Newsletter Summer 2011

Dear all,

First a quick reminder of the dates for Annual Local Preacher & Worship Leader Conferences due to take place in the Autumn.

October 1^st 2011 at Chandlers Ford Methodist Church, Winchester Road, SO53 2GJ,
Telephone 02380 260128, from 10.00 to 15.30 (there is a car park at the church)

October 8^th 2011 at Blandford Forum Methodist Church, The Close, Blandford Forum, DT11 7HA Telephone 01305 751666, from 10.00 to 15.30

 (no parking at the church, details of car parks at the end of this letter)

Both churches will be open from 09.30

As indicated below, there will be three sessions during the day, the first two sessions will be run twice so that everyone will be able to attend both and the numbers can be kept to a manageable size

Singing  the faith:  We will be discovering the difference between Hymns and Songs; how they can be included in a service and an opportunity to have a go at learning some new words and music with Advent in mind.

Working Together to Plan Worship:  A way of working together effectively and efficiently using Mind Mapping.

Collaborative worship for Advent Sunday:  Use what you’ve learnt in the above sessions to plan a service for Advent Sunday.  

Please choose whichever venue is the most convenient for you and when booking please advise of any additional needs, e.g. wheelchair access, dietary requirements etc.

We will have a resource stall, selling some of the music used in the conferences as well as other books.

Please let Karen Frost (01635 868280 or kafrost@hotmail.co.uk) know how many are expected to attend from your Circuit so that we can have enough soup & rolls available at lunchtime.  Anyone is of course, welcome to come without booking in advance but it will be very helpful to have an idea of numbers.  A flyer for you to use in publishing these events is attached. 

From the Local Preacher Enabler:   We have still not been able to find a replacement for me as the Local Preacher Enabler – do please give this situation some prayerful thought.  This is a really vital role in the life of our District and as the number of Presbyters is falling the need for Local Preachers and Worship Leaders becomes more and more important.

I will remain in harness until after the October Conferences are complete.  It has been a great pleasure to serve in this office for the last seven years and I thank you all for the support and encouragement I have received

From the Worship Leader Enabler:  I’ve been in post for five months and it was good to meet some of you at Synod. I was delighted to attend Salisbury Circuit’s LP/WL meeting in June.  If you’d like to invite me to your circuit LP/WL meeting to discuss the role of Worship Leaders, how to use us etc, please do get in touch.

We hope to combine the LP and WL pages on the District website shortly – watch this space.

Tom and I, together with Juli Wills are trying to build one central database for all things LP/WL related.  This is proving to be more of a challenge than first anticipated due to technical incompatibilities so may be a little while in coming.

I reiterate Tom’s words above about finding a District LP Enabler and I really hope I will have someone to work alongside after 9^th October.  I have valued tremendously Tom’s knowledge and support in my first few months in post – thank you Tom.

Do come along to one of the conferences in October – I look forward to seeing you there.

Biblefresh:  As we hope you already know, here in the Southampton District we are celebrating the 400^th Anniversary of the King James Bible with ‘Biblefresh’ events.  On 20^th August, the Isle of Wight Circuits are hosting the ‘Bible Express’ big red bus tour exploring the Island and Mark’s gospel.  On Saturday 15^th October the Winchester Circuit invite you to explore themes in Luke’s gospel in an event called ‘Living Luke’s Gospel’.  More detail about the Luke event is on the attached flyer.

The General Secretary’s Report to Conference and Fruitful Fields:  These are two very important reports which were discussed at Conference and will be the focus of a lot of discussion throughout the Connexion.  They both refer to the work of Local Preachers and Worship Leaders and if you have time it would be worth your while having a quick read of them.  We’ve downloaded them to the District website to make them easier to find, so click

http://www.southamptonmethodistdistrict.org.uk/ministry/local-preachers/local-preachers.php

to find them.

Using Power Point in Worship and Preaching: Our last training event on this subject had to be cancelled because no-one had been told about it in time.  If the people who tried to book in the last few days had been able to let us know earlier, we would not have had to cancel the event.  So we shall try again for a date sometime in November, in Winchester.  If you think you’d be interested, please do let Juli Wills know: juli-wills@ntlworld.com.  We’ll let you know the date in September.

With all good wishes and thanks for all that you do.

Tom Belshaw                                                                                          Karen Frost

Local Preacher Enabler                                                                       Worship Leader Enabler

CAR PARKING IN BLANDFORD FORUM