News from the Square

News from Beyond

Below, you will find news items concerning the Square Methodist Church, and the groups that are associated with it.

Items are arranged in date-received order, newest first, so once you reach something you have already seen, you can stop reading! 

Below, you will find news items received from external organisations, that may be of interest.

Items are arranged in date-received order, newest first, so once you reach something you have already seen, you can stop reading!

24 Sept: Fresh from the Word

Sharan's daughter Jessica was asked to contribute some thoughts for this 2022 book of daily Bible readings, which is now available.
If anyone would like to buy a copy, please contact Sharan on 07974358013 (pref text or WhatsApp). Jessica can get discounts which Sharan will organise for you. The basic price is £10.99

23 Sept: Church Project Fundraiser

The fundraising event for October will be a 1-mile sponsored swim, valiantly undertaken by Bridget Calvert. To sponsor her for this, please email bridget.calvert@sky.com, or telephone 01582 527459.

10 Sept: Harvest Activities

We now have plans for our Harvest celebrations over the weekend of 25/26 September. See our What's On page or this document for details.

16 August: PayPal Pools

If you have recently been using PayPal Pools to make donations to the church, you should be aware that our account will be closed as from the end of August. We will be finding an alterative way to do this, and will make it known once we know what we're doing. Many thanks to those who have contributed.

30 July: Cleaning volunteers

As I write this, we have very few volunteers coming forward to help clean the church, which is perfectly understandable in the current circumstances.

However please be aware that without offers of help, we will be unable to open up the church any more than we are currently doing.

Please take time to read through this list of cleaning duties and consider whether you are able to offer any help, however small the offer may seem.
Maybe, you could do one of the weekly jobs once a month? - the more people that offer the less onerous the task will be!
If you feel you can help, please email the stewards
(stewards@squaremethodist.org) or ring Lisa on 01582 757983.

18 June: Project Team needed

stephen.c.parkinson@googlemail.com

10 June: Donations and Gift Aid

Ivor Mitchelmore has just taken on the role of Gift Aid secretary, and has provided this document with some useful pointers on how to make your donations go further.

21 May: KSN Mission Hospital

A report from Linda and Chris Berry, concerning the COVID situation at the KSN Mission Hospital Sarenga, West Bengal, India

1 May: EMERGENCY APPEAL

KSN Mission Hospital Sarenga, West Bengal, India
In order to help the Hospital and its staff members during the Covid emergency in India, we are appealing to all church members from the Circuit to make a donation that will help provide the Hospital with the resources they need to give them the best chance of survival. Please donate by Sunday 9th May. All money donated will go directly to the Hospital.
Full details in this PDF document.

27 November 2020: Volunteers at The Square

There are opportunities for people to take on some volunteer roles at The Square. See the following documents for details:

Bookings Secretary (18 June 2021: this has now been made into a paid role)

Church Safeguarding Officer

Raising Funds for The Square

There is a very simple and effective way everyone can help raise funds for The Square Methodist Church irrespective of your income. Please see our Easyfundraising page for more details.

Volunteers Required...

... to help serve drinks after Sunday services (when we are allowed to hold them again!).

24 Sept: Pilgrimage to Iona

St Augustine's Church is planning a pilgrimage to Iona in summer 2022. If you would like to join in, or just find out more, see this document.

24 Sept: Dunstable Rotary - East Anglian Air Ambulance

Dunstable Rotary President David Footitt had the great pleasure of presenting his chosen Charity of the Year with a cheque for £1,500 to Andy Lewis from East Anglian Air Ambulance.
EAAA has been a real success story, and they now respond 24hrs a day 365 days a year. Andy told how the air ambulance had adapted during the global pandemic to carry covid patients, and relocate seriously ill patients to hospitals where they had capacity, or more suitable equipment.
The EAAA have also recently opened a brand new purpose built HQ with training facilities at Norwich. The second Air Ambulance flies from its base in Cambridge.
David said that the Air Ambulance is available to everyone. No-one pre-books the air ambulance!
Andy says “On behalf of East Anglian Air Ambulance I would like to thank the Dunstable Rotary Club for its generosity and continued support in the air ambulance charity.
The support of community organisations such as the Rotary Club help keep EAAA's critical care medical crews flying and saving lives."
Another example of the great work that Rotary achieves the world over.

7 Sept: Welcome service for Patrick Kandeh

The recording of the Welcome Service for Rev Patrick Kandeh, Superintendent Minister can now be found on the Circuit You Tube Channel, or at this direct link. You may also like to note that Patrick conducted the service at the Square on 19th September.

7 Sept: Job Opportunity

We are re-advertising the post of District Property Officer, and attach:
Job Advert
Job Description/Person Specification
Application Form
Applications close at noon on 23 September.

2 Sept: Circuit Racial Justice Strategy

There will be a special service on 26th September to launch the Circuit's racial justice strategy. This will be held at St John's church in Luton at 6 pm. The keynote speaker will be Rev Inderjit Bhogal, former President of the Methodist Conference and founder of the UK City of Sanctuary movement.

It would be great if young people in the circuit could contribute to the event through their creative talents. This could be through art work, poetry, prose, music, testimony, drama, video, or more. The theme for contributions is 'race and belonging' – within that, it is up to you!

We would hope to have an exhibition of contributions that can be viewed at the service and it may also be possible for some items to be presented within the service, depending on the number of items and the time available.

We hope that you would encourage young people in your churches to engage with this; it would also be helpful to know (by 20 Sept) if there will be contributions from your churches.

2 Sept: Methodist Women in Britain

20 August: Luton City of Sanctuary

It is proposed to make Luton a City of Sanctuary, with the aim of coordinating all of the efforts directed at helping refugees and asylum seekers. For more details, see this PDF and this website.

16 July: Stop the Scammers

"Sling Your Hook" Campaign Launched By Neighbourhood Watch To Tackle Scams. See full details in this PDF.

3 July: Action for Children

News for your District from Action for Children. Click the image to enlarge to a (hopefully) readable size.

18 June: Rotary Club of Dunstable

Dunstable Wombles
Rotary International has added a new area of focus for the first time in it’s 116 year history, The Environment.
To mark this new area of focus, members of Rotary Dunstable have formed a Community Corps, for people who want to get involved in projects without becoming full members. President David Footitt said that the global pandemic has made everyone think differently, and there has been a huge increase in people wanting to put something back and make their town a better place.
The new group, named Dunstable Wombles, recently blitzed Green Lanes, and Court Drive in the town centre. 14 Wombles collected 9 bags of litter in Green Lanes, and 3 bags in Court Drive.
Chief Womble Zoe recently collected a crisp packet, and noticed the best before date was 1998! This shows the need to be mindful when disposing our wrappers. We are already planning our next Wombling session for early July. If you’d like to join us please contact Rotary by email “dunstable.rotary@gmail.com” or on Facebook Dunstable Wombles

26 January: Free Dial-a-Prayer

The dial a prayer and news service has been a real blessing to some of our more isolated people as they are able to phone and listen, and the addition of a weekly message from Richard and I will hopefully be an added blessing to many.

I would encourage you to print off information about these phone lines, and post them to anyone you know who may be feeling lonely and cut off so that they can receive words of support and spiritual sustenance in these challenging days.

Carolyn Lawrence, Vice-President of the Methodist Conference

Prayer: 0808 281 2514 Message: 0808 281 2695 News: 0808 281 2478

14 January: Safe and Well Visits

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue can offer you guidance on fire safety in relation to your home, this can include; advice on cooking, smoking, testing your smoke alarm and planning an escape route. We can also offer advice on doorstep security and falls. If required we can give you equipment such as smoke alarms. See this document for full details.