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April 2022 April 2022

ARE YOU STRUGGLING TO LIVE WITH THE OTHER CHURCHES NEWS
NEWS?????
BERE REGIS CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

Listening to Christina Pattison on Saturdays newspaper review I was surprised to
hear that she can only listen on the radio and consume the current news online or Sundays 10.30am Morning Service, Taken by visiting preachers, or our full time
in newspapers. It was too distressing for her to continue to watch the constant Youth Worker, John Williams.
daily bulletins on the Ukraine crisis and she is a journalist! As you know I am Our services also go out live on YouTube
constantly watching the news and have also started to switch off.
Mondays at 7pm STS (Search the Scriptures) Youth meeting, via zoom.
There is no doubt a lot of hand wringing Do you do something? Do you Switch
off and pretend it isn’t happening. Some people have been brilliant in sending Tuesdays at 7.30pm Bible Study and Prayer, meeting on zoom.
money or things and maybe volunteering to help house Ukrainians.
Wednesdays at 9.30am Chapel Toddler Group, contact Suzie on 0796214255
This whole crisis looks like it will drag on and on. One thing is certain, world costs of
fuel will go on up. It is not likely that the Ukrainians will be growing much Maize Good Friday Service April 15 at 10.30am
wheat and sunflowers this year. Even in this country the costs of food to feed Easter Day Service April 17at 10.30am
chicken and animals is going up. Farmers are saying the input costs of fertilizer
and fuel is making the crops we do grow a lot more expensive. Is there anything Spring has arrived and the weather has turned much warmer, what a joy that is
we can do? after a dreary winter. And more importantly, this month we celebrate Easter, the
most important festival in the church year, for if Jesus had not died and then risen
Do you get in your car go out for lunch on Mothers Day and do your best to keep again, our faith is useless. St. Paul says this in the Bible, perhaps those words are a
our struggling hospitality industry going while we can afford it? Have a good surprise to us. (1 Corinthians 15:14) The resurrection shows us that Jesus conquered
time while we can. death and sin, and if we commit our lives to Him and receive his forgiveness, we

I think we should stay local and go gardening. Maybe we should bring our too can experience that new life that Jesus gives us.
unused allotments into production, or turn some flower beds and lawns into Before I was married I used to live in London,
vegetable gardens. Start growing vegetable plants in your greenhouse. (Some one of the joys of Easter was to go to the Royal
red white and blue jubilee bedding plants as well) Albert Hall on Good Friday and listen to a
It will be no good in the autumn when things are getting in short supply or are performance of Handel’s ‘Messiah’, some years
prohibitively expensive thinking I wish I had grown more vegetables. If you have conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent with the
the time, space and inclination, why not have a go. Even if you have a surplus, Huddersfield Choral Society. His recordings of
this could be sold at local produce stalls and meetings to produce a small this work still sell steadily today.
amount of cash for the relief of local food poverty or Ukraine. ‘Messiah’ tells the story of the prophecies
Perhaps instead of inventing a platinum jubilee pudding we should be dusting off concerning Jesus, and of His life, death and
the old war time recipes and looking at potato cakes and vegetable stews. If the resurrection as told in the words from the Bible.
crisis is over we can still have a party. We may be learning how to live with less It is acclaimed as Handel’s greatest work, many
and get more out of what we do have. If the war is over it will help the planet so people are familiar with the Hallelujah Chorus if
the effort won’t be wasted and who knows you might be healthier. (I might lose not the rest of the work.
some weight) Malcolm Sargent was not only a great musician, he was also a great
Susan Stone (still missing Jenny) communicator of the Christian faith. He was someone who could speak easily
about God. The setting up of the BBC ‘Any Questions’ panel, originally known as
the Brains Trust, gave him an exceptional opportunity of commending his Christian
faith to an estimated 13 million listeners. Fellow members of the Brains Trust were

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