Christian-ly nerdy) change. Change all of the 'We write the story's and 'We write the song's to 'He'. Because he does.

True to the one who lit the light, He writes the story.
We have a torch to reignite, He writes the song.

Isn't that good news? After a week that seemed too dark and scary, I think the fact that He writes the song, and that we have a chance to be part of it is exciting. And hopeful. 

Pentecost is the birth-day of the Church. Because of God, because of Jesus, because of the Spirit, we are free and equal, with reason and conscience. We are human, and yet (despite everything), we are one.

Happy Pentecost. 

Oh, hello!

May is here! And suddenly, April has passed and I haven't posted. At all. In a month. Sorry about that, friends.

April was a little nutty, and the nuttiness thereof had inspired several posts on:

- the results of the Away Day
- Easter
- Spring Harvest
- APCMs
- the fact that the sun finally came out
- the fact that I am wearing flip-flops today
- the fact that I might regret that later

Except I didn't write any of them. There are pictures, languishing on my phone, waiting to leap onto here, and they just haven't made it yet. So I'm very sorry.

I will get round to it. May appears to be a blissfully quiet(er) month, so I might actually catch up with myself.

For the time being, here are some things for you to enjoy.

First:



Second, Pete James led worship this year at Spring Harvest, and sung this lovely, lovely song:



Finally, I came across this a while ago, and now am singing it all the time:



I hope that any and all of the above remind you that Jesus loves you.

Have a lovely week,

Mary
Church Office

Ready, steady...

Here's your one-stop-shop for getting ready for the Away Day, 

this Saturday.

1) Pray. And then pray again. And then pray some more. And again.

2) Look at our seriously condensed Hopes for the Future, which we compiled about two and a half years ago at the last away day.

Things to think about:

• how are we progressing on these points to your knowledge?
• are there points that we don't appear to be working on?
• are there points that really should have been there from the start?
• anything else?

3) Pray some more.

4) Look at the Transforming Presence website. It's the priorities, outlined by Bishop Stephen for the Chelmsford Diocese for the next ten to fifteen years, and we, as part of the Chelmsford Diocese, will be held accountable to it. At the very least, please watch the video below which outlines the Transforming Presence priorities. 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OHQaWBhKLb0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

5) Pray a bit more.

6) Either:

a) pack your lunch, get in the car and come to the Away Day, or

b) pray some more. 

So. In conclusion. Please pray about it. Please think about it. Please come along. 

Hope to see you there!

Mary

Church Office

God loves the Church...no, really

So. I don't think that anyone would deny that the Church takes a pummelling from the media. Daily. If it's not that numbers are going down, or that we're fighting amongst ourselves, it's that we don't possibly understand the rest of the world and are massively outmoded, outdated and out of time.

But here's the thing. About twenty of us went to Spring Harvest last year where the theme was the Church: God's brilliant idea. And it turns out, it is!

In his book Church Actually, Gerard Kelly wrote:

"...the church is, in its origins, God’s brilliant idea.
It is his plan; the Creator’s way of reaching and redeeming
his creation. It is a sparkling idea, a concept radiant with
light and joy. Words like “brilliant”, “bright” and “beautiful”
can legitimately be used to describe it."

See here for more!  

I'm not sure that we always act like this though, and I'm not sure that we always believe it. I'm not sure that I had even thought about it until last year. 

But then I went to a talk by Steve Holmes about the church and there was one particularly thing that he said that really stuck with me. He presented what he saw as God's love letter to the Church. An all encouraging, all positive, heart-felt word to God's people. And it went something like this:

You're insecure,

don't know what for,

...being the way that you are is enough.

Everyone else in the room can see it,

everyone else but you.

You light up my world like nobody else.

If only you saw what I can see,

you'd understand why I want you so desperately,

right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,
You don't know you're beautiful.

  

Encouraging, right? And a little bit familiar?

That might be because, in fact, Steve Holmes didn't pen this love letter. It was written by Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk and Savan Kotecha, whose names you probably don't recognise. However, it was then sung by One Direction.  

You're still with me? It's a miracle. You might notice that did I cut out a few words. I mean, I'm sure God is overwhelmed when the church flips her hair, but I thought you might be thrown off by that. 

So. Why all this? Well next Saturday is our Benefice Away Day. We're all going away (very, very far) to Acorn Village (OK, not that far at all) to look at where we've come from, what we're doing now, and where we're going.

We really want everyone to come along because here's the thing.

The Church is not the building. 

The Church is not the steeple.

Open up the doors: look!

The Church is the people.

Did you do the actions? Never mind. 

The Church is the people, and God loves them, and it, and that. Our differences and our diversity and our difficulties are what makes us beautiful. So. Please do consider coming along to the Away Day. It's important and it's exciting and if loads of people turn up, I'll think about a boy-band themed blog series. Now there's an incentive.  

If only you saw what I can see,

you'd understand why I want you so desperately,

right now I'm looking at you and I can't believe,
You don't know you're beautiful.

Hope to see you there!

Mary

Church Office

  

• "Church Actually", written by Gerard Kelly, 2012, Monarch Books

• "What Makes You Beautiful" , written by Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk and Savan Kotecha, and was produced by Yacoub and Falk. 

Be mine!

Did you enjoy Valentines Day? 

Are you now grumbling that it isn't a real holiday? 

Are you wondering where on earth I got heart sequins from?

We had the Wedding Workshop this last Saturday. All the couples who will be getting married this year were invited along to learn more about marriage, meet the Weddings Team, meet each other and eat cake. I know. I was given the last piece. And two heart sequins. This is what you get if you turn up just as they're packing away. Anyway. It was a great day, had by all. Hopefully we'll put up some more information about weddings here on the website soon. In the mean time, if you're interested in getting married but have no idea where to start, email the church office (info@manningtreebenefice.co.uk) and we'll get you on the right track.

This morning, the Lent Course started. Session One was really good, and if you missed it, we're doing it again on Thursday! Come along on Tuesday mornings, 10.00am-12.00pm or Thursday evenings, 7.30pm-9.30pm, both at St. Lawrence, Bradfield (although next week's Thursday session will be moving, so keep an eye out!)

Despite the fact that everyone (and I do mean everyone) is ill, Spring is springing and being excessively cheerful about it. These bad boys were completely open this morning in the sunshine. How lovely.

A certain Buggy Clubber gave this to a certain ill Buggy Club leader, and made her day.

So in the interest of doing some St. Val's research, I typed 'love' into my music player on the computer. I don't know if it was more revealing of human emotion or just my strange taste in music, but I found some of my all time favourites on the list. In between I Will Always Love You,  Burning Love, Somebody to Love and the Sesame Street classic I Love Trash (no, really), I also unearthed this little beauty. Aside from the fact that I think that the original AND the B-sides edition are both excellent, Josh Garrels felt led to make them both free for a period to download (the B-sides are, I think, still free), which I think speaks a little more about what, if anything, valentines day is about, rather than chocolate.

This is one of my favourites. And yes, I know it doesn't have the word 'love' in the title. The album is called 'Love & War & The Sea Inbetween'. It counts. They are all, however, really interesting, so check it out and keep looking and searching and doing your Lenten thing.

I hope you have a good week!

Mary
Church Office

Fridays@theHUB

Come along today, or any Friday, to meet new friends and catch up with old ones!

Hope to see you there one week,

Mary

Church Office

Sharing is good

For all that I'm pretty smug that we here at MM+B have an active web page, are regularly emailing weekly sheets and are on facebook, I have a confession to make: I don't really get twitter. Or Pinterest. I pretty regularly make jokes about how if we had a church twitter account, I'd be tweeting such gems as 'Chris just preached on the Holy Spirit. LOL', and Pinterest infuriates me that so often, people post pictures of cake without the all-important recipe. I mean. Really.

However, all that grumpiness aside, we want our online presence to not just be informative. It's useful to be able to reasonably reliably tell you things, give you news, and keep you up to date, but we'd also like to actually be engaging with each other. Sharing, if you will.

So. I'm going to take this opportunity to share some things that I have found that you might like. You might not, but that's OK too! It goes both ways, though. If you know of good songs available on youtube, blogs to keep an eye on, interesting websites...anything really, let me know, either in the comments here, or email me on info@manningtreebenefice.co.uk. It's good to share.





There's also:
The Rabbit Room -  This is a bunch of Christian song-writers and writers, discussing what it means to be a Christian. A lot of them are pretty wordy, and they're mainly obsessed with C.S. Lewis and Tolkein (hence the name) and they've got a lot of wisdom between them. In the song-writers, I particularly recommend Jason Gray. Ask John B about him next time you see him. He's effusive.
Story Warren -  Started by the guys above, it's mainly about teaching children about Jesus, with a strong focus on imagination and creativity. There are some really interesting ideas here. Give it a read.
Stuff Christians Like - You, as a Christian, might actually not like this stuff, but I certainly do. It's very silly, quite often deeply profound, and even more often even more silly.

Of course, I cannot take either credit or blame for what you find on the above websites. I do encourage you to explore a bit though, and discuss it. More than that, share.

Hope to see you soon!
Mary
Church Office

Lent Course

 

This year's Lent Course is Finding a Voice, using The King's Speech as a starting point for discussions.

The five weeks look at: 

• The stuff of nightmares and the power of friendship
• Chasing the dream or fulfilling the calling
• Pressing forward and breaking through
• Poisonous words and profane responses
• Faith in our voice

There'll be two sessions a week to choose from:

Tuesdays from 10.00am-12.00pm in the Church Room, St. Lawrence, Bradfield

Thursdays from 7.30pm-9.30pm in the Church Room, St. Lawrence, Bradfield 

(except for the 28th Feb- venue TBA)

It all starts from the 19th of February, and if you haven't seen the film yet, 

there's a great chance to on Friday 8th February at Mistley Movies, 7.30pm in Mistley Church Hall.

Hope to see you there!

Hello grass!

 I hope you all kept warm and didn't fall over. I only just managed the second, and definitely not the first since my heating broke. The day that the snow came. Thankfully, it was mended again just in time before last Thursday when it was -7. 

Of course, then on Sunday morning it was all gone. 

Except there was this, waiting for me on the way into church.

Snowy cancellations

I hope you've had a good week. I'll have photos to go up here in the next few days but for now please take note that Quiet Communion tonight is cancelled due to the snow.

Hope to see you soon, and it was lovely to see so many people this morning at the Churches Together service.

Mary
Church Office

Happy...something

So how was your Christmas? I know some weren't great. And some are now pretty bitter-sweet. And some were great. I just hope it didn't look too much like this- more like this:

Have a good week, and don't forget to send in your photos. Especially if it snows. I'm a sucker for snow...

Mary
Church Office

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a great Christmas. I meant to post most of these before Christmas and then things got a little busy! So here's some retrospective Christmas for you.

I like that people know me well enough here at MM+B that my lying on the floor taking pictures of the tree, or my getting in the way at the Christmas lunch taking photos of the roast potatoes is not a surprise to anyone.

Finally, here's a little something for you to enjoy. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling a little stale after Christmas. It's hard to motivate yourself when all you want to do is hibernate. Or is that just me? I listened to this song this morning however while I checked the office emails, and it felt like a icy-clean January fresh-breath-of-air and now I feel more like getting on.


Hope you have a good week!

Mary
Church Office