Greetings to Everyone

How good to hear from our new incumbent, the Revd Kamran B, in our newsletter last week. He has written a little more about himself below. We are so looking forward to meeting and welcoming him in person.
 
The Revd Helen B has written, as she promised, an article for us about the Camino to COP walk that is taking place in September to draw everyone’s attention to the forthcoming UN climate change conference starting on 31st October. This is the most vital conference for all in every country, as evidence of climate change is showing itself in so many different ways that it must be taken seriously. It is not going to go away. She has invited us to join the gathering taking place in Parliament Square on September 5th at 1pm as they begin their journey late afternoon or early evening on Sunday 5th September having walked from their starting point in Parliament Square to St Mary’s Kilburn which will be their will first overnight stop
 
How good to have Claire W with us again on Sunday. Her sermon is below.
 
Please could I appeal for any articles, reminiscences, or thoughts from you to go into the newsletter. It is always good to hear a variety of voices with your opinions and all that you would like to say, after all that is what the newsletter was started for.   Please think about it and get in touch with me or just send something in. If you would like me to type it up for you that will be fine and very welcome.  Children if you have any drawings you would like to send or comments about your favourite books you enjoy reading or being read to you, that would be great. Send it to: churchwardens@gg-pc.co.uk
 
Love and good wishes – Sally
 

 

 

As you will have seen in this edition of our Newsletter, our new parish priest has introduced himself and his family.  I am excited about this new chapter for our church family, and I hope you are.
 
Things are moving fast - the Installation Service is to take place on 14th September 2021 at 7:30 and Kamran and his family move into the vicarage soon (they will be in by the end of the month, subject to decorating works within the Vicarage being completed soon).  As you know the PCC decided that we would maintain social distancing in the main building.  I am hoping to have a look at how we can place seats to increase the numbers able to attend services and still care for each other this Sunday.  I will let you know next week how we will then manage attendance at the Installation Service and onwards.
 
Please do pray for Kamran and for us as we need to depend on and trust the Lord to lead us.  We can start by joining on Wednesdays in the evening at 7:30. Please see the zoom link in this newsletter.
 

 
Age To Age (feat. Mia Fieldes) // The Belonging Co
https://youtu.be/FcF3sfe3vyk
 
Goodness of God | Feat. Michael Bethany | Gateway Worship
https://youtu.be/5aGLRjTMLps



Dear members of the Golders Green parish church
 
First of all, I want to thank God for my appointment as parish priest of Golders Green. I also want to thank you for your prayers and all the hard work that went into ensuring the interview process went smoothly and was a positive experience for all involved. We both enjoyed coming to Golders Green and the many conversations we had with members of church and ministry teams, and we greatly appreciated your friendliness and hospitality.
Here is a brief introduction about me and my family
My name is Rev Kamran B, and I am married to Salomi . We have two sons one is aged 23 years old studying medicine at Manchester University and the other aged 22 years old studying chemical engineering at Chester university. We, as a family, are passionate musicians. My wife is an accomplished gospel singer who sang many Christian songs in Urdu, Punjabi, and Hindi. Our boys are also keen musicians playing guitar, drums (Indian and western), and piano. After completing my curacy, I've served as a missionary priest for three years in the Diocese of Blackburn.
We both enjoy walking, music, making new friends, meeting people from other cultures, and spending time with family and friends.
I will be praying for you all over the next few weeks. I am particularly grateful for the PCC, the churchwardens, and the ministry team who are actively involved with the church ministry and keep things running so well during the pandemic and interregnum. I am prayerfully looking forward to being installed as your new priest on 14 September 2021. It will be wonderful to join you and find out where God wants to lead us as a church for the sake of His Kingdom.
 
With prayers
Rev Kamran B
 

When we use the word “bread” today, it’s likely that the picture in our minds is of a ready-made loaf, one we’ve picked up from the baker’s or the supermarket.
 
For Jesus’ disciples, though, the bread they ate would have been baked by a process which they were all familiar with. The housewife, or in a wealthier home one of the servants, would have produced the finished loaf after a good deal of hard work.
 
Well, it’s not impossible that some of us here this morning have been involved in that task. For some reason I decided one day (long ago) that I’d master the art of bread making, and for quite a while I patiently produced the goods which usually turned out OK.  In the end, though, the job became too demanding: back to our old ways.
 
And when we reflect on Jesus’ words about “the living bread” in today’s Gospel reading, it IS important to focus on the process of bread-making. The pummeling and kneading together of the ingredients: this  mirrors so much in the life of the church.  As members of any Christian community we know what hard work it can be to engage with one another, to create some version of unity out of a group of people who may have radically different ideas.
 
And then the long wait for the dough to rise: sometimes as a Christian community we have no choice but to stand back, give one another time: we can’t always make things happen at the speed we’d like.
The principle significance of bread in today’s church is, of course, our sharing of it at Holy Communion. How we understand the meaning of this tradition will depend to some extent, I guess, on our individual experience of life and of Christian faith.
 
Here’s my story! At Dartford Girls’ Grammar School (back in the 1950s) we studied the Bible at O Level under the guidance of our Scripture teacher Miss Crouch. She would share the occasional personal story with us, and one day she told us how she and her sister had driven to hospital to see a seriously ill close friend. Quite unexpectedly, however, when they got there the news was good, the sick friend’s recovery was assured. Both sisters were overjoyed, and on the way home they stopped off on impulse at a nearby café, and treated themselves to lunch, fish and chips and a bottle of lemonade.
 
And, Miss Crouch told us, it felt that day as if the food and drink they shared were a sacred meal : God’s version of sanctified bread and wine. And for some reason that story had a profound effect on me:  it changed my understanding of our church’s weekly ritual whereby the wine and bread became “special”, with certain rules and regulations attached to the ceremony. The purpose of what happened at the altar was to show us how everyday experiences can be sacred, can be transformed into a discovery of God’s redeeming presence at any time or in any place.
 
So for me, now, through our fellowship with one another and with Jesus the bread of life, our ordinary everyday lives can be transformed at any moment into something sacramental, an experience to treasure and celebrate. It can happen in unexpected circumstances, or in our routine family arrangements.
 
We’re invited by Jesus today to recognize and dine out on the nourishment he offers at whatever point our lives have reached. What more could we ask or hope for.
 
 
 

Please join us on Wednesday evening 21st July at 7.30pm. 

It is so good to come together to pray for our new incumbent and family and for all those issues that are on our minds; to give thanks for the good things we are experiencing and those that are troubling us. Looking forward to seeing you. 
 
Please see the zoom link below which is for the Wednesday evening prayer group, and also the link for Sunday.
 

Church Wardens is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

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Homeless Holy Family -  Icon from Mexico
 

Hello,
There is a human being in here
Not an object, Not a type, Not an enemy
Not in irritation, Not a desire
Not in something to be possessed or discarded
Not something that has come in to steal your territory
Not a problem to be solved
But a human being in here
To be welcomed, recognised, heard,
allowed space to flourish to grow
to give
to be with in uniqueness in fullness
The Human being in here.
 

 

As you probably know, COP26 is the forthcoming UN climate change conference starting on 31st October. A successful outcome is absolutely vital for the survival of the planet as we know it, and immediate action is needed to mitigate the damage already inflicted upon those communities worst affected by climate change mostly in the global south.
As one of a number of pilgrimages and walks ‘Camino to COP’ is distinctive in comprising a group of people of people of all faiths, about a dozen will walk the entire route from London to Glasgow, starting from Parliament Square on 5th September and ending on Sunday 30th October in Glasgow on the eve of the conference. Others will join for sections and a separate group will start out from Bristol and meet us in Birmingham.
As a part time parish priest in the Diocese of Southwark I shall be walking 3 days of each week, splitting my life between the road and the parish. I consider both parish and pilgrimage to be a part of my ministry and hope that each will inform and enhance the other. Once in Glasgow I shall be part of the team co coordinating an ‘Earth Vigil’ which will also be online and would be a great way, for those not in Glasgow, to support the conference.
The idea for Camino to COP arose out of Extinction Rebellion’s ‘Faith Bridge’ formed in the autumn of 2019 as an interfaith alliance across a broad spectrum from established religions to those who are ‘spiritual but not religious’. The walk is an opportunity for connection and outreach and is expressly not a physically disruptive or civilly disobedient action. The concept of a pilgrimage walking from the centre of the UK government in Westminster to the gathering of nations in Glasgow is one that fits naturally within our declared intention of working together ‘united for our sacred Earth’. 
I hope that this declared intention resonates with your parish of Golders Green and would like to extend a hearty invitation to you all to walk with us on day one or two of this pilgrimage whether for the whole day or just come along for a short while. You would also be welcome to join us in Parliament Square on September 5th at 1pm as we gather to begin our journey with a few words, some music, and a samba band!
We plan to arrive in your area of London late the afternoon or early evening on Sunday 5th September having walked from our starting point in Parliament Square. St Mary’s Kilburn will be our first overnight stop and we expect there to be an evening event in The Sherriff Centre which will be open to supporters, I can share details of this nearer the time.
Finally, we are inviting supporters to give us ribbons/scraps of fabric with messages written on that we will transport to Glasgow and tie to a suitable fence/railing/object close to the conference centre. Please do consider making this a church activity and a way of engaging with the many issues around Climate Destruction and COP 26.
 
With all good wishes
 
Rev Helen B
https://caminotocop.com/
http://www.earthvigil.co.uk/
 
 

 

 
Minding my own business, sitting, and having a coffee in the outdoor café at Kenwood, I turned to look at a plant that interested me and, turning back, a Jackdaw had silently alighted on my table and was tucking into my slice of Victoria sponge. Mercifully he had only got as far as the crumbs at the edge – but really! At least I had a very good close up of his beautiful, shiny, black, and grey feathers and tiny beady eyes that were purposefully focused on the cake. Even the pigeons didn’t interfere with him as I have a notion Jackdaws can be very fierce.  I have noticed how many more birds of different variety seem to be around and particularly love their singing in the early morning. In the week I went to visit my younger son, Richard, and Ali, his wife, who live near Brighton. Mercifully the sun shone all day. We went to the grounds of a large mansion house nearby in which the students at the agricultural college, attached to Sussex University, had designed a garden full of many different varieties of plants, flowers and vegetables, a large number grown to attract bees and all kinds of insect life. They, as are many of us, mindful of the need to keep these insects and other creatures flourishing as they play such an important part in maintaining our eco system and its balance.
 

                                                                       

                                        
In many ways that is what the climate talks are about- saving the smallest as well as the largest of creation; keeping the balance of nature so that crops and vegetation of all kinds can be maintained and be abundant. In their great variety they are the natural growth and habitat for each country. They all play their part, without one, the balance of creation is upset, and bees are among the most important for their pollination of so many plants that we depend upon.
 

                          

       

     Grass Snake                       Fungi

 
Having listened to several talks and read about how we are all interconnected with each other, humans, animals, plants, trees, fungi (my son could give a very long lecture on the importance of fungi in sustaining earth, how they communicate with each other and trees, about which he is passionate) we are taken back to Genesis 1:31 where God, having created the earth, saw all that was made “and it was very good” and gives us dominion over it.  I ponder sometimes what God thinks of us and the way have used that “dominion” that has led us to needing an urgent climate-change conference.  

 

 
Rose has let us know that her son Afi is back in hospital at UCH. Rose has asked that we all keep him in our prayers, along with the medical staff, asking for God’s mercy and guidance.  We are all so sorry to hear this and send our love and good wishes to Rose, Afi and family all at this anxious time.
 
Margaret is still in hospital, her brother John reported that she is well, but tired, having some disturbed nights. She will not be going home for little while yet but there is nothing to worry about.
We all keep Margaret in our prayers and all those who are unwell and unable to get out and about for whatever reason.
 

 
Our Prayers

We continue to pray for all those in our community who are unwell and maybe struggling in different ways. We think and pray for you all frequently and look forward to a time when we can all be with each other and take part in the services together.
 
 

 

You may wish to join in worship during this time through television and radio.
Check online, in the Radio Times and elsewhere for details:
Songs of Praise BBC 1, Sunday afternoon, variable times
Sunday Worship BBC Radio 4, Sunday, 8.10am Choral Evensong BBC
Radio 3, Wednesday Daily Service
BBC Radio 4 (Longwave only), weekdays, 9.45am
Big Sunday Service Premier Christian Radio, Sunday, 7am, 8am, 10am Easter Sunday Eucharist A service is usually broadcast on the BBC on Easter morning
Free 24 hour telephone church service 0800 804 8044
Online resources Church of England Daily Prayer https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-service-dailyprayer
https://mailchi.mp/b9d86a4acdc7/coming-up-from-st-pauls-cathedral-1274047?e=377e26b1db St Paul’s Cathedral have a number of resources available for us to use.
Church of England Online Resources during this time https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/coronaviruscovid-19-liturgy-and-prayer-resources
Go On-line to " ps://www.achurchnearyou.com", put in Area or post code and find a local church that broadcasts Worship.
Prayers from Christian Aid https://www.christianaid.org.uk/pray/churches/coronavirus-prayers
https://pray-as-you-go.org/ Pray as you Go (a short service each day in the Jesuit Tradition)
LICC have some great resources on their website https://www.licc.org.uk/
Especially on Covid-19 https://www.licc.org.uk/ourresources/prayer-journeys/presence-pressure-purpose/