40 years ago (in March) the Main Chapel was opened and filled with the Sunday School every Sunday afternoon. Next Year will be the 45th anniversary of the opening of Oakwood Chapel (in the back hall) and 50 years since Mr and Mrs Tarner started the Sunday School in the common room. Do you have memories of those days or remember in which month the Sunday School was opened?
This month we welcome Lynn Wood back with us for a short time. Lynn has
been in Papua New Guinea for many years with Wycliffe Bible translators,
initially teaching children, then helping translation of the bible into
local languages and most recently teaching English to speakers of other
languages. If you want to know more why not ask Lynn to come and share
with you in your own home
Sara is also back from 7 months in Central Asia, but more from her another
month.
We need to continue to be a witness to those in our neighbourhood that Christ's glory may be seen in our lives and that people would be drawn to Jesus through our witness. We should indeed be a "light upon a hill" and bring "salt" to this sinful world in which we live.
David Whitley
The walk starts at 11.00am on Good Friday morning finishing at St Paul's church around about 12 mid-day with drinks and hot cross buns.
To enable us to join in with this witness we propose to bring our Friday morning service forward to start at 10.00am finishing by 10.45am in order to get up to the town for the start of the walk.
We would encourage as many as possible - young and old, to join in this open witness proclaiming the message of the cross to the shoppers in the town centre.
Mike Hillyer
Well they are heading this way! "Walk Roding 2006" will be taking place between 30th September and 15th October this year, and a week of this outreach will be concentrating on Harlow with around 100 joining with the Harlow Churches from 30th September to 8th October.
They want our support. They want our help.
What will this mean?
This is an opportunity we want to be involved with but we need to be ready to give it our support. Please pray about it and think about what we can do and how you might be able to be involved.
Keep your eyes on the notice board for the latest information.
Mike Hillyer
For more information see the notice board.
Mike Hillyer
The clicking of fingers was one of the most powerful sounds of 2005 - a
stark reminder that one child dies every three seconds due to extreme
poverty, perpetuated not by chance but by the policies of the powerful.
Thank you for your action and prayers as part of the Make Poverty History
campaign. It was the largest campaign for justice this country has ever
seen, and Christians were in the forefront. Here we set out the
achievements and how we'll keep up the pressure in 2006.
There have been extraordinary moments. Twenty-five thousand people attended an all-night vigil in Westminster in April; nearly 250,000 marched in Edinburgh ahead of the G8; and 97,000 Tearfund supporters sent a campaign postcard to the Prime Minister. The UK was part of an astonishing global movement. Thirty-one million people from 84 national coalitions around the world united in the Global Call to Action against Poverty.
But what was the impact? And what is still left to do?
Rich countries have promised to give more aid. Fifteen members of the EU
have said that they will reach the UN target of spending 0.7% of their
income on aid by 2015. Other members of the G8 have also promised
increases, which means that by 2010 there will be $48 billion more aid
each year than there is now. However, this is still not enough money to
halve poverty and more measures to improve aid need to be taken.
Rich countries have also agreed that, in principle, all of the debt owed
by the poorest countries should be cancelled. They agreed a deal at the
G8, which should be worth up to $1 billion per year for the 18 countries
that qualify (around 20 more could also become eligible). This compares to
the minimum of $10 billion debt cancellation per year needed to help
developing countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
The UK government accepted that poor countries should not be forced to
open up their markets and that agricultural subsidies in rich nations are
very damaging. Yet little progress has been made on trade so far. At the
meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Hong Kong, developing countries
gained little from the small concessions made by developed nations. Poor
countries have also accepted proposals that could seriously erode their
right to protect their industries and basic services. But there are
glimmers of hope. Developing countries representing four-fifths of the
world came together at this meeting in a historic display of unity that
could help them resist pressure in the future.
A clear success for the campaign was the G8's commitment to improve HIV
treatment. In a significant policy shift, the G8 committed to 'as close as
possible to universal access to treatment for all those who need it by
2010'. The target was endorsed at the UN World Summit and became an
international commitment. Now it needs to be properly funded to ensure
that it becomes a reality
For more details of the achievement of 2005 and the next steps for 2006, visit the website: www.tearfund.org/ campaigning.
Last year was amazing. We look forward to achieving even more together as we respond to God's call for justice in the coming year.
I hope you have found this letter to contain a lot of interesting information and much to pray about as well.
Neil Smith
GOOD FRIDAY
11 a.m. Friday April 14th "Singing" "Story" "Prayer"
10.00 Service at Oakwood
10.45 Walk to St Paul's in Town Centre
11.00 Walk of Witness
Back to St Paul's for hot cross buns
Jesus said:
"If I am lifted up, I will draw all men unto me"
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