Sunday May 16 - Ascension

Yes, I know that Ascension is on a Thursday, but since TFG only happens on a Sunday, it is good to take the opportunity for celebrating all the Church’s Festivals.

So, Ascension! Although Christ is no longer with us in person, he lives within each of us; we therefore opened our worship with Rejoice! Rejoice! Christ is in you. We had an exciting selection of songs, which all brought a challenge and our prayer time was led by Marilyn.

As our speaker for the morning, we once again welcomed Fr. David Knight, who writes:

-A mountain-top church

-a suspension bridge

-an olde book

-a dustbin

-a cloud

all featured in the TFG service last Sunday, and all connected in their various ways with the strange happening we call "The Ascension" Good News indeed for us peasantry: we are promised a share in Jesus' new/old exalted state of Being, if we keep trusting him. An unlikely bit of religiosity becomes more than relevant!

Full marks to Fr Edward our Rector for his courage and insight in launching TFG as an alternative to the traditional worship across the road; full marks to Deacon Olivia and her team in transforming the vision into a structured format with a vibrant freedom- a rare mixture.

Thank you too, to Fr. David, who has a real gift for this style of worship. So to all of you who have never experienced TFG – why not drop in one Sunday at 9.45am.

I hope to see you soon.

Deacon Olivia

Sunday May 9 - Christian Aid Week

"1.4 billion people across the world live in poverty. This is unacceptable."

"From time to time we need to expose ourselves to areas of hurt and human suffering because when our hearts are soft God can use us."

At TFG this morning we were invited to take a journey in word and image to Kenya and to see a community where Christian Aid is working with local people to develop sanitation and clean water. In a timely way whilst we in Britain were preoccupied with our own political and economic issues we heard the words of Catherine Kithuku from the Matopeni slum in Nairobi, who we saw on the Christian Aid film:

I pray for change.
I pray to live a clean, comfortable life with privacy ...
Most of all I pray for clean water.

After seeing the film we heard retold the NT vision of a "new heaven and a new earth" and were invited to write or draw what this might mean for us and for the people of Kenya and to take what we had written / drawn home to reflect on during the week.

For further details go to: http://www.christianaid.org.uk/

For the latest press release from Christian Aid on the formation of a new government click here

Peter K