As you may guess it’s a cold and icy morning as I'm writing this, and the dog walking was put back until later, when the footpaths may be clearer!

I guess we all have been on a surface that is slippery and makes it difficult to stand securely? There are all sorts of things that can cause us to slip up aren’t there? Water, polish, spills etc.

It’s so confusing when you're slipping isn’t it? How to save yourself, how to get your balance or even is it how to fall well? And all in a moment of time!
Of course the analogy is to our spiritual, moral, and ethical inner life isn’t it?

Personally, over the years I have had and still have moments when it’s ‘Tricky Underfoot’ in one or some of those ways, spiritually, morally, or ethically. At those moments, or longer times, I have felt a real loss of equilibrium.
Those moments when someone says something that you feel is profoundly untrue and deeply hurtful to some people. This feels so wrong, what do I do? Do I speak? Tricky Underfoot!

A moment when it’s so very tempting to throw away a perfectly good item because we fancy the latest model. Ethically, Tricky Underfoot!
However what about in some of the darkest moments of life, loss, illness, death? Profoundly spiritually Tricky Underfoot!

Or how about those times when don’t even know what we believe or we feel far out of touch with God or the spiritual part of ourselves? Tricky Underfoot!
At those sort of moments, panic is probably the most understandable emotion but the least helpful, to try even harder just increases our instability.
What is there to help in those panic moments?

For me? - “Underneath are the everlasting arms”
However far I fall in those ‘Tricky Underfoot’ moments I will not crash out.
I am loved... I don’t fully understand the power of that... But I have experienced it so many times!

I so hope you have, or will do, too.

Rev Sue Ward

Burns In The Barn!
Saturday 3rd February brings an evening of Scottish Silliness, Music, and Food!
Tickets are £10 each, or £7:50 for Children Under 7 and all tickets include a 3-course meal! Options include Haggis, Vegetarian Haggis, Sausages, or Vegetarian Sausages. BYOB/drinks please.
Everyone is welcome. Arrive from 5/5:30pm ready to be seated at 6pm.
Please visit calverley.church/burns for more info and to purchase tickets.

Ask Me Anything (AMA) – Sunday 4th February
Question Time! What do we do in Church?
Giving – Where does my money go?
Generosity – Time & Talents - Generosity isn’t always about how much money you give, but how you can give in other ways.
What does the church need to keep growing and moving forwards?
Please put any questions you may have in the box at the back of church or email them to [email protected] before next Sunday!

The Patronage Scheme
What is the Patronage Scheme? It's an opportunity for everybody in Calverley Parish and beyond to help St. Wilfrid’s Church serve the community of Calverley. Our church is an important and beautiful landmark which holds a great deal of the history of our Parish. St. Wilfrid’s has always been at the heart of the community, there for Family Occasions, Baptisms, Weddings, and Funerals, as well as Coffee Shop, Beer Festivals, Concerts and Christmas Carols. Your patronage will support the practical, ongoing costs of running and maintaining this beautiful building – preserving St. Wilfrid’s Church for future generations. Our Church costs an average of £105 per day to heat and maintain. There are also occasional larger repairs beyond these day-to-day expenses. You can choose a particular date, special to you, to support the running costs of St. Wilfrid’s. In ‘sponsoring’ that date your donation will help to cover the costs for your special day. If you would like to buy the same date every year, that would be fantastic! Please click here to access the Patronage Scheme form online.

ChurchSuite
Here at Calverley Parish Church we use a secure online database called ChurchSuite to safely store your contact details instead of paper copies. If you haven’t yet provided your information to us via ChurchSuite, it makes it very hard for us to get in touch with you, so please do sign up!
We’ll also be looking to use ChurchSuite to manage rotas in the future.
It will make organising and managing serving rotas far easier for all.
It has the ability to send reminders, allow for easier swapping, and gives visibility of any gaps that need filling. Anyone who regularly supports on a ministry or serving team, please consider signing up to ChurchSuite if not done so already. For more information and to sign up, please click here, and help us be the strong connected community we're called to be.

Going Deeper
Sunday School for Grown Ups will be tomorrow evening at 6:30pm in Church.
Come and enjoy a time of worship with a chance to explore our faith in a café-style setting with other curious folk around a table together.

Weekly Family News Introductory Pieces
Do you have something you’d like to share? How you came to God?
An experience that might interest others? Something about the history of Calverley and its relationship with St. Wilfrid’s that might not be common knowledge? Your own history and relationship with St. Wilfrid’s?
We’re looking to build up a library of articles that could be used as the introductory piece for our weekly Family News Newsletter Email.
It doesn’t have to be a long piece, just something you’d like to share.
If you have a piece in mind that would fit a particular week, please let us know and we can save it for then. All you need to do is put the words together, give it a title, and if you have a suitable picture to go with it you'd like to share send us that too or we will find something appropriate to complement your words. Please send your submissions including Title & Picture to the [email protected]

Moving On
As the follow up to the Start Course, The “Moving On” Course will run through Lent in the Barn, beginning on Tuesday 20th February at 6:30-8pm.
If you enjoyed the Start Course, you might find this particularly useful, but the course describes itself as “perfect for people who want to grow in their relationship with God, going deeper into prayer and the Bible. In fact, it’s for anyone who just wants to move on!”. Please speak to Rob or Lizzie if you would like to join this.

Date for your Diary
Sunday 24th March - Palm Sunday & Go Deeper Easter - 'Life On The Edge, What’s The Point Of Life' with Reverend Jo Jones.
Then after Easter, watch out for details of The Sanctuary Course!
Sunday 21st April – Pet Service
Friday 26th April - A Charity Wine Tasting Event in Church!
Sunday 19th May - Confirmation at St. Paul’s Ireland Wood

Bradford North Foodbank
Donations from St. Wilfrid’s totalling 12.9Kg towards their 2023 Christmas Parcel Project made a BIG difference to so many local people and families, Thank You! Bradford North Foodbank continue to support local people and families and are currently in need of:
- Tinned Tomatoes
- Tinned Vegetables
- Tinned Fish
- Tinned Meat
- Instant Mash
- Cereals
- Coffee
- Chocolate Bars / Sweets
- Long Life UHT Milk
- Long-life UHT Fruit Juice
- Tinned Custard
- Tinned Fruit
- Rice Pudding
- Soap
- Shampoo/shower Gel
- Toothpaste
- Toothbrushes
- Deodorants
- Sanitary Products

Generosity
If you would like to give to the work and ministry of our church, which includes missional giving such as Parish Share, please do get in touch with Margaret Roundhill ([email protected]) to talk about The Parish Giving Scheme, a wonderfully simple and tax efficient way to donate regularly, or see the link at the bottom of this email.
Yours with gratitude, Rob.

Please send any items to be included in our Weekly Family Newsletter to:
[email protected]

The work & ministry of Calverley Parish Church is supported by the generous giving of the community, and we receive no outside funding.
You can make a donation or sign up to regular giving, including Gift Aid, via our Parish Giving page online here.
Thank You for your support.