An insight to the workings and personalities of our church March 2004
Services in March:
BCP – Book of Common Prayer CW – Common Worship
7th March 1030 Holy Communion BCP
1900 Songs of Praise
14th March 1030 Holy Communion CW
21st March 1030 Holy Communion BCP
Mothering Sunday
1900 Songs of Praise
28th March 1030 Sunday School Anniversary Service
4th April 1030 Palm Sunday: Holy Communion CW
Songs of Praise
Sunday School & Youth Group run at the same time as the Sunday Services
Weekly Activities
Monday 1000 Alpha Course (English)
Tuesday 1000 Alpha Course (German)
1000 Library & Coffee Morning
1100 ‘Slimming Together’
Wednesday 1000 Coffee & Kids
(for ages newborn – 6 yrs)
1100 Follow-up Alpha Course
11330-1200 Mini-Meds
1200 ‘Lunchbox’ – come & join us for lunch – everyone welcome
1900 Scrabble Club (Last Wed in month)
Thursday 1000 Bible Study - The Book of Acts
Friday Informal Fellowship & Prayer Meeting (please phone HTC to check time &
place)
Saturday 1000 ‘Nearly New’ Sale (first Sat every month
Programme for Easter:
8th April 1900 Maundy Thursday Communion
9th April Good Friday: (provisional programme)
Devotional hour
Passiontide Music (Avis)
Service of the last hour (incl. Reading of the Passion Narrative)
11th April EASTER SUNDAY
PARSON’s PARAGRAPH
‘RESTORING HOPE IN OUR CHURCH’
One of the cruelest things we can shout at someone (even just as an inward
feeling) is ‘You’re hopeless’. We might have said it about one of our children
or a pupil. Someone may have said it about us in our youth. To use that word
‘hopeless’ means finality. When hope dies, the lights go out. You give up. The
meaning of the opposite: ‘hope’ is then clear: there is still a future, not all
roads are blocked off. It is worth waiting for the sun to come out again as it
sure will. ‘Hope’ in the New Testament is a translation of elpis in New
Testament Greek which has come into modern Greek as elpida. I saw it the other
day on a political banner. Elpis stands just behind pistis (now pistee) in the
same queue ,which all you Greek speakers know means ‘faith’ . When the Epistle
to the Hebrews defines faith as making us ‘sure of what we hope for and certain
of what we do not see’ (Chap.11 v 1) faith comes after first taking hold of
hope. So if God’s power , love ,activity and promises are realized through
faith, we see what harm can be done by declaring someone, or ourselves to be
hopeless.
The same is true of larger organizations…even the church. Restoring Hope in Our
Church is the title of a video which came into HTC office some months ago and I
have now viewed. It was made last year to set a new tone of hopefulness for the
Church of England in the new Millennium. In the February Pulse I wrote about
‘Never on Sunday,the Daily Mail article which was effectively framing the Church
of England in a state of terminal decline, i.e. in hopelessness. The video tries
to cut the knot of the hopelessness by getting behind it.
I well remember on December 31st 1999, as the clock ticked past 2300, we
switched on the church lights and set up the watchnight service to ‘see in’ the
new millennium. Normally we were lucky to get double figures at midnight on a
New Years Eve. At 2320 a steady stream of people with their lighted candles
began to drift into church, 71 in all. Most of them were not regular
churchgoers. They were seeking expression to their inarticulate hopes. There
seemed a gladness that the church hadn’t really given up after all. When people
realize that ‘it’s OK to hope’ then it encourages the church to get on with its
prime calling to preach the gospel and sow the seeds in expectant hearts.
I will be showing Restoring Hope in Our Church at our first Awayday on April
3rd* and we will then go into small discussion groups to apply the video, which
clearly has England in mind, to our mission here in Corfu. Isaiah said of the
Messiah’s ministry (Chap.42v7) ‘to open eyes that are blind, to free captives
from prison, and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness’ That’s
hope………………… Clifford
*The AWAYDAY will take place on SATURDAY April 3rd at Roger and Pat Hunstone’s
home in the Ropa Valley (by kind permission) from around 1015 to 1545. I will be
putting a notice up in church shortly for people to sign up. IT IS OPEN TO ALL
(though at this stage it will be difficult to accommodate children for several
reasons) Look at the noticeboard.
A Fairwell Message:
It’s here in Corfu that I became a Born Again Christian, feeling the presence of
our Lord and the comfort I found in Jesus when I was feeling sad or lonely,
‘Thank you, Jesus’. And, before I leave Corfu to live in England, I would like
to thank my dear daughter and family and all my brothers and sisters at Holy
Trinity for their loving help and support during my stay here. Thanks be to God
for his loving presence in our church and may it continue always. My love to all
in Jesus. Barbara (Lowe) x
Pause for Thought
Doubt sees the obstacle,
Faith sees the Way
Doubt sees a long dark night,
Faith sees the day.
Doubt dreads to take a step,
Faith soars on high.
Doubt thunders, "Who believes?"
Faith whispers, "I."
On 15th Feb Clifford & Avis visited the childrens’ home in Methilades and gave
€200 from fund raising efforts.
Tom & June’s Coffee Morning on 29th Jan raised €260 for the Special Needs
Nursery in Marasli St. Corfu Town, with 10% going to church funds.
For your Prayers:
Diana – a 10 yr old Albanian street girl, that she will agree to being taken
into a family
Bob Bond, a former Chaplain, undergoing treatment for cancer
PTL for good news from David Poulter and also Tony
Christian Unity (Philipians 2 vv1-4)
Don’t forget to put your clocks forward by 1 hour before you go to bed on
Saturday 27th March
Items for ‘Pulse’ should be given to Stella & Ron 2661090926 or email
stelnron@otenet.gr
by the last Wednesday of the month
All enquiries regarding church activities should be directed to the office on
26610 31467 (Mon – Fri 10am – 1pm) e-mail holytrin@otenet.gr
Out of hours & emergencies ring Clifford’s mobile 6947287816
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