Tomorrow, Tuesday 25th October, at 1:30pm, Helen and Richard Connell who are Take Time practitioners are leading Bible Study this week, facilitated by Edwin, which is happening in-building and on Zoom. Contact Rev John if you want the Zoom link.

Following weeks until the beginning of December, Rev John will continue to lead us.

Watch a short video featuring the highlights and major decisions of this year’s Methodist Conference in Telford:

Bible study will start back again on Tuesday 30^th August 1.30pm – 2.30pm.

The series will run for 7 weeks – until 11^th October. And is accessible by coming along to the meeting room at Bishop Auckland Methodist Church, or by joining us on Zoom (just ask for the code) and everyone is welcome.

We will pick up where we left the summer series in Colossians and read the sister letter to Philemon next, and then continuing to follow lectionary guidance, look at the first and second letters to Timothy at nearby Ephesus.

• Tuesday 30^th August: Philemon 1:1-21(22-25)
• Tuesday 6^th September: 1 Timothy 1:(1-11)12-17(18-20)
• Tuesday 13^th September: 1 Timothy 2:1-7(8-15) and 3 + 4
• Tuesday 20^th September: 1 Timothy 5 + 6:(1-5)6-19(20-21)
• Tuesday 27^th September: 2 Timothy 1:1-14(15-18)
• Tuesday 4^th October: 2 Timothy 2:(1-7)8-15(16-26) and 3:1-9
• Tuesday 11^th October: 2 Timothy 3:(10-13)14-4:5 and 4:6-8(9-22)

The Bible that Rev John will use is the recent New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE) Copyright © 2021. This can be found online at biblegateway.com

Places are still available as of Saturday 13th August, so please continue to book!

or contact Jenny at bascircuitoffice@gmail.com or 07783 946968

On 24th May, John Wesley wrote in his journal:

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

And so Methodism spread as John and his brother Charles gained confidence through the Holy Spirit, John in his Field Preaching and his brother Charles in his hymn writing.

Niamh over the two years of pandemic has recorded many of Charles’ hymns from our hymnbook and also the one or two we have attributed to John.

Mark Wesley Day by listening to some of the hymns below and tell us in the comments below which your favourite(s) is (are). Or listen to this Wesley playlist on our YouTube channel

The three hymns in Singing the Faith attributed to John Wesley are:

Now I have found the ground wherein (StF 561)

O God, what offering shall I give (StF 562)

What shall we offer our good Lord (StF 671)

And the many attributed to his brother Charles are:

Father, in whom we live (StF 5)

Hail! Holy, holy, holy Lord! (StF 9)

Meet and right it is to sing (StF 32)

My God, I am thine (StF 80)

Praise the Lord who reigns above (StF 85)

Sing to the great Jehovah’s praise (StF 127)

Christ, whose glory fills the skies (StF 134)

Come, divine interpreter (StF 154)

Come, Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire (StF 155) Come, thou long-expected Jesus (StF 169)

Lo, he comes with clouds descending (StF 177) Glory be to God on high (StF 199)

Hark! The herald-angels sing (StF 202)

Let earth and heaven combine (StF 208)

O Love divine, what have you done! (StF 278)

All you that seek the Lord who died (StF 294)

Christ the Lord is risen today; Alleluia! (StF 298)

Hail the day that sees him rise, Alleluia! (StF 300)

Father, whose everlasting love (StF 320)

Jesus comes with all his grace (StF 326)

Jesus, the First and Last (StF 329)

Rejoice, the Lord is King! (StF 335)

Son of God, if your free grace (StF 336)

Ye servants of God (StF 340)

And can it be that I should gain (StF 345)

Jesus, lover of my soul (StF 355)

Jesus – the name high over all (StF 357)

Let earth and heaven agree (StF 358)

O for a thousand tongues to sing (StF 364)

Thou hidden source of calm repose (StF 366)

Come, O everlasting Spirit (StF 375)

Father of everlasting grace (StF 378)

My God! I know, I feel thee mine (StF 390)

Come, sinners, to the gospel feast (StF 401)

See how great a flame aspires (StF 412)

What shall I do my God to love, my loving God to praise? (StF 436)

Your ceaseless, unexhausted love (StF 438)

Open, Lord, my inward ear (StF 450)

Where shall my wondering soul begin? (StF 454)

And are we yet alive (StF 456)

Author of faith, eternal Word (StF 457)

Away with our fears! (StF 458)

Captain of Israel’s host, and Guide (StF 459)

Come, let us anew our journey pursue (StF 460)

Come, O thou Traveller unknown (StF 461)

Being of beings, God of love (StF 490)

God of all power, and truth, and grace (StF 498)

Happy are they who find the grace (StF 500)

I know that my Redeemer lives (StF 502)

Love divine, all loves excelling (StF 503)

My heart is full of Christ, and longs (StF 506)

O for a heart to praise my God (StF 507)

Stupendous height of heavenly love (StF 512)

What shall I do my God to love, my Saviour (StF 516)

Pray, without ceasing, pray (StF 528)

Behold the servant of the Lord! (StF 546)

Come, let us use the grace divine (StF 549)

Forth in thy name, O Lord, I go (StF 550)

Let him to whom we now belong (StF 557)

O thou who camest from above (StF 564)

Author of life divine (StF 572)

Because you have said (StF 574)

Come, Holy Ghost, your influence shed (StF 579)

Jesus, we thus obey (StF 590)

O thou who this mysterious bread (StF 597)

Victim divine, thy grace we claim (StF 600)

All praise to our redeeming Lord (StF 608)

Thou God of truth and love (StF 620)

Soldiers of Christ, arise (StF 637)

Come, and let us sweetly join (StF 646)

A charge to keep I have (StF 658)

Give me the faith which can remove (StF 661)

Christ, from whom all blessings flow (StF 676)

Great is our redeeming Lord (StF 683)

We pray until the hour (StF 741)

Come, let us join our friends above (StF 744)

The lectionary readings in July feature Paul’s letter to the Colossians come and find out more about it on a Tuesday afternoon, and as Paul himself encourages, live as the Lord wants – ‘bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God’.

Meeting on Tuesday afternoons 2pm-3.30pm in Bishop Auckland Methodist Church in person, come and join us! Contact Rev John or Vanessa or just come along on Tuesday 5th July to the first session.

1951 saw a third of County Durham’s villages classified as ‘D’. They were no longer deemed worthy of investment and were expected to die quietly. But they wouldn’t.

A Way Home is a new play rooted in the stories and memories of the very people who called those D villages home. A County-wide fight lasting over 25 years becomes a 12-month journey at Bet’s kitchen table as she confronts what loss really looks like.

With humour, tenderness and not a small amount of grit, A Way Home speaks of fighting to be heard when no one’s listening, telling a story just as significant today as it was 70 years ago.

Sunday 26th June 7:00pm Witton Park Village Hall for more details see: https://www.facebook.com/wittonparkvillagehall/ or https://christinacastling.co.uk/a-way-home/

I have just discovered that it is possible to purchase the Methodist Prayer Handbook in the Kindle Store and even back copies from previous years, so if you have missed out, or would like it on your tablet, phone, Kindle fire or simply on your Kindle to help with your daily reflections, then take a look.

Buy it here

God bless, John

PS just found it in Google books on my phone for a penny more at £4 – has anyone found it in electronic format on any other platform? Please comment below if you have – Vanessa

A prayer taken from ‘Praying for the Earth’ by Rob Kelsey, Sacristy Press 2021

At this time of new life, we praise you
for the power of your creation.
The bodily resurrection of Christ proclaims
the promised recreation of the universe.
In the renewal of the natural world,
in the blossom of trees in the birth of animals,
help us to celebrate your many gifts of
springing hope and fresh beginnings.

God bless

John

It is a Bank Holiday and the sun is shining, but the day started 7 hours ago, before I was out of bed I prayed. I also read the Bible. This has been my daily practice for 36 years.

It changes from year to year, but this morning this was my routine (it takes me about an hour):

• By email I receive daily prayer and Bible meditations, already sitting in my inbox by the time I wake. Today the first was from Green Christian

• Monday 18^th April
• Medical schools across the [US] are increasingly reckoning with the need to teach the intersection of climate change and health. Schools of public health have been on the forefront of that progress…But more recently, medical schools have joined in the shift, updating curriculum and launching special programs to teach future doctors about the climate change-health connection….  climate change doesn’t just bring hotter weather and more extreme storms. It also makes many health issues worse – issues doctors need to recognize and treat.
• https://grist.org/health/the-next-frontier-in-medicine-doctors-with-climate-training/

• Then JPIT was next

• Today we pray for the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, as more than 300 people have died due to flooding and mudslides. Some areas saw months’ worth of rain fall in one day. God, we pray comfort for those who have lost homes and loved ones. Help those now working to rebuild and provide aid.
• Every day, we’re encouraging you to lift up your eyes and pray for others around the world as part of #StayAndPray.
• Read more about this issue.

• From plough.com I receive two emails, one a prayer after a Bible verse, the other a quotation or reflection to think about

• Daily Prayer for April 18

• Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Revelation 3:8, NIV
• Dear Father in heaven, we thank you that you know us all and that you look deep into our hearts, watching over us in everything we go through, whether easy or difficult. We thank you that we do not stand alone but that you hear the smallest sigh of each of your children. We thank you that darkness must give way to light, distress to joy, and fear to strength and courage. For you lead us through everything; it is what you bring about from your future world, not anything within our sight, that gives us strength and courage and that endures through everything. We thank you from our hearts for your unending gifts, and we are amazed that it was possible for us to receive all this from you. Protect us and keep us childlike, so that we remain in the fellowship that the Lord Jesus has given us, singing praise to him and to the glory and honor of your name. Amen.

• Consider the Lilies of the Field

• Christina Rossetti
• Flowers preach to us if we will hear:
  The rose saith in the dewy morn:
  I am most fair;
  Yet all my loveliness is born
  Upon a thorn.
  The poppy saith amid the corn:
  Let but my scarlet head appear
  And I am held in scorn;
  Yet juice of subtle virtue lies
  Within my cup of curious dyes.
  The lilies say: Behold how we
  Preach without words of purity.
  The violets whisper from the shade
  Which their own leaves have made:
  Men scent our fragrance on the air,
  Yet take no heed
  Of humble lessons we would read.
  But not alone the fairest flowers:
  The merest grass
  Along the roadside where we pass,
  Lichen and moss and sturdy weed,
  Tell of His love who sends the dew,
  The rain and sunshine too,
  To nourish one small seed.

• Source: Goblin Market, The Prince’s Progress, and Other Poems

• Following the plough came the Methodist Church in Ireland (my home Connexion’s) daily prayer focus

• A new email I have recently started receiving comes next – from Christian Art

• Filled with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples.
• And there, coming to meet them, was Jesus. ‘Greetings’ he said. And the women came up to him and, falling down before him, clasped his feet. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee; they will see me there.’
• While they were on their way, some of the guard went off into the city to tell the chief priests all that had happened. These held a meeting with the elders and, after some discussion, handed a considerable sum of money to the soldiers with these instructions, ‘This is what you must say, “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.” And should the governor come to hear of this, we undertake to put things right with him ourselves and to see that you do not get into trouble.’ The soldiers took the money and carried out their instructions, and to this day that is the story among the Jews.
• Reflection on the engraving
  Today, one day after Easter, is a good day to reflect upon our own reaction and thoughts to the event of the Resurrection which we celebrated yesterday. How does Easter impact us? We encountered the risen Jesus yesterday. So did the women in our Gospel reading today. The women Matthew describes are the very first people to see the Lord after he rose from the dead, and the first words Jesus speaks to them are crucial: ‘Do not be afraid’. Why did he say that to them?
• The reading conveys a very unusual mix of emotions: the women were overjoyed and followed with awe (see the start of our Gospel reading), and yet Jesus saw them as being filled with fear. Don’t we too often have these emotions in our faith lives? We are in love with God, but yet we are afraid to talk about Him. We want to serve Jesus, yet we hold back from serving him fully. We enjoy going to church on a Sunday, yet privatise our faith the rest of the week. We are full of joy, yet fearful.
• This mix of emotions is beautifully conveyed in our engraving by Grégoire Huret from 1664. We see the risen Christ meeting the women. One woman is holding an ointment jar, one is perplexed, another overjoyed, one fearful. In the foreground we see the woman who ‘came up to him and, falling down before him and clasped his feet’. In the background we see the scene where the women discovered the empty tomb, surrounded by sleeping soldiers. In the distant left against beaming rays of sunlight, we see Peter and John running towards the tomb.
• The women, filled with joy and feelings of fear, are now sent out into the world to bear witness to the events and spread the news: the Lord is risen!
• by Patrick van der Vorst

• Next I read the Bible from a reading plan I set up at the start of every year. Today as you see, the readings were Psalm 1, Joshua chapters 1 and 2 and Proverbs 18 (but most days there is a New Testament reading somewhere in the mix) and in 365 days all the Bible is read from the start of Genesis to the end of Revelation. I choose a different version of the Bible to read each year, this year I am reading the Complete Jewish Bible, hence the ‘Adonai’ as the word for God and ‘Torah’ instead of Law in the Psalm below.

• The Methodist Prayer Handbook has readings and prayers for each day that are also available on the Methodist Church website.

• In the Prayer Handbook for this year, “A Place for All”, Day 18 has us praying with Christians in Asia and Britain, in particular the Church in Indonesia and the Methodist Church of Upper Myanmar. There is a special prayer for persecuted Christians and closer to home, prayers from the Liverpool District and from the Vice President of Methodist Women in Britain.

• Last but not least I pray for those who are on my heart: family, friends, congregation, people I will meet during the day, families I have met with recently in connection with Christenings, Weddings or Funerals, and other prayer requests that come to me through conversation, email or Facebook. I don’t promise to remember everybody in prayer, but each morning starts with this mix of Bible Study, reflection and prayer. I encourage you in whatever way you do it, to spend some time with the Bible and in prayer each day. It has served me well for 36 years.

God bless

John