2021

St John’s United Reformed Church 1 Cowper Street, Ipswich IP4 5JD Web Address: www.stjohnsurcipswich.org.uk

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October

NEWSLETTER FROM ST JOHN’S URC Ministers: Rev David Rees & Rev Ernie Bossé Office:
E-mail: Web:
Te l :0 1 4 7 3 724961 (Currently not available) secretary@stjohnsurcipswich.org.uk www.stjohnsurcipswich.org.uk
Minister’s Letter
The Harvest comes home. “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Those who sow in tears shall reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping carrying the seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.”  (Psalm 126 vs3-6) It’s harvest time again. A time when we give a special thanks to God for how he provides for us. I know we should be thankful all the year round, and I hope you are, but Harvest Thanksgiving concentrates the mind on those mundane blessings that we nowadays take for granted. If you want a sandwich you take a bread slice out of the bag. If you finish a loaf, you probably have one in the freezer. If you are truly out, you can pop to the supermarket or the corner store. If, heaven forbid, the store is actually closed there is nothing for it but to wait till the morning. Either that or look in our overflowing cupboards or fridge or freezer and have something else. We may not have our first choice in such circumstances but for most of us it is unlikely that we will go hungry. We live in an abundant land or to put it in biblical language, a land flowing with milk and honey. And not just any milk full fat, semi skinned, low fat, organic, goat, long life, soya, calcium added, chocolate flavoured, to name a few and I don’t even know where to start with the varieties of honey that are available. Bread, milk, honey, sugar, tea and coffee, apples, bananas, ham, cheese, the list goes on and on. We buy and consume with barely a
thought unless bananas are more expensive this week or our favourite variety of apples is temporarily out of stock. Or the lack of lorry drivers leads to a temporary empty shelf in the supermarket. We take much for granted. Harvest Thanksgiving again gives us an opportunity to take notice of the variety and breadth and quantity and richness of what we have and give God the thanks. Not only is there recognition, Harvest Celebration is also a time of response. Firstly a response of praise, with hymns and prayers and awe at how truly generous is our God. But also a response in gratitude of gifts and money. Gratefulness that the vast majority of us  have so much, leads us to want to share some of that abundance with those who struggle and have to do without. We can give cans and packets to food banks or homeless shelters and monetary gifts too. Sharing from our abundance allows others to survive with dignity. We can do our part in allowing those ‘who sow in tears’ to ‘return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.’ This year as we sing behind our masks ‘All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above’, with our actions let us truly ‘thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord, for all his love.’ David Church Secretary’s Notes We are gradually getting there! We are now standing to sing with our masks on and staying for tea after the service! The Elders have actually held a ‘face to face’ (tho still 2 m apart) meeting! We are also starting to get requests for hire of rooms at church, the cleaners are back for one day a week and the
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Brownies are meeting upstairs again. This is good news but I hope we don’t just drift back to our old ways but see this time as an opportunity for change. If you have any ideas or have always wanted to do something different please make your ideas known. Our next church meeting is on 18th Nov at 2:30 pm in the worship area with Zoom available. Thanks to Jenny Cook for organising the coffee rota if you would like to serve coffees after the service please let her know. Whilst saying ‘thank–you’, I would like to take this opportunity to thank John B for all the work he does in making the services available on-line, on the frames and on the telephone. Well done John. If you would be interested in learning how to do this please see John or myself. We certainly need to spread the load. This month we look forward to Sara Pells, Maggie Woods and Peter Dawson taking our services. On a lighter (brown) note. It looks like we will need to remove the box hedge around the play area. The spares up my allotment have also gone brown! Any ideas for what we should put in its place? Soon be time to plant broad beans! Adrian Treasurers Report You are thanked for Offerings in August of £2,196.66. Generous Gift Day donations to date totaling £1,965 have been received. Gift Aid income will be added in due course. As always, we are extremely grateful for your continued financial support. P.S. Richard and Lyn will be away shortly until mid-December, visiting family in Mauritius (but hopefully remaining in email contact !), would be glad if any post and/or financial queries could be directed to Mary in the first instance. Thanks. Mary A and Richard W
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Communion Offering Thank you for supporting the Water Aid Harvest Appeal. A cheque for £143.00 has been sent off. As we approach the winter months, Elders have agreed to support The Ipswich Night Shelter so there will be an opportunity for you to donate at the Communion services in October, November and December. Thank you. Val Vertigans 23rd Brownie Pack Letter Dear Mr Cubitt, It is with sincere regret that we have decided to close the 23rd Brownie pack. This has been a very difficult decision for us to come to but with job changes, declining numbers and Covid we feel the time is right. We would like to thank everyone at St John's for the support, time and generosity over the years. Especially in recent times all the stewards who have sat on the door for us every Tuesday evening, Mary A and Peter D, and a very special thank you to Gwen G for her never-ending support. We appreciate all the help we have been given to create memories and friendships for the many girls who have been members of the 23rd Brownies. We have sent a cheque to the treasurer for £250, which is £100 back to the junior church, which they gave us for our new programme, and which we never used and also £150 for the church, a small donation with our thanks and gratitude for all that has been done over the years. Yours sincerely, Tina B & Lorna H - Brownie Leaders On a brighter note, we are pleased to report that the Rainbows started meeting again on 9th September in Room 1.
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Also, the 40th Brownie pack resumed on the 23rd September in the hall. Frister Rossman Cub 7 Electric Sewing Machine One of our congregation wonders whether a good home can be found for her now redundant sewing machine. If you are interested, please contact me. Email or ring me. Val Vertigans
BIBLE STUDY – October 2021 Bible Study this month will be on Tuesday morning October 12th. As agreed we will be meeting face-to-face at Castle Hill at 10.30 in the Meeting Room, although November’s meeting will be via Zoom. Do come along if you are able and have the joy of meeting up once again with friends old and new. There is plenty of parking space at Castle Hill and it will be good to gather together. Our passage for study will be Mark 10: 35-45 and will give us an opportunity to share our thoughts and listen to each other on how this interaction between Jesus and his disciples applies to us today. Elaine T Castle Hill My dear Ipswich Pastorate Church family, Greetings from sunny Ware in Hertfordshire. Well, we have been in Ware for just over a week, and it already seems like a lot longer. I wish I could say that we have settled in, just far too many full boxes, so a while yet before I can say that we have entirely moved. Just a word of advice, don’t try moving house twice in just over a year. It’s far too stressful!! The manse is comfortable, but it cannot even begin to compare with your mansion in Holkham Close. You have spoilt us forever, I’m afraid. We are getting around to meeting some of our new church families of the Leaside and Roydon churches, and they have warmly welcomed us. I’m sure that if we receive only a fraction of the hospitality from them that we enjoyed during our
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time in Ipswich, we will count ourselves as blessed. Thank you for the generous gift that David Sillett handed to us on behalf of the whole pastorate. It will be put to good use to buy something that we will always treasure as we remember our time with you. Thank you again for your warmth, generosity, and kindness. You are all so very special to us, and you will remain in our prayers. God bless you all! Best wishes, Robyn and Ernie Bossé
Pastoral Notes   Andrew W's Mum, Joan, passed away on the 20 September. Please remember Andrew and Jackie and all the family in your prayers. The Memorial Service is at Tacket Street 2:30 pm 6th October.  A note from Angie and Brian  We hope you and all at St John's are doing well at the moment. We continue to live with and care for my elderly father now 94, who has recently contracted covid from my sister. I have now got it too and Brian is the latest addition to the covid positive team. My Dad is unsurprisingly the worst affected. We are trying to provide him with all the TLC that we can.  Better news however, below! You generously supported Jeremia during his basic medical training. He developed an interest in pathology, which has an extremely low number of specialists in Tz. He has recently sent greetings and thanks, and is embarking on his PhD in Holland! This testifies to his intelligence and hard work. You will find clicking on the link gives some interesting information.  Hello, Dr Savage and Mama Savage, greetings to you and all who have supported me! I and my family have missed you so much. I'm writing this email to say a word of greetings and to tell you that I remember your contribution to academic life and life in general. Thank you very much for your work in my life. May God blessings shine upon you. Furthermore, I'm sending warm  greetings to your church members who did their
Thought for the Day A harvest of peace is produced from a seed of contentment. Kashmiri proverb
Services
Date
YouTube*
St John’s
3/10/21
David (Harvest ) from St John’s 26/09
Sara Pells (Comm)
10/10/21
Sara Pells (Comm) from St John’s 03/10
Maggie Woods
17/10/21
David from Castle Hill 10/10
David Atkins
24/10/21
David from Castle Hill 17/10
Peter Dawson
31/10/21
?
Peter Dawson
07/11/21
?
David Rees (Comm)
*
These are all subject to change if there are technical issues
Telephone version 01473 938542 Option 1 Hazel H can still be heard on Option 2
best to see my studies as successful as I prayed for. Finally, I thank God for the love and the opportunity to have people like you. Despite many difficulties especially with Covid I recently I got the opportunity to start my PhD at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and I will partly do my research in Tanzania and the Netherlands. The topic is ‘Impacts of helminths and rural-urban transition on the immune system and vaccines efficacies.’ https://lumcglobal.nl/news- updates/introducing-our-first-lumc-global-phd- candidate-jeremia-j-pyuza/ Thank you very much and wish you the very best. Jeremia
There is a need for prayers for the area’s Methodist circuit ministry which is in some degree of difficulty as the Rev Martin Dawes of Framlingham has had to retire suddenly due to health problems.
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