General Chat

Hello all

Your info about the persecuted churches gives food for thought Cynthia. We do take our own church services and fellowship very much for granted without question here.

How lovely to have Vera's post from Russia. It will be an amazing holiday for them.

Sending out Happy Wednesday wishes to all reading this today . xx

Good morning............it looks like I have done it again.......grrrrr......I am sure I posted yesterday. I am going to have to watch the post appear I think. SO frustrating....

Here is what I thought I had posted........sigh

"Baptism is a crime, punishable by death".

There are 50 countries on the World Watch List for places where Christians are persecuted. We are looking at the top three and, when I read today's extract, I immediately thought of all the baptisms we hold at our church.

No. 3 is Afghanistan.

It is illegal for an Afghan person to be anything other than a Muslim.

Afghanistan is a tribal society, and leaving Islam is seen as a betrayal of the tribe. Discovered believers will sometimes be sent to a mental hospital, as families believe no sane person would leave Islam. Baptism is a crime punishable by death; several believers were killed in 2016 when their faith was discovered.

The Taliban, a radical Islamist group, remains active in Afghanistan and targets those who leave Islam.

Converts will keep their faith completely secret - simply meeting in small groups can be dangerous, and even the internet is closely monitored. Just the suspicion that you may have converted can lead to your arrest or the destruction of your home or business.

PLEASE PRAY
For courage and protection for secret Afghan believers
For change to take place within the country, and for openness to religions outside of Islam
For stability and peace in Afghanistan.


Cx :-)

Your posts this week Cynthia really are thought provoking and somewhat distressing. I think we tend to close our eyes to things we don't want to see.

A relation of my husband, a Roman Catholic girl, has recently married a Muslim man. I understand that there was a certain amount of disapproval from both families but they were free to go ahead without any fear of reprisals. Makes you realise how lucky we are to live here.

On our travels we got the train to Vladimir and then were brought by car to a lovely little town called Suzdal. Our guide took us round the town including various cathedrals. In one a service was going on, involving a lot of school children, and our guide told us to go in and look at the decoration and icons. We felt very awkward about this but it seems to be the norm for people to wander about during services. We couldn't quite bring ourselves to do this so just peeped in the door.

We had wondered why there was always a second smaller building next to the cathedrals. Apparently it was the tradition to build an unheated summer church and a smaller heated winter church.

I haven't quite worked out the meaning of cathedral. I am certain it is not used in quite the same way as we would use it.

Suzdal is lovely. It has had hundreds of churches, monasteries etc. and the buildings are wherever you look. At the moment there are 33 churches and 5 active monasteries or convents. This is in a tiny town of 10,000!

What has struck me is that we have only seen Russian Orthodox places of worship. I have seen no mosques or synagogues or even other Christian denominations so I am not sure how tolerant the government and society are.

We are now waiting for a car to take us back to Vladimir for a couple of days to continue our trip of a lifetime. I will continue to keep in my thoughts those suffering persecution.

Hello all

Cynthia, senior moments are a part of getting older, take and accept it gratefully.

Our remote control for the TV is missing. Usually this lives on the table beside hubbies chair, but he assures me that he hasn't moved it. Well I don't remember moving it either and as there are only two people living here then I am blaming Mr Nobody!! He is invisible and comes here often to keep me busy searching for things
If only the folk in the persecuted countries had so little to concern them!

Vera, you are very kind to share your amazing holiday sights and cultures with us.
Thank you. Carry on enjoying the new experiences with your OH. Enjoy it all.

Happy weekend to all, whatever you have planned. xx

Good morning :-)

I love your feedback from your special holiday Vera - waiting to hear lots more :-D

Whenever I used to visit our cathedral for whatever reason, I was always struck by the fact that tourists were wandering around quite freely whilst there was a service going on. Not to the point of actually disrupting the service, but mooching around at the back. After a while, you tend to ignore them to be honest :-D

For today:

Our church receives numerous requests for baptisms. So much so that we are putting extra services on. I have to wonder if folk would be so keen on baptism if there was the likelihood of being killed if the authorities found out about it.

The Church of England has around 16,000 churches, serving every part of the country and open to every local inhabitant. There are 42 mainland Cathedrals. I have to wonder if people who have a love for the church, but maybe take things for granted and do other things on a Sunday, realise that we are living in a time of ‘use it or lose it’.

Reading just a little about the persecution of Christians throughout the world has helped me to understand just how fortunate we are.

We can walk into church freely; we can attend prayer meetings if we want to; we can buy as many bibles as we want; we can be baptised, married and buried without fear of persecution. We should give thanks.

Father, dear Father,
I am so grateful for everything that you have given me.
Thank you so much for the loved ones in my life,
For the many ways in which I am cared for and supported.
Thank you for the freedom I have to worship you and to serve others. Amen

Cx. :-)

Good morning :-)

The Collect (special prayer) for today :

Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid
and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.

The gospel for today tells of Jesus explaining to his disciples that if anyone wanted to follow him, they must take up their cross and follow him. An interesting read.


Cx :-)

Hello all

Reading back to your prayer for yesterday Cynthia. I join you and say Amen too.

Thinking of Vera and her OH holidaying in Russia right now.

"Every morning when we wake up we have 24 brand new hours.
What a precious gift. We can bring PEACE, JOY, HAPPINESS to
ourselves and to others" (Thich Naht Hanh.)

Happy Sunday wishes to all reading this today. xxx

Good morning :-)

It's a bit of a gloomy morning to wake up to. The news headlines are somewhat worrying and depressing but hey, what a mighty God we serve!

O Christ Jesus, when all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of Your presence, Your love, and Your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in Your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us, for, living close to You, we shall see Your hand, Your purpose, Your will through all things.

(By St. Ignatius of Loyola, 1491-1556)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGL15yoqsJI


Cx :-)

Good morning :-)

Last week we spent some time looking at some of the countries where Christians are persecuted for their faith – it made for some sad and disturbing reading. However, I hope it helped to make people aware of how fortunate we are in this country with freedom to worship as and when we want to.

Let’s flip the coin over and look at the other side of the picture and take a look at a few of the countries where Christianity is thriving! NEPAL

Once untouched by Christianity, this country now has one of the fastest growing Christian populations in the world. In 1961 there were approximately 458 Christians and there are now thought to be over 375,000.

Churches are mushrooming rapidly throughout the Kathmandu Valley and across the terraced hills. We thank God for this growth in faith in this beautiful country.

Cx :-)

I have been without wifi for a few days but now we are in St Petersburg and I am catching up on posts.

It was good to read today's post Cynthia; something hopeful after the sadness of last week's posts and the doom and gloom of the world news.

Before we came here my knowledge of Russia was confined to what I had read in a few books and the impression given by the newspapers but I now view the country differently. The people are just like people everywhere, generally friendly and eager to help and the bureaucracy is not a tenth as bad as I had expected.

In this city we have a charming young guide and have visited more churches with him. In one there was an unseen choir singing and he told us that their choirs are made up of unaccompanied male voices. Musical instruments and female voices are not allowed. The Church still seems very male dominated. We talked to him a bit about the social situation in Russia today. He told us the gulf between rich and poor is enormous. Russia has more multi millionaires than anywhere in the world but also more people in poverty than in other developed nations. We haven't seen much evidence of poverty but we are, of course, in the tourist areas.

OH and I both noticed that there don't seem to be many facilities for disabled people. In fact I have seen hardly any less able people. Presumably they stay in their houses because they can't negotiate all the steps or get into the shops. If I get a chance I might ask our guide about it.

I have the health and the wealth to be able to enjoy our very special trip so I am thinking tonight of everyone in any nation who is being brought low by poverty and disability.

Good morning :-)

I love your updates Vera thank you. It sounds as though you are having an amazing holiday. How interesting that musical instruments aren't allowed - I know they do a lot of chanting etc but hadn't realised about the lack of accompaniment. I hope you manage to find out about how disabled people are catered for - more food for thought.


Sometimes, from the media and other sources, you get the impression that the Christian faith is dying out. Not so.....

The second country where Christianity is growing is, remarkably, China.

The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America.

Officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.

Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao's death in 1976 signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution.

Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to become not just the world's number one economy but also its most numerous Christian nation.

We thank God for the amazing growth of faith in that immensely populated country.

Cx :-)

Another interesting post Cynthia. Thank you. I had read somewhere that Christianity was growing in China but hadn't realised the extent.

We are certainly having an amazing holiday. Our young guide is so talented. He speaks excellent English, knows St Petersburg like the back of his hand and is extremely knowledgable about history, art, architecture and many other subjects. He also has a lovely sense of humour. Today he took us to The Hermitage museum which is fabulous. Of course we only saw a minute amount of all there is but he knew what to take us to see. As we left I saw wheelchairs by the exit so took the opportunity to ask him about disabled living in Russia. He did not think there were any laws about such things as access so the disabled can only go to places where they knew they would be able to get in. Staff in shops etc will offer assistance but it seems to be pot luck.

After our official "guide time" was over he offered to show us a few other places in his own time. He explained that in Soviet times many churches were closed down or put to other use. One had become a swimming pool, one had become first a morgue, then a vegetable storage place and yet another had become a museum of atheism! It is now a normal non-active church that is a tourist attraction. He also pointed to a dome in the distance and told us that this is a mosque that was built in 1880.

There is much more I could write but I don't want to bore you. I would just say that we feel very privileged that we have been able to undertake this trip and give thanks for the many talented people who have made it so interesting and exciting for us.

Hello all

Vera, you just beat me to it now. You and your OH have chosen a really interesting country and your guide is doing so much to help you to enjoy your special holiday.

Thanks to Cynthia for reminding us that Christianity is thriving in other places.
We are blessed to be so open about or faith here in England. We are so lucky.

Remembering all the pupils returning to school after the Summer break,praying they will all have good teachers to help and encourage them each and every day. xxx

Good morning :-)


Vera, you are not boring us in the slightest.......your insights into your holiday are fascinating and interesting.....love reading them. Thank you. <3

We had baptism prep last night - 4 families who managed to bring all of their children with them - at least, that's what it felt like! I managed to keep my voice above child level for most of the time but it was exhausting!!!

Its pretty obvious that people do not realise how lucky they are to live in a country where baptism is freely available and that the church is always there for them. Hey ho.


It’s interesting to see that there is a huge amount of growth in the Christian faith on the Arabian peninsula, including countries such as Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain.

Christianity in the Gulf states is surging. Amid a shocking exodus in neighbouring countries, this strictly Islamic region has seen a jump in its Christian population.
Churches across the Middle East have reported a rise in attendance, mostly coming from new Muslims moving into the area.

They have already seen thousands of Muslims converts - and some are expecting to see millions turn to Christianity over the coming years.

Some amazing facts......and we thank God for all his blessings.


Cx :-)

Good morning :-)


Such awful news about the devastation caused by hurricane Irma...

Eternal and merciful Father
We pray for everyone affected by hurricane Irma.
Remember them Lord and bring them hope,
help and comfort.
Provide them with the means to rebuild their lives.

May the lost be found and the dead be mourned.
Return to these people affected by the devastation - love, peace and security.
In your loving name. Amen.

Cx :-)

Hello all

Definitely not boring at all Vera hearing all about the culture and sights in Russia. Thank you for sharing your holiday experience of a life time here with us all.

Amen to your prayers Cynthia for the people who are caught up in the devastation and sufferings cased by hurricane Irma in and around the Caribbean areas. Heading on to Florida and coast of USA.Hard to even think of the wreckage left behind this hurricane

Good morning :-)


I had 'one of those days' yesterday! My washing machine has died......sob. Had someone come and look at it but it is well and truly dead. bah....now I have to get my washing to the launderette and look for a new machine. Sigh. My cooker and hob are also playing up - something to do with the ignition. I am waiting to see if that too, is about to pop its clogs. However........my troubles are as nothing compared to some.

.........we continue to think of and pray for, those poor people who are affected by the various hurricanes and earthquakes which are touching the lives of so many folk throughout the world. It makes our little bit of rain seem as nothing.

We have looked at countries where Christians are persecuted; we have looked at countries where Christianity is thriving. For today, we look at ourselves and our local churches, and we thank God that we have the freedom and the pleasure to worship there.

God our Father,
you will never allow the power of hell
to prevail against your Church,
founded on the rock of the apostle Peter.
Keep us faithful to your truth
and secure in your peace.
Lord, help us to do your will
that your Church may grow
and become more faithful in your service.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. AMEN.

Love to all Cx :-)

Hello all

Oh dear Cynthia, I find that my household appliances usually breakdown in threes!!

Thought and prayers for all who are affected by the devastating ongoing hurricane.

Hopefully Vera and her husband are back home safely after an amazing time away.

Thinking now of all who have trained for many months and will take part in the Great North run tomorrow. Our Grandson ran this in extreme heat last year and on the finishing line Jack said , "Never again"!!!. We were so proud as he made over £500 for the Asthma UK charity.

Good morning :-D

As news of the dreadful hurricanes continues to dominate the headlines, our thoughts and prayers go out to all the people who are affected in any way. God bless them.

This morning, in our church, we welcome two little boys who are to be baptised into the Christian faith. We pray for these little ones as they begin their Christian journey, and for their parents and Godparents that they may take their vows and promises honestly and sincerely.
.
The Collect (special prayer) for today :

Almighty God, who called your Church to bear witness that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself: help us to proclaim the good news of your love, that all who hear it may be drawn to you; through him who was lifted up on the cross, and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The gospel reading ends with that famous passage where
Jesus tells his disciples that wherever two or three are gathered in His name, He will be with them.


Love to all Cx

Good morning :-)


More and more dreadful news re the hurricanes which are battering so many places. It may be wet and windy here but, oh my goodness, nothing compared to what is happening elsewhere. God bless all affected.

A Prayer on Monday

Lord, it’s Monday.
It’s not everyone’s favourite day;
Back to school.
Back to work,
Back to all the chores.
Yet each day is a gift,
Each day is an opportunity.
Each day is special.
Help me to make the most of this day.
Help me in my work,
Help me in my relationships.
May you be glorified in my life,
This and every day.
Amen


Cx :-)