I wonder if you know that awful English phrase – an heir and a spare?
We might think it's an ancient historical idea, but apparently not.
I don’t know what you all think of Prince Harry - to be honest, I like him, although of course I don’t know him. That’s the rub of course – whatever our opinion, we get all our information 2nd or 3rd hand at best, so who are we to judge? I imagine a pint or two with the Duke at one of Calverley’s fine pubs would be fascinating!

Whatever you think, I hope we can all empathise with someone born into a role called spare. Treated as a gold-plated piece of planned obsolescence.
‘You don’t exist for yourself, just try and stay alive until your brother has kids. Try not to misbehave too much either.’ I can only imagine how hard it is to live a life of such high expectation and under such a microscope.
It seems to me it’s a role that demands more than it offers.
Our own families might be very different to Harry’s, but they too tend to give us issues. Even the best parents mess us up to some extent, as Philip Larkin almost wrote. (Not you, mom and dad – you did fine, honest!)

But the Family of God is different. Radically, astonishingly, graciously different. No-one is ever spare in the Kingdom. Each one of us, whatever our family background, whatever our place in life’s pecking order, is adopted into God’s family as a full heir; cherished, included, and beloved.
As one local prophet puts it – you’re God’s favourite, equal first place.
Part of our long obedience of discipleship is nurturing the softening of our hearts as we get closer and closer to really believing that.
Such security is transformational.

Yours with every blessing,
Rob, God’s favourite Vicar.

Go Deeper – Live!
This Sunday 15th January we have our first Go Deeper evening worship, with contemporary worship music, prayer, and teaching on the Book of Ruth.
Join us in church at 6:30pm to Go Deeper with God and each other.

Lay Eucharistic Ministry Training
A two hour in-person course will take place in church on Sunday 22nd January, 1-3pm, to enable lay people to feel confident about administering the sacraments (consecrated bread and wine) during a service of Holy Communion.
For more information and to book, please click here. This is for everyone who wishes to be on the rota, whether or not you have prior experience.
I promise we’ll make it informative and engaging!
If you will be attending straight after a service, please bring some lunch.

Lifts to Church
We have a couple of people in Rodley who would appreciate a lift to church for the 9:15am Sunday service and to the T.A.G group on a Tuesday Afternoon.
If you can help, please contact Revd. Rob ([email protected])

Bring & Share Lunch
As a church, it’s good to meet and eat together. We’ve not done it for a while, so we have one planned for after the services on Sunday 29th January.
Save the date and watch out for more details!

Prayers
We have begun including individuals in our intercessions on Sunday mornings. Do look out for the bookmarks that will be available with a list of those prayer needs. If you would like to be prayed for, you can write your request on a tag and hang it on the prayer tree, email Sally or Rob, or just have a word with us on Sunday mornings.

Skill
An appeal for help! Could anybody in the congregation tart up the wooden A-frame sign that is used for our coffee shop? It could do with sanding and re-painting. If you could do it, please contact [email protected]. Thank you!

Ladies Coffee Morning
The next coffee morning at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Women's Association will be on Saturday 28th January, 11:45am - 12:45pm. If you’d like to go, please speak to Sally. It's a friendly and informal group who meet to chat, drink tea, and eat cake!

Foodbank
Items most urgently needed this week:
Halal Meat
Coffee
Steamed Puddings
Chocolate
Tinned Fish
Tinned Tomatoes
Instant Mashed Potato
Tinned Fruit
Long-life UHT Fruit Juice
Deodorant
Milk Powder
Dog/Cat Food
Shaving Foam
Razors

Animal Farm!
For a number of years we have had various animals in the Victorian part of the churchyard, including, goats, sheep, and of course the beautiful alpacas.
At present we have three ‘Easy Care Sheep’ helping to keep the vegetation down. The church has a small band of willing volunteers who care for these sheep ensuring they are fed and watered daily, and we are now looking for an enthusiastic volunteer to join our team to help organise the team rota as well as oversee the general husbandry and welfare of the sheep.
If you're interested in finding out more, or may know someone from the community who may be interested, please contact John Corbin ([email protected]).

Please send any items for our weekly Family News to
[email protected]