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Golders Green Parish Church – Newsletter

21 October 2020

From Sally :

Greetings again to everyone hoping you are all keeping well at this most challenging of times.

Please don’t feel alone or unsupported. If you do, please, apart from contacting each other for a chat, ring those of us whose numbers you have that are listed in previous newsletter- it does make a difference to talk.

How good it was to see Bishop Rob on Sunday and to welcome him to Golders Green for the service. He is being very supportive of us at this time and keeping us in his prayers. It was encouraging too to see how many are coming back to the services.

Many, many congratulations to Fiona and Ernest on the birth of their baby daughter, Arielle, which Dorothy and Festus, her proud grandparents tell us means, “Lion of God”- such wonderful news and a beautiful name to live up to.

We welcome the news that Sheila is now home and recuperating from her stay in the Royal Free. We all send our love and hope she makes a full recovery.

In our newsletter this week we have a brief update on the APCM with news of your new churchwardens and PCC members. We wish them all well in the work they will be undertaking towards appointing our new incumbent.

We have an article from Jenny following on from the one I wrote last week on the “Waiting to Exhale” conference. Key parts of this conference will shortly be on-line soon so you can link in and listen to them when you have some time. I will let you know as soon as I have the link.

Just a reminder that, if you still have a questionnaire response you have not yet sent in regarding the consultation for our new incumbent, please return it asap to, either, the parish office West Heath Drive, Golders Green, NW11 7QG or, to churchwardens@pc-gg.co.uk All your views are necessary, valuable and welcome.

Looking forward to seeing you this coming Sunday when the Revd Petrica B, from St Peter’s Belsize Park, is taking the service.

At the end of this newsletter is an extended Lord’s Prayer taken from the New Zealand book of Common Prayer that you may find interesting, apt and helpful at this time.

Thank you Sally

 

Introducing the new PCC by Tony

As you know, we held the APCM on Monday, 19 October, along with the vestry meeting at which the churchwardens are elected. So thankful for those who joined us on Monday, it was so good to see all of you.

So briefly I thought I would update you on what happened. Nehar B and I were elected as Church Wardens. If you wish to contact either of us, please see us in Church on Sunday, but even better, and if you can, email us on Churchwardens@gg-pc.co.uk.

During the APCM, at which we received various reports, we also elected some new members of the PCC. So we had three members retiring, Sheila G, Nehar B and Ruth H. The Churchwardens are ex-officio members of the PCC. So the APCM was looking to elect at least 4 new PCC members. There are 6 members of the PCC whose term does not expire until 2022.

So nominated and seconded and elected to be members of the PCC were our two retiring Church Wardens, Sally B and Pamela O, Sheila and two new members Shaniv M and Silvia R.

The APCM also elected Ifey O, a current member of the PCC, and Sheila, following her election onto the PCC, as deputy church wardens and they can also be contacted via the email above for the Church Wardens.

Before I end this short introduction to the new I would like to say thank you all those willing to stand for various roles in our fellowship. I would say that there is still one vacancy on the PCC, for with an electoral roll of over 100, we can have a PCC of up to 12 members aside from the ex-officio members, of whom there would normally be 7, the Church Wardens, the 2 Deanery Synod members and the Safeguarding Officer and the Children's Champion and the PCC Secretary. I should say that Jennifer E, who has been employed as our parish administrator, has accepted the role of PCC Secretary.

Finally, may I, on behalf of all of us thank Pamela and Sally for their sterling work as church wardens. They both said they would do it for a year, but Covid made their term a few months longer. It is good they will still be on the PCC, as we move forward to do what we need to do to work with the Bishop of Edmonton to choose a new incumbent. So may I ask you to pray for us and for the choice of a new incumbent. And just a gentle reminder, if you want to comment on what you like to see in our new incumbent , please complete the questionnaire.

Thank you Tony

Waiting to Exhale

Building on what Sally B reported last week about the hugely inspiring and challenging webinar we both attended on climate justice as seen by Black Christians you may like to read further information about it.

Since then participants have received a follow-up e-mail from the Archdeacon of Croydon, Rosemarie M, who co-hosted the event. This is an extract:

“Dear friends and colleagues

Happy Black History Month!

…….
As we heard from Christian Aid’s landmark poll on Saturday [Jenny includes the link to the report: https://www.christianaid.org.uk/resources/our-work/black-lives-matter-everywhere-report], Black Christians are concerned about climate change and more than 50% don’t think the movement is racially diverse enough. What’s more they want their church leaders to speak up on the climate crisis to equip them to fight for justice. As Black and Brown people with relatives in Africa, Caribbean, Bangladesh and other part of the global south facing the brunt of these impacts, our voices matter and are needed more than ever. We cannot underestimate the value of our lived experience. If we don’t tell our stories and theirs, the needs of those most affected will not be given the same level of importance as nature and ecological issues.

As people of colour and faith we are also called to speak against any form of injustice and protect the vulnerable, poor and oppressed, as Christ did. The avoidance of moral courage is an absence of our prophetic faith. Let us stand up for all of God’s creation including those most affected by climate change for a more hopeful and bright future.”

The Archdeacon’s message summarises the challenges to all of us that were set out so emphatically in the webinar: here are a few points from the presentations that particularly stood out for me: Sally highlighted some of them last week but they’re so important they bear repetition!

• In Romans 8 v22 we read that ‘the whole creation has been groaning’ – this reminds us of the interconnectedness, and interdependence, of all creation, as does Psalm 24 v1: ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.’
• We must listen to the lived experience of those who are most affected by climate change – they’re mostly black and brown, and that’s climate injustice. It’s related to colonialism, empire, historic exploitation. In the context of climate change, the rich North acts as if ‘black lives don’t matter’. Climate change is fundamentally a matter of justice, or rather injustice.
• We must not only listen but act, befor e it’s too late. "Until you dig a hole, you plant
  a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just
  talking." Wangari Maathai, Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner for her work on
  preserving the environment.
• Let’s treasure creation. What does that mean for each of us? We need to make changes in our own lives, and demand political change. We have a responsibility to think and act at both an individual and a global level and to ‘stop being armchair pontificators’!

The New Zealand Anglican Lord's Prayer

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