A Fairtrade Church
For details of this week's services please see the Worship page.
Older items of news can be found here.
Details of the ordination of Revd. Robin Selmes can be found here.
At BMC on Thursday February 9th 8pm
Each meeting begins with a brief opportunity for people to mention those things that they would like to be included in the prayers.
Tuesday February 7th 1.45pm - 'Aotearoa' - Liz Bush
The latest edition of the Methodist Church E-News can be viewed here.
Please pray for our all involved with our church development. The latest information can be found on our Church Redevelopment pages.
In September 2012 the circuits in the area will be rearranged, and we will become part of the new Berkshire Surrey Borders circuit. The Churches which will make up our new Circuit are:- Bagshot, Bracknell, High Cross Camberley, Crowthorne, Church at the Pines, Sandhurst and Yateley, Winkfield Row, Wokingham and Woosehill. During the coming year we will be working closely with our new churches, and the first of these was a Pulpit Exchange on November 6th when we welcomed David Hattersley from Camberley to our church. Full details of the changes can be found on the Wokingham Methodist website.
Our traditional Christmas fair commenced the Advent Season. There were lots of stalls with many different items to choose from. All the money the church raised through the sale of everything from assorted toys, cake, sponsored Carol singing and refreshments went towards the building fund. Many, many thanks go to all the people who not only helped to organise the event, but who ran stalls and served teas. Last of all, thank you to all who came and supported the event. The fair was very busy and enjoyable and most importantly, a huge benefit to the community.
This advent we invited everyone to travel with us to discover the real meaning of Christmas.
There was lots happening in Advent and over Christmas, and our services provided many opportunities to reflect but there were also opportunities to come together and celebrate as well. These included a Christmas Coffee morning, prayer morning and singing at the Bandstand on Christmas Eve.
Harvest Festival was celebrated on Sunday 15th September with a Service of Morning Worship. This theme of the service was "Sharing the Harvest of Love", the church was decorated for the occasion and a collection of gifts of food items was made and donated to Bracknell Food Bank.
Bracknell foodbank is part of a national network of foodbanks, giving out nutritionally balanced emergency food to people in crisis who have nowhere else to turn. For more information about the food bank please visit their website.
The previous evening Some 50 people sat down to a very nice supper and we send our grateful thanks to Yvonne and Ann for making the necessary arrangements. We also thank all the people who kindly provided an array of puddings. Like in previous years this was a combined celebration with St Andrews Anglican church and much enjoyed by all.
To round off our harvest celebrations we had a Barn dance. We had a live band, and a plentiful spread of food. Loads of music, loads of dancing and a fantastic time was held by all. All the profit for this event went towards our Building project.
Splat the Rev
Holly spring junior and infant school held their annual summer fair on Saturday 25th June. This was a fantastic opportunity for the church to build further links with the school community and help to raise funds for the building project. We ran various stalls on the day from Guess the Lion's name, plants, Tin Can alley, lollypop hoopla and of course "Splat the Rev". We would like to thank everybody who helped, the school for allowing us to be part of this fun event and the person who took this photo!
Ross in his Kilt
Bracknell Methodist Church hosted its first festival of food on Saturday 18th June in the Church hall and offering a myriad of international dishes and exotic cuisine. The event also included a variety of themed quizzes. The evening was a huge success with many attending in their national costume. The family event was primarily a fund raising project with monies raised going towards our building project. On the whole, it was a wonderful opportunity for the church community to have fun, fellowship, and to enjoy exotic food in great company.
All the fun of the Fair
1000 people flocked to the Winkfield Row May Day fair where they enjoyed cheer leader and maypole dancing and browsed stalls. This year Bracknell Methodist church ran a tombola and plant stall and also a variety of fair ground games from tin can alley to lollipop hoopla. Alongside this our Minister Rev Robin Selmes bravely stepped up to the stocks to have wet sponges thrown at him. We estimate over 200 sponges were thrown at him!!! It was a brilliant day and all the money raised on our stalls went towards our building fund.
On Saturday April 16th 2011 the Church held an Easter market at Bracknell bandstand. The weather was kind to us and it was a very successful event with all the funds raised going towards our building project. We would like to thank everyone who helped or provided items for the bandstand and everyone who visited us during the day and showed encouragement and support for our building project.
Three days of fun, learning, and journeying into space about sums up this years Starship Discovery Holiday Club. The main hall transformed into scenes from outer space with stars and planets and rocket ship paraphernalia.
The theme of Starship Discovery explored different aspects of what it means to be in space and included the Starship theme song each morning which celebrated God's Love.
More information on this and our other activities for children can be found on our Holiday Club page.
"More to Christmas" was the theme for the 2010 Advent holiday club. The theme allowed us to unpack the gifts of Christmas: Story telling. Sharing, Caring and Light. It was great fun and a wonderful opportunity to get to know some of the children living in our community and who go to the nearby schools. Throughout the week the children were very busy creating lots of crafts and playing games.
More information on this and our other activities for children can be found on our Holiday Club page.
Flowers in the Church
Over Harvest Weekend 2010 Bracknell Methodist Church was adorned with lovely arrays of colourful flowers. The displays had been artfully crafted together by members of the congregation, community groups and other Churches.There were 18 special floral arrangements each of which represented a different aspect of the theme. Every spare area was filled with wonderful flowers which gave an imaginative interpretation of Fruitful Earth.
Regrettably for much of the duration of the Flower Festival the weather was not very inspiring but the sun did shine sporadically and visitors were not deterred over the two days of its opening.
Saturday saw a steady stream of visitors viewing the magnificent displays which the arrangers had worked on for several days This was followed in the evening by our "Harvest Supper" organised by Ann Hamilton which included a quiz.
Harvest Supper Quiz
On Sunday morning at the well attended Harvest Festival Service the congregation brought forward gifts of produce and food items which were given to the Reading Homeless Project. After the service the flower displays were then open again to visitors. Throughout the weekend lunches and cream teas were served to visitors in the Hall by a team of volunteers. There was also a raffle and a plant stall.
The Festival concluded with a Songs of Praise led by Jenny Colby followed by an auction of the flower displays in aid of the church development fund. The organisers report that it was a most successful event which worked to bring together so many members of the community and other churches in the circuit who were involved in arranging flowers, catering or stewarding.
Many more photos of the weekend can be found in our photo album - there may be more to come!
Over the summer holidays the church ran various holiday club activities which was supported by extended services and our local primary schools. Over the four weeks we had about 60 children attend various workshops including a Wii Challenge, cooking "like Jamie Oliver", movie workshop and a scalextric challenge. An impressive array of art and craft activities were completed , lots of exciting colouring, sticking and shaping went on! Games were also played, when the energy-level and exuberance went up even further! Overall every one including the leaders had great fun.