Latest News and Events

- The Next Walk  -We will be starting from Banner Cross Methodist Church on Saturday, 11 February 2012 at 10.00 a.m. Everyone is welcome to come and join us.

- The Sunday Coffee Rota is on the noticeboard. Please make your own arrangements to change your duty date if you can not make it.

- The Women's World Day Of Prayer will be held this year at 10.00 a.m. at St. Gabriel's Church on Friday, 2 March 2012 and will focus on Malaysia. Everyone including men are welcome to attend.

- The results of the Intentional Faith Development Questionnaire are now on the website.

- A Church History up to 1979 has been added to the website..

- Willersley Family Weekend - 7 - 9 September 2012. The sign up sheet is now on the noticeboard in the Entrance Hall along with the booking forms. Please put your name on the list and take a form. deposits are required by 12 February 2012.

- The minister is on a sabbatical from January - March 2012.

- February Banner Headlines is available now.

- Little Red Riding Hood. Many thanks to Linda prosser and all the on and off stage folk, who gave us such a great pantomime again this year.

- A New Superintendent - Tim Crome - has been appointed to Sheffield (Ecclesall) Circuit and will be based at Banner Cross Methodist Church. He will take up his appointment in September 2012.

- We have introduced a session starting at 10.30 a.m. before Morning Worship, to learn some of the new hymns and songs from the new hymnbook "Singing The Faith". For most months it will be the first Sunday in the month, but the actual dates can be found on the calendar.

- The new rotas for Wednesday Youth Club and Sunday Creche are now on the Youth Notice Board. Craig and Becki still need lots of help and support. Please put your name on the rotas wherever and whenever you are able to help. Craig and Becki.

- Wanted: St Lukes need cards for fundraising. Any used or unwanted cards for any occasion. See Kath Koerner if you can help.

- The church has purchased copies of the new Methodist Hymnbook - Singing The Faith which will be used in our worship. More details are available for the  familiarisation day being held at Banner Cross Methodist Church on Saturday, 18 February 2012. 

- Urgent request from the Archer Project for Pot Noodles as their stocks are running dangerously low. Please bring as many as you can to church for Peggy to collect.

- The Communion charity we supported from September was Samaritans Purse.

CIRCUIT AFFAIRS

- Meeting With Occupy Sheffield - Thursday, 23 February 2012, 7.00pm in the Quaker Meeting House, St James’ Street. An invitation to an open meeting with representatives of Occupy Sheffield to explore the common ground between the Occupy Movement and Church Action on Poverty. (Coffee and tea available from 6.30pm).

- Fairtrade Fortnight - Monday, 27 February – Sunday, 11 March 2012 - The Methodist District have organised a Fairtrade event on 27 February, when District Chair Vernon Marsh, along with other faith and civic leaders, will be doing a "coffee crawl" around some Fairtrade retail outlets in Sheffield city centre, starting at 10.45am at Victoria Hall. Please come along if you can; it would be great to have a good crowd to wander round the city centre – but note, you don't have to buy coffee at every stop!

Perhaps you could organise something similar in your local area? Giving Fairtrade retail outlets a bit of a "pat on the back" is a great way to keep Fairtrade in the mainstream. It might also encourage shops to increase the number of Fairtrade items they sell and encourage other shops and cafes to stock and serve Fairtrade. It is also 5 years since Sainsbury's and Waitrose stocked only Fairtrade bananas, so giving a 5th birthday or anniversary card to a local Sainsbury’s or Waitrose store manager would be a good "stunt".For more details and support please contact District Fairtrade coordinator Alison Trezise on 236 5938. For Fairtrade Foundation resources and ideas for churches to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight, see their website: fairtrade.org.uk

- Job Vacancy - Hope Valley Christian Work are hoping to appoint a part time youth worker as assistant leader at the Hathersage Teenage Drop In which opens on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 7.00 to 9.00pm in term time in Hathersage Methodist Church. The assistant leader will work alongside the current leader and a team of local volunteers. For further details and an application form please write to: HVCYA, Blackberry Cottage, Main Road, Bamford, Hope Valley S33 0AY. Closing date for applications: Saturday, 3 March 2012; interviews will be held week beginning Monday, 12 March 2012. 

- Midweek Worship - On Thursday mornings, beginning 2 February 2012, at 11.00am at Millhouses Methodist Church - a new weekly informal worship with coffee is being held. Everyone is welcome to come.

- Beauchief Abbey Lent Lectures 2012 - At St Andrew’s Psalter Lane, S11 8YL, beginning Wednesday, 29 February, all at 7.00pm. Five weekly lectures on the theme: Law and Justice in the Old Testament given by the renowned Old Testament scholar Revd Professor John Rogerson. Admission is free. “The laws of a society reflect to some extent its values and ideals. The laws in the Old Testament also do this, but there is also a prophetic factor, which means that Old Testament laws not only have a regulative purpose, but also a transforming purpose. Thus, to study Old Testament laws means to study the prophetic impulse that sought to shape a society that reflected the divine image.”

Wednesday 29 February:       ‘What is the point of studying these things today?’

Wednesday 7 March:             ‘How should we approach the law “codes” in the Old Testament’?

Wednesday 14 March:           ‘The Covenant “Code”, Exodus 21.1-23.19’

Wednesday 21 March:           ‘The Deuteronomic “Code”, Deuteronomy 12.1-26.19‘

Wednesday 28 March:           ‘The Holiness Laws, Leviticus 19-26’

For further details contact R Parry 07974 39 7771 or SAPL Church Office 0114 267 8289

- Horizon@Hunter’s Bar -The Development Team will be meeting weekly on a Wednesday evening from 11th January, to work through the business plan and other research necessary for the production of the final report in April. The work needing to be done is outlined in an Update leaflet . The Team do need help from other people who would like to share in these tasks and also learn some new skills in project development. Full details are given in the leaflet.

- Singing the Faith - “familiarisation day” on Saturday 18 February at Banner Cross Methodist Church. The day will be led by Paul Leddington Wright, one of the conductors of BBC’s Songs of Praise, and part of the team who developed the book. Booking form for musicians and singers to come and learn and rehearse material during the day are available – please fill one in and return if you are attending either session. In the evening there will be a Celebration Big Sing, an open event for anyone to come along and join in a time of worship, fellowship and celebration in music and song.

- EVENING CLASSES 2011–2012 - Cliff College, Calver, Hope Valley, S32 3XG. Monday evenings, 23 Jan– 23 April: Introducing the New Testament [with Revd Dr Peter Ensor]. Thursday evenings, 26 Jan–26 April: Effective Use of Technology in Church [with Matt Hartley]. £45 per ten week course. Enquiries to Veronica Evans: admin@cliffcollege.ac.uk  /  01246 584 200.

President and Vice President of Conference: visit to the Sheffield District - Rev’d Leo Osborn and Mrs Ruth Pickles will be visiting the Sheffield District from 3–11 March 2012. A full programme of their visit will be available soon. The following event may be of particular interest:

Meeting God in the Everyday (Reflections on a Journey) - Saturday, 3 March 2012, 10am–4pm, at Apperknowle Methodist Church, High St, Apperknowle S18 4BD. A District Quiet Day with the Rev’d Leo Osborn and Mrs Ruth Pickles. Drinks will be provided, but please bring your own lunch. Booking is essential for this event: please book by the 11 February via the District Office on 0114 281 2733 or email admin@sheffieldmethodist.org

Poster attached

Made in Dagenham - Wednesday 14 March 2012, 10.30am (finish at 12.30), at the Showroom Cinema, Paternoster Row, Sheffield.

Methodist Women in Britain, Sheffield, has organised a special showing of the film Made in Dagenham in solidarity with International Women’s Day and Millenium Development Goal 3: Promoting gender equality and empowering women. We have 110 tickets to sell so hope you can spread the word far and wide about it. Tickets are available from Circuit MWiB secretaries or from Chris Simmonds, District MWiB secretary (01246 251599 or chris@simmonds4041.fsnet.co.uk) Travel directions to the cinema will be on the back of the tickets, and there is easy access to the cinema from Paternoster Row and wheelchair spaces in the auditorium – it would help to know in advance if these are required. There is a loop system in the cinema so everyone should be able to hear and we can ask for the sound to be turned down if it’s too loud!

Hymns & Psalms free to good home - Pilgrim Circuit has purchased the new Singing the Faith song book, and so now has over 500 copies of Hymns & Psalms. Does anyone know of anywhere they can be sent free of charge? Please contact Sue Donner at 0114 243 7052 or email: pilgrimcircuit@btconnect.com