Hello everyone and welcome to the BUZZ.

THE BUZZ is a great resource that brings the whole Methodist Connexion together and allows us to share successful ideas between districts, circuits, churches and church groups. If you have any stories you would like to share, which illustrate how your church is working out the four aspects of Our Calling, then please get in touch.

You can advertise your church, circuit or district events and news on the Connexional Noticeboard on the Methodist Church website. Here's the link: www.methodist.org.uk

After you've held your event, do let us know how it went. Your ideas can encourage and inspire others to try something similar and I'm sure the latest stories below will do just that. The contacts will be pleased to give you more information.

Best wishes
Lynne Newland

“Trinity Wallsend church steward, Mrs Margaret Storey, does sterling work for the church and she also works with deprived children in Nicaragua, the poorest country in Central America, where she volunteers as part of SIFT (Seed International Fund Trust)” explains fellow church steward, Alan Barker. “Margaret divides her time between Nicaragua and the UK but really misses her family and friends when she is in Nicaragua, where she was over Christmas, so Trinity Wallsend held a Carol Service with a difference.

One modern resource that Margaret has in Nicaragua is her lap top and use of a broadband connection. It didn’t take us long to realise that we could use a lap top and talk to Margaret with a free video link through Skype. As we use a digital projection system for our hymns we decided to put Margaret’s video image on the big screen and rig up a web cam so that she could see the congregation.

Revd Frank Sykes was conducting the service and although he is possibly the most senior serving minister in our circuit (having retired at least once) he is also the most technically savvy, and never afraid to try anything new. So part way through the Carol Service we rang Margaret through the lap top and ‘hey presto’ she appeared on the projection screen. As her family was sitting in the front row it was difficult for Margaret not to get too emotional but she took part in the service for about 10 minutes, giving a quick run-down of what she was doing and chatted with members of the congregation. Everyone thought that this worked very well and we were thrilled to be able to speak to our church steward and have her take part in the service. We wondered if this type of service was a first – it was certainly a first for Wallsend Trinity Methodist Church!

It's amazing that the technology we see every day on our televisions is equally available to us in the church. In real terms it’s not expensive. We already had all the equipment to project hymns etc. and there is a wireless broadband in the church, so all we had to find (borrow) was a web cam and some USB cables.

Let’s not be frightened of technology. It may baffle some of us but there is usually someone around who can magic a few wires together. Where appropriate, let’s get up to date and use it to enhance our worship. After all, the Lord provided it for us to use.”

© Will Sudworth

A noticeable increase in street homelessness in the Altrincham area resulted in a special café-style service in which almost 100 young people explored homelessness in a teenage-friendly way.

Half of the service was spent on a ‘simulation’ whereby everyone was made homeless and had 20 minutes to get a roof over their heads. The nightmarish reality of negotiating town halls, job centres, housing units and post offices, just to obtain the right documentation to get into housing, helped make the gospel message come alive in a whole new way.

We were also pleased to welcome David Batchelor - a family mediator from Depaul UK - who told us about the even bigger problem of ‘hidden homelessness’ and steps we could take to look out for our friends at school.

As our response, we all made cardboard signs, writing what we would want people to know about homelessness.

© Beverley Ramsden

New Central has become the first sacred site in Blackpool to be awarded the Marque of Excellence by the North West Multi Faith Tourism Association (NWMFTA).

The marque is awarded to those sacred worship spaces that are not only open for people to view the heritage and history of the site, but also surpass a standard of excellence in welcoming visitors. New Central is described by NWMFTA as "an outstanding example of a sacred site that exists to serve not only its own congregation but to reach out and welcome the whole community."

New Clipstone Methodist Church is a small congregation in an ex-mining village just outside Mansfield.  Its congregation rarely reaches double figures but it wanted to develop its work with young people.  In the past, the church had run various activities but, for a number of years, things had gone quiet.  However, just because things were quiet, it did not mean that people weren’t praying. 

A couple of years ago, Alan Darlington, member of a neighbouring church, felt God was calling him to give up a day a week of his teaching job and offer it to the circuit.  Alan explains, “The suggestion was taken up and since September 2008 I have been working with the church in Clipstone to develop work with the schools.  The success, though, is not down to me but to the support of others and the doors that God has opened.  There are three primary schools in the village.  In one, I take assemblies every half term.  In another I lead assemblies and lessons, sometimes helped by volunteers from the circuit.  In the final school, we have started an after school club with helpers from the Methodist Church in Clipstone and one lady from a neighbouring church.  We run a range of games, crafts and stories and get asked the most searching questions.  A day’s activity, bringing a class of children to the church to look at the life of the Wesleys, is being planned.

As yet, no children have appeared on Sundays but, in many ways, this does not matter.  Contacts are being made, relationships are being built up, God’s love is being shared.  On paper, Clipstone is one of the least likely churches to be able to take on such an initiative.  However, with support from the circuit, a vision to reach out and a willingness to offer practical support, things are starting to happen.  Key to it all has been the commitment of church members to pray.”