2008
Christmas activitiesChristingle activities and service.
Children performed "It's a baby" during morning service.
Carol service
New Years Eve social and Watch Night Service
Born in the Night series of Advent Talks at Central Methodist in Pontefract
Sunday November 23rd:-
Traidcraft stall in the hall after the morning service.
Sunday 9th of November 35 boxes have been put together by members of the church for the Samaritans Purse, Operation Christmas Child, shoe box appeal. Below is a photograph of just a few of them.
Last year, Operation Christmas Child sent a remarkable 1.3m shoe boxes to children in Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This year, they have set their sights on ensuring that even more children in need receive a gift of love this Christmas.For further information on Samaritan's Purse and their various activities click here
Sunday 21st September
Rev Helen preached her first service and gave her first communion here at Upton this morning. The service included a powerpoint presentation and was followed by a faith lunch and time of fellowship. We hope Helen will be happy amongst us and look forward to her ministering to us. We are blessed indeed to have her here.
Sunday 3rd August
Rev Iris preached her last services. A farewell Churches Together evening service was held at Ackworth. There were representatives from all the Ackworth Churches as well as representatives from the Methodist section. The service was followed by a farewell supper which helped to make this a most memorable evening. We all wish Iris well in her new Ministry.
Sunday 20th July . After our service and coffee this morning we enjoyed a summer time outing to Lotherton hall. Photos below..
Picnics were munched,
the gardens explored
games played and newspapers read.
A sudden shower of rain sent us rushing to our cars and setting offf home before a group photo was taken but we all had a good time.
Sunday 6th July The end of year service for our Sunny Dudes was followed by a picnic and games afternoon. As the weather was cold and wet it was held inside in comfort. A film show of past events ran all afternoon.
There was also a traidcraft stall after the morning service.
ZIMBABWE
An online petition to leaders of the African Nations to work to rid Zimbabwe of Robert Mugabe is available online at http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_zimbabwe/ If you agree with its statement, Please sign it.
WATER CHARGES FOR CHURCHES
The water companies are set to begin charging churches as 'businesses' for water charging purposes, resulting in a large rise in water bills. There is an online petition to the Prime Minister at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ChurchWaterBills/ Please sign it!
Saturday 17th May collecting for Christian Aid see their web site here. Also a plant stall and coffee morning all proceeds to Christian Aid. The total raised was £343.20p Many thanks to those who contributed and those who gave their time to collect.
PENTECOST:- read about the meaning and origins of Pentecost here
Read about our "sister" church here
Sunday 20th April 74th Church Anniversary
10-30 am Morning Worship for the Church Anniversary was led by Rev Brian Ridley.
After the service tea and coffee were served in the hall, where there was also a fair trade stall. This was followed by a faith lunch where there was an opportunity to meet with Brian and his wife Lillian along with folks from Trinity and Barnsley Road. Brian had been a minister for our section around 20 years ago. Thank you Brian and Lillian and all those who helped to make this occasion memorable. As well as lots of lovely food there were three birthday cakes, one of them an anniversary cake.
Easter Day
Younger children made Easter Gardens- remembering the empty tomb and Jesus' resurrection.
 |
 |
 |
This was after older children made a snowman before church- brrr!
 |
 |
nas 23/3/08
Womens World Day of Prayer was on the7th March 2008
Local Churches Together met at St Margaret's Church North Elmsall 7pm.
Speaker was Mrs D Mountain.
Lent Talks
were held on Tuesday 12th, Tuesday 26th February, Thursday 6th and Tuesday 11th March.
"Amazing Grace in Unamazing Places"- see poster here.
Saturday 1st March
The CREST team (Circuit Resources and Events Team) organised a singing and drumming day led by Alison Adams and Jane Bentley, at Central Methodist Church.
Sunday 13th January
Our annual covenant service took place today with Kathryn Storey also being confirmed and received into membership.
Saturday 5th January 08 Theatre Trip - A visit to see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.
2007
Saturday 22nd December
Carol singing photographs from last Saturday of hardy people outside Upton's post Office and then outside the Coop. Many thanks to Terri and Tom of the Coop for their very welcome refreshments. Notice Adrian's cold hands (it was 1.5 degrees C; 35 Fahrenheit!)
Also of singing in South Elmsall benefitting Christian Aid by £90. Thankyou to the public for their contributions.
Sunday 16th December
Today we had our Christingle Service. Before the service the young people made their Christingle oranges and were involved in other craft activities.
The service, led by Rev. Iris reminded us of the different parts making up the Christingle oranges:
The orange representing the world, the red ribbon representing the blood of Christ shed on the cross, the cocktail sticks representing the four seasons and the different fruits those seasons bring and the lit candle representing Jesus, the Light of the World.
After the service we turned on the lights on the our.tree tree. Many baubles have been added to the tree following contributions from the people of Upton.
Sunday 9th December
Peter reminds us of the importance of the season- remembering Christ's birth. An extra seasonal page here explains some of the hymns sung at this time and also gives Christmas service times.
Sunday 2nd December
Today, during our service we witnessed the baptism of Amelia Ruby.
our.tree was officially launched with the Sunny Dudes being the fist to draw and write about their thoughts of Christmas. The number of baubles on our tree is already nearing double figures.
Earlier this week Peter and Nigel attended the discussion on Wesley's hymns at Central Methodist Church in Pontefract.
Saturday 1st December
December prayer diary added to web site
Nigel learnt of a new web site which has as its theme an Internet Advent Calendar- open a window each day. Behind each window are images/ videos and words- designed to make us think. It is organised by the Bishop of Kensington. Find it at www.bok.paperlesschristmas.org
Tuesday 27th November
Bev graduated today from the University of Huddersfield- congratulations!
Sunday 11th November
In addition to our own service of remembrance, members of the church took part in the village time of remembrance at the war memorial.
Samaritan's Purse Shoebox Appeal
A total of 27 boxes were put together by members of the church to be distributed by Samaritan's Purse. Below are just a few of the boxes and collectors.
For further information on Samaritan's Purse and their various activities click here.
Sunday 23rd September. After our service and coffee this morning we enjoyed the end of summer time with a trip to Cusworth Hall. Picnics were munched and games enjoyed. Below are some photos.
Nigel was recently impressed by the thought provoking advert on TV asking "Is there more to life than this?"
See the video at this web site: http://uk.alpha.org/ (link also copied to this page)
nas 14/9/07
Latest web updates:
Cushworth photo's
MH 8/11/07
Music group page- photos added
Updated preacher's brief
nas 10/9/07
The Wednesday fellowship group enjoyed learning how to make cards using 'tea-bag folding' techniques. The results were very impressive.
They also celebrated May's birthday not with the traditional happy birthday song but with their own version. The words are:
Count your garden by the flowers, never by the leaves that fall.
Count your days by golden hours, don't remember clouds at all.
Count your nights by stars not shadows,
Count your life by smiles not tears.
And with joy through all your journey, count your age by friends not years.
(sung to the tune of 'What a friend we have in Jesus')
pjr30/8/2007
Over lunch and some windmill making with the children we discussed the activities we could offer the young people of our church over the next term and also thought about the development of our music group. We also considered some other activities for the coming months.
Click here for future activities - everyone invited!
Add the dates to your diary!
More details to follow
Our Sunday groups for young children (Mini and Sunny Dudes) recommence this Sunday, 2nd September. Our teenagers are involved in the service this weekend and will have their first group meeting on Sunday 23rd September.
See their page here.
________________________________________________________________
Peter tells us:
A couple of Sundays ago at the end of the service the children gave us all an encapsulated card which contained the following beautiful words:
'Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.'
These words were written by Fanny Crosby. When she was six weeks old she was blinded by an incompetent doctor, but in her 94 years she wrote some 8000 hymns. She wrote under more than 50 pseudonyms including Frances Jane van Alstyne. Two of her hymns, 'To God be the glory' (463) and 'Blessed assurance' (668) appear in Hymns and Psalms.
Of her blindness Fanny wrote, 'It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.'
On her death the following was inscribed on her tombstone, "Aunt Fanny" and "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine."
Sunday 4th November
Traidcraft stall - in the hall after our morning service.
Saturday 3rd November
Bonfire Fun - hotdogs, jacket potatoes, sparklers and games.
Village Picnic 8th July 2007
Plans were revised due to the waterlogged field.
We re-sited to our hall and were still able to play games in the grounds until the rain came back
A brilliant memorable line went something as follows:
Young child "why can't we picnic outside"
Response "because it might rain/ the grass is wet"
Young child "you can't have a picnic inside"
Paula "I'll take the chairs away so you have to sit on the carpet"
Lent Challenges
Marc organised a series of Lent Challenges (during Lent !). See http://www.lentchallenges.blogspot.com/
Litter Pick- March 2007
As part of the Lent Challenges, we teamed up with others and helped with a litter Pick through the village.
Picnic
Each year, we spend a couple of Sunday afternoons out together. Games are played, picnics eaten and a good time is had by all.
Carol Singing
Another regular activity is carol singing in the village
Churches Together in SESKUB
(South Elmsall, South Kirkby, Upton and Badsworth)
We join with other churches in the area for events throughout the year.
eg Easter March of Witness
Provide Disabled Access
We are grateful for the skills of some of our congregation who were able to help construct disabled access in March 2006
How it used to look
How it looks now
Mary's cake which we cut when officially opening the access
more details of the project are here