16/02/14

MALMESBURY ABBEY

‘Perfect love drives out fear.’

It feels like a familiar friend now. Shifting chairs, carrying boards, carting hay bales, moving ramps, setting up viewing areas, turning up the volume, welcoming visitors, calling for paramedics—Malmesbury Abbey Skate is back and it feels oddly normal to have a 21st century skate and scooter spectacular taking place in a 12th century Abbey. This year we’ve even added a hula hoop workshop. (I’ve been working hard on a pun on ‘hula’ and ‘hallelujah’ to go here but as we go to press nothing cringemakingly bad enough has emerged.) One of our churchwar-dens tried hula-hooping out recently and seemed like a natural. The hula hoop I tried seemed to be a bit of a snug fit for some reason. Ideas are dirt cheap. In a creative place like Malmesbury Abbey there is a con-tinuous stream of them, not least from my own head. I have a rule of thumb that if one person comes forward with an idea I ask them to come back with 4 people totally bought into the idea before the conversation continues. We’re looking to build on what God is birthing in the Body of Christ, not just to do random stuff.

HOSPITALITY THAT INVITES PEOPLE CLOSER

STABILITY THAT DRAWS PEOPLE DEEPER

CREATIVITY THAT LIFTS PEOPLE HIGHER

Vicar’s blog: Icon

THIS SUNDAY: FEBRUARY 16th 8am BCP Communion 10.30am Holy Communion 4pm Informal Worship, Junior Church & Trax 5.30pm Skate set-up

MON 17th 9am Morning Prayer 9.30am Soft Play/Café all day TUES 18th 9am Morning Prayer 7pm Skatepark arrives WED 19th 10am-9.30pm MAS 2014 10.30am Holy Communion In Le Flambé THUR 20th 10am-9.30pm MAS 2014 FRI 21st 10am-9.30pm MAS 2014 10.30am Creative Response in Parish Office SAT 22nd 9am Morning Prayer 10am Healing in the Streets NEXT SUNDAY: FEBRUARY 23rd 8am BCP Communion 10.30am Morning Prayer & Healing 4pm All-age Communion ADVANCE ABBEY DIARY March 5th Ash Wed. 10.30 am & 7pm April 15th Glory! April 17th Riding Lights ‘Inheritance’

June 3rd Glory! June 20th- Church Weekend Away June 22nd (Paul Langham & Bishop Lee) July 2nd Music for Autism July 15th WOMAD at the Abbey July 28/29 Holiday at Home Aug 3rd New Wine

Abbey Diary So Malmesbury Abbey Skate is one of those rare diamonds of an idea that has be born, and grown, and earthed itself in the life of our church and our com-munity. And more. Malmesbury Abbey Skate has actually made Malmesbury Abbey more like Malmesbury Abbey (that is a long winded way of saying it was/is prophetic.) I love our Holiday at Home; I love our Advent Carol Service; I love Creative Response; I love working with BBC His-tory & BBC Wiltshire. I love the soft play in the Café and our Weekend Away and our Holy Week Festival, and I love the possibility of drowning the Archbishop of Canterbury. I love our series in John and my new small group. All of these new things of God breathe new life into me and into the mission and worship of the church. It’s all profoundly good, and of God. But the Icon (Skatepark) within the Icon (Abbey) happens next week. God is always gloriously doing a new thing. In the 12th century the new thing was the Abbey we worship each Sun-day. In the 16th and 17th century the new thing was the Bible and worship in the English language which still sustains us today. During MAS 2014, next week, I give thanks that the God who built the Abbey has not left the building. God is here, God is light, God is love. Bring wheels.

neillarcher.blogspot.co.uk

1 John 4

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: every spirit that ac-knowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: in this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

1. (Read Question 2 first!) After a prayer, read 1 John 4 out loud slowly, maybe sharing it out amongst your group. Then keep silence for 2-3 minutes. Now read it out again slowly and keep a further minute silence.

2. Now go around your group and allow time for each group member to share what stood out to you and, if possible, why?

3. What other biblical passages, texts or incidents amplify or develop what has stood out to you? Help each other here.

4. What action might you take personally in light of the text you are reflecting on?

5. If you accept that God might be prompting you to consider a particu-lar action, how might your small group keep you accountable to this?

MONDAY Psalm 44 1 Tim 6:1-10

TUESDAY Psalm 48 1 Tim 6:11-end

WEDNESDAY Ps 119:57-80 2 Timothy 1

THURSDAY Psalm 57 2 Timothy 2

FRIDAY Psalm 51 2 Timothy 3

daily readings

Additional Reading: John 3:16-18

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever be-lieves in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

small group resource +

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Parenting Children Course—25th Feb

Matt Redman is appearing at Bath City Church on February 28th. Tickets are £12 each (a bargain!). Tickets available at www.bigchurchnightin.com.

The Parenting Children Course starts on Tuesday 25th Feb, 7.30-9.45pm, in the Abbey. Many thanks to those who have signed up already, there are still plenty of spaces left. If you are a parent or a carer of children between the ages of 0-10, we would love you to consider again coming on this free 5-week course. The course is designed for those outside and inside of church, so please think about signing up this week and also invite a friend or neighbour, or take some flyers at the back of the Abbey to give to anyone you think may benefit. Parenting well is the most important gift that we can ever give our children, and this needs all the regular investment we can give it, in-cluding taking time out every now and then to reflect on and develop our own parenting skills. The course gives an oppor-tunity to be encouraged as parents, to share with others, and learn to-gether how we can all provide a more loving home environment for our children. So please sign up this week, book your babysitters, and we look forward to seeing you then! To book a place, or find out more information, contact our curate, Revd John Monaghan, 01666 829101 or johnmonaghan@malmesburyabbey.com

Matt Redman

Noticeboard

February 2 Love & Identity 1 John 2:28-3:10

February 9 Love & Action 1 John 3:11-24

February 16 Love Sacrifices 1 John 4

February 23 Love Overcomes 1 John 5

March 2 Love & Truth 2 John & 3 John

Glory! feedback About 40 of us met to worship and pray last Tuesday night. To inform your own prayers in the coming weeks, here, in brief, are some of the things we felt the Holy Spirit lead us to pray into together: • For the storms on our nation to be stilled • For the skatepark to be fun, and to lead to salvation in Christ • To be still and know God; to know the peace of God • A call to abide in Christ’s presence, to know his favour, and a prophetic

song with the words ‘I love the way you love me.’ • Prayers for healing for specific individuals in our community • Ephesians 3:16, knowing the glorious riches of God • God conquering us with His love • A focus on freedom in Christ shared throughout the Body of Christ • God washing away sin, Ps.51, whiter than snow, and new life following • That God’s food is good, and that there are many to be fed in our town

Contact ABBEY OFFICE Mon &Tues (9.30am-12noon) Weds, Thurs ,Fri, (9.30am-2.30pm) 01666 826666 www.malmesburyabbey.com sandie@malmesburyabbey.com Staff members can be contacted by name@malmesburyabbey.com NORMAL CAFÉ HOURS Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday: 9am-3pm Wednesday: 12-3pm Sunday: Closed all day clare@malmesburyabbey.com

12th CENTURY BEAUTY 21st CENTURY CHURCH

Christian Aid—soup lunch Come and join us for a Soup Lunch organised by Malmesbury Christian Aid Group on Friday 21st February 12.30pm onwards, at the United Re-formed Church, St Mary’s Street. Cost is £2.50 for soup and cake and pro-ceeds will go toward supporting Christian Aid work in all parts of the world, including Syria, Sudan and the Philippines. For further information please contact Dick Gray on 823979

Funeral of John Ponting The funeral of our dear brother John Ponting will take place at the Abbey on Monday 24th February at 1pm. The service will be led by Revd Bob Hyatt and Revd Mandy Churcher; all are very welcome to attend.