The Magazine of Westgate New ChurchThe Magazine of Westgate New Church

Issue 462: January 2017Issue 462: January 2017

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Westgate New Church, Peterborough

United Reformed/Methodist

68b Westgate, Peterborough, PE1 1RG

Minister: The Revd Lesley Moseley

Minister: 01733 751681

http://www.westgatechurch.org.uk/

Greetings,

Regular readers of the Chronicle will

perhaps remember that I wrote about a

train journey recently. I have decided to

continue the rail saga this month. I

recently went to Glasgow for a couple

of days and, once more, travelled by

train. I had an uneventful journey north

and arrived in plenty of time. I had a

successful visit, doing everything I had

hoped to do and chatting to most of

the people I had hoped to see. The

journey home began in an inauspicious

way. The bus pulled out ahead as we

drove into the car park. The bus journey

into central Glasgow was slow; drivers

changed, traffic lights all seemed to be

set at red and it was going to be a dash

through the station when I arrived there.

However, I wasn’t at all prepared for what

I saw on the departure board. Every train

from Glasgow to Edinburgh was cancelled.

I asked at the ticket office and was told

that there was a train leaving by an

alternative route that would get me to

Edinburgh on time. There’s an expression

of disbelief in Scotland that should have

come to mind, ‘Aye, right!’ On arrival

in Edinburgh, despite the train running

to time, I discovered that my train for

Peterborough had left five minutes earlier.

I am beginning to think that I should

give up travelling by train altogether. The

only skill in which I’m improving with my

journeying is claiming refunds, but even

that isn’t proving too easy.

I sometimes think it’s a good job God

is in control. I sometimes wonder why I

can’t work out why things happen as they

Our Mission Statement

We at Westgate are called by God to highlight Jesus Christ’s love

for the people of Peterborough.

We pass on this good news by worship, fellowship, mission,

education, personal life and social service.

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do. Then I remember that I’m human and

I’m not meant to understand everything

and, like Paul the Apostle, I have learned

to be content with my lot in life. I do

wish, though, that they’d improve the

coffee on the train; then I could be truly

content with extended journeys.

At the start of the new year Methodists

make a distinctive resolution.

The Covenant Service, often

celebrated on the first Sunday of the year,

is at the heart of Methodists' devotion

and discipleship, and their dedication

in working for social justice. In the

service the Church joyfully celebrates

God's gracious offer to Israel that "I

will be their God and they shall be

my people".

This offer is then extended beyond

Israel to all women and men in Jesus

Christ, who also provides the supreme

example of what it is to live in such a

relationship with God.

That relationship primarily involves the

corporate life of the community of God's

people (i.e. Israel; the Body of Christ).

It is concerned with individuals within

that group.

What God offers is a loving

relationship. The Covenant is not a

contract in which God and human

beings agree to provide particular goods

and services for each other! It is not

something that we have to do to create a

relationship with God. God has freely and

graciously already made it possible.

Rather, the Covenant is the means

of grace by which we accept the

relationship and then seek to sustain it. It

is therefore not so much about getting in

to a relationship with God as it is about

staying in it. It is not about acquiring a

relationship with God, but living within the

loving relationship that God has already

offered us.

God's gracious offer to us is therefore

simultaneously a challenge. If God is

committed to us, are we prepared to

accept that as reality and commit

ourselves in return to God? Even if we do

choose to accept it, how can we manage

to live out our commitment adequately,

frail and human as we are?

The New Testament suggests that as

we join the group of those seeking to

follow the way of Jesus, we respond to

God's challenge with him and begin to

share his relationship with God as Father.

Within the group of disciples, this leads to

his Spirit bubbling up in us as individuals,

encouraging and enabling us to live out

our side of the relationship (i.e. "writing

God's ways on our hearts" as Jeremiah 31

describes the Covenant).

From the Methodist Church Website

The Covenant Service at New

Westgate Church will take place on

Sunday, January 15th, led by our

own Minister, Lesley. Everyone is

welcome to join us at this service.

Lesley

The Covenant Service

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The coming of “wise men”

to Bethlehem soon after Jesus’ birth to

pay homage to a new-born King appears

only in Matthew’s gospel. For the church

this incident has always held deep

significance, as though those travellers

who flash in and out of the gospel story

somehow portray ourselves – we who

believe in God-in-Christ yet are not of the

race into which he was born. So who were

they? What did they achieve?

They came from the East, probably

Persia (Iran), and may have been of the

Zoroastrian religion, an ancient faith that

like Jews and Christians worships a single

good God. Matthew says they “observed

his (Jesus’) star at its rising” i. . .

We are students of the heavens,

seeking in the night sky explanations for

what happens on Earth. At that time there

was an unusual configuration of heavenly

lights, and we recognised a sign given

by Ahura Mazda (whom you call God).

It meant the birth of a truly exceptional

person, who would direct God’s Light into

the affairs of humanity. The Light of all

peopleii had dawned somewhere to the

West of us – that’s where the signs in the

heavens pointed.

What should we do? – we had to bear

witness to God’s gift. We are scholars,

not kings or rich people, as some have

imagined. We had to sell most of our

possessions to fund a long journey before

setting off, following the signs in the

heavens. It was all we could do.

Those signs led us to Jerusalem,

capital city of the Jews, believers like

us in the one good God. There we made

a terrible mistake. We forgot to read the

heavens, assuming this was where we

had been led to. Our enquiries yielded no

result but brought us to the attention of

King Herod. We spent an uncomfortable

night in prison, while Herod debated what

to do. Apparently he called in Jewish

scholars, who told him of prophecies from

long ago. A messenger of God (a Messiah)

would one day be born in Bethlehem; he

would save his people from wrong-doing

and misery; he would be known as King of

Kings, and Prince of Peace.

Herod let us go, on our way towards

Bethlehem, now once again following

the signs in the heavens. He commanded

us to return and tell him where the

baby could be found, so he too could

go and “pay him homage”. We were

relieved at being let go, but it did not feel

right; our prayers ascended to heaven

full of apprehension. As we got closer to

Bethlehem we realised we were being

followed; we delayed our journey by false

turns, and went under cover of darkness.

We did all we could to mislead King

Herod’s spies.

We found the baby, with his parents.

Without the signs in the heavens we

would not have known – an ordinary child,

a lovely mother, but a peasant, and the

father Joseph, just a carpenter. They were

in an outhouse – a stable, really – and

their only courtiers were farm animals.

Stories within the Story:

“We did all we could”

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We had brought presents – nothing much

– gold, frankincense, myrrh sound rich,

but there was little enough of them. We

bowed in worship, and spoke of our

devotion and hopes for the future, of

the Light of the World which he had come

to bring. The baby, of course was too

young, he did not understand; his parents

understood little more. But we had done

what we could to witness to the Light that

was coming into the world.

Before we left I took Joseph on one

side and tried to explain our doubts about

King Herod’s intentions; we heard later

that that night the Almighty had spoken

to him in a dream, and he had fled with

mother and child, away to Egypt. Well,

we had done what we could, and God

had done the rest; the One who was

to be Light of the World was safe, while

Herod’s soldiers ravaged Bethlehem,

killing children. We went home by a

circuitous route, well away from Herod

who would have used us to find the baby.

A Persian Scholar

Matthew, the most Jewish of the gospel

writers, knew of the Old Testament

tradition that Israel would ultimately be

the source of enlightenment for the whole

world. Isaiah had written, “Nations shall

come to your light, and kings to the

brightness of your dawn” iii. I think that is

why he chose this story, from all the

stories that circulated about Jesus’ birth,

to illustrate the significance of that birth

for the whole world. Ian iMatthew ch 2 v 2 iiJohn’s gospel, ch 1 v4 iiiIsaiah ch 60 v3

Dear Friends, what a happy

time of the year! Some of

us are carrying heavy burdens of grief but

we still rejoice in Jesus the Christ whose

coming and returning gives us so much

hope. Jesus not only taught but lived

the Great Commandment to "Love God

with all your heart, mind and strength

and love your neighbour as yourself."

All our Christian ethics flows from this.

Love personified has come into our

world in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the

living God! Therefore we must surely be

intolerant of all that is rooted in hate,

division and wrong discrimination. I've

been very moved by the campaign “Black

Lives Matter" in 2016. Isn't it tragic that

this campaign is so necessary? Listening

to Police Officers being interviewed in

the U.S. it was disturbing to hear some

say that they felt threatened by a person

just because they are black and that's

why they discharged their weapon. This

attitude arises out of the segregation our

societies experience, tolerate and in some

ways encourage. Segregation always

leads to mistrust, misunderstanding and

paves the way for false stereotypes to

prevail. That's why I am opposed to

segregation in education. Advent teaches

us that God loves and has special care

for those who are bullied and brushed

aside by mainstream society (Mary's

Song), whether that is because of their

low rank, poverty, colour of their skin or

religion. So let us celebrate God's love

with all our might and let's live God's love

with determination!

With my prayers for a meaningful

Advent, Merry Christmas and a Happy

New Year!

Love, Peter

(Rev’d Peter Meek,

Moderator East Midlands Synod, URC)

From the Moderator

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Enabling Churches

to House the

Homeless and

Refugees

Save the date: 31 March 2017

We would like to invite you to join us

for our third annual conference,

for a day of informative talks, interactive

seminars, networking, inspirational

testimonies and tenant awards.

We will be looking at many aspects of

churches housing the homeless and

refugees.

Hope into Action Conference

"Christ Be Our Light" (StF706) is one of

our most popular worship songs – it

has gentle flowing music which seems

to draw people along, accompanying

clear but challenging words. Bernadette

Farrell, the composer of both words and

music, uses words from the Psalms as

her inspiration. "I Rejoiced when I Heard

Them Say" (StF26) and "O God You

Search Me" (StF728) are familiar words,

set to her unique prayerful melodies,

which help to bring us to an extra

understanding. "Bread of Life" (StF577)

is a straightforward communion hymn

to be sung very slowly, letting the quiet

strength of the words aid our worship.

Bernadette Farrell is well loved on

both sides of the Atlantic. She began

composing while she was a member of

the St. Thomas More group in the 1970's.

The group also included Stephen Dean,

Christopher Walker and James Walsh.

In the 1980's she began publishing

with OCP, releasing collections of her

work. Her latest release was in 2014,

which was a collection of fifteen newly

composed songs for worship under the

title "Love Goes On".

Bernadette Farrell has always been

passionate about social justice. She is at

present a community organizer for UK

Citizens, which works for fair housing,

a living wage, proper policing in the

community and health care access.

She lives in London with her husband,

Owen Alstott.

In our hymn book (StF) only six of

her hymns are included. Maybe we need

to discover more to use in our worship?

Kirsty

Information from Wikepedia and

Singing the Faith

Bernadette Farrell (b1957)

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I suspect that anyone who

has been involved in amateur

theatrical productions has

allowed themselves to imagine,

just a little, what it might be

like to work professionally in

film or TV or appear on stage

in the West End of London, but

always in the knowledge that

it’s not something that could

ever happen.

Bizarrely, through a series

of unlikely coincidences, this

autumn I was given an opportunity to

tread the boards of a proper West End

theatre.

The wife of a friend of mine is

an actress who is developing into a

playwright. Jen has been taking part in a

writing course run in conjunction with

the Criterion Theatre on Piccadilly Circus,

and as a result had the opportunity to

showcase a half hour extract from her

play at the theatre. She decided to have

the scenes acted out, rather than simply

read, so she recruited a director and cast

from among her professional friends and

contacts. Jen had no budget to pay her

actors, so relied on people willing to give

up their free time for her. Unfortunately

for Jen, one of the cast dropped out and

she just didn’t know anyone else willing

to work for free. Fortunately for me, her

husband eventually thought of me, and of

course I jumped at the chance.

The play has a basis in fact – it’s

set in the Second World War at a

country house near Welwyn Garden

City which became a factory producing

weapons and equipment for Special

Operations Executive agents working in

Occupied Europe. The character at the

heart of events (my character!) is a radio

expert who is developing transmitters for

secret agents, but in the course of the

play it emerges that his work is providing

a front for more morally dubious weapons

research.

We only had five rehearsals together,

and it was quite an eye-opener watching

a professional director and proper trained

actors at work. In some ways it was

reassuring to see that they had the same

problems learning lines, but I did feel very

out of my depth. Fortunately Jen was

able to give me some extra coaching in

finding the character and gave me tips on

expressing his personality in the way he

moved and interacted with the others.

Clearly the event was not going to

take precedence over the current show

running at the Criterion, so my West

End experience took place on a Friday

afternoon at the end of October. All

activity on stage had to take account

of the scenery and props taking up all

the off-stage space. It was very exciting

entering the stage door to explore a

whole new world, but I have to admit

to some disappointment at the slightly

institutional feel of the dressing room

corridor – it could have been a school or

a hospital.

Our Doug on London Stage

Matthew Mellalieu, Doug Pattie and Robert Gwyn

Davin on stage at the Criterion Theatre

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We had an hour in the morning to

have a technical run through and iron out

any issues with lighting and sound effects.

(The picture shows me with two of my

colleagues on stage at the Criterion, but

not yet in costume, during the tech.) At

this point it was very difficult to enjoy the

experience, because we had one chance

to present Jen’s play to an audience – an

audience which could potentially include

people with the power to take it to the

wider world – and I really did not want to

be the one to mess it up.

Our time came, and we got out and

performed the extract. I have to say, it

went very well – no lapses of memory,

no falling over the furniture. Then I

could relax and fully take in that I had

just acted in the West End. I eventually

discovered that it was also the first time in

the West End for one of the professionals,

which made the whole experience seem

even more special and unusual and one I

will treasure for the rest of my life.

For anyone who may be interested,

my next performance will be with the

Peterborough Operatic and Dramatic

Society in the musical “9 to 5” at the

Cresset in Peterborough, on the 21st-25th

March 2017.

Doug

Week of Prayer

for Christian Unity

This event usually happens from the 18th

to the 25th January, as for the first event

in 1908, but some areas, especially in the

southern hemisphere, where January is

peak holiday time, observe it later. The theme for the 2017 is is Crossing

Barriers. The material was prepared for

worldwide use by churches in Germany

based around Corinthians 5:14-20: For the love of Christ urges us on,

because we are convinced that one has

died for all; therefore all have died. And

he died for all, so that those who live

might live no longer for themselves, but

for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard

no one from a human point of view;

even though we once knew Christ from a

human point of view, we know him no

longer in that way. So if anyone is in

Christ, there is a new creation: everything

old has passed away; see, everything

has become new! All this is from God,

who reconciled us to himself through

Christ, and has given us the ministry

of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God

was reconciling the world to himself,

not counting their trespasses against

them, and entrusting the message

of reconciliation to us. So we are

ambassadors for Christ, since God is

making his appeal through us; we entreat

you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to

God. (New Revised Standard Version,

Anglicised {NRSVA})

CTiCP events are 22nd—29th January, in

order to spread the traditional exchange

of pulpits over two Sundays, which allows

churches to fulfil their own obligations.

On 22nd we will welcome a preacher from

Park Road Baptist and we send a preacher

there on the 29th.

There will be a very special joint

service at Westgate New Church on

the evening of January 22nd at 7pm.

Please make every effort to attend

this service and give friends from the

other churches a warm welcome.

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Advent Reflection Day

The CTiCP Advent Reflection Day took

place on Saturday December 3rd in the

Knights’ Chamber, part of the new

Visitors’ Centre at the Cathedral. It was

titled “Waiting in the Wings: Advent,

Poetry and Faith” and led by Rev Canon

Mark Oakley, the Chancellor of St Paul’s

Cathedral.

Mark is passionate about poetry, both

because it encapsulates emotional as

well as literal meaning in a compact

form of words, and also because of the

poetic nature of the language of worship

and faith. The Bible is substantially poetic

– even prose passages frequently have

the elliptical approach to meaning that

characterises poetry. Worship uses poetry,

most obviously in hymns but also in

prayer and all that helps our approach

to God.

He started the day with the journey of

faith – his own, describing how different

periods in his life brought new insights

of faith. For him faith had been, and

still is, a journey towards God. Speaking

without notes, he offered us a vivid

picture of himself, times of discovery and

close relationship with God, but also of

barrenness and spiritual hunger. Advent

particularly, is a season of longing for

God. True Christian discipleship is always

based on our longing for God, and Faith

is a journey with God to what we shall

become.

After a short break for us to reflect

on our own personal faith journeys

Mark went on to open out the relationship

between poetry and faith – “Language

must matter to the person of faith”,

and poetry must be the language of

worship. He described his approach to

understanding poetry – read and listen for

the “splash”, the immediate emotional

response which it invokes. Then listen

more thoughtfully and follow the ripples of

meaning which develop from it.

After lunch it was “over to us” as we

were given a couple of poems to look at in

groups of five or six, then choose one to

read to the whole assembly, saying why

we had chosen that one. Then the day

finished with a short act of worship.

The fifty or so people who came to

this Day found it inspiring and I think

that many went away with a greater

appreciation of the poetry in our faith and

worship. Ian

How Many Seconds?

Q: How many seconds are there in one year?

A: Twelve of them: January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd, April 2nd, May 2nd, June

2nd, July 2nd, August 2nd, September 2nd, October 2nd, November 2nd, December 2nd.

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Interfaith Week happened very, very

soon after we moved, but we were still

able to send out last-minute invitations

to other faith groups and also the

Methodist Circuit and Churches Together

in Central Peterborough.

The event was attended by several

Methodists, a few Muslims, a Catholic,

a number of Westgate New Church

members, a former member and a few family members. There were stalls, plenty of tea

and coffee and a good selection of home made cakes. Everyone seemed very impressed

with our new home and those who had known the building previously were amazed at

the transformation.

Interfaith Open AfternoonInterfaith Open Afternoon

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Chronicle of the YearChronicle of the Year

We asked Phil to choose a picture

from each month’s issue.

January: Trevor and June make felt pictures

February: Joan’s 90th birthday

March: Marcus with his

Mum in Lapland before

Christmas

April: Three new people

received into membership

May: Robbie, Jane and June in the

Good Friday March of Witness

June: Former Westgaters Jo and Iain

at a Songs of Praise in Yorkshire,

where the conductor was another

former Westgater, Geoff Ellerby

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November: tribute to the late Margaret Goff who died

aged 99,

seen here

on her 90th

birthday

December:

the cross

leads us from Westgate Church to

Westgate New Church

October: Cathy,

Bernie’s Mum, visiting

from Nevis, with Megan

July: Zlatka

in London at an

ACDC concert

August: Ewan

abseiling off the

Cathedral

September:

Jack baptised at

Westgate

Phil’s Pick of the PicsPhil’s Pick of the Pics

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