Chilli, Full English and Jaffa Cakes

Holy Trinity Church, Huddersfield,
Friday 11th May to Sunday 13th May 2018

Three visits to our church building, each with its own food connection.

Chilli

Chilli was served on Friday evening, the musicians and technicians of the church, from both the traditional and the contemporary service, got together to eat and chat about church music. I was sat with two from the traditional side, and we lost the quiz narrowly on a tiebreak. We were united despite differing styles of music.

Full English

Saturday morning, 8.30am and the men’s breakfast, held every two months.

Toby, studying to be a priest at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield has been with us for a while, but his time at the college will be over soon and he will soon be leaving the college and leaving us to be made deacon and take up a post in a leafy southern suburb. I hope he can deal with the culture shock.

He told us of his call to ministry, which was not what he expected as he had told his school careers master that he wanted to be a professional drummer.

Jaffa Cakes

My impression of the Sunday service, I attended the later contemporary one,  was of a few people spoke from the front that God was speaking to them, and later a time to listen to God as a song was sung by worship leader Ben. Also that I sat for the whole service because my arthritic foot was playing up. Unusual that, the arthritis pain usually strikes at night and keeps me awake, but I had a good night’s sleep before church. I also remember there were Jaffa cakes with the after service coffee.

You know the kind of day, when God is obviously speaking to someone else, but it is not you.  What I do remember about the sermon, given by Curate Steve, is that it was on Exodus 19 and was about waiting. The children of Israel were not a people until God called them out of Egypt. They had seen the miracles of the plagues, the Red Sea had parted and they had walked through, they had seen God provide manna, quails and water, and here they were at the foot of the mountain where it all started with God appearing in a burning bush to Moses. There was significantly more fire and noise on the mountain this time.

Only Moses and Aaron could go onto the mountain, everyone else had to keep off. The holiness of God means that we cannot approach him, but God’s holiness also means that he approaches us, comes looking for us. The sermon ended with an appeal, is God approaching you? Do you need to respond. I extend that appeal to the readers of this blog.