Notices


The opening times of Café Alive are Wednesday afternoons from 3.00 – 4.30pm in termtime.

Robert and Viv’s retirement weekend
1st and 2nd March 2025
As was advised in the December newsletter, there will be an
afternoon social at Grange to celebrate and thank Robert and Viv
for all they’ve done for our three churches during their time with us
on Saturday 1st March from 3pm until 5:30 pm.
All members and friends of our three churches are invited to this
event. Each church has also invited representatives from
organisations, clubs and societies which meet in and around our
premises and who have had dealings with Robert and Viv over
the years. If you would like to come, please let your church know
by 15th February (for catering purposes).
On Sunday 2nd March both Grange and Tilehurst have cancelled
their own services so that we can attend the St Andrews' Holy
Communion service at 11 am (led by Robert). This will be
Robert's final service in Reading.
Dear Friends,
After 40 years in the ministry what does one write in what is likely to be my last ever minister’s letter? Do I reminisce about all the highlights of the past years or do I concentrate on just a few? It is a too familiar trap in current church life. We concentrate on the “good old days” when our churches were full and we were young
to the detriment of the here and now and the future. Yes, my 40 years have been full and rewarding but there have also been times when things haven’t gone so well.
Throughout it all I know whom I have believed in and knew that he
was able to keep that which I committed to this very day (2 Tim.1:12). I hope that this is the same for you.
This past year has been difficult for Viv and me. Day to day life has carried on as usual yet, at the same time, it hasn’t. There have been so many ‘lasts’ and at the same time many ‘firsts’! It’s been a year of reflection and uncertainty. Above all it has been a year of impending change for us all. What has helped is the love and
support Viv and I have received. Despite the uncertainty of the future people have found time to share in our journey and encouraged us in our endeavour to set up a new home. I hope in the coming months that that same love and support for each other will continue as you too step into your future here in the Reading churches, and that it will sustain you.
It has been a privilege to be a minister, to be permitted to be part of so many lives, to share in so many highs and lows and to walk alongside so many wonderful, gifted people.
It has been an honour to be allowed to study God’s Word and to preach Sunday by Sunday. Despite the challenges of being a Christian in today’s world, I have found that when required the church has stepped up when needed and being a minister has meant that I could be there. I accepted the call all those years ago and know that God has strengthened and sustained me all that time. My prayer for the Reading Group is that God will continue to strengthen and support you, that where there is need you will step up and that, above all, you will know the love of God and lean on him as you continue to serve him and to live out and preach His Word.
Change is inevitable and all of us are familiar with it, be it in our church life, our home life or the ever-changing world we inhabit. The one constant that we can hold on to is our never changing God who is the same yesterday, today and forever - as the hymn puts it, ‘as thou hast been thou for ever wilt be’ (R&S 96). The message we are called to preach has not changed despite an ever-changing church and world. The challenge for us all is that whatever befalls us, wherever we roam we know whom we believe in, know that he died so we might live and know that we can persevere until the end.
With best wishes,
Robert

Message from the Church Minister - Rev Robert Bartham
Grange
United Reformed Church, Reading
Minister: Rev Robert Barthram
Tel: 0118 941 5097
Email: revbar@yahoo.com
Chruch Tel (24hr answering machine): 0118 957 1318