We wish you a very Happy Christmas! As we rapidly approach the end of another year, we thank you for all your involvement with us. We are delighted to welcome a number of new readers and have enjoyed catching up with those we have not heard from for some considerable time. Relationships are of paramount value in any community building and the recent links from many of our renewed friends go back to the time we covered in the first of ‘The Moggerhanger Chronicles’ which was launched this past weekend. Earlier we had sent round a separate e-mail with some details and an invitation to the launch, and there is a shortened report of this event below. This particular volume focussed especially on ‘Ministry and Community Vision’ from the turn of the century. More will appear on our website in due course.
Scrolling down, you will also see that we have made considerable progress on the websites in other areas, with much more going on behind the scenes - with your help.
2025 promises to be a significant year for us all and we will start it with a special Zoom time for those who are signed up to receive our e-mail news. We enjoy the widening vision and interesting discussions in these meetings and will be concentrating on our plans for the future.
The Testimony Tab is continuing to develop with many new memories being added to this website page especially on the Moggerhanger links. Do continue sending in your memories to Angela as so many of those who visit the website appreciate reading the experiences and encouragement of others in their own journeying and it is now possible to "share your testimony" directly on the site.
The Resources Tab now contains details on the leaflets and research link as well as many more of the books written by Clifford and Monica over the years, although Tony still has more to add – including many reprinted and updated versions, as well as ones published in different languages! Some of these books are already for sale on Amazon or can be obtained from our regular publishers, so we plan to add purchase links on our website. We have also been very grateful to Ola from Shalom Community Church, based at Moggerhanger Park, who has offered to send out books on our behalf, so if you want to purchase any of the books listed on our website and can’t find an online link, please contact us and we will pass your request on to Ola; this will include signed copies on request. We are currently exploring other new sales outlets.
In this Newsletter
New Resources Available
New Resources Available
A variety of new resources are becoming available but first some more general news:
IM News and Future Book Distribution
As you may already be aware, Jacqueline, the Issachar Ministries administrator, is retiring from her long-held post in Sandy at the end of this year. As part of her role, she had also been assisting this ministry. As any vestige of a local office now closes, Issachar Ministries Trustees (joined recently by Karen Goodman) are seeking the future for both the Trust and for Prophecy Today. They are now looking at using different on-line portals and new websites with Ali (Alistaire) Loaker (who is married to Ros, our colleague in the 90s who founded the forerunner of TransformWork UK).
This does mean that Issachar Ministries will no longer be distributing any of our publications, so we are exploring new sales avenues. More details about book availability will be on our website but if you are facing difficulty in obtaining any, please contact us.
The Moggerhanger Chronicles Vol 1: Report of Book Launch on 1st December
The first volume of this long-promised book has finally been published. It chronicles the events leading up to the purchase of Moggerhanger Park, the restoration work and the early days of community building on the estate from 1993 – 2004 and as well as being available on the Handsel Press website, it is being distributed by post (even some signed copies) at £10 plus p/p directly from enquiries@Moggerhangerpark.com.
We are already working on further volumes to be published next year chronicling the difficulties later encountered and attempting to identify why things started to go wrong. This first volume, however, is an encouraging story of God’s blessing, and many will no doubt remember some of the stories recounted in the book.
A whole series of Moggerhanger Chronicles, covering the time we were based at and involved in Moggerhanger Park, was launched with Volume 1 at a special event hosted at Moggerhanger Park on Sunday 1st December. Over 50 people travelled from far and wide to be with us, many of whom were active in those early days up until the time of the Spiritual Opening, and it rapidly became a full day event for many. Jonathon Olayede preached and gave his testimony at the morning service at Shalom Community Church, lunch was provided and tours of the grounds and house were carried out before a PowerPoint presentation of rooms both BEFORE restoration in 1993 and AFTER in 2004; and an introductory 25 minute ‘Fulfilling the Vision’ filmed at that time by David Fawkes, who was also present, was shown.
As well as book signing there were many reminiscences on all that had been hoped for, including Jenny’s contribution as she and Simon were still running the estate at that time. Tony, Alistaire and Ros were busy with their cameras – and some video clips will eventually be shown on the testimonies page with more different formats available in due course.
‘East Enders Restoration’ – book now published.
We are pleased to announce that the main chapters of Monica’s new book on East Enders Restoration, are now available to view for free on our website. The book tracks the experiences of rebuilding a community-led Christian Centre in East London in the 1970s. At that time, problems with unemployment nationally were also topical and extremely rife, especially in inner city areas, which also coincided with churches starting to close down and communities disintegrating. Hopefully we can learn from history, even if it is so often being repeated in similar issues today.
Monica recounts her experiences from that time, using the one problem to help the other, in our first on-line book ‘East Enders Restoration’ – which comes complete with a growing number of links to other images and documents on the ‘community development’ link under ‘ministries’ as it becomes live, and will continue to be developed further. To read this freely available digital book please click 'read on line' here.
Update on ‘Why Seek the Living Among the Dead?’
The first three episodes in this series have already appeared in recent copies of Prophecy Today, accessible here – Death and Resurrection, God Speaks through Tears, Manifesto for Freedom – with the fourth being published on Friday – Justification by Faith and the Book of Romans. A number of serious debaters are exploring different concepts using research e-mails prior to opening up a fully interactive portal but Cliff is including a paper to give you more details of the content and purpose - see link below.
Books out in the New Year
Today with the Prophets – 8th Century BC prophets of Amos, Hosea and Micah The script for this new book in our ‘Prophets Series’ has now been thoroughly proofread in-house and is currently being typeset. Although covering three important 8th century BC prophets, Handsel Press have condensed it into a single volume which will be on sale for £10.00 plus p/p from February next year.
Seeing the Hand of God This very readable selection of living stories gleaned throughout our long ministry has been refined and approved by our proofreaders and is now being sent to be typeset by Wilberforce Publications who intend publishing it on their listing early in 2025. More news next time.
Prayer Partner books
Monica is continuing to help and advise prayer partners on publishing their own memoirs and resources. Another book has already just been published and two others are due out in the new year. If you are interested in any of these books, we can put you in touch with the authors.
They are:
‘Turning the Tide’ – Anthony Whelan
Tony, our own Resources technician who has been on our team for nearly ten years, has written some of his own autobiography and church experiences in his first book, sub-titled ‘What will become of the church in Britain and the West’. This book has already been written about in Prophecy Today here.
‘Issachar Eyes’ – Molly Ashton
Monica has written a Prologue based on the biblical references to Issachar for this helpful manual, with a number of other valuable practical contributions acting as a rallying call for ordinary Christians to prepare the next generation for extraordinary times. This is the second book Molly has produced under her maiden name and will be out early in the New Year.
'Women in Christian Ministry: Challenges of the Gender Gap in the 21st Century’ – Phyllis Thompson
This is a symposium of contributions made by a wide spectrum of significant Christian women leaders to the Oliver Lyseight Lectures for the New Testament Church of God between 2018 and 2022. Phyllis, who has been their Education Officer for many years, has edited this – the third in the series – alongside making a significant contribution to it. Please pray for Phyllis who, having been rushed into A & E, is now home again putting the final touches to it so that it can be available internationally in the New Year.
News – Past, Present and Future
As we gradually add material to our website, we are happy to give our supporters who receive this e-mail other pre-view links to certain topical news and meetings taking place. Below are some on-going reports and news with links to items which will be live on our website shortly:
Prayer on Topical Issues
Prayer has always underwritten this ministry and an invitation to contribute to the 24 hour prayer vigil of Alight at The Park in early October enabled us to produce a video which was used to pray for the state not just of our own nation but also to pray for the Middle East and the peace of Jerusalem on the 1st Anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. All Israel tours have ceased, but a prayer walk around the walls of Jerusalem was simulated at Moggerhanger Park and can still be visually followed here.
Issachar Ministries Sunday Gatherings
It is some time since Cliff gave a message on the Zoom Sunday gatherings which started at the time of Covid but because of illness he is stepping in to bring the message this coming Sunday afternoon 8th December at 4 pm. He will be speaking on "What is God saying to his people today?" and relating it to topical subjects. If you are not already registered to receive the link, you can receive it by e-mailing info@issacharministries.co.uk.
Both he and Monica will be reading at their on-line public 9 Lessons and Carols service on 15th December. Join in for these by going on Zoom as above.
Christmas Prayer and Shine Your Light
The nationwide Christmas campaign called Shine Your Light will be taking place this year over the weekend of 13th-15th December 2024.
Last year over 75,000 Christians from over 700 churches took their Carol services and nativity events into shopping centres, town halls, high streets and public spaces in December 2023 and there will be even more outreaches this year – are you and your community joining in?
'Joy to the World' at Moggerhanger
Shalom Community Church will be singing Carols at Moggerhanger at the close of their outreach event on Saturday 14 December when there will be further book signing of the 'Moggerhanger Chronicles'.
Cliff’s Ministerial Training
Some of our early records are now appearing in print and a request by the Congregational History Society led to Cliff recording his memories of his years in training in the early post war years, which appeared in their Autumn 2024 magazine here. It was a different world and training and ministry have also changed considerably to meet fresh challenges.
And finally ...
We will be sending you our next quarterly Update at the end of February and will also be adding news items and more pages to our website as we go along. Please remember us in your prayers.
As always, we are so grateful for your involvement and support and continue to thank God for the generous gifts we receive that enable us to develop the ministry further. We are also very grateful that we are still able to retain our links with you in many ways and especially through this newsletter, Zoom, our virtual office, and our website. Please contact us if you would like to be involved.
Bless you all in the days ahead,
Cliff and Monica, Angela, Jenny, Tony, Kathryn plus all those sharing in developing this changing face of C and M Ministries.