The post-election prayer rally which Daniel and fellow church leaders had organised took place on Saturday, 1st October. It was a great time of prayer and the tent which held 10,000 people was full to overflowing!

There is a similar meeting in Nairobi next week (which Daniel is less involved in but will attend to some extent) and then in December an official state celebration.

Please continue to pray thanking God for a peaceful election and praying for their new government (and possibly it is an opportunity to pray for ours at the same time!)

Firstly, we would like to thank you ALL very much for your continued support and love for us and indeed for each other. It is going through this period of time in unity and love of each other and our Lord Jesus that will keep this Church strong.

Things really do seem to be going well and we leaders feel calm and confident that, whether this is the way of things for a short or longer time, God has got this!

Our pastoral vacancy information and Church profile have been sent in and should now be on the Baptist Union Website. Any updates on this will be brought to the members meeting on 4th December.

The rota for preaching and leading of the services is full for the rest of the year.

Due to confidentiality issues on the live Facebook feeds, we are planning to experiment with pausing the live feed for the time of open prayer. It is hoped that those viewing live will use the time to pray at home. We don’t think those watching after the event will be much affected. This will be for a trial period so your comments would be welcome.

Gareth, Kathy, Rose, Margaret and Sue.

“But our citizenship is in heaven.  And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.”

Philippians 3 v 20-21 (NIV)

Thought: Philippi was a Roman colony. The people who lived there did not aspire to going to Rome, they brought the culture of Rome to Philippi.

Challenge: As Christians in the 21st century, let’s bring the culture of the Kingdom to where we are now! As the Lord’s prayer says, “Thy Kingdon come on earth as it is in heaven.”

We welcomed Ann Dracott back to our meeting this week.  Ann asked a very searching question to start her talk – What do you think is the greatest invention to civilisation? Well, it is Fire! Fire is a friend but can be a dangerous enemy once it gets out of control! Anne went on to bring some thoughts about fire and what it brings and shows: –

Light: Genesis 1 v 3. God said, “let there be light” and there was light! Jesus is the light of the world and was with God at the very beginning. Light reveals things and brings clarity.

Heat and warmth: It draws people together and is comforting. Do you feel welcomed, comfortable, and accepted in a church setting?

Power: The Holy Spirit came with fire, Matthew 3 v 11. Leviticus 6 talks about keeping the fire burning.  We need to feed that fire within us by the Word, through prayer and by sharing with others. God wants us to come forth as gold and will refine us if we let Him to do so!

Uncontrolled fire: James 3 v 6 talks about the tongue being a fire! This is a warning! What we say comes from our hearts, so we need to think before we speak. Are our words healing or hurting, constructive or destructive?!

Ann wanted us to sing the Charles Wesley hymn, O thou who camest from above to finish.  What a fitting end to a very thought-provoking message. The words are just perfect!

O thou who camest from above

The pure celestial fire to impart,

Kindle a flame of sacred love

On the mean alter of my heart.

Please do consider joining us on a Thursday afternoon at 2pm in the Parish Room of the Holy Cross Church in Woodingdean.  We would love to see you!

During the pandemic we were blessed by Wednesday Prayers at 7.45pm each Wednesday to encourage us and sustain us. These were very precious times and were appreciated by all who had been able to listen in.

As we have now returned to a new kind of normal and are able to enjoy meeting together once again, here is a reminder of the current prayer opportunities each month:

We meet in person on the first Wednesday with another opportunity on the third Wednesday live on our Facebook page at the new time of 7pm.

Reminders will be put on Facebook and of course we will keep you informed by adding the dates and any details needed to our Upcoming Events side bar on the website.

Please do join in with us. Prayer changes things!

We welcomed the return of Thursday Fellowship on 8th September for the autumn session with a visit from Phil Cook.

We will continue to meet in the  Parish Room of the Holy Cross Church, Woodingdean at 2pm each Thursday – please do join us – we can assure you of a warm welcome! 

Speakers lined up from September:

22nd September – Cynthia Tudor
29th September – Ann Dracott
6th October – Our songs, poems and readings
13th October – Sue Cunningham
20th October – Autumn Lunch with Ramekins! (Roger & Mike)
27th October – Books Alive – Gillian Clarke
3rd November – Dr Ruth Butlin (Leprosy Mission)
10th November – Sue Cunningham
17th November – Jane Leaver
24th November – Christmas with Roger, Rosemary & Tom
1st December – Christmas Quiz with Lis Bell (Bring your Christmas Cards)
8th December – Sue Cunningham
15th December – Carols, Candles & Cake

For further information head to the following link:- Thursday Fellowship

Malcolm Haines, our former pastor has been producing some short 2/3-minute videos based on the YouVersion Verses of the Day. Head to his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/revhaines to find out more.

A week after our Queen went home to be with the Lord she had served for so long, and the succession of Prince Charles to the throne as King, our worship this week concentrated on the Kingship of Jesus.

For this term, Sue has started a monthly series on the four gospel writers, commencing with Mark.

Though the young Mark was brought up in a believing home and almost certainly knew Jesus as a person, he wasn’t one of the twelve disciples. Mark had a cousin, Barnabas, who travelled with Paul on his first missionary journey to Asia Minor. They took the young Mark with them but for reasons unstated, he returned home to Jerusalem early on in the journey.  Barnabas wanted to give Mark a second chance on their next journey, but Paul refused to take him causing a serious rift between the two men. As a result, Barnabas, who hadn’t written Mark off as a failure, took Mark with him to Cyprus and Paul journeyed with Silas.

In the end, Paul was proved wrong, and Mark became a valued friend, colleague and helper to him, with a vital role in the mission of the church. Finally, Mark wrote his gospel based on what his older Christian friends shared with him concerning Jesus’ live, death and resurrection.

May we too see the potential in those who fail and encourage them.  (1 Thessalonians 5 v 11). And if we have failed or been criticised, let’s not be discouraged and give up, but let’s learn from the experience and allow God to develop character and perseverance in us, and then pick ourselves up to face the challenges set before us by the Lord.

Thank you for continuing to pray for Kenya at this time.

Last week the Supreme Court of Kenya found in favour of William Ruto and ratified that he had been fairly elected president.

The elections have passed off without any violence both before, during and after the election, while the matter was in the courts. Feelings are still running high and there are many who don’t like the outcome – but the Lord has kept things peaceful.

As a result, there will be a large Thanksgiving meeting in October, which Daniel and the other Nakuru Elders are organising. This will be to thank God for the peace of the country and to pray for the new representatives and will involve many of the key dignitaries of the area. The new president, Ruto, is a confessed born-again believer. Let’s pray that his relationship with the Lord enables him to resist the corruption that normally comes with Kenyan high office. Please pray for Daniel (and the other Nakuru Church leaders) that in all this they can be acknowledged as above reproach and representing God and his people truly in their society.

We would like to express our deepest sorrow at the passing of her Majesty the Queen and offer our sincere condolences to the Royal Family at this desperately sad time.

The Queen was a woman of deep Christian faith. Her speech each Christmas was arguably the most listened to Christmas sermon each year as she preached the hope of Christ born to our world. She recognised her calling and her duty and followed that with unwavering grace and humility.

So many of us have been blessed and encouraged by her willingness to share her faith so publicly.  What an example to us all in these difficult times. Today, we share in the nation’s and Commonwealth’s grief at the passing of a great lady of passion and faith.

The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.

Proverbs 4 v 18 (NIV)

Join with us as we pray for our Royal Family, and our nation during this time of grief and change:

Gracious God,
We thank you for the life of your servant Elizabeth; for her faithfulness to your gospel through her words, example and humble service.

We remember with gratitude her gentle diplomacy, her wise leadership and guidance in a changing world, and the glimpses into her sense of humour.

She has been a gracious and godly Queen, and so we commend her back to you: May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

We pray too for the Royal Family as they grieve over the loss of a mother, grandmother and great grandmother, especially for Charles as he becomes King, and we lift up to you all in this country and across the commonwealth in this time of national mourning and change.

Bless us with your peace, we pray, today and always,
Amen.

Lynn Green
General Secretary of our Baptist Union