Dear McCromrades,

          ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.’  That line has been floating around in my head these last couple of weeks.  In part, it’s because I’ve been thinking about harvest-themed passages for our Harvest services on the 12^th.   But that’s not the main reason. 

          And it’s not because I’ve been walking around our parish this month with our elders, meeting all the people who live within our area of South Belfast., drooling a bit as I dream about fitting them all into our pews.  True, there are plenty of people out there, and relatively few of us are actively encouraging them to come and join.  But that’s not why this verse is sticking with me.  The harvest I have in mind isn’t about numbers on the rolls or bodies in the pews. 

          What I believe Christ is referring to in this passage (Matthew 9:37) is a Spiritual harvest: a reaping of the life that constantly nourishes.  And what I think this passage is telling us is that our goal at McCracken shouldn’t be to simply get more groups of people into the church; our goal should be to act less like a group of people and more like a church.  A church isn’t just a club.  A church is where the faithful toil and struggle to be the community God created us to be, to actively pursue a life lived for others and not for ourselves.  It is also where believers share the good news that God is indeed with us.   If we as a people aren’t living that sort of life, if we’re not enjoying those fruits of the Spirit, if we’re not distinctly different than other organisations out there in the world, then it doesn’t matter how many people join us – we’ll all still be hungry. 

But if we’re willing to put in the work, we will receive so much more.  If we see ourselves not just as part of God’s collected crop safely bundled and put to the side, but rather as the labourers sent out to reap a new life, then there is much more for us to gain.  The harvest that God provides – a ripe, abundant life full of possibility and purpose – is always there, and always plentiful.  Indeed, this is the harvest that is never depleted regardless of how many partake.  It is disheartening to think that many of us are sitting idle, not engaging in the Spiritual life that is ours to share. 

          Of course we want more labourers to join us.  Of course we want our pews packed with new folks.  But before we can effectively welcome more people in, we ourselves have to get better at being labourers.  If there’s one thing I wish we did better at McCracken, it is engaging with one another about what it is we believe, what we know God has done for us, what doubts we still have, what signs of the kingdom we have seen.  It is there, in that work that God’s glorious harvest lies. 

And believe me: the harvest is plentiful.  The truth of what God has done in this place and through McCracken is there for all to see.  What we need is for more of us to head into this field, expecting a bountiful harvest to be found. 

Your fellow labourer,

Alex

SERVICES IN OCTOBER

Sunday 5th October    Morning Worship 11am Rev Alex Wimberly    World Communion Sunday

                                      ‘Talk Back’Evening Service, Dowling Hall 7pm

Sunday 12th October  Morning Worship 11am Harvest Sunday

                                      Rev Roger Purce, Groomsport Presbyterian

                                      Harvest Sunday Evening Service 7pm  Rev Alex  Wimberly followed  by Harvest Supper

Sunday 19th October  Morning Worship 11am Rev Alex Wimberly

Sunday 26thOctober   Morning Worship 11am Rev Alex Wimberly

Harvest at McCracken

Harvest Thanksgiving Services are on Sunday 12th
October at 11am and 7pm. 

The guest preacher in the morning is the Rev Roger Purce from Groomsport Presbyterian Church.

Everyone is invited to Harvest Supper after the evening service

Day of Reflection with St. John’s

On Saturday, 25^th October, Canon John Mann of St. John’s and Alex will lead participants from both congregations in an afternoon of guided reflection.  From 2-5pm, we will meet in the church at McCracken to focus ourselves on our shared ministry in South Belfast.  The programme will be designed for people to come and go, or remain throughout – with plenty of time for silence and prayer.  A cup of tea and a chance for more relaxed fellowship will follow the time of meditation.  We hope you will join us. 

Congregational Committee Election
In the next few weeks, nominees for the Congregational Committee will be submitted for Session's consideration.  All current members of the committee are eligible for re-election, but a full list of eligible candidates will be posted in the church vestibule.  (If you believe that your name has been erroneously left off that list, please contact Rosemary or Alex.)  Please take time in prayer to consider who you feel would best represent the congregation on the committee, and submit those names in writing to Rosemary Simpson, our clerk of Session.  The Session will compile a final slate of candidates and bring those names to the congregation for a vote.  All Session members are ex-officio members of committee and need not be nominated.  Thank you

Axis dates

Tues 7^th October, 8.15 pm, at Julie Dick’s house (90431589)

Tues 21^st October, 8.15 pm, at Brian Henderson’s house (90666484)

Mon 3^rd November, 8.15 pm, at Juliet Mills’ house (90629958)

 All welcome!

Congregational Lunch at Newforge. 
Please keep Sunday 18th January 2009 free so that you can join us at a Congregational Lunch at Newforge Country Club. This will be a Carvery and we hope as many of you as possible and all ages will be able to come as this is at the start of our 75th Anniversary Celebrations. More details concerning costs, times and booking forms will be available in next month's chronicle but please note it in your new diaries and calenders.

Thank you very much to those members who kindly supplied the flowers for the church during the month of August:-  Peggy Ramsey, Rosemary Simpson, Netta Hanley, Alison

Williamson and Denise Hughes

McCRACKEN CHURCH CALENDAR OCTOBER 2008

The Presbyterian Women or PW of McCracken Church have set out their programme for the 2008 – 2009 season.  Meetings are held on the first and third Thursday in the month at 10.30am, usually in the Minor Hall.  We hope that this programme which includes a number of “Open Meetings”, will prove both interesting and topical.  We are really keen to appeal to people inside and outside the church both to ladies and gentlemen and would encourage new members and visitors to join us and become more involved in the work of the church.   Our organisation does a great deal towards the support and encouragement of ourmissionaries and is most welcoming to those who join us.

SO COME ALONG – YOU ARE NOT SIGNED UP FOR LIFE!

Please see our new programme below

DIARY DATES

Drama Society. The Drama Society continue to meet every Thursday evening in the committee room of the Dowling Hall at 7.30pm.
We are reading a variety of plays to choose one for our March production. ( Friday 6th & Saturday 7th March for those of you who are already filling next year's diary). New members will be very welcome and we can promise a lot of laughter on Thursday nights.

Coffee Drop-In morning every Wednesday  10.30 - 12.30

McCracken Luncheon Circle  The luncheon dates for October are Tuesday 14th and Tuesday 28th.  The lunch will be served at 12.30pm sharp in the Dowling Hall.  If you would like to join us or cancel your place please phone Jenny Smyth 9066 5837 or Maureen Carson 9020 2504.

PWA meetings will resume on Thursday 2nd October at 10.30am with a talk from the Personal Shopper at the House of Fraser.  This is a morning not to be missed!!  Come along and bring your friends. Another interesting and varied programme has been organised for the coming year  

Harvest Thanksgiving Service will be held on Sunday 12th October.  All donations of produce and help with decorating the church will be very much appreciated. Donations of pot plants and flowers as well as fruit and vegetables will be most welcome. Monetary donations will also be very acceptable. Decorating of the church will take place on Friday 10th October at 6.30pm

Womens Bible Study  resumes on 13th October. This group meets from 2pm until 3pm.  The second meeting of the month is on 27th October.  New members are very welcome.

FORWARD DATES

Quiz Night   with Taughmonagh Presbyterian Church,  on Friday 14th November at 7.45pm in the Dowling Hall. 

PW invite you to a fund raising lunch for new curtains for the Minor Hall on Sunday 30th November after the morning service.  More details in next month’s Chronicle

Junior Outreach

First of all we need to begin with with lots of thank-yous! We want to say thank-you very much to all who helped and supported our coffee morning in June to raise money for the P.C.I project in Pakistan. Thank-you too to the Outreach Committee who again matched us  pound for pound so that we were able to give a grand total of £1,200; the staff at Church House seemed very pleased with our efforts. We also want to thank the Outreach Committee for the lovely lunch after our prize- giving service. That brings us to more thank-yous!

Thank-you very much to Rosemary Simpson for the beautiful inscribed hymn book that she gave to each of us. Thank-you also to ''McCracken'' for our lovely prizes. the new Bible Class all got a New Century Youth Bible to bring along on Sunday mornings. This brings us to our last thank-you of the moment; thank-you to Alex for taking our new Bible Class. So far it has been great fun and we hope to learn a lot.

So whats new?

* The Bible Class - 9:45 - 10:30 in the committee room on the new sofas! 10:30 - 10:55 Goodies in the kitchen. Open to all from year 10 - 12ish.

* P.C.I Youth Project 08/09- is for Malawi a country close to McCracken's  heart. We are thinking very hard of a good fundraiser idea for this year. 

Date for your Diary

* Gift service and Nativity Play- 14th Dec 08 at 11am

QUIZ NIGHT

Following the success of last year's quiz with Taughmonagh Presbyterian Church, we are having another quiz night on
Friday14th November at 7.45pm in the Dowling Hall.  Once again Taughmonagh will be providing an interlude of  gospel singing and light refreshments will be served.  Winston Irwin will be our quiz master.  It is open to all age groups and this year we are asking for donations to Christian Aid. Do come along and join us and enter into the spirit of  friendly (?) competition.

Outreach Committee News

As I write this on a wet (surprise surprise!) Monday morning, I have just heard the news that yet another American bank is in trouble and has crashed, and the stock markets, to put it mildly, are a little wobbly.  As we all know, no one in Northern Ireland can either sell their house or buy a new one, and those working in the construction and related industries are having a hard time.  Worldwide we hear daily of war, persecution, pestilence and famine, not to speak of hurricanes, typhoons and tornados.  We could be forgiven for feeling a little downhearted –AND YET - we have so much to give thanks for.  I don’t think any of us are starving or worrying how we can clothe our children and pay for their treatment when they get ill, and we are certainly not short of water.  In McCracken our renewed vitality means that we are gaining spiritual strength and looking to God to define his mission for us as a congregation.  So let’s cheer up, let’s remember our recent success, such as our Sunday School raising so much for the PCI youth and children’s project in Pakistan, and Anna Scott who got us once again into the Christian Aid magazine with her award – winning photograph, entitled “you add, we multiply”.  We mustn’t forget our “web masters”, James Porter, Peter and Rachael Watters, and Denise Hughes who got us live at www.mccrackenchurch.org (Rosemary has already had some enquiries through our website).  Let’s take pride also in our renewed warm fellowship with Taughmonagh, now named “Arnold Frank Memorial Church”.  Like ourselves, they were originally developed as a church extension initiative and, like us, they owe their building to a generous legacy left to PCI.  I am pleased to say that they want to join us for our quiz night on November 14^th, organised by our functions committee, at which the Taughmongh praise group will “sing Gospel”.  During the summer we had an email from Stephen Cowan in Kenya, saying how much McCracken’s support meant to the six school girls whose fees we pay.  We also heard from the medical director of the David Gordon Memorial Hospital in Livingstonia thanking us for our support.  Alex has heard from Bishop Vinod in Gujarat, assuring us of his continuing interest in and prayers for McCracken and giving us news of the congregation in Wagphur who are themselves building a new church to serve their farming community.  They really appreciated our financial help.  During the summer Geoff, Jenny and Eden Lamb visited and helped Susan in Xian at a time which was very stressful for all Christians and foreigners in China because of the Olympics.  We already have news of next year’s Sunday School project which is to develop a curriculum for Sunday School and Bible class children in Malawi and to train the teachers in the new curriculum.  We have one more envelope in our envelope pack which we can use before the end of the year.  Let us hope that through your generosity we can continue to support all those who, unbeknown to them, enrich our congregational life so much.

Returning to the gloom and mess around us in the world, I am reminded of a children’s hymn, which we all learned in Sunday School.  Like so many hymns for children, I think it gets to the nitty-gritty.  So let’s just remind ourselves that

Jesus bids us shine
With a pure, clear light,
Like a little candle
Burning in the night.
In this world of darkness
So let us shine
You in your small corner,
And I in mine.

and don’t you think that the last verse says it all!

Jesus bids us shine,
Then, for all around;
Many kinds of darkness
In the world are found
Sin and want and sorrow;
So we must shine
You in your small corner,
And I in mine.

May we in McCracken be a shining beacon not only in Upper Malone but in the whole world around us.

Ingrid

(on behalf of the Outreach Committee)

MISSION INVOLVEMENT

The Board of Mission Overseas’s autumn ‘Celebration of Global Mission ‘ evenings are taking place as follows.  Both evenings will commence at 7.45 pm and be over by 9.30 pm.

Tuesday, 28th October – Church House, Belfast

Thursday, 30th October – First Cookstown Presbyterian Church

The theme for these evenings is ‘Meekness, Majesty and Mission’ and speakers will include Graham and Pat Connor – Asia; Csaba & Ilona Veres – Romania (Church House venue only); Stephen and Angelina Cowan – Kenya (First Cookstown venue only); Rev Eric & Mrs Shumailia Sarwar – Pakistan (visa permitting); Joan Hanna - Indonesia, and members of the BMO 2008 Team to Ukraine. 

Prayer Points –

·                    For all those involved in preparing for each evening.

·                    That as publicity for these events reaches congregations many people will be encouraged to attend one of these celebrations.

WEDNESDAY DROP - IN

TIME TO SPARE ON A WEDNESDAY MORNING.

FEEL LIKE A CHAT OVER COFFEE.  WHY NOT CALL IN TO THE MINOR HALL FOR A CUPPA.

COFFEE WILL BE AVAILABLE EVERY WEDNESDAY 10.30 - 12.00   

STAY FOR 10 MINS, HALF AN HOUR , TWO HOURS - THE CHOICE IS YOURS 

SEE YOU THERE  ALL ARE WELCOME