With less than a month to go to the special celebrations of Christmas and the new Millennium, this edition of "The Messenger" brings you details of all the events that are taking place, not only in our churches at London Road, Tower Hamlets and Shepherdswell, but also in the town where special events are being held to herald the arrival of the year 2000.

This morning, we have our Toy Service and the boys, books and games which our Junior Church children bring will be sent to children in Kosovo. Adult members of the congregation are being invited to contribute towards Christmas gifts for the inmates at the Young Offender Institution on Dover’s Western Heights. This is being organised by Shirley Dowle who is hoping to provide Christmas presents for the homeless, and she would be pleased to receive any donations as soon as possible.

The Christmas post box is in operation this Sunday and for the next two weeks. Please use it to post your cards to members and friends WITHIN the church, and you are asked to make a donation of five pence per card to NCH Action for Children. Our thanks to those who sort the post for us.

Quiz sheets for this year's Christmas Quiz, in aid of the building fund, will be on sale at coffee time after the morning services today and next Sunday (5 and 12 December), price £1.

At 4 p.m.on Sunday 12 December, Cross-Links have a carol service at Buckland Community Centre on Buckland Estate, and our music group will be providing the music. The next day, Monday 13 December, Come Carolling takes place at Dover Town Hall at 7.30 p.m.

On Sunday 19 December, at 6 p.m., we have our Candlelight Carol Service. We have Christmas Eve Communion at 11.30 p.m. on 24 December, and a family service at 10 a.m. on Christmas Day, December 25. You are invited to bring a small wrapped present (valued at £1 or less) which will be collected as you arrive and distributed as part of the service.

On Monday 20 December, at 6pm, there is the reception and passing of the Peace Light from Bethlehem at St. Paul’s R.C. Church in Maison Dieu Road. Also that evening, our church music group will be playing carols at Sunny Corner, Aycliffe.

The main event of the town’s Christian Millennium celebrations is at 6 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, 31 December, when a short service of reflection will be held in the grounds of Dover College. It is hoped that everyone will bring a candle lantern with them and this will be lit from the Peace Light ready for the lantern procession to the seafront where the Clock of the Second Millennium will be burnt. Special arrangements are being made to enable disabled and elderly people to take part in the service.

An ecumenical watch night service is being held at River Methodist Church at 11.30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, and on New Year’s Day, a dawn service is being held on Dover seafront at 7.45 a.m. opposite the end of Cambridge Terrace. At 12 noon in many local churches a special short service is being held to welcome the new Millennium, and church bells will be rung as part of a national celebration.

Church Family News

On a personal note, I hope you will excuse the shortage of left pedal notes on the organ for the next couple of weeks. I am trying to put my feet up - well one of them anyway - after breaking a bone in my left foot last Sunday. Thanks to all those who have contacted me to wish me well!

Our former minister Alan Warrell is making good progress following an operation on his spine and he is now back home again. Alan and Stephanie send Christmas greetings to all their friends in Dover, and he also thanks everyone for their good wishes, thoughts and prayers.

We are sorry to hear Marjorie Wyborn, who celebrated her 97th birthday last month, developed pneumonia, and died on Saturday 4 December.

We send our love and congratulations to Mrs. Anne Booth who will be celebrating her 95th birthday on 29 December.

It was good to see Phil and Meg Carr at London Road a couple of weeks ago, and to catch up on their news since they left Dover more than 20 years ago.

It was also good to see so many people at the service of remembrance we held for Bettine Rogers last month, at the same time as the funeral service was being held in Stourbridge. We were pleased that friends from some of the other activities she took part in were able to join us and take part in the service.

Our thanks to Jayne Robbins for presenting the prizes at the Junior Church prize giving last Sunday, and our thanks to Elaine Newton for the way she conducted the service, and for dedicating the Bibles which had been bought with donations to the Junior Department. The Junior Church would also like to thank Studdal at Six for the £20 donation to their funds.

Also at last Sunday morning’s service we sang the Lord’s Prayer to the tune of Auld Lang Syne (which Cliff Richard currently has at number one as Millennium Prayer). You may be interested to know that this comes from the musical "Hopes and Dreams" which is the work of Rob Frost, Paul Field, Graham Kendrick and others, and which has been performed at many venues across the country. There are plans to present it at River Methodist Church on 19 and 20 November next year. The musical, which includes drama, dance and singing, is based on the Lord’s Prayer, with various sections concentrating on each phrase.

Thanks to everyone who supported the Hythe Town Band concert at Dover Town Hall last month which raised more than £400, and we hope those who attended the two performances of the MAD production last night and the night before had a good time. Our thanks to all those who staged it.

Don’t forget to ask Evelyn Tutthill for a copy of the syllabus for next year’s District Festival.

We are grateful to Anne Speakman for volunteering to take over the supervision of the weekly JMA collections, and we thank Joanna Leeves and Claire Gammon for their work as the previous JMA secretaries. If any of our young people would like to collect for JMA, please see Anne. And we are also grateful to Phil Brockman who has volunteered to become the new treasurer for the Junior Church, taking over from Cyril Hopper. We wish Anne and Phil well in their new jobs.

LOOKING BACK - AND FORWARD

November marked the 20th anniversary of the first visit by our church to our "link" church in Monheim, West Germany. Over the years many friendships have been made, and as well as the official exchange visits, there have been several private visits. You may be interested to know that the church choir in Schnellenbach - the church where Pfarrer Hartmut Domay is now the minister, east of Cologne - has produced a CD. Perhaps it’s our choir’s turn next!

In the year 2000, it will be 30 years since our Girls’ Choir, which used to be run by Keith Tutthill, went to Germany to see the Passion Play at Oberammergau, and to stay at Landech in Austria for a few days. They gave an impromptu concert at one of the hotels in which they were staying. This was back in the days when we had not only a church choir, and the girls’ choir, but a Ladies’ Choir, Men’s Choir and Junior Choir! Many people remember the Girls’ Choir with affection, and so Keith is organising a reunion next April. He has tracked down all but two of the 53 girls who, as far as we can remember, belonged to the choir, and many of them have said they will be coming to the reunion weekend which is on 28 and 29 April and will include a concert on Saturday 29th. The two he has been unable to trace are Anne Villaroel and Janet Munson. If you can help with any clues as to where they may be now, please see Keith.

In your personal prayers, please remember...

those who are ill, housebound, in residential homes or undergoing medical treatment, including Lou Young, Mary Bond, Sylvia Dolbear, Hilda Welburn, Cyril Hopper, Evelyn Tutthill, Graham Tutthill, Alan Sugden, Alan Warrell, Eileen Rolls, Mrs. McQueeney, Kath Hogg, May Griffin, Olive Morris, Ron and Irene Sutton, Betty Davey, Doris Bailey, Doris Barker, Miriam Tachon, Eileen Tolhurst, Grace Mills, Mrs. Griggs, Anne Taylor, Marjorie Ellis, Pearl Godden, Myra Strelow, Wally Watts, Jessie West, Gwen Bates, Hilda Driver, Edith and Winnie Seelly, Gwen Goff, Mrs. Newton, Betty Allen, Janet Hambrook, Eva Buttifint, Peggy Heritage and May Lancaster;

those who mourn, including the families and friends of Bettine Rogers and Marjorie Wyborn;

those away from Dover, including Lisa Speakman, Rose-Marie Stevens, Robert Dunstone, Veronica Tutthill, Sarah Atkins, Mark Atkins, Paul Tutthill, Andrew Booth, Hazel Griffiths, John and Christine Lines, Joyce and Alan Norman, David Cloke, Andrew and Cath Powell, Joan Walker, Edna Tutt, Christina Edge, Reg Payne, Alice Saker, and Alan and Stephanie Warrell;

those recently married in our church, Sid and Sally Brown.

Please also pray for Jonathan Vernon, the eight-year-old son of the piano tuner who comes to our church. Jonathan had a tumour in his femur and now has secondaries in his lungs. He will be having an operation in the New Year. Jonathan's mum and grandmother are active Methodists in the Canterbury Circuit.

TOWER HAMLETS

Tomorrow (Monday, 6 December), the Children’s Christmas Concert takes place at 7 p.m. in the Church. All friends are invited and proceeds are for NCH Action for Children.

Holy Communion is celebrated on Sunday 12 December at 6.30 p.m., conducted by our Minister.

On Sunday 19 December, at 6.30 p.m., Carols by Candlelight will be led by Mrs. Sue Brockman.

The Women’s League meets on Mondays at 2.30 p.m. and all ladies are welcome to join us for an hour of fellowship and friendship. Speakers are: 6 December - Mrs Sue Brockman; 13 - Christmas Carols and Christmas Tea also led by Mrs. Sue Brockman. The Fellowship does not meet in December.

The Monday Club meets each week at 6 p.m. and all children are very welcome.

Tower Hamlets members send greetings and best wishes for Christmas the New Year to all friends.

SHEPHERDSWELL

On Sunday 12 December, at the 10.15 a.m. Parish Eucharist service, the Rev. Gordon Newton will be the preacher. Community Carols will be at 6 p.m. on 16 December.

The coffee morning is on 15 December at 2 Church Hill from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, in aid of Mencap.

DECEMBER ROTAS

MINI-BUS: Sunday 5 December - Margaret Tutthill; 12 - Shirley Carr; 19 - David Galley; 26 - Brian Gammon; 2 January - Malcolm Cleaver.

FLOWER ROTA: Sunday 5 December - Mrs. H. Welburn; 12 - Mrs. N. Watson; 19 and 26 - Mrs. S. Dowle; 2 January - Mrs. K. Nye.

A CRECHE is available during Sunday morning services. Please see Shirley Dowle if you would like to use this facility.

WOMEN’S OWN: Mondays at 3 p.m. 6 December - Mrs. Phyl Gay; 13 - Carols.

MINI-BUS DRIVERS FOR WOMEN’S OWN: 6 December - Peter Hogg and Ossie Hodgson; 13 - Malcolm Cleaver and Jack Ash.

GUILD: Tuesdays at 7.30 p.m. 7 December - Christian Service with Nancy Sheaby, Women’s Network; 14 - Games evening; 21 - Christmas music with Ken Vincent.

MOTHER AND TODDLER GROUP: Wednesdays at 2 p.m.

BEAVERS, CUBS AND SCOUTS: Wednesdays at 5 p.m.

SOUP AND SANDWICHES: Wednesdays at 6 p.m. 8 December - Alison Booth and Marion Scrivener; 15 - Doris Friend, Hilda Driver, Ron and Ruth Edwards; 22 - Shirley Dowle, Gertie Nightingale and Rae Smith; 29 - Peter Hogg, Nora Watson and Clarice King.

GIRLS’ BRIGADE: Thursday evenings - 6 to 7 p.m. Explorers (aged 5 to 8 years); 6 to 7.30 p.m. Juniors (8 to 11 years); 7.45 to 9 p.m. Seniors and Brigaders (11 to 14 plus).

LADIES KEEP FIT GROUP: Thursdays at 7.15 p.m. The last meeting is on 9 December.

CHURCH CHOIR: Friday evenings 10 and 17 December at 7.30 p.m.

And finally, let us remember the Millennium Resolution:

Let there be:
respect for the earth,
peace for its people,
love in our lives,
delight in the good,
forgiveness for past wrongs,
and from now on a new start.