Castlewellan Holiday Week starts this Saturday 31 July until 7 August. There is a group of our young people going along, as well as some families. Please remember to pray for all those attending. Here is a message from Sammy Stanfield, our Youth Worker.
Sunday 4 July 2010 saw Sydenham Methodist moving into a new era as we welcomed our new minister, Rev Karen Spence and her family.
Karen, Tim, Rachel and Edwin
We look forward to getting to know the family. Click here to find out a bit more about them now.
We pray God’s blessing on Karen and her family, and on all Karen’s work here in Sydenham.
Sunday 27 June 2010 was the last Sunday with Rev Greg Alexander as our minister. Greg preached at both services; in the morning he urged us to ‘fix our eyes on Jesus’ and in the evening he preached on ‘The Grace’ that we often share with each other at the close of a service. Go to the Resources section to download the sermons. In the evening we had a joint service with the congregations of St Brendan’s and Strand Presbyterian, and we were pleased to welcome the President of the Methodist Church in Togo who brought greetings from Togo. After yet more food, a cup of tea and a biscuit, it really was time for final hugs and good-byes; and there ended another era for Sydenham Methodist. We thank God for all the ways in which he has ministered to us through the faithful service of both Greg and Shirley, and we pray that God will continue to be with them as they start the next chapter of their lives, living and working for our great and glorious God.
Sunday 20 June 2010 was our formal ‘good-bye’ to Greg and Shirley.
During the service Brian Waring, Society Steward and Alan Gray, Circuit Steward, presented Greg and Shirley with a gift from the congregation; a cheque and a beautiful painting that Greg and Shirley had chosen themselves, to remind them in the days to come of their time in Sydenham.
Greg and Shirley kindly gave the congregation a delightful rose bush to be planted in the church garden.
Kidzone gave a gift of a ‘bird’ paper weight and Greg got his very own ‘Build-a-bear’ along with a suggestion that it may be used in some future children’s talk. The children of Kidzone and the young people of Focus had written down memories of, and comments about Greg. These were shown in a powerpoint presentation accompanied by some very artistic drawings of Greg complete with hair and stripey shirts!
A superb lunch was attended by over 150 people. This was an opportunity to relax and chat and for everyone to sign a large card to Greg and Shirley. It will take them quite a while to read all the comments! Have a look at some more photos in the gallery.
Many grateful thanks have been expressed to Greg and Shirley for their time and ministry with us over the past 7 years. They will be sadly missed and we pray God’s blessing on them as they move on to their new churches in Coleraine and Ballymoney.
The Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland was held in our church from 10 – 13 June 2010. Over 300 people attended over the 4 days, from all over Ireland. This was the first time in the history of Sydenham Methodist that we hosted the conference.
Thanks go to everyone who worked so hard to get everthing ready and who kept it all running smoothly. We give thanks to God for blessing our church and congregation through the working out of this task.
Here’s some interesting facts from Pat Gordon.
As part of the ‘behind the scenes’ cleaning team, you get a different insight into a little part of the workings of Conference. There was a great team of people keeping on top of the cleaning during the day. As each session finished, the checking and basic cleaning of halls, church and toilets took place. A senior member of the team never had a brush out of his hands, both inside and outside the building. With a recycling centre almost on our doorstep, we took advantage of daily runs with the filled black bags. When the daily sessions were over our band of evening volunteers arrived to spruce the place for the start of a new day.
With Conference now over and everything getting back to normality, we could not believe the amount of basic materials used over the four days. Just a brief insight into this: approximately 48 toilet rolls, almost 2 boxes of hand towels, 8 liquid soaps and nearly 100 black bags!
Pat Gordon
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