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!

Annual Church Report

Received 14 February

If you are a leader of a church group, or write a report for any other reason, can you now be thinking about your reports in preparation for the Annual Church Report.

Jan will be contacting people from this week. The deadline for submission is 20.03.25.

Superintendent's Christmas Message

Received 19 December

The Reverend Patrick Kandeh, Circuit Superintendent Minister, has sent this Christmas message to all in the Circuit.

Shambles Show

Received 4 October

Thank You from The Church to the Burrett Family for producing & delivering this year's Big Band Show on Saturday 28th Sept & securing an extra £500, by way of matched funding, on top of the large amount of money raised on the night for Action for Children (formerly NCH) - our own children's charity.

Shambles Band was on excellent form & as ever, got everyone swinging!

Many grateful thanks to all who helped in any way & attended (including our Mayor, cllrs. & friends) in spite of some very heavy storms during the previous days. 

Thanks again, keep a watch out for the next show as Shambles will be appearing again during the year & never disappoint !

Job Opportunity: Deputy Lead Chaplain

Received 15 April

The University of Bedfordshire Ecumenical Chaplaincy Trust (UBECT), in partnership with the University and the Diocese of St Albans, seeks to appoint a Deputy Lead Chaplain (part-time 30 hours per week over five days) to work alongside the Lead Chaplains to co-ordinate and oversee the development of a vibrant Chaplaincy for the University, working closely with its Community and Faith team, Student Services and Human Resources on initiatives to support student and staff well-being.

Detailed information about this post is available on our website here: https://ubectrust.weebly.com/recruitment.html, including:

• Job Advert
• Background Information
• Job Description and Person Specification

Please contact Dr Alan Kerry (Committee Secretary) for an application form - by email drapkerry@gmail.com

Superintendent's Easter Message

Received 15 April

Please read this Easter Message from our Superintendent Minister, Rev Patrick Kandeh.

Job Opportunity: Outreach Worker

Received 1 April

Trinity Methodist Church, Leighton Buzzard is seeking to appoint a
suitably experienced person to work as an Outreach Worker.
We are keen to enhance our presence in the local community, looking to build our church’s existing community links and develop new ones.
Your primary role will be to organise our monthly ‘Messy Church’ celebrations, working with existing volunteers and guiding them accordingly.
In addition, you will be required to carry out local research with a view to developing other areas of Church outreach within the local community.
You will need recent experience of contact with families and young children as well as an understanding of Leighton Buzzard and the surrounding area.
This is a part-time post with funding available for 2 years and possibly longer. A specific faith is an essential requirement for this role and, in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, it is an
occupational requirement that the successful applicant is a practising Christian.
Salary: £3,600 p.a. for 20 hours a month, with some flexible working required.
Closing Date: 12 Noon Monday 21st April 2025.
Please email: ali.leighton@hotmail.co.uk to express your interest and receive an application pack.
Further information can be found at www.trinitylb.org.uk

Fund for Human Need News sheet

Received 28 March

The first news sheet from the Fund for Human Need has been issued, and you can read it here.

Let's End Poverty

Received 2 January

Let's End Poverty has delivered 500 postcards to 10 Downing Street. Learn more about it here.

Staying safe this winter

Received 29 November

We have received three pieces of advice about different aspects of staying safe:
Accessing NHS healthcare
Scam Alerts
Staying safe in severe weather

Zimbabwe Victims' Support Fund

Received 18 November

ZVSF is appealing for continued support for its efforts to relieve food poverty in drought-stricken Zimbabwe. Please see their latest newsletter, or visit their website for more information.

South Beds Craftivists

Received 21 October

You may be aware of the existence of the South Bedfordshire Craftivists Group as we were responsible for instigating the creation of a ‘town’ of model houses for the Circuit Service on the Downs last year (2023) – picture below – to which a number of churches contributed. Our aim was to use craft skills to raise awareness of housing issues – and postcards were sent to MPs.

We have also engaged in a number of other projects which can be seen on our new Facebook Page.

Our latest project is an installation of woven hoops celebrating the planet – photos below – and again there have been workshops contributing to this in several churches.

We are a group of people, currently from the Methodist Circuit though willing to expand, engaged in using our craft skills to help work towards social justice. Craftivism is a gentle form of activism designed to create positive change.

We meet either in person or on zoom on the first Tuesday of the month. 

On 5th November we will meet at the Farmer’s Boy pub in Kensworth to eat puddings and to plan a service on eco/creation theme to go with the hoops installation around the circuit.

3rd December we will meet (probably on Zoom) to plan our strategy of where we might offer to take the hoops installation to Local Arrangement Services etc around the Circuit (and elsewhere?) or to offer it to churches together with the service we have crafted that they can use themselves. Also on that date we will consider our next piece of craftivism around cost of living etc (Designing an art piece we can create from the items most needed by Foodbank or Noah)

We might use some time in our meetings for reflection on 'why' we do this stuff - either using resources from All We Can or picking a Bible passage to chew over (and we did a bit of quick thinking in our October meeting of the different interpretations around "give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's" as an example!)

If anyone would like to join us at any point please contact Jenny on jenny.spouge@methodist.org.uk – especially if you want to join us in November as we might need to book a bigger table!

Thank you

(click images to enlarge)

Learning Network Brochure

Received 21 October

The 2024-25 Learning Network brochure is now ready! Please see this link.

District Bulletin

Received 16 October

Beds, Essex and Herts Methodist District has initiated a District Bulletin, something we hope will evolve moving forward to be a useful tool for sharing information across the District.

Read the first edition here.