Church News – September 2026

Dear Brothers and Sisters

I’ve been thinking a lot this summer about families. There’s that old expression, you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. The bible is full of family drama.

Right at the beginning we have Cain and Abel but there is also Joesph and his brothers, Isaac and Rebekah’s favouritism and Jesus uses a dysfunctional family as the setting of his great parable of forgiveness with a prodigal son.

Summertime is a time for spending time with family and whilst that can be a great thing as we sit around our barbeques and go away together, it can also bring tension and dreg up old resentment and history. This summer our family grew by one as we welcomed Bosh to the clan, our five year old Shiz Zu dog. We had hoped that having a dog in the house would calm things down and help our children to get along better.

Sadly, whist we are loving having him with us, it’s yet to really show much difference in that department.

I think part of the problem with families today is the burden of expectation. I remember during the pandemic seeing tons of posts on social media with photos of all the wonderful and imaginative things people had been getting up to with their seemingly perfect family. I suspect however, that far more common were the families just trying to get through it with their sanity still relatively in tact. We all dream of our families being like the Waltons when the reality is often, we’re more like the Simpsons. It’s why the bibles depictions of family drama and tension can hit home so hard and provide a more realistic reflection of what life is like.

When I went to my training day for Who Let The Dads Out I picked up a book that they recommended. It’s entitled Bad Dads of the Bible by Roland C Warren. In it he uses the examples of eight terrible acts of parenting in the bible by fathers and helps us to see ways that we can avoid the same mistakes but also, crucially, making mistakes is inherently human and we could be worse (trust me, there are some truly terrible fathers in the bible).

God is with us in the mess, and arguments, the hurt and the pain and what we learn through it all is that there is the hope of reconciliation, forgiveness and restoration.

God knows that we are human and loves us because of our failings, not in spite of them.

Whatever you have going on in your lives, if there is disagreement, hurt and pain, I pray that you are able to find your way back to the path of love and reconciliation and that you know that God is your heavenly father, and God doesn’t make mistakes.

God bless, James

NEWS

Two new ventures this month:

The poster above is self-explanatory, but if you wish to know more, please contact Sue on the details above.

And the second is the Forest Church. We imagine this will appeal to the younger ones of our congregation. The flyer says it all. There will be four meetings a year, to coincide with the four seasons so the one later on this month will concentrate on Autumn. Attendance is free and we welcome young and old alike.

WHAT GOD WON’T ASK:

God won’t ask what type of car you drove. He’ll ask how many people you drove who didn’t have transportation.

God won’t ask how big your house is. He’ll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

God won’t ask about the clothes you had in your wardrobe. He’ll ask how many you helped to clothe.

God won’t ask about how high your salary was. He’ll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.

God won’t ask what your job title was. He’ll ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.

God won’t ask how many friends you had. He’ll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.

God won’t ask in what neighbourhood you lived. He’ll ask how you treated your neighbours.

OUR DIARY FOR SEPTEMBER:

Sunday 6th at 11 a.m.	MORNING WORSHIP led by Sr Penny Weir
Monday 7th at 7.30 p.m.	CHURCH COMMITTEE ON ZOOM
Wednesday 9th from 10.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.	VINTAGE AND COLLECTABLES. Search out your valuables and bring them to have them valued to sell if you wish to.
Sunday 13th at 11 a.m.	MORNING WORSHIP WITH HOLY COMMUNION led by Br James
Wednesday 16th at 1.15 p.m. (NOTE CHANGE OF DATE)	M.W.A. Meeting in the Schoolroom
Thursday 24th at 7.30 p.m.	Thursday Group Greek Night postponed from July.
SUNDAY 27th at 11 a.m.	HARVEST THANKSGIVING. PARADE AND YOUTH SERVICE led by Br Peter
SUNDAY 27th at 1 p.m.	FOREST CHURCH – see above for information

PRAYER FOR SEPTEMBER 2026

Dear Lord, September is the month of new starts!

New terms, new groups, new friends, new hopes, every year. Lord be with us!

Lord, thank you for the new start you offer us when we put our trust in Jesus. A new start that we make once, and then an renew every day.

Every time we falter, you pick us up. Every time we come back to you, you forgive us and accept us.

Thank you, Lord, for never letting us down, for never leaving or forsaking us, that new starts with you are always possible, not just in September. This we ask in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.