Today our Focal Ministers, John & Naomi, led our first ever All Age service. This replaces the Mattins Service we used to have on the 4th Sunday, and will be every second Sunday. We had one of our largest congregations for some time, with just over 50 people attending. The Service was really positive and well received, with feedback being extremely encouraging.Naomi’s talk was about Forgiveness of Sins. As an analogy, she brought along the family biscuit tin, and spoke about how she had been caught pinching biscuits from the tin in the pantry as a child, despite her Mum telling her she couldn’t have one before dinner! I’m sure this is something we could all relate to 😊. We had 4 lovely hymns including Give me Joy in my Heart, which everyone seemed to sing with some gusto. “Sing Hosanna” was very appropriate for a Spring morning in Bradfield.We also listened to a lovely rendition of Amazing Grace where we could just sit and contemplate the words or speak to God in our own way.Thankyou to John & Naomi for such an uplifting Service.
Our Easter Day service was led by Bill and Sara Goodman and was a lovely celebration of the Risen Christ. Our Service was then followed by an Easter Egg Hunt for our younger members, which was enjoyed by all those who took part. Thank you to Chloe Marples who organised this.It was lovely to see so many people in Church. Sara told the Parable of the Prodigal Son, getting 3 of our younger members to play the part of the father and 2 sons. We also took the opportunity to Dedicate the Restoration of The Bowlby and The Dixon stained glass windows.Bill & Sara brought a Simnel cake for people to have with their tea/ coffee, to say thank you for the support given to them by the Bradfield congregation. Various other cakes had been made, with donations going towards the kitchen and toilet project.
Rev John Barrett led a very special Palm Sunday Service, which was very well attended on a lovely sunny morning. So many people were full of praise for this well thought out Service, and our thanks go out to Rev John for his hard work.As part of the Service, the “Easter Story” was read by Sandra Barrand, Linda Denton and Naomi Marples, which gave so much more meaning to this special day in the church calendar.At the start of the Service palm crosses were blessed and the congregation then collected one from the front of Church.This was another of our services where we are trying to do something different to appeal to people of all ages and encourage the community to come and worship at Bradfield Church.
The day started with a short Memorial Service near the clob stone at Dale Dyke Reservoir. It was led by Rev Dan Brown, with some very appropriate prayers and a few verses of Abide with Me. About 15 people attended.The Photography Exhibition then opened in church at 12pm, with the lovely ladies from Bradfield Mothers Union providing tea, coffee and cake. Martyn Pearson gave a talk about his photos and his road to preparing the exhibition which was attended by around 50 people. The display is on until the May Day Bank Holiday.Bradfield Secondary school year 7 & 8 pupils had prepared some work to put on display, as well as a couple of quizzes which kept people entertained whilst they drank their tea and coffee.Bradfield Dungworth Primary School children will have work on display over Easter.Our bell-ringers rang for a short time during the afternoon.The whole day was very successful, with people still coming in just before we closed at 4pm. Although it was not intended as a fundraiser, the ladies raised £260 from their refreshments and the donations will go towards our new servery and disabled toilet.
