On Saturday 10th May a group of us met at Colne Engaine School to flesh out the plans for the Mission (very appropriate being Pentecost Saturday!) The first planning session was back in January at Westcott House, Cambridge and since then the clergy and PCC's have been thinking and praying hard about the Mission week 21-28 September 08.

This website will show all the details of the mission and be regularly updated to track additions and changes to the programme. The initial timetable is on the Home page and your comments and suggestions are very welcome. We hope that as many people as possible will contribute with suggestions and offers of help, which should initially be made to your parish clergy or through the Contact page on this website.

The mission week is an opportunity for the whole team of six parishes to be working together with the help of trainee vicars from Westcott House to develop and raise the profile of our existing groups and worship. In our planning we must explore ways of reaching further within our communities in a way that is inviting and meets individual needs.

Keen we were – all arriving early for 9.30 coffee and biscuits and a chance to meet others from the six parishes. The day was expertly facilitated by Michael Beasley who you may have met when visited Earls Colne last year for the Team day ending the 2007 mini-mission.

After a brief introduction and some discussion about the word Mission – (which we are using as a ‘working title’ as we need a fresh and more descriptive name for our work during the September week) our first task was to study John 1 v29-42 in groups, with the help of several trainee vicars from Westcott House. The findings from each group were varied and plentiful and Michael helped us to draw out the key points with lots of discussion.

After our hard work we were given a brief tour of Westcott House which lead us for a short Eucharist in the Chapel before lunch. Apparently it is difficult for students to keep a trim figure at Westcott House as the food is so good – lunch was delicious and filling and many were concerned that they might need an early afternoon snooze!

Michael and his team had anticipated ‘the graveyard session’ after lunch so we were straight into voicing ideas for our mission based on the key concepts we had learned. These were backed up by statistics presented by Geoff Bayliss based on surveys and some questionnaire results.

Westcott House have worked with other teams and parishes on Mission Planning so they have a wealth of experience and good advice. Our ideas included a ‘Grill the Vicar’ session, a competitive sports tournament, Village walks with tea, ideas for Church bells and many more!

To take this forward we need to build a team from the six parishes to plan and communicate. If you would like to be involved, or have any ideas that you would like to share, please be in touch with one of the Clergy.

There is something we can all do! Please pray for the Mission planning group, that the mission week will reach and encourage others in our communities to accept our invitation to ‘Come and see’ (John 1 v39), and that we as individuals will hear and fulfil God’s purpose as part of the mission.

When the action started there was singing, dancing and banner waving with the TOAST band in full flow. The theme of TOAST this morning was the story of Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman (John 4). 'Talkie time' was narrated by James Ridge and acted out by the puppets who brought the story alive. John Blore then drew our attention to parts of the story for us to think about, particularly the woman's surprise that Jesus knew of her situation and the significance of Jesus' promise of 'living water'. This lead to the prayer theme where we wrote names of places or people in our prayers on paper buckets and floated them in the well of water.

We welcomed Michael Beasley who preached at the Team 10.00am Service. Michael and his team will be helping the parishes with the 2008 Mission so it was a great opportunity to hear him and then to meet him at some of the activities throughout the day.

Download the publication pictured here so you can read more about it. to read more about the day.

The Vicar of Gosfield, Rev. Geoff Bayliss, came to our September meeting and showed us his slide presentation of the “Spot the Difference” theme of the Mini-Mission.

He encouraged us to think deeply about the five themes and how we can show ourselves to be Christians. Two of the themes state that we should proclaim the Good News and respond to human needs by loving service.

Geoff’s enthusiasm is infectious and we all agreed that he had given us a very special afternoon. We had chosen a new hymn to sing, with Geoff’s guitar accompaniment, which proved very topical. The first verse is:

We launched the appeal with a balloon race.
For details see the Balloon Blog

These type of events are great for meeting people from the other parishes and contribute to the feeling of the wider family.

We also raised a total of £260 for other charities with tea and cakes around the village. The other charities that benefited were:
Essex Air Ambulance
Breast Cancer Research UK
RSPCA
NSPCC
Local cats charity
Letchworth Multiple Schlerosis Rehab Centre

Listening to comments on the day it seems that Earls Colne Open Gardens is getting quite a reputation with people visiting from as far as Leigh-on-sea, Southend and Raleigh.

The purpose of the Cafe was to raise money for families in Africa and specifically for the Send A Cow charity.

Trade was brisk and kept all of the waiting staff working at a pace! Coffees, teas, cakes, pancakes and a menu packed with inviting foods for lunch kept each table fully occupied in St Andrews Church Hall between 10am til 1pm.

Great fun was had by all and the group were very pleased with the outcome as approx. £400 was raised for the charity. A very good morning's work and we look forward to the Funky Food Cafe's next date.

Jonah is one of the shortest books in the bible and contains such imagery that everyone knows something about it - even if it's just 'something about a Whale'. This day explored the whole book, the whole story and what it means to us in our lives today.

Activities included Banner making, Cooking with Jonah, Bringing the text of Jonah to life, Prayers and Poetry, Prayer Labyrinth, Art and Jonah Music and images, Reporters Club and meditation on Jonah.

The Ninevah Times was the product of the Reporters Club and can be downloaded here. The second page of the NT is full of pictures from the day so be patient when downloading it!

Look at the Piccs (this is quite a large file so be patient!)