DONATIONS
This month, receipt is acknowledged, with grateful thanks, for donations from:
Mrs Doris Wilman of Fleet; Mrs Gill Kelly of Wells; Uxbridge Choral Society
Remember there is no January edition of ICN. Items for the next edition – the February one - should be with the team by noon on January 13th. Meanwhile the ICN team wishes you a joyous Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year.
TREE OF REMEMBRANCE
CHRISTMAS TREE FESTIVAL, ST GILES’
Friday 7th December 7.30pm – 9pm
Saturday 8th December 10am – 4pm
Following the death of a loved one, Christmas can bring intense feelings of loss and loneliness. If you want to remember someone dear to you, visit the Tree of Remembrance in St Giles’ Church on Friday 7th December between 7.30pm and 9pm (after the Choir has finished singing) or on Saturday 8th December between 10am and 4pm. There you can write the person’s name and / or a message on a star to be hung on the tree.
The stars will be taken down from the tree at 4pm on 8th December and placed on the altar in St John’s Chapel where they will stay until after Christmas. During this time we will give thanks to God for those named on the stars and pray for those who are missing them.
‘CHRISTMAS IS SPECIAL’ AT THE URC
FRIDAY 7th DECEMBER
6PM – 9PM
Many of you visited the URC last year during the Festive Community Evening and saw our nativity displays, including the ‘live characters’ scene. We’ve got something different this year, but certainly just as special.
No more clues - just come along!
A MESSAGE FROM ABBEYFIELD ICKENHAM SOCIETY
We offer supportive en-suite accommodation for elderly people in our comfortable premises in Court House, Court Road, Ickenham. Two fresh meals a day are provided and we charge a reasonable, all-in rent.
There are currently vacancies for permanent living or for respite care. Please call our housekeeper on 01895 632486 between 9am and 2pm on weekdays, for further details or to arrange a visit. We welcome your enquiries.
A STUDENT’S PATHWAY TO GOD
In a remarkably frank presentation, Richard (Rich) Powney, Student President at the London School of Theology (LST), recently told the Men’s Breakfast how God has changed his life.
Rich was brought up in Billericay by caring parents. He wasn’t a bad lad but while still at school he took up binge drinking and continued to do so at University. When he started to suffer from severe abdominal pain it was diagnosed as pancreatitis – whereby the body slowly eats itself up and little can be done to stop it. He received many messages of sympathy, and people were praying for him. One message from an uncle explained he’d wasted 40 years of his own life before becoming a Christian and ended with the advice “Do not waste yours”.
So Rich decided it was time to change. A voice in his head - later he realised it was God’s voice – said “Go to Africa, study Ugandan history and concentrate on HIV and Aids”. Meanwhile, the prayers appeared to have worked and things seemed on the up; he was recovering from his illness, (albeit with some after-effects) and was working to raise money to go to Uganda and realise his true calling.
But another downturn was to follow. On New Year’s Eve 2006, Rich received a phone call from his Dad to say his brother had committed suicide. Soon after his consultant told him that his illness was getting worse again and the planned trip to Uganda had to be abandoned. Life for Rich had reached rock bottom.
And so he found himself sitting on a bench in the middle of Leeds crying his eyes out. But a close friend, Rob, sought him out, and said, “Let’s go and get a cup of tea”. At that moment, Rich believed that God was speaking to him through Rob. And a girl friend to whom Rich told his story gave him a hug, didn’t try to advise him but just told him about Jesus. Christianity seemed worth a look.
Shortly afterwards, on holiday in Croatia with another close friend, Pete, there was another step forward. Pete asked just one question and that was ‘Have you tried every other religion?’ Rich told us, “I couldn’t say I had and I couldn’t explain it – but I just knew that this was right for me. And that was when I became a Christian”, said Rich. “because I was standing up for the faith.”
So, later than originally planned, Rich did go to Uganda. He lived and worked in a rural village for nine months, with a Bible as his only luxury. All the time he was there he chatted to God and every time he opened the Bible he felt safe and secure. “In those nine months I changed completely and when I returned home my parents said I was a different person.
“Another lesson learned was to adopt the philosophy in Matthew Chapter 6, verse 34 ‘Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.’” Remarkable events have occurred since. When he was penniless and owed £472 in rent he asked God, “Please help me out”. Amazingly, the money turned up in various amounts over the weekend. And when £2,000 was required to fund his return to the LST he called on God to help and, lo and behold, that turned up too!
And that’s where he remains now – believing and trusting in God and, by the Grace of God, matching up to that belief with his whole life.
AFN
VIEW FROM ON HIGH
The contractor who has been busy preparing Ickenham’s Christmas tree to look its best for the festive season needs to have a head for heights! He took his camera along, and so we have a chance to see St Giles’ from a rather different angle.
The tree lights are due to be switched on from December 1st.
A MORE THAN FAYRE RESULT!
There were gifts and games galore for the children from Santa and his Elves at the URC Christmas Fayre on 17th November. And lots more bargains were on sale at this annual event that gets everyone into the swing for Christmas.
Our thanks must go to Santa (and the Elves) for dropping in, to all the helpers and stall holders for their hard work, to those who made or donated items for the event (including all our generous local businesses and traders) and of course to everyone who came along to buy.
There will be one last chance for some URC bargains at the coffee morning on Saturday 1st December (10am till 12 noon). As well as the usual cakes and refreshments, we’ll be selling off some leftover gift stock at half their previous prices.
This will mark the end of another successful fundraising year, in which our major events alone have raised some £7,300 for the church and the charities we support. That’s £400 more than in 2011. We couldn’t do it without you!
AN ICKENHAM AUTUMN
A MUSICAL RESOLUTION
Do you ever sing in the bath? Join in with the tunes on the radio? There are many opportunities for carol singing this month (See feature on page 4). And both the Uxbridge and the Hillingdon Choral Societies have Carols for Choir and Audience performances during December, so there is plenty of chance to join in then too. (See below and on page 7.)
Why not keep those vocal chords trilling in the New Year? Come along to Hillingdon Choral Society’s ‘Come and Sing Day’. It’s on Saturday 19th January, from 10am to 1pm at Ickenham URC. It’s free, you just turn up and join in. Coffee break refreshments will be provided.
There will be all those famous opera choruses, the best bits of Handel’s Messiah, and other well known melodies. You don’t need to be able to read music. Singing is for everyone – all ages, all abilities, no experience required!
So make that resolution: Come and Sing!
SODA, ANYONE?
SODA is the Society for Disabled Artists and its Ickenham branch meets on Monday afternoons in Community Close when a good time is had by all. We’re on the lookout for some new faces (ladies and gentlemen). Might you fit the bill?
Firstly, one of our helpers is moving away from the area, so we would like to find a replacement willing to help with teas, cakes etc, and just be generally useful. You don’t have to know anything about painting, just be a willing and helpful sort.
Secondly, if you have a physical disability and an interest in art, (or you know someone who has), please come along and join us. The Monday afternoon meetings, held between 2pm and 4pm, take place 36 times per year followed by a long summer break. We have two artist helpers who will give advice and encouragement, and you don’t have to be especially talented - just interested, and keen to have a go.
If members wish, we can enter their paintings into exhibitions, but that’s up to you. As well as our regular meetings, we also go on occasional outings and have a meal out at Christmas.
And you don’t even have to worry about how to get to our meetings. We can arrange for Hillingdon Community Transport to bring you straight from your door.
If you would like more information just phone the organiser, Vida Chalkley, on 01895 637063.
SHOE BOX APPEAL
Thank you for supporting the Operation Christmas Child shoebox appeal this year. Whether you bought gift items, wrapped boxes, filled them, checked them or made a monetary donation – you helped the Ickenham effort to reach a massive 232 shoeboxes! These are now on their way to Swaziland, where 232 children will have a happier Christmas, knowing that God loves them, and someone far away was thinking of them. We have also sent £530 towards transportation costs.
GILL SCALES THE FLORAL HEIGHTS
Following the article in November’s ICN about St Giles’ Flower Ladies, one of their senior members has been presented with a new challenge. Gill Roker, who has been flower-arranging since she was a young girl, has been selected to arrange the Christmas flowers for the High Altar in Westminster Abbey. There are two such displays; Gill and a friend will be undertaking one each. Her triangular display will be over nine feet high, situated on a plinth four feet in height. Let’s hope she’s good on ladders!
