Newsletter – Sunday 19th January 2025

Today we have our Annual Covenant Service, with our Minister, Rev John Izzard.

Next week, 26th January, we have a Tea Service at 4.00 with our Minister. There will be no morning service.
Kerith Church will be holding a worship and prayer meeting in the church 8-9 pm.

Friday 31st January: All Island Celebration at Cowes Enterprise College, 7.30 pm.

Covenant: The Methodist Covenant Service was introduced by John Wesley as an annual celebration of God’s promise, “I will be their God and they shall be my people.” In the Covenant Prayer we offer ourselves in God’s service, in whatever situations we may find ourselves. We don’t actually ask to be “put to suffering, laid aside or brought low”, but express our resolution, whatever happens, no longer to be our own, but God’s.
The Covenant moves into a celebration of Holy Communion.

BIBLE COVENANTS (Answers overleaf)

The Bible tells of times when God has made a covenant (agreement with promises on both sides) with his people. Can you pair up the first halves (1-12) with the second halves (A-L)? Put the letters in the boxes below. Warning: you will need a Bible! (Quotations are from NIV.)

This is the first half of a piece by Jeff Lucas, contributed by Ruth:

“True friends”

Bognor Regis. I know. Despite its regal title, it’s never going to make the top exotic locations in the world list. Any readers who are residents or who love the place, look away now, or forgive me, but here’s the truth – glorious white sand is in rather short supply, the beach instead a mass of unyielding pebbles; barefoot bathers wince as they pick their way across those stones. There’s a broken pier, shattered by a series of devastating storms and fires. Once the home of a fabulous 1400 seat theatre, long gone now, the pier is now a sad, short iron stump jutting out into the grey sea, the home of a tired amusement arcade, with intermittent flashing neon lights and the smell of damp and seaweed heavy in the air. But Bognor holds a special place in my heart.

It was there that my brand-new bride and I went to church, the Sunday morning after our Saturday wedding. Discovering that we were newlyweds, the minister asked me to ‘give a word of testimony’ about my most recent blessings. This being the morning after our wedding night. I blushed crimson red. Awkward.

But as a young lad, I spent some marvellous summers messing around on Bognor’s hardcore beach. Those were days when a twelve-year-old was allowed to travel alone on a bus. My grandparents lived just a few miles from the coast, and I had made friends with Ian, whose family made their home in Bognor. Every summer, I would board the bus, just a few shillings in my pocket for the fare, and make my way to Ian’s home, just a hundred metres or so from the promenade. I was always given a warm welcome, even though I had not seen my friend for a whole year. We spent long, wonderful days, tanned deep brown by the salty sun, our tired limbs restored by delicious suppers served by Ian’s Mum at the end of the afternoon. For a London boy, those days by the sea were heavenly.

Until it happened. It was the beginning of another long, lazy summer. Excited and eager to begin another few weeks of fun, I leapt off the bus and ran towards the street where Ian lived, I turned the corner, and my dream summer turned to winter in an instant. Ian’s house had disappeared, vanished into thin air. Gone. How could this be? Who stole….a house? Actually, the entire street had been swept away, all houses demolished, to make room for a new municipal car park. As for Ian and his family, I had no idea where they had gone, no way to make contact.

That was that. I never saw him again.

This leads Jeff Lucas on to musings about friendship, for which you must wait for next week’s newsletter. Did the experience totally deflate him? Or was there value in it? Has he tried to get in touch with Ian? See next week!

BIBLE COVENANTS – ANSWERS (Quiz overleaf)

  1. E 2. I 3. A 4. L 5. G 6. B
  2. J 8. C 9. K 10. F 11. H 12. D

Thought for the week: I am no longer my own, but yours. (From the Covenant Service)