Ara was one of the first to arrive

Odette, June and Angela

Rachel and Pam

Elaine and Cynthia

As usual, different people had signed up to provide a variety of Starters, Main Courses and Desserts and we had a good range of food on offer.

Tables set out for the meal

With only a handful of people unable to make it, we took the opportunity to take a group photo of those there and Phil Bray balanced somewhat precariously on the window sill in order to get the image below.

Group shot

Once the photo had been taken, it was time to get on with the food!

Brian and Judith manning the drinks

Queuing for the starters

Getting stuck in to the main courses

A good selection of desserts was on offer.

Queuing up for desserts

Paul is spotted with a full bowl

Angela, Dorothy and Jennifer

Alice, Ben and Lesley

After the food had been consumed, as is traditional, the men took charge of the washing and drying up.

Holly and Nathan

Nathan and Holly in the new green chairs

After the meal, Paul had organised a small group to sing a comical variation on the song My Favourite Things, centred around old age.

Paul's comical choir

We also did some more singing, before Ben took to the stage to play a couple of tracks on his Dad’s guitar.

Ben

Overall it was a great evening and a good chance to spend some time together informally.

Below is a recording of the conference:

Order of Service

Around 45 people gathered at Parkside today to say farewell to our good friend Beryl Good who passed away on 19th January after a gradual decline in health over a number of years.

The service was taken by David Angell, who welcomed those attending and introduced the first hymn Immortal, Invisible, God only wise before opening the service with prayer

After the prayer, Beryl’s daughter-in-law, Yvonne, came up and sung Steal away to Jesus.

David read through an appreciation of Beryl’s life written by her son, Stephen.

Beryl Evelyn Good was born in 1921 in Maidenhead as Beryl Free.  She moved, at the age of 3, to Mossy Vale, where she spent the next 82 years before moving to Bethany Residential Home in Tadley.

Educated initially by her aunts, she later attended Elmslie School in Castle Hill until the age of 17.

Some of those at Holmanleaze, around 1936. Beryl is at the front with her hair in plaits.

War broke out when Beryl was 18 and she joined the Womans Royal Air Force as a Radar Operator, based near Ventnor in the Isle of Wight and it was there that she met her husband to be, Daniel Good.  They were married after the war, in Boscombe, in September 1946.

Their three sons, Christopher, Andrew and Stephen soon arrived and Beryl looked after the family while Dan was undergoing teacher-training.

In 1961 she took a job as a Wages Clerk at Maidenhead and District Laundry where she worked until she was well into her 80s.

Beryl with her good friend Iris Smith at Parkside's 50th anniversary celebrations in 2006.

In 1989 she lost both her husband, Dan, and son Christopher soon afterwards.

She had five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

She attended the churches in Maidenhead all of her life – beginning at the old Drill Hall, before moving to Holmanleaze and finally to Parkside Christian Fellowship when the hall opened in 1956.

She moved to Bethany in 2007 and lived there peacefully for the rest of her life.

David read from 1 Peter 1:3-4, 18-20 and spoke briefly on the subject of hope under the headings The Features of Hope, The Foundations of Hope and The Focus of Hope.

The Features of Hope: Described by Peter as a living hope.  Beryl enjoyed the same living hope in a living Saviour who was her companion all her life.  It was also a practical hope that supported Beryl in every aspect of her life.  In addition, it was a certain hope that has now been realised as she is now with Christ.

The Foundations of Hope: The Christian’s hope rests not on what may happen in the future but rather what has happened in the past – the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  God’s Son paid the penalty of sin and all who believe on him and trust him may know their sins forgiven – as Beryl did.

The Focus of Hope: Unlike hope in the world, The Christian enjoys a boundless and limitless hope that can never be defeated or diminished.  Beryl’s hope was focused on an inheritance reserved in heaven rather hoping and relying on things on earth.

David introduced the final hymn, Just a closer walk with Thee before closing the service with prayer.

A short committal service, led by David Sampson, took place in brilliant sunshine up at nearby Braywick Cemetery, where we finally laid Beryl to rest.

Finally, refreshments were served at nearby Maidenhead Rugby Club, where Beryl’s son, Chris, used to play in years gone by.

 _______________________________________________________________

You can listen to the service by clicking below.  Please note that the service begins some 50 seconds into the recording, once Beryl and the family had entered the hall.

This month it was hosted by David Hedges and began with the singing of I will sing the wondrous story and prayer.

Afterwards, he briefly explained about the series of Family Services throughout 2012 and showed the dates for the next couple of them.

Following this, we had a Memory Verse for the month to learn:
Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
- Isaiah 55 vs. 6

This was followed by a ‘Battleships’ type quiz entitled The Lost Coins.

The 'Lost Coins' Quiz

After the quiz the children enjoyed a number of their favourite choruse from Sunday Club before Paul Cogger came up to speak using the story of the Lost Coin as his guide.

Paul spoke simply and used examples of different things that we can lose – money, toys and keys.

He brought along a model tractor which was one of his prized possessions and talked about how we would search high and low if we lost something of real value to us.  This linked into the story of the lost coin which would also have been something very valuable in Jesus’ day.

Paul finished by pointing out that we are also ‘lost’ if we don’t know the Lord Jesus as our personal Saviour, before closing in prayer.

Soup and crusty bread was served in the back room following the service.

Our next planned Family Service will be on 19th February 2012.

Below are live tweets from the evening, as well as a recording of the conference:

Tonight we're live tweeting from our third monthly conference on #1Timothy with John Lee looking at chapter 3.—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) January 14, 2012

John begins by reading the whole of #1Timothy 3.—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) January 14, 2012

'Bishops', in this context are seen as being overseers. 'Elders' are seen to be mature in years and the faith. #1Timothy—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) January 14, 2012

Bishops, elders and shepherds are different words for the same role of overseers. #1Timothy3—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) January 14, 2012

Elders of a local church are always mentioned in the plural and are always male. Their role is to 'take care of the church' and 'rule well'.—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) January 14, 2012

Deacons are taken from a Greek word and are defined as 'servants in relation to their work'. #1Timothy3—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) January 14, 2012

Deacons are split into two roles – 'deacons of the church' and 'deacons of Christ' and can be either male or female. #1Timothy3—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) January 14, 2012

You can listen to the conference below:

Invitation for this year's Carols by Candlelight

Afterwards we regrouped and shared a coffee in Costa Coffee before heading home.

This is the first time that we have held a carol service on Christmas Eve and we were delighted with the response.  Earlier in the week a group of us had gone carol singing, also for the first time, around the local roads and had handed out mince pies and sweets.  This had also been very positive and well received. 

Great night carol singing by candlelight. Mince pies, sweets & invites to our Christmas Eve carol service well received.—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 21, 2011

Some 80 people gathered with us this evening for our Carols by Candlelight service to enjoy a tradition mixture of the Christmas favourites and listen to something about the real meaning of Christmas.

A few of the crowd at today's Carols by Candlelight service

The service was led by Alan Michael and began with the singing of Hark the herald angels sing, followed by prayer and a welcome to all.

The second carol was Silent Night, which was followed by a reading from Jeremy, based around the first subject in our ‘Step into Christmas’ series – Christmas: The Plan.

Some of the younger children from Sunday Club came up to sing Away in a manger.  This was followed by our second reading, read by Phil Bray and set around verses to highlight Christmas: The Person.

Our fourth carol was Once in royal David’s city.  After the carol, poems that the children had written about Christmas were displayed on the screen in the form of video clips showing them being read by their authors.

This was followed by our final readings which highlighted Christmas: The Purpose and were read by David Angell.

Our fifth carol was O little town of Bethlehem.  After this, David Hedges came up to speak.  He highlighted God’s present at Christmas – the sending of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world – and how easy it was to lose sight of this in among the distractions of Christmas.

Our final carol was O come all ye faithful which was followed by prayer.

Alan and David handed out presents for those who attend Sunday Club and explained that there was something for everyone to take away with the refreshments offered after the carol service.

Among other giveaways was a Parkside fridge magnet for 2012, which also proved somewhat popular.

2012 fridge magnet calendar

Overall, it was a tremendous evening and really encouraging for us all to see the hall full.  It’s definitely something that we’ll look to repeat next year.

The service was once again hosted by Phil Bray and began with the carol Hark the herald angels sing followed by prayer.

The second carol was Away in a manger and was followed by the final installment of the Christmas Quiz which ultimately ended in victory for the Mince Pies.

The third carol was Infant Holy, infant lowly and was followed by playing the two video clips below:

Our fourth carol was O come all ye faithful and after this, Paul Cogger came up to speak.

Paul used examples of different activities which keep us busy over Christmas, as below, before gradually fading out the pictures to leave the cross as the real purpose of Christmas.

Paul closed in prayer before our final carol which was I cannot tell why He, whom angels worship.

As in previous weeks, we followed the service with hot drinks and mince pies.

Our next carol service is Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve.

We had around 60 people in for this years carol service which was hosted by Phil Bray and Brian Sparks and was dubbed #YPCarols on Twitter.  We were also pleased to welcome Iain Bailey as our speaker for the evening. 

Below are some tweets from the night:

Just 5.5 hours to go until tonight's #YPCarols! We'll try and live tweet tonight as well! See you there.—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 17, 2011

12 minutes until the start of #YPCarols.—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 17, 2011

The crowds are gathering for #YPCarols!—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 17, 2011

Our opening carol is Hark the Herald. #YPCarols—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 17, 2011

No contribution from #Hitchin this year. We move on with See him a-lying and O come all ye faithful and a sketch from #Hurst.—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 17, 2011

@ParksdChrstnFwp It is going well so far. —
Robert (@sparkyboyrobert) December 17, 2011

Enjoying the #YPcarols hosted by @PhilBray and @sparkyboybrian !—
Chrissy Speer (@ChrissyAs) December 17, 2011

Good sketch from #Hurst at #YPcarols.—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 17, 2011

We move on with the singing of From heaven you came. #YPcarols—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 17, 2011

Time for a quiz involving dressing up snowmen from @ParksdChrstnFwp, led by @alan_r_m. Much mayhem ensues!—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 17, 2011

twitpic.com/7umcww – The @ParksdChrstnFwp quiz in full swing! #YPcarols—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 17, 2011

#YPCarols @ParksdChrstnFwp @PhilBray @sparkyboybrian http://t.co/bp0h9vNY—
James Jury (@jimjury) December 17, 2011

#YPcarols the snow men looked so good. —
Robert (@sparkyboyrobert) December 17, 2011

After singing Silent Night we hand over to @IainBly who is speaking about the Christmas story. #YPCarols—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 17, 2011

We finish our #YPCarols with the singing of O little town of Bethlehem.—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 17, 2011

Thanks! RT @MartynGray1: @ParksdChrstnFwp @sparkyboybrian @alan_r_m @IainBly @jimjury. Superb Carol Service guys -:) many thanks #YPCarols—
Parkside Christn Fwp (@ParksdChrstnFwp) December 17, 2011

We had around 50 people at the carol service again, similar to last week.

The service was once again hosted by Phil Bray and began with Joy to the world followed by prayer.  Phil welcomed those attending and explained about the service being part of a series.

The second carol was Silent Night which was followed by the second installment of the Christmas Quiz which pitted Christmas Puddings against Mince Pies and involved those attending coming up to collect an envelope from the Christmas tree.  Inside the envelope was a card with points which the team could score if they answered a question correctly.

The third carol was See Him lying on a bed of straw.  This was followed by an excellent solo by Judith Hamm, singing O Holy Night while accompanying herself on the guitar.

The final carol, before Victor came to speak, was While Shepherds watched their flocks by night.

Victor spoke on Christmas: The Person and brought out verses showing that Jesus was a real man as well as being God.  He also displayed verses explaining that Jesus is the Son of God and our Saviour. 

As last week, we finished with coffee and mince pies in the back room.

You can listen to Alan’s thoughts below: