Newsletter

With the summer holidays over it will soon be back to school for many of our younger ones. Hope you have all had a great summer break and are raring to go for the new term that lies ahead! We hope that all of you have a positive learning experience and enjoy the ‘best days of your lives’. For those that have had their ‘A’ Level and GCSE results we hope that you make the right choices going forward. Remember you can do whatever you put your mind to. Best of Luck in your future endeavours.

Linda and Malcolm Johnson

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THROUGH THE ROOF

Dear Friends,

The The Paralympics will be a major focus of world attention at the start of this month. What an amazing event that is. To become a brilliant sportsperson must be incredibly hard work whatever your physical condition, but to do it with a disability is amazing. I hope you find this year’s Paralympics an inspiration. Throughout history disabled people have tended to be pushed to the margins of society so I am delighted that that is no longer the case.

In Jesus’ time disabled people were definitely pushed to the margins. Without the safety net of a welfare state, they were hopelessly vulnerable. But during his ministry Jesus deliberately focused his attention on them. He came to bring good news to everyone, whoever they were. To the shock of his contemporaries he welcomed children, women, lepers, tax collectors and notorious sinners.

I love the dramatic account of the paralysed man who was brought to Jesus. On that particular day, Jesus was teaching inside a house and the place was crammed full of people. However, the man’s friends weren’t put off. They were going to get their friend to Jesus whatever it took. So they climbed onto the flat roof of the property and dismantled it. The roof would have been constructed out of branches and hardened mud. Slowly and carefully the friends lowered their friend to the feet of Jesus, where he gave the sick man forgiveness and healing.

That dramatic incident tells me a great deal about true friendship. The four men who brought their friend to Jesus didn’t just wish him well, but were prepared to take action. They could so easily have turned up at the house with their friend and then, seeing the crowds, gone back home. You wouldn’t have blamed them if they had decided to wait for a quieter day. But they didn’t! They cared enough for their friend to come up with a plan for presenting him to Jesus. Breaking through the roof wouldn’t have been as demanding as breaking through your roof, but it would still have required a lot of effort. Nothing was going to stand in their way.

For the last 11 years I have been involved with a number of Christian disability charities and one of them is called Through the Roof. One of its initiatives is to encourage every church to have a Roofbreaker. This is someone who is willing to keep an eye out for disabled people and who seeks to ensure that the activities of the church are fully accessible to everyone whatever their disability. Most Roofbreakers have no particular professional training. They are simply Christian people who want to help disabled people to feel welcome in church life. Isn’t that great? If you feel this is something you would like to get involved with, do please have a word with me.

Let’s do everything we can to ensure that people feel welcome at Central, even if it means breaking through the roof.

With warmest greetings.

Yours ever, in Christ,

Revd Jonathan Edwards

Transitional Minister

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Sunday Services at 10.30 a.m.

• 1st September: Revd Jonathan Edwards (Holy Communion)
• 8th September: Mr Eric Hewitt
• 15th September: Revd Jonathan Edwards (Holy Communion)
• 22nd September: Deacon Stephen Roe
• 29th September: Revd Jonathan Edwards (Holy Communion) HARVEST

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Dates for your diary, held at the Pilgrim Centre unless stated otherwise. (Please phone Jonathan on 07876 234264 if you need Barbara’s address.)

• Monday 2nd September: Community Cafe, 10 a.m. – 1p.m.
• Monday 2nd September: Executive Meeting, 6.30 p.m.
• Thursday 5th September:  Bible Study, 2.30 p.m.
• Monday 9th September:  Community Cafe, 10 a.m. – 1p.m.
• Tuesday 10th September: Bible Study at Barbara’s, 7.30 p.m.
• Sunday 15th September:  Church Meeting following worship
• Monday 16th September: Community Cafe, 10 a.m. – 1p.m.
• Thursday 19th September: Bible Study, 2.30 p.m.
• Monday 23rd September: Community Cafe, 10 a.m. – 1p.m.
• Tuesday 24th September:  Bible Study at Barbara’s, 7.30 p.m.
• Monday 30th September:  Community Cafe, 10 a.m. – 1p.m.

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Prospect Hospice.

After sending the Community Cafe money for June to Prospect, we have received this letter.

Dear all at Central Church,
 
We cannot say thank you enough for choosing to support Prospect Hospice with your recent gift of £100 from your coffee morning.
 
All of us here at Prospect Hospice are committed to ensuring that all individuals with a life-limiting illness can access our services when they need them across our community of 300,000 people in Swindon, Marlborough, North East Wiltshire, and the villages of Lechlade and Fairford in Gloucestershire, delivering care both in patients’ homes and at our hospice in Wroughton.
 
We are so proud and humbled by all of the continued and new support given to us by so many people in our community; it is because of you that we are able to provide outstanding support and care to our patients and their families when needed the most. 
 
Your support at a time when we are all affected by the cost of living crisis, really does mean a lot to us and your donation will play a crucial part in ensuring that we can continue to be there.
 
With thanks from all of us here at Prospect Hospice.

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Harvest

Our Harvest Festival service will be held on Sunday 29th September.  Our gifts this year will be divided between Big Breakfast Plus and Alternative Angels so donations that can be used by these groups would be much appreciated. Suggestions: cereals, fruit juice, tea bags, sugar, coffee, jam, marmalade, honey, eggs, tinned meat/fish for sandwiches, pot noodles, crisps. There will also be an opportunity to give a monetary donation which will be sent to the URC for their Commitment for Life project.

Following the service there will be a ‘bring and share’ lunch. We hope everyone will stay and share fellowship with us.

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Garden Party

Barbara and Steve Aftelak are holding a Garden Party at their home in Liddington on 14th September from 2 – 5 p.m. There is an open invitation to Central friends and members and this will be in aid of Street Pastors and Swindon Youth for Christ. There will be homemade and Fairtrade refreshment. Dog friendly. Please contact the church office if you require the address. 01793 537642.

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Welcome

We were pleased to welcome three friends into church membership in July: Barbara and Charles and Miriyam. They have been worshipping with us for some time now and we are happy that they have made their commitment to us. We were also pleased to welcome Bijo, Sofi and baby Nathan at church recently; also Bijo’s mum who is staying with them until October.  

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Thought for the day –  “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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Deadline for October 2024 Newsletter: Wednesday 25th September 2024.