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