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The Magazine of Westgate New ChurchThe Magazine of Westgate New Church
Issue 462: January 2017Issue 462: January 2017
2
Westgate New Church, Peterborough
United Reformed/Methodist
68b Westgate, Peterborough, PE1 1RG
Minister: The Revd Lesley Moseley
Minister: 01733 751681
http://www.westgatechurch.org.uk/
Greetings,
Regular readers of the Chronicle will
perhaps remember that I wrote about a
train journey recently. I have decided to
continue the rail saga this month. I
recently went to Glasgow for a couple
of days and, once more, travelled by
train. I had an uneventful journey north
and arrived in plenty of time. I had a
successful visit, doing everything I had
hoped to do and chatting to most of
the people I had hoped to see. The
journey home began in an inauspicious
way. The bus pulled out ahead as we
drove into the car park. The bus journey
into central Glasgow was slow; drivers
changed, traffic lights all seemed to be
set at red and it was going to be a dash
through the station when I arrived there.
However, I wasn’t at all prepared for what
I saw on the departure board. Every train
from Glasgow to Edinburgh was cancelled.
I asked at the ticket office and was told
that there was a train leaving by an
alternative route that would get me to
Edinburgh on time. There’s an expression
of disbelief in Scotland that should have
come to mind, ‘Aye, right!’ On arrival
in Edinburgh, despite the train running
to time, I discovered that my train for
Peterborough had left five minutes earlier.
I am beginning to think that I should
give up travelling by train altogether. The
only skill in which I’m improving with my
journeying is claiming refunds, but even
that isn’t proving too easy.
I sometimes think it’s a good job God
is in control. I sometimes wonder why I
can’t work out why things happen as they
Our Mission Statement
We at Westgate are called by God to highlight Jesus Christ’s love
for the people of Peterborough.
We pass on this good news by worship, fellowship, mission,
education, personal life and social service.
3
do. Then I remember that I’m human and
I’m not meant to understand everything
and, like Paul the Apostle, I have learned
to be content with my lot in life. I do
wish, though, that they’d improve the
coffee on the train; then I could be truly
content with extended journeys.
At the start of the new year Methodists
make a distinctive resolution.
The Covenant Service, often
celebrated on the first Sunday of the year,
is at the heart of Methodists' devotion
and discipleship, and their dedication
in working for social justice. In the
service the Church joyfully celebrates
God's gracious offer to Israel that "I
will be their God and they shall be
my people".
This offer is then extended beyond
Israel to all women and men in Jesus
Christ, who also provides the supreme
example of what it is to live in such a
relationship with God.
That relationship primarily involves the
corporate life of the community of God's
people (i.e. Israel; the Body of Christ).
It is concerned with individuals within
that group.
What God offers is a loving
relationship. The Covenant is not a
contract in which God and human
beings agree to provide particular goods
and services for each other! It is not
something that we have to do to create a
relationship with God. God has freely and
graciously already made it possible.
Rather, the Covenant is the means
of grace by which we accept the
relationship and then seek to sustain it. It
is therefore not so much about getting in
to a relationship with God as it is about
staying in it. It is not about acquiring a
relationship with God, but living within the
loving relationship that God has already
offered us.
God's gracious offer to us is therefore
simultaneously a challenge. If God is
committed to us, are we prepared to
accept that as reality and commit
ourselves in return to God? Even if we do
choose to accept it, how can we manage
to live out our commitment adequately,
frail and human as we are?
The New Testament suggests that as
we join the group of those seeking to
follow the way of Jesus, we respond to
God's challenge with him and begin to
share his relationship with God as Father.
Within the group of disciples, this leads to
his Spirit bubbling up in us as individuals,
encouraging and enabling us to live out
our side of the relationship (i.e. "writing
God's ways on our hearts" as Jeremiah 31
describes the Covenant).
From the Methodist Church Website
The Covenant Service at New
Westgate Church will take place on
Sunday, January 15th, led by our
own Minister, Lesley. Everyone is
welcome to join us at this service.
Lesley
The Covenant Service
4
The coming of “wise men”
to Bethlehem soon after Jesus’ birth to
pay homage to a new-born King appears
only in Matthew’s gospel. For the church
this incident has always held deep
significance, as though those travellers
who flash in and out of the gospel story
somehow portray ourselves – we who
believe in God-in-Christ yet are not of the
race into which he was born. So who were
they? What did they achieve?
They came from the East, probably
Persia (Iran), and may have been of the
Zoroastrian religion, an ancient faith that
like Jews and Christians worships a single
good God. Matthew says they “observed
his (Jesus’) star at its rising” i. . .
We are students of the heavens,
seeking in the night sky explanations for
what happens on Earth. At that time there
was an unusual configuration of heavenly
lights, and we recognised a sign given
by Ahura Mazda (whom you call God).
It meant the birth of a truly exceptional
person, who would direct God’s Light into
the affairs of humanity. The Light of all
peopleii had dawned somewhere to the
West of us – that’s where the signs in the
heavens pointed.
What should we do? – we had to bear
witness to God’s gift. We are scholars,
not kings or rich people, as some have
imagined. We had to sell most of our
possessions to fund a long journey before
setting off, following the signs in the
heavens. It was all we could do.
Those signs led us to Jerusalem,
capital city of the Jews, believers like
us in the one good God. There we made
a terrible mistake. We forgot to read the
heavens, assuming this was where we
had been led to. Our enquiries yielded no
result but brought us to the attention of
King Herod. We spent an uncomfortable
night in prison, while Herod debated what
to do. Apparently he called in Jewish
scholars, who told him of prophecies from
long ago. A messenger of God (a Messiah)
would one day be born in Bethlehem; he
would save his people from wrong-doing
and misery; he would be known as King of
Kings, and Prince of Peace.
Herod let us go, on our way towards
Bethlehem, now once again following
the signs in the heavens. He commanded
us to return and tell him where the
baby could be found, so he too could
go and “pay him homage”. We were
relieved at being let go, but it did not feel
right; our prayers ascended to heaven
full of apprehension. As we got closer to
Bethlehem we realised we were being
followed; we delayed our journey by false
turns, and went under cover of darkness.
We did all we could to mislead King
Herod’s spies.
We found the baby, with his parents.
Without the signs in the heavens we
would not have known – an ordinary child,
a lovely mother, but a peasant, and the
father Joseph, just a carpenter. They were
in an outhouse – a stable, really – and
their only courtiers were farm animals.
Stories within the Story:
“We did all we could”
5
We had brought presents – nothing much
– gold, frankincense, myrrh sound rich,
but there was little enough of them. We
bowed in worship, and spoke of our
devotion and hopes for the future, of
the Light of the World which he had come
to bring. The baby, of course was too
young, he did not understand; his parents
understood little more. But we had done
what we could to witness to the Light that
was coming into the world.
Before we left I took Joseph on one
side and tried to explain our doubts about
King Herod’s intentions; we heard later
that that night the Almighty had spoken
to him in a dream, and he had fled with
mother and child, away to Egypt. Well,
we had done what we could, and God
had done the rest; the One who was
to be Light of the World was safe, while
Herod’s soldiers ravaged Bethlehem,
killing children. We went home by a
circuitous route, well away from Herod
who would have used us to find the baby.
A Persian Scholar
Matthew, the most Jewish of the gospel
writers, knew of the Old Testament
tradition that Israel would ultimately be
the source of enlightenment for the whole
world. Isaiah had written, “Nations shall
come to your light, and kings to the
brightness of your dawn” iii. I think that is
why he chose this story, from all the
stories that circulated about Jesus’ birth,
to illustrate the significance of that birth
for the whole world. Ian iMatthew ch 2 v 2 iiJohn’s gospel, ch 1 v4 iiiIsaiah ch 60 v3
Dear Friends, what a happy
time of the year! Some of
us are carrying heavy burdens of grief but
we still rejoice in Jesus the Christ whose
coming and returning gives us so much
hope. Jesus not only taught but lived
the Great Commandment to "Love God
with all your heart, mind and strength
and love your neighbour as yourself."
All our Christian ethics flows from this.
Love personified has come into our
world in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the
living God! Therefore we must surely be
intolerant of all that is rooted in hate,
division and wrong discrimination. I've
been very moved by the campaign “Black
Lives Matter" in 2016. Isn't it tragic that
this campaign is so necessary? Listening
to Police Officers being interviewed in
the U.S. it was disturbing to hear some
say that they felt threatened by a person
just because they are black and that's
why they discharged their weapon. This
attitude arises out of the segregation our
societies experience, tolerate and in some
ways encourage. Segregation always
leads to mistrust, misunderstanding and
paves the way for false stereotypes to
prevail. That's why I am opposed to
segregation in education. Advent teaches
us that God loves and has special care
for those who are bullied and brushed
aside by mainstream society (Mary's
Song), whether that is because of their
low rank, poverty, colour of their skin or
religion. So let us celebrate God's love
with all our might and let's live God's love
with determination!
With my prayers for a meaningful
Advent, Merry Christmas and a Happy
New Year!
Love, Peter
(Rev’d Peter Meek,
Moderator East Midlands Synod, URC)
From the Moderator
6
Enabling Churches
to House the
Homeless and
Refugees
Save the date: 31 March 2017
We would like to invite you to join us
for our third annual conference,
for a day of informative talks, interactive
seminars, networking, inspirational
testimonies and tenant awards.
We will be looking at many aspects of
churches housing the homeless and
refugees.
Hope into Action Conference
"Christ Be Our Light" (StF706) is one of
our most popular worship songs – it
has gentle flowing music which seems
to draw people along, accompanying
clear but challenging words. Bernadette
Farrell, the composer of both words and
music, uses words from the Psalms as
her inspiration. "I Rejoiced when I Heard
Them Say" (StF26) and "O God You
Search Me" (StF728) are familiar words,
set to her unique prayerful melodies,
which help to bring us to an extra
understanding. "Bread of Life" (StF577)
is a straightforward communion hymn
to be sung very slowly, letting the quiet
strength of the words aid our worship.
Bernadette Farrell is well loved on
both sides of the Atlantic. She began
composing while she was a member of
the St. Thomas More group in the 1970's.
The group also included Stephen Dean,
Christopher Walker and James Walsh.
In the 1980's she began publishing
with OCP, releasing collections of her
work. Her latest release was in 2014,
which was a collection of fifteen newly
composed songs for worship under the
title "Love Goes On".
Bernadette Farrell has always been
passionate about social justice. She is at
present a community organizer for UK
Citizens, which works for fair housing,
a living wage, proper policing in the
community and health care access.
She lives in London with her husband,
Owen Alstott.
In our hymn book (StF) only six of
her hymns are included. Maybe we need
to discover more to use in our worship?
Kirsty
Information from Wikepedia and
Singing the Faith
Bernadette Farrell (b1957)
7
I suspect that anyone who
has been involved in amateur
theatrical productions has
allowed themselves to imagine,
just a little, what it might be
like to work professionally in
film or TV or appear on stage
in the West End of London, but
always in the knowledge that
it’s not something that could
ever happen.
Bizarrely, through a series
of unlikely coincidences, this
autumn I was given an opportunity to
tread the boards of a proper West End
theatre.
The wife of a friend of mine is
an actress who is developing into a
playwright. Jen has been taking part in a
writing course run in conjunction with
the Criterion Theatre on Piccadilly Circus,
and as a result had the opportunity to
showcase a half hour extract from her
play at the theatre. She decided to have
the scenes acted out, rather than simply
read, so she recruited a director and cast
from among her professional friends and
contacts. Jen had no budget to pay her
actors, so relied on people willing to give
up their free time for her. Unfortunately
for Jen, one of the cast dropped out and
she just didn’t know anyone else willing
to work for free. Fortunately for me, her
husband eventually thought of me, and of
course I jumped at the chance.
The play has a basis in fact – it’s
set in the Second World War at a
country house near Welwyn Garden
City which became a factory producing
weapons and equipment for Special
Operations Executive agents working in
Occupied Europe. The character at the
heart of events (my character!) is a radio
expert who is developing transmitters for
secret agents, but in the course of the
play it emerges that his work is providing
a front for more morally dubious weapons
research.
We only had five rehearsals together,
and it was quite an eye-opener watching
a professional director and proper trained
actors at work. In some ways it was
reassuring to see that they had the same
problems learning lines, but I did feel very
out of my depth. Fortunately Jen was
able to give me some extra coaching in
finding the character and gave me tips on
expressing his personality in the way he
moved and interacted with the others.
Clearly the event was not going to
take precedence over the current show
running at the Criterion, so my West
End experience took place on a Friday
afternoon at the end of October. All
activity on stage had to take account
of the scenery and props taking up all
the off-stage space. It was very exciting
entering the stage door to explore a
whole new world, but I have to admit
to some disappointment at the slightly
institutional feel of the dressing room
corridor – it could have been a school or
a hospital.
Our Doug on London Stage
Matthew Mellalieu, Doug Pattie and Robert Gwyn
Davin on stage at the Criterion Theatre
8
We had an hour in the morning to
have a technical run through and iron out
any issues with lighting and sound effects.
(The picture shows me with two of my
colleagues on stage at the Criterion, but
not yet in costume, during the tech.) At
this point it was very difficult to enjoy the
experience, because we had one chance
to present Jen’s play to an audience – an
audience which could potentially include
people with the power to take it to the
wider world – and I really did not want to
be the one to mess it up.
Our time came, and we got out and
performed the extract. I have to say, it
went very well – no lapses of memory,
no falling over the furniture. Then I
could relax and fully take in that I had
just acted in the West End. I eventually
discovered that it was also the first time in
the West End for one of the professionals,
which made the whole experience seem
even more special and unusual and one I
will treasure for the rest of my life.
For anyone who may be interested,
my next performance will be with the
Peterborough Operatic and Dramatic
Society in the musical “9 to 5” at the
Cresset in Peterborough, on the 21st-25th
March 2017.
Doug
Week of Prayer
for Christian Unity
This event usually happens from the 18th
to the 25th January, as for the first event
in 1908, but some areas, especially in the
southern hemisphere, where January is
peak holiday time, observe it later. The theme for the 2017 is is Crossing
Barriers. The material was prepared for
worldwide use by churches in Germany
based around Corinthians 5:14-20: For the love of Christ urges us on,
because we are convinced that one has
died for all; therefore all have died. And
he died for all, so that those who live
might live no longer for themselves, but
for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard
no one from a human point of view;
even though we once knew Christ from a
human point of view, we know him no
longer in that way. So if anyone is in
Christ, there is a new creation: everything
old has passed away; see, everything
has become new! All this is from God,
who reconciled us to himself through
Christ, and has given us the ministry
of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God
was reconciling the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses against
them, and entrusting the message
of reconciliation to us. So we are
ambassadors for Christ, since God is
making his appeal through us; we entreat
you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to
God. (New Revised Standard Version,
Anglicised {NRSVA})
CTiCP events are 22nd—29th January, in
order to spread the traditional exchange
of pulpits over two Sundays, which allows
churches to fulfil their own obligations.
On 22nd we will welcome a preacher from
Park Road Baptist and we send a preacher
there on the 29th.
There will be a very special joint
service at Westgate New Church on
the evening of January 22nd at 7pm.
Please make every effort to attend
this service and give friends from the
other churches a warm welcome.
9
Advent Reflection Day
The CTiCP Advent Reflection Day took
place on Saturday December 3rd in the
Knights’ Chamber, part of the new
Visitors’ Centre at the Cathedral. It was
titled “Waiting in the Wings: Advent,
Poetry and Faith” and led by Rev Canon
Mark Oakley, the Chancellor of St Paul’s
Cathedral.
Mark is passionate about poetry, both
because it encapsulates emotional as
well as literal meaning in a compact
form of words, and also because of the
poetic nature of the language of worship
and faith. The Bible is substantially poetic
– even prose passages frequently have
the elliptical approach to meaning that
characterises poetry. Worship uses poetry,
most obviously in hymns but also in
prayer and all that helps our approach
to God.
He started the day with the journey of
faith – his own, describing how different
periods in his life brought new insights
of faith. For him faith had been, and
still is, a journey towards God. Speaking
without notes, he offered us a vivid
picture of himself, times of discovery and
close relationship with God, but also of
barrenness and spiritual hunger. Advent
particularly, is a season of longing for
God. True Christian discipleship is always
based on our longing for God, and Faith
is a journey with God to what we shall
become.
After a short break for us to reflect
on our own personal faith journeys
Mark went on to open out the relationship
between poetry and faith – “Language
must matter to the person of faith”,
and poetry must be the language of
worship. He described his approach to
understanding poetry – read and listen for
the “splash”, the immediate emotional
response which it invokes. Then listen
more thoughtfully and follow the ripples of
meaning which develop from it.
After lunch it was “over to us” as we
were given a couple of poems to look at in
groups of five or six, then choose one to
read to the whole assembly, saying why
we had chosen that one. Then the day
finished with a short act of worship.
The fifty or so people who came to
this Day found it inspiring and I think
that many went away with a greater
appreciation of the poetry in our faith and
worship. Ian
How Many Seconds?
Q: How many seconds are there in one year?
A: Twelve of them: January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd, April 2nd, May 2nd, June
2nd, July 2nd, August 2nd, September 2nd, October 2nd, November 2nd, December 2nd.
10
Interfaith Week happened very, very
soon after we moved, but we were still
able to send out last-minute invitations
to other faith groups and also the
Methodist Circuit and Churches Together
in Central Peterborough.
The event was attended by several
Methodists, a few Muslims, a Catholic,
a number of Westgate New Church
members, a former member and a few family members. There were stalls, plenty of tea
and coffee and a good selection of home made cakes. Everyone seemed very impressed
with our new home and those who had known the building previously were amazed at
the transformation.
Interfaith Open AfternoonInterfaith Open Afternoon
11
Chronicle of the YearChronicle of the Year
We asked Phil to choose a picture
from each month’s issue.
January: Trevor and June make felt pictures
February: Joan’s 90th birthday
March: Marcus with his
Mum in Lapland before
Christmas
April: Three new people
received into membership
May: Robbie, Jane and June in the
Good Friday March of Witness
June: Former Westgaters Jo and Iain
at a Songs of Praise in Yorkshire,
where the conductor was another
former Westgater, Geoff Ellerby
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November: tribute to the late Margaret Goff who died
aged 99,
seen here
on her 90th
birthday
December:
the cross
leads us from Westgate Church to
Westgate New Church
October: Cathy,
Bernie’s Mum, visiting
from Nevis, with Megan
July: Zlatka
in London at an
ACDC concert
August: Ewan
abseiling off the
Cathedral
September:
Jack baptised at
Westgate
Phil’s Pick of the PicsPhil’s Pick of the Pics
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