The Messenger, December 2002, No. 600

The Minister's Letter

Dear Friends,

Christmas greetings in the name of the Infant Babe!

Once again we look forward to the gift of Christmas and all that it means to each of us. My prayer is that Christmas will be a time when we reflect on the needs of others, as well as those of our immediate family and friends.

Given the fact that Jesus was born into what we today might describe as abject poverty, it is sad to reflect that many people in the world are still in a similar situation. I reflect back to Whitechapel and the plight of the street homeless family at this time of the year. Maybe the plight of the refugees in our town could be seen in a similar light this year.

Perhaps, as a second idea, Christmas is an ideal time to look back over the year that is almost finished, and see something of what we have done and achieved. My hope for 2002 was that we would sort out the future, building wise at least at London Road and Tower Hamlets. Sadly, that has not been the case, but there is some cheer when we look at the steadily increasing sharing with our friends from St. Columba, some of whom share the vision of a new Christian centre rising up to meet the needs of the people of Dover.

So, as we celebrate Christmas, let's look towards 2003 and all the challenges it will bring. Do doubt there will be some things we don't like or want, whilst others will lift us up and encourage us. I would like to dream that by Christmas 2003 we shall be moving positively forward, building problems forgotten, sharing agreements made and mission plans being fulfilled! We need new blood, new ideas and new challenges to revitalise our outreach. Now there are the gifts that each of us needs to be praying for this Christmas, so don't waste time, start NOW!

Thinking about our beloved "Messenger", Graham has done a fantastic job, sadly he feels that now is the time to relinquish the editorship, so there will be changes there. Maybe, that will be YOUR gift for 2003 to your fellow Christians.

In closing, I trust that nobody will be spending Christmas alone, that each of us will have a very special time.

Christine joins me in sending our love and best wishes.

I am yours because I am His.

John

Anglican/Methodist Covenant

There are still a number of pamphlets about the Covenant at the back of the churches in London Road and Tower Hamlets. Please don't forget to take one and read it, then return it to the church. Hopefully, after folk have read the various items, we can meet and decide our opinion on the way ahead. The joint Synod at Canterbury Cathedral duly went ahead, not an earth shattering experience to my mind!

St. Columba

Thanks to all who are supporting these shared services. I am hopefuly that in the New Year we may be able to share other things as well. Sincere thanks to Sheena Evans, Don beck and Graham Tutthill for giving up an evening on 4 November with the heads of denominations for the area. Sadly Graham had to leave to report on the fire at the former Royal Victoria Hospital (pity it wasn't a few hundred yards up London Road!) It looks as if we will be moving forward fairly swiftly, provided church leadership teams and councils agree. Please keep this important aspect of our church future in your prayers and thoughts. I would like to see St. Columba sharing in "The Messenger" in 2003 also as a way of exploring the way ahead.

"Adopt A Cop"

Although some people are always ready to criticise our police service, I think it would be fair to say that they have a very difficult job. For instance, given the current fire-fighters' dispute, it is the police who are having to shoulder extra responsibilities, and many are having their leave days cancelled. I have the privilege, and I really do regard it so, of being Chaplain to Area 8 of the Kent County Constabulary. Within the police service as a whole there are a number of Christians, many of whom belong to the Christian Police Association which is now more than 100 years old. The CPA has organised a scheme called "Adopt A Cop" where local churches prayer for their police officers. I have photocopied a number of the leaflets about this scheme and left them in London Road and Tower for your perusal. Friends I would like some response, not a deafening silence!

Bible Study

I mentioned last month that our Bible study mornings were turning into a very interesting time of fellowship and exploration. This month I want to look towards Lent 2003 and the Bible study for that period. I have received some details of the York Course for 2003 which is to be entitled "New World, Old Faith" and features, amongst others, the new Archbishop of Canterbury. I have mentioned this in the weekly messages with no response. PLEASE could you give some idea of whether you want this course and are prepared to support it?! Thanks in advance for that.

LONDON ROAD WESLEY GUILD

I hope that some of you are paying a visit to our Wesley Guild meetings. If not, why not give it a try? I am sure that you will be given a warm welcome and enjoy their varied programme. The Guild is not just a London Road activity, it is throughout the Methodist Connexion.

The Annual Conference has recently been held at Beckminster Methodist Church in Wolverhampton when the Rev. Dr. John Taylor, Chairman of Liverpool District and one of my theological college tutors, was the speaker. The 2003 Conference is to be held at St. David's, Craig y Don, Llandudno, on Tuesday 1 July at 7.30 p.m.

Wesley Guilds are involved in the Nigeria Care Project and the present stage, which commenced in April 2001 and will run to the end of March 2005, has raised £85,000 towards the target of £220,000 aimed for. Training is available for Guild office holders. The next two "Building the Guild" events are at Moorlands, Whitby, from 7 to 9 March 2003 and Willersley Castle, Derbyshire, from 21 to 23 November 2003.

I hope that you can see that Wesley Guild really is alive and going somewhere under its challenge: "ONE HEART, ONE WAY".

The Guild meets on Tuesday nights at 7.30 p.m.

VACANCIES THAT NEED FILLING, SOME URGENTLY!

Every time I go to London Road and Tower Hamlets I look for the orderly queue, but so far seem to have missed it! To be serious, the following posts need filling. Pay is out of this world!

LONDON ROAD

Cradle Roll Secretary World Church representative on the Missions Committee Social Responsibility representative Ecumenical Liaison Officer Secretary to the Management Committee, formerly known as Property Secretary Representative to Circuit Bricks and Mortar Committee Editor of "The Messenger"

TOWER HAMLETS

Representative to Circuit Sharing the Gospel Committee Representative to Circuit Spiritual Maintenance Committee

Please pray about these posts and see whether YOU are the ONE for ANY of them!

We have GB - how about BB?

I wonder if those two sets of letters mean anything to you? If not, I will enlighten your darkness! GB, of course, means Girls' Brigade, and we are fortunate at London Road in having the 3rd Dover Company as part of our work and witness. Personally, I feel richly privileged that we have folk who are prepared to give up their time to young people. Girls' Brigade is not just Thursday evenings. There are meetings to attend in the District, parents to visit and badges classes and programmes to prepare.

Girls' Brigade has a brother organisation called the Boys' Brigade, the oldest uniformed Christian youth organisation founded in 1883. The local area of the BB is looking around East Kent to start new work for boys, and their thoughts have turned to London Road. Many of you will know that I am into BB and GB, so I am trying to keep out of the matter so that you, the Church family, can decide. Please think about it and, if there is any interest, get the folk to come and make a [presentation to the church.

Christmas Eve Holy Communion.

The support for this part of our Christmas worship appears to be waning due to people being away on holiday or visiting family or friends. I am just wondering whether it has run its course and needs to be replaced by something different. Unless I hear to the contrary, I do not plan to offer the service this year.

CHRISTMAS QUIZ

Phyl Gay has copies of a quiz for sale - just the thing for after the Christmas dinner - for church funds, today (Sunday 1 December) and next Sunday (8 December) at £1 each. It comprises 50 questions, one for each year of the Queen's reign as it's Golden Jubilee Year.

DISTRICT FESTIVAL

Copies of the syllabus for next year's District Festival are now available from Evelyn Tutthill. Entry forms have to be in by 17 January, the area festival is on 1 March and the finals are at Maidstone on 5 April. As usual, there's a wide range of classes from singing to needlework, piano playing to creative writing, instrumental solo to photography, and much more in between. So have a look at the syllabus as soon as possible, and decide which classes you will be entering.

CENTENARY PENS

Evelyn Tutthill still has some pens for sale to mark the centenary of our church. They are only 50 pence each, with the proceeds going to church funds.

CHRISTMAS POST-BOX

We will be running the Church Post Box again this Christmas from today (Sunday 1 December) to Sunday 22 December inclusive. This is one of the ways in which we collect money for NCH Action for Children and we respectfully suggest that a donation of five pence per card in the collecting box next to the post box would be appropriate. This collections us already off to a flying start with nearly £90 that was raised at the Centenary Celebration Concert back in September. Finally, please bear in mind that this "postal" service is meant only for Christmas cards to people WITHIN the church.

CHRISTMAS PARCELS

As usual, Shirley Dowle is preparing 20 parcels as gifts for the homeless for Christmas. If anyone would like to donate men's gloves, scarves or socks, or make a small donation, she would be very grateful. Each parcel costs about £5.

LOVE IN A BOX

A big "thank you" from Shirley Dowle to all the people who helped to supply 13 boxes for children aged one to 15 years. She hopes next year to start the appeal earlier in the year and to increase the number of boxes. Thank you once again.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Sunday 1 December - 11 a.m. Youth Service. Monday 2 December - Tower Hamlets NCH Concert. Tuesday 3 December - End Debt on our Doorstep Lobby and Action. Monday 9 December - 6.30 p.m. Cubs Carol Concert at London Road. Friday 13 December - 2 p.m. Crosslinks Carol Service Sunday 15 December - 6 p.m. London Road Candlelight Carol Service. Monday 16 December - Come Carolling at Dover Town Hall. - Church Music Group plays carols at Sunny Corner, Aycliffe.

Last month, Donald Beck, our senior steward, sent me a couple of items for "The Messenger" which I promptly forgot about and left out. Sorry about that - perhaps it's as well I am retiring! However, some of the points were covered in other articles, so here's a shortened version of what he sent me so that all the items are covered. Dear Members,

There is a need for me to update you all on what is happening in two very important areas in our Church Life.

THE BUILDING FUND

You may be aware that some members have withdrawn their money from the building fund recently. Refunds were made as soon as possible. However, we recently received a request for the refund of contributions where the reasons given contained factual inaccuracies. I believe this happened because of some inaccurate information currently circulating within the church about the Building Fund.

The inaccurate information is that we are currently using the Building Fund to pay for repairs to our premises that were highlighted during the last quinquennial report. It was also stated that the decision to do this was taken by a Church Committee that was not empowered to do so and without referral to the church as a whole. To set the record straight, no decision has ever been taken to divert Building Fund cash to any other use; neither has any such proposal been made.

There has been discussion at the Church Council about using the Building Fund for such purposes, but that is all. Your leadership team is aware that such a change would have to be sanctioned by the church membership as a whole, at an extraordinary General Church Meeting. Lastly, the only payments made from the Building Fund, to date, have been to settle architects fees incurred earlier in the project. Our Building Fund money is exactly where it always has been: in the Building Fund. And that is where it will stay until such time as we start to build. This leads me to the second item.

LOCAL ECUMENICAL PROJECT (LEP)

There is some discontent surfacing about the speed of progress in joining with St. Columba URC. It would seem that it is not fast enough for some! This is not a problem I would have anticipated! Speaking personally, I am convinced that this is the way God is leading us, and I am very keen to move the project forward. However, things were on hold for a while because of the meeting that we attended on 4 November.

We have declared our commitment to seeking a partnership with St. Columba and we have already begun to share with each other, but I would like to see that sharing spread to all our church organisations. I understand some members from St. Columba are already attending the Women’s Meetings on Monday afternoons. That is a great start. I would like to see the leaders of ALL our church organisations make a formal contact with St. Columba to ensure that they know what we do, week in, week out and to make it clear that they are welcome in all parts of our church life. Additionally, at the recent leadership team meeting, we discussed our Candlelight Carol Service (15 December) and have invited St. Columba congregation to join with us and to take an active part in that service. A meeting of Stewards and Elders from London Road, St. Columba and Tower Hamlets is to be held on Friday 6 December at 7.45 p.m. at Tower Hamlets, at which we hope to push forward with the idea of a joint project. I would ask that you all pray for those of us involved in that meeting. We are open to suggestions about ways in which we can share with each other. If you have any more ideas, please let John Lines or any of the stewards know what you think.

I am confident that we can make this partnership work, but it requires us to open our entire church life to each other and not just our church doors! Let’s rise to the challenge.

Donald Beck Senior Steward

Church Family News

We express our sympathy to Sue Brockman following the death of her brother Geoffrey. His passing was a terrible shock to the family, and Sue would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and cards. Sue and the family are grateful for all the love and support they have received.

Jack Ash will not be able to send Christmas cards this year, but wishes all his friends in the churches a very Happy Christmas.

Ruby Wahlers has moved, and we hope she is settling well into her new home.

We send congratulations to Mrs. Gammon (Brian's mother) who will be celebrating her 90th birthday on 26 December.

Last month we reported that Sterling Robbins had suffered a fractured skull in a fall in America. Jayne sent us an e-mail to say they had received lots of letters and calls from people here. "It's just grand to have so many friends looking out for us," she said. Sterling has been recovering well, and was due to have another scan in mid-November.

As you know, our church has a website, and it attracts quite a few visitors each month - there were 17 visits between 21 and 27 November, for example. Occasionally, those visitors send us messages, but we were very pleased the other day to receive an e-mail from Denise Rason, whose great-grandmother was a cousin of the Rev. Isaac Dorricott, who was the Minister of this church when it opened 100 years ago.

Mr. Dorricott was minister here from 1894 (he came from Goudhurst) until 1903 when he went to Croydon. He died in February 1929. Denise has been researching his life and told us that he wrote a book called "Some Olden Time Methodists", which was a memorial of the Russell and Barnsley Smith families and was published in 1904. A copy is apparently available in Dover Local Studies Library. He also wrote two other books, one about his father-in-law, the Rev William Peaceful, and "Lyrical Studies - a Hymnal Guide" which he wrote with the Rev. T. Collins and which contains biographical sketches of the authors of hymns, and critical historical and illustrative notes on their hymns.

Denise said that back in 1986 she was in contact with two ladies from our church, one who had known Isaac and the other who remembered his widow. Denise is hoping to send me some more information about Isaac, so if anyone would like to read it, please let me know.

I then received an e-mail from Merv Dorricott, in Auckland, New Zealand, who is a great nephew of Isaac, being the great grandson of Isaac's brother, Abraham Dorricott, who emigrated to New Zealand in 1883. Merv and his wife June send best wishes to our church and the church family for the forthcoming festive season.

And one other interesting coincidence - Denise Rason's husband knows John Lines as he is also a retired Metropolitan police officer!

Hilda Driver is still in Montgomery Ward at Buckland Hospital, and Marilyn Smithard is now home and taking things easy. Ossie Hodgson has had his surgery at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital and is home. Sadly the outcome was not what Ossie and Molly wanted. Clarice King has had a fall and fractured bones in her left arm, as well as giving herself a beautiful shiner!! Jack Ash and Betty O'Connell have also had falls.

We keep Margaret Craven, Sadie Gledhill, Molly Hodgson, Margaret Machin, Margaret McKenzie, Betty O'Connell and George Craven in our prayers as they recover from their hospital treatment. We continue to pray for all those who are unwell in their own home, or in residential homes, especially thinking of Mary Page, Edie and Winnie Seelly, John Bates, Ossie Hodgson and Colin Thompson at this time.

In your personal prayers, please also remember . . . Alan Sugden, Daphne Gretton, Marion Scrivener, Margery Bones, Ruby Nye, Eileen Ward, Gwen Bates, Ruby Wahlers, Rosemary Richards, Sonny and Vi Mills, David Morris, Hilda Welburn, Eileen Smith, May Griffin, Olive Morris, Ron and Irene Sutton, Doris Barker, Eileen Tolhurst, Anne Taylor, Myra Strelow, Doris Greenfield, Wally Watts, Jessie West, Keith Button, Eva Buttifint, Peggy Heritage and May Lancaster;

those away from Dover, including Vron Tutthill, Paul Tutthill, Sarah Atkins, Lisa Speakman, Andrew Booth, Robert Dunstone, Hazel Griffiths, Gordon and Elaine Newton, Sid and Jayne Robbins and Henry and Sterling, Joyce and Alan Norman, Alan and Stephanie Warrell, Malcolm and Jennifer Cleaver, David and Rachel Cloke, Angela and Neil Baker, Andrew and Cath Powell, Edna Tutt, Christina Edge and Reg Payne.

TOWER HAMLETS

Our Sunday School meets each Sunday at 11 a.m. Any children wishing to join us will be made very welcome.

The Women’s League meets on Mondays at 2.30 p.m. and a warm welcome awaits any ladies wishing to join us. The programme for December is: 2 – Rev. John Lines; 9 – Members' Afternoon; 16 – Carol service and Christmas tea.

The Fellowship is not meeting now until 7 January.

Gift Day. Thanks to all who helped to raise £314.92, an improvement on last year of £16.58. Thanks to Alan Sugden and Friends for a very enjoyable Gift Day Concert. A grand effort by everyone.

Tomorrow (Monday 2 December) at 7 p.m. the ch