OCTOBER 2017

Beckenham United Reformed

Church

www.beckenhamurc.com

SUNDAY WORSHIP - OCTOBER 2017

1st Mrs. Marion Moore *

8th

Mr. Alan Kienlan

15th

Mrs. Marion Bayley – Harvest Parade Service **

22nd

Mr. Peter Cheshire

29th

Rev. Fiona Thomas

*Includes Holy Communion

** Followed by Church Meeting and Harvest Lunch

OTHER DIARY EVENTS

Wednesday 4th

October 2.30pm Bible Study

Tuesday 10th

October 2.30pm Crescent Club

Tuesday 10th

October 7.30p.m. Elders Meeting

Wednesday 18th

October 1.00p.m. Luncheon Club

Donors Arrangers

1st The Duncans Monica Duncan

8th

The Bayleys Marion Bayley

15th

HARVEST FESTIVAL

22nd

Muriel Aldcroft Muriel Aldcroft

29th

----------- Pat Power

OUR VISION

Our vision is to glorify God and to serve God throughout our lives,

always open to God working through us. We seek to share the good

news of love, forgiveness and grace with all in our local community

through our actions and our prayers.

Cover photo is of Michelangelo’s Pieta in St Peter’s Rome. © Anthony Bayley

Dear Friends,

At the start of my theatre tour recently, I attended the sung Eucharist

at the unusual but magnificent Sheffield Cathedral. The service

celebrated an event unmarked in the U.R.C. calendar – the birth of

Jesus’s mother Mary.

We often only seem to dwell on Mary as part of the Christmas story,

so it was refreshing to have her presented in a different context. Not

only did she give birth to the baby, being the bearer of the humanity of

our LORD Jesus Christ, but she raised him. God could easily have

sent Jesus to us as an adult, but instead chose to experience a mother’s

nurturing love first hand. Mary also had the responsibility of

instructing him “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when

he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22.6)

She obviously watched his ministry, but the bible makes it clear that

Jesus was looking to God for guidance rather than his family, which

must have been difficult for her. More difficult, without doubt, was

the pain she had to go through in witnessing his death on the cross.

God, the Father, chose a very special woman to carry out her role as

mother, one whose faith was strong and who could therefore endure

such an experience.

It was a joy to hear the choir in the Cathedral sing the Magnificat,

with those powerful opening words –

My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my

Saviour. A sentiment we could well learn to follow, to strengthen our

faith, and help us get through the trials life throws at us.

Julien Ball

PS A useful Top of the Pew fact to remember, Mary’s mother’s name

was Anne.

FROM THE SECRETARY

Over the past few weeks mainly due to holidays, there have been

fewer members attending Church. Our visiting preachers always say

they enjoy coming to us and do not mind having so few in the

congregation. They tell me they enjoy the warm welcome they

receive from us!

As I mentioned in last month’s Outlook, we will be joining up with

Widmore Road, Bromley. They run Project 5000 (which helps the

homeless and people with special needs.) It is hoped eventually we

will get a Special Category Minister for both Churches. We now

know that Hayes will be joining with Trinity, Bromley.

We have missed seeing Julien recently. Fortunately he is acting in a

play touring the country. We trust all is going well for him.

Sadly we heard of the death of Derek Akers. He passed away a few

days after the funeral of his wife last month. a sad time for their

family.

Apart from a few aches and pains, most of our members seem to be

keeping well at the moment.

We look forward to our Harvest Festival this coming month when we

will be joined not only by the Rainbows and Brownies, but hopefully

the Guides who are now meeting on our premises.

Gill Ross

AN INVITATION

Hayes Free Church have invited any members of our Church to their

Harvest Lunch to be held on Saturday 21st October. More

details to follow. Please let me know as soon as possible if you wish

to go so I can let them have the numbers.

Gill Ross

CHRISTMAS FAIR

Don’t forget Saturday November 25 is the day of our

Christmas Craft Fair. Make sure you have it firmly in

your diaries and start telling your friends about it!

Anthony Bayley

CRESCENT CLUB The first meeting after the summer break was held in our new venue.

As we are a very small membership now, it seemed silly to hire a

large hall. Now we are all cosy and warm in the Minister’s Vestry.

The theme of the afternoon was “brief encounters”, we all at some

time have met a VIP. Muriel began by telling us about meeting the

Queen and many Prime Ministers, some nice and some not so much.

Monica’s VIP’s were mostly Royals and she has met the Queen at

Buckingham Palace. Elma remembered being held up to see Princess

Margaret, when she visited Scotland. Mary, through her in-laws and

their love of music met many famous musicians. As a teenager in

Woolworths in Oxford Street I met the film star Rita Hayworth and

her then boyfriend the playboy Ali Khan. Two beautiful looking

people. My two cousins and I were at the make-up counter and Rita

treated us to an outdoor girl lipstick. We were on Cloud Nine!! Jo

used to see and often spoke to the future President of Botswana

Seretse Khama when he lived in Addiscombe. Marion and Gill in

their Prom Praise Choir days were once used as backing singers for

Cliff Richard and I think other well known names on occasion. The

whole afternoon was light hearted and good fun. Great to hear stories

of days long gone, famous people in those days were not bothered by

frantic fans or fans wanting “selfies”, they were admired but not

hassled as they are these days. The October meeting will be favourite

poems. As I’m writing this the heavens opened and I’m glad I’m

indoors and thinking about those poor victims of Hurricane Irma who

have lost everything. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they

rebuild their lives.

Patricia Power

Beckenham United Reformed Church seeks to ensure that all content

and information published in the magazine is current and accurate.

The information included does not in any way constitute legal or

professional advice and the church cannot be held liable for actions

arising from its use.

PRAYER FELLOWSHIP

Almighty and everlasting God,

We thank you for our harvest which feeds us so many times each day.

We are nourished with your forgiveness and hope.

We are sustained with your strength and patience.

We are filled with your grace and compassion.

We thank you for feeding us with a harvest of plenty.

We are restored through your generosity and healing.

We are replenished with your abundance and joy.

We are reminded of your selfless abandon.

We thank you for feeding us with the bread of heaven.

Your gift of Jesus Christ sustains our lives.

His presence restores the promise of your love.

His life fills our hearts with your everlasting light.

We thank you too for filling us with the water of life.

May we drink deeply that our thirst may be quenched.

May your river continue to flow over us, in us, through us

and out into the world you love.

Amen

In the happy moments

PRAISE GOD

In the difficult moments

SEEK GOD

In the quiet moments

WORSHIP GOD

In every moment

THANK GOD

“Hate” has 4 letters

but so does “love”.

“Enemies” has 7 letters

but so does “friends”.

“Lying” has 5 letters

but so does “truth”.

“Hurt” has 4 letters

but so does “heal”.

Transform any negative energy into an aura of possibility.

It is our perception that makes the difference in the way we feel.

On Sunday October 15th

we will be celebrating with joy the miracle of

the harvest and giving thanks to God for this annual gift. It is a

miracle which we, in this country, are inclined to take for granted.

There is always food in the local supermarket for us to buy, although

the ever increasing costs have made us all more aware of food. Often

we do not know where it comes from or even care. If the supermarket

has difficulty in obtaining its supplies from one place or the costs

increase they simply go somewhere else for their supplies. As

members of my family know I have something

of a fetish about seeing where things come from

and it is a fascinating thing to do. We are

isolated and separated from the harvest in our

towns and cities in the rich west, but our farmers

are not. They know all about the harvest, but even for them, it is not

usually, literally, a life or death affair. For many millions of people

throughout the world the harvest is indeed just that – a matter of life

or death. We have all seen pictures in the media of droughts and

flooding which have a ‘knock-on’ effect on all of us. The importance

of the harvest is a reality for us all.

For many years now we have expressed our gratitude for the Harvest

by giving, and this year once again our response will involve three

separate ways of giving and a different envelope for each one.

First of all there will be an opportunity to give to Commitment for

Life, the United Reformed Church’s pipeline, through Christian Aid,

by which certain projects in the Developing World are helped direct.

You will recall that our chosen country is now Palestine / Israel.

Readers of the Outlook will know of some of the problems and the

valuable work undertaken there, which needs our support. An article

appears elsewhere describing some of the work being undertaken

there.

Secondly, there will be an opportunity to give

once again to WaterAid. Many of you will know

of its work, as we have supported them on many

previous occasions. WaterAid is an

international charity whose mission is to

overcome poverty by enabling the world’s

poorest people to gain access to safe water,

sanitation and hygiene education. Please see a

further article on WaterAid elsewhere in this edition.

Thirdly there will be an opportunity to give to your own church. This

does not need any further explanation from me, I am sure.

There will thus be three types of envelope available from October 8th

& I hope you will make use of one or more types.

If you have previously signed one of our Gift Aid forms all you need

to do is write your name on the envelope(s). You do not need to

complete the envelopes in full as I will be arranging the

Gift Aid claims on everyone’s behalf. This will enable us

to increase the value of your gift by a quarter at no cost

to you. Please make all cheques payable to Beckenham

U.R.C. in order that I can do this.

This all sounds a little complicated but it isn’t really. If

you have any queries please do not hesitate to talk to me.

Thank you for your generous help, which I am sure will

be forthcoming.

Anthony Bayley

CONCERT

On Saturday October 14 there will be a concert of Gospel and Pop

music by the Singcronise Community Choir at Emmanuel Church,

The Grove, West Wickham at 7.30 p.m. Entry is free but there will be

a collection taken in aid of ‘The Vine’ Foodbank in New Addington.

I found this report which brings to life the reality of living without

clean water.

A representative from Water Aid, called Vicki, visited the village of

Vimphere deep in the countryside of Malawi in central Africa. She

met Esnart whose welcome was so warm that they were soon chatting

like old friends. Her face lit up when she smiled and her eyes sparkled

with love when she looked at her son Jafali. And yet, she faced a daily

struggle to fetch water. Esnart gets up at 3 am every morning when its

still pitch black outside. She leaves her village and walks in the dark

to a muddy hole in the ground, where she hopes there’s water. If there

isn’t, which happens more and more often, she waits for the water to

rise up through the mud. Often the wait is so long that she leaves her

bucket to hold her place in the queue, and goes home to start her daily

chores. Esnart often has to return to the water hole 3 or 4 times a day.

If there’s water there, she scoops it up and carries home on her head.

A 20 litre bucket full of water weighs 20kg’s – that’s the same as

carrying 40 pints of milk. The track she follows is rough and rugged,

with a steep climb. The weight of the water combined with Jafali on

her back make it hard to walk and yet Esnart knows she cannot afford

to lose a single drop. Where Esnart lives there are wild and dangerous

animals roaming around. One night, on her way to collect water, she

saw a hyena up ahead. With her heart thundering she turned and ran,

but stumbled and fell, right on top of her small son. Luckily they were

both OK. Esnart took Vicki to the water hole one morning and she

could see there were just a few inches of water at the bottom. It was

foul smelling and cloudy. Esnart knows this water can make her son

ill. He sufferes from diarrhoea several times a month, which in

Malawi (quite a small country) kills more than 4 children every day.

Even after Esnart has bathed her son he is still dirty from the water.

She hopes that he will have a healthy future. She wants him to go to

school and learn and to have a better life and perhaps work in an

office. But the fear of sickness is constantly hanging over them both,

which could shatter their world and bring an end to all her dreams of

happiness and a bright future for them both. Esnart & Vicki talked

about what clean, safe water would mean to them and the village.

Esnart said safe water would mean her son wouldn’t suffer so much

sickness and diarrhoea. She explained how a ready supply of water

would help her provide for her son. She could have a garden and grow

vegetables for them. Water also means work. Her village is a farming

community and with water there’ll be planting and harvesting work

for her on the farms. With the inevitable request for funding to make

this possible, that was basically the end of the story. But it wasn’t.

Elsewhere I found a further story about the same village. There had

been another visit by someone different from Water Aid who reported

as follows:-

During previous visits, the village had been a quiet place. But this

time I could only see one or two people going about their business.

Men, women – and especially children – were busy jumping from one

house to another sharing the good news. They had heard that

engineers were on their way to drill for water. And when they spotted

our vehicle with a WaterAid logo, they knew the rumours were true.

Surrounded by hills and the Kasungu mountain range, Vimphere

residents have been struggling to fetch water for a very long time. The

rocky terrain made it hard to dig deep wells to access water

underground. For hours people waited anxiously – even the village's

chief, Chidzuma. But when they saw a trail of dust and realised the rig

was approaching, there were happy songs and dancing. The beginning

of a life with no water woes was about to start. With a smiling face,

Chief Chidzuma offered strong handshakes to our team. It was a

moment to remember. The next day, the hard work began. In the

scorching heat, men and women worked hard to ferry rocky sand – all

the while smiling and singing happy tunes. The excitement was

everywhere. At around 10 am, the rigs struck water. Everyone

cheered so loudly that people from nearby villages heard, and started

flocking to see what was happening. As a token of appreciation, the

chief invited us all to share a meal with them. We danced and sang

together, and one of the young girls in the crowd shouted, “thank you

WaterAid for bringing us water!” As we left the village everyone,

including the chief bid us farewell with happy faces. I felt my heart

melt as I thought to myself “Oh how much I enjoy this job."

A.M.B.

COMMITMENT FOR LIFE

Khalid Mansau is a PARC (now called

the Palestine Agricultural Development

Association) staff member working out

of the Nablus office in the West Bank.

He oversees the many reclaimed land

projects supported by PARC in this

area. Land that was considered infertile

is cleared of rocks and planted with

fruit trees and vegetables.

Khalid’s family were originally from Haifa but settled in a refugee

camp in 1948 (following the declaration of the state of Israel).

Khalid was born in the camp and still lives there today with his wife,

two daughters and two sons. He is proud of what his children have

achieved. One son is an engineer whilst the other is still at school. His

daughters are in college studying engineering and multimedia. He still

remembers when the camp was full of tents in straight rows. It took

until 1949 before the UN started building houses for the refugee

families.

Having trained as an agriculturalist in Nigeria he returned home to

work for PARC in 2002. He would love to return to his original

village in Israel one day, “I have refugee papers, it gives me a status;

it means we are not forgotten. The world cannot forget.”

Part of Khalid’s work is to build good relationships with local

councils. He is confident this has been achieved because they can see

the good work PARC is doing with farmers. Long term development

means building trust and showing by example, change does not

happen quickly.

He said, “There is always hope but we need help from the world.

Thank you for your support”

PARC is involved in many irrigation and agricultural projects across

the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Their work sends out a positive

message of hope to Palestinians living and working under Israeli

occupation. A.M.B.

LECTIONARY

1st October Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 78:1-4,12-16; Ezekiel 18:1-4,25-32;

Psalm 25:1-9; Philippians 2:1-13; Matthew 21:23-32

8th

October Exodus 20:1-4,7-9,12-20; Psalm 19; Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm

80:7-15; Philippians 3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46

15th

October Exodus 32:1-14; Psalm 106:1-6,19-23; Isaiah 25:1-9;

Psalm 23; Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14

22nd

October Exodus 33:12-23; Psalm 99; Isaiah 45:1-7; Psalm 96:

1-9,(10-13); 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22

29th

October Deuteronomy 34:1-12; Psalm 90:1-6,13-17; Leviticus 19

1-2,15-18; Psalm 1; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8; Matthew 22:34-46

COFFEE Our after-service coffee collections during October will

support the three charities for which we are raising money

this Harvest time.

Anthony Bayley

OFFERINGS The offerings during August were as follows:-

August 6 £180.50

August 13 £168.50

August 20 £165.00

August 27 £146.00

The after service coffee collections during August were in aid of

Scope and totalled £44.10

Anthony Bayley

Copy for the November Outlook

by 22nd

October please.

Extensions. Ground Works. Carpentry & Joinery.

Kitchens & Bathrooms. No Job Too Small

Peter’s Chemist 15 Bromley Road, Beckenham, BR3 5NT

Tel/Fax: 0208 650 1731

FREE Prescription Collection Service + Repeat Ordering Service

Simply leave your repeat slip at the pharmacy and call us 7 days before you need any of

your medications. We will then take care of everything at the surgery and have it

dispensed and ready for you to collect directly from the pharmacy.

Disability Aids

Our pharmacy offers a range of mobility and home-care aids. If you are looking for

something in particular that we do not currently stock, we are able to order it from our in-

store catalogue that has very competitive prices, and have it ready to collect by the next

working day.

Stockists for Fine Fragrances & Toiletries, Woods of Windsor, Bronnley and Yardley

BECKENHAM UNITED

REFORMED CHURCH

Oakhill Road (off Crescent Road)

Interim Moderator Mrs Hilary Miles

Secretary Mrs G Ross 020 8650 2959

Treasurer Mr. A. Bayley 07983 334946

Outlook Editor Mr J Ball 020 8659 5337

Asst. Editor Mr A Bayley 07983 334946

Church organisations

Crescent Club Mrs. M Aldcroft 020 8650 9518

Luncheon Club Mrs M Duncan 020 8658 3309

Brownies Miss L Minett 3rdbeckbrownies@gmail.com

Rainbows Mrs M Sloper martine.sloper@btinternet.com

Guides Mrs L Tullis secondbeckenham@hotmail.com

Pilates Monday 19.30 – 20.45

Tuesday 09.30 – 12.00

Thursday 09.30 – 12.00

U3A Arts Class Monday 14.00 – 16.00

Janie Harris Ballet School Monday 15.15 – 21.00

Tuesday 16.00 – 21.00

Thursday 16.00 – 17.45

Friday 16.45 – 19.15

Saturday 08.00 – 16.15

Montessori Mon - Fri 08.30 – 12.30

Spanish Dancing Tuesday 20.00 – 22.00

Saturday 14.30 – 16.30

U3A Guitars(2nd

& 4th

) Wednesday 14.00 – 16.30

Brownies Wednesday 18.30 – 20.00

Rainbows Wednesday 17.00 – 18.00

Guides Wednesday 19.00 – 20.30

For lettings apply to Mr. Anthony Bayley 07983 334946

This church is a member of CHURCHES TOGETHER IN

BECKENHAM in partnership with 14 other churches in the area

AUTUMN IN THE NEW FOREST

(Photographs © Anthony Bayley)