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This month: The Baptist Assembly and Congress
- Lebanon in our prayers - Centre 33
update - St Andrew’s: one year on -
Change the world - with your shopping basket
The Baptist Assembly and Congress
The Baptist Assembly, organised and run by The Baptist Union of Great Britain (BUGB)
and the Baptist World Mission, takes place this year in Birmingham on 23rd
April.
This event is normally held over three days but, this year, the activity is
being compressed into one day. Some 1,500 to 2,000 delegates are expected
to attend.
 During this special day, the commissioning of the presidents of the BUGB and the
BMS will take place. In addition, there will be a keynote address from
Bishop John Sentamu, and various special sessions, including:
► Scripture through different lenses
► Question Time
► Voices not often heard
► Diverse - the concert
The Baptist Congress takes place from 27th to 31st July, again in Birmingham.
This event will be even larger in scale and attendance than the Assembly.
Estimated attendance figures are in excess of 20,000, with Baptists coming from
all over the world.
For further details of these events, please contact Steve Edmondson (01727
837767) or Graham Clarke (01727 857786).
From The Baptist Times’ editorial office.
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BMS World Mission has joined with Lebanese Baptists in
calling on British Christians to pray for Dr Basil Fleihan, the only Protestant
representative in the Lebanese Parliament, who was severely injured in the bomb
attack that killed Lebanon’s former Prime Minister on 14th February.
On that day, several years of relative peace in Lebanon were shattered by a bomb
blast which claimed the life of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Also seriously injured in the blast was Dr Fleihan, former minister for economic
affairs and the only Protestant member in the Lebanese Parliament. Still
in a period of shock and mourning, Lebanon has been plunged into uncertainty by
the events.
BMS Manager for Mission Personnel, Janet Quarry, said: “BMS would encourage all
our supporters and all British Christians to join with our friends in Lebanon in
prayer for Dr Fleihan and the medical teams treating him in France, as well as
all the families and individuals affected by the bomb.
“We also ask that British Christians remember Lebanon as a nation, that peace
and order might be sustained and further violence averted.”
As international tensions increase around Lebanon and especially its neighbour,
Syria, such dramatic events threaten peace and stability for many thousands of
people.
The thoughts and prayers of BMS are with the families of all who have been
affected by recent events. BMS will continue, through its partners and
workers in Lebanon, to work towards bringing life in all its fullness to that
country.
 Now in his late
20s, Nicholas Hadad moved to Beirut to find work from elsewhere in Lebanon when
he was 16.
He came from a Greek Orthodox background but, in Beirut, he met a man who
invited him to a Baptist church and, he said, there he met Jesus and started a
new life.
From then on, Nicholas helped in many church ministries, including youth work
and travelled to Spain on more than one occasion, working in the ports, telling
travellers about his faith.
On his last trip to Spain, he went as group leader and this confirmed to him
that now was the right time to go full-time into God’s work.
That is how he came to be at the ABTS seminary. He plans to be at the
seminary for four years but then Nicholas thinks he may eventually end up in
Spain full-time.
 Nicholas
is supported through ABTS by BMS World Mission.
* Mat and Suzanne Gregory - originally from Birmingham - are working in Lebanon
at the school attached to Dar El Awlad orphanage for 50 boys.
Mat is the assistant principal of the school, and Suzanne is teaching. They have
been serving with ‘Kids Alive’ at the school since 2003, and are now being
seconded by BMS to continue their work for that organisation.
Mat and Suzanne were BMS volunteers in Lebanon before they joined Kids Alive.
They will stay initially until June 2005, with a view to extending their
placement.
from BMS World News.
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Centre 33 update
What role does Centre 33 play in the life of St Albans?
The brainchild of the Abbey, Centre 33 was started at 33 Hatfield Road in the
late 1970s and has always been run on a voluntary basis.
It was somewhere the homeless could drop in for a hot drink and a chat. We
didn't cook food in those early days, but, when we collected the key from Loreto
College, the nuns would give us a tray of yesterday's leftover food.
I still remember Bob, a genuine tramp, and George, over 80, who would cycle in
everyday from his caravan in Bricket Wood just to get a cup of tea at Centre 33
and a hot meal at the Jubilee Centre.
We now have the flat over the toilets at the corner of Spicer Street and George
Street, and we are open weekdays between 10am and noon, and from 7.30pm to
9.30pm. At weekends, Centre 33 is open at lunchtime only.
The number of callers varies - up to nearly 30, most of whom are young men.
Food - toast, beans and tinned sausages, with cheese and bacon - is free.
Hot drinks cost a few pence, if a caller has any money.
The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly, although we don't allow alcoholic drinks
or drugs. Thanks to the recent Abbey and other churches 'sleep-out', our
facilities have been much modernised. What a difference it makes to
someone who has slept rough to have a shower and a shave. There is also a
rail of clothes in the bathroom and we provide sleeping bags and blankets when
available.
What would being a cook at weekends entail? All you need is to be a dab
hand with a tin opener and the ability to improvise. You never know what talents
you have till you try!
By Eileen Richardson.
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St Andrew’s: one year on
It is just a year since St Andrew's Bookshop moved into its premises in London
Road, St Albans - a year in which much has happened.
At the opening ceremony for the shop, Canon Stephen Lake pronounced a blessing
and a ribbon was cut by Councillor Jenny Stroud who, at the time, was Mayor of
St Albans.
The occasion was attended by over 100 customers, church representatives and
colleagues from the book trade. From that time, the Bookshop has gone from
strength to strength.
We have discovered that St Andrew's is an appropriate name for a bookshop in St
Albans. In the 12th century, there was a chapel attached to St Albans
Abbey dedicated to St Andrew. It was used by the people of the parish and
was located on the north side of the Abbey, where the memorial to the departed
is now situated.
We were delighted that the Federation of Small Businesses gave us its 2004 Award
for ‘Best New Business’. The award was presented to us by St Albans’ MP,
Kerry Pollard, in May last year. Many thanks to all of our customers who
voted for us.
One of the main benefits of being in London Road is the customer car park we
have at the back of the shop. For those who have not found it yet, the
entrance is from Alma Road and along a lane behind Palmer’s Garage.
Recently, at the shop, we have introduced Fair Trade products from Traidcraft
such as tea, coffee, pasta, muesli, sugar and confectionery. All of these
lines have been selling well - especially the GeoBars.
The other recent addition to the shop is art.
Much interest has been expressed in the original oil paintings by Neil Thorogood
from Welwyn Garden City which we have been displaying. More recently, we
introduced a range of pictures from Veritasse of Oxford, an organisation which
promotes Christian artists with the aim of communicating the love of God and
sharing their faith through their art. John Stott has said of the company:
“I applaud the vision of Veritasse to promote Christian creativity in and
through the fine arts.”
By Guy Marshall, manager of St Andrew's Bookshop, St Albans.
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Change the world - with your
shopping basket
Have you ever considered how much power lies in our shopping baskets?
And that’s not the power to help us barge to the front of queue! Each of
us is a consumer of food and other goods. The choices we make about what
we buy and how we buy it not just affects our own pockets and purses but has a
direct effect on the wellbeing of thousands of workers and producers of raw
materials across the world.
We make thousands of consumer choices every year but, when we make those
decisions, how often do we bear this fact in mind?
Each time we decide to buy a particular product we have the power to help - or
not help - some of the poorest people in the world.
 Fairtrade
Fortnight, from 1st to 13th March, challenges us to think more carefully about
our consumer choices by raising our knowledge and understanding of fairly traded
goods which ensure the producers are paid a fair and reasonable price for their
labours and produce.
By choosing fairly traded products, we have the power to help these producers to
be released from poverty and all that it brings in terms of poor life
expectancy, ill health, poor education and so on.
So please look out for ‘fairly traded goods’ when shopping for things you would
buy anyway, wherever you shop. These include coffee from Budgen’s; bananas
from Morrison’s; tea from Sainsbury's, and orange juice from Waitrose. You
can also try these things by buying them from the Fairtrade stall at this
church.
Try fairly traded goods for this fortnight and use the power of
your shopping bag!
By Graham & Julia Clarke.
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