Autumn: Sept - Nov 2021
WIDER WORLD
Meet our new Student Deaconesses Living side by side Devotional by Elizabeth Moffett
Hope for the future With Open NI (CARE)
A word from the PW Overseas Vice President
Ann Wilson “Haven’t I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged. God, your God is with you every step you take.” Joshua 1:9 (The Message)
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September is usually the month when we look forward to group activities, from gardening clubs and craft groups to the many and varied Church meetings resuming after the summer break. All of this signals the onset of winter. Last year, many, if not all of our plans had to be changed, put on hold, or even abandoned. There were mixed reactions to this – from anger and resentment to stoic acceptance. We don’t like to have restrictions forced on us by others, nor do we like to feel that we are not in control. Yet, as Christians, this should not be the case, and often we are quick to forget that it is God who is in control. When my dad talked about things or to-do lists he had planned, he always added “D.V.” (Deo Volente) meaning ‘God willing’. I was reminded of this recently as I read an article by Jennifer Grant on that very topic. Perhaps we need to understand and acknowledge that short phrase in everything we plan rather than view it as being old fashioned, especially as uncertainty continues to surround the holding of larger group meetings in person. As I write this I am very aware that we, both as individuals and as groups of Presbyterian Women, are at different stages of returning to what we always considered to be ‘normal’. Some are still feeling fearful while others are excited about getting back into the swing of things. There isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach to starting up our meetings again – for each group the process and outcome will be different. By now many PW committees will have already met and planned out their meetings and speakers for the year ahead – perhaps using a combination of face-to-face and on-line methods. On the other hand, there may be groups who are struggling to get started again for various reasons. Don’t be disheartened. Small steps forward are fine so that, with prayer and God’s leading, our groups will gradually resume in a form that is comfortable for them. Think and plan positively. Many times throughout the Bible, leaders who had been chosen by God were faced with seemingly impossible challenges. Yet when they listened and obeyed him, they were able to succeed. God willed it.
Living
side by side Autumn Devotional By Elizabeth Moffett
READ: 1 Peter 2:4-8
The “Living Stone” Have you ever seen a living stone? Probably not, because stone is just stone, isn’t it? And yet, the Bible speaks of such a thing – why? It’s to do with the strength of stone and something else the fact that Jesus Christ is alive. Peter uses this picture of stone as something that gives a strong foundation – like the man who built his house on rock so, when the storms came, the house stood firm, unlike the one built on sand (Matthew 7:24-27). But the stone Peter speaks of is not a thing; it is a person – Jesus Christ. He is described as the capstone, or cornerstone. Now I am not a builder and don’t know much about building works but, as I understand it, the cornerstone is the one which gives the strength to the whole structure. Jesus is presented here as the cornerstone, the strong foundation on whom we can build our lives. Jesus died on the cross for sinners like you and me, but a dead Saviour wouldn’t be much good as a foundation. We believe that he rose again, and it is this that makes him a “living stone”! The resurrection changes everything for us. Jesus defeated death and took up his life again in power, he ascended to heaven and sent his Holy Spirit so that he can be with us always. This life, eternal and powerful, is what makes Jesus the Stone we can build our lives upon.
Pause for thought Take some time to think about the difference Jesus being alive makes to you. Or does it not really make a difference? If not, why is that? Consider what Jesus has done for you in his death, and then what it means for you that he rose again. The Stone Rejected Jesus, as God’s Son, was, and is, precious to him, and yet he was rejected. People turned against him, particularly the church leaders of the day. There are two things to consider here. The first is that we, who regard ourselves as faithful churchgoers, should examine ourselves carefully, asking ourselves if we are in any way (v8) “disobeying the message” and rejecting him too. Do our lives truly reflect the Saviour we claim? Or are we living as if he was a dead stone rather than a living one? The second is that we can also expect rejection. We too are (v4) “rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him”. As we follow our Saviour, we can expect to be treated as he was. That is why he tells us we must take up our cross and follow him (Matthew 16:24).
Pause for thought Take time to consider whether you see your life being transformed by Jesus bit by bit, or whether you have stagnated in your faith. Ask God to help you to reflect Jesus truly. Have you experienced rejection because of your faith? Then ask God to help you to be thankful because you have been called to follow your Saviour in this way. And look to him for help and strength each day to deal with your situation. Stones - Side by Side The good news, however, is that God is actively at work in our individual lives and in the life of his church. We are described, firstly, as being living stones too. This is not because of any strength that we have in ourselves, but because we can depend on his strength. Think of the deeds the Lord has done “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (Jeremiah 32:21), how he created the world by the strength of his word, and how he accomplished mighty things for his people in the Old Testament. This strength is ours to depend on. Also, we are “living” because we have the life of Christ in us if we believe in him. As those who are chosen and precious to God, we have the assurance of having been made alive with Christ as we are saved by grace (Ephesians 2:5). It is his life within us, bought for us by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Then, secondly, God is building us together into a spiritual house. In other words, he is at work in us, his church, as we worship and work side by side and building us into his family, his church. He is making us into a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5) offering acceptable spiritual sacrifices. These sacrifices are our whole selves as we are transformed, little by little, into the likeness of Christ (Romans 12:1-2). As we become more like Jesus, and welcome and encourage others who come to him too, God builds his church.
Pause for thought Can you see God transforming you little by little into a “living stone” who is chosen and precious? How can you welcome and encourage others? As you live and worship side by side with members of your church, pray that you might see how God is at work, building you together on the “chosen and precious cornerstone” of the Lord Jesus Christ. 03
Meet our new Student
Deaconesses 04 | Wider World Summer 21
Heather Healy My name is Heather Healy and I grew up in Bangor. Before applying for deaconess service, I worked as an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) tutor in community adult learning in Fort William, Scotland. I was brought up in a Christian family and from my earliest memories I remember attending church and Sunday school in Ballygilbert Presbyterian Church. I was involved in the Holiday Bible Club there and, even now as an adult, I vividly remember how much I enjoyed taking part in the drama presentation each evening and the group activities that followed. I believe this is when my love for Jesus and an understanding of what it meant to be a Christian first began. At the age of eight, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour and made a personal commitment to follow him. When I was 14, my family went to Belgium on an Operation Mobilisation Love Europe Summer team. We were involved in street drama and giving out gospel tracts and I had the opportunity to talk to people about Jesus. I witnessed many different responses and this experience helped me grow in my faith and understanding of the Bible. Leaving Northern Ireland to go to university in Scotland was a significant time in my life and I knew it would be important to seek out Christian friends and find a church. God blessed me with both, and I continued to mature in my faith during these years.
As part of my degree, I spent university placements in Germany and Russia and, after graduating, I served in student ministry in Vienna, Austria. My interest in deaconess service began when I was a child growing up in the Presbyterian Church. I often heard about the work of deaconesses who served in congregations and hospital ministry. Looking back, it seems that God has been preparing and steering my life towards this point for quite some time. I look forward to studying and living at Union Theological College and participating in church placements. My prayer is that I would continue to grow in my knowledge and love for Jesus Christ and make him known to those around me.
“Looking back, it seems that God has been preparing and steering my life towards this point for quite some time.”
Cathy Smith I have been a member of Cooke Centenary Presbyterian Church in Belfast all of my life. When I was 12 years old we started to attend church regularly each Sunday morning as a family. My parents were not Christians but they encouraged my younger brothers and me to go to many of the children’s meetings in the churches off Donegall Pass in Belfast. It was because of this teaching that I grew up knowing that God loved me and how I needed Christ within my life. During this time, I committed myself to him. In my mid twenties I moved to Carrickfergus but always felt drawn back to Cooke Centenary as my family church. God has blessed me with three children. Jordan, now 23, is currently studying at Belfast Bible College; Brian, 20, is in England studying Tree Surgery; and Jade, 18, is studying Hairdressing at Northern Regional College and has a placement in a hairdressing salon in Carrickfergus. A few years ago, I felt led by God to attend the three-year Women’s Study Fellowship course at Belfast Bible College. I then had the great privilege to serve God and become an elder in Cooke Centenary PC. As a young widow, life has been difficult at times. My faith suffered and, for a while, I walked away from God during the journey but I am so grateful that he never gave up on me.
It is because of these permitted experiences within my life that I now have the privilege of being able to come alongside others and walk with them through their difficulties. I am so excited to have been led by God to Deaconess training. It is a real challenge and privilege to be able to serve God in this ministry. The Deaconesses I have already met all shine for God and my hope for the future is that God will use me to reach out to others for him. Academic studying is a challenge for me, but I trust in God and know he will walk with me every step of this new and exciting journey. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13 I would really appreciate your prayers please that God would help and guide me through my academic studies.
“I am so excited to have been led by God to Deaconess training. It is a real challenge and privilege to be able to serve God in this ministry.”
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Group Focus Joymount PW
Like every other PW group in the province over the last 15 months we have had to find new and innovative ways of doing PW to keep a connection with the ladies of our congregation. We had set up a Facebook page a couple of years previously, but it was only used for posting photographs and videos of some of our PW meetings. However, in late March 2020 when we were all confined to our houses, we started to use the page to post regular short devotionals to reach out to our ladies to let them know that they were not on their own even though we were all physically disconnected from each other. We noticed that our online membership slowly began to grow and, although most of them were from close to home, we also added a few from as far afield as the USA, Indonesia and India. Joymount PW would typically have some 40 women, ranging in age from their late 20s to their 90s, who would regularly attend each monthly meeting and, while that has thrown up some challenges when it came to planning a programme that caters to such a wide age group, it was nothing to the challenge during a global pandemic.
The committee arranged to meet during the summer of 2020 on Zoom to come up with some ideas and we prayed hard for God to guide us before we met for that first planning meeting. Ideas where shared and seeds of a plan sown. September 2020 saw the start of the new session and, with physical meetings still out of the question, we decided to go with using Facebook to reach the ladies in our congregation with an online Newsletter. This took the form of posting a video link on the page around the first Thursday of each month, which would customarily have been our PW meeting night. Every month a couple of our committee got together and, using the Side by Side theme, they came up with ideas to make connections. Before long we discovered that ladies in the congregation who didn’t usually attend PW were liking our Newsletter post.
06 | Wider World Summer 21
“The past year has been difficult. We have all missed spending time with each other but, without a doubt, God has certainly been working in the lives of women in Joymount.” However, we knew that we couldn’t just leave it with the online Newsletter as many of our older ladies didn’t have Facebook. We needed to make sure that whatever we posted in an online Newsletter could translate to a paper version that we could deliver to those ladies each month, especially ladies that lived alone. Our programme over the past year has had a real mixture of fun, serious issues and the usual dollop of craft. We had various challenges and demonstrations, devotionals, doorstep visits, and prayer times. The past year has been difficult. We have all missed spending time with each other but, without a doubt, God has certainly been working in the lives of women in Joymount. Our Facebook membership has increased dramatically. In addition, we decided early into the session to target over 100 women from our congregation with a paper newsletter. This is more than twice the number who would normally come along to our meetings and the feedback has been really encouraging. As we look forward to meeting again face to face, we want to continue reaching out to women in our congregation and our community. The challenge before us therefore is finding a way, with God’s help, to build on the positives we discovered in a pandemic.
Hope for the future
Open NI’s ministry, within CARE, provides healing retreats for those who have experienced loss of a baby. Grief and loss impacts all of our lives in various ways. Loneliness is one aspect of this that affects almost everyone. That’s why being able to come together and share in a safe and confidential space is so important. Creating an opportunity for hurting people to share the agony they have carried is a vital part of this ministry. We find loss at the beginning of scripture, at the fall in Genesis. So much was lost at this point - intimacy with God, assurance, significance, acceptance, freedom, protection, relationship, peace, potential - to name just a few. God not only lost his designed relationship with us, but in his willingness and love to restore that, he chose to give his son Jesus on the cross. Our heavenly Father knows first-hand what losing a son is like and it is our hope that, through the retreats, the staff and facilitators who carry the Father’s heart of love and compassion will help to bring healing and comfort to those who attend. Often loss surprises us. It intrudes, even invades our lives, and no one is ever really prepared for it. Sometimes we can even find ourselves stuck in the journey of processing our loss. In John 20 we read that, while it was still dark, Mary went to the tomb where Jesus had been laid, not knowing at this point the light of resurrection was coming. All too often we see only darkness but our expectation through the retreats is to give hope to those who are hurting and provide a precious time to reflect and acknowledge that these babies were loved. We regularly hold a little service of remembrance and take time to commit our little ones into God’s care.
“God not only lost his designed relationship with us, but in his willingness and love to restore that, he chose to give his son Jesus on the cross.”
Pregnancy loss is experienced in all our communities so the hope is that, with continued support, the ministry offered by Open NI will expand and be able to help many more who have been, or are currently, living with the anguish caused. We have been honoured to be Presbyterian Women’s Special Home Project for 2020-22. With your support we continue to be able to offer compassionate, Christian support in a safe and non-judgemental environment to those who have experienced loss through pregnancy. With lockdown restrictions starting to ease at the beginning of June, we were delighted to be able to hold our first ‘in person’ ‘Loved’ miscarriage retreat just a couple of weeks later on Saturday 12th June. Now that we can meet in person, interest and enquiries about further retreats have been steadily coming in and, at the time of writing, plans are being made for further retreats throughout the summer. May we thank EVERY lady within PW for your prayers and support. We could not provide this beautiful ministry of healing without you. Thank you to those of you who have spread the word to friends, family, or neighbours about the opportunity to attend a retreat and share with others who have likewise felt the pain of baby loss. The retreats are completely free of charge thanks to the support of the PW Special Home Project funding, and we want to emphasise they are accessible and available to all. We endeavour to help everyone who reaches out or enquires about attending, and we are so very grateful for every referral you have made.
If you would like to find out more about the Open NI healing retreats, please reach out to Sarah-Jayne McClatchey or Hannah Arnold from CARE. You can contact them at sarah-jayne.mcclatchey@care.org.uk and Hannah.arnold@care.org.uk. Alternatively, please text or phone 07814 196884 for more information or to book a speaker. On that note, requests from PW’s for one of the team to come and share have been flying in. Please do contact us with suggested dates as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. 07
Presbyterian Women’s
Annual Conference 2021 We hope you will be able to join with us online at Presbyterian Women’s Annual Conference in September 2021
Saturday 11th September 2021 From 10:30am - 12pm Guest Speaker | Sophie de Witt Praise and worship led by Erin McBride & Emma Smyth
Sophie de Witt and her husband Chris have three children and minister in Cape Town, South Africa. Sophie is the author of two books, One to One and Compared to Her. She is passionate about one to one discipleship across the generations and she says, “it has a multiplication effect that God can use powerfully for his purposes and glory. I am praying that the women will be built up and encouraged in their faith and indeed become an army of disciplers... and that this ministry will have ripple effects for the kingdom in the many communities and even beyond!” Contributors to the conference include: Sophie de Witt (keynote speaker), Pauline Kennedy (Women’s Ministry & PW Development Officer, Congregational Life and Witness, Presbyterian Church in Ireland), Heather Clements (PW President), Esther Parker (PW Home Vice President) and Ann Wilson (PW Overseas Vice President). Worship will be led by Erin McBride, Emma Smyth and band. This event is open to all women and is an opportunity to join with women from across Ireland as we come together online to worship and celebrate all that God is doing in our lives and through his church. We come expectant to encounter him afresh and take his blessing into our local churches and communities. Watch the conference online at this link www.presbyterianireland.org/PresbyterianWomenAnnualConference2021
Keep in touch For more information Tel: +44 (0)28 9041 7256 Email: pw@presbyterianireland.org Web: www.presbyterianireland.org/pw Like us on Facebook: Presbyterian Women
Contact: Presbyterian Women, Congregational Life & Witness Department, Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Assembly Buildings, 2-10 Fisherwick Place, Belfast, BT1 6DW.