Trinity Church Blog

Tolerance

2008-11-02T12:13:00.002Z

Richard said it took a long time before tribes with their own gods came together and realised there was One God. Such a realisation should have been the start of greater tolerance. But it hasn't always worked like that. Moslems worship the one God and Christians too, but still they often look with intolerance on each other. We can be humbled by the faith of many Moslems and how they express it in their whole life. Even within Christianity there is intolerance between groups. It is not God that is separate but its our way of thinking, our way of creating hierarchies. We can only address our own intolerance as we find it.

Who Am I

2008-07-06T23:18:00.004+01:00

Richard said this was the most important religious questions. It may appear selfish at first, but in truth finding the truth about who I am is an essential step for everybody. We are all unique and on our own journey.

Resonance

2008-06-29T22:26:00.003+01:00

First sermon I've heard from Richard, on resonance. He stroked a Tibetan prayer bowl to make it sing. No amount of banging it, would create such a lasting sound. He said some energy in the church is creating resonance, like the warm welcome for people coming to church. And other things like the need to follow health and safety guidance, although important, did not create such a resonance by the amount of effort put in. So perhaps he will suggest other ways, like a fire Sunday which would then make it clearer. The aim of our life together is to share Jesus Christ with others. and his message. Jesus came across clearly with great resonance not though any great human power, but because what he said and did resonated with others...

Pentecost - multilingual

2008-05-11T22:50:00.002+01:00

At Trinity this morning a minister from Mozambique, spoke in portugese, and was interpreted by his friend and former teacher - the preaching minister. The minister from Mozambique said the Pentecost was a great celebration in his home church.

Then at the Baptist Church in the evening David Fleming spoke in English about Christian Aid, and was interpreted in German by one of the visitors from Schongau - Abingdon's twin town in Germany.

A passion for music

2008-02-10T22:45:00.010Z

Revd. Richard Bittleston spent the weekend in Abingdon as he had come to preach with a view to becoming our new minister.

In a special meeting after the service, the Church was unanimous is inviting him to be the new minister. I didn't get the chance to meet him, but everybody said he was very friendly.

A minister from another church said they had all met him. But whenever he tried to find out about Richard's opinions he kept bringing the talk back to music. Richard's passion is music as can be seen from this link.

Ruth's Penultimate Sunday

2007-09-23T22:41:00.004+01:00

Ruth began this service by getting us all to recite the 23rd Psalm by heart (The Lords my Shepherd...) Then she stopped us at various stages to get us to summarise what the words meant for us. This summarised version was written as we went on a powerpoint slide. Finally we all read out the modern powerpoint version as a prayer at the end. (Sorry I have no copy. You'll have to do your own.)

The Vestry

2007-09-16T22:39:00.002+01:00

This is the vestry. Here the preacher comes before the service to collect their papers and their thoughts, to drink water, and pray.

Next Minister

2007-07-08T22:37:00.001+01:00

This morning after the service there was a meeting to decide whether to apply for a methodist or a URC minister when Ruth leaves. It was felt unanimously, that since Ruth had been with us for only about two and a half years, we should go for another URC minister. The vacancy committee was chosen. But the vacancy cannot be formally advertised until Ruth leaves in September.

Ruth Leaving

2007-06-22T22:35:00.002+01:00

Our Minister Ruth will be moving in September to Cambridgeshire where she will look after a group of four churches - various denominations working together.

Before People Get There

2007-03-18T22:30:00.004Z

God and Responsibility

2007-03-04T22:33:00.002Z

Ruth said that in the situations people had told her about last week, there were no obvious easy answers, and so we learn bit by bit to trust God in them:

The person facing illness and perhaps little chance of getting better.

The person who could not see any more purpose for themselves.

Most of us who recognise we are well off and see poverty elsewhere.

Ruth said how we could trust God in these situations... By acting on the responsibility we feel.

Living Water

2007-02-11T22:28:00.003Z

At the evening service, the theme was living water. Jesus went to the well where he met a samaritan woman and asked her for water. They got talking and then by and by Jesus offered her living water.

Ruth said this was like something springing up in your own heart from God. You could go back endlessly to try and learn the lessons of Christianity, or get it from the source, direct.

Inclusive Church

2006-12-03T08:23:00.004Z

Last week at a special church meeting Trinity decided to allow the Blessing of Gay marriagess. This was promoted by Ruth who sees Trinity as a "broadly inclusive church." The majority decision - no unanimity this time - did however result in one or two individuals, including a leading steward, leaving the church.

A waitrose bag

2006-04-02T22:26:00.001+01:00

We were reminded by the bowl and towel, the crown of thorns, and the hammer and the nail... of Jesus giving up his life for his friends...

So what may you wonder is the corner of a Waitrose bag doing in this religious scene. Throughout the service Ruth spoke about friendship, and what it meant to have God as a friend. The Waitrose bag is full of clothes donated to the homeless, as part of the collection.

Baptist Interference

2006-02-19T22:23:00.004Z

The preacher was just starting his sermon when another voice kept drifting in and out over the sound system. It sounded very much like the minister from the baptist church just down the road. Anyway the inteference soon subsided. It has happened before.

A serious place

2006-02-05T22:24:00.000Z

Normally the children go out to Junior Church after a couple of hymns and a Children's story. But today, they started Junior Church early, and came back in for the communion at the end of the service. They found it quite enthralling, and were allowed to take the bread and wine, which they seemed to do very seriously

Transformation

2005-12-04T22:21:00.002Z

Ruth has been with us as the minister since May. Today she led the communion service. Its funny what stange things can strike, but as she prayed over the bread and wine with her palms facing the elements I imagined the elements transforming. Well, in the past, and maybe still in some churches they consider that the bread becomes the body, and the wine, the blood...

Gift Service

2004-12-13T22:19:00.001Z

At the end of the gift service, one well loved lady was taken ill at the back. All became quiet and Diana Townsend told us we would wait until the lady had been cared for. Paramedics came after a few minutes. People prayed.

Replacement Interim Moderator

2004-11-22T22:16:00.002Z

Diana Townsend is the new Interim Moderator. While we are waiting to get a new minister we have a guiding moderator. Martin had to leave us as Interim Moderator for some unexplained reason. Diana is his replacement and she took the healing service this eveing. She spoke about Jesus treating people in lots of different ways, as individuals, there was not just one magic technique, just love findings its own way.

Revd John Stanbury

2004-09-16T22:14:00.000+01:00

Sixteen of us there in the evening including the preacher, the Rev Stanbury, from North Abingdon. He took as his text the passage from Luke where the disciples ask Jesus to tell them how to pray. Rev Stanbury emphasized the bit where it says 'You that are evil know how to give good things to those who ask... how much more will your Father give you. He will give you the Holy Spirit if you ask.' Most of the talk was given up to the conflict between us trying to be good and ending up often falling.

Alan and Margaret VSO

2004-08-01T22:12:00.000+01:00

Alan Rickman is off to The Gambia with Margaret his wife to do 2 years VSO. This was their last Sunday with us. In countries like the Gambia people often need to spend much of their time just to get the basic necessities of life like water, walking long distances, and often it is not clean. We were encouraged to put money aside for a Unicef appeal whenever we feel grateful for our easy access to water.

Malcolm's last Service

2004-07-11T22:09:00.003+01:00

Malcolm Atherton led his last Sunday Service. (On the Good Samaritan and who is your neigbour). It was fairly low key which was good. We sang his favourite hymn 'Oh Lord all the World belongs to you'. He also spoke about a girl called Helen who the NCH helped. She had started to self harm whenever her parents fought. The external pain which she inflicted on herself she could control. It was better than the internal pain...Anyway..

After the service, there was a Bar-B-Q and games (in the pictured game, egg throwing partners got further and further apart until the egg got smashed). Malcolm is in the grey garb in the foreground.

URC Synod

2004-03-13T22:07:00.002Z

Today the URC Synod for Wessex met at our church. Approximately 200 delegates from all over Wessex came to the church. Malcolm got a group of us to do some Taize singing as a sort of warm up. I spoke to our violinist afterwards, she said it was wonderful worshipping God like that. We left the delegates to their serious business - after our quite rousing session culminating in 'Magnificat'.

They shall not grow old

2003-11-09T22:04:00.002Z

St Helen's Church is closed this year, and so the annual remembrance service moved to our church this year. The church was packed. Malcolm Atherton spoke of peace. He wore a red and a white poppy (something I heard some grumbles about).

After the half hour service, all the uniformed groups, and the band, and town council marched to the war memorial - newly cleaned - for the reading of those lines by Lawrence Binyon

They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them......we will remember them.

Fairtrade Harvest

2003-10-12T22:03:00.000+01:00

Malcolm, with the help of some children enacting the parts, told us of the life of a tea picker in Sri Lanka. Her standard of living had not gone up in the last 40 years. We all found out thats ours had, but the price we pay for her part in the tea picking had not gone up 'in real terms.' But by us buying Fair Trade tea, she got a little more,and we payed a little more. A just price.