Colchester Methodist Circuit
Newsletter
December 2022
We are back!
The Well
The Methodist Church in North Colchester
WIVENHOE METHODIST CHURCH
Mersea Island Methodist Church
AS one of a number of initiatives to keep Methodists in the borough of Colchester
informed and involved in the work of the churches in their circuit, the quarterly
newsletter – previously known as Newsround – is back!
The Superintendent minister Rev Chris Preece would like mission planning to be a
focus for the circuit for the forthcoming year. How do seven churches come together as
a circuit whilst still maintaining their own identities?
One aim is to encourage members and friends to share and support the activities of the
whole circuit at a time when membership numbers are decreasing and resources are
stretched; so communication is key.
Each edition of the quarterly newsletter will start with a letter from Rev Chris and follow
on with news and possible requests from the circuit and its churches.
Rev Chris took up her post on 1 September 2022 as Superintendent, and minister of
Castle, The Well and The Ark, joining Rev Joe Adams who is minister of Wimpole Road,
Lexden, Wivenhoe and West Mersea. Her appointment followed the departure of the
previous Superintendent Rev Alan Jenkins and Rev Ken Chalmers, who have both sat
down as full time presbyters.
Letter from the Superintendent
Dear Friends,
It seems a little bit strange to be thinking about new beginnings for something which is
starting in November. Yet that’s where we are! It’s good to be able to write to introduce
the newly reintroduced Circuit newsletter. As I reflect on the rhythm of the year, there
are many new beginnings which occur throughout it. Thinking about the coming
quarter, December is a period of Advent. It is where we are in a season of preparation
ahead of celebrating Jesus’ birth on Christmas Day. January marks the beginning of
the calendar year and, in 2023, Lent begins in late February.
Tying together all these aspects is hope. Advent is where we watch and wait in hope,
Jesus’ birth is hope personified at Christmas, many people associate a new year with
that of hope and Lent is a season which leads us to the hope we celebrate on Easter
Day. So often, today, hope is a word that really means ‘might.’ I hope to see you is
almost code for I might see you, rather than I will see you. Hope is to live in the
confident expectation of the promise of God and to place our trust in that promise.
Romans 8:24-25 reminds us that ‘hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for
what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.’
As Christians, we live in the confident expectation of the promise of hope that Jesus
brings. It is the hope of the new beginnings that come by turning to Jesus that we are
sharing in all that we do. Part of this newsletter is for each church to share something
of what they are currently doing but also to look ahead to other events that are coming
up. All that we do as churches is to share the love of God and the hope of Christ
through the power of the Holy Spirit with all whom we meet. It is an opportunity for us to
share and support one another in differing ways, to learn from one another and to serve
God in all that we do, together.
As we explore how we can work together as a Circuit and also to continue to witness to
God’s love within the individual communities we serve, we do that to share the hope of
Christ with all around. I hope that we will continue to share with one another all that that
means as we continue to seek God’s direction for us together here in Colchester.
God’s blessings,
Chris
NEWS: From the Circuit
● Rev Joe has made the difficult decision to curtail his appointment in order to live
closer to his family. Thoughts and prayers are with him and Dave as they prepare
to leave the circuit next summer. The circuit has entered stationing in order to
replace Rev Joe with one new Presbyter and this process is under way.
● The Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire Methodist District (of which the
Colchester circuit is a part) is offering its churches a one-off, non means-tested
grant of £1,000 to use towards the cost of opening up as a Warm Welcome
space for at least one 4 hour session a week between November 2022 and
February 2023. A number of churches have already registered their Warm
Welcome space with www.warmwelcome.uk and received a grant, and
registration is a compulsory pre-requisite for obtaining the grant from the District.
● Circuit-wide bible study – led by Rev Chris Preece and hosted on Zoom by The
Ark but open to any member around the circuit who expresses an interest –
resumed in November. Each session is currently a stand-alone study so prior
attendance is not essential. Rachel van Staveren (The Ark) will send a Zoom link
to anyone interested in joining the Tuesday evening event.
● As part of the move to include more members in the work of the circuit, the circuit
meeting has adopted a new system of ‘small group working’. This gives people
with particular skills the chance to work with the circuit on a specific task for a
short period of time. Examples of successful small group working are the group
which arranged the services of farewell to Revs Alan and Ken and welcome to
Rev Chris, a Communications Group, and a Finance Group which has
considered next steps forward in preparation for the forthcoming retirement of
Geoff Wilcox as circuit treasurer.
● We are seeking to recruit a part-time finance officer for the circuit. The ideal
candidate will have excellent bookkeeping and administration skills and will be
willing to work flexibly, including some evenings. This post will be home based,
but there may be some face-to-face meetings in and around the Colchester area.
Hours will be 15 per month, at a rate of £11.90 per hour. Additional hours to be
agreed for periods, such as ‘year-end’, when a more concentrated period of work
is required, paid at the same hourly rate. A full Job Pack is available from Tony
Trevers at thearkhighwoods
● Future circuit meetings will be either face to face or on Zoom, depending on the
time of year. A Zoom workshop has been hosted by circuit steward Tony Trevers
to help people navigate this tool of online communication and further support is
readily available from the circuit’s Communications Group, which comprises Rev
Chris Preece (Superintendent Minister); Tony Trevers (The Ark); Clive and Delia
Carrington (Castle); and Helen Hunt (Circuit administrator).
● Following the appointment of two new circuit stewards Judith Winward and Sally
Crafer, in place of retiring stewards Avril Lankester and Sheila Dempsey, the
representatives of circuit stewards to church councils are:
Lexden and West Mersea – Edward Pentney
Castle and Wivenhoe – Tony Trevers
The Ark – Geoff Wilcox
The Well – Sally Crafer
Wimpole Road – Judith Winward
From Lexden
As the only Methodist church on the west side of Colchester we are pleased that we are
still here to represent Methodism in this area. Although our numbers are few we are
great in faith. Due to a lack of stewards we now have services on the 1st and 3rd
Sundays in the month with a Songs of Praise led by our own congregation whenever
there is a 5th Sunday. This has been working really well. All of our Sunday morning
services are recorded on DVD and these are delivered to the housebound.
During the week we have our Friendly Tea Club which meets every Tuesday afternoon
from 2pm to 4pm. We have games, quizzes and crafts, all while sharing a cup of tea or
coffee and biscuits with lots of chatting as well.
We have a Midweek prayer time every Thursday from 9.30am. This is a short service of
prayer and reflection. We welcome members from other churches to come along and
share in this with us. Our church notices are regularly updated on our website.
From West Mersea
As December dawns our church is magically transformed into a sparkly haven of joy,
hope and peace, with the Advent Ring to remind us of each special thought on the
Sundays in December.
The Christmas tree and decorations lift our hearts in the preparation for our Saviour’s
day.
We support the East Anglia Children’s Hospices with gifts to make the children happier
at this time of year.
We gather round to take our Christmas Communion, and on the Sunday before
Christmas the lights are dimmed at 4 pm and the candles glow as we all join to sing our
carols and hear the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Happy Christmas to you all.
From The Ark
Congratulations to Sue Wood and her fellow eco-warriers who have prodded,
persuaded and cajoled us to do more for the environment and the pressing cause of
climate justice. As a result The Ark has been working towards becoming part of the Eco
Church movement and we have now received Bronze Status. The aim of the Eco
Church award scheme is to celebrate the ways that church communities have been
engaging with caring for the earth as a key part of our Christian faith. We hope that this
approach will be embedded in our thinking and will inform everything we do. We are
starting to think about what we need to do to get the Silver Award.
We continue to hold Reflections services on the 3rd Sunday of each month. Arranged
by a small group of members, these services – as the title suggests – reflect on a
different theme each month and often incorporate consideration of works of art and
secular poems and prose into the service where music for the hymns and songs is
provided by a range of videos.
Newly started this Autumn is a monthly half-hour prayer meeting, via Zoom, on the 1st
Wednesday of each month from 11am. This, too, incorporates reflective music, from the
Taize community, and is responsive to prayer requests from around the Circuit family
and friends as well as prepared and silent prayer. The meeting is led by Pat Baker.
We also meet for a virtual coffee morning on Zoom for an hour from 11am every Friday.
It started in the Covid Spring of 2020 and proved so popular we have just carried on.
We chat about anything and everything, swapping anecdotes and photos, discussing
news events and TV programmes and sharing family news. All circuit friends are
welcome to join us from the comfort of wherever they happen to be. Friends have
Zoomed in from holiday caravans, camper vans and cars and even from holiday in
Thailand.
We have registered The Ark as a Warm Welcome Space (www.warmwelcome.uk) and
are open to visitors from 9 am to 1pm every Monday, offering a warm space to sit, tea,
coffee, cuppa soups and biscuits to snack as well as fellowship and a listening ear to
anyone who wants it. We anticipate there will be demand for this as the weather gets
colder.
We celebrated Advent with a service of lessons and carols on 4th December, and our
carol service – accompanied by The Arkestra (The Ark’s musicians and friends) – will be
on 18th December.
From Wimpole Road
Greetings to you All.
Nearly Advent already – how quickly the year seems to pass! We are making plans for
the season having ordered the Christmas trees from our good friend Tim Smith at
Boxted; confirmed that Boxted Band will once again delight us with their music for the
Carol Service on Sunday 18th December at 6.30pm and invited the St. George’s School
to attend for an Advent Assembly on Monday 5
th December. It’s always such a joy to
see the church full of young faces and hearing their enthusiastic responses to our
questions. This year we are looking forward to Paul leading this exciting experience, not
just once, but three times one after the other! Paul will also be leading our Christmas
Day Service at 10.30 am. We have a Christmas Eve Service of Holy Communion at
4pm which will be led by Joe.
We continue to maintain our working links with St. Stephen’s Church with our weekly
Three Together Facebook worship on Sundays at 6.30pm and they are sharing the
Carol Service with us.
The Coffee Mornings on Wednesdays are usually well attended and like many of you
we are extending the hours to provide a ‘Warm Space’ for anyone to come and use our
facilities and share in fellowship. If we were able we would like to start another
opportunity for ‘Warm Space’ on a Tuesday but are struggling for volunteers. If anyone
would like to help, please let us know – you will be very welcome.
Thursday Circle meets, not surprisingly, on Thursdays at 2.30pm with a varied
programme of speakers and activities. January is their quiet month as the weather is
often unfriendly, so they kick off the New Year on Feb 2nd with Rev. Joe.
All are welcome to join with us for any of the above (except 5
th December for obvious
reasons) along with our usual Sunday morning worship at 11am
Peace and Joy to you this season.
From The Well
We officially launched The Well on 3
rd July 2022 at a special service led by Rev Alan
Jenkins. This was two years after the planned launch which had had to be delayed due
to the pandemic, but it was well worth waiting for. It really feels now that we are one
church, enthusiastically working together to extend God’s kingdom in this area of
Colchester.
Our main vision is to integrate more and more with the community and to work with
other Christian congregations through Myland Churches Together. We also have a good
relationship with Myland Community Council which supports us with grants and has
involvement with our two main projects – MakeLunch Myland and Myland Community
Pantry. MakeLunch has been operating on our premises for over four years and for
those who are not aware, we provide hot, healthy meals during school holidays for
families who qualify (we served about 35 meals in the October half term). During the
pandemic we also supported families by delivering any surplus food we had been given
by supermarkets etc. and this led us to have a vision to open a food pantry. While we
waited for our supplier, FareShare, to be in a position to provide food, we opened a
‘Drop In’ morning every Tuesday and Myland Community Pantry became a reality on 1
st
November. Also, at this time the Methodist Church encouraged us (with the offer of a
grant) to consider opening a ‘Warm Space’ and we decided to combine it with the
Pantry and be open for longer. So, our Hall on Tuesdays is alive with food, friendship
and fun – demonstrating God’s love in action.
These two projects have helped increase the size of our congregation and recently we
have started a simple activity session for children during part of our Sunday morning
service.
We will be singing carols outside the Chesterwell Co-op on Friday 16th December at
6.30pm and you are welcome to come and join us!
All this is on top of our regular activities, at the heart of which are worship and prayer.
From Wivenhoe
Wivenhoe Methodist Church has worship and caring at the heart of its calling. During
the pandemic we each week distributed to everyone a newsletter containing a thought
for the day, plus the service sheet produced by the Connexion. This was backed up by
phone calls. Sadly, many of our congregation suffered at this time. Some died, others
needed to go to care homes and the rest of us aged.
8
While we regularly get around two dozen at our Sunday worship the number of people
able to take on key roles in the Church are diminishing and those left find it increasingly
difficult.
Outside of Sunday worship pastoral support remains a very high priority. Everyone
continues to get the weekly newsletter, including the house bound; and those in need,
including those in care homes, are visited regularly.
During the week various activities take place on the premises.
Ladies Fellowship and Knit and Natter each meet monthly on a Thursday afternoon; and
on the second Saturday of each month we have a Coffee Morning from 10am to
12noon. These are all attended by people from both inside and outside our church
family and are valuable sources of outreach. Our members, Dr Bagamba Araali his wife
Banage and their children run a charity ‘Beacon of Hope for Widows, Vulnerable
Women and Children’ in Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Coffee Morning
raises money for their charity.
The Church also hosts the Wivenhoe Bumps and Babies Group which meets on the
first, third and fifth Thursdays of the month. While this is an outside hire one of our
members attends and makes refreshments and is a friend to them all. It is a well run
group which can have up to 30 young mums and their bumps and babies present. It
provides help, support, advice and friendship to new mums and mums-to-be. Many do
not have family support near by and some of their parents still live abroad.
We remain committed members of ‘Churches Together in Wivenhoe’, which comprises
five different Wivenhoe based churches. We meet regularly, work together throughout
the year and put on a number of joint events during the year. It is a highly regarded part
of the Wivenhoe scene and our witness is stronger for the love that we share one with
another and the unity of our witness.
From Castle
As we enter Advent, a time of preparation, we are embracing the wonderful Advent
material the Methodist Church has produced this year entitled "There is room". We felt
the material reflected the work we are currently doing at Castle, with Bridgeway ministry.
For some time now we have been hosting Bridgeway, a charity working with refugees
from countries in the middle east. They have been holding a monthly social event at
Castle on a Saturday. This is being supported by not only members of Castle, but also
circuit and other city churches.
Bridgeway now have a Hub in Priory Walk, where our members are volunteering help
and support in the wonderful work they are doing. Souzan & her team are working
tirelessly to support refugees, reaching our shores and being temporarily housed in
local hotels, with the aim of integrating them into our society.
Our soup and snack lunches resumed in September. They are held on the first
Thursday of the month from 12 noon. A delicious choice of soup, accompanied with a
roll and cheese, followed by a selection of homemade desserts with tea and coffee, all
for £4 – amazing and wonderful fellowship too. We are following this with a short act of
worship, then a time of social fun with games and chat.
We look ahead to the future with renewed hope, in fellowship with our Lord.
Carol services 18 December 10.30am – Castle
10.30am – The Ark
4pm – The Well
10.30am – Lexden
4pm – Mersea
6.30pm – Wimpole Road
11am – Wivenhoe
Christmas Eve 4pm – Wimpole Road
7.30pm – Wivenhoe
Christmas Day 10.30am – The Well (United
Service with The Ark and Castle)
9.45am – Lexden
9.30am – Mersea
11am – Wimpole Road
New Year’s Day 10.30am – Castle (United
Service with The Ark and The Well)
10.30am – Lexden
9.30am – Mersea
11am – Wimpole Road
11am – Wivenhoe
Lexden Methodist Church 