outlookThe newsletter of Highgate United Reformed ChurchPond Square Chapel, South Grove, Highgate, London N6 6BAC

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1691

Mar/April2011

From the Minister

An Account of the Church Meeting of 27 February by Julian Templeton

This meeting was convened at the request of worshippers who wished to have time to discuss concerns that the Elders and Ministers had raised about the future viability of our congregation (falling attendences at worship and lack of new Elders cited as main causes for concern). It was the most well attended Church Meeting in recent memory, with 30 people attending. I was encouraged both by the good attendance and by what was contributed to the discussion. Below I provide an account of the main points that were raised in the discussion.

We need to have a clear identity, purpose and mission. We need to be clear about who we are and what we are here to do. This needs

ContentsP. 1 Account of Church Meeting

by the Minister

P. 3 HASM Discussion Group

P. 4 Church Secretary

P. 5 Childrens Activity Open Day

Lent Groups

P. 6 Calendar Events

P. 8 Home Group

Big Climate Connection

P. 9 Prison Chaplaincy and Work with ex-offenders meeting

Revised Common Lectionary

P. 10 Christian Persecution in Egypt

P. 11 Holy Week Details

P.12 Recital for New Zealand earthquake relief fund

Minister: Rev’d Julian Templeton, 42 Onslow Gardens, N10 3JX. Tel: 020 8444 5076Associate Minister: Rev’d Roger Orme Tel: 020 8458 2144Administrator: John Wheeler, Tel: 020 8341 5463 Email: admin@highgateurc.co.uk Church Secretary: In vacancyTreasurer: Robert Gorrie, 10 Wood Lane, N6 5UBOutlook Editors: Laura Templeton & Andrea

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to include a practical strategy for building up and growing the church, since unless we have a committed membership and strong leadership we will not be able to sustain our life and reach out to those beyond.

We need to publicise our existence. We have more recently relied on people finding us. However, fewer and fewer people know what the United Reformed Church is. Time and energy and imagination needs to be put into publicising our events using a variety of media and means.

We need clarity on what it means to be a Church Member. Many of those who worship regularly have not been received into Membership; yet they seem to be committed Christians. Should those who show commitment through their involvement in our congregation be automatically regarded as Members? Since people seem reluctant to become members of any group, should we drop the term Member in favour of some other term that expresses Christian commitment?

We need information about what Elders and Church Secretary do. It was recognised that we currently risk over-burdening the small number of serving Elders. We have already deputed others to take on one of the major tasks of the Church Secretary: finding preachers to lead worship when the Ministers cannot be present. Might there be other Secretary and Elders’ tasks that that others would be willing to share?

We want continuity of worship leadership. On the one hand, it was recognised that more people come to worship when Roger or I lead; on the other hand, there seemed to be little appetite to change the starting time of Sunday worship in order to provide this continuity (making it possible for me to lead worship at Highgate and New Barnet each Sunday). However, the next, more radical, proposal could resolve this.

Combine the Stipendiary Minister’s post with the Administrator’s post. The Administrator reported that we have, on average, 150 people who use our building every week for purposes other than worship. Presently the Administrator is the main point of contact with these. If the Minister had the time to have regular contact with these users of our building there would be many more opportunities for mission. If the Minister did not have worship-leading and pastoral responsibilities at another church, continuity of leading worship and more time for ministry and mission would be possible.

HASM DiscussionGroup9 March 8 pm

Agincourt and the English Conquest of FranceSimon Abbott at

61 Fordington Road N6 (8883 9595)

13 April 8 pm

Classical Greek Drama

John Seargeant at Highgate URC (8444 5076)

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I should also add that there were some present who expressed the view that the life of congregations often experience cycles of greater and fewer worshippers. We may be at the bottom of such a cycle and therefore should not be unduly concerned. Others made the suggestion that holding more services with a publicised theme — musical, historical or other — might attract more worshippers.

Children’s Contributions. We had a small group of young children present at worship and when they were asked what they liked about our church they said the following: creating things through painting, collage, drawing, glueing and baking. When they were asked what they would like to do differently, they said they would like more stories and more running-around games. There were many other suggestions made at the Church Meeting; the Minutes will record these. The Elders will consider all suggestions and produce a discussion paper with recommendations for a future Church Meeting to discuss. I thank all those who contributed their suggestions, and look for commitment of time and energy to enact those we agree to pursue.

Julian Templeton

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Church Secretary VacancyAt the last Church Meeting a request was made for information about the tasks of Church Secretary. The following is taken from a leaflet that the United Reformed Church has produced, but please also talk to Pam Furse.

Person DescriptionA Church Secretary would be able to lead, encourage and inspire. He or she should have pastoral gifts and sensitivity, and a positive attitude toward the life and future mission of the Church. A Church Secretary is normally an ordained Elder of the United Reformed Church. The work needs to be taken on with faith in Christ and love for his Church and his world. Job DescriptionThe Secretary is responsible, with the Minister and Elders, for arranging Elders’ and Church Meetings, including producing agendas and taking minutes. The Church Secretary is, with the Minister, an important point of contact for correspondence. The Church Secretary keeps in regular contact with the Minister, acting as a sounding-board, and providing encouragement and counsel. The Church Secretary ensures that worship is offered regularly, arranging for worship to be led by others when the Minister is not present to lead. In a Ministerial Vacancy, the duties of the Church Secretary increase, including arranging for a pastorate profile to be produced and for the Church to meet prospective Ministers.

Thank you to Pam

On the 9th of January Pamela Furse was presented with a gift and was thanked on behalf of the church for her many years of service as Church Secretary and a Serving Elder. Pam stood down from both these roles in 2010.

Julian said that what he valued most about Pam as Church Secretary was her warmth, liveliness, reliability and quiet efficiency.

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Children s̀ Activity

Open MorningSunday 27th March

10 am onwards in HallSára Zöld, along with other parent helpers, is organizing an open morning for children and their parents in the Hall to be run in parallel with the worship service. Doors will open at 10am and there will be activities till 1pm. Helpers will take an hour slot and visitors will be invited to come and stay for as long as they wish. Activities will include making Mothering Sunday cards, decorating cupcakes, painting jewellery boxes, etc. Refreshments will be available. This will be publicised around Highgate.

Please invite your friends with children.

Lent Study Groups

Churches Together in Highgate Lent GroupsVarious courses will be followed at a number of different venues/days/times. Roger Orme will be leading a course at the Wednesday evening Home Group and the Meditation on Fridays will follow Lent themes. People are welcome to join more than one group. Details from Jenny Lee T: 020 8883 9267, E: L.Warden@btinternet.com. Full programme will also be on the CTIC website.

MarchMonday 7 2:00 pm Open Door GatheringWed 9 7:30 pm Home Group, 14 Southwood Park, N6 5SG Friday 11 12:30 – 1 pm Christian Meditation Sunday 13 10:30 am 1st in Lent, Worship with Holy Communion led by

Rev’d Julian Templeton 4.00pm Recital at St John’s Church (Somerset and Mowbray

Roads, New Barnet, EN5) of New Zealand piano and vocal music by Margaret Lion and Julian Templeton. Admission free; voluntary donations for the Christchurch Earthquake relief fund

6:30 pm FURY in HallTuesday 15 7:30 pm Elders’ Meeting, 42 Onslow Gardens, N10 3JXWed 16 7:30 pm Home Group, Lent Course, 14 Southwood Park, N6 5SGThursday 17 7:30 pm Management CommitteeFriday 18 12:30 – 1 pm Christian Meditation for LentSunday 20 10:30 am 2nd in Lent, Service of the Word led by Beth Hartley Monday 21 2:00 pm Open Door GatheringWed 24 7:30 pm Home Group, Lent Course, 14 Southwood Park, N6 5SGFri 25 12:30 – 1 pm Christian Meditation for LentSunday 27 (British Summer Time begins) 10 am Children’s Activity Open Day. Crafts, cooking and other

fun activities. Please invite as many friends as possible 10:30 am Service of the Word led by the Rev’d Alan Argent Wed 30 7:30 pm Home Group, Lent Course, 14 Southwood Park, N6 5SG

AprilFriday 1 12:30 – 1 pm Christian Meditation for Lent

Sunday 3 11.00 am 3rd in Lent, Worship for Mothering Sunday led by Susan Chinn

Monday 4 2:00 pm Open Door Gathering

Wed 6 7:30 pm Home Group, Lent Course, 14 Southwood Park, N6 5SG

Events in March – May

Friday 8 12:30 – 1 pm Christian Meditation

Sat 9 10.30-noon Easter Coffee Morning at St John’s URC, Mowbray Road, New Barnet, EN5

Sunday 10 10:30 am 4th in Lent, Service of the Word led by Rev’d Roger Orme

Wed 13 7:30 pm Home Group, Lent Course, 14 Southwood Park, N6 5SG

Fri 15 12:30 – 1pm Christian Meditation for Lent

Sunday 17 10:30 am Palm Sunday Service of the Word led by Jean Parton

Monday 18 2:00 pm Open Door Gathering

Wed 20 7:30 pm Home Group, 14 Southwood Park, N6 5SG

Thursday 21 8:00 pm Maundy Thursday Communion Service led by Rev’d Roger Orme

Friday 22 9:30 am Good Friday Ecumenical Procession of Witness starting at All Saints’ Church, Church Road, N6 and ending in the Pond Square Chapel

10:15 (approx.) Ecumenical All Age Worship for Good Friday

Sunday 24 10:30 am Easter Day Service of Word and Sacrament led by Rev’d Julian Templeton

12 noon onwards Easter Day bring-and-share festival lunch

MaySunday 1 10:30 am Service of the Word led by the Rev’d Roger Scopes

Tuesday 3 8:00 pm New Testament Greek Class, 42 Onslow Gardens, N10 3JX

Wednesday 4 7:30 pm Home Group, 14 Southwood Park, N6 5SG

Friday 6 8:00 pm Christian Meditation

Sunday 8 10:30 am Worship with Holy Communion led by Rev’d Julian Templeton

Monday 9 7:30 pm Churches Together in Highgate, Fr Malachy Keegan, Principal Catholic Chaplain to HM Prisons: ‘How can churches become Basic Caring Communities?’

Please note that Julian and Laura Templeton will be away visiting family in New Zealand from the 21st of March to the 21st of April.

Home Group Lent CourseThe Home Group, starting on Wednesday, 16th. March, will be following the York Lent Course entitled “Rich Inheritance - Jesus’ legacy of love.” The course runs for five weeks and each week’s theme is led by a different contributor. Contributors include Dr. David Hope, a former Archbishop of York, Vincent Nicholls, RC Archbishop of Westminster, Jim Wallis author and regular speaker at the annual UK Greenbelt festival, Inderjit Bhogal, a Methodist minister, Director of the Yorkshire and Humber Faiths Forum and Paula Gooder, a writer, researcher and lecturer in Biblical studies at various universities.

The varied churchmanship and interests of our contributors should make for stimulating discussion. Each session starts with a CD recording of the contributors, followed by a written commentary on the theme and concludes with a series of questions which provide the framework for reflection. All this may sound rather formal and forbidding. However, be assured that our group is earthed in the realities of practical, everyday Christian living and sits lightly to too much intellectual theology!

On Wednesdays 9 March, 20 April and 4 May, our themes will follow the Lectionary readings, separately set down in Outlook. In Easter week, on Wednesday 27 April, there will be no meeting. All meetings will start at 7.30 pm and end at 9.45 pm. Light refreshments will be served.

I do hope you will join us at 14, Southwood Park, Southwood Lane, N6 5SG. Lifts, door-to-door, can be arranged - just let me know.

Roger Orme : 020 8458 2144 or 07966956160.

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Join the Big Climate...ReconnectionIn November 2010, people came together all over the country to lobby more than 220 MPs as part of the Big Climate Connection. There is a clear need to talk to MPs again: the Energy Bill will be debated in Parliament and the Government will be deciding on their next steps after the Cancun climate talks. You can connect with others in your area this spring to keep the pressure up on your MP.

Find out more information and download lobby packs, organiser’s guides, flyers and more from the resources page at www.stopclimatechaos.org

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Revised Common Lectionary6 March Exodus 24:12-18 Psalm 2; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matt 17:1-913 Mar Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matt 4:1-1120 Mar Genesis 12:1-4a; Psalm 121; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17, 27 Mar Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-423 April 1 Samuel 16:1 -13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-4110 April Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-4517 April Passion Sunday Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians

2:5-11; Matt 26:14-27:66 Palm Sunday Matt 21;1-11; Psalm 118;1-2, 19-29

24 April Acts 10:34-43; or Jeremiah 31:1-6; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24; Colossians 3:1-4 or Acts 10:34-43; John 20:1-18 or Matt 28:1-10

1 May Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-318 May Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19; 1 Peter 1:17-23 Luke

24:13-35

Prison Chaplaincy and work with ex-offenders

Monday 9 May 7.30pm

Highgate United Reformed Church

Open Meeting with Monsignor Malachy KeeganPrincipal RC Chaplain to HM Prison Service

Fr Malachy has initiated a scheme to help ex-prisoners adjust to rejoining the community.

Churches are encouraged to get involved in ‘Basic Caring Communities’ (BaCC)

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Christian persecution in Egypt

The Middle East has been much in the news recently with protestors bringing down governments in Tunisia and Egypt and the continuing unrest in Libya.

But the Christian Solidarity Worldwide letter with the headline ‘Urgent campaign for Egypt’, which Robert Courtney handed me a few weeks ago, wasn’t calling for a change of government, but for an end to religious violence there. It had been written in response to the worst attack on Christians in Egypt in more than a decade.

Twenty-three people were killed and approximately 80 injured in a bomb blast at a Coptic Church in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve. This was only the most devastating of a series of attacks during 2010: 6 Christians killed in January; 24 injured in March; and two Coptic protestors shot dead in Cairo in November.

There are 8 million Coptic Christians and around half a million Christians of other denominations in Egypt, making up about ten per cent of the country’s population. Christians suffer from unequal legislation which makes it harder for them to build places of worship. Egyptian law only recognises when a person converts from Christianity to Islam and not the other way round, and many believers face persecution and discrimination in their daily lives.

Though Christians and Muslims joined together at the protests which brought down President Mubarak’s regime, it remains to be seen what the new government formed over the next few months will mean for Egypt’s Christian minority.

The Christian Solidary Worldwide ‘No Way Out’ campaign calls on all Christians in the UK to stand in solidarity with Christians in Egypt and to sign a petition calling for action to stop religiously motivated violence; to bring justice, and to give compensation to the victims. They hope to collect 50,000 signatures by August 2011.

To sign the petition or to give a donation please visit their website www.csw.org.uk or phone 0845 456 5464

Andrea

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Holy Week and Easter

Maundy Thursday 21st April 8:00 pm

Roger Orme will lead a simple communion service at the Pond Square Chapel to which Tetherdown United Reformed, Muswell Hill, and Union Church, Crouch End have also been invited.

Good Friday22nd April

The Ecumenical Procession of Witness will begin at All Saints’ Church, Corner of Church and Talbot Roads, N6, at 9:30 am

The Procession will terminate at the Pond Square Chapel, where at approximately 10:15 am, Julian Templeton will lead an all age service. Volunteers to help serve hot cross buns and drinks are needed!

Easter Day Service and Lunch

24th April

10:30 am service followed by bring-and-share Easter Lunch

A Service of Holy Communion celebrating the Resurrection of Christ will begin at 10:30 am, led by Julian Templeton. Since Easter is the most important Feast Day of the Church’s year, Julian has proposed that we should feast! Those who wish to share in the lunch are invited to bring enough food for two people (so we can invite any visitors to stay), and we will set up tables in the Chapel after worship and “…celebrate this joyful feast!” If you have any entertainment you wish to offer after lunch—a poem, prose, a song, a dance—please feel free to do so. Let’s restore Easter to what it used to be: a Festival celebrated with gusto!

Recital of New Zealand Piano and Vocal Music

with prose and poetry

Sunday 13th March • 4pm

St John’s United Reformed ChurchSomerset and Mowbray RoadsNew Barnet EN5 1RH

Admission freeRetiring donations for Christchurch Earthquake Relief fund

Margaret Lion and

Julian Templeton

Methodist Church building in Christchurch, New Zealand, damaged by earthquake