As part of their Stamp Out Poverty campaign, our local newspaper The Press have this week featured some of the work that goes on at Carecent and elsewhere to provide for the people in this city who have next to nothing. Follow the links to read the first part of the report and the second part of the report.

Please remember Carecent in your prayer and lift up before God the people who serve there and the people who depend on the food and support they find there. Pray that we may find ways of organising our society so that one day all this will not be needed.

Last night we were pleased to host the circuit welcome service at Central. Methodist churches are arranged in groups, called circuits, and ministers are appointed to serve in a particular circuit. Yesterday we welcomed two new ministers to the York circuit, Revd Leslie Newton (who will be our new superintendent minister) and Revd Julia Skitt, who comes to us from college as a probationer minister.

The service was led by our Chair of District, Revd Stephen Burgess. Revd Helen Cameron, from our ministerial training college in Birmingham, preached. It was good too to have guests from other local churches as well as the Lord Mayor of York and our local MP who welcomed Julia and Leslie on behalf of the local community.

Gathering for the welcome service

Revd Leslie Newton and Revd Julia Skitt on the steps at Central before the welcome service. Behind is Revd Helen Cameron.

There’s an article in the Guardian newspaper today about how local agencies are trying to alleviate poverty in York. Poverty is perhaps less obvious in York than in many other places but it is still a grim reality for too many folk. The Carecent project, based here at Central, is included in the report. You can read the piece here.

We’re pleased to be able to welcome a Norwegian youth choir who’ll be joining us for morning worship at 10.30 on Sunday, 22nd June. Nittedal Barne og Ungdomskor will sing during and after the service. Come along for a musical treat!

In the Christian calendar, Lent (the weeks leading up to Easter) is an important time. Many Christians use the time to help them concentrate on, or reconnect with, their discipleship. We try and renew our lives as followers of Jesus. This can involve fasting (often ‘giving up something for Lent’), prayer and study, all of which are designed to help us become more aware of the importance of God’s presence in our lives and of how we live our lives as followers of Jesus.

At Central we are marking Lent 2014 with two series of events helping us to consider the meaning we can find in some of the people we read about in the biblical stories of Jesus.

For some years we have run a Wednesday lunchtime series of talks in which a variety of speakers give their personal reflections on a Lenten theme; and that will continue this year, on the theme of People of the Gospels. Talks start at 12.45 with a light lunch available from 11.45.

19th March: David Redrobe (Kirton in Lindsey, Lincolnshire)
26th March: Revd Ian Hill (York Methodist Circuit)
2nd April: Revd Elizabeth Cushion (York Methodist Circuit)
9th April: Fr Richard Duffield (St Wilfrid’s RC Church, York)

This year we will also have a series of discussion/study groups led by a variety of people, looking at People of the Passion. So we can keep it fresh and share the load they’ll be held at different times and in different places. For details of the venues please see the publicity in church; here are the times, the themes and the leaders:

Thu 13th March at 7.30pm: Mary and the disciple whom Jesus loved (Revd Christopher Humble)
Tue 18th March at 7.30pm: Pilate (Revd David Wilkes)
Thu 27th March at 10.30am: Paul and Christ crucified (Deacon Cedric May)
Fri 4th April at 7.30pm: Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea (Paul Carter)
Thu 10th April at 7.30pm: The woman who washed Jesus’s feet (Hilary Blake)

To mark the beginning of Lent there will be an Ash Wednesday service of Holy Communion with imposition of ashes led by Revd Christopher Humble at 12.45pm on Wednesday, 5th March.