Walls rising and a trip to see ten times table

The walls are beginning to rise from the foundations.

It looks rough, and hard to imagine that when fully built right up to the vault of the building, and covered in other materials this is whats there.

But then the lovely blue arch running across the ceiling is in fact hiding the steel framework built over 100 years ago.

Each day progress is being made, and yet while we look forward to the completion of phase 2 , we haven't taken our eye off moving onto to the final phase. So if you know anyone with the odd £300,000 to donate please let us know!!

Well it's an amazing city even at night. Great to take in the view from the steps having walked up through the station.
You go to the Lyceum to watch the Alan Ayckbourn play 'Ten Times Table'. You end up seeing people from the previous nights church council I led at Stephen Hill Methodist Church. As the play gets going its like watching all the worst aspects of church meetings or indeed any committee meeting. I recognised the characters all too well. So of course I chuckled at them and at myself. It was enjoyable enough, though the ending was indeed a farce. Many however left at the interval. When one of the characters spoke of 'the many not the few' I wondered had a certain Mr Corbyn's team based their catch phrase on the play!!The view of the city certainly enriched the evening.

Toilets who would have thought seeing them built could be exciting.

The old UK on line room has now been gutted and the structure for three large cubicles are taking shape.

It means the soft play facility will have toilets that contain baby changing facilities in all three as well as suitable for disabled needs.

It has been a challenge to the builders to discover which way the drainage will be heading. Thankfully all worked out now.

I know they don't look much at the moment but they will.

Why come to inner city Sheffield - part one

I find myself at end of week seven. That's because we are now into a new Methodist year which strangely to many runs from 1st September to 31st August. But this new Methodist year has been different. It saw me step back from my role as a co-superintendent Minister in our Sheffield circuit. After 35 years as a minister, and 23 of those as a Superintendent, I find myself liberated from the sense of, and reality of, being 'responsible' for the life of a circuit. It's been like a switch being turned off and all the energy that was being expended, is no longer being drained from the battery. Now I am beginning to find more time and space to allow myself to be recharged, and that renewed energy  can be redirected to the face to face work of ministry, which is of course where I began when first out of theological college. So I am having to be careful not to refill my diary just to be busy, rather to decide what God wants me to to be doing and so live it out with purpose

This change of role has triggered a reflection on why we came as a family to inner city Sheffield just over eleven years ago. Having served in a variety of contexts around the country I felt  God wanted me to work in the inner city. I had explored in my mind should it be really rural or inner city. But having visited a member of the Iona community in the city of Bradford I was convinced of the need to move into the inner city. So many Christian communities have over the decades been withdrawing into what we might call the suburbs leaving behind gaps of Christian presence. This felt wrong to me. 'Was the church only going to go where the money was?' or 'Where it still had the  numbers to maintain its work?'
So we found ourselves living in Burngreave where we have experienced some of the most thoughtful hospitality, often from our Muslim neighbours, who have welcomed us into their homes and their lives.

On arriving in Sheffield I sought to make clear I had not just come to hold the hands of the dying, in other words not just keep things going as they were. After all it didn't take a prophet or a genius to see that decline would continue if you keep on doing the same old things. I had prior to coming reorganised a circuit and undertaken a major building project and neither were to be repeated.  Eleven years on I have found that I have continued to journey with some church communities who indeed want no more than their hands holding, and refuse to grasp the opportunities to change and grow. I was caught up in the coming together of the eight Sheffield circuits into one not long after arriving (something I still believe was the right course of action for Sheffield Methodists), and find myself in the middle of phase 2 of a major building scheme at Firth Park. Either God has a sense of humour or I keep getting it wrong.

But now at last I can direct my energies towards this amazing area of the inner city. As I reflect I realise I did not loose my underlying theology to underpin my actions and work. God I believe called me into being an itinerant minister . This enables me at key moments the sense of being objective, and not caught up totally in the parochial. So I can speak or ask the difficult questions. It also brings the gift of time to discern what God is saying in a particular place and time. The influence of the Iona Community for me remains deeply rooted to the point I don't always realise it myself. Something of the Iona Community's understanding of what it means to be God people can be seen at Firth Park. Before setting out on re shaping the building we asked the community what it wanted. Christian communities can be too good at telling communities what they need only to discover their modernised or new building continues to remain empty of people. So yes here I am again involved in a building scheme. But we have asked what the community needed and are responding. What is also great is that we continue to allow the vision to be reshaped and so we  discover we are being blessed. By the new year one part of the old Church will have been reshaped for worship, group work, community work and contain a soft play facility for the community. Already the conversations are taking place as to how we are being led on to meet other needs in our community, not least the challenge of mental health. So perhaps the old nursery outdoor play area can become raised beds for community gardening.

What I have discovered afresh is that you can sustain a Christian presence in the inner city. You don't have to withdraw but you do have to acknowledge you can't keep all your buildings. When you do keep a building, it has to be more than just so a group of Christians can keep on doing what they have always been doing. The Christian community at Firth Park is made up of two amazing congregations which increasingly are inclusive, wanting to find a way to serve together the wider community. The prophet Isaiah paints a picture of the Holy City where all nations are drawn towards it. My own vision remains of a building near the  roundabout which is open seven days a week. Where everyone feels comfortable entering because they know or have heard its a place of welcome and hospitality. A place where you will be listened to. A place where you can be yourself and not have to be like them!
In fact not a building but a community of communities underpinned by the God of love who says all are welcome no exceptions.
Mark

A work in progress

Well we have had the builders on site now for about a month and progress is being made.
After cutting away the floor boards and digging out, the concrete foundations were ready to be laid.

So the mixer came to deliver it into the machine that then pumped it along the long tube into the church.

Across the front of the Stubbin Hall where we hold our current soft play days on a Tuesday & Wednesdays 9.30am-12.30

 Through the sliding doors and into the church.

On top of the concrete foundations the new walls will sit.

They need to be firm though the wall will also be connected to the ceiling.








Of course in some ways it appears not much is happening but good preparation is everything. The foundations will soon be hidden as the new internal walls are constructed and the flooring made good. Of course its a reminder that while it has taken us a church community a long time to get to this stage, knowing why and what we need to do was essential. Getting the foundations of this new piece of Christian mission right is vital. 

Licensing of Iain Lothian 1st October 2019

What a joy last night to have been able to share in the re-licensing of Revd Iain Lothian at St Columba's Crosspool and his induction as authorised minister of our Stephen Hill Methodist Church. This new stage in a growing relationship without the traditional legal paperwork!! gives hope that where people are prepared to worship and serve together we can use our resources wisely. This is what our covenant relationship, Methodist and Anglicans in Sheffield, should and is about. Bishop Pete preached well as we gathered at St Columba's before we made our way to Stephen Hill to symbolise that while we have two sets of buildings we are moving to becoming one church.

It's been a delight for me to have spent time with their new joint leadership team and work with Iain. 

Building work

So excited that the building work has begun at the church.

The hidden gem of our window seen from top of the scaffold. Its going to flood the new worship space with light and beauty.

Communion rail gone and space being made ready for the large soft play structure!!! 

We may have a bit of work on the real ceiling to do after years of being hidden by the suspended ceiling. Thankfully not the first stage so we can progress the work, and it will only be certain areas so our fears of high costs may well not come to fruition.

Really well impressed by our builders who couldn't be more considerate and tidy workers. They are getting the groundwork in place which will see new interior walls to create the two new areas- soft play area and worship/cohesion space. 

In the meantime our current soft play days continue to thrive and wider community support for the church grows.

So keep an eye out on social media for up and coming events.

A delightful gem

Amazing to think we have been in Sheffield 11 years and only now got round to visiting Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet.







To think how water wheels created the energy to
drive the whole process of metal making. Ironic that modern day wind  turbines may well be part of the solution to help save our precious planet.

It looks so delightful now, but at the time what a smoke filled environment it was. Health and Safety would have had a field day.

No fancy computers or calculators all written down in proper leger's.

Here the crucibles went into the heat with the special ingredients. Reminded me of my days in the potteries.










                                                                                                                                                            The managers house a bit more upmarket than the workers - so nothing new there!

Mind you they still had the outside facilities!!!!

 

Its a wonderful restoration and so worth a visit which keeps you in touch with Sheffield's history.

On the brink

It's some time since I have posted but now its time to share good news for Firth Park Methodist Church and more importantly the community we seek to serve. The church is now at the point when the building work can begin to transform its worship space into two new areas. The first one which will be completed we hope this Autumn, will see a bespoke soft play equipment area for children aged 0- 8 year olds. Its to be known as Sam's Space!

We have been  running soft play days for sometime now on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. These have grown in popularity, and it can be amazing to see how creating a safe space see children, parents and carers from a diverse background relaxing and engaging together. It has taken some time to raise the necessary funds to undertake the building work but the go ahead is taking place. We still have a little way to go to secure the remaining funds for the main equipment itself but all should be in place by the time the building work is complete. We are always open to further financial support!!!

 During the last week in August we are holding on Tuesday 27th a Family Fun Day 11am - 2pm

and on Wednesday 28th a starter day called Create which will become a post school club for 7 -11 year olds.

So get the dates in your diary and let us know you will be coming.