October 2010

October started with the Harvest Thanksgiving and food festival weekend. The chapel was open all day Saturday October 2nd for tasting and recipe swapping of foods from around the world. Sunday there were two services, and at the morning service the latest addition to our church family was Christened. The harvest supper was held on the 9th October and the traditional meat pie and peas was followed by entertainment from Rev. Alan Hindmarch and his accordion.

The bible fellowship met on Tursdays 5th and 19th when we listened to recordings of addresses by Steve Brady, principal of Moorlands College. These were followed by discussion centred round the points raised by his theme.

During October the chapel was being decorated and all our services and meetings were held in the back room. A photograph of the finished job will be posted later.

A successful needlework day was held on 16th October and the Ladies' fellowship met on the 20th where the speaker talked about the work of the Woodland Trust.

Saturday 30th was a busy day when our festival of light commenced. The day was given over to making lanterns and "stained glass windows" in various patterns which were judged at the party held in the evening.

The Sunday saw services on a theme of Light at 10-30a.m. and 4-30p.m.

September

September started quietly with the bible fellowship on Tuesday 7th. On this evening, and the evening of the 21st we concluded our studies of the sermon on the mount in Matthew's gospel.
The church meeting was held on Wednesday 15th September. The summary of the decisions are available on the newsletter page of the church website. Follow the link to the left of the blog if you are interested.
Two of our young people attended the Wesleyan Reform Union's young people's camp at Hesley Wood site in Chapeltown.
The Ladies' meeting on 22nd September heard a speaker on the subject of handwriting analysis.
The last supper club of the year was held on Thursday 23rd Sept. The menu was: smoked fish parcels with salad; country casserole with courgettes and potatoes; peach fool and wafer. Our speaker was Andrew Firth on the subject of "Old Sheffield".
Saturday 25th was our annual coffee morning in aid of MacMillan.

August 2010

The 14th was another needlework day organised by "Craftastic". A good time was had by all. The skill of the participants was very evident in the quality of their work.

Sunday afternoon on the 15th was our monthly café church, this time the theme was seeds. There were opportunities to plant seeds, to consider some of Jesus' stories about seeds and to marvel at the miracle of creation. People were asked to bring anything which they grew to the Harvest Celebration in October..

The weekend of 20th to 22nd was a busy one; it was our family camp weekend, the camping went well, although some cheated.

Saturday was our annual coffee morning in aid of Martin House hospice,

Sunday afternoon was our

annual animal and pet service, which was attended by two horses and several dogs.

The weekend went very well, Elaine and Dave were kept very busy catering for us all. The Sunday morning service was led by Andy Wilcock, the Wesleyan Reform Union DOC, assisted by some of the young people on the camp.

Thursday, the 26th, was the monthly supper club when we ate a menu of: tomato and coriander dip with tortilla chips; grillsteak with roast potatoes and mixed veg.; banoffee pie and cream followed by tea, coffee and mints. Alina, the WRU administrator, spoke on "Lithuania to Sheffield."

The last Sunday, the 29th, was the occasion of the first wedding in Mayfield for a long time. Although the day broke with inclement weather, it soon cleared up and a lovely day ensued.

July 2010

We met several times in July for a variety of events. The bible fellowship met twice to continue the study of the sermon on the mount. There will be no meetings of this group in August. The Ladies' Fellowship were entertained on a theme of "Two Short Planks", the subject being Irish music and dancing.


We were visited by the Coal Aston United Churches' Choir who presented a programme of "Music for A Summer's Evening". Donations were received for the Alzheimer's Society totalling £140.











The monthly Café church was on the theme of Fruit, led by our pastor Susannah.




















The supper club ate a menu of: Cold minted pea soup, Coriander and lemon chicken followed by Victoria Plum crumble, coffee and mints. Dave Tucket spoke about the Christian Motorcyclists' Association.

Flower Festival

The annual flower festival was held on the first weekend of July. The theme was "The Ten Commandments", so of course, there were 11 displays. The arrangers met on Friday and worked very hard to prepare the church for Saturday morning. The displays were completed to a very high standard and were a credit to all involved. The chapel was open Saturday and Sunday and many people came from all over to view the displays.

On Sunday our services were led in the morning by Jonathan and in the evening by Susannah, our pastors. The morning service included an act of dedication for our new hymn books. More photographs are available on our website, follow the link at the side.

June 2010

5th June was "Quiet Waters", our ladies' day. A group of ladies from our chapel and others met for a day of quiet, creative writing, crafts, walking in the valley, prayer and the meeting was addressed by Mrs Julia Hodson in the afternoon.

The ladies' meeting met on 16th June on a theme of "Relaxation, stress management and aromatherapy.

Our service for the summer solstice on 21st June was well attended and the weather meant that we could hold it on the field. This was followed by breakfast. someone was heard to comment that if this was a "light breakfast" what was a heavy one like?!

Supper club met on Thursday June 24th with a menu of Egg mayonnaise, braised pork slice with vegetables followed by fresh fruit salad and cream. John Goepel spoke on "Pathology for the living".

May 2010

The first event of May was the Hardanger day on the 7th. This was organised by Elaine from Craftastic and taught the attendees about one of the rarer crafts.
The church meeting on May 12th was productive and the rest of our year's programme was organised.
Craftastic organised another needlework day on 15th and this was well attended. On 16th, the monthly Café Church was well attended on a theme or Rocks and stones, and the mentioning of these themes in the bible.
The supper club on 27th was a success with a meal of; Cucumber stuffed with cottage cheese and chives, Chicken in orange and peppers sauce with rice, followed by strawberries and cream. Jennifer Senior from our Philadelphia Church entertained us with stories of Yorkshire and it's dialect.

April 2010

Following on from Easter we had a slight lull in our events. The bible fellowship met as usual on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays when we studied Luke's account of the walk to Emmaus and John's story of the appearance of Jesus beside the sea of Galilee. At the second of these sessions we agreed that the 1st Tuesday in May should be given over to prayers for the upcoming election.
"Craftastic" led another needlework day on April 17th, which had to be held in the church due to the stuff in the back room. All agreed that it was a good day.

Sunday 18th was the first Café church of the season and a theme of "journeys" was chosen. The subject was explored through crossword puzzle making, wordsearches, poetry, prayer, quiet and colouring.

On Wednesday 21st Kevin Jones spoke to our Ladies' meeting about "Familia", an orphanage in India.
Because the third Wednesday and fourth Thursday fall in the same week, the first supper club was the day after, on the 22nd. The meal was served in the church and consisted of: creamed mushrooms with Melba toast, home roast ham and salad, Rice pudding and jam followed by tea and coffee with mints. Our speaker was Inspector Lecckie who spoke of his work with the South Yorkshire Police and the Christian Police Association. Our younger members enjoyed the demonstrations of how to restrain and arrest someone!

The Pastors' Return

We have decided to start a new blog "The Pastors' Return". This will give details of the work which Susannah and Jonathan do, both at the chapel and elsewhere. We hope that you will find it interesting. It can be found at the link on the side of this blog.

Easter 2010

Good Friday communion service was led by our Pastor Susannah and the chapel had been decorated with reminders of themes related to the Easter Story.

Two of the window cills had bread and wine, 30 pieces of silver , a cockerel and a cross draped in a red cloth. At the front of the chapel was a large cross draped in a purple cloth with a crown of thorns on the top.

The service was followed by drinks and hot cross buns.

Saturday was a coffee morning when we met a number of people and enjoyed their company and conversation.

Easter Day was an early start with morning communion at 8-00a.m. led by our Pastor Jonathan followed by breakfast cooked by Dave and Elaine. The purple cloth on the cross had been replaced by a white one.

Unfortunately the preacher scheduled for the 10-30a.m. service was ill so our morning service was led by Brian Kay, and then at 6-30p.m. our evening service was led by Susannah.

February and March

This was a fairly quiet time in our church's life, although the bible fellowship met every week during Lent.
March 6th was the first coffee morning of the year and was well attended.

On Mothering Sunday (March 14th) members of the congregation were presented with flowers.

In our Lent course we studied a Scripture Union course called "Ram to Lamb".
We finished the course by holding Passover "Seder" meal which we believe was the meal Jesus ate as what we call "The Last Supper" and where he instituted the Holy Communion.
The speaker for the Ladies' meeting was unfortunately ill and our Pastor Susannah had to step in to the breach and lead again.
During March our back room was redecorated and the work moves into the kitchen and chapel after Easter.

January 2010

Happy new year to all. The bad weather of December continued to affect our activities, but nothing else was actually cancelled. January 3rd was the occasion of our annual covenant service where we follow in the tradition of Wesley by renewing our covenant with God. This year the service was led by our Pastor Jonathan.
The weather was particularly bad in the week before our party, and the night before several people rang to say they would be unable to get. In the event, there was an overnight thaw and most people attended. The "Round the World" themed event was a great success, people bringing and wearing items from many different countries. Quizzes included trying to identify well known hymns from their original first line, and guessing the 26 languages (one for each letter) of a well known bible passage (John 3:16)
At our Ladies' meeting, our pastor Susannah brought a quiz about Christmas and new year.
Due to bad weather our bible fellowship meetings were held at a nearby member's home to enable more people to attand.
Our Church meeting towards the end of January was successful and we agreed a programme of events for the rest of the year. More details of these can be found on the website. Use the link to the left to look.
The 30th January was the first Needlework day of the year when a group met to pursue their hobbies and have lunch together.