Both our toilets are now twinned with the toilet twinning charity who have sent us our certificates. So next time you go to the loo take your google maps with you on the phone and look up our twin loo!
|
To keep abreast of hygiene regulations the kitchen has had new sinks fitted so that we have a separate hand wash only sink. New work tops and a new set of draws have also been fitted. Our chapel was full as we met together to be part of the World Day of Prayer service 2019 which was this year prepared by the women of Slovenia. We were joined by our Romanian friends and their families who use our chapel for their worship every Friday, and it was lovely that they could be involved in this celebratory service with us. Indeed our Romanian friends introduced our service by laying a table of food and drink items typical of Slovenia. Will Southall led us in our reflections, encouraging us to remember that God provides everything for us - ‘Come, everything is ready’ - and the readings from the women of Slovenia, and from Luke’s Gospel, continued the theme that God’s invitation is for all, whatever their religion, race, gender, sexuality, age or handicap. God turns no-one away. Will and her team had decorated the church beautifully with food, flowers and pictures of Slovenian wildlife; the Whitacre choir made a joyful noise and led our singing with gusto. Red carnations, signifying celebration in Slovenia, were given out as the offering was taken. After the service, hot drinks and home made Slovenian honey biscuits, were on offer to all. The World Day of Prayer takes place in over 120 countries. Starting in Samoa, it travels the world through Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas....thank you to all those who were involved in our celebration and helped us here in Whitacre to play our part. Our guests were amused to find a toilet roll placed on each table on arrival at our coffee morning today, a reminder that we were collecting for ‘Toilet Twinning’ - the charity whose aim is to provide a safe, clean and private place for people to go to the toilet and to try and reduce the statistic that one in three people in our world can’t enjoy that privilege. For each donated £60, toilettwinning.org can provide a latrine in a third world community where there had previously been no facilities and will send out a framed and illustrated certificate to the donor, showing the location of the latrine they have provided. We had a really good turnout today and a fantastic £140 was raised which means that we have raised more than enough to twin both of our toilets at the Methodist Chapel.....and of course have helped to provide two third world communities with a clean and safe place to go to the loo. We have collected together all the ring pulls we have been collecting over the past year ready to send off for forwarding to the Purple Community Fund. A lovely large box is being delivered this week as its too heavy to post.  A great turnout, most of our regulars and some new faces, at our first charity coffee of 2019. Everyone was in cheerful mood and happy to reflect back on how Christmas had been spent! Thanks to Fiona and Mary who hosted our coffee morning this month and who spread out a fine array of cream meringues, cakes and of course the inevitable left over mince pies for us. So much for the New Year diet and Resolutions...... A great start to our monthly gatherings and a healthy £125 raised for Prostate Cancer, our January charity.
Our traditional carol service lit by over fifty candles was busy with a full house of one hundred people singing their way through a busy service. Rev Derek Shaw led the service which featured the choir and the young people singing their nativity set. We once again greeted our own baby Jesus - eleven day old Chester and his family were welcomed. Interjected with the carols a variety of readers completed nine bible readings. Afterwards all were invited to retire to the school room for cakes, mince pies, tea and coffee. Thanks to all our participants both young and not so small. We even had a young drier up learning the trade for future years.
A very wet evening with heavy rain did not deter a good number of singers from heading out along the village to raise £150 for Family Action in Coventry and CRPS which is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Later the group went and entertained at the Railway Inn and raise a further £45. A lovely gingerbread cake made by Gill Walley was raffled and raised another £107. Many thanks to all those who listened out for us and supported us. A grand total of £302 will be forwarded split between our two charities..
A busy service where we were joined by our Romanian friends. They sang some Christmas carols both in English and Romanian which was a pleasure to hear. These families from several surrounding areas, use our church as a meeting point to maintain their Romanian traditions of worship so their children experience them. They came and joined some of us for a meal on Friday evening making the whole weekend something of a meeting between the two cultures.
At the end of the service Xavier entertained us festively.
Eighteen children and their families joined us for a Messy Christmas. The children made cards, Christmas stockings, Pomanders, tree decorations, lovely Santa Claus badges and even “Donkey Dung” from the stable of Jesus! Our Minister, Farai, entertained the children with the Christmas story. We had a really happy time and hope that our guests enjoyed it too. How good it was to see adults and children busy creating decorative things. Our thanks go to the helpers who manned tables. Items created were then taken home. |
Whitacre Congregation is a vibrant mix of young and old who enjoy meeting for Sunday worship. Do come and join us. Categories
All
Archives
June 2019
|
RSS Feed
