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May God bless you and keep you and your loved ones in His peace,
David.
Revd David Robinson, Vicar of St. Matthew’s Church, Chapel Allerton
0113 2683072 revdavidrobinson@talktalk.net
SUPPORTING GOOD MENTAL HEATH
a booklet produced by the Church of England. You can read thirteen daily reflections written by Professor Chris Cook and accompanied by "have a go" habits developed by Ruth Rice. https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/10961%E2%80%A2Mental%20Health%20Reflections_WEB.pdf
The effects of mental health problems are huge. Nearly nine out of ten people with mental health problems have been affected by stigma and discrimination. Given the challenging times we are living in with coronavirus, the reflections in this booklet were updated and new resources written in March 2020. They seek to provide hope, reassurance and comfort. If you want to speak to someone, please visit the Mental Health Foundation website, which has lots of helpful resources and contacts. Visit www.mentalhealth.org.uk
PLANNED GIVING
If you would like to contribute to the upkeep of our beautiful building and make it a place for worship, meetings, drama and music. Please help by making a regular payment to our scheme this is to help with our charitable giving and payment of the various bills we have to pay to keep this building in good working order, for all that seek to find God and also help our local community and those less fortunate.
Please use the attached form by clicking the donate button this will take you to our donation form which you can then fill in. And if you are a UK tax payer please consider gift aiding your contribution this will not affect your pocket, but the Tax Man will give us .25p for every £1.00 you give us. Thank you in advance and remember click donate.
OUR WEBSITE IS STILL DEVELOPING -
This is our (fairly) new and evolving website. Thanks to Fred Rowland for setting this up. The content is still being edited and any comments welcome to Fred or David Keighley.
PLEASE LET US KNOW
if you are aware of anyone from Church who is poorly, or become housebound or in need of some support, and especially those in hospital, and if you yourselves are going to hospital, so that the Pastoral Visiting Team can arrange for someone to visit. Please contact any of the staff team.
LEEDS CITIZENS
Over the last few months, we have seen the invaluable role that the care sector has played in looking after some of the most vulnerable members of community. We have learnt that some of the most poorly paid members of our community have the greatest value, because they take care of our most fundamental health needs. Leeds Citizens as part of Citizens UK national campaign has attended local care homes to offer thanks, prayers, blessing and gifts to recognise the sterling effort they have made. A prayer:-
Bless all who work in stressful situations; particularly today we pray for those working in the social care sector, especially Dyneley House, Neville House and Harrogate Lodge and elsewhere. We pray for those in occupations where patience, love and perseverance can wear thin, and daily stress levels can rise. Keep them safe and well, equipped to follow their vocation through the most difficult of times. And at the
end of their working day grant them rest. Amen
A short service, socially distanced, of thanks, prayer and blessing was held at Dyneley House on Monday.
GARDEN AFTERNOONS OR EVENINGS
(An inspired idea from our Methodist friends)
Why not arrange a Garden Afternoon or Evening? We are now allowed to have up to six people [from up to six different households, meeting in our gardens if we maintain social distancing. We are missing seeing each other at church but we can meet in our gardens. You could invite people directly or put a notice in the bulletin inviting people on a first come, first served basis. Why not give it a go? Contact me if you need any more information - David Laycock
WYDAN NIGHT SHELTER
St. Matthew's and Chapel Allerton Methodist Church are teaming up again for the fortnight 27/7/20-10/8/20.
A Leeds City Council hostel provides shelter to 13 destitute Asylum-seeking men but they rely on volunteers to provide four cooked evening meals each week and to shop so that they can make their other meals for themselves.
If you can help please contact Doug Pollock
EXPLORING PRAYER
with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. The archbishop has produced a series of five videos lasting about ten minutes each, exploring prayer from his own experience. It is honest, inspiring and will encourage you to continue exploring the wonderful gift of prayer that God has given us. The link to the videos is here. You like to join a small group of us on Zoom to discuss the videos and to pray together? If so please contact David Robinson at revdavidrobinson@talktalk.net or on 0113 2683072.
ZOOM PRAYERS ON THURSDAYS
Sue Rusholme invites you to join her for a Zoom meeting on Thursdays at 7.15pm (45 minute sessions) to discuss the videos mentioned above and to pray: Meeting ID: 414 3721061 Password: 875863
THE LOVE FEAST
Sunday 16th August at 12noon. The Love Feast, or Agape, is a Christian fellowship meal recalling the meals Jesus shared with disciples during his ministry. The service expresses the koinonia or sharing, belonging and fellowship enjoyed within the body of Christ.
After our months of isolation and only seeing each other on zoom we can now come together as Jesus’ friends to enjoy each other’s company and to give thanks, to reflect and to pray. We will assemble on the church lawn, still in our socially distanced ‘bubbles’, to eat our picnics at 12noon. This will be followed at 12.30pm by the Love Feast service which will include praise, testimony, Bible reading, reflection, commitment and prayer. There will be activity packs for children. Everyone is welcome – please book your place with Rev Sue Rusholme
ROGER QUICK "Entertaining Saints"
Some of us remember that Revd. Roger Quick was curate of St. Matthew’s from 1996-2000. Since 2013 he has been Chaplain to St George’s Crypt, the homeless charity in Leeds which St. Matthew’s has supported for many years. Roger has now written a book about life in the Crypt, called Entertaining Saints. He describes every day as being a mixture of laughter and tears. The new Archbishop of York has written the foreword, in which he describes Roger’s book as “Vivid and engaging”. Due to be published in September, pre-publication copies can now be bought on Amazon. Please follow the link. The illustrations are by the Leeds-based artist Si Smith.
FINANCE MATTERS
We give thanks that we have received a legacy of some £12,000. This has enabled us to pay for the repairs to our central heating boiler, our organ blower motor and essential roof repairs. However we have still fallen short of the income we require to pay our full commitment to the Diocese, called Parish Share. We have made every effort in the last three years to do so but this year we will be short. This underlines our need to increase our regular giving. Thank you for all those who responded to our ‘Seeds for Growth’ stewardship. We need to continue to build up our regular giving and if you can help, please do so. Further information from Martin Smith (Head of Finance), John Greenwood (Treasurer) or David Robinson
DAILY HOPE
The Church of England has launched a free national phone line as a simple new way to bring worship and prayer into people’s homes. ‘Daily Hope’ offers music, prayers and reflections as well as full worship services at the end of a telephone line. The line – which is available 24 hours a day on 0800 804 8044.
MORE ABOUT LEEDS CITIZENS
At a recent PCC meeting we agreed to continue with our membership of Leeds Citizens, as this is compatible with our current prayer focus: for growth in service to our local community. UK Citizens, of which Leeds Citizens is part, is the largest and most diverse alliance of active citizens and leaders from local institutes committed to working together for the common good.
Membership gives us access to: training, including webinars on growing leaders and crowd funding, to name a few; participation in neighbourhood, city wide and national campaigns; connection to other local institutions and a dedicated, professional coordinator.
City wide campaigns include roll out of mental health practitioners in surgeries across Leeds and improvement to local bus services, locally in improvements of lighting, signage and footpaths to the Beck Hill estate and nationally to the implementation of the real living wage.
The current national campaign is to pay carers a fair living wage.
Citizens UK does not have any religious affiliation but many of its members are faith groups. In Micah Chapter 6 v 8 we are encouraged to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God. Justice and mercy are at the heart of what Citizens stand up for. I will continue to keep you updated (Sue Rusholme).
ECO TOP TIPS – Be informed 1. Are you responsible for more or less than the average UK carbon footprint of 12 tonnes CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent)? Challenge yourself to reduce by 1 tonne this year. Climate Stewards have an easy to use carbon calculator www.climatestewards.org
GRASS CUTTING ROTA - VOLUNTEERS
Thank you to all who have helped to mow the grass and clear leaves for the past few years. We really appreciate it. It makes such a difference to the appearance and safety of the Church grounds. Will you help by being on the rota once or twice a year? My special thanks to Pete Oldfield for organising this rota for the past few years. Pete is still offering to be on the rota but wants to pass on the organising to someone else, again a volunteer needed. Please contact David Robinson until a new organiser is found!
FOODBANK
has a Collection Point at the Co-op in Chapel Allerton. It is a large blue plastic wheeled basket by the exit doors. Please can you leave an item or two from the following list. MILK (UHT OR POWDERED), LONG LIFE FRUIT JUICE, TINNED SOUP, PASTA SAUCES, TINNED-SPONGE PUDDINGS, TOMATOES & VEGETABLES, RICE PUDDING, CEREALS, TEA BAGS/INSTANT COFFEE, INSTANT MASHED AND TINNED POTATOES, TINNED: MEAT/FISH, FRUIT, SPAGHETTI.JAM, BISCUITS, SNACK BARS, CLEANING PRODUCTS, SOAP AND TOILET ROLLS.
Financial donations can be made by visiting https://leedsnorthandwest.foodbank.org.uk
PAFRAS
We continue to support Asylum Seekers through our gifts of food for PAFRAS – thank you for your donations of food.
IBY KNILL
If you would like to order Iby's book ‘The Woman with Nine Lives’ or her first book, now in it's tenth reprint, 'The Woman Without a Number', please search for Iby's publisher's website.
STRUGGLING WITH DEBT?
Free debt counselling for everyone from an award winning charity. This service has recently expanded to cover our area, with sponsorship from Chapel A Baptist Church. If you know anyone who would benefit from this expert service, please ask them to call free on 0800 328 0006.
EVENTS
If you would like to hear about upcoming social events at St. Matthew's (including Loose Women and Men on the Loose), please send your contact details to eventsatStMatthews@yahoo.com to be put on the mailing list. Thanks, Tina.
To submit a notice, please contact the Vicar, David Robinson
(St. Matthew's Church is not responsible for content of external websites)