Remembrance Day Service 11/11/12

It was wonderful to see so many people in church at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday 11^th November for our special Remembrance Day service.  Alongside our regular worshippers was an excellent turn out of Guides and Brownies and their families.  In addition there were many for whom this is an important occasion for remembering, and honouring,  loved ones and others that have given so selflessly that we might have the safety and freedom that we are privileged to enjoy.

During our first hymn, “Eternal Father Strong to save”, the Guides and Brownies presented their colours at the front of the church.

We then all prayed:-

                   Lord, Direct our thoughts,

                   teach us to pray,

                   lift up our hearts

                   to worship you in Spirit and in truth,

                   through Jesus Christ our Lord.            Amen

Jeremy then led us in Prayers of Penitence after which Rachel read to us from the Bible – Hebrews 11 v 11 – 16.

We then affirmed our faith and were led in prayers for other people before we sang our next hymn, “Fight the good fight”.  During this hymn, Donald came out with a wreath that, escorted by two Brownies, and followed by Jeremy, he paraded to the war memorial at the back of church.

Then during our “Act of Remembrance” the names of the war dead of Birkdale were read out before David played the “Last Post” and we maintained the traditional 2 minutes silence.  The silence was broken with Jeremy saying:- 

“They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old:

age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn:

at the going down of the sun, and in the morning,

we will remember them;”

          after which we all echoed,

                  “We will remember them”

 before David sounded “The reveille”.

“The act of remembrance” concluded with Donald placing the wreath on the War memorial.

Then we all exchanged “The Peace” before Jeremy led us in Prayers for world peace.

Appropriately, we then sang the lovely, moving hymn, “Make me a channel of your peace”.

During his talk John began by summarising the themes that we have been discussing throughout the autumn;- Beginnings; Prayer; God still speaks [during which he remembered, our new Archbishop, Justin Welby’s visit to St. John’s (many years ago) – probably the only time an Archbishop of Canterbury has ever visited St. John’s!]; Being a signpost; and finally His infernal majesty before arriving at this week’s subject – Faith - a very appropriate subject for Remembrance Sunday.

John quoted from our reading – Hebrews 11 v 13 –

          ‘All these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them’.

He discussed the successes and failures of war and the faith that those who fight must necessarily have in their leaders.  He reminded us that, in the words of Psalm 146, the Bible says “Do not put your trust in Princes, in mortal men who cannot save”

and that Jesus said, “do not let your hearts be troubled, Believe in God, believe also in me.”

John concluded that the message is clear,  there are two things to do.  He put them up on the screen.  

 The service ended with the collect for the day, The Lord’s Prayer and The National Anthem before the organisations collected the colours whilst we sang the final hymn, “One more step along the road I go”.

Following the Blessing most of the worshippers went into the hall for 

coffee and cakes, 

 provided by the guides, 

and catch up with each other.

Our Diamond Jubilee service

On Sunday 20th May 2012 we held our service to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.  It was a parade and family service.
As it was impossible to cover everything that has happened to the queen in the past 60 years Christine based the service on the Queen's connections to and involvement in the Guiding movement. 


We were reminded that both the Queen, and her sister Margaret, were Girl Guides - first in a company based in a garden summer house of Buckingham Palace.  However, we learned how, when the Blitz began, they had to close down and move instead to Windsor.  We also learned about the amazing things that Guides and Brownies did for their respective countries during the war.

Coming right up to date we heard how three of our current guides, Hannah, Emily and Georgia, have just been awarded the Baden Powell award.  Hannah and Emily told us about some of the many things that they had  done to gain this  highest guiding award.                      Well done girls!


The service was enlivened by us all singing "Gin gang goolie" in a round!  If you don't know what that is ask a Guide or  try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ging_Gang_Goolie or listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNTrv_CVd-8 although, with respect to Kapiti Primary School, they were not a patch on us!


The service incorporated prayers based on the Guide Promise and law.  These included prayers for the Church, the Queen and her government, young people, parents and leaders of groups for children and young people.  There were also prayers for ourselves and those who are troubled in any way.







As it was a service for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee it concluded with our National Anthem. 

Phoenix celebrates Christmas 2010

On Wednesday 15th December Phoenix celebrated Christmas. They began as usual with a short communion service in church. However, even this felt special this month in the light of the Christmas Trees! [See blogs below for more information about the Christmas Tree Festival]

After the service everyone went through for Christmas lunch. The hall and tables were seasonally decorated and we were even supplied with crackers!

The food was delicious – soup; Turkey, roast potatoes and vegetables; Christmas pudding (or trifle); coffee, mince pies and brandy cream!

After the meal everybody thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment provided by Julie Ann and three of her pupils.

The three extremely talented pupils were Harry (who provided the Aaah! Factor), Lucy (who was cute and whacky) and Sue (who provided elegance and gravitas).

Throughout the programme Harry sang “The Little Boy Santa Forgot”, “Who Will Buy?”, “My Two Front Teeth” and an animated version of “Les Poissons”.

Lucy’s contributions were “Let it Snow”, “The Christmas Song”, an hilarious rendition of “Honey Bun” from South Pacific and “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”.


From Sue we heard “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again”, a tear jerking interpretation of “O Holy Night”, “Have Yourself a Merry Christmas” and “I could Have Danced All Night”.

To give the singers a rest Julie played a “Christmas Rag” part way through the programme. This had 7 carols cleverly hidden within it and we were encouraged to try to spot them all!

Julie was followed by Jane reading the side-splitting story of “Rindercella and her two sigly usters”. The moral of the story was “If you go to a bancy fall and you want to have a prandsome hince lall in fove with you, don’t forget to slop your dripper”. Possibly you had to be there to fully appreciate this (certainly my computer is having a hissy fit as I type it! However, Jane, with her dead pan delivery, had us practically falling off our chairs we were laughing so much!

Marjorie also slipped in an amusing anecdote or two.

The finale to the entertainment was White Christmas and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” sung by everybody.

Well done every body who worked so hard to give us such a fantastic time.

A BIG THANK YOU to Christine, Jane and their team of helpers for the meal; to Julie Ann, Harry, Lucy and Sue (+ Jane) for the first class entertainment and an EXTRA BIG THAN YOU to Marjorie for all the hard work she puts in all year organising Phoenix which is much appreciated by all who attend.

If you are free on the third Wednesday in the month why not give Phoenix a try? Each month it starts at 11.30 a.m. with a short communion which is then followed at 12 noon by lunch in the hall and a speaker or activity at 1.00 p.m. Anyone is welcome and, although most people do, you do not have to come to all three sections. You can just come to the bit(s) that suit you. For more information phone Margery on 01704 566 120. She will be delighted to hear from you.

Harvest Festival and Parade Service 2010

St John's held it's Harvest Festival service on Sunday 19th September. As is traditional, the service focused on our gratitude to God for the food we have to eat with the choir and friends singing a beautiful arrangement of "All things bright and beautiful".

However, this year, church members were asked to bring a variety of toiletries, sweets and other small luxury items instead of the usual groceries.

Stephen Parfitt (and his wife Tina) from SOS (Support our Soldiers) came to explain how these gifts would be boxed up and sent as gifts to members of the British Armed Forces on overseas Operations in Afghanistan. We had an amazingly good response to the appeal - well done everybody.

(For more information about SOS see http://www.supportoursoldiers.co.uk/soldiers.co.uk/).

Thanks also go to the Guides who provided us with refreshments (including delicious cakes) after the servce.

100 Years of Guiding

On Sunday 21st February a special parade service was held at St. John's to celebrate 100 years of guiding.

2010 marks the Centenary of Guiding. Each year members of the movement meet to renew their promise on or near Thinking Day which is celebrated on February 22nd, the birthday of the founder, Robert Baden-Powell and his wife Olave.

Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers and Guiders all renewed their promise during the service.

The Promise is:
I promise that I will do my best:
To love my God,
To serve the Queen and my country,
To help other people
and
To keep the (Brownie) Guide Law.

The Rainbow Guide Promise is:
I promise that I will do my best to love my God and to be kind and helpful.

Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers from St John’s invited other units from Birkdale District to join them for a District parade at our service. There were Rainbows and Brownies from Birkdale United Reformed Church and Brownies from Liverpool Road Methodist church, as well as friends who have supported Guiding in Birkdale and members of the Trefoil Guild and Friends of Guiding.

The focus of the service was "promises" - the promise God made to his people and the promises we make to him and each other. Rainbows, Brownies and Guides participated. In addition one of the guides spoke very movingly about what Guiding meant to her.

A retiring collection was taken which, together with donations and the proceeds of coffee and the Guides’ cake stall, enabled us to send £150 to the Global Girls’ Fund, which is the Centenary Appeal of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

To find out more about Guiding
http://www.wagggsworld.org/en/about/guiding

To find out more about Guiding in the UK
http://www.girlguiding.org.uk/home.aspx

To find out more about the Global Girls’ Fund
http://www.wagggsworld.org/en/support_us/globalgirlsfund

Thank you to Sheila and Rachel for information and a photo and to Joyce for dicretely taking photos during the service.

Please can our guides have your Sainsbury's "Active Kids" vouchers?

This year, for the first time, Vouchers can be donated to Guide groups. If you have any spare vouchers please put them in the collecting box at the back of church. They will be used to earn equipment for Rainbows, Brownies and Guides which will be shared with other units in the district.