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CHURCH NEWS
Weekly Prayer Roster
Each week during the year the Churches, in their prayers, remember the residents of particular streets in the vil-
lage, those who work in the parish and village organizations. Those to be remembered this month are:
4th January
Scouts, Cubs and Beavers, Guides, Brownies and Rainbows, Playgroup and Day Nursery,
Buccaneers after school club, Buckden Towers Youth Retreat Centre
11th January
Mayfield, Springfield Way, The Osiers, Stirtloe
18th January
Vineyard Way, Burberry Road, Swan End, Lark End, The Library and its librarians
25th January
The churches of the village: St Hugh’s, St Mary’s, Buckden Methodist Church, also Offord and
Perry Baptist Churches, members of home groups from these and other local churches, min-
isters and all who make our churches welcoming and worshipful places
STUDY LUNCHES
The first Study Lunch of the year will be on Monday 12th January, 12.30 to 2.00 pm
in the Methodist School Room. Everyone welcome.
Lent Study lunches will be on Mondays - Feb 23rd, March 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd.
The focus of the Lent lunches will be confirmed in due course.
Contact:
Ann Brittain
on
812012
Thought for the month
Dear all,
For me, one of the highlights of January each year is the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity”. It is actually an
eight day period that runs from 18
th
to 25
th
January. It began in 1908 and since its foundation has grown and
changed. Even within my lifetime I have seen it transform from what was an aspiration (a longing for something
that was not happening at the time) to a celebration (rejoicing in what we share, and praying for it to continue and
to grow!)
On the night before He died, Jesus gave His disciples a “new commandment”. He said “Love one another. As I
have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one
another.” And He prayed that they – and those who would believe in Him through future years might be united.
He said: “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even
as You have loved Me.” Later on in one of his letters, the Apostle Paul was able to affirm that “we are all one in
Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
This is not uniformity, there is rich variety in the Christian Church – and styles of worship range from the very for-
mal set liturgy for those who want a regular pattern to the wildly exuberant freedom of what are sometimes dispar-
agingly described as “happy-clappy” churches, and there is everything in between. In my 38 years of ministry, I
have attended, and had the privilege of participating in the full range of such Christian worship, and have encoun-
tered the living God in them all.
But Christian Unity, for me, has to do with acceptance of one another, and the joy that comes from working to-
gether and sharing together! It doesn’t mean that we will always agree about everything – what family does?
Someone put it like this: “You can walk hand in hand without always seeing eye to eye!” And today Christian Uni-
ty is not just about those 8 days in January, but about a whole range of ways in which the Churches within an area
can work together throughout the year. And for that “oneness” I thank God. This will be my last contribution to
the Buckden Roundabout as I will be retiring in March, and moving away from the area, and I want to take this
opportunity to express my thanks to my many friends in the Churches of Buckden for all we have shared through
these past years.
God bless you all,
Paul (Paul Williams, Perry and Offord Baptists)