Disciple

The Newsletter of

MCC Manchester

Sunday 13th January 2008

Welcome to this newsletter and to the ministry of MCC Manchester.  If this is your first contact with us, know that you are welcome.  You can take part in our ministry through attending our worship services or mid week meetings, or by using the various resources on our website.  You can keep in touch with us in person, by email, or by text.  It is our prayer that our people grow as committed disciples of the Lord Jesus. 

Today's Service  is our annual Covenant Service.  This comes to us from the Methodist tradition and allows us, at the start of the New Year, to renew our commitment to God.  We heard of Jesus’ baptism and how this event marked the start of his public ministry.  We also prayed for and commissioned our Board of Directors for their work in the year ahead.    

This and That  We are off for a meal after worship to Cromer restaurant in Chorlton.  Please let Jenny-Anne and Elen know if you wish to  come.   MCC in Glasgow met for the first time last Sunday.  They will meet for a simple service of Holy Communion every other week in the Gay Centre in Glasgow.  They also have a once a month planning meeting.  They had 11 people at their first service and Kate Wood writes: “We sang and shared our visions and it was great to see people catching the dream and getting excited about what MCC in Glasgow could become.”  Please keep this embryonic new congregation in your prayers.   We are having a special guest preacher on Sunday 4^th February, Hermione McEwen from the Immigration Aid Unit.  We will be raising funds for the Unit again during Lent this year – we have given over £900 to them so far – and Hermione will be speaking about the work of the Unit and where our funds go.  Please make sure you are here to listen to Hermione who is an excellent speaker.    If you haven’t yet completed our congregational survey please do so! 

Thanks.  Thank you for your generosity last week.    38 people worshipped with us and the collection was £151.  This is on top of the £1500 or so a month that is given directly to our bank account via standing order.

Financial Update.  We have now completed our accounts for 2007 and we seem to have had a very good year.  We started the year with £3,131.33, have had an income of £36,546.43, spent £35,088.74 and ended the year with £4,580.02 in the account.  However, we had some bills....amounting to £3,536.93 and had Moses fund money of £415.52.  These bills have now been paid – they include the “tithes” to the denomination, cost of the AGM meal and Christmas cards etc.  We have increased our budget by £2,000 for this year; our rent has increased and we have committed to give a modest increase in Andy’s stipend as well as set aside £100 a month to pay to go to the Regional and General Conference.  This means we all need to review our giving.  We are asking people to prayerfully consider making a standing order as this helps us budget more easily.  Ask Andy for a form! 

Upcoming Events.  We are turning our monthly mid week service into a twice monthly one.  This starts on Tuesday 22^nd January at 8pm.  We also are having an evening for anyone who has started to attend recently.  This will be on Tuesday 29^th, again at 8pm.  It is an evening designed to give information about MCC and to help us get to know each other a bit better.  Let Andy know if you plan to come along.