Doris Swan is at present in plaster, having suffered a broken bone in the ankle in a fall on the stairs. She was in considerable pain before the break was confirmed. We hope you will be less confined than at present. We send our love and best wishes for a complete recovery, Doris.

Lynne has her good days and from time to time, days that are not so good. However, we congratulate her on her 95th birthday recently, remembered with a cake and church photo, even though the weather prevented her from joining us on the day.

Happy Birthday, Lynne!

We are looking forward to her tea-party on 13^th April.

Several friends have been ‘under the weather’ recently. Valerie has had an ear infection – hopefully she will soon be feeling much better.

Poor Phemie is suffering a lot of pain and discomfort but you cannot prevent her doing all she does for our church: May you soon have some relief.

Bettie Forster is doing very well following a recent cataract operation.

Sheila and George's daughter, Suzanne, is doing well after an operation over the Easter holiday. We hope she will soon be home.

To Marjorie, Sonia and Mary Hallifax, we remember them in our prayers with love.

On 3rd April DOROTHY and FRANK DOBBY will have been married for 60 years. We send our congratulations and our love.

You will remember last September, Age Concern celebrated sixty years of service for Epsom and Ewell. Various efforts were launched - among them a Recipe Book containing contributions from local celebrities, restaurants and voluntary organizations, as well as from the staff. All the proceeds from the book will go towards running the service.

The details are not available for this NewsLetter, but Phemie is to be presented with a Special Award. There will be more in the May Newsletter. In the meantime, our warmest congratulations!

Dear Friends,

First of all, I wish to thank the person who weeded and cleared up along the side of the church going down to Unity Hall. What a fine job you made of it! And it is good to know that someone reads my bit in the magazine!

The first Sunday after Easter in the lectionary always includes the story of Thomas. And good on it! Here are some of my thoughts on Thomas, often reviled as doubting,

I went searching for a book the other day that I knew was on one of my shelves. I knew the colour of the book, or thought that I did, and the author and the title, but I could not seem to find it. After several fruitless searches through the shelves, I gave up. A day or two later, I had another look, this time consciously not looking for any particular colour of book cover, and sure enough, I found the book within a few moments of starting to look. Isn’t it funny, that the only reason I failed to find the book the first time was because I was looking for a book with a white cover, when in fact the book had a blue cover. I was so sure that I knew what to look for that I failed to find it when it wasn’t exactly as I thought it was. Isn’t it funny how we can be blinded by being so sure? Thinking that we know something can prevent us from learning something new.

Thomas, it seems, had something of a reputation for asking questions, questions that no doubt the other disciples wanted to ask. You know how that is. Everyone else seems to understand something so you think that you should understand too. But in reality, very often the question you want to ask is the one everyone else wants to ask but dare not because it might make them look silly. Well, Thomas asks those questions. Thomas must have wanted to have Jesus back as much as the rest of the disciples wanted him back. He could have wanted nothing more than to have his teacher and friend back with them, but he wants Jesus to be genuine, and not just something that he wanted to see. He wants to find the real thing, not something he was expecting.

Thomas is not alone with his questions. There are many like him in today’s world and in today’s church. Things happen to us and to others that lead us to call into question the goodness of God. We have experiences such as illness, bereavement, job loss, accident, failed relationships and many other things, that lead us to question where God is in all of this. I wonder if we in all sorts of ways discourage people from asking questions and expressing doubts, simply by implying that they are wrong, and by leading people to believe that we have no doubts, that we are so very sure of our faith.

am always so grateful when I hear someone admit that they don’t have all the answers, that sometimes their faith wears a little thin and so on. I can identify with that, as we used to say back in university. The church needs to be a place for people of much faith and for people of little faith, and it needs to be honest about it. Thomas was sent out just as were the other disciples, so Jesus does not seem to regard him as being a lesser person, and, in fact, Thomas went on to be martyred in India. Someone has said that whether or not we believe in the resurrection makes no difference if we don’t make a difference in life. Thomas not only came to believe in the resurrection of Jesus, he went on to live it. If we only believe in the resurrection, does that make any difference? How can we live the resurrection? What things do we need to do to show that we believe it?

By the way, did you know that Easter is not just the Sunday we call ‘Easter Sunday’? Like Christmas, Easter is a period of time rather than just a day. It is actually a seven-week season of the church year called Eastertide, the Great Fifty Days that begins at sundown the evening before Easter Sunday to last for six Sundays until Pentecost Sunday. These seven Sundays are called the Sundays of Easter. So Happy Easter! Only six more weeks to go!

The Secretary's Letter
Sheila Smith

What a pity there were not more folk able to attend the Maundy Service on Thursday evening. Pat must have put a lot of time and thought into the content. It was very meaningful, especially as each candle was extinguished after an appropriate reading and the room gradually became dark and quiet giving us time to reflect on the events that happened on Good Friday.

When I looked out of the window on Easter Sunday morning it could have been Christmas as there was a blizzard raging. I really cannot remember such a cold wet Easter. I think it seems even colder since our five weeks in the warm sunshine in Australia!! Even though it was so miserable outside, the Church looked wonderfully Spring-like and ready for the celebration of Easter morning. The flowers were beautiful and the Easter morning service very fitting for the occasion.

Some of the Easter Flowers decorating the church

We certainly seem to have had our share of accidents and illness lately, even in our own family. Thank you to all who have inquired about our daughter Suzanne who had an emergency abdominal operation on Easter Saturday evening. Thankfully she is on the road to recovery, although she has been told she must “take it easy” for six weeks. I hope we have good news about the other folk soon. We miss you on Sunday mornings.

While I was slaving away at the three R's, I could picture my mum lolling on the sofa, listening to the wireless, reading books like ‘Gone With the Wind’, and nibbling Cadbury’s chocolates!

This, I reckoned, was a career choice that would suit me perfectly when I grew up, so long as I eliminated the house-work, substituted something like the ‘Beano’ for ‘Gone With the Wind’ and furnished myself with a packet of liquorice allsorts instead of a box of Cadbury's chocs.

A life of unalloyed pleasure has ever since been a goal of mine. Whatever's the opposite of a workaholic, I’m it! I put enormous energy into avoiding work.

The Victorians, accused of slogging their socks off, were great ones for using their leisure. They invented the Bank Holiday, the seaside excursion and the bandstand in the park. The Edwardians, with their blazers, banjos and straw hats, made something of a cult of idleness. Imagine them, and you conjure up an image of couples spooning in punts on the River Cam!

Paradoxically, it wasn't until our own computerised age, when hard work became less of a necessity than it's ever been, that idleness came to be frowned upon and began to be equated with laziness. But idlers aren't lazy, they have to work at it.  Idleness is about doing nothing from choice. A Jewish proverb says, ‘The hardest work is to be idle.’ I like that. Doing nothing is becoming a lost art these days. I don't much care for French writers, but one Gallic novelist wisely said, ‘Idleness cannot degrade a man. To the discriminating eye it differs from laziness.’

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Your Wimbledon Area Co-ordination Team (ACT) met for the third time on 19 February 2008.

We were pleased to welcome Graham Campling (Synod Clerk) and David Skitt (Synod Pastor) to our meeting.

We also welcomed to the meeting Andrew Fairchild, minister at Balham and Tooting, who spoke to us about the work that was going on in some of the South West London churches and the plans they have for the future. We look forward to hearing more!

Following our discussions in November Martin Hayward, Synod Mission Officer, has compiled a Mission Questionnaire, which he would like piloted in this Area. One of the ACT members will be getting in touch soon and we hope to meet with representatives from each church during the next couple of months in order to complete this piece of work.

Some other matters to report:

· Brian King, Church Secretary at Twickenham United Reformed Church has kindly agreed to be our Property Liaison Person.

· A baby boy, Nana, was born to Emma Aikins, minister at Raleigh Road United Church, on 30 January. Congratulations to Emma and Jojo

· Applications for the Youth and Children’s Synod Event on 15 March are due in by 29 February.

· An application for funding from ‘Turn the Tide’ for Youth Work at Leatherhead was endorsed.

· An extension to Ceri Lewis’ ministry at Trinity, Wimbledon has been granted.

· Pastoral Consultation for Mission had been restarted under its new name Church Life Review and four visits are planned for this year.

· Richmond Raleigh Road and Richmond Green churches are planning a joint pastorate.

· It is hoped to send Richard Bailey, Sam Akwagyiram, Sophie Akwagyiram, Suk In Lee, Jenny Snashall and Cynthia Stock as representatives to General Assembly in July 2008.

· Permission to preside at Holy Communions was sought from the Synod Pastoral Committee for Alison Smith for 20 April at Twickenham.

· Ceri Lewis has resigned as the ACT representative on the Synod Mission & Strategy Committee but Peter Flint will take over. Ceri was also the ACT representative on the Synod Strategic Ministries Group and a volunteer for that is sought. We thank Ceri for his service to the District and the ACT.

· Richard Goldring has agreed to be the Candidates and Students Liaison Person for the ACT.

· The future membership of this ACT was discussed. Please consider whether there is someone in your church who would be willing to serve.

Our other meetings planned for 2008 are on 15 April, 17 June, 21 October and 9 December.

It is hoped that churches will place this report in their magazines. Thank you.

On Maundy Thursday, the staff invited church members to join parents in attending the Easter Hat Parade put on by the children. They had obviously been working for some time on their unique creations. Each child, wearing the results of their work, paraded along a cat-walk, ably escorted by members of staff, to the sound of well-deserved applause from the assembled audience.

After the Parade, there was time to chat with the staff over a welcome cup of tea and a cake. Well done, everybody.

For tickets and further information

For the convenience of our readers who like to visit Ewell for these meetings:

10^th April Dennis Sexton – Musical Afternoon

8^th May Jessie Stewart – Choir

22^nd May Betty Hurley – Italian Music

19^th June Jean Hensman – Slides and Talk on QE2 Cruise.

6^th April Sheila Carpenter

13^th April Kathleen Hodgson

20^th April Sheila Stredwick

27^th April Malcolm Saunders with Dennis Sexton

For Mothering Sunday the girls made cards and decorated purses for their Mums. Six Brownies attended the Church Parade and took part (see photo), illustrating a story about a mother and a daughter. The Brownies gave out bunches of daffodils to the ladies of the congregation at the end of the service.

Our next Brownie meeting fell on St. Piran’s Day, and we celebrated this by making Cornish flags, designing badges and eating such delicacies as Cornish pasty and Cornish ice cream.

Seven of our Brownies went to the District Fun Day, ‘The Land of Make Believe’ on 8^th March, and all had a wonderful time.

Our meeting on 12^th March was a general fun evening with the Brownies telling jokes and then decorating funny faces on to biscuits.

The next meeting was our last before Easter, so the girls made Easter cards, decorated plastic walking eggs, made cardboard Easter baskets, completed an Easter word search and designed their own egg. At the end of the evening they were given three crème eggs to put in their baskets.

Because Easter was so early this year, the Brownies will not be meeting again until 23^rd April.

Afternoon Fellowship re-assembled last Thursday, when we were grateful to Valerie for presenting a video of ‘Lake Garda’ in Italy.

We are ‘At Home’ on 24th April, when other fellowships are invited. Rev Barbara Pearson, minister of Tolworth URC is to be our speaker. Afternoon tea is served before making our way home.

We had a delightful evening on 3rd March with a visit from the ‘Springdown Bellringers’ team, of which our own Pam Galliers is a member. They entertained us with a range of tunes and, under instruction, the audience participated with one item.

On 7^th April we will be holding our famous annual Beetle Drive, postponed from January, at 8 p.m. as usual.

I so much enjoyed the hand-bell concert at the recent Evening Fellowship meeting. The standard was extremely high, the choice of music was varied, and what fun it was to join in with a bit of audience participation. This was truly an evening to be remembered for a long time to come.

Tailpiece 
Alan Wood

I thought that I’d put my jottings at the end of the magazine for a change. Comments?

I was coerced – no, co-opted – onto the Church Development Group, possibly as a result of me doing that presentation some weeks ago (silly me!)

Well, yesterday I was dragged away from my hot computer and the NewsLetter to attend a meeting, and although I went filled with foreboding, I actually came away somewhat optimistic. I think that things are going in the right direction. But we all realised that there is still a lot more groundwork to be done before there can be a reasonable proposal to put to the church for the Vision Day, which had been proposed for 24^th May.

So the Vision Day, as such, has been postponed for the time being. But Tom Roberts will be attending the next church meeting on 21st May to bring you up to date with what has been going on. I shall look forward to that.