Rivertown United Reformed Church

Rivertown will host a concert on Saturday 11th September at 7pm. Mold & District WI Choir will entertain and all proceeds are in aid of Health Help International (HHI). The charity operates in Zambia and India; helping those in need - providing health related intervention and help create self reliance for communities and individuals.

This is also an opportunity for Chris Byrne to provide an update - in film and pictures - of he visit to India earlier this year. Light refreshments will be provided.

Tickets cost £3 and are available from Rivertown or you can pay at the door.

BACK TO CHURCH – Open Door weekend

On Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th September Rivertown will have a weekend of exhibitions and services to encourage people back to church – both new people and those who have lost touch with Rivertown and in some cases their faith itself. An open invitation for people to learn about Rivertown, our Christian life and to join us in worship on the Sunday – morning or evening, or even both!

Each organisation within Rivertown are invited to display pictures, stories and anything else to promote what the group does and how Rivertown people offer so much – in worship, study, social life and community activities.

The current plans are taking shape and we intend to open our doors 10am to 4pm on Saturday with interactive exhibitions and displays and invite people to worship the following day at 11am or 6pm.

Over recent months Rivertown has reviewed and discussed the Vision4life booklet "Praying our Days" and will start a four week reflection on the material this Sunday (18th July) and another three Sundays over July and August, each based on one of the four sections. This week we will look at 'Praying Together'. From the earliest days Christians have prayed together and we can read about these times in the Bible. We will share stories of praying together and think about how we would like to continue in the future, here in Rivertown. We have the opportunity to talk about our own experiences of prayer and discuss how we can continue our prayer life, considering how we can pray for our church leadership, our future, our witness and worship.

Why do people pray together? What makes us glad or wary of talking about prayer.

Minister’s Letter – September 2010

A garden of foreigners!?

How well do you know the flowers and plants in your garden? Not in terms of relationship – though we do talk to the trees” -
in terms of their country of origin. (Go on, have a look now – surprised?)

Such details appear on most of our shopping today. That reminds us of the debt we owe to those who work long hours in often difficult and dangerous conditions so that we may enjoy our food at its very best and cheapest. But a closer look at the gardening books reveals that so many of those plants which we consider to be truly British, actually come from far away places with strange sounding names. Asia and the Himalayas, for example. Africa also, and the Americas. And all because British explorers went, saw, quite often conquered in the name of civilisation. And took – stole samples in the name of science?

Minister’s Letter – August 2010

“If the Cap Fits…………”

I am not one for wearing any kind of headgear – perhaps that’s why I still have some hair left on my ageing pate!

But the other day at a certain Strawberry Tea I did forget myself – and kept a cool blue-peaked thing on for several hours. St Paul had a run-in with the Christians at Corinth over hats in worship. “A man has no need to cover his head, because he reflects the image and glory of God”.

BP has been having problems with a cap of a different kind – one that will finally put paid to the huge oil spill that has been gushing since April in the Gulf of Mexico. The crisis, which began with an explosion on an oil rig, has not won BP any friends. On the other hand, BP shares were quick to rise when hopes of a solution were first broadcast, and now that the ‘cap’ seems to have halted the oil flow, their shares have risen another 9% I believe.

28th August

At a recent project meeting we decided to continue planning and investigating our next steps along the following lines:

• contact a reference church in Vicars Cross to look at their heating - similar to a heating system recommended for our worship area;

• draw up outline drawings and plans of how we imagine the changes may look and then engage with archiotect to agree and formalise our plans and move to busget estimates for the work;

• make contact with Welsh Assembly Government representative to follow up posibility of getting a grant for this phase of work, based on the extended community facilities

As regards the ongoing issue we have with the upstairs heating - we have now arranged a site meeting with all parties represented. At this meeting we will confirm the issues and identify the solution. The intent is to get the problem sorted out before colder months arrive.

Welcome everybody to the new Rivertown United Reformed Church website. I hope it provides both promotion for the church and a productive community environment for you to create useful and interesting articles & information.

This is a new venture for the church, and I hope that as more of the congregation get used to new technologies such as the internet and e-mail, we'll increase the amount of content on the site, create a website editorial team for managing content and find more and more uses for the site other than simply an information repository. Already on the cards if the site takes off are:

• ability to subscribe to events, so you can be reminded of an important happening via e-mail or mobile phone;
• a secure, on-line version of the Rivertown Directory for church members;
• improved article submission: members will be able to submit stories and photos directly to the site, with a simple moderation check by the team of site editors;
• an improved weblink directory

So just because the site is now live doesn't mean its finished! Anybody can contribute to the site. If you have any articles, news, ideas or suggestions, please contact myself or Chris Byrne. Additionally, Chris will be looking to find additional editors and site moderators to help manage the site content, so if you're computer-literate and up for it, let us know!.

The site has been developed by Dylan and myself at leafish.co.uk, and I will be monitoring the site and making improvements as the site's content grows. Your feedback is, of course, wanted if not required to help make the site a success. You can contact us directly at support@leafish.co.uk

Please read the notes below (or click here) for a brief introduction to some of the features of the website.