Following on from the success of “Rock” in the summer, the Choir and Jubilate came together to perform “While Shepherds Watched” by Roger Jones under the musical direction of Deirdre Harshaw. In contrast with the summer however, the soloists were recruited from the Choir and Jubilate, making this a truly Holywood performance and one that was remarkable for the wide range of ages involved in it.

The performance started and ended with poems written by Jake Gallagher on the Christmas theme, beautifully read by Anthea McWilliams. The pieces were linked with bible readings by Rosemary–Jayne Brangam and Kenneth Boyd, adding to the seasonal feel of the production.

The pieces within the musical ranged from solos to full choral works as well as a variety of quartets and quintets for the soloists. There were reworkings of classic works such as the “Magnificat”, sung by Jayne Forster as Mary and “In the Bleak Midwinter” with a solo part for Patricia Hollinger. Peter Miller as Joseph led the five adult soloists in the quintet “Come See the Beauty of the King”. Sarah Elks and Alex Hardacre were the junior soloists in the role of young shepherds and sang with feeling and clarity. It must be admitted, however, that one of the most memorable pieces of the evening was the children’s chorus “Sheep” aided by performances from Christine Hall and Jeremy Kinnen as well as Patricia. The backing from the Choir and Jubilate provided a fitting backdrop to the musicality of the whole performance.

After the musical, we enjoyed a wonderful spread of refreshments, utilising the new space in the Old Church to full effect and a vote of thanks must go to the catering team. Special mention must also go to Rosemary Maxwell who produced a huge array of costumes, worthy of Covent Garden. Obviously there is a huge number of people involved backstage, without whom none of this could happen and thanks are due to all of them. However, the final thanks must go to Deirdre Harshaw, whose vision and dedication drove the whole thing, and the performance was a tribute to her musical directorship. We look forward to our next musical event, the Spring Concert.

On Sunday 18th December 2011, Bishop Harold Miller was presented with a cheque for £8,000 for the Bishops’ Appeal representing the surplus and donations from the Flower Festival held in the church in October 2011. The cheque was presented to him by Jayne Forster, the People’s Churchwarden.

The Bishop spoke of the need to remember those in the developing world and illustrated it by a reference to the Christingles made in the service.

From downanddromore.org:

At the all–age service, Bishop Harold expressed his gratitude for the generous cheque. It will greatly help the Appeal’s work in supporting development projects and alleviating the suffering caused by disasters, both natural and man–made.

Bishops’ Appeal is the Church’s World Aid and Development Programme. It was set up by the Bishops of the Church in response to the commands in the Bible to to feed the hungry, lift the burden of poverty from the poor and bring freedom and hope to the oppressed.

It works through partner non–governmental organisations and mission agencies rather than funding development and emergency work directly. Their partners have the local knowledge and resources to ensure that projects for which they apply for funding are of maximum benefit to the peoples and areas in which they work.

Recent successful appeals include relief for the drought–stricken Horn of Africa.

video:

photos:

view the photo set on Flickr »

On Sunday 18^th December, Bishop Harold Miller came to rededicate the refurbished Old Church. This took place as part of the All Age Carol Service, which was attended by both morning congregations.

video:

photos:

view the photo set on Flickr »

Jesus prayed that his disciples would not be taken out of the world. As Christians we believe that through Christ’s death we have been assured of our place in heaven. Won’t heaven be a wonderful place? No more dying or crying or war; a place of peace and love and the presence of Jesus. However appealing this may sound to us we have to wait. It is a promise to be fulfilled. When we turn to Christ we are not taken straight into heaven, we are sent back into the world.

Each Christian is fully in the world but we are not alone. The church is the gathering of Christians who are looking to heaven and practicing for heaven on earth. All that we do in worshipping Christ, loving each other, learning of God and becoming more like Christ is in preparation for the completion and fulfilment only to be found in eternity.
Why is it that we are still here? Wouldn’t it be far better in heaven? The answer is that we have a purpose on earth. Our purpose is to accept the commission of Christ to His disciples to go and make other disciples, baptise them and teach them (Mat 28).

2012 is the year in which we will seek to discover how God is calling us to be part of that great commission. We will find our place in God’s world and in His work as individuals and as a body of believers.

I hope that there will be three journeys to other churches around the world by some of our members to learn what Jesus is doing through their witness. The journeys will be to Uganda with Fields of Life, India with Asha (tbc) and to Cornwall, England to help lead a children’s holiday club.

We will also be discovering how we can make contact with our own community of Holywood and be the witness to God’s love closer to home.

Lastly I hope we will all discover the compassion and love that God has for those around us in our lives and his invitation through us to them to know Him more.

I hope that you will discover your place in the church and in God’s world through these endeavours.

Roger Elks.

What sort of things make you laugh and cry? We often feel happy or sad but sometimes these feelings break through in laughter or tears. Some of us are better at disguising their emotions than others but all of us have feelings. Even Shylock, the ‘baddy’ in the Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice says that, “If you prick me do I not bleed.” It is hard to tell with some people how they are feeling and, if we do not pick up the subtle cues, it can be too late before we realise that they are hurt.

Thank God for women I say! In general, women score higher on ‘emotional intelligence’ than men. As a man among women I often stand in awe, and confusion, at how women interact. I am particularly dependant on my wife, Liz. Many a time I have asked the naïve question, “What was going on there?”, and she has easily described the relational dynamics of a situation in which I was merely an observer.

Is there any hope for men? (Women, don’t answer that please.) I would like to say yes. Relationships and empathy are too central to life to be the prerogative of women. We men need to take seriously the consequences of being excluded from understanding the feelings of others; it has been known for men to reach an old age without ever really being close to their wives or children. Women, don’t give up hope with us men. It is vital for you that we catch up. Not only would this make many marriages stronger but it would make Christmas shopping so much easier for us!

So how does this happen? The skill is listening. The first lesson is to listen to ourselves; that means intentional self reflection. I find this best on a long lonely walk to ‘get your head showered’. If I stay around the house I either find a job to do or am given one. Another discipline is journaling or keeping a diary, a discipline I find almost impossible. But when I do have to form my thoughts into sentences it is always helpful.

As Christians we also have the privilege of listening to God. He speaks in many ways, but Bible reading and study are the ways I hear God best.

The third level of listening is to hear what others are saying. It takes training to tune out all the other noise that is going on, not least in our own heads, and give our full attention to another as they speak. By skilled listening we can help others order and express their own thoughts – often with very little help from us. Now chaps, this means getting enough sleep before hand for it requires some hard work to listen, and snoring whilst someone pours their heart out is not an encouragement to them.

Jesus is the best listener. He is always more ready to hear than we are to speak. We all long to be listened to, even vicars. And there is hope, even for men, that we can be the ‘ears of Jesus’ to someone else.

Yours in Christ,

Roger

The story they performed was ‘The Parable of the Lost Son’. With humour and wit they put across the story and the meaning brilliantly so that everyone in the audience from the children to the grandparents, who absolutely packed out the Parish hall, had a great time. They were so good that we have to have them back September 2012 to welcome us back from our summer break. So see you all next September for more laughs and acrobatic dogs.

– Jason

External links: http://www.soldierscharity.org/

There will be music from Sibusiso Ntsala, a worship leader from Johannesburg South Africa, Nigel Cameron from Belfast, Liz Clarke from Belfast, and Joy Ryan from Holywood. African food will be served during the evening.

Tickets are £10, or £5 concessions for students and the unwaged, and proceeds will go towards supporting Joy’s Mission to Malawi, with African Enterprise and Ywam Malawi.

The next ten days were, in work terms, some of the most valuable of my life. I was ushered into the staff team, shown the ropes, given responsibility, encouraged and supported in my role, both the little I was doing there but what I was to face when I arrived back to Holywood. It was really a great time, and helped me catch something of the vision that The Rev’d Roger Elks has for our Church, which I think was one of the reasons that he wanted me to go out there.

While I was there I did all sorts of things from the things I love to do, preach, lead discussions, spend time with the young people, create youth flyers to the things I don’t really like to do, put away chairs, set out tables, , look after babies in the crèche, photocopy and guillotine etc… but the time I spent there was invaluable for me to just experience how a bigger church ‘does it,’ the work it takes and the realisation that it doesn’t have to be fancy and complicated it just takes simple programmes that are spirit led, prayerfully resources and lots of hard work.

I left Belfast in the early hours of Thursday the 7^th armed with my list of objectives, my backpack and without my headphones (raging) but returned with a renewed sense of purpose and a new set of headphones. I did a blog about my time in Winchester, www.markinccwinch.blogspot.com if you would like to read it.

– Mark Scott

Summer Madness allows us a chance to experience a lot of different things that church on Sunday doesn’t allow, for example; we got to worship with thousands of other people led by world renowned worship leaders like, Ryan Griffith, Rend Collective Experiment and Martin Smith (from Delirious). We got to have community time by going to Gigs or a foam party or even just chilling out in the Gazebo making hot chocolate at 1am. It gives everyone who goes a sense of the ‘bigness’ of the Christian faith, that we aren’t at this alone or in our little band of twenty but there are an inspiring number of people who are willing to live in a tent for 5 days, brave the wet and pay over the top prices for food, all to get a chance to be part of this massive movement of young people worshipping Jesus.

There was a point during Summer Madness, before the ‘great winds’ of the Sunday arrived and broke our Party Tent. When all of us were chilling out just before bed time and it wasn’t just Holywood Parish young people, it was their friends as well. We were laughing and having fun, but also discussing the sermon and worship, to see that community growing both in maturity and number from last year was so encouraging. That there we over 20, 15-17 years olds who wanted to be in the King’s Hall together at a Jesus centred event was amazing and my prayer for the coming year is that we would continue on in the same vein, of maturity and growth. So that Holywood Parish Church can continue to be the place where young people want to come and grow.

 - Mark Scott