EXTRACTS FROM THE BEACON - JUNE 1981
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Dear Friends
This is the last time I shall write to you as your Minister and as you can imagine there are many different feelings which come to any Minister in this situation.
I am looking forward to the prospects of a new sphere of ministry at Hope Baptist Church, Peverell, Plymouth. But, naturally, there are also regrets.
During the past eight and a half years many of you have been most kind to us as a family and this makes it difficult to leave you. The Church, like a family, is a kaleidoscope of changing patterns and moods. I have had the privilege of sharing with many of you those deep moments of family life, birth, marriage, death, retirement. We have seen families come into the life of the Church and taking positions of responsibilities; others moving to new areas. All these things make it difficult to leave, on the human level. However there are other things which make it right for us to go. The Church is bigger than any individual or family within it. The Church is ‘The Body of Christ’ and its life and witness through worship, teaching and service will go on. Wherever we are living, in these days there is still much to be done to fulfil that clause of the Lord’s Prayer “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on earth as well as in heaven”.
I want to ask you to be loyal and regular in your worship and prayer during the interregnum. Pray for David and the Pastorate Committee. Look out for new members of the congregation and give them that warmth of welcome which is so characteristic of this church.
At the end of June we shall say farewell to you all with these things in our minds and hearts regretfully, and yet thankful to God that we have been able to play our part in what God has done during these years with you.
May God Bless you all.
Graham and Maureen Powell
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A FOND FAREWELL
A LOCAL CHURCH is a group of people made up of members of various families living in the neighbourhood in which that particular church is situated. Ideally they weld themselves together into a somewhat larger “family” and a Minister is called to look after that family, leading them in the worship of God and in Christian service to the community.
Our particular “Family Man” has been, for the past eight and a half years, Graham Powell. He has given long hours of prayerful thought, love and friendliness to this mixture of “all-sorts” known as Goodmayes Baptist Church. And with him, his wife Maureen and their two children, Alyson and Simon, have made up their own happy family in the midst of the larger family in our church.
A Minister has to be a man of many parts. It is not just Sunday services or even weeknight meetings that demand his attention but all the life-and-death problems of families that come into the orbit of the church. A round-the-clock job if ever there was one! I can speak as one who has availed himself of the friendship of the Manse for many years at Goodmayes and I have nothing but praise and thankfulness for what I have received. To be assured of a ready welcome at the Minister’s home at any time has been a source of great comfort and strength.
Graham has an engaging personality which captures your friendship when offered and, after some initial shyness, he is so easily approachable. Together with a gentle, merry-natured yet sympathetic wife they have done a great family job. I have happy memories of the Festival of Creation in 1975 – a real family affair – in which Maureen’s creative and artistic imagination came to fruition. Each of us will have our own particular episodes of the ministry for which we thank God.
Graham, Maureen, Alyson and Simon – we shall miss you, we really will!
D. H. C.
A TRIBUTE TO MAUREEN FROM ALL THE LADIES
In saying Goodbye and God Speed to Maureen Powell we must express our love and grateful thanks to our good friend, who for the past eight and a half years has been President and Leader of the Women’s Evening Fellowship and Women’s Own Meetings, and who has also shown loving concern for many others connected to our Church family.
For your well prepared readings, prayers and thoughts which have enhanced our meetings and drawn us nearer to God, thank you Maureen.
We’re so sorry to lose you to another fellowship; Our loss is their gain, and the assurance of our prayerful support to you and all the family goes with you.
V.M.
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Church Diary
Saturday 27th June [1981] - Farewell Gathering for our Minister and Family 7.30 Cordell Hall.