Rodborough Tabernacle United Reformed Church

ON SUNDAY July 5, at 7pm in the Little Chapel at Rodborough Tabernacle United Reformed Church, Rev Eric Massey had invited Rev Simon Topping to give a talk on 'Social Justice'.

Simon is Minister at St Albans and has oversight for the other Methodist Churches in the Stroud area and had previously been Social Responsibility Officer in Swindon.

He said that “God has given everyone responsibility for the poor.”

In the Old Testament at harvest time the edges of the fields had been left for the poor to glean for food.

How the ordinary people of Greece are suffering from bad decisions and crippled by the referendum.

The Christian vision should be 'Fairness from the perspective of the poor not the rich'.

There are signs of hope that the Pope is defending the plight of the poor world wide.

Simon is very concerned how the budget of George Osborne would affect the working people on low income and the people existing on benefits.

That there must be a decent living wage and people in need helped and 'Justice towards the poor'.

There was a lively discussion with Simon answering many questions and giving much food for thought.

The scene changed on Wednesday, July 15, at 2.30pm in the Community Room when the Fellowship celebrated their anniversary with entertainment and tea.

Dorothy Ede, the chairman, started the proceedings by saying it's at least sixty-eight years since the Fellowship was founded.

She introduced Rev Eric Massey and Liz Shankland to entertain.

Eric had brought his guitar and played old and new songs with audience participation interspersed with stories which soon had everyone showing their enjoyment.

Anne, Maggie and Barbara read three very different passages which everyone appreciated.

Liz, with her beautiful soprano voice, sang songs from her Scottish home land.

The committee had provided a delicious tea.

There will be a break during August but the meetings will start again on Wednesday, September 16, at 2.30pm with Margaret Roy’s talk “Letters from a Submariner.”

Everyone is most welcome.

On Sunday, July 19, at 10.30am in the Community Room Café, Church took place when Rev Eric Massey introduced TRIO “The responsibility is ours.”

This was started by the Diocese of Southwark many years ago and has been used by other churches ecumenically.

Eric has used the two previous services to start the process of how the many talents of the Tab folk can be used for the Tab to move forward.

Peter Freeman explained what it was all about and Clive Malcolm, the treasurer, gave a presentation on how the money is shared, how much is needed to sustain the Tab and how things could change for the better.

Everyone was asked to fill in a form to say how they could help the Tab, what they were already doing and what they thought could do.

These will be processed and this will all culminate at the service to celebrate harvest on September 27 at 10.30am in the Main Sanctuary.