There is a happy coincidence this month: that is the combination of Pat’s letter on page 3, and the article about the Mystery Worshippers provided by the organisation ‘Ship of Fools’. This is the group that about a year ago introduced a ‘virtual church’ online where suitably equipped people could enter and join in a Morning Service. Both of these items encourage us to take a look at ourselves. Are we going to?

I have run off a copy of the report on the United Reformed Church at Wanstead. It makes interesting reading; if anybody would like to read this, please contact me.

Dear Friends,

Recently I took a ‘reading week’ in order to make a start on my pile of unread books. Although I spent much of my time that week on other things like worship preparation, I did manage to do some reading, mainly from a book called ‘Re-pitching the Tent’ by Richard Giles. It is an interesting and provocative book seeking to interest congregations in renewal not only through worship and the people but also through the bricks and mortar, the layout and design of the church building itself.

I understand that at the heart of his book, Giles is trying to say that buildings speak. They say a lot about what makes us tick and about our priorities in life. This goes for our own homes, but it also applies to our churches, he says. "Unless as a Christian Church we want to curl up and die, we need to re-present our buildings in such a way that people first of all are given cause to notice them and secondly are prompted to pop their head inside." And he goes on to say that, "Church buildings have ceased by and large to speak to people clearly of a present reality, and instead convey a mumbled message of a glorious, though faded past."

What do you think of these comments? Are there ways in which they apply to our congregations? Giles doesn’t just ask the questions though. He goes on to suggest workable ways forward.

As your minister, I am very concerned with our two congregations, about what the future holds for us. I do not want us to simply sit back and wait for it all to happen, or not. Do you? It isn’t simply that we need more people, although I am all for it! I think the bottom line just might be that it is WE who need to CHANGE!  There is no other word for it. Not only do I think we need to change, but I believe that the Gospels call us to change. We have to stop blaming sports on Sundays and Sunday shopping and busy people for the decline in church attendance, and start looking at ourselves.  What do you think?   

If your surname begins with                       If your surname begins with

If you can’t manage the designated day then please come on the alternative.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

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Do you know that large supermarkets employ mystery shoppers to visit their stores to gather consumer feedback, and see if they are up to the mark? Probably you do. Well, did you also know that there is an organisation that gets volunteers to go round incognito to various churches to do a survey on a morning service? Well, yes, there is!

It’s called the Ship of Fools, and it has a website, www.ship-of-fools.com.  And on 24^th April as many as 100 specially recruited researchers will turn up in pews across London in order to judge the quality of the Sunday service on offer. Churches will be judged on the warmth of the welcome, the length and content of the sermon, the music and even the after-service coffee and the softness of the pews! For the church being visited, the only clue is the visiting card dropped discreetly into the collection plate, bearing the picture of a masked man in Lone Ranger pose.

The reports, which could make uncomfortable reading for some churches, will be published simultaneously on the opening day of the Christian Resources Exhibition at Sandown Park next month.

The web site says: The Mystery Worshipper, our spot check feature that has covered almost 1,000 churches around the world in the past seven years, is doing something new in 2005. We're launching the first-ever mass Mystery Worshipper event.

Here's our cunning plan. We're enlisting a small army of Mystery Worshippers, who will visit the churches of one major city on one specific Sunday. Our first target, timed for Sunday 24 April, is London, UK.

On that day, Mystery Worshippers will sit in the back pews of churches in central and greater London and report back on how it was for them. All the reports will be published simultaneously, two weeks later. This will give us a unique snapshot of what church was like in London over one 24-hour period.

Twenty of us, aged between eight and eighty, from the Epsom and Ewell congregations met on Easter Monday morning at the Stew Ponds in the beautiful warm sunshine. Alan Wood had very carefully planned our route and so we set off knowing exactly where we were going. The ground was a bit soft underfoot but not as bad as some of us expected it might be. 

We were given the menu from The Woodman, in Lower Ashtead, where we planned to have our lunch, so that we could all decide what we would like in advance and telephone an order to them ready for our arrival. We made very good progress and arrived at The Woodman at ten past one and we didn’t have very long to wait for our lunch to be brought to us.

Once refreshed we began the return walk, which took us past the earthworks, and to the archaeological site where there had once been a Roman villa and bathhouse and also a tile factory. We completed our walk by 3.45 p.m. content that we had worked off some of our excessive Easter eating, and were looking forward to a nice cup of tea or coffee when we got home. Thank you very much to Alan for taking so much care in arranging such an exhilarating walk.

Evening Church Fellowship
Evelyn Beer

We were all on top form for the Beetle Drive on 7^th March, the valuable prizes being a great incentive. It was a truly happy evening.

The meeting on 4^th April will be a visit to Norway, courtesy of Phyl Cary.

Afternoon Fellowship
Daphne Dawe

On Thursday, 28^th April we will be "At Home" to other fellowships in Epsom and Ewell. We meet at 2:30 in the Longhurst Room. Pat, our minister, will be the speaker, when we shall hear something of her life in Canada where she grew up in the province of Saskatchewan. Tea will follow, and we shall welcome any friends able to join us.

Our thanks to all of you who came along to the Coffee Morning in Unity Hall on 5^th February. We raised the great total of £79.97 for the Shooting Star Hospice for Children.

We have also been raising money for the Red Nose Appeal, and when this is all in we’ll let you know how much we made.

If any parents would like to come along and help, please talk to one of the leaders. Our next meetings are on 15^th and 29^th April, starting at 7.30 p.m.. Contact details for the leaders are in ‘Who’s Who’ at the back of this NewsLetter.

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We still have only five boys, but those that come always seem to enjoy themselves.

The boys each made a card for Mothering Sunday and a coaster for his Mum. The same week they each made a rocket out of cardboard for themselves. Paper aeroplanes still prove very popular and we made that our activity at another meeting. Both Pauline and Tuck were unable to be at the meeting on 14^th March, but fortunately I had the assistance of Sally, who regularly comes as a helper with Matthew and Jayan’s Mum, who spent a long time keeping the boys occupied playing with a ball. The boys all enjoyed making puppets using fabric crayons.

At the meeting before Easter each boy made an Easter card and rice-crispie nests to take the small eggs we gave him.

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The Brownies prepared cards and made gifts for Mothering Sunday and five Brownies came with their families to the Mothering Sunday Church Parade. Two Brownies read in Church and they all helped with the distribution of the daffodils.   

We held a games evening for the Brownies when they all took part in various quizzes and games, and some of the Brownies helped Tawny Owl replenish one of the plant troughs. Have you noticed them, round the left-hand side of the church under the big window?

The Brownies very much enjoyed watching a video about animals and how to care for them. Most of them then went on to gain their ‘Friend to Animals’ badge.

        
An Enrolment at a Brownie meeting

At our last meeting before Easter the girls each made Easter biscuits, an Easter card and an Easter basket ready to take their Easter egg from Brownies.

I am delighted to report that at about the time Southern Synod met last on 12 March 2005 we learned that now over 50% of the churches within the Synod can claim to be Fair Trade churches. This means that they use only fairly traded tea and coffee for church events and also do something else that is promoting Fair Trade, for example marking Fair Trade Fortnight.

This is extremely encouraging news and as we acknowledge the commitment that the Synod's Fair Trade churches have made so we continue to ask the other churches to consider whether this is not a step that they could make as just one move towards MAKING POVERTY HISTORY. We are asked to ensure that 2005, during which Britain chairs the G8 Summit to be held at Gleneagles at the very beginning of July, and then the European Union in the second half of the year, is a time of focused endeavour towards ridding our world of the utter injustice of avoidable poverty. It is sobering to note that every three weeks a quarter of a million children die in Africa from the effects of poverty. That is the same number of people who died in the horrifying events of Boxing Day in South East Asia when the tidal wave destroyed so many communities. That event shocked us into a wondrous outpouring of generous and heartfelt support for those in difficulty. It is the same degree of compassion and assistance that the MAKE POVERTY HISTORY campaign seeks to call out of us all as Christian people.

With good wishes.

           Nigel Uden

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Next Issue

Copy for the next issue of the NewsLetter should be with the Editor by 24th April for publication on 1st May 2005.

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