Queen Street Tuesday February 28th for 6 weeks
Coffee served from 10 am until 10.15
Session will begin at approximately 10.15.  
Course will be based on a Lent Study entitled “A Passion For Life” which centres on the passion of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel.   Everyone is welcome.
 
Burniston
Lenten Bible study classes start every Wednesday from 29/2 7pm at church (except 20/3 which is a Tuesday)

ECG (Equipping, Calling, Going) is a national Christian Conference coming to the Spa in April.

For more information, including a 50% of voucher for locals and a video of last year’s event see the information page I’ve created here, or look on the ‘events’ drop-down menu.

Churches Together in Scarborough invite you to:
A United Service during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Sunday 22nd January
6.30pm
St Luke's Church, Stepney Drive, YO12 5DP

The proceeds of this concert will go to three charities – Kathleen Ferrier Cancer Research, MacMillan Cancer Support and St. Catherine’s Hospice, Scarborough.
What is Life?  A Concert for Kathleen by Maureen Eastwood
‘The worst fears she had harboured since childhood were now realised’. These were the words that prompted me to make an appointment to see my GP.  I had been reading Maurice Leonard’s biography of Kathleen Ferrier, one of the best and most loved contraltos of the twentieth century, a woman with an incomparable voice. Her time was brief, her legacy immense. Kathleen Ferrier died at the height of her career, aged 41, from breast cancer.
I think of it as serendipitous: a singing lesson that took place a couple of weeks earlier.   My singing teacher, Sue Hartley, had given me a song to learn, An Die Musik, a lied by Schubert.  Although I have never been able to do the song justice, it remains the one I would take with me to my desert island.  I fell in love with it instantly, for the song embodies a near perfect musical exemplar of the way in which music has the power to transport the hearer to a place of bliss, the sense of which is conveyed through the words of the song.  I turned to YouTube where I discovered the existence of many versions of An Die Musik by celebrated singers: Elizabeth Schwartzkopf, Lotte Lehmann, Dietrich Fischer Dieskau and Hans Hotter.  Then I came across Kathleen Ferrier.  I was captivated at once by the simplicity, warmth and resonance of her contralto voice, a voice once described as a ‘pure crystal stream’.
An interest in her life and repertoire followed. In a career that spanned just one decade, Kathleen Ferrier’s achievements were extraordinary.  In her lifetime, she was as well known as Princess Elizabeth; and her concert work took her to America and Continental Europe where she rose to prominence on the international stage. Benjamin Britten described her as having ‘no equal’. Bruno Walter, a conductor closely associated with Mahler, when asked about his greatest musical experiences replied, ‘To have known Kathleen Ferrier and Gustav Mahler in that order.’
In reading her biography, I was fascinated to discover that she had performed a recital in Scarborough in 1952, the year before she died.  The cancer which eventually metastasised to her bones left her in great pain, yet audiences were unaware of her illness. The following year, during her performance as Orfeo at Covent Garden, a ‘dull crack’ was heard by the cast and members of the audience: her left thigh had fractured and she was unable to move. In excruciating pain, she sang on to complete what was to be her final performance. Her voice on that night was described as ‘beautifully magical’ and ‘entrancing’. When she sang What is life? one witness to the event said ‘I was moved to tears by the emotion in her voice’.
It is my belief that singing raised her tolerance threshold, giving her the strength to complete her performance and, ultimately, to endure in the months to come the inevitable consequence of the progression of her disease. Two days before she died, Sir John Barbirolli visited her in hospital where she sang for him parts of Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer. He recalled on that occasion that although her body had deteriorated, her ‘voice had lost none of its radiance’.
The fears Kathleen Ferrier had harboured of developing breast cancer, had for several years also been mine.  And so with only the vaguest of symptoms, I attended my appointment at the surgery. Within a week I was referred to the breast clinic at Scarborough Hospital. A week later I was diagnosed with breast cancer and was told that I would need to undergo surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone therapy.  It remains for me a curious and fortuitous sequence of events that brought me to where I am today.   For now, I am cancer free, due to the outstanding medical treatment I received from the staff at Scarborough Hospital, Castle Hill Hospital in Hull and my GP.  The best results, of course, come from early detection.
In many ways, a cancer diagnosis concentrates the mind on what is important, how to live in the present and how to make the most of each human encounter.  It is the point at which the impermanence of life is brought into sharp focus. I have been fortunate in so many ways.  There are many living with cancer less so, some of whom I know personally.  Their resilience in the face of a poor prognosis is remarkable.
I have an exceptionally gifted and perceptive singing teacher who encouraged me to continue my lessons throughout the months of treatment, knowing that it would aid my recovery.  She helped me to discover for myself the transformative and restorative potential of singing. During chemotherapy, lessons took place on my ‘good’ days and, with Sue’s support, I was able to continue, virtually as normal, learning some exquisite pieces from lieder, folk song and opera – a tiny fraction of Kathleen Ferrier’s repertoire.  Singing was and remains my therapy, the place where I go to find serenity, energy and meaning.
A review of Kathleen Ferrier’s recital of January 16th 1952 appeared the following day in the Scarborough Evening News: ‘The recital was a wonderful experience and one which must have given unalloyed pleasure to all who were privileged to hear it.  From beginning to end, Miss Ferrier succeeded in holding her audience enthralled.’  For the occasion she was accompanied by the internationally renowned pianist, Gerald Moore, who played for the leading soloists of the last century.   2012 will be the 60th anniversary of the Scarborough recital; it will also be the 100th anniversary of Kathleen Ferrier’s birth.  Events are scheduled to take place nationally throughout the year in celebration of her life and music.
There could be only one way to pay tribute in Scarborough to an artist who enthralled audiences and continues to delight music lovers around the world.  In 2012, Scarborough will host the first event of the Kathleen Ferrier Centenary Year. On January 16th, the anniversary of Kathleen Ferrier’s Scarborough recital, the original 1952 concert programme will be performed by Anna Stephany (mezzo soprano), winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award, and Simon Lepper (piano accompanist), winner of the Kathleen Ferrier and Gerald Moore Accompanist Prizes.  The concert will be held at its original venue, Queen Street Methodist Central Hall, and proceeds will be in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, St Catherine’s Hospice and the Kathleen Ferrier Cancer Research Fund.
I am sure I will feel a sense of wonder, almost disbelief, on the occasion – similar to the way I felt only the other day when Sue revealed to me that, while a student at the Royal Academy of Music, she accompanied on the piano the students of Roy Henderson: Kathleen Ferrier’s singing teacher.
Maureen Eastwood is an academic writing tutor at the Scarborough Campus, University of Hull.

DETAILS
Kathleen Ferrier and Gerald Moore 60th Anniversary Concert
Performed by:  Anna Stephany (mezzo soprano) and  Simon Lepper (pianoforte)
Date:  January 16th 2012
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Queen Street Methodist Central Hall, Scarborough
Tickets available from Scarborough Tourist Information, Brunswick Centre, Scarborough (01723 372075)
Adult £20  Concession £15
or from Website address: www.kathleenferrieratscarborough.com
or contact Gerda Wright Tel: 01947 810727  Email: gerda56@sky.com

The whole event is not limited to those who attended the November workshop and all members of the small churches who would like to meet the president are encouraged to come along and be part of it.

It is also a good opportunity for members of the small churches in the new circuit to get to know each other and learn about each other.

Calling all people interested in leading, and involved with arranging worship, (including ‘Local arrangements’)

You are invited to attend this 7 session course, approved as Worship Leader training but also relevant to those who enable and support worship in anyway e.g. Church Stewards and leaders of groups etc. The course is also available to anyone wishing to begin to explore a call to worship leading or preaching, or to further develop their skills in worship leading.

Aims

1. To aid personal involvement in corporate worship through an improved understanding of the nature of worship
2. To develop worship leading and worship supporting skills
3. To assist in the evaluation of gifts and abilities in the various roles involved in  worship leading

Course Outline

Taster Session 1 March 26th  

• Introduction to Corporate Worship

Session 2 tba  

• The structure of Worship

Session 3 tba

• The Leader’s presentation

Session 4 tba

• Practical preparation for Leading Worship (including audio-visual Presentations)

Session 5 tba

• Leading Prayer in Worship

Session 6 tba  

• Miscellany of Aspects

Session 7 tba

• Enabling the Worship

The Taster session will be held at Northstead Church, Givendale Road, Scarborough YO12 6LG  at 7.30p.m. on Monday 26th March when dates and venues of future sessions will be decided

Please bring with you, the following:- Bible, notebook, diary and pen. For those wishing to continue, reference material will be recommended and there will be some individual preparation exercises and assigned reading. ]]> http://scarboroughmethodist.churchsite.org.uk/2012/01/05/enabling-worship-2012/feed/ 0 http://scarboroughmethodist.churchsite.org.uk/2012/01/01/new-resources-available/ http://scarboroughmethodist.churchsite.org.uk/2012/01/01/new-resources-available/#comments Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:20:27 +0000 Dave http://scarboroughmethodist.churchsite.org.uk/?p=278 The Youth Workers prayer paper for January and the new circuit plan are both available in the Resources section

1. Ayton
2. Briggswath & Sleights
3. Burniston
4. Burton Fleming
5. Cayton
6. Cross Hill, Hunmanby
7. Emmanuel St John
8. Filey
9. Fylingthorpe
10. Hawsker
11. Littlebeck
12. Northstead
13. Queen Street
14. Robin Hood’s Bay
15. Scalby
16. Seamer
17. Sherburn
18. Snainton
19. South Cliff
20. Staintondale & Ravenscar
21. Westborough
22. Whitby
23. Wolds Valley
24. Wreyfield Drive