This is our monthly newsletter that highlights some of the things we want you to know about. All the regular events are on our calendar.
Pentecost Sunday
Sunday 5 June • 10.30am • St James Hope
This is a Sunday where we are having a joint service with St James which will begin at 10.30am!
Part of the service will be outdoors, so come dressed for the weather! Because the service will be inside and outside we won’t be streaming the service this week.
June’s Afternoon Tea
Thursday 30 June • 2-3.30pm • The Vine Community Hub
You’re all invited to a Strawberry Cream Tea in the Vine on Thursday 30 June 2.00-3.30pm. Heather will be singing. It’s a £3 minimum donation and tickets are available at the Info Stand in church on Sundays or Monday-Friday from the Vine. See Judith if you have any questions.
Midweek evenings in June
Because of the Salford Week of Prayer that Ian is leading us in and bank holidays, there will be a few changes this month:
No prayer and prophecy on Thursday 2 June (Bank Holiday)
Housegroups on Thursday 9 June
Online Prayer Meeting on 16 June
1st Night of Salford Week of Prayer on Thursday 23 June – at 7.30pm in the church
Thursday 30 June – final night of Salford Week of Prayer at Elmwood at 7.30pm.
Please commit to being involved with us!
Women Eating Together
Saturday 18 June • 7pm • The Vine Community Hub
On Saturday 18th June at 7pm in The Vine in the evening there will be a meal together at The Vine. There has been a lot of interest in this event, so rather than going out as a big group and then only being able to speak to the 2 or 3 around you, The Vine gives you the chance to spend time with many more. See Kate Blundell if you are intending to go.
Salford Week of Prayer
Thursday 23 June – Thursday 30 June
It’s been a few years since churches in Salford got together to worship and pray for our city and so we are helping organise Salford Week of Prayer to coincide with Festival Manchester’s outreach week.
There will be an opening prayer and worship service at St. James’ on Thursday the 23rd of June, 7.30-9pm with contributions from various local churches and a closing service at Elmwood on Thursday the 30th. We want to encourage you to come along and be part of what should be an uplifting and powerful display of unity and desire to seek the Lord’s blessing and glory for the sake of Salford.
There will be a downloadable prayer guide you can use that week which will include some of the local priorities of Salford’s Mayor, Paul Dennett, prayer points from Festival Manchester and a 24-7 sign up for hourly prayer slots where you can commit to praying a bit more than usual from wherever you happen to be that week.
Let’s get involved and see what God does!
For more information, email salfordweekofprayer@hotmail.com
July All Age Family Event
Saturday 2 July • 2-4pm • Festival Manchester
On Saturday 2 July, for our family event we will be going along to Festival Manchester at Wythenshawe Park, Wythenshawe Road, Manchester, M23 0AB at 2pm-4pm.
It will be a chance for us to meet up and enjoy the festival together. It’s a 3-day festival for all ages with a fun fair, beach, extreme sports, live music, etc. (see their website for more details). It goes on until 9:30pm, so you might want to stay longer.
It would be great to see as many of us there as possible and provides a good opportunity to join with other Christians across the area and have fun.
We’ll meet at the entrance at 2pm so if you could let Morag know if you are coming, she’ll know who she’s waiting for. 🙂
Thanks, hope to see you there!
Kid’s Church and Creche
Could you be our next volunteer? As this academic year comes to an end, the volunteers who have been serving for the past year will begin to think about whether or not to renew their commitment and continue serving on the Kid’s Church and Creche rotas. Would you consider joining them? Please speak to Morag for more details or if you have any questions.
Photography in church
Over the last few weeks, you may have noticed Phil taking photographs during our services. As well as what’s happening ‘on stage’, he’s also been asked by Neil to begin taking photos around the church building too, including of the general congregation.
We believe that the use of images of church activities and events is a valuable tool in creating an accurate and relevant representation of our community, especially to people who are thinking of visiting us. However we understand that some people within our community will have concerns about being photographed or a variety of reasons. Because of this, we’ve created a ‘safe space’ within the church during our services which the Welcome Team will be able to point you towards, which will mean you won’t be appear on both our livestream or any photographs when there.
If you’re on ChurchSuite, we’ll also be emailing you very soon about consent for photography. When we send this, it’s really important that you update your records, as it will help us manage whose photographs we use, so please look out for this in your inbox.
We’ll also always show you any photographs that you are in, to make sure you’re happy with them before they’re used.
If you’ve got any questions about this, please speak with Phil or Neil.
Join us on ChurchSuite
If you consider yourself to be a part of the Salford Elim Church family, we’d love for you to join us on ChurchSuite. Amongst other things, this allows you to join our internal address book (meaning it’s easier for you to get in touch with people within the church), easily access our events calendar and also receive messages that we only send internally.
People You Can Trust
There are lots of great leaders in the worldwide church. It’s good to know who they are and what their passions are. Danielle Strickland is a leader who began life in the Canadian Salvation Army, but has become an internationally renowned speaker, especially around issues of justice and compassion. She pops up at events like Spring Harvest and other events around the country, is prolific via social media, blogs and podcasts and is one of the women leaders that God has given us to speak for us and to us. You can find out more here.
Books Neil has enjoyed recently!
One of the books I read recently was The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk. Written by a psychiatrist who has spent much of his career dealing with patients who have suffered significant traumas, he writes about how healing and release can come. He’s not writing from a Christian point of view, but it made me think about how as churches we can help one another find a degree of healing from life’s hurts, and how Jesus’ ministry of healing and deliverance did what Van Der Kolk thinks is vital; he brought people back into alignment. The voices of condemnation, shame and fear were silenced. Like a lot of books, I didn’t agree with everything, I didn’t understand parts of it, and I will go back and read bits again. But definitely worth a look!
