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Feb 1st	8:00am	Holy Communion
	10:00am	Family Service
Feb 8th	10:00am	Holy Communion with Junior Church
	10:30am	St@PH (Word & Worship at Park Hill School)
Feb 15th	10:00am	Holy Communion with Junior Church
Feb 22nd	10:00am	Holy Communion with Junior Church
	10:30am	St@PH (St Andrew's at Park Hill School)
	6:30pm	Youth Service at St. Andrew's Church led by Mettle

Holy Communion on Wednesdays at 10am: a half hour service followed by coffee and fellowship

The weather has been much in the news recently (when is it not?) with the severe cold spell. In many countries of the world, the weather not only fails to feature on the news, but there isn’t even a need for a weather forecast, since the weather will be the same today as it was yesterday and the day before. In contrast, in Britain, it is almost impossible to encounter someone in the street without exchanging remarks with them about the prevailing weather conditions. It is the first topic of conversation on the bus, in the supermarket queue and in my experience quite often on the way out of the church door on a Sunday morning.

The changeable weather so defines what it is to be British that many people find their personalities described with weather related terminology. He has a sunny disposition; she is gloomy. It also gives us almost endless opportunities to decide how we are going to respond to the world around us. I was particularly struck by the man who greeted me at the beginning of walk across the fields on one of the very coldest days with the remark that I wouldn’t be getting my boots muddy that day, which I thought was a marvelously positive way of responding to conditions that others might complain about.

There is a lot in the Bible about weather, although one of the most famous sayings is widely misquoted. Yes, the Bible does say: “The sun shines on the righteous” it’s true. However, it goes onto say that it also shines on the unrighteous i.e. that the weather doesn’t distinguish. Similarly, it says: “The rain falls on the just and the unjust”, a relief to anyone who has got soaked in a thunderstorm. The fact is that the green and pleasant land in which we live is green and pleasant because of our amazing weather, that unique combination of rain and sunshine. We pray for good weather, but perhaps sometimes in ignorance of what ‘good’ weather really is.

We are given a fundamental choice. When we look up, do we count the blessings that fall upon us, or do we lament the inconvenience of things not being quite as we would want them. This choice determines not only our attitude to life, but to the one who created life. When you find yourself complaining about your lot, just remember that when it’s freezing outside, it means you won’t get your boots muddy!

1. Establish Pram Service
2. Ensuring the future of St@PH
3. Developing baptism preparation
4. Training worship leaders including youth band

At our meeting held on 4th December, we were entertained by the Peter Taylor singers. They sang some lovely songs which we were able to join in and even had some dancing to songs like the Lambeth Walk and Strolling. They concluded by singing carols and John Mills thanked them for a wonderful afternoon’s entertainment which he felt had got us all into the festive spirit and gave Peter a cheque to go towards their chosen charity.

A plant was given to Irene Jelfs who had recently celebrated her 80th birthday. We then had mince pies, cakes and usual cup of tea before the raffle took place.

The following day our annual Christmas dinner was served to over 70 members. This was provided by Greenaways Catering and was a very enjoyable meal with excellent service. Barbara thanked all the ladies who had served the meal and gave them a collection which had been given by our members in appreciation for their hard work. We were then entertained by Moira playing piano and Jean singing songs going back to the 60’s (which of course many of us remembered and join in). Barbara then reminded members that the next meeting would be on 18th December (not 11th) as the children from St Andrew’s School would be coming that afternoon to entertain us.

At our final meeting the children really excelled themselves by performing the play called “the real meaning of Christmas.” The costumes and singing were superb and their teachers had really worked hard to arrange this wonderful afternoon’s entertainment for us. A donation was given to the school funds for which Mrs Driscoll thanked us and said they would look forward to visiting the club next year. Finally, the annual raffle took place with so many prizes to be won and people having some worthwhile ‘goodies’ to take home for Christmas.

Barbara and the committee wish everyone a very happy and healthy New Year. Your continued support of our club is much appreciated. I know that many lasting friendships have developed through becoming a member of Eastern Green Golden Year’s Club and trust that these and all the social activities we enjoy together will continue to many years.
June Orton.

Our first meeting in the New Year will be on Monday 2nd February 2009 at 2pm in St Andrew’s Church meeting room. Colin Bullas will tell us about the ‘Progress so far.’

Our March meeting will be on Monday 2nd at 7.30pm. Would anyone with photographs or information on anything to do with the history of Eastern Green please ring Ken on 76 403372.

Pram Service
St Andrew’s has started a pram service for mums, dads and grandparents who have pre-school children. The service lasts half an hour and takes place at 9am on the final Tuesday of the month, the next being on Feb 24th, with refreshments being served beforehand. The service will offer a range of fun activities designed to appeal to very young children. If you want to know more, please phone Greg on 76422856

Lent Groups
Lent groups will operate at St Andrew’s in the build up to Easter, meeting in people’s homes. There will be at least three groups meeting at different times (day and evening) studying John’s Gospel. These groups are welcome to all, but you do need to sign up in advance. If interested, please contact Marc (7640 5324) or Greg (7642 2856)

Eastern Green Promise
A second production celebrating the history of Eastern Green is to be held at St Andrew’s Church the weekend of March 21st/22nd. Through drama and singing, we will be celebrating the history of the village through the post war years, with the help of semi-professional writer, Malcolm Dewhirst. Tickets are available from Fran on 7642 2856.

Rock Solid
Our Youth Group, Rock Solid, aimed at School Years 6-8 inclusive meets at Kenthurst Scout Hut at 6.30-8pm most Sundays. We are now opening the group up to the wider community. We play lots of games (sometimes messy ones), talk about issues relevant to young people and make new friends, while learning about the Christian faith in a non-threatening way. Please come along and find out for yourself.

Baptisms
Oskar Alec Marr

Ethel Kilpatrick
The St Andrew’s congregation was very sad at the news of the death of Ethel Kilpatrick, who was a much loved friend, especially of our Wednesday congregation. She died a day short of her 89th birthday, having lived in Eastern Green for some fifty years, principally in Sutton Avenue. She will be remembered for mischievous sense of humour, keen intellect and independent mind by all her knew her, but especially her daughter Chrys and two grand-daughters.

Due to bad weather and illness our January meeting was rearranged for the 22nd. At the meeting we gave more than 200 hand made teddy bears to John Clarke, our local fire officer, for distribution at the African clinic he helps to run.

We meet on the first Wednesday in February when we will hear from John Baker as he talks about local coal mines.

Please do join us at our friendly meetings, all our welcome and there is always a selection of lovely cakes and a good cup of tea!

‘Grow the Tallest Sunflower’ Competition
This early announcement gives both the keen gardener and young amateur plenty of time for any necessary planning for our competition. The lucky winner will have the opportunity of their photograph, together with their mammoth sunflower, appearing on the front cover of The Link Magazine. So, start seed hunting, and wait for the sun to start warming that special patch of earth. More details to follow.

I write this time as we watch the daily horrific news from the Gaza Strip in Palestine, an outburst of a history of pain on both sides.
The history of the Jews has been one of terrible persecution over many centuries – sadly mostly in this and other Christian countries: laws restricting their lives and movements, the ethnic cleansing in the Russian Pogroms, and culminating in the holocaust under the Nazis and the closing of many borders against the fleeing Jews.

The Jews desperately wanted a homeland of their own where they could feel safe and control their own destiny. From the end of the 19th century Jews started to move “back” to Palestine. After WW2 the State of Israel was set up and recognised internationally. One of the conditions was that the indigenous people, the Palestinians, must be treated as equal citizens.

Tragically, as so easily happens, the oppressed became the oppressors; the persecuted became the persecutors; the humiliated found others to humiliate.

Initially, the Palestinians, Arab Christians and Muslims welcomed their persecuted “blood brothers” as fellow children of Abraham. Sadly, they found themselves driven off their lands and from their villages at gunpoint. Some remained but as inferior citizens with few rights or public services, schools or hospitals. Others displaced to the West Bank (of the Jordan River) or to the Gaza Strip, both designated by the UN as Palestinian controlled areas.

But crowd displaced people into a relatively small and densely overcrowded under-serviced area, enclose them with a wall or electric fencing and deny them basic human rights and the stage is set for the rise of fundamentalist militant resistance such as Hamas. And where hatred confronts hatred and violence on both sides is used to fight violence, the present humanitarian disaster in Gaza is almost inevitable. (We were not allowed to visit Gaza).

But, we met many remarkable people, Jews and Arabs, working for peace and reconciliation.

We met Palestinian Archbishop Elias Chacour, who, although driven from his village when he was eight, lives the Beatitudes. He is steely in his upholding of justice and the rights for the dispossessed but refuses to countenance violence, seeking always to “feel the pain of the other” as the only way to lasting peace. Do read his book “Blood Brothers” for a first-hand account (nothing to do with the musical of the same name).

We experienced some of the pain of a Christian Palestinian shopkeeper who had bee driven from his home, then again a second time. Now his family of six all live in one room. He feels that the world and the church don’t really care, and that the might of the US is all on the side of the Israeli Government.

In my December article I mentioned the Bethlehem Bible College, and the Holy Land Trust and their work for peace. We visited “Musalaha” an organisation bringing young Jews and Arabs together for conferences and for times together in the Judean Desert; times when they can really get to know each other as fellow human beings without demonising the other. We met some Israeli soldiers who try to moderate the violence and show respect for Palestinians from within the army.

We did, of course, visit the Holy Sites as well. In fact, we were briefed about getting through Tel Aviv Airport: “We are an Anglican group visiting the Holy Sites. Whatever you do, don’t mention peace or justice or we won’t get through.” So sad!

We walked on the 1st century paving stones in Jerusalem on which Jesus might well have walked, now in the busy souk where Jews and Arabs shop side by side, but where soldiers patrol the streets. We shared bread and wine at the Garden Tomb, one of two possible Resurrection sites. We walked down the Mount of Lives, stopping to pray where Jesus might have wept over Jerusalem, and had quiet time in Gethsemane. We visited the Church of the Nativity, now scarred by Israeli bullet marks, and stood at the place from which Jesus is said to have ascended.

Sailing on the Sea of Galilee in a replica 1st century fishing boat, celebrating Eucharist on the shore of Capernaum, and renewing our Baptismal vows in the River Jordan were never-to be-forgotten moments, while floating in the Dead Sea was a time of general hilarity!

A land of wonderful, peace-striving people, and of those who would seek to destroy. But at present a land of apparently intractable escalating hatred and violence. Yet as Christians we still have Hope. The Berlin wall did come down. Apartheid in South Africa has been abolished. We celebrated 200 years of the abolition of slavery. Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland now share power. All these situations seemed to be insoluble.

Reconciliation is not the same as conflict resolution. It is not a matter of “forgive and forget.” It is the recognising and even celebrating of those who are different and whom we may have learnt to hate. Reconciliation is an interface that becomes an encounter and not a dividing wall.
God promised, through Ezekiel:

“I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow my statutes …. They shall be my people and I will be their God.” (Ez: 12v19-20).

Frances Hawkey
(The third in a series about David’s and my study-tour of the Holy Land in October).

I am the great sun, but you do not see me,
I am your husband, but you turn away.
I am the captive, but you do not free me,
I am the captain you will not obey.
I am the truth, but you will not believe me,
I am the city where you will not stay,
I am your wife, your child, but you will leave me,
I am that God to whom you will not pray,
I am your counsel, but you do not hear me,
I am the lover whom you will betray,
I am the victor, but you do not cheer me,
I am the holy dove whom you will slay,
I am your life, but if you will not name me,
Seal up your soul with tears, and never blame me,
Translated by Charles Causley

St Andrew's Church Eastern Green