Rivertown United Reformed Church

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.

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.

Deeside Pastorate – Minister’s letter – June 2010

“Tell me what you see”

The words are the title of a Lennon-McCartney track on the Beatles’ best selling “Help” album. Now Jesus didn’t quite say that – but something very similar. John the Baptist, in prison and soon to be executed as a birthday present for King Herod’s seductive daughter’s mother, still wasn’t completely sure about who Jesus was. John sent his friends to check Jesus out. Jesus replied, “tell John what you have seen me do”.

The crowds that followed Jesus were not interested in the nights he spent in prayer; and unless they were from his home town in Nazareth, they were not interested in his upbringing, his education, his family – nor, thank goodness, where he lived, what he ate, where he shopped or spent his holidays. All they were interested in was – could he heal? Did he really care for people? Did he provide a good “after sales service”?

Minister’s Letter – April 2010

Dead – or Alive?

Someone once said to Joseph of Arimathea, “that was such a beautiful, costly, hand-hewn tomb. Why did you give it someone else to be interred in?” “Oh,” said Joseph, “he only needed it for the weekend.” **

If I were ever asked “do you believe in life after death?”, my reply would be quite simple; my relationship with God does not depend on anything physical (it is the Holy Spirit who keeps us in touch). Therefore the ending of my physical life will in no way cut me off from God.

When Jesus said “I will be with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28 v 20), he did not just mean as a memory. Jesus told a woman he met one day at a well “everyone who drinks of this (well) water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life”(John 4 v 14).

The Copenhagen Accord

by William Loader

The skies mourn. The clouds darken. Angry winds stir the leaves and shake the trees. Distant voices speaking from future generations cry, "Why? Why could you not agree? Why could you not find a way? Did you not see the ice melting?

Minister’s Letter – November 2009

“God’s Economy”

I was talking to someone the other day who had spent her whole life in the same house. She had reached the stage of realising that she now had an awful lot that she really didn’t need. I am a hoarder by nature - but our regular moves as a manse family have made regular clearouts not only possible, but welcome. In a sense God does not have this problem. God never moves house! But God does not waste anything. Whilst walking the dog in Wepre Wood one beautiful sunny day I was struck by the canopy of trees, the multicoloured carpet of autumn leaves in red, orange, gold, yellow, green, with a smattering black dots. Nothing is wasted here. Everything plays a part – and by recycling helps growth the next year. One leaf by itself, through beautiful, cannot hold a candle to the sight of all the leaves thrown together. But we need to stop, and look.

A “Daily Desert” newspaper report of a wedding in Cana.

Sara, daughter of Isaac and Esther, and Bart, son of Peter and Naomi, were married on Thursday the 2nd of July at God’s Temple, Cana. Simon was the best man. But this wedding had a big disaster! All the wine had been drunk. It was an absolute catastrophe. Luckily the supposed son of God, Jesus, proved he was, he turned all the water into wine.

I spoke to Bart he said, “the wine my good friend Jesus produced was better than Canas finest; it met the standards of my motto “1, 2, 3, only the best will do.”

The manager of Camat wine company said “I offered Jesus 100 silver coins to produce wine for us, he turned us down.

The question on everyone’s lips is “Is Jesus Gods son?” Well, I managed to get an interview with the man himself. He said “I do not want any fame for my actions, I want and live a simple life. The one who needs the fame is my father God.”

So Jesus is Gods son!

Minister’s Letter – Sept 2009 “Jesus - the Travelodge”

I have come to be very grateful for the Travelodge. For these “oases” offer rest on the journey – total acceptance, sometimes at a very good price, to travellers of every kind. They are a welcome acknowledgement of the vast distances that we travel these days – for work, study, leisure, even family history research, maintaining personal links with old friends. An acknowledgement of our need, in this express-paced world of ours, for rest, recuperation, so that tiredness does not overcome us and make us a potential danger to other road and motorway users. The time to remember again who we are – and in a faith context, that we are all much more than the journey we are making, the job we do, the family we belong to, the friends and possessions we have accumulated, the skills we have inherited, been born with or achieved through training.