Quiz Night
January 29, 2010 by Vicky
Come to the Quiz Night on Friday 12th February at 7.30pm at Costa Coffee (opposite Drake Circus). Quiz compiled by a BBC Quiz Master.
Craft Night
November 2, 2009 by Vicky
We are holding a craft night on Friday 13th November, at 7:30pm in the Abbey Hall (behind St. Andrew’s Church). There will be an opportunity to get involved in crafts such as card making, lace making, glass painting, and acrylics. The cost will be £5 to include light refreshments and all materials.
Letter from the Rector – November 2009
November 2, 2009 by Andrew
At the end of this month, on 29th November, we shall be holding our Service of Thanksgiving to mark the inauguration of St. Andrew’s as a Minster. Over 150 invitations have been sent out to churches, city councillors and other guests to join us as the Bishop of Exeter leads what we hope will be a joyful and memorable occasion. The service is the climax to the week of activities, concerts and exhibitions described in this magazine, and we are particularly grateful to Peninsula Arts and the Local Studies Department of Plymouth Library for the considerable efforts they have put in to helping us mark this milestone in the history of St. Andrew’s.
Our church was itself founded originally out of a minster, the monks of Plympton priory setting up a church on this site in Saxon times to serve the little fishing community around Sutton harbour. Minsters in the Middle Ages were centres of Christian mission before the introduction of the parish system. Monks and evangelists would travel from them to villages and settlements of the region preaching, teaching, baptising, marrying and burying. York and Wimbourne, for instance, have ancient Minsters dating from that era.
In recent years, the term Minster has been re-introduced and bestowed upon a few churches in major cities that do not have Anglican Cathedrals, such as Stoke, Rotherham, Sunderland and Doncaster. There were plans in the 1920s for St. Andrew’s to be made into a Pro-Cathedral but these never came to fruition, and now we are delighted that the Bishop of Exeter, responding to a petition by the city council, has decided to declare us a Minster as part of the 1100th anniversary celebrations of the Diocese in order to recognise the significance of Plymouth in the life of the Diocese and the region.
The original purpose of the minster, to proclaim the Christian gospel in the locality, provides a great model for us as we grow into being the minster church in our own day. For many in our society the Christian faith seems obscure or outdated. Others have had an experience of church life which is far removed from the joyous discovery of the first disciples that we read about in the New Testament. The challenge is for today’s church to live and preach the good news of Jesus with a relevance and imagination that makes people aware of the call of God on their lives. That remains the desire at the heart of all our activities, to make known what the apostle Paul calls ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ’.
Nick McKinnel
Letter from the Rector – October 2009
September 24, 2009 by Andrew
On Sunday mornings we are looking at the beatitudes, those curious sayings of Jesus which declare blessed those who are meek and merciful, poor in spirit and pure in heart, mourning and hungry, peacemakers and persecuted. Familiar as they are, there is much in them that all of us need to hear afresh.
Most noticeable is the contrast between what Jesus calls blessed in Matthew 5:1-10, and the values by which most people live. I quoted recently these ‘alternative beatitudes’:
Blessed are the pushers, for they get on in the world.
Blessed are the tough, for they never let life hurt them.
Blessed are those who complain, for they get what they want.
Blessed are the blasé, for they never worry over their sins.
Blessed are the slave drivers, for they get results.
Blessed are the knowledgeable men of the world, for they know their way around.
Blessed are the troublemakers, for they get their own way in the end.
Blessed are the popular, for they never lack friends.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, once described the world as a shop window, with all the world has to offer on display. But, he writes, it is as if some practical joker has come in and switched the price tags around, so that worthless things have a high price put on them, and things of real value are rated low. In the beatitudes Jesus gives us those qualities of the highest value and shows up the shallowness of much that our society esteems.
Above all, the beatitudes give us an important reminder of the Christian character, of what those who follow Jesus are to be like. Much of church life is inevitably about activity, things to be done, ideas to be followed through. But the purpose of those activities is to help us become more like Christ; to be merciful, poor in spirit and pure in heart. What we are is every bit as important as what we do.
The Sermon on the Mount is descriptive rather than prescriptive in that it describes what life is to be for those who are part of God’s Kingdom. The apostle Paul writes in a similar vein of the fruit of the Spirit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). In the month we celebrate harvest, let us not forget to look at the harvest of our own lives, and ask that we may live out those qualities which Jesus himself calls blessed.
Nick McKinnel
Press Release: Back to Church Sunday
September 24, 2009 by Andrew
On 27th September, up to half a million people across the country will be inviting someone special to church with them for Back to Church Sunday. Every diocese in the Church of England and many other churches besides are taking part in the initiative this year, by encouraging churchgoers to invite someone they know who used to attend church to come back. Churches will focus on extending an even warmer welcome than usual on the day.
Earlier this week, The Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Reading spoke about the need for the Church to be truly welcoming: “Even today I meet people who think you have to be highly educated or suited and booted to be a person who goes to church. That’s so frustrating. How did it come to this, that we have become known as just the Marks and Spencer option when in our heart of hearts we know that Jesus would just as likely be in the queue at Asda or Aldi? Jesus got us started with church simply. Like this: sitting us down in groups on the grass and telling simple stories. Not simplistic. But certainly not complicated. All his first disciples were down-to-earth people who wanted to know what life was all about.”
Churches in Plymouth are no exception and are keen to be welcoming to whomever may come. Both St. Andrew’s Church and Plymouth Christian Centre taking part. Geoff Lee, Lead Pastor at Plymouth Christian Centre in Cattedown said “It’s amazing how many people in Plymouth used to go the church. We’re just happy to be able to open our doors once again to any who wish to come back.”
People may stop coming to church for all sorts of reasons, sometimes as simple as moving house and getting out of the habit. Often, all they need is an invitation to come back and Back to Church Sunday offers the perfect opportunity to return. Speaking of this initiative, Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury added “The Church’s responsibility to welcome all comers isn’t, of course, restricted to one Sunday in the year! But this Sunday in particular prompts us to do a better job of saying to people that we are truly glad to see newcomers and they always have a right to be part of the family.”
Anyone wanting to give church another try this weekend is sure of a warm welcome at any of the following services.
St. Andrew’s Church, Royal Parade:
9.30am Communion, 11.00am Family Service, 6.30pm Informal Service
Plymouth Christian Centre, Cattedown Roundabout:
9:15am Service, 11.00am Family Service, 7.00pm Service with Cafe afterwards.
Mutley Baptist Church, Mutley Plain:
9.00am Morning Worship, 10.30am Family Service, 6.30pm Informal Service
Methodist Central Hall, Eastlake St. (behind Drake Circus Mall):
11.00am Worship, 7.00pm Sunday Night at the Hall.