Whalley Methodist Church

19/08/2026

Hello everyone - info on a 'community garden project' that is starting up at Whalley Methodist.

This involves John Foley, of Holden Clough nurseries, and will, we hope, become part of the 'Wonder Project....creating opportunities for people to reconnect with nature, their communities and one another through meaningful horticultural activity and time spent outdoors'.

We are starting on a planting scheme (see design sketch) the weekend of Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th September, between 9am - 4pm both days. Please do come along and find out what this is all about.

Thereafter those interested and wanting to be involved will meet on the 3rd Saturday of the month, 10am - 12noon. (This is how similar projects that John has started have grown....)

Trinity Methodist Church and Community Hub, Clitheroe Whalley Abbey Whalley in Bloom Diocese of Blackburn Peter Lumsden Hyndburn and Ribble Valley CVS Ribble Valley Family Hub Ribble Valley Whats On Ribble FM Whalley Parish Church Whalley & District Lions Club Michael Wedgeworth Whalley Village Hall Ged Mirfin Community Roots LSCft

30/07/2026

Coming soon at Whalley Methodist - our next 'Active in Nature' session. Morning of Sat 15th August, all welcome as always

Hyndburn and Ribble Valley CVS Trinity Methodist Church and Community Hub, Clitheroe Ribble Valley Family Hub Ribble FM Whalley Abbey Whalley Parish Church Michael Wedgeworth

30/07/2026

https://youtu.be/pb5f5oxKkA4

Link to this week's meditation - on Wonder and Awe

The roots of ultimate insights are found … on the level of wonder and radical amazement, in the depth of awe, in our sensitivity to the mystery - Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man

Richard Rohr suggests that awe, wonder, and amazement are foundational spiritual experiences: 'I believe the basic, primal, foundational religious intuition is a moment of awe and wonder. We say, “Oh God, that’s beautiful!” Why do we so often say “God!” when we have such moments? I think it’s a recognition that this is a godly moment'.

Rabbi Hara Person shares a practice that helped rekindle her connection to beauty, gratitude, and the Divine: "Some years back I hit a skid in my personal life. Though I knew objectively that I had much to be grateful for, it was hard to acknowledge a sense of gratitude. But now and then, I’d feel the impulse to take out my phone and capture a slice of beauty. These fleeting glimpses of splendour broke through my horizon of pain and lifted me up"….

'Healthy' religion re-enchants an otherwise empty universe. It gives people a universal reverence toward all things. Only with such reverence do we find confidence and coherence. Then we can see the reflection of the divine image in the human, in the animal, in the entire natural world.

Music - 'Wonder' from Salt of the Sound

Trinity Methodist Church and Community Hub, Clitheroe Churches Together in Lancashire Whalley Abbey Blackburn Cathedral Trinity URC Methodist Church, Great Harwood St Peter's Parish Church, Burnley Diocese of Blackburn Lancaster RC Diocese Peter Lumsden

The roots of ultimate insights are found … on the level of wonder a...

21/07/2026

Link to this week's meditation, a reflection on psalm 139, using the technique of Lectio Divina
https://youtu.be/0V_gUmNKKKM

Read the psalm slowly, note what catches your attention...a word, a phrase. Hold that, revisit it, meditate on it.

Be comforted by how deeply and profoundly we are seen and held and known by the Lord.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Trinity Methodist Church and Community Hub, Clitheroe Churches Together in Lancashire Whalley Abbey Blackburn Cathedral Trinity URC Methodist Church, Great Harwood Lancaster RC Diocese Community Roots LSCft Hyndburn and Ribble Valley CVS St Peter's Parish Church, Burnley Peter Lumsden

An exercise in Lectio Divina; read the psalm slowly, note what catc...

19/07/2026

A super Saturday morning at WMC, together with Whalley & District Lions Club putting on an Active in Nature session. Lots of exploring undertaken by children and families.
Look out for more activities in our garden over the coming months. And a reminder that anyone is welcome at any time to just come in, sit, relax and enjoy the peace and quiet of connecting with nature
Quiet Garden Movement and Quiet Garden Trust Churches Together in Lancashire Trinity URC Methodist Church, Great Harwood Trinity Methodist Church and Community Hub, Clitheroe Hyndburn and Ribble Valley CVS Community Roots LSCft Blackburn Cathedral Ribble Valley Family Hub Peter Lumsden

18/07/2026

All welcome this morning at Whalley Methodist Church as we explore and enjoy the nature that is all around us
Trinity Methodist Church and Community Hub, Clitheroe Whalley Abbey Lancaster RC Diocese Diocese of Blackburn Peter Lumsden

08/07/2026

Link to this week's meditation - Hope and Love
https://youtu.be/lCYeV5h2afw

Activist Mariame Kaba
hope doesn’t preclude feeling sadness or frustration or anger or any other emotion that makes total sense. Hope isn’t an emotion, you know? Hope is not optimism….

In the world we live in, it’s easy to feel a sense of hopelessness, that everything is all bad all the time, that nothing is going to change ever….I just choose differently. I choose to think a different way, and I choose to act in a different way. I choose to trust people until they prove themselves untrustworthy.

Brian McLaren suggests that love can serve as a deep source of hope that is not dependent on outcome:
"If we can see a likely path to our desired outcome, we have hope; if we can see no possible path to our desired outcome, we have despair. If we are unsure whether there is a possible path or not, we keep hope alive, but it remains vulnerable to defeat if that path is closed.

When our prime motive is love, a different logic comes into play. We find courage and confidence, not in the likelihood of a good outcome, but in our commitment to love. Love may or may not provide a way through to a solution to our predicament, but it will provide a way forward in our predicament, one step into the unknown at a time."

Put another way even if we lose hope for a good outcome, we need not lose hope of being good people, as we are able: courageous, wise, kind, loving, “in defiance of all that is bad around us.”

Music from Salt of the Sound
People tell you do not trust in what you cannot see and cannot hold,
But what I know of truth and love is real to me and this is what I know.

And when I find it, I cannot lose it,
And when I lose me, it finds me - it gives me hope.
And when I’m weary, I’m tired from this journey,
Oh how it soothes me and moves me - it must be hope.

Churches Together in Lancashire Trinity Methodist Church and Community Hub, Clitheroe Blackburn Cathedral

Activist Mariame Kaba hope doesn’t preclude feeling sadness or fru...

04/07/2026

💕 Today is the day 💕

Come and see the wonderful display of crafts and products by local people.

☕️ Refreshments available from 1030 am

🥪 Light lunches

🍰 Cream teas from 130pm

Everyone is welcome

See you soon 😊

01/07/2026

Link to this week's meditation - on HOPE

https://youtu.be/0WMo26ohZLQ

Cynthia Bergault, part of CAC. "Hope’s home is at the innermost point in us, and in all things. It is a quality of aliveness. It does not come at the end, as the feeling that results from a happy outcome. Rather, it lies at the beginning, as a pulse of truth that sends us forth."

Hope, then, more as a mindset, and one which is entered through surrender, through letting go.

As part of our spiritual formation, Bergault talks of journeying, of 'swimming down towards the wellsprings of hope'.

And finally, as we tap into this source of hope, we are better able to act with compassion in all the challenges which we face.

Music from Salt of the Sound - Hope
Oh my soul waits for you
All my hope is in you
And my strength is in you

All of my burdens, all of these plans
rest in you
I won’t grow weary, I will not faint
You renew

Whalley Abbey Churches Together in Lancashire Trinity Methodist Church and Community Hub, Clitheroe St Peter's Parish Church, Burnley Lancaster RC Diocese North West England Methodist District Diocese of Blackburn Blackburn Cathedral Salt Of The Sound

Cynthia Bergault, part of CAC. "Hope’s home is at the innermost poi...

29/06/2026

🎁 Craft & Gift Fair 🎁

This Saturday 4th July

💜 1030 - 3pm 💜

👋 ADMISSION FREE 👋

Support local crafters & enjoy refreshments from 1030 am, light lunches and Cream teas from 130pm 😀

See you there 👍