Cirencester Ashcroft Church & Centre

17/06/2026

This week’s thought for the week. Every blessing, Andy Rickell

Here is the Thought for the Week published in the Wilts and Glos Standard on 11th June. It is written by Andy Rickell from Cirencester Ashcroft Church.

On Sunday 24th May, most Cirencester churches closed for some services and instead held a united service, this year at Cirencester Baptist Church. Through Churches Together in Cirencester, this united service at Pentecost has become a regular occurrence, the anniversary of the event 10 days after Jesus’ ascension into heaven when God’s Holy Spirit descended upon 120 disciples meeting together, like “tongues of fire”. That event empowered those present to carry on Jesus’ work and is sometimes called “the birthday of the Church”.

Two thousand years later that one Church is split into many denominations with different histories, different emphases, different styles of worship, and different views about what the perfect Christian life should be. However, it is that one Holy Spirit of God which reminds Christians that what unites us is far greater than what divides us – a common core of beliefs such as in the Nicene Creed and the importance of the Bible as the word of God, and a common mission to tell all people about God’s loving purposes and plans for every person and offer God’s invitation to accept a new way of living.

Such a willingness to see the common ground we share with others, in spite of our diversity and differences of opinion, needs to be mirrored in all aspects of life, if we are to live flourishing lives in a peaceful world. The world has become more fractious and fragmented in the last 10 years, threatening the wellbeing of people everywhere. Whether in domestic politics, geopolitics, or the tenor of language and attitudes expressed on social media between individuals, groups and nations, difference is emphasised and criticised. We can either join in with this disintegration of common values, or reject it, and instead actively work to build common ground with our neighbours at home and abroad.

16/06/2026

CIRENCESTER ASHCROFT WORK & WIFI CLUB

WEEKLY UPDATE - UPDATED AT 16TH JUNE 2026 (with updated next 4 weeks’ sessions)

(Written as usual from home in Stratton, Cirencester)

**NEWSFLASH**

The work club is now the work & wifi club! This is to emphasise that we not only help people seeking work, but also people wanting to improve their access to the internet. At both Cirencester Ashcroft Church and Centre, Ashcroft Road, and at St Lawrence’s Church, Chesterton, Cirencester we now can offer free internet access during our sessions, which you can use with or without support from the club. We have tablets we can help you use, if you don’t have your own device.

The work & wifi club will continue to operate on most

Mondays - 9.00am to 11.00am at St Lawrence’s Church Centre
and
Tuesdays – 12.00pm to 2.00pm at Cirencester Ashcroft Church & Centre
(but not on Bank Holidays).

We are now usually open for confidential one-to-one face-to-face support at these times. We also provide one-to-one phone and online support at these times too.

We also work in partnership with Cirencester Jobcentre to support referred jobseekers who would like some extra assistance.

You can contact me at the usual work & wifi club times by :-
- Face-to-face;
- Email : [email protected];
- Phone or text : 07951439302;
- Sending a message through the Cirencester Ashcroft Work & Wifi Club page.

We can then have a chat face-to-face, by phone, by message, or by video link if we can set one up, and I will do my best to help you.

You can also contact me at other times and we will then agree an appointment time to have a proper conversation.

Specific opening times over the next few weeks are below. Later opening times for the period up to the end of SEPTEMBER 2026 are in the Events section (which is itself sometimes in the About section) of the Cirencester Ashcroft Work & Wifi Club and Cirencester Ashcroft Church and Centre pages. To access those later times, you will now need to be signed in to Facebook yourself, as Facebook recently “upgraded” so that Events data cannot be accessed by internet search alone (at least that seems to be what’s happened). Also Facebook only lets us select a maximum of about 50 future dates for an event at the time it is first published, hence why it appears to stop at a random date.

Monday 22nd June 9.00 - 11.00 (CLOSED - VOLUNTEER ON LEAVE)
Tuesday 23rd June 12.00 - 2.00 (CLOSED - VOLUNTEER ON LEAVE)

Monday 29th June 9.00 - 11.00 (CLOSED - VOLUNTEER ON LEAVE)
Tuesday 30th June 12.00 - 2.00 (CLOSED - VOLUNTEER ON LEAVE)

Monday 6th July 9.00 - 11.00 (AT ST LAWRENCE’S CENTRE)
Tuesday 7th July 12.00 - 2.00 (AT ASHCROFT CENTRE)

Monday 13th July 9.00 - 11.00 (AT ST LAWRENCE’S CENTRE)
Tuesday 14th July 12.00 - 2.00 (AT ASHCROFT CENTRE)

(For those who are interested, I normally highlight the opening times for the next 4 weeks. However sometimes I increase this when they include a break, in part to make sure that the last week I show is one when we are open. This is to emphasise that any closure is only temporary. The work & wifi club is a key part of Ashcroft’s mission and outreach project until at least June 2029. After that date I intend to continue to run the work & wifi club indefinitely, whether or not part of a larger project.)

Andy Rickell, Cirencester Ashcroft Work & Wifi Club Manager

16/06/2026

For most of my professional career I have been an advocate for human rights, primarily those of disabled people. I’m not sure what I feel about the idea of giving something like a river rights, but if it’s believed to be a way of ensuring the rights of all those people who are affected by what happens to the river to a better quality of life because the river is treated as a valuable resource and setting for local communities, then I certainly agree with that as a goal. So we pray for the lives of our local rivers and all those human lives which are affected by the state of them. We pray for all those who play a role that can improve or harm local rivers, that they work for better local riverscapes. And we pray for all of us to respect our local rivers as if they were living things entitled to be treated well. Every blessing, Andy Rickell, Circuit Social Justice Officer.

The Wye has become the first river in the UK to have a charter covering it from source to sea.

15/06/2026

Thought for the day. Every blessing, Andy Rickell

15/06/2026

I have to say that I am getting more and more impressed by the series of individuals highlighted in this section of the BBC Bitesize website, those who not only demonstrate professional skills in their work but do so whilst running their own business at the same time. This week it’s a young woman who has been leading up to running her florist’s at the age of 23, for more than 10 years already. Now you may have been dreaming of earning your living by running your own business for that length of time, or at the other end of that extreme, have just started to think about starting a business as the route into the world of work. Whichever it is, we at Cirencester Ashcroft Work & Wifi Club would be pleased to help you think about your next step. Our contact details are on the Cirencester Ashcroft Work & Wifi Club page. Andy Rickell, Cirencester Ashcroft Work & Wifi Club Manager

Do you love flowers? Meet Emily, who runs her own flower shop. Part of our Bitesize world of work series.

14/06/2026

Links to the live streaming of services from individual Circuit churches later today and to the library of new and previous Circuit “Worship At Home” online services are now available to view on the Gloucestershire Methodist Circuit page.

Ashcroft’s own online service should normally appear live on YouTube at 10.30am today at this link

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCMzWroI14LFh_3BW4m_mniw?fbclid=IwAR3EknDy4a3dukFeSB_rY4bpsOPzWWqidtpzjRyCEFaGU8vjf22bpW22fB0_aem_AZJ7Mogn5NLnIo72l1Be_Xs_WzntJjfnRZHsqmry_HT0WaOItwLiAR9WZPGHa8L3i4Q&fs=e&s=cl

- and be available as a recording here thereafter. Today’s morning service is led by Trevor Wills.

Every blessing, Andy Rickell, Chair of Trustees

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13/06/2026

JOB VACANCY - MISSION LAY WORKER

I will be getting a better advert for this role, which I will then invite you to share widely, but here is a heads-up on a vacancy for a full-time Mission Lay Worker at Cirencester Ashcroft Church on a competitive salary in case you know of someone who might find it attractive. You need to email Louise at [email protected] for the full application pack. Andy Rickell, as Chair of Trustees for Cirencester Ashcroft Church.

1 Methodist Circuit of Gloucestershire jobs. Apply to the latest jobs near you. Learn about salary, employee reviews, interviews, benefits and work-life balance

13/06/2026

SUNDAY SERVICES - 14TH JUNE 2026

Ashcroft Church will be having a face-to-face service in the church building tomorrow at 10.30am, this week led by Trevor Wills. The service should be streamed live via YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMzWroI14LFh_3BW4m_mniw
and a recording of it should be available online thereafter too.

The circuit has recommenced providing circuit “Worship at Home” online services via YouTube and Facebook for those who cannot attend in person, on the second Sunday of each month. In addition, we will be providing links to online services provided by individual circuit churches. I will provide the link to all these online services tomorrow morning at about 8am on the Gloucestershire Methodist Circuit page, for you to watch the “Worship at Home” service, or one of the streamed church services live or a recording of it thereafter.

Every blessing, Andy Rickell, Chair of Trustees

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