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Sunday 30th March 2025

News every week from Yeadon Methodist Church

Prayer Breakfast

Prayer breakfast is returning to Church. We will meet on Thursday 3^rd April at 9 am. All are welcome.
God bless
Pauline

Ann Exley's funeral will be in Yeadon chapel on 4th April at 1.30pm.
Her family have requested that bright colours are worn.
Family flowers only with donations to Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
Refreshments in Hardwick Hall afterwards.

Rev Leslie Holmes
It is with sadness that we share the news of the death of Rev Leslie Holmes at the weekend after a short spell in hospital. Leslie will have been known to many of you as a supernumerary minister in the Circuit and a member of the Church at Guiseley but you may not know that Leslie also served in the Circuit during his active ministry, when it was known by a different name, and that he has been in the Ministry since 1957.

We give thanks for his life and ministry and our memories of him and we rejoice that he is now at home with his Lord, and with his wife Catherine. We hold his daughter Elizabeth and his son Michael and their families in our prayers.

There will be a private cremation followed by a Thanksgiving Service at Guiseley Methodist Church on Tuesday 22nd April at 11.30am.

YMC Annual Report 2025

There's still time to submit your report for the Annual Report ..

A report full of text only isn't as interesting as one illuminated by pics, so please send those too. You can either scan & email them, or lend me the originals by leaving them at Church in an envelope - I'll return them asap.

Deadline extended to 4th April !!

Multi Site Churches: Circuit Update

You will remember the opportunities presented in January to take part in some circuit roadshows about a proposal to change our Governance structures and move to a model of what is called “multi-site churches.” This is not about closing any current churches or selling any more buildings. Our congregations will continue to meet and worship where they are. But it is about streamlining our systems and developing a more effective structure to enable us to comply with Church, Charity Commission and Government regulations in a more professional way and to release the time, energy and gifts of more people in our congregations to focus on what really matters to them: worship, pastoral care, discipleship, service and evangelism.

The proposal has been put to all our Church Councils ‘in principle’ to form two new multi-site churches, in addition to our LEP at Christchurch, Ilkley. I am delighted to report that all our Church Councils have voted in favour of this. In the late spring or early summer we will be asking our Church Councils to confirm those votes and establish an Eastern Area Multi-site Church comprising of the congregations at: Bramhope, Yeadon, Guiseley, Hawksworth, Menston, Otley, Pool and Norwood, and a Western Area Multi-site Church comprising of the congregations at Addingham, Ben Rhydding and Burley, and working in close partnership with Christchurch LEP. There is much to do in terms of the practicalities involved in setting up these two new churches but we now have a clear direction of travel.

More information will be coming to both Church Councils and General Church Meetings after Easter but I want to take this opportunity to invite you to submit suggested names for the new churches. These will be the names of the new legal entities as far as the Church and Charity Commission are concerned but our local congregations will continue to be known by their current names or as “The Methodist Church in…” We have a couple of suggestions so far, which are: “The Chevin Methodist Church” for the eastern area multi-site church, and either “Ilkley Moor” or “Rombalds Moor Methodist Church” for the western area multi-site church. Please could any suggestions be with Tim Perkins by Easter Day.

We are anticipating that General Church Meetings will take place before each Church Council and that therefore, the GCM’s will need to make interim appointments of office holders through to the period of time when the new multi-site churches are established.

Tim Perkins

Action for Children

It is that time of year again. Please could those who support ACTION FOR CHILDREN (the Methodist Church's Charity), either by having a collecting box or by making an annual donation, let me have your box or your gift by the end of March if possible but by Easter at the latest. THANK YOU.

Marjorie Emsley

New Place for New People (NPNP) Steering Team

In addition to supporting Otley Methodist Church through a period of transition on the imminent sale of their building, the circuit has committed to exploring what it might look like to start a new project aimed entirely at Otley residents who are not currently involved in a church.

This exciting journey of discovery will depend on a steering team of people from around the circuit who are passionate about outreach, open to new ideas and willing to meet and connect with new people.

If that sounds like you, please get in touch with Rev Wendy Walker to join the team! You can read more about New Places for New People by clicking here.

From Rev Tim Perkins: By now, you will be aware that we shall have some significant changes within the life of the Circuit this summer, both in staffing and in how our churches will be structured and work. Rev’s Roberta Topham and Roger Smith will be finishing as Ministers stationed to the Circuit at the end of July, having both been with us since 2017. We are grateful to God for them and for the ministry they have shared amongst us and the new initiatives they have overseen and developed, both within the churches they have pastoral charge of and more widely across the Circuit. We shall be holding a Circuit Farewell Service on the afternoon or evening of Sun 27th July to properly express our thanks and to release them to new forms of ministry in different places. Please hold them and their families in your prayers as they move through this season of endings and time of transition. And please continue to pray for Christchurch LEP as they continue the discernment process of seeking a new Minister from the United Reformed Church.

Hopefully you have also heard the news that we have been successfully matched with a new Minister via what is called the MOCC pathway. Rev Annie Baker-Streevie will be joining us, along with her family, all the way from the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church in America, at the end of August. We shall also be formerly welcoming Rev Wendy Walker as a Minister stationed to the Circuit (and are grateful for the additional work she is already undertaking within the Circuit – more on that shortly). There will be a Circuit Welcome Service for Annie and Wendy on Sun 31st Aug at 6.30pm, at which our Chair of District, Rev Kerry Tankard, will preach. Venues for both the Farewell and Welcome Services will be announced in due course. Please pray for Annie and Wendy and their families as they look to new stages in their ministry journeys.

Remember - the best way of getting up to date circuit information is to sign up for "The Lookout" by email. Easy to do: simply Contact Mike Fawcett at communications@wandamethodists.org.uk and ask to be added to the mailing list.

We are now connected !

WiFi is available in the Sanctuary, Vestibule and Hardwick Hall. You should select 'YMC WiFi' for the Network, and the password is 'YMC2024!!'.

And finally … I've just bought a Humpty Dumpty toy from Aldi, it's brilliant, it comes with Aldi Kings horses and Aldi Kings men.

Yeadon Methodist Church

Chapel Hill, Yeadon
United Kingdom

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