"Impact" leading articles

"Impact" is the magazine of the parishes of St. Mary's, Gillingham and St. Simon and St. Jude, Milton-on-Stour.

July 2008

Every night I kneel and pray,
Let tomorrow be the day
When I see the face of someone who
I can mean something to.
Where, where is love?

So sang the young workhouse boy, Oliver, so movingly towards the beginning of the film version of the Charles Dickens-based musical that bears his name. And why? Because he yearned both to love and to be loved – he yearned to belong.

You and I were all created to belong – and so to live out our lives in the spirit of enabling others to belong – to live happy and fulfilled lives wherever in the world we happen to be. Each one of us began life belonging to those two parents whose love for one another (whatever the circumstances) loved us into life. Family life at home was (and still is) the bedrock of belonging. As we grow up we come to belong to wider groups – school, church, communities, organisations, our country and so on. Ideally, we come to realise that each one of us has a “belonging relationship” with each and every other person who is like us, a fellow-human being. (There is also much modern emphasis on our being in the right kind of belonging relationship with the ecology of the planet and with the animal kingdom).

It is all too true to say, that ever since Adam and Eve were dismissed from the Garden of Eden and Cain killed his brother Abel in those early chapters of the Book of Genesis, the occupational hazards of being human are all too clearly either actually or potentially there. Not least in this day and age in which we live. Unlike life in this country during wartime when, looking back, there was a sense of “all pulling together”, nowadays there is a very great deal of fragmentation in our society with individual behaviour, life-style and choice seeming to be paramount. The more we have come to know about the world in general through the media in all its forms, there is a very real sense of individuals, groups and nations having little or no sense of belonging to one another and sharing the planet together. Indeed, even many former closest relationships seem to be disposable, the fashions and pressures of life being what they are. It is not that there is no sense of belonging in today’s world - organisations for crime and terror, passionate football supporters around “their team” and richer nations operating restrictive trade practices to protect “their own”, indicate that much modern belonging to one another has an all-too-obvious short-termism and “limited liability” about it.

If it is true that we have lost a sense of the “common good”, it is, I believe, that we have lost that sense of a common God in whose image we are all made and whose great yearning for us is not only to love Him, but to love our neighbours as ourselves. That haunting sceptical response to God “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis ch 4, v 9) is one that ought to come back to haunt us time and time again. St. Paul’s great model for the Church as the Body of Christ with each body part dependent upon one another (1 Corinthians 12) is a model for the world too. As I write, there is taking place that world food conference in Rome. “O Lord, the world belongs to you…” is the title of a song that many of our primary school children sing these days. O that there might be more love and a sense of belonging among its people and of caring for one another – and that ever challenges you and me.

In this month of July, there are two “church events” here in England where that sense of God-based belonging to one another cries out to be heard. The first is a debate in the Church of England’s General Synod (which is bound to attract wide publicity) concerning our Christian relationships and attitudes among our fellow-citizens who are Muslim. Any strident (even perhaps confrontational) voices raised in the name of evangelism may well not be as Christ-like as Christian opinion as I believe it ought to be. Muslim faith at its best tells of God who is merciful and gracious with great respect for Jesus as a prophet. The fact that Christians believe that Jesus (at one with God) shows the fullest way of human living ought to lead to a “belonging relationship” of gracious prayer and “truth-seeking” dialogue more than a misunderstood “truth-declaring” relationship.

The other need for love and belonging concerns the Anglican Communion itself where issues of human sexuality will attract wide attention. If ever there was a time for Anglican leaders to simply be with one another and hold their different (and indeed our different) responses towards those whose conscientiously-held prayerful, scriptural or psychological beliefs differ from one another – it is now. However else will fellow Anglicans – let alone the wider church and the wider world – know that we all belong to one another under God?

For all the national and international attention that these matters will receive, just like “charity”, a sense of belonging to one another importantly begins “at home”. In a far more modest – but no less important way – local community summer events, like this month’s Gillingham Festival and this parish’s Family Weekend as part of it, are practical local opportunities to take part in. In such a way, we are reminded that belonging to, being with and loving our neighbours in all kinds of ways in God’s world is the reason you and I are here!

With all good wishes and prayers

Honorary Assistant Priest

Footnote: Since writing this letter in early June, I have discovered through the Church press that the General Synod debate to which I have referred has been postponed. The subject, and the way it is approached, is no less important because of this!

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June 2008

Time for Action

I write this a few days before Pentecost and by the time you read it we will have celebrated all the major festivals which mark the Saving Actions of God through Jesus Christ. We are now called upon to ‘get on’ with living our ‘Christian Life’: living the life of Jesus Christ.

Relentlessly, the media pump out images of achievement and success or bemoan the lack of them. The creation of wealth and financial prosperity are an obsession in today’s world. Compassion and loving action are not ‘good news’. The enthralling world of beauty, grace and human emotion has been replaced by market forces and a secular culture which has lost its soul. The sheer grandeur of the world around us is often overlooked: as the hymn says; ‘Craftsman’s art and music’s measure for thy [God’s] pleasure all combine’.

The astounding thought that, every time we look into the eyes of another person we look at Jesus Christ, is far from most people’s thinking. Or the thought and reality, that every time we engage in an act of kindness we are serving Him by caring, is again far from the experience or thinking of so many. What a difference it would make if all Christians behaved as though they believed in the presence of Christ in each person. As Mother Teresa once said, referring to her community, “Our works of love reveal to the suffering poor the love of God for them.” This applies to us in our daily lives.

The Pentecost experience of the first Christians is intensely relevant for us. They shared their faith and everything they had with each other and with everyone around them. The divine energy they had received, they shared. The church grew because of the reality of God at work in their lives.

We are sent out at the end of every Eucharist into a broken world to bring healing, hope and love; to take the life of God to the world. It is so easy for us to think of the world as dead or without hope because of the harsh realities of life today. There’s ‘nothing new under the sun’ and the bible stories of our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord are as relevant today as they have always been.

The Old and New Testaments tell us about the making of the world in goodness and love, its unmaking through human pride, sin and destructiveness and about its re-making through obedience, suffering, love and exultation. We often miss the point by not seeing all that as the hidden heart of the present day.

‘The Fall’ is now and always. ‘The Incarnation’ is now and always. ‘The Redemption’ is now and always. ‘Pentecost’ is now and always. The whole drama of the human race is ever present. Whether we like it or not, whether we realise it or not, we, in our day, are part of the greatest story ever told and lived.

In Ordinary Time, (between Pentecost and Advent), and throughout our lives, we Christians are called upon to re-fashion the world to make it a better place. Christ Jesus wishes constantly to live and work through us to change the world. First we have to learn and understand that God loves us just as we are. He loves you. He loves me. We then have to remember that our Christian calling is not just a passport to a future heaven. Our Christian calling is to commitment to this divine love and an acceptance and readiness to share this love with others. That is a demanding and all-consuming passion, in which self and self-interest have to shrivel and die.

Through our baptism we have a life to share, the life of Jesus Christ.

It’s Time for Action.

Yours with every blessing

May 2008

Visions and Views

I am writing this as I am preparing to travel to Turkey to visit six of the seven Churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation. To prepare I have been rereading the book and I have been struck, as I always am, by the beauty of the language and my mind is filled with the amazing images it conjures. So often we read scripture in small pieces, failing very often to fit the parts together into the book, or part of the Bible to which they belong.

We live in a time of the instant view. Our news programmes are filled with ‘specialists’ telling what a news item means, and how it will affect us, and in the process it can be all too easy to lose sight of the larger picture, to see just the incident that has caught our imagination and to view it in isolation from the full story. I am writing this on a day in April when the yellow forsythia is unrecognisable under its coat of snow. It would be easy after such a weekend to say, “What global warming?”

But the story beyond our island is much clearer. It is harder to estimate how much that is the result of our human behaviour, and how much the result of changes in our world. However there is clear evidence that how we care for our planet does create long-term changes. I have only to look at my own dustbin, after recycling everything possible, to see that the disposal of our modern-day garbage is a problem that continues to increase year by year.

There are so many things we take for granted, our washing machines, our fridges and freezers, our warm houses and our easy transport. How will our planet survive when everyone on the earth has these benefits, to which they are undoubtedly just as entitled as we are? What will we be willing to do without to make the life of someone living far away, where we do not know them and cannot see them, better? It is so easy just to let it continue, especially if doing something will mean making changes, changing our own ways of doing things.

Another news item at the moment is the troubled travels of the Olympic torch. It has become a highlight for protest against China, but the torch does not symbolize China, it is the symbol of the Olympic movement. Is it right then to use the fact that the Olympic Games are being held in China to protest against China, or in protesting is the intention of the Olympics being damaged? How can we work for a change in China but still hold true to the Olympic ideal, given that the games are set to take place in China?

In the Book of Revelation the Church in Laodicea is described as neither hot nor cold. As Christians I think it is very right and proper that we are thinking and praying about the many issues in our society that need to be seen as part of a long story and not simply as the five minute wonder of the news broadcast, known today and forgotten tomorrow. I believe we should be passionate about what is right and wrong in God’s World, and that we should have the courage to debate and share our ideas with one another – those with whom we agree and those with whom we do not agree.

I have enjoyed my journey into the Book of Revelation, it has stirred my imagination, and my excitement, and made me wish to be more excited about the world in which we live – God’s world.

April 2008

We live by and through relationships. From the very moment of our birth, we depended upon the love of those whose own love for one another had loved us into life. We discovered too – long before we could talk and explain – that our love and response to their love gave them the greatest of human fulfilment. After realising our capacity to love and to be loved, we realised too that we had the potential to think about and wonder about our very existence. In a word, we became “philosophical” about life and its meaning.

Christian faith is all to do with our relationship with God – the “Lord and giver of life” as the Creed puts it. And this relationship is sustained and developed by what we call worship and prayer – that capacity we have of being drawn out of ourselves into the love and relationship with the “other”. For Christians that “other” is God, and Christian prayer is all about becoming part of that love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord who leads us into God as The Way. The Truth and the Life for human living and relating not only to God also to all who are about us in God’s world.

Worship and prayer for Jesus Himself was all to do with consciously entering into and relaxing into the love of God with a view to realising and understanding “Thy will be done”. That is what led Him and sustained Him, not only in His ministry of healing and teaching, but through His death and Resurrection. And it was through experiencing all of this at first hand as Jesus’ disciples that following His Ascension and that unforgettable experience of what they called the Holy Spirit (Acts chapter 2) that they continued their relationship with Him – and their companionship with one another – in “the breaking of bread and in prayers” (verse 42).

So, how might you and I think about our worship and our prayers in the light of Easter and beyond? Here are just a few thoughts that might help.

The capacity to worship and pray are gifts we are given. St. Paul told the early Christians that they could not do this were it not for God “putting His Spirit into our hearts whereby we call “Abba, Father” (Romans 8 v15). Just like those disciples-now-apostles this is most reassuring and helpful when we do this together. Praying on our own (at home or anywhere else) really comes out of praying with the whole Church rather than the other way round. To feel and be surrounded by all those others who are bringing to God their joys, sorrows, hopes and fears is companionship and encouragement itself. And that goes for public worship through radio and television if, for any reason, we cannot “make it” to Church.

While we can worship and pray anywhere, this will not happen unless there is at least somewhere! (Just like human love!) Our church buildings provide that place and that focus for realising the presence of God within the life of everyday. So, at home, that favourite armchair, that corner, that picture, that lighted candle, that five, ten, twenty minutes (or whatever) can be our “church places and times” when we are on our own.

Just like a good square meal, worship and prayer ought to have all the best ingredients!

Thinking of the young Isaiah’s experience (Isaiah chapter 6) there will be that sense of wonder and thanksgiving “Holy, holy, holy….” Leading to that sense of unworthiness and sin, “Woe is me….” (Not the other way round - God first, ourselves second). Then we shall have that realisation of God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness as we realise that (following the well-known hymn) “I nothing lack if I am His and He is mine for ever”. It will be out of such realisation and joy of forgiveness that reflection and resolution may well come – that letter to write, (or e-mail to send!), that apology to offer, that forgiving word, that news-item to understand, that journey to make, that donation to give, even that time to give to prayer itself as we begin to see the world, our family and community and ourselves as God sees us and them. No wonder that it has been said that those who pray the most do the most. It may well be that amid all the aches and pains of life, a bit more consciously “lingering and loitering” in the presence of God – either in Church or at home – may lead not only to deeper meditation and contemplation, but to more positive and purposeful living. In any event, if we can somehow see that “THY will be done….” is a more satisfying outcome rather than “MY will be done…..” Although we might be beset by the many aches and pains of life, God’s life can then come more and more into our own.

Again, just like recipes and cooking, prayer books, and suggestions for prayer abound! Make changes and discover new ways of praying as life goes on. Never be afraid to ask the clergy (or any fellow Christian you trust) for help or advice. Believe it or not, that’s what the clergy are there for! The great thing is to worship and pray as you can and not as you can’t. Silences are often far better than the “right words”. God knows our innermost thoughts and feelings and is pleased to accept even our “little prayers”.

Archbishop Tutu once said that for him to pray is like coming into a warm room and sitting in the glow of a lovely fire…..Don Camillo (the priest of Italian fiction) said that prayer for him, as he looked up at the crucifix, was simply God looking at him and him looking at God. However we might regard or describe worship and prayer, heaven and earth come closer together when we do – the angels and archangels included!

“If you don’t worship, you’ll shrink” That’s what the psychiatrist told the boy in Peter Schaeffer’s play “Equus”. That is true for all of us. To turn our prayers in upon ourselves is to misunderstand – not to say misuse – God’s gift of Himself.

The New Testament’s “Easter people” came to know what it was to worship, break bread, and pray together. Nothing as fundamental as that will need to change for the likes of me and you. Then, having together re-captured the vision and purpose of Christian life those early Christians were able to “pray without ceasing” (as St Paul bade them do) to bring the life of heaven into their daily living – sometimes amid persecution - as they continued their earthly lives. For us that means that prayer has everything to do with the world of the newspapers, the doctor’s surgery, the supermarket, the family, the neighbours …….wherever we happen to find ourselves. In the words of the hymn “Give us grace to persevere” realising, with St Augustine, that “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee”.

With all good wishes and prayers

Honorary Assistant Priest

March 2008

The Good Life – The God Life

As I write this in the first week of February, I can see from my study window snowdrops and crocuses in bloom and daffodils that will soon be out. I love to see these early signs of spring as it cheers my heart and lifts my spirit. Once again this year, there is the annual debate going on in the media about spring coming early, the effect of frost on young buds, too much rain, etc., etc., and this is all because of climate change we are told. There is nothing new under the sun and spring does not have a fixed date for arrival. Praise God we cannot control the elements, switching them on and off like a light switch.

We do, however, have a responsibility to be good stewards of all of creation (Genesis 1.28) and in Deuteronomy 11.12 we read “It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.”

As a farmer and herdsman I well remember winters that went on until the end of April, or longer, and the joy of early, or late, springs when we could at last put the cows out to grass. Let us rejoice and be glad in what the Lord has made. We must remember our responsibilities to creation for the next sacred thing to God is the earth.

We glory in the life of God and in the life that earth gives us, most especially so in Spring and at Easter. Every Lent, Passiontide and Holy Week I have to remind myself that this Holy Season is not about denial and deprivation but about the discipline of learning to live. It is about coming alive to the richness and magic of existence. I have learned to savour with real understanding these words of St. Paul: “we are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live.” (Eph. 2.10) This is a truth that can transform us. This fact should lift us up. At this time of year we should praise God because He affirms us in our humanity through the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As we faithfully observe Holy Week and Good Friday we are reminded that we reflect the beauty of God’s Word in whose image we are made. This Holy time reminds us that in the depths and reality of our fallen human nature we encounter God who speaks to us face to face as a friend. Good Friday challenges us to seek God in the very heart of our being and in the suffering around us. God is to be found in the pain of the world and in the darkness of the human soul. We can find Him in the silence, emptiness and rapt attentiveness of our prayer and worship before the Cross on Good Friday. In our thirst for life we return to the spirit of life which is within us and can be freed at the Cross. The purpose of our existence is to live the good life - the ‘God Life’. God’s plan from the beginning was to share His life and love with all creation. We are part of the process of His creation, to work with God in our faithful living of the good life. We are called on to be natural and fully human; this is the very essence of life eternal – life with God.

When we human beings make ourselves the centre of the world then we fragment and destroy the unity of all that he has made. Nevertheless no matter how we behave we can never utterly destroy God’s masterpiece, his work of art. Our Christian endeavour should really be to let the divine craftsman and restorer reveal the original beauty of his creation, including our lives.

This, of course, is what Lent, Passiontide, Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter are all about.

May we all seek to let the Good life – The God life, shine through our human weakness and we will then become fully human. We will have learnt to live as Easter People who are in full bloom.

May Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter be a time of blessing and reawakening of the life of Jesus Christ in us all.

February 2008

The Festival of Candlemas (February 2nd) recalling Simeon’s recognition of Jesus as the “light to lighten the Gentiles” (St. Luke ch 2 v 32) concludes the worship of the “Christmas season”. There could not be a greater contrast this year when – only four days later on February 6th – we come to Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent.

If Christmas and Candlemas tell of the universal message, hope and light brought to the world through the birth of Jesus, the season of Lent gives the Church and the Christian world that sharp annual reminder of just how the implications of God’s love for His world are to be worked out and hopefully fulfilled by His human creation. Those temptations experienced by Jesus during those “forty days and forty nights” (St Luke ch 4) are all to do with Jesus wrestling within His human self to discover what was (and always will be) the will of God for human living. Jesus rejected (as of the devil) temptations for self-satisfaction through turning stones into bread; temptations to go for short-term, quick-fix and sensational publicity and leadership through jumping (albeit safely) from the temple; and temptations to give allegiance to all that was not of God through throwing in His lot with the Devil himself. “Get thee behind me, Satan…….thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve” Single-mindedness indeed. Little wonder that Jesus’ consequent public ministry was (and is) all to do with explaining, living out, and bringing about all that was (and is) meant by the will of God and the kingdom of God - “GOD RULES OK!” in graffiti terms! This is the subject of the Wednesday Lent gatherings this year.

What the Lent journey sets before Christians and would-be Christians leading to Easter in annual terms is really all to do with Christian worship and living in lifetime terms. How can we take hold of that single-minded Christ-like response to all that the “darkness” of the world we encounter? What would Jesus have us be and do……..?

Within the life of the Church? Christians often seem to have more issues that divide them from one another as the years go by! Even the most casual reader of our newspapers cannot fail to learn that the Anglican Communion – often regarded by those of us who are proud of those three strands of bible, tradition and reason that are its hallmarks and its model for church order – is very publicly divided as to whether homosexuality is “of God” or not. Some Dioceses in the Unites States have broken away from the Episcopal Church. The gathering together of Anglican Bishops due at the Lambeth Conference this year is bedevilled (if that is the word) by who will or who will not be there. It was Professor Herbert Butterfield concluding his book “Christianity and History” in the 1930s who wrote “We can do no worse than remember a principle which both gives up a firm Rock and leaves us the maximum elasticity for our minds: the principle: Hold to Christ, and for the rest be totally uncommitted.” The Archbishop of Canterbury has more than once urged conscientious, prayerful and thoughtful Anglicans – not least bishops and archbishops – to listen to one another in a common quest for Christian truth. A recent address by the Principal of Ripon College, Cuddesdon, near Oxford to American students training for the ministry included: “Perhaps recognising that whilst we all know what the Bible says, we struggle to agree on what it means, Yet if we can become faithful, open, spiritual struggling communities of interpretation,…the wider (Anglican) Communion has a chance….seeking only the way of Jesus, that leads us into the truth, charity and wisdom that God longs for his Church.” I believe that, in our present circumstances, the mind of Jesus so often comes about best more by listening and reflecting than by concluding.

Within the life of the world? Many thoughtful commentators at the present time are making the case for Christian faith to regain its public face – at least within the European and Western world, In a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society, in the name of tolerance, the practice of religion has become a feature of private life rather than public life. Tony Blair’s reported words about the Government “We don’t do God….” sums this up. Yet, we have a situation where some current legislation seeks to force Christian and other faith communities to “toe the line” in such matters as the placing of babies and children for adoption. Ethical policies of Government, for example, in matters of embryology and fertilisation are causing some real Christian concern. What has happened to legal and moral “conscientious objection”? Individual “human rights” (often thought of as the basis of secular society) are fast becoming the two watchwords that may well be overtaking the other two traditional words “common good”. Those who follow the faith of Islam are not afraid to declare that faith and daily life are bound together. Christians surely need to assert more publicly that “Thy Kingdom come on earth….” that even political daily life and Christian faith are also bound up together – seeking that same will of God. And not be afraid to say so!

Within ourselves? Jesus spent those forty days and nights in the desert – on his own thinking, praying and generally wrestling within His own heart and mind as to how he would go on to tell of and show His Way, His Truth, and His Life. The season of Lent is that special time for just that, realising that on life’s journey we not only have Jesus as our great example but Jesus as our great companion on that same human road upon which he journeyed. It could well be that the greatest need for “ordinary Christians” in “ordinary parishes” is for the likes of you and me to take more time that we generally do, to do more thinking, praying, worshipping and reflecting on the Bible both alone and together to so cultivate and water the deserts of our hearts that what is inwardly local becomes outwardly universal so far as Christian living is concerned. Remember that the longest journey of faith is so often from our heads to our hearts.

With good wishes for a challenging and rewarding season of Lent.

Honorary Assistant Priest

January 2008

I am writing this while the affair of the working teacher in Sudan naming a teddy bear Mohammed is still recent news, and it has reminded me again of how much we depend on our background and the culture in which we are raised to assess what we see and understand.

At Epiphany we look at the Wise Men arriving to see the baby Jesus. We are told that they had travelled from afar. They had first visited Herod in Jerusalem in their search for the baby and, although Herod held power, he was feared rather than revered by the Jews. He had secured his position as their king by the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, but he was not considered to be truly Jewish, and his Edomite ancestry was held in contempt among the Jewish aristocracy. The wise men had expected to find the new King among this king’s retinue, but any local Jew would have known the politics and known that any leader born in the Palace of Herod could never be a true leader of the Jews. These outsiders, the Wise Men, had looked in the wrong place.

They then followed the star again and it led them to a humble house, where they found a young woman with her baby and her husband. This family were not royalty, they had no obvious wealth, and I wonder what the Wise Men thought as they bowed down to worship the baby, a baby that filled them with awe. They must have wondered what it was all about, and what it all meant. In normal human terms it did not make much sense.

We do not have any written records of these wise men after they leave, but it would be fascinating to know how they retold their story when they returned home. I wonder what sense they made of it. I wonder if it was relevant for them in their lives afterwards, and in what way they related to the experience. I wonder if they knew the Jewish scriptures and if they could relate what they had seen and experienced to those writings, or did they use their own faith system to relate to the events they had experienced.

In our own multi faith, multi ethnic society it is very important that we think about how we tell our stories and how we listen to the stories of others so that we are not directed in the wrong way by making false assumptions as the Wise Men did when they arrived in Jerusalem. They thought in the terms of their own culture and searched for what they expected. Luckily they were redirected, and valued the far deeper truth they then discovered. But perhaps this divide is also there intrinsically within society as the Christian story becomes less well known. We must then ask ourselves if we are telling this story in a way that engages with our society.

This great story of our redeemer, our incarnate Lord, should be shouted across our land.

December 2007

Advent

Advent is not, as many people think, the season of waiting or preparation for the festival that comes at the end of December. Advent is the season in the Church Year when the church waits for the coming of the Messiah at the end times. Advent is a season, a time, for all of us, and Christians in particular, to meditate on the great themes of death, judgement, heaven and hell; a season of penitence with stark, strong language. Advent is Christianity at its most counter-culture in a society where decorations and preparations for the Festival at the end of December start in September or even earlier.

The themes of Advent are very important for our modern lives which are so full of diversions and entertainment. In the words of Jesus, it is “watchfulness, keeping awake, reading the signs of the times” that we must wrestle with in Advent. This season is one when we should be asking big questions of ourselves and our church community, like “Why are we here?” and “What happens when we die?” These questions are answered by John the Baptist and Jesus the Son of God, who give us a way of life that is non-violent, hopeful, peaceful and true.

Right up to the last Sunday of Advent it is important that we do not move too quickly to the celebration of Christmas. We prepare ourselves and wait right up to the last moment as it increases our joy and relief at the birth of the long awaited Messiah at that first Christmas; and his birth in our hearts and minds today if we have prepared ourselves properly.

Jesus Christ spoke again and again about ‘the coming of the Son of Man’
(Matthew 24.37) and St Paul says that, ‘our salvation is closer and the day is drawing near’ (Romans 13.11) when the Lord will set up his rule and flood the world with light and peace, drawing all people to live in love and harmony. Advent calls us all to throw away our deeds of darkness and put on the armour of faith, hope and love. Advent calls us to wait and reform our lives “for the Kingdom of God is at hand”.

Christmas

We must remember that in the tradition of the gospels, it was angels, shepherds and wise men, in other words, the holy, the humble and the expectant, who pointed out and experienced the moment in history that changed things for ever. When we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day, we must make sure that we deliver to the world the full Gospel message of God’s love in Jesus Christ for all humanity today. This message, of course, is not just for one day’s celebration but for a lifetime.

Let us all surprise the world with Christ Jesus born and alive in us.

With best wishes and every blessing for the great seasons of Advent and Christmas

November 2007

Remember, remember……Not only the 5^th of November with its annual reminder of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605, but also a significant cluster of other November dates that bid us "Remember".

Remembrance Sunday this year, coincides with the original November 11^th 1918 Armistice Day which brought to an end the First World War. Earlier this year, my wife and I spent a half-day (during a short break in Bruges in Belgium) visiting one of the sites of the Battle of the Somme, the “In Flanders Field” Museum at Ypres, and the impressive Menin Gate memorial bearing the names of many thousands of British servicemen who gave their lives for King and Country. For many families up and down the country, the loss of loved-ones between 1914 and 1918 is still keenly felt, remembering too the Second World War 1939–1945, the 1950s Korean War, the 1980s Falklands War, and other military loss of life including (as I write and as you read this) those who have given and are still giving their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We will remember them" will echo in Acts of Remembrance in every parish and community throughout the land in pride but also in great sadness.

Although deaths on military active service are rightly given special public recognition, all those near and dear to us who have died have not only a place in our own hearts, but a particular place within the life of the Church. November 2^nd each year is All Souls' Day when the names of particular loved ones are remembered at the altar either in silent or public prayer. As we loved and prayed with them and for them during their lives here on earth, so it is right that we have a particular opportunity to go on doing so now that their earthly journey has ended. A special service will be held at St Mary’s at 3.00pm on November 4^th, the nearest Sunday in All Souls-tide, when those who we know to have been bereaved locally during the last year will be invited by the Rector to remember their loved-ones by placing a "candle of thanksgiving and remembrance" in the place specially arranged.

And all in the context and back-drop of All Saints' Day which comes first (and foremost) on November 1^st. To pass from earthly life into the closer presence of God is to take our place with "the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven." As we continue to journey onwards in our lives, we can think of that phrase in an old Scottish Catechism that tells of the purpose of life being "to know, love and serve God here on earth and to enjoy him for ever in heaven." St Paul tells us that we are all "called to be saints" (1 Corinthians 1, v 2).

Sainthood is all to do with holiness - "specialness" for God. Each one of us has that potential, and destiny, to reflect something of the holiness of God Himself in whose image we are made. We give thanks for those particular Saints whose "days" are celebrated on particular dates each year. We remember with joy their distinctive lives as apostles, martyrs, gospel-writers or otherwise Christ-like men and women down the Christian centuries and across the Christian world who are recognised as "lights of the world in their several generations" (1928 Prayer Book).They are what the Letter to the Hebrews calls that "great cloud of witnesses" (ch. 12 v 1) who, as it were, cheer us on, pray us on and generally "root" for us as we seek to live out our Christian lives.

To remember is to bring into the present - that occasion, that person, that hero, that role-model, that loved-one. To remember in the context of Christian faith is to have ever in our hearts and minds that Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life for human living leads us through His Good Friday death (as horrible as any battle-zone death) and Easter Resurrection to that closer presence of God for which He has prepared "a place for you" (St. John 14 v 2). That same love of God that Jesus lived is never, ever exhausted. That is the basis for what we call our Christian "hope", (a word - like charity - sadly devalued as we speak of "hope for the best") where hope in the best Christian sense is that promise that of "all that You have given me, I shall lose nothing"
(St John 6 v 39).

It is within Christian worship, that we remember and make present the reality of the love of God, the life of Jesus, and their on-going nature and life we call the Holy Spirit. We remember that we are ALL members of God’s human family, Christian or not-Christian, living or departed "Do this in remembrance of me…." commanded Jesus in the Upper Room. (St Luke 22 v19) But for Christians and would-be Christians, not only on November 11^th, November 2^nd or even November 1^st, but, by God's love and grace, every day of our lives!

With love and prayers

Honorary Assistant Priest

October 2007

Theology

"Now if it’s theology we are talking about then that must be your business," said the lady. "Why must it be my business" I asked. "Well, because you have been trained," came the reply. And this conversation has been repeated many times in the years since I was ordained. However, this lady's understanding does not seem to agree with the dictionary definition of theology which is:- 'dealing with knowledge of God as gained from his works by light of nature and reason, and based on revelation'.

Now I would say that I have no more knowledge of God than any other Christian. I would also say that I have no more experience of living and walking with him than the many other people of faith I meet day by day, and I am sure much less than many. At college I was privileged to study the reasoning of earlier great Christian thinkers, and was made to think through some of the complex issues raised. But that is not a privilege available only to ministers in training, it is open to everyone to explore and consider, and that is not all that theology is.

Our information of our faith and our knowledge of the teaching of Jesus come from the extraordinary, ordinary men who surrounded him, and then in faith told the story. They were not chosen for their academic ability nor for their prior knowledge, but because they were people who could see God and live his ways. That is, live the theology. As Christians, we are living that theology each and every day as we live out our lives walking with God in faith.

We always achieve this better if we are willing to open ourselves to new ways of thinking and of understanding, if we are willing to discuss and listen to others as they talk about their lives in faith. This must be a truly non-judgemental process; there is no hierarchy, though some are privileged with more information than others, they may well not have the same life experience of living the faith as those with whom they meet.

The gospel is meant to be lived out in our lives, but to do that we do need to study and to think about what it says. This can be done locally in house discussion groups, it can be done through the diocesan schemes enabling individuals to chose to study to greater depth a chosen subject, it can be done by preparing each Sunday by reading the lesson and then listening to the sermon, and thinking how what is said relates to our own lives. But however we do it, theology is about us living the Gospel in our lives in the most informed way we can, not just those of us who are priests, but every one who claims Christ as Lord.

September 2007

Witness of Disciples

Learning to be Disciples

Many of us are bewildered with the changes and challenges of life today. Things unimagined a few years ago are now part of life and if you don’t keep up you are left behind.

We also live at a time when the almost casual destruction of life is a daily occurrence. The use of embryos for research and experimentation is discussed and to some extent accepted. Family life and marriages too often end in divorce. Almost daily we hear of a fatal stabbing or shooting on our streets; terror stalks our towns and cities. Too many human lives are desecrated.

All around us the beliefs and values of our Christian inheritance are questioned and ridiculed, not only by agnostics and the unprincipled. We could be witnessing the destruction of our civilisation, or living through the birth pains of a new generation and culture. Death and resurrection are of course the rhythmic pulse of God's dealings with his world and his people. We Christians believe that ultimate victory is assured but never painlessly and always through death.

Who then, will be the prophets and apostles of a new age? Who will turn the searchlight of truth on the pretensions and the falsehoods of those who peddle new solutions to ancient problems? We have to learn from history, from other times of deep crisis and the collapse of communities, the way in which new communities were built by salvaging the treasures of past and applying them to contemporary life. Not to take us back, but in order to move forward with integrity, respecting and loving all that God has given us to care for, including human life and the environment.

In these days a gigantic new effort needs to be made in understanding what it means to serve and be served. This applies in a special way to Christians and the Church. We need to re-learn, or discover afresh, the way of being Christ's Disciples in the world today.

The seeds have been sown; in each one of us the life of Christ is to be found. We have been called by God at our Baptism and Confirmation, and empowered to go out as whole-hearted followers of Christ. We Christians are the upholders of whatever is good, just and righteous. When we were confirmed we consciously accepted the responsibility of standing up for the truth of the gospel and all that it stands for in valuing human life.

If each of us is faithful to our Baptism and Confirmation promises, if each of us receives Jesus into ourselves regularly at Communion every week, we are in a strong position to overcome, with the Light of Christ, the dark forces of evil in the world. We Christians could have a stunning impact on world affairs but this means mobilising all our resources and seeking God's will with specific reference to our present Witness and Discipleship. The Church has a commitment to build the Kingdom of God. Does anyone notice we are here now?

The Church has to be revitalised, if the people of God are to be prophets and witnesses to Christ; we each need a new experience of conversion. We need to learn again the art of "Discipleship", of following Jesus. In this Diocese a new Programme of Learning for Discipleship begins this autumn. I have invited one of the Diocesan "Learning for Discipleship" Team to come and talk to us on this subject on Wednesday, 3rd October, 7.30pm in the Vicarage Schoolroom. This is an open meeting for all Church members. The PCCs of Gillingham and Milton-on-Stour will be there and we extend a warm welcome to you to attend. Please come, so that we can take the first steps in learning how to make the Gospel our own and become alive as we learn to relate the Good News to an unbelieving world.

This is the Challenge before us, we have to learn about Discipleship in order to encourage others to come to Christ Jesus and change the world for God.

Yours with every blessing

August 2007

August is the month when, traditionally, many people “go places”. The school term has ended, local organisations have a summer break, the pace of life is that bit slower and thousands of folk take to the roads, the airports, the railways or the Channel Ports to “get away.” For those unable to go away for one reason or another, there will be those memories of former years. For “places” play a very important part in our lives – the place where we grew up; the place we made this or that decision; maybe the place of that unhappy episode. Places are the milestones – even the “pauses” along life’s way. My wife and I have recently spent the inside of a week in Bruges in Belgium. Another great place (for us) of Christian worship and heritage.

No wonder, whether regular churchgoers or not, a very great number of folk always make a point of visiting the churches they find when they are on holiday. For, as often as not, they somehow “define” the place or region It is perhaps no surprise that, all in all, our churches and cathedrals are among the most visited places of all. And the same goes for those churches and cathedrals on the mainland of Europe and beyond. We know that “The Church” is a company of people. But what is it about our church buildings that draws folk literally in their thousands?

First, it will be their very history and beauty. In a fast-moving world when there are so many changes in life and in which so many of life’s features are “ordinary”, the very stones, structures and art-work in a variety of forms within our church buildings point us beyond the present – even above the present. We may well have come across those lines of the poet Wordsworth written “above Tintern Abbey” (on the banks of the river Wye):

“And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime…”

It is not only a lovely view from a hilltop that causes us to exclaim “ Gosh – wish you were here!” Our church buildings can (and do) have the same effect. And this is very much a “way-into” worship – to be drawn out of ourselves into something (or rather Somebody – God). Lovely places raise our spirits and can give us that sense of our total dependence upon God, the Creator. Those who designed and built our churches had that “Greater glory of God” as their ultimate motivation. We all need to recapture and experience that sense of awe and wonder. It was the great scientist Albert Einstein who wrote “Whoever is devoid of the capacity to wonder…whoever cannot contemplate or know the deep shudder of the soul in enchantment, might just as well be dead for he has already closed his eyes upon life.”

Second, our church buildings can help re-kindle that vision for a “different” world – where people and situations ought to come together in a coherent “whole”. The integrated structure of the building stands in stark contrast to a disintegrated world. That is why, for Christians ands would-be Christians, our churches, chapels, cathedrals and abbeys not only “lift us up” but (please God) “send us away” with renewed hearts, minds and wills to make the world a more Christ-like place. Church buildings (as well as church people!) ought to bring to life “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. It was George Fox, the 17th century founder of the Quaker movement who also prayed “O God, baptize our hearts into a sense of the needs and conditions of all”.

Third, our church buildings, great and small can and do give that sense of security, trust and “waiting upon God”. (Psalm 62). As we explore all that a church building has to offer, we might well recall the hymn-writer’s words “….here might I stay and sing, no story so divine.” One of the saddest features of life today is that there is so little trust – there always seems to be someone or something to blame for this or for that. Within many a place and community is our church buildings that proclaims above all that “God is….” and that “God is faithful….” (1 Corinthians 10 v13). Not everybody will see that in Christian terms, but for those of us who do we are reminded each time we pass or enter a church that “God is our help and strength” (Psalm 46) is all our joys, sorrows, hopes and fears throughout all the “changing scenes” of our lives.

All in all, our church buildings beckon us to “come in”, to be refreshed and renewed in a variety of ways whether by “taking in” the spaces themselves or through the formal worship and various events that take place within them so that we might “go out” with a renewed spirit in our hearts. Our churches help us “go places” in our thoughts, words, prayers and actions. This month (August 6th) sees the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. The Christian faith is all to do with our “transformation” into the very likeness of Christ Himself. May our churches – great and small – play no small part in drawing us deeper into worship and more generous in our Christian witness.

With all good wishes and prayers

Honorary Assistant Priest

July 2007

The Life of God is in Everything

This month Gillingham will reverberate with life as the community of Gillingham comes together and celebrates the Gillingham Festival. A very imaginative programme of activities and entertainment has been planned by the festival organizers. As a part of these celebrations we have St. Mary’s Flower Festival. This is a celebration acknowledging the hand of God in the beauty of flowers and through our worship.

I stand in awe as I look at the beauty of a single flower. Then I feel humbled by the artistic skill of flower arrangers, as they bring so many varieties/species of flowers and foliage together in an arrangement and display. Each arrangement is part of the whole, expressing our reliance on God the ‘Creator of All’. ‘God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good.’ (Genesis 1. 33) At this time of year we cannot get away from the ‘grandeur of creation’; although, of course, each passing season brings its reminder of the grace and skilfulness of God.

The Book of Genesis is absolutely clear that the world, humanity and all of creation is created by God for his glory. Creation is celebrated again and again in the Old Testament and gives thanks for the breath of life that animates all creation. This is nothing less than the ongoing presence of the same Spirit that brooded over the waters at the beginning of creation.

Creation is not a far off once and for all event; God did not light the blue touch paper, stand back and let the rocket soar. Creation is, creation continues, creation is perpetual. Far from being up there and out there, God is at the heart of all that is; he is best imaged as the inmost part of all that is. We look beyond the created and behold the Creator. He is everything, in everything, one God, maker and Father of all. As Christians we compress billions of years of creation into the bare phrase of the Creed……”Creator of heaven and earth”. The endless diversity of all that exists is in reality the single pulse of divine energy.

It has taken the human race many millennia to realise the true shape of the world. In this age the living reality of God continues to take hold of humanity, reshaping reality and preparing the human family for an unimaginable future. We need a radical shift in our perception of God if we are to adjust our vision to the new creation in which we live. God is eternal; our understanding of him is infinite and fallible. All the pictures we have of God in our heads, all of our ideas about ourselves and our relationship with him have to take account of the flood of knowledge, discovery and research that is shaping for our generation, a new and stunning awareness of creation and our place in it.

We Christians have to allow some of the Gospel images of the Kingdom used by Jesus to grow within a new cosmic context. Jesus described the Kingdom as mustard seed, leaven and light. They are images which imply growth, transformation, energy and understanding. Here is nothing static, predictable, alien or other worldly. All is possible because God is the innermost energy source of all creation.

The Christian faith and spirituality celebrate the coming of the God-man, Jesus Christ, into our human family two thousand years ago setting the seal on God’s plan for the evolution of his creation. It releases divine life and love into humanity; it makes it possible for the human mind to glimpse the pattern and plan behind creation.

As we gaze and wonder at the beauty of the flower arrangements in church, we will come to understand a little more of the heart and mind of God.

But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. (Job 12. 7 – 10)

There is something deeply sacred about the whole of creation. The sacred book of the universe joins the sacred book of the scriptures where the word of God is to be found, where the revelation of God is made. So we must dwell on the word of scripture and creation, pondering both in our hearts.

With every blessing

June 2007

Global Warming

We spent some days last month on the Island of Bryher, one of the Scilly Isles. It is easy to see the effects that the change in sea level had during a previous event of global warming, when the sea level around, what was then one island, rose several feet, dividing the large island into many smaller ones, covering the farm land in the lower lying areas, and creating a new sea shore and a very changed landscape. What we see today is truly beautiful.

The fear of global warming and its consequences is very real at the moment especially as we have had one of the warmest springs on record; the prospect is frightening. We are able to see that our actions can potentially be the cause, with our heavy use of fossil fuels to heat our homes and to run our cars. It is easy to feel guilty and to chase around looking for solutions and for scapegoats. We are sure that we, the human race, can beat this if only we do the right things, or better still, persuade others to make changes, so that we can continue our lives with as few changes as possible.

As we search to replace these resources we have started to look for alternative fuels, and already oil-producing plants are being grown in our fields to create fuels for our cars and lorries. All of this raises two issues for me.

Firstly, I wonder if we truly believe that we can control our environment. If I have learnt anything from my many holidays on the Scilly Isles it is that the weather is totally beyond our control, and that some of the most beautiful things come from the most unpredicted events. The amazing rainbow appearing in the sea spray high over a rock as the sun reappears after a storm, children building sandcastles on a beach in late October in warm sun wearing tee shirts, the Northern Lights over the islands. All memories to hold, but none of them ones we could have predicted or created. For me these demonstrate the hand of God at work in our world.

I do believe that we have to do all we can to ensure we leave as little damage to our planet as possible, that our ecological footprint is as small as we can make it. It is important that we look at our life styles and see where we cause damage, and where we should manage and use resources more carefully, but we should be doing this knowing that we are God’s henchmen, not his ruler, aware of our subsidiary place in the scheme of things.

Secondly, I have concerns that in the western world we have turned our minds to creating the fuels we require from biological means. Although we have food for our tables there are many places in our world where people go hungry. These same places are also often those with the greatest need to find finance from the western nations to repay debts, and so they are already tempted to grow cash crops to decorate our homes with flowers, and provide luxury out-of-season foods for our tables. Is it right that even more land should be used to provide crops that will not provide food for those most in need in our world, and instead provide fuel to keep our cars running. I do not have the answer, but I do think we need to ask the questions.

We may be reluctant to ask these questions because we do not want answers that will involve changes, but we all need to think talk and pray, and to face the future aware of God’s great majesty and power among us.

May 2007

While it is more than possible to celebrate the earthly life of Jesus in a total and general way every day in our Christian lives, the annual church calendar invites us to reflect upon particular aspects of His life in particular ways as the Festivals come round. During this month we are within what traditionally has been called the “Great Forty Days” between Easter Day and Ascension Day (Thursday May 17th) and the Festival of Whitsun/Pentecost (Sunday, May 27th).

Following the great emphasis of Easter that “Christ is risen!” - brought through (Good Friday) sin and death by the continuing love of God that Jesus showed from the Cross, hence Good Friday, God’s Friday – Ascension Day declares that the earthly ministry of Jesus is completed and received by God through His return to heaven and eternity (from whence he came at Christmas). Pentecost – 50 days after Easter – celebrates the continuing presence of the Spirit of God- now enriched by the earthly life of Jesus – in all that we mean by the Holy Spirit. The “Bible timetable” for these Christian Festivals (or Feasts) comes from the writings of St Luke. First in his Acts of the Apostles where the post-Easter appearances of Jesus came to and end after forty days in chapter 1, verse 3 (that is why Ascension Day is always on a Thursday!) and Pentecost (originally 50 days after the Jewish Passover) follows Jesus’ wish for His disciples (in St Luke’s Gospel chapter 24, verse 49) to “stay in the city until the power from above comes down upon you”. Traditionally, the Easter (Paschal) candle was extinguished following the reading of the Gospel on Ascension Day, but in these days of worship (liturgical) changes, the Paschal Candle remains lit until Pentecost. The word “Whitsun” is derived from “White Sunday” when women and girls being confirmed at Pentecost wore white clothes.

I write about these particular emphases of these significant “milestones” in the life and ministry of Jesus if only because whether believing Christians or not, I believe it still worthwhile, or even of the greatest importance, to “get the facts straight” in a day and age where Good Friday and Easter Day are often regarded as “the same” and where even of our supermarket’s original advertisements on Easter egg packaging, until it was changed, told that Jesus was born at Easter. While it is important in a multi-cultural society to acknowledge publicly the place of other Faiths (Ramadan, Eid, Divali, Passover, different cultures’ New Years, etc) it is a great pity that the playing of “When I survey the wondrous Cross” (Good Friday) and “Jesus Christ is risen today” (Easter Morning) has been dropped from the start of the 8 o’clock BBC Radio 4 News. Just one example among many which indicates that, over the years, the roots of Christian culture are not publicly acknowledged. We perhaps noted it was the Iranian President who publicly brought the Christian Easter, the Jewish Passover and the birth of Mohammed together in his (maverick?) speech in releasing his British naval and marine prisoners. Thank goodness that this year the Whitsun/Pentecost Festival coincides with a Bank Holiday (Holy Day) weekend as it always used to do!

but ...

All of the above is nothing for Christians or would-be Christians if knowledge of Christian roots and faith is not reflected in living out that faith. In Prayer Book days we prayed that “we might shew forth thy praise not only with our lips but in our lives” and in these Common Worship times we pray that we may be “sent out to live and work to your praise and glory“ – same thing!. This month gives us a “heaven-sent” opportunity to do something of this through Christian Aid Week from May 13^th-19^th, the week in which Ascension Day falls. We shall all be invited to give to this great and most worthwhile cause in a variety of ways, mainly through the “red envelopes” or street collections

Christian Aid began its life in 1945 as “Christian Reconciliation in Europe” following the needs of refugees – and churches to help them meet those needs following the end of the Second World War. Christian Aid Weeks began in 1957 and led the way, with Oxfam, in establishing what we now call the Aid Agencies that now come together spontaneously following disasters like the recent Indian Ocean Tsunami and the Make Poverty History campaign. But meanwhile, Christian Aid, acting on behalf of many Christian denominations in this country, is regularly and much involved in long-term development projects in over sixty of the world’s poorest countries. Under the general slogan “We believe in life before death”, this year’s particular motto is “Help poor communities grow a future”. While not directly politically involved Christian Aid, supported by the other agencies and others including the world-wide Mothers’ Union, seeks to harness the power of people united across the world to put issues of trade, aid and development at the top of political agendas to tackle the root causes of poverty irrespective of peoples’ religion or race. 82p of every £1 raised goes directly to places and peoples of need. Over these last decades, millions of pounds have been raised through voluntary contributions made possible through local volunteers in our local communities – not least in Gillingham. May we be moved to give to Christian Aid this month as generously and graciously as we are prompted to do following our thoughts and prayers for those in great need.

If we are to become God’s “Easter People”, we are bidden not only to know about the Gospel but to become the Gospel to enable others in other places renewed hope to live happier and more fulfilled human lives.

With good wishes and prayers

Honorary Assistant Priest

April 2007

The Cross: ‘A Touching Place’

Palm Sunday, April 1st, marks the beginning of Holy Week; this week is the most important time of the Christian Year. In, and through it, we engage with Christ Jesus as He walked the way of suffering and death. Jesus Christ also walks with us now, touching us and the whole world for the cross is Salvation for all, now.

Today we, as Christians, are encouraged to engage with our fellow human beings and the whole world in all its suffering and with all its opportunities. In this way we become the instruments and vehicles of the Redeeming Love of Jesus who died for all and wishes to touch everyone and every situation at the point of pain and sorrow, ‘The Touching Place’.

This year our theme for Holy Week is “The Cross: the Touching Place”. Our preachers at our Evening worship on each day will speak on this theme, linking it to situations and circumstances in the world today, both for individuals, communities and world needs.

Our preacher at St. Mary’s on Good Friday for the two hours, from 1.00pm - 3.00pm, will be Jackie Simmons, (formerly Sr. Jackie who preached during Holy Week a few years ago). Jackie now lives in Wimborne and has recently spent some time with “Street Kids Direct”, a Christian Charity with a mission to help and support those who work with street children around the world. This Charity was founded in 2003 by Duncan Dyason, author of ‘Miracle Children’ and founder of the El Castillo Street Children Project in Guatemala and Matt Levett and Joe Soden.

Jackie writes

“ I have been unable to ascertain how many street kids there are in Guatemala but I can say with certainty the number is rising, more and more kids are being abandoned, or running away from an abusive home. Once on the streets the life expectation of a child is four years. The horror stories of abuse, brutalisation of children, slaves to prostitution, rent boys and drugs, are beyond most people’s imagination. In fact we ‘don’t want to go there’, it is too painful for us. Yet I believe that God is there, that is where this Lent is, daily suffering and dying with these children. Whatever is done to one of them is done to God. While this world denies the rights to life and their children, they keep Christ on the cross as the world remains indifferent to the horrors inflicted on children, world wide, we cannot put ourselves in the arms of God, overflowing with warmth, security and everlasting hope. WE must register the deep pain of God, the reality of this sorrow; think about the children crying out to their God. Children……..

This Good Friday, the story is not just about the passion of Christ, it is about the continuing passion of God’s children. My heart, your heart, God’s heart. “

This Holy Week and the Great Three Days, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, are not just about the Passion of Christ, these days are about the continuing passion of God’s world. It is about putting ‘my heart – your heart’ alongside the heart of Jesus who still cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”

On Good Friday at St. Mary’s, after the Solemn Liturgy at 12 noon, for the ‘Two Hours’, 1.00 – 3.00pm, Jackie will be taking some of the ‘Last Words’ of Christ on the cross and putting them alongside the contemporary scene in the world, especially the suffering children of Guatemala who are crying out for salvation.

Some of the titles for the addresses may be:-

‘I only wanted to be a child, but they wouldn’t let me.’
‘Hello God, can you hear me?’ “Eli, Eli lema sabacthani.?”
‘Children of desolation.’
‘Abandoned.’
‘A child despised and rejected by men.’
’I cry out to God.’
‘Behold the child of sorrows.’
‘No more tears, no more pain (I wish).’
‘Where is the hope for the future?’

As we keep this Holy Week, let us pray that God, through the suffering of Christ on the cross and through the power of the Holy Spirit, will touch us in such a way that we may live as though we are truly alive in Jesus Christ our Lord, who has Risen from the dead and is alive in us forever more.

May the Cross, as lived through the witness of the church, be truly a ‘Touching Place’ for the world.

The Retiring Collection at the Two Hours will be given to the charity ‘Street Kids Direct’.

March 2007

Standng on Firm Ground

We had a lovely winter walk recently in North Somerset from Berrow Sands to Brean along the beach. There had been high tides and everywhere was clean and washed and the sand at the top of the beach firm to walk on. Our dog ran and ran, searching every clump of seaweed and every blade of grass on the dunes. The sea was way out of sight, just a very distant sound across the wide expanse of seemingly flat beach. To the seaward of us there were fishermen digging in the sand for worms, with their Wellington boots covered in the wetter sand. Because we know the area we did not need to read the notices warning us not to walk too far down the beach in search of the sea as the sand closer to the water at low tide is in places a dangerous quicksand.

Lent is a good time to consider how confident we are in our faith. These forty days give us time to think about what we believe and how the foundations of our faith support that belief. As the society in which we live often aligns faith with eccentricity and places little value on our faith, and is, in fact, comfortable to ridicule the Christian beliefs in a public way, it is important that as Christians we are sure of what we believe and what it means to each one of us to be a person of faith.

Walking on the firm sand is when we understand, when we are sure of what we believe and what that faith means to us. This is material we understand and are confident with. But this is also when we need to ask ourselves if we are complacent? Are we taking things for granted? And is it easy because we are not taking time to renew our interest? If we are to remain alert and confident then we need to take time to enliven and renew even the basic things we believe. Take time to discuss with others and to read, keep our faith lively and alive to continue supporting us and to increase our knowledge and understanding. There is so much more to discover about our Lord and God than one lifetime can contain.

And when we are standing in the water, then we have some work to do, because if we become ‘bogged down’, maybe even stuck for a while and then we begin to wonder whether our faith will be strong enough to keep us going. We all do have times of feeling jaded and perhaps wondering why we are going to Church, whether we do really believe in it all. But that is the voice of the world affecting us and it is by persevering that we shall regain that wonder of our God; it would be easy just to give up but far more exciting to explore why we have the questions and dilemmas with other people.

Faith is the wonderful gift we are given, not something we can just grow all alone, as it is God’s gift to us. However, as with every gift we are given, we can decide whether to receive it and accept it or to put it to one side. If we accept it then we should look after it. Not by wrapping it up in tissue paper and hiding it away in a special drawer to be taken out on Sundays only but by living it every day of our lives.

If our faith is well lived then when we come to the times of life when we find ourselves in the quicksand, when everything we know seems to be standing on its head and life sucking us under, then we shall have a safe dry firm place to stand back on while everything else sorts itself out. A strong well lived faith can sustain through even the bleakest times; of course it will suffer doubts and confusion, but it will carry us through if we rely on God our Father to carry us when things are tough.

I wish you all a time of growth and strength through this Lent, so that when we stand at the foot of the cross on Good Friday we will know the wonder of the gift we have been freely given.

February 2007

February brings our thoughts to Lent which begins on Ash Wednesday, 21st February. For some Lent is a period in the Church’s Year associated with giving up and being miserable. It is, in fact, the very opposite.

Lent calls us to make something of our lives; it is not just about penance and self-denial. It is about freedom, coming alive, learning to live more intensely for Jesus and being happy and contented in our discipleship.

Lent is about life, healing and fulfilment. It challenges us to wake up, open our eyes and dare to live. In and through the Incarnation, his birth as a man, Jesus offers us new opportunities, a new creation, a new energy to turn to others and build up community and friendship.

Lent calls us to come to a new understanding of our Faith and a recognition and acknowledgement that we are part of the work-a-day world which disappoints and corrupts, and yet is in a constant process of change.

Lent calls us to conversion leading us into a new existence. As Christians we remain within the same reality which all human beings experience but because of our new understanding of life within the context of God, we know that life can be transformed. Conversion is a turn around, a rethink, which should bring about a revolution in our attitudes, perceptions and response to the challenges of the world in any age.

Jesus opened his mission by proclaiming: “Repent and believe the Good News.” Conversion involves both parts of that process: giving in and giving up; giving into God and giving up for God. That’s what Lent is about.

On its own repentance, being sorry for sin, can be self-centred and self-obsessed. Conversion on the other hand means waking up to the fact that ‘I’ am not the centre of the universe nor am ‘I’ the only point and purpose of creation. Each of us is totally a gift of God, a word of God, expressing his goodness, love and life. We are simply to share, rejoice, understand and give thanks. That’s what Lent is all about. We are part of an act of love and creation which embraces all ages, the whole human family.

So Lent is not and never should be gloomy or negative. It should certainly not be thought of as a boring annual ritual. It is a chance to learn how to wake up and be fully alive in God through Jesus Christ Our Lord.

Lent provides us with the opportunity to understand and feel that there is more to life, there are no hidden secrets: only the humble, the poor, the little ones, those who live for God and for other people, will learn. Lent is about understanding that we have to be free to die if we want to fully live.

Lent reminds us that we need never lose hope because the God who is shown to us in Jesus Christ is not a distant dispassionate God. God is here in the darkness, despair and loneliness of the world. He is here when defeat and death stare us in the face. We live in a brutal, violent world but it is a world whose wickedness is already forgiven, because Christ, in his love, died for us. Since then the torn fabric of our world is being gradually “rewoven”. We live in a world where the sun shines for us without ceasing providing we are willing, in faith and hope, to live that unending and uniquely creative present, locked into the love of God, committed without limit to the love of others.

We Christians are here to show ‘Jesus’ to the World in all our days. This is our calling and reason for ‘Being’. We are Christians not in order to sustain archaic structures for the benefit of a few people. We are here to be heralds and architects of a new creation that God is bringing about. We are here to enable others to claim their rightful place in God’s Kingdom. We are all called upon to develop and nurture our own discipleship and to develop and nurture others in their relationships with God. We are all of us learners and should be seekers on a Pilgrimage to God, with God.

That is what Lent is about. That is what the Christian Life is all about.

May we all keep a good Lent.

January 2007

We go forward into another New Year with Christmas, not simply behind us but surely very much in front of us. That means that, for those of Christian faith, Jesus is not simply the Baby of Bethlehem, but the One whose life “went on” from Christmas into – 30 years or so later – the “real world” of human living with its mixture of goodness and wickedness. As we go forward in our lives within this same world – however younger or older we will become during this year – the spirit, the message but, above all, the Jesus of Christmas points us towards at least three ingredients that, unworthy as I am, I offer for both New Year Resolutions and for daily living:

Thanksgiving. Because of the birth and human life of Jesus, we can give thanks for that “Human Face of God” (as Bishop John Robinson put it). The nature and the characteristics of the Jesus of the New Testament are a direct reflection in human terms of what God is like. With this in mind, not only have we that example and inspiration to show that same goodness, compassion and forgiveness in our own lives, but also that personal companionship of God-in-Christ to help and support us – especially in those circumstances and occasions where we fail and fall short. The Christian Gospel is always the Gospel of the “second chance” – for the likes of you and me!

Wonder. Those Nativity Plays we either remember or have shared in recently will have brought that wonderful simplicity that little children can bring. Heaven and earth are brought very close together. A similar sense of wonder is brought to us by those TV documentaries such as “Planet Earth” to underline all that the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins meant when he wrote that “the world is charged with the grandeur of God”. We sing “He came down to earth from heaven…” It is truly wonderful (if we think about it) that our eternal life with God has already begun among “the angels, archangels and all the company of heaven.”

Transformation. There is no doubt that the stable room at Bethlehem must have been` transformed out of all recognition! And that the lives of Mary and Joseph from then on were to be lived in a totally different way. The whole thrust of the four Gospel books of the New Testament is that the life and ministry of Jesus were to bring “ transformation” to human living and human situations in the greatest variety of ways. The healing, forgiveness and companionship that Jesus brought to those in need brought new start, new possibilities and new hope.

The events of Good Friday and Easter Day tell that God is not only to be found among the depths of the human situation, but transforms depths into heights. The resurrection and on-going life of Jesus were to change and transform the lives of those first century disciples/apostles and always potentially available to do just that for twenty-first century disciples and seekers.

Christian Faith bids us carry these – and more – consequences of the first Christmas into our own lives and into the life of the world as we seek to witness to these ingredients in all that we think, do and say. We pray that our lives may be out-going in every way towards others in joy and encouragement, practical concern, compassion and forgiveness as the case may be in, for example, the letters we write, the folk we meet, the words we say or in the attitudes we adopt. We pray too that we may always regard our prayers at home and our regular worship in church among our fellow-seekers and travellers as occasions of both refreshment and renewal “through Jesus Christ our Lord” that we shall be worthy of the name Christian by those who look to us. I am often reminded of that “Wayside Pulpit” question: “If you were ever arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Something else to bear in mind as we say “Happy New Year”!

With all good wishes for 2007 to you and yours

Honorary Assistant Priest

December 2006

Turkey and Tinsel
or
Holy, Holy, Holy

I am writing this on 7th November and last Friday I learnt of a group travelling for a few days to Cornwall on a ‘Turkey and Tinsel’ trip. Yes! ‘Turkey and Tinsel’ time comes earlier and earlier, such is the pressure on us all to think Christmas before we have even got to Advent.

The commercial and secular world encourages us in a kind of fantasy, ‘it’s tinsel time’!! There is an artificially created feverishness to encourage us to forget the dark and cold, or even appreciate the joys of autumn, and embrace the secular promise of happier times tomorrow.

The great season of Advent means simply to look for the “Coming”. It does not mean pretending that Bethlehem will be repeated year by year, but it does remind us that God who came to birth in Bethlehem as the son of Mary is now constantly coming to birth in our history, in all humanity and in ourselves.

We live in a time that is a permanent, perpetual Advent. If we had eyes to see and ears to hear we would be able to recognize that here is our God. God should be seen perpetually in us in our lives, in history, in all that is. He is perpetually coming to birth in us, so that we make holy all we touch and offer back to God in a constant sacrificial offering of prayer and praise and thanksgiving. Advent and Christmas have to be happening inside each of us. We need to become alive to it and in it.

It is so important for us, Christians, to realise that we are blessed beyond words in the glory of our calling. All the words of peace and good will that go with these seasons (Advent and Christmas) should be overflowing with abundance as blessings to all around us.

Advent and Christmas remind us that we are in the ultimate stage of growth and transformation, not just for us but for all. We miss so much because so often we do not look in the right places or even in the right direction. The new heaven and the new earth are being shaped all around us through the ingenuity, technological genius and scientific knowledge of the human race. God is in all this. God’s love and life are evident everywhere and in everything. God is not confined to the church or exclusively to its activity. It is, however, the movement forward that is important.

Whenever humanity moves forward, God’s revelation is being fulfilled. ‘Sacred’ and ‘secular’ are not two realities but a single expression of the one God. We can rejoice in the bewildering profusion of goods and opportunities on offer to us today, yet at the same time there remain the reality and emptiness of the poverty stricken all over the world and their cry for help.

We are made for light, life and love; we are made by God to share His love. Humanity yearns for what we are to be. In the dark of December we dream of light. We are nothing, yet we are called to be immortal. Advent and Christmas call us to embrace the Christ – God who comes to meet us.

This Christmas I hope and pray that you will all be able to rejoice in the daily loving of God and give thanks for that divine generosity. It is my prayer that our vocations may be fulfilled, as we all engage in the same outpouring of goodness and affirmation on today’s world.

May these Advent days inspire us
warmly to prepare his way,
brightly to expect his coming….
for he came and comes to stay
as the Saviour, born in Bethlehem,
as our Saviour born today.

© David John Harding (1935 - ), taken from Worship Live No. 36, Stainer & Bell

With all best wishes for Advent, and God’s blessing for Christmas through His most wonderful gift of Jesus, to you and to your families.

November 2006

The year moves rapidly on; here we are in November, the month of Remembering.

‘Remember, Remember.’

• 1st November All Saints’ Day when we remember All men and women of Faith
• 2nd November All Souls’ Day when we remember All the Faithful departed
• 11th November Remembrance Sunday when we remember All those who have given their lives in Service to their country, for Peace and Freedom
• 26th November ‘Christ the King’; this celebration brings the Church Year to an end, the re-living of Christ’s life through our Liturgy/Worship.

‘Remember, Remember.’

It’s good for us to remember what God has done for us; it’s also paramount to remember what generations of our fellow human beings have achieved for us through their Sacrifices.

At this moment the news has broken upon the world that North Korea has tested a Nuclear Device. This has caused unease and outrage across the world, threatening peace and stability further.

As Christians we are called to live love, reconciliation and universal brother/sisterhood in a sinful world, where individuals and states use aggression and violence to secure their purposes. The Christian vision of peace is a different one from the understanding of the secular world. The Church has been told by Christ to bring “His Peace into the world”. “Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you; a peace that the world cannot give.” John 14. 27.

The biblical and Christian concept of peace is necessarily bound up with the deeds of righteousness and justice for all, honouring our responsibilities to God and to our neighbours. In the New Testament we find the revelation of God’s serving love for us in Jesus Christ and his commandment to love others as he loves us. This of course is the heart of the Christian Good News. We must, as Christians, be heralds of peace and reconciliation. This means that the Christian Church, each and every individual Christian, must be committed to bring together those who are at variance and to heal injustices and inequalities that breed bitterness and conflict. We, as Christians, are called upon to witness by the way we live that all people are equal and equally loved by God.

As we struggle to remain sane in a mad world let us ‘remember’ what others have already achieved in their time and learn the lessons of history. Above all let us learn from, and embrace more fully, Christ who is our King and renew our resolve to live His way of Peace.

October 2006

Living in the World

It is carnival time again, with all the bustle and fun that goes with it. I especially enjoy the afternoon procession with all the children in their amazing costumes. The balloons and the excitement as the crowds gather to watch, and then the crush to the fair ground to watch as people try so hard to win that reward. As children it was our only chance to get a coconut, and the one who won the prize was allowed to have the first drink of the prized milk from the centre. Carnival, shows and fairs play an important part in our society allowing fun and laughter into lives that might otherwise contain only solemn events, and enabling a little controlled misrule to occur. A chance to stand back from the serious task of every day living and laugh at ourselves.

The Holy days of the church became the first holidays, and these were days to worship God and then to relax and to enjoy living. I wonder sometimes why laughter is sometimes frowned on in our daily lives. I always respond more positively to a smiling face than to a frowning one; in fact it was something I had to learn. Because I am short sighted I have always had a tendency to screw up my face and appear to be cross, and I had to learn to smile. So why do people find laughter threatening? Perhaps because they have experienced it being used cruelly in the past to poke fun, and to make individuals feel as if they are outsiders in a community. Perhaps because laughter can be used to belittle a subject and so diminish its importance. I am sure this latter point is especially true when people find laughter difficult to cope with in our Church services. They find it hard to accept that by treating something as important as our faith in a light way we are treating it casually or with disrespect.

I like the story of the tumbler in medieval times. He travelled round the fairs until he became ill, and lay down under a bench and would have died if one of the monks had not noticed him and taken him home in his barrow. They nursed him back to health in the monastery. When he was well he begged to be allowed to stay, and he became a novice, but he just did not seem to fit easily into the usual work in the monastery. In the kitchen he burnt the bread, in the scriptorium he blotted the page, in the garden he pulled up the plants with the weeds, and in the hospital he could never remember which herbs did what and cured what. The senior monks were about to meet to decide what he should do, and the young tumbler went into the Church feeling very sad; he loved the place so and wanted to do God’s work. He knelt to pray, but found w