Friday August 25th 2017

Be encouraged! In his first letter to the Christian Church in Thessalonica, St Paul wrote, "Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.” I’ve been reminded of those words as I’ve reflected on my first few weeks as your vicar. We live in a world whe More...

Friday August 25th 2017

Be encouraged!

In his first letter to the Christian Church in Thessalonica, St Paul wrote,

"Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.”

I’ve been reminded of those words as I’ve reflected on my first few weeks as your vicar. We live in a world where the focus is always on what we’re not doing! It’s not wrong to be challenged, of course, and it’s always fatal to rest on our laurels. But equally, it’s not wrong to celebrate what we have achieved and are achieving.

I am delighted and greatly encouraged to see so much life in our villages and in our churches. There is so much going on around us – from successful and flourishing schools; to thriving businesses; to village fetes; to a Party in the Park; to ‘Honeyangels’, our parents’/grandparents’ and toddlers’ group; to committed and faithful Christians, as well as people of other faiths, living and actively engaged in the life of our churches and communities. It is through our engagement with one another and the wider community that we fulfil St Paul’s call to ‘build each other up’.

You have been, and you are, a great encouragement to me and my hope and prayer is that I will be able to be the same to you in the years ahead. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep on saying it: The Church is here for you, whatever you believe, struggle to believe or don’t believe. So, be encouraged and go on encouraging others, building up one another and our communities – and thank you for all that you do to make a difference for good in our villages. I feel privileged and proud to be a part of them.

With love in Christ,

Friday September 15th 2017

"Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid.” The world, beautiful though it is, especially the area where we live, can sometimes seem a bewildering, even frightening, place. As I write, the situation on the Korean Peninsular is a particular concern. An already tense situation, that has been wor More...

Friday September 15th 2017

"Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid.”

The world, beautiful though it is, especially the area where we live, can sometimes seem a bewildering, even frightening, place. As I write, the situation on the Korean Peninsular is a particular concern. An already tense situation, that has been worsening for some months, is now being exacerbated by unhelpful rhetoric and sabre-rattling – on both sides.

So, what are we to make of this and other similar situations? As Lance Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army would undoubtedly say, "Don’t panic, Captain Mainwaring”! The Bible tells us that, in the present age, frightening things will sometimes go on around us – in the world and in our own lives. The writer of Psalm 46 said, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved and though the mountains tremble in the heart of the sea.” With God, no situation is ever hopeless. And so, however falteringly, we trust God, who is our refuge and strength in and through the storms of life.

The words that I began my article with were spoken by Jesus to his disciples when they were "terrified” by a storm going on around them when they were in a boat. They are as true today as they were then and speak through the ages. When we are terrified, either by the world around us or by things happening in our own lives, Jesus promises to walk through it with us and speaks to us the same words of reassurance: "Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid.”

With love in Christ,

Scott

Rev Scott Watts

Team Vicar

Tuesday August 1st 2017

New journeys begin: I've just spent 3 days in Chartres, in north-central France. The town is famous for its cathedral, which dominates the skyline for miles around. But there are plenty of nice cathedrals in the UK, so why head for Chartres? Located in the Cathedral is a 12th century circula More...

Tuesday August 1st 2017

New journeys begin:

I've just spent 3 days in Chartres, in north-central France. The town is famous for its cathedral, which dominates the skyline for miles around. But there are plenty of nice cathedrals in the UK, so why head for Chartres?

Located in the Cathedral is a 12th century circular labyrinth. The labyrinth is huge, measuring 42 feet in diameter, and the winding path contained within it is over 850 feet long! For around 900 years, pilgrims like me have walked the labyrinth, following the twisting and turning way, which, if followed correctly, leads to the centre. To some, the path symbolises life's journey, while our arrival in the centre represents what should be the ultimate goal of every human being - to be in the very presence of the God of love and to know and share in the fullness of life that Christ promises to all who believe in him. Above all, the labyrinth is a reminder that life is for each one of us a journey.

By the time you read this, I'll be back from Chartres and Ros and I will have made another significant journey - from Cambridgeshire to the Vale and Cotswold Edge. My appointment as your Vicar marks the beginning of the next phase of the journey that God has planned for our churches and their role in our communities. As we embark on this new venture together, we can know with all certainty that God journeys with us.

Ros and I are looking forward to being part of your journey and to you being part of ours. We're so looking forward to meeting you all! Whatever life throws at you, regardless of whether or not you currently come to church, we are here - with you and for you.

With love in Christ,

Scott

Reverend Scott Watts, The Vicarage, Honeybourne

Friday June 16th 2017

It is 3 years since I arrived as a ‘not so young’ and inexperienced, newly ordained curate in these parishes. In the initial months of my curacy when I attended training courses, together with other curate colleagues, we were expected to be able to recite the names of our parishes – a task whi More...

Friday June 16th 2017

It is 3 years since I arrived as a ‘not so young’ and inexperienced, newly ordained curate in these parishes. In the initial months of my curacy when I attended training courses, together with other curate colleagues, we were expected to be able to recite the names of our parishes – a task which took more than a few moments for me do then, but can now trot off with great ease! And that is because I have become not only familiar with the names but also of the people and places in which our 7 churches sit. I have been very blessed to get to know this beautiful part of England, but more importantly I have been very blessed to be able to minister to you and get to know you well.

 

After three years curates move on to take on the 'cure of souls' in a new parish. It seems hard to believe that my three years is now done and it is time for me to move on. I will be moving to the Diocese of Chichester to become priest-in-charge of the parishes of St Mary the Virgin, Burpham and St Nicholas, Poling, two small rural parishes nestling in the South Downs and close to the south coast near Arundel.

 

I will take with me many memories and you will always have a special place in my prayers. There have been moments of great joy and moments of great sadness. There have been moments of discord and moments of beauty and moments when your expressions of love and fellowship have touched both Ronald and me. All these moments are part of a rich tapestry of experiences, not just for us but I hope for you too.They are experiences which help to form and build relationships across our parishes and communities. They are living, breathing glimpses of what our diocesan vision hopes for - that we come to know life and life in all its abundance through a relationship with God and in the name of Jesus. My prayer for these parishes is that you will continue to grow and develop relationships which reflect God’s love in the way I have felt your love and affection for me.

 

My final service in the Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry will be at 10am at St Ecgwins Church, Honeybourne on Sunday 18th June followed by celebration drinks and canapés in church. I would be thrilled if you can be there, but if that is not possible, I would like to say thank you to you all. You have taught me a great deal, you have given me a great deal and I will remember you with love and affection as I move on. Ronald and I will take many happy memories of the fellowship we have enjoyed in these parishes as we move to pastures new.

 

With love andblessings,

Celia.

Assistant Curate. Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry.

Tuesday May 16th 2017

Hello! I'm grateful to have the opportunity to introduce myself, although I want to do that properly when Ros and I, along with our Basset Hound, Marigold, move into Honeybourne Vicarage and I become your Vicar and part of the Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry. I'm excited and humbled to hav More...

Tuesday May 16th 2017

Hello!

I'm grateful to have the opportunity to introduce myself, although I want to do that properly when Ros and I, along with our Basset Hound, Marigold, move into Honeybourne Vicarage and I become your Vicar and part of the Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry. I'm excited and humbled to have been appointed and really look forward to being part of the community and of your lives. One of my passions as a priest is to do my utmost to be there for everyone, regardless of your age, gender or anything else - even regardless of whether or not you come to Church, although I hope you will!

I was born and grew up in Suffolk. After Ros and I married in 1991 we lived in Cambridge and then, in 1996, moved to Brampton in Cambridgeshire where we have lived ever since. While the move to the parishes is a big one for us, and we will leave behind much that is familiar and many friends, we're looking forward to making new friends and to living in a part of the country that we know and love. Apart from working for Lloyds Bank for five years, during which time I met Ros, most of my pre-ordination working life was as a civil servant in the Ministry of Defence, where I worked alongside the Royal Air Force and US Air Force in human resources and in a parliamentary and ministerial business secretariat. Apart from two years in Lloyds Bank, Ros's career was in secondary education. She taught history and ended her career as an assistant head teacher and director of sixth form. These days, as well as working as a part-time receptionist at a local veterinary hospital, she designs, makes and sells jewellery and has recently qualified as a milliner, having trained in Chipping Campden with Louise Pocock.

I was ordained in Ely Cathedral in 2003 and served as curate in Brampton. In 2007, I became chaplain of Sue Ryder St John's Hospice and in 2009, I was appointed as Lead Chaplain of Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon. I've played a full part in the life of the hospital, supporting patients, relatives, visitors, volunteers and 1,650 amazing staff, through some of the hardest things that life can ever throw at us. That's all been a privilege beyond words and now the sense of privilege continues as we follow God's call to come to you.

Ros and I are looking forward to meeting you all and a great opportunity for us to do that is on 28 June at 7pm in St Peter's Church, Willersey, when Bishop Rachel, the Bishop of Gloucester, will License me as your new Vicar. Please come along and share in this very special and joyous occasion, when, together, we begin the next phase of our journey with the God who loves each one of us more than we can even begin to imagine.

With our love, Scott & Ros (and Marigold!)

Tuesday May 16th 2017

Dear Friends With the early spring sunshine we have enjoyed in April and everything bursting into bloom, we are looking forwards to a new era in our six parishes. Our new team vicar, Scott Watts will be installed at St Peter's, Willersey on 28th June while I will be leaving the parishes on 18 More...

Tuesday May 16th 2017

Dear Friends

With the early spring sunshine we have enjoyed in April and everything bursting into bloom, we are looking forwards to a new era in our six parishes. Our new team vicar, Scott Watts will be installed at St Peter's, Willersey on 28th June while I will be leaving the parishes on 18th June. These two dates are close together through the purely happy coincidence that Scott's appointment coincided with the end of my term as a curate. That means that there will be no 'gap' between my departure and Scott's arrival.

I will be taking up a new post in July, and will be able to tell you more in my final pastoral letter next month. Scott has written an introductory article for you all this month. He and his wife Ros, together with Marigold the basset hound will be moving into the Vicarage in Honeybourne in June. I am sure you will give them a warm welcome as you did me when I came to the VACE team ministry nearly three years ago now. How time flies!

With love and blessings, Celia.

Monday April 10th 2017

We are delighted to announce Revd Scott Watts will be the next Team Vicar serving the parishes of Aston-sub-Edge, Dorsington, Honeybourne, Pebworth, Weston-sub-Edge and Willersey. Scott writes,   Dear friends, Ros and I are looking forward to getting to know all of you in the Chu More...

Monday April 10th 2017

We are delighted to announce Revd Scott Watts will be the next Team Vicar serving the parishes of Aston-sub-Edge, Dorsington, Honeybourne, Pebworth, Weston-sub-Edge and Willersey.

Scott writes,

 

Dear friends,

Ros and I are looking forward to getting to know all of you in the Church family and beyond and to working with you to share God's love and life in our communities.

 

I feel thankful and privileged to have been offered the post of Team Vicar and to have the opportunity to work alongside Craig and Dana as part of the Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry.

 

Please pray for us during this time of transition and know that we are already praying for you. See you in June!

With love in Christ, Scott and Ros

 

Scott's licensing by Bishop Rachel and the new Archdeacon of Cheltenham, Phil Andrew will be held on Wednesday, 28th June at 7pm in St Peter's Church, Willersey.

Friday March 31st 2017

As we move from Lent towards our great celebration of Easter, we will re-live the drama of Jesus' last earthly journey which took him to the cross. For some that was a symbol of defeat. Those in power at the time thought that executing Jesus would put an end to his ministry - At that point it More...

Friday March 31st 2017

As we move from Lent towards our great celebration of Easter, we will re-live the drama of Jesus' last earthly journey which took him to the cross. For some that was a symbol of defeat. Those in power at the time thought that executing Jesus would put an end to his ministry - At that point it seemed like the end for his followers too - but it didn’t end there. 3 days later Jesus was among his followers again - no longer in the tomb - an event which remains both mysterious and real to this very day. Christians refer to this very special week before Easter Sunday as Holy Week which of course ends with Jesus' death on a cross.

 

Three days later we celebrate Easter Sunday with all sorts of symbols of new life and new birth - eggs, baby chicks, lambs, flowers and lighted candles because that is what we believe happened on that first Easter Day over 2000 years ago. Jesus' overcame the power of death and lived again amongst his people. When Jesus’ friends went to the tomb at the end of the Sabbath day they were expecting to find a dead body - but they found an empty tomb. Many efforts have been made since then to explain and dismiss the witness and experience of Jesus' disciples and close friends - men and women - but despite the most rigorous examination of the facts over the centuries no one has been able to offer a convincing set of arguments to dismiss their claims.

 

They were inspired by what they experienced - first of all great fear and then great joy because they were certain that Jesus was no longer dead. We cannot explain that in terms which completely make sense to our 21st century minds which demand a rational answer to all questions and all events. Indeed, those first century Christians couldn't describe their experience fully either. But we cannot dismiss the witness and experience and convictions of the men and women who were Jesus' disciples and close friends. It is their testimony which led to the founding of the Christian Church - still the largest single faith group in the world today.

 

Christian lives are grounded in the hope that Jesus gave us. That love will always be more powerful than evil. And so I invite you to come and see or learn for yourselves what it is we believe as we re-live the events of Holy Week and celebrate the greatest of our Christian festivals – Easter Day. There are many opportunities throughout Holy Week to join us and an Easter Sunday service in all 6 of our churches. You will be most welcome wherever you choose to be. As we celebrate together, I pray that you too will experience something of the wonder and mystery of Easter as those first disciples and friends of Jesus did - all those centuries ago.

 

I join with all my clergy colleagues in the Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry and with Dr Israel Selvanayagan from our Methodist Church in Willersey to wish you all a very happy and joy filled Easter.

Celia.

Assistant Curate. Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry.

Friday March 10th 2017

With winter now behind us this year, we can look forward to March winds, April showers and misty May mornings! The fresh green shoots of growth, which have been dormant during the winter months, will soon appear. March is a transition month in terms of the weather. But it is also a transition More...

Friday March 10th 2017

With winter now behind us this year, we can look forward to March winds, April showers and misty May mornings! The fresh green shoots of growth, which have been dormant during the winter months, will soon appear. March is a transition month in terms of the weather. But it is also a transition month for Christians. We turn away from thoughts of Jesus as that tiny baby in a manger at Christmas and turn towards thoughts of Jesus the man and his life-changing actions on that first Easter Day.

Christians devote time to prepare and reflect on the great events of that first Easter Day through a time of preparation known as Lent. Lent can be looked at as a kind of spring cleaning of our souls and our spiritual lives. We believe that it is in spending time in reflection and a more disciplined life of prayer and practical action that we can become people who reflect the glorious colour and light which we see in the person of Jesus Christ.

In the same way that spring cleaning our houses does away with accumulated dirt, dust and unwanted rubbish to make our homes warm and welcoming for our families and friends, so too does the clearing out of the accumulated dirt and rubbish in our minds help us to make space for God in our lives. So-called Lenten disciplines are varied. Giving things up - perhaps the chocolate or the glass of wine or the little luxuries we enjoy - or taking things up - perhaps making that regular phone call to a lonely relative or popping in to see a neighbour who is bereaved or housebound - these are things which prompt us to think more carefully about what life means and how we can become the loving, compassionate human beings which God intended us to be. And we make an extra effort to study a part of the Bible too. If you are curious about what the scriptures hold, you are welcome to come along to a weekly gathering at Weston bowling club on any Wednesday evening in March from 7.30 to 9pm. We will read and discuss a book called the The Joy of the Gospel by Paula Gooder. Look it up on the internet to find out more about it or give me a ring if you are interested in joining us.

Through our reflections in Lent, we will be better prepared to celebrate the greatest Christian festival of all - Easter Sunday. Do come and explore what it is about Jesus that has inspired so many people over the centuries and perhaps find out for yourselves why Christianity is still a huge force for good in the world. And if that doesn't appeal, you only have to stop and look around you in the next few weeks and watch and enjoy the wonders of creation as we see new life blossom around us in our gardens, fields and hedgerows. Happy watching!

With love and blessings.

Celia.

Assistant Curate. Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry.

Monday January 23rd 2017

Have you made any New Year resolutions yet? It’s a much talked about but, in my experience, often failed enterprise in our household! Ideas which seem inspired on New Year’s Eve and for the first few weeks of January soon seem to be replaced by other better ideas – and so it goes on until the More...

Monday January 23rd 2017

Have you made any New Year resolutions yet? It’s a much talked about but, in my experience, often failed enterprise in our household! Ideas which seem inspired on New Year’s Eve and for the first few weeks of January soon seem to be replaced by other better ideas – and so it goes on until the original idea has not only ceased to be carried out or aimed for , but has been completely forgotten!

 

A recent lecture given by an eminent, emeritus professor of economics at the London School of Economics, Professor Lord Richard Layard, tackled the importance of wellbeing and its relationship to the national economic state of affairs in the UK. More, he suggested, should be done to improve the national state of wellbeing of all our citizens. From that set of actions, better economic forecasts could be expected and a healthier nation would ensue. The professor is co-leader of an organisation called Action for Happiness. What an attractive idea to begin the New Year with!

 

The principles of the Action for Happiness organisation could so easily be aligned with the core teachings of our Christian faith. Our founder, Jesus Christ’s instruction to his followers was "Love one another as I have loved you”

 

So, this New Year, perhaps we could all give it a go? Look at the action points from the ‘Action for Happiness’ website and pick one or two of their ideas as New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps, if we all try harder, our efforts will generate a greater sense of wellbeing in our communities. And that would be a great achievement for 2017!

 

A Happy New Year from The Vale and Cotswold Edge team ministry!

 

With love and blessings.

Celia.

Assistant Curate. Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry.

Monday February 13th 2017

February to me is the time when we can begin to put winter behind us and look forward to spring, and new life in the shape of our gardens and fields being filled with new growth and baby animals of all sorts appearing in the countryside. Life means all sorts of things to different people. What More...

Monday February 13th 2017

February to me is the time when we can begin to put winter behind us and look forward to spring, and new life in the shape of our gardens and fields being filled with new growth and baby animals of all sorts appearing in the countryside. Life means all sorts of things to different people. What ‘floats your boat’, ‘gets you going’ ‘energises you’ are some of the expressions we use to describe the things which really interest and animate us.

 

The Diocese of Gloucester launched its new vision at the beginning of Advent, and it too is called LIFE. LIFE stands for Leadership,Imagination, Faith and Engagement. In the next five years your church communities are being challenged to find new ways of engaging with everyone in the communities in which we live and work and socialise. Do look out for events and activities which will be happening in your local parish church. And you are always welcome to join us at a service or just for a chat.

 

The inspiration for the name of the vision document comes from a saying of Jesus: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”. (John 10:10). More details of our plans can be found on the diocesan website, if you wish to take a look!

Gloucester.anglican.org>about>vision.

 

As Winter turns to Spring, may your life be energised through new growth, so that your hopes and dreams will be fulfilled.

 

With love and blessings.

Celia.

Assistant Curate. Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry.

Saturday December 17th 2016

Love, peace and joy! The Christmas message. As we approach the celebrations of Christmas Day we have a habit of moving into a frenzy of activity and activities. Love there certainly must be, the love of our families and our friends, because the frenzied activity is all about getting ready to c More...

Saturday December 17th 2016

Love, peace and joy! The Christmas message. As we approach the celebrations of Christmas Day we have a habit of moving into a frenzy of activity and activities. Love there certainly must be, the love of our families and our friends, because the frenzied activity is all about getting ready to celebrate together. The presents and the food and the decorating of our homes are all gestures of love. And that is just what it should be! But among all this busyness there is sometimes a lack of peace and quite a lot of anxiety before the great day arrives! So it might help if we pause a little and reflect on what and why we are doing these things right now. We do, after all, love our families and friends all the year round, not just at Christmas. So why now, why at Christmas? Many of you will know why, some may be a little puzzled by all this activity in the depths of winter.

 

If you are familiar with the Christmas story, then pause and reflect on the Christmas gift we were given over two thousand years ago. The gift was a promise that human kind would overcome evil through the life and death of a very special baby – Jesus the Christ Child, born in a lowly manger.

If you are a little uncertain as to why Christians celebrate the birth of this very special baby, don’t be afraid to ask!

 

The birth of this very special baby changed the world. His life and death gives us hope for the future. In John’s gospel we are told that through God’s grace and love we all have the opportunity to live life in all its abundance. Our part in this is to live as Jesus taught us: to love one another as he loves us. So as well as thinking of just ourselves this Christmas, thinking about what we can do for others is what we must do. Putting the thinking into action, no matter how small the action might be, will change the world. Living such a life will give us all love, peace and joy, the message we hear at Christmas time.

 

This Christmastide come and celebrate God’s wonderful gift to us at one of our many special services. Look out for the benefice Christmas card, delivered to every household. It has details of all our carol services and our Christmas Eve and Christmas day services too. Bring the children to a crib or Christingle service or,if you are night owls or need to get the Christmas turkey in the oven early on Christmas morning, come and join us at St. Ecgwin’s, Honeybourne formidnight mass. Whatever you prefer, the churchwardens and I shall look forward to welcoming you to one or more of our services over the next few weeks. We wish you all a blessed and peaceful Christmas and a joyful and prosperous new year.

 

With love and blessings.

Celia

Assistant Curate. Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry.

Saturday November 26th 2016

As the summer wanes and the beauty of the autumn colours turns to red and gold and then disappear to leave the bare tress and darker days I am reminded of those times in our lives when darkness can overwhelm us. It is at such times that we need to be able to turn to others for comfort, reassur More...

Saturday November 26th 2016

As the summer wanes and the beauty of the autumn colours turns to red and gold and then disappear to leave the bare tress and darker days I am reminded of those times in our lives when darkness can overwhelm us. It is at such times that we need to be able to turn to others for comfort, reassurance and help. But in the busy world we live in that does not always seem possible. Perhaps it is because of our apparently diminishing ability to live in community that mental health issues have become so much more a part of our consciousness. Depression and other mental illness used to be something to be brushed under the carpet or kept secret, thus making the situation even harder and darker for the sufferer. So it has been good to see the efforts of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry in beginning a new campaign called ‘Heads Together’. It aims to change the national conversation on mental wellbeing and remove the stigma which has so often prevented sufferers from finding help.

Alongside this move to help those who suffer from the blackness and bleakness of depression and other mental health issues is the school of thought which recognises that a person’s own sense of wellbeing also promotes a positive state of health. Research shows that wellbeing is achieved through a sense of belonging, purpose, meaning and hope. These four senses are reflected in the teachings of Christianity and have recently led some of our best thinkers, not all Christians, to suggest that belonging to a Christian community of faith might well help people to live with a greater sense of wellbeing. And when this happens, those who are suffering can be better embraced by the community in which they live, to be loved and cared for and enabled to return to good health.

I have just returned from a visit to see our family on the other side of the world. What is so powerfully illustrated when we are away is that wherever we are, there is a Christian community where we are welcomed and made to feel as family. Living in community gives us all the opportunity to care for one another. I pray that day to day in these villages that you are made to feel welcome in one of our Christian communities of faith. Loving our neighbours as ourselves is the commandment which Jesus gave us. The ‘Heads Together’ campaign highlights just how important that commandment is. Let’s pray that it will become a force for good and a source of energy to change the national conversation about mental wellbeing in the years to come.

With love and blessings.

Celia

Assistant Curate. Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry.

Monday October 3rd 2016

At a recent study day, spent with my curate colleagues in training from across the diocese, we were asked a simple question: Who am I not? An odd thing to ask perhaps – but on reflection a profound one and a liberating one if you choose to think about it in greater depth. Frequently our iden More...

Monday October 3rd 2016

At a recent study day, spent with my curate colleagues in training from across the diocese, we were asked a simple question: Who am I not? An odd thing to ask perhaps – but on reflection a profound one and a liberating one if you choose to think about it in greater depth.

Frequently our identities are defined by what we do for a living, where we live, who we socialise or relax with or what sort of entertainment we choose for ourselves. But that also leads us and others to develop expectations which place unwelcome pressures on us and can cause a great deal of stress. So we were prompted to imagine writing a job profile or CV which began with the words I am not………

In the Gospel of John, the religious leaders wanted clarification about the identity of St John the Baptist. They wanted to know in whose authority John was preaching and teaching. But John resolutely responded to all their questions by saying I am not…….the Messiah, Elijah, the prophet. John knew that his role was to point people towards Jesus, and not to claim supremacy for himself with grand explanations or false claims of power and authority. That is our role as Christians today too.

So in this in-between time of the year, when summer has gone and winter is not quite upon us, why not stop and reflect on who you are not? As a group of curates we came up with some surprising responses. Perhaps you might too!

Don’t forget our upcoming baptism and confirmation service at St James, Chipping Campden at which Bishop Rachel will preside. It is at 6.30pm on Sunday 30^th October. It’s not too late to sign up and join the sessions to learn about both before you make the commitment. They are being held on a Sunday afternoon for young people at 4pm or Sunday evening at 8pm for those who are slightly (or a lot) more mature! Both sessions are in Chipping Campden.

If the study sessions don’t fit in with your family or work schedules, and you think you would like to explore what baptism or confirmation might mean for you, do contact one of the clergy team - Rev. Craig Bishop, Rev. Dana Delap or me. Come and have a chat to find out what it’s all about. The Christian family, like any other, grows and develops when we live and work together in community. You can be a part of that growing community too – and you will be welcomed by those of us who witness to our faith in these villages. And reflecting on who we are and who we are not might be the catalyst for you to come and explore the Christian faith in greater depth.

With love and blessings.

Celia Assistant Curate

Monday September 5th 2016

September is a month of beginnings and endings. In the Northern hemisphere we are moving towards autumn, the crops are being gathered in and we can celebrate harvest. In the Southern hemisphere, the seasonal cycle is, of course, the other way round. For many of our young people the seasonal cy More...

Monday September 5th 2016

September is a month of beginnings and endings. In the Northern hemisphere we are moving towards autumn, the crops are being gathered in and we can celebrate harvest. In the Southern hemisphere, the seasonal cycle is, of course, the other way round. For many of our young people the seasonal cycle may also be a beginning or an end. For the very littlest ones, pre-school is replaced by ‘big school’ and for those in the middle it will be a change from being the oldest children to the youngest again. Leaving home for college or university, or setting out for a new job as a recent school leaver means both beginnings and endings too.

How we approach these changes and make the most of them will depend on our circumstances and our outlook on life. Students in further education and young adults setting out in the world of work are beginning a life of exploration of their own. Decisions and personal behaviour which might previously have been directed by parents and teachers become the responsibility of the individual adult. Hopefully, as adults, they and we continue to be supported by family and friends and have the wisdom to listen and take notice of the advice of others who are part of our lives. That is how healthy communities grow and develop.

In October, Bishop Rachel will be coming to our team ministry to preside at a confirmation service at St James, Chipping Campden. Confirmation is also a beginning, the start of the next part of a Christian’s life journey. In infant baptism, we become children of God, and parents and godparents make promises on behalf of children who are brought to baptism. At confirmation, those who have been baptised have reached a point in their lives when they have decided to take on the responsibility for their own Christian living for themselves. This doesn’t mean they are on their own – simply that they have been able to acknowledge that they are ready to embark on the next part of their lives as Christians.

If you think you would like to explore what confirmation might mean for you, do contact one of the clergy team - Rev. Craig Bishop, Rev. Dana Delap or me. Details of baptism and confirmation classes are also in the magazine. Get in touch and have a chat to find out what it’s all about. The Christian family, like any other, grows and develops when we live and work together in community. You can be a part of that growing community too – and you will be welcomed by those of us who witness to our faith in these villages. My prayer for all those beginnings and endings in September is that we might all make the most of those God-given opportunities, and create joyous and harmonious communities as a result.

With love and blessings.

Celia

Monday June 6th 2016

Dear Friends   As we move closer to the day of the EU referendum, I have been prompted to reflect on the vehemence of the two arguments – leave or remain - and what that tells me about how we value our identity. Identity is a greatly cherished part of every human being – to belong mean More...

Monday June 6th 2016

Dear Friends

 

As we move closer to the day of the EU referendum, I have been prompted to reflect on the vehemence of the two arguments – leave or remain - and what that tells me about how we value our identity. Identity is a greatly cherished part of every human being – to belong means to be loved in some way or other. Whether we are considering our membership or otherwise of the European Union, our own ethnic or national identity or our place in a family, social group or workplace, the absence of such an identity can be deeply disturbing and unsettling. So to be comfortable with who we are plays a vital part in our own peace of mind and personal contentment.

 

Over the next few months there are a number of baptisms in our churches. Baptism is the primary layer of identity for every Christian.Baptism also confers on the recipient a Christian name. It is our name which becomes our own personal identity for the rest of our lives. There is a beautiful line in scripture (Isaiah Ch. 43: v.1) which tells us that God has called each one of us by name and loves each one of us. Baptism is also when we become a member of the worldwide family of Christians, committed to leading a life which is modelled on the life of Jesus. In infant baptism, this commitment is taken on by parents and godparents who promise to guide the child in Christian living until the time they can take responsibility themselves. Peace and contentment are the hope of every Christian, offered as it is by God to every human being if we choose to accept his love.

 

Of course, when there is a birth, there has to be a birthday too! The birthday of the Church is celebrated on the Feast of Pentecost. It was the a moment whenthose who had known Jesus personally or had heard about him through friends or acquaintances felt inspired to go out and tell the world about their great discovery that Jesus was and is alive amongst us. Since those early days, Christianity has spread across the world and represents approximately 31.5% of the world’s population, the largest single faith group in the world. Not surprisingly, such a huge family can boast a variety of identities, but always in the knowledge that we belong to one big family. Our European neighbours are also part of one bigger family, but each with their own identity, just like the UK. Perhaps, in your choice of vote you will be expressing something about your personal identity, be it from a social, political or economic perspective within the context of the bigger family of nations. Identifying with other nations holds a greater prospect for peace and security, and whether we are in or out of the EU, our hope must be that we can live together in peace with our neighbours. Identity is part of our make-up and crucial to how we see ourselves in relationship to others. Perhaps, as you consider how to cast your vote, you might like to give some thought to what identity means to you!

 

And if you wish to explore identity as a member of the Christian family do contact one of the clergy team to have a chat. In the autumn we are running a 4 week course for those who are interested in being baptised or confirmed. Look out for dates posted on our church notice boards and in the magazine. Or get in touch with one of us. Our contact numbers are printed on the next page.

 

With love and blessings.

Celia

Assistant Curate. Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry.

Monday July 4th 2016

Our summer weather brings out the best of the English countryside! The combination of rain and sunshine creates a patchwork quilt of ripening crops across this beautiful part of the world. For some July and August bring the summer holidays and a break from the usual routines of work and study. More...

Monday July 4th 2016

Our summer weather brings out the best of the English countryside! The combination of rain and sunshine creates a patchwork quilt of ripening crops across this beautiful part of the world. For some July and August bring the summer holidays and a break from the usual routines of work and study. For our farmers in these communities and across the nation, this is the time of energy and huge effort to bring in the harvests and rear this year’s arrival of lambs and other new additions to the livestock on the farms.

 

Christian festivals to celebrate the gifts of creation have become a traditional part of the church’s year. They are there to remind us that a bountiful harvest is a gift of God. All are blessings come from our loving and generous God. This year local communities across the nation have also been celebrating the unique milestone which Her Majesty the Queen has reached. At the grand age of 90 she appears to be indomitable! Whether you are a monarchist or republican – or neither – I think it far to suggest that Queen Elizabeth has given us all a remarkable example of how to make the most of the blessings she has received. The blessings of privilege perhaps, but also an unrelenting role of duty and service in the public eye. She has deservedly reaped a bountiful harvest of admiration from a grateful nation.

 

As we enjoy the blessings of summer sun and summer rain, a country at peace and a democracy which strives to be fair and just to its people, we could do well to pause and reflect on how we can appreciate our own blessings and make the most of them too. It’s what Jesus did in his busy public ministry. He sloped off to the hills to rest and refresh himself, sometimes with his friends and sometimes alone. He ate and drank with others – enjoying companionship with friends and family. It’s an example we can emulate if we seek to make the most of our own blessings. Take the opportunity over the summer to enjoy your surroundings, making the most of rest and relaxation or times spent with friends and family. Rested and refreshed, we are always better equipped to tackle the challenges which come our way.

Friday April 22nd 2016

Dear Friends We are now safely installed in the vicarage in Addington and have just reached the point of deciding where to put pictures on the walls, so before any more time elapses I wanted to write to say thank you. Firstly thank you to the many of you who came to my last service in Honeybou More...

Friday April 22nd 2016

Dear Friends

We are now safely installed in the vicarage in Addington and have just reached the point of deciding where to put pictures on the walls, so before any more time elapses I wanted to write to say thank you. Firstly thank you to the many of you who came to my last service in Honeybourne. It was a wonderful experience to see the church so full of friends, there firstly to worship God and secondly to wish us God speed. Thank you too to the many who could not be there but who sent cards to wish us well. It was good to be able to spend time eating together after the service in Weston sub Edge so thank you to those who made that possible – I know that these things don’t happen on their own! Worshipping together and eating together, what better way could there be to celebrate our common life in Christ and the journey we have made together?

Which brings me to our beautiful gifts: I grew up in Gloucestershire so its countryside is special to me and holds many precious memories of childhood, of parents, of people who have been saints along my journey so it is wonderful to have a book which captures so delightfully the essence of its landscape and life and combined with poetry, another of my loves, could not have been more aptly chosen. One of the things that we have enjoyed learning while being in Honeybourne, has been gardening. We are still amateurs, but have come to appreciate time spent wondering at the beauty of plants, at their determination to flourish and time spent with the soil as a way of getting life in perspective. Here in Addington we have a big garden. It is a good time of year to move because we shall discover over the next few months what is in the garden. Edward’s book on Making a Garden will be an invaluable resource as we move through the seasons and as he discovers the joys of retirement. I said at the beginning of this letter that we are in the process of deciding where pictures are to go. We are very much looking forward to deciding on a place for the two wonderful paintings of Gloucester Cathedral, the Cathedral that has played such an important part in our lives. For me that goes back a long way to picnics as a child with my Nan and Mum in the Cathedral precincts, to playing in the Youth Orchestra there and finally, after a gap of many years, being ordained there in 2008 when it became a part of Edward’s life too. I love the Cathedral at night which speaks of the unfailing caring presence of mother church and Edward’s, ”The organ plays” says all that can be said about the way in which music transcends bricks and mortar and any possible boundary we might attempt to put in place. The picture of the churches in the group will likewise find a special place and be a reminder of the gift that being among you was. Thank you too for the very generous cheque which accompanied these lovely gifts. We shall spend it wisely.

So now, another chapter in our walk with God is beginning for both you and for us. I keep you daily in my prayers as you enter a period of discernment. For us we are in that strange place of belonging but not belonging before my Institution on the 28^th April. Last Sunday we worshipped at Southwark Cathedral and we have yet to decide where we shall worship tomorrow. Although it feels rootless it is good to have time to reflect and to pray and I am grateful for these in between days.

May God bless you as you journey together.

With our love and prayers

Debbie and Edward

Friday May 6th 2016

Dear Friends On 3rd April we said farewell to Debbie and Edward as they spent their last Sunday with us before leaving for pastures new. We shared a mixture of emotions with them. Joybecause we were blessed with a beautiful spring day and they are looking forward to new and exciting experienc More...

Friday May 6th 2016

Dear Friends

On 3^rd April we said farewell to Debbie and Edward as they spent their last Sunday with us before leaving for pastures new. We shared a mixture of emotions with them. Joybecause we were blessed with a beautiful spring day and they are looking forward to new and exciting experiences, and sadness because parting is always tinged with sorrow. Honeybourne church was full to the brim with parishioners from around our 6 churches as Debbie presided at her last Eucharist in the benefice. Afterwards we gathered for lunch at Weston village hall where a delicious spread had been prepared by parishioners from all the parishes. Suitable gifts to remind her of her time with us were presented to Debbie and Edward. They will be in our thoughts and prayers as they journey on.

We too will journey on, building on the legacy of ministry which Debbie has left us and looking forward to a new era and a new incumbent in due course. Your PCCs are currently engaged in an exercise to create a ‘job spec’ ( officially referred to as the benefice profile) to advertise for a new incumbent, a process which will take some time complete. It is important that the profile reflects not only those who are directly involved in church life, but also all of you who live in these parishes. You might like to ask yourself some questions. For instance:

What sort of parish priest would we like? What do we want of and from the church in these parishes?

How can we be involved in the work of our local church, even if we are not churchgoers?

How can the church work in these villages for the good of all, in and beyond the local area?

Any comments and ideas you have will be included in the deliberations of the various PCCs. Their target date to produce a benefice profile is July so do get in touch with us if you would like to know more or wish to contribute in some way. Their task is to identify both the shared and the unique elements of each parish and set out a vision for the future of the church in these villages. May I encourage you all to pray for the parishes at this time, for those tasked with finding the new priest and for the person who will be appointed.

I will continue to work as your curate in these villages for the foreseeable future, supported by our team rector, Craig Bishop who is based in Chipping Campden. Our details are printed below and can also be found on our weekly newsheets which are available in all of our six churches week by week. We would be delighted to hear from you if you have any questions or contributions to make about the selection of the new incumbent or any pastoral or parish matters you wish to share with us.

With love and blessings.

Celia. Assistant Curate. Vale and Cotswold Edge Team Ministry.

Wednesday March 16th 2016

Dear Friends By the time you read this you will know, or at least many of you will know, that I am moving on from these parishes after Easter and that my last service here will be Sunday 3rdApril. It has been a great privilege to be your parish priest for four and a half years and a year and a More...

Wednesday March 16th 2016

Dear Friends

By the time you read this you will know, or at least many of you will know, that I am moving on from these parishes after Easter and that my last service here will be Sunday 3^rdApril. It has been a great privilege to be your parish priest for four and a half years and a year and a quarter respectively. It has been wonderful to get to know you, to worship with you and to share in your joys and sorrows over that time. Moving on is always difficult because you come to love people in a very special way. I am going to the parish of Addington, St Mary the blessed Virgin in the diocese of Southwark. My decision to apply for another post was two-fold: having seen these parishes through pastoral reorganization, so that from my original four I lost Long Marston and gained Willersey, Weston and Aston and having been through the first year of this new dispensation, it is clear that these parishes need someone new who will take them through the next phase of their life together and secondly I wanted to do another incumbency before I have to hang up my cassock!

However, I have not gone yet and I am certainly not planning to wind down. We are approaching the season of Lent which is always a good time to do a reassessment of our lives. Of course there are the traditional Lenten disciplines and the question "what are you giving up for Lent?"� and I suspect that if we're honest, it's quite simply a good excuse to reinstate that diet that didn't quite happen after Christmas! But why might we give something up? How will that help us? For Christians to take away from our lives for a short while something that we enjoy fills us with increased thankfulness to God for all the wonderful things we have in this life. Secondly it reminds us of Jesus who fasted in the wilderness for forty days before he embarked on his active ministry. It was a time of reflection in which, through the temptations to be a quick fix miracle worker, to be a superman style messiah and to exert power, he came to discern the character of the ministry he was to exercise, a ministry that was humble and healing. So to abstain from something during Lent gives us the opportunity to reflect on our priorities and the way in which we live out our Christian Faith. This Lent we are going to be meeting in groups to look at some of the psalms, wonderful writings from the Hebrew Scriptures that cover the gamut of human emotions. So if you might be interested keep your eyes peeled for details of these groups.

Finally a word about Messy Church which is happening on Saturday 19^th March at Weston-sub-Edge Village Hall and is a wonderful opportunity to spend a fun morning doing craft activities including baking. It is the day before Palm Sunday so we shall be looking at the Easter Story and centring our activities around that ... and really importantly we shall end, as usual, with lunch together. There are many stories of Jesus that involve his presence at meals. Whenever we eat together we are reminded that Jesus invites us to sit and eat with him and be his friends.

So in these last months may we journey together joyfully and thoughtfully.

With my love and blessings

Debbie

Sunday January 10th 2016

The New Year has arrived, our New Year’s resolutions are still fresh in our minds – or perhaps we haven’t quite formulated them yet and yes, the evenings are beginning to draw out. These are early signs of new life and hope for the future in the dark days of winter when we anticipate and wait fo More...

Sunday January 10th 2016

The New Year has arrived, our New Year’s resolutions are still fresh in our minds – or perhaps we haven’t quite formulated them yet and yes, the evenings are beginning to draw out. These are early signs of new life and hope for the future in the dark days of winter when we anticipate and wait for what is to come in 2016.

 

One of the signs I look for is the sight of the first clump of snowdrops to appear above the ground. These delicate, fragile looking flowers seem to defy the very essence of winter darkness. They symbolize hope, rebirth and optimism. They are also known as ‘Candlemas Bells’. Candlemas is the church festival which falls on February 2^nd. It marks the time when the child Jesus was presented in the temple by his parents, Mary and Joseph. Often we refer to Jesus as ‘the light of the world’. Candles provide us with a symbol of our belief that Jesus will light up the dark corners of our lives and give us true peace. In the past, when candles were the only source of light, candles which would be used throughout the coming year in church were blessed on the feast of Candlemas. In our 21^st century world, when we have so many different means of producing light, candles still provide us with a light which is warm and soft and welcoming. When light is perhaps taken for granted, we should not forget just how important this celebration of candlelight would have been in earlier centuries. For Christians, the significance of that light is its symbolism that Jesus is the ‘light of the world’.

 

By the 2^nd February, just as candles brighten up a winter night, snowdrops or Candlemas Bells are usually emerging in abundance to brighten up the dullness of a winter day. They never cease to make me stop and wonder at the marvels of creation. How do these tiny, delicate blooms push their way up through the hard ground, and withstand the fiercest of winter cold and wet? I find them a great inspiration at a time when most things lie dormant and hidden. But there is wonder too in the dormancy of winter when miraculous growth is stirring without us ever seeing what is happening beneath the soil. We can be like that too. We can be totally unaware of the miracles which are taking place within our hearts and which can burst into new experiences and new beginnings even if, at the moment, it seems that there is nothing happening. God can and does work in our hearts without us even being aware that things are changing. And when something does happen, we marvel and we wonder how we have missed the signs of such changes.

 

In the depths of Winter when we are perhaps feeling a little low and in need of something to revive us, I hope that the beauty of these early signs of growth and new life, and the experience of light will serve to inspire you as they do me. Whether it is because of the slowly lengthening days, the warmth of a flickering candle or your faith in God I pray that this January there are things in your lives which perhaps lie dormant at the moment but will, in due course, emerge to give you hope and life and joy in the coming months. Debbie and I wish you every blessing for the New Year and pray that your lives will be filled with the peace and love of God.

 

With love.

 

Celia.

Team Curate

Sunday December 6th 2015

Dear Friends I write this the weekend the western world is reeling following the attacks in Paris. These attacks were carried out on ordinary people doing ordinary things: eating together, watching football, at a concert. They get at the very heart of life which is not played out on the big s More...

Sunday December 6th 2015

Dear Friends

I write this the weekend the western world is reeling following the attacks in Paris. These attacks were carried out on ordinary people doing ordinary things: eating together, watching football, at a concert. They get at the very heart of life which is not played out on the big stages, but in the ordinary. Evil is not a word I use lightly, but these attacks were, I believe, evil. Nor do they represent the will of the peaceful majority of Muslims who seek to live out their faith. So how are we to respond? Firstly, for those of us who profess a faith, we must pray for the people of Paris and of France, pray for the victims and for their families and for those who have been wounded. We are to stand with them in compassion, feeling pain because they are in pain.

And all this as we stand on the cusp of Advent, when we prepare our hearts and our homes to celebrate the birth of the Christ child. Curiously, although the glitz and the excess sits uncomfortably with such a picture of devastation and sorrow, it is precisely in that infant, God become human, that we might find comfort and hope. God did not stay outside the mess that is our world, but came to be part of it. The pain of the French people will not escape the heart of God. It is perhaps doubly important then that we pay attention to our gift giving. The gift of Jesus to this world of pain and strife is to be celebrated and our gifts to each other express something of the wonder of that most precious gift of all.

Christmas and New Year is also a time of hospitality, a time when we throw the doors of our houses open so that we can celebrate together. This is one of the many aspects of the season that I love because for me it mirrors the hospitality and generosity of God. Part of our preparations for Christmas must be that opening of our hearts to others and the desire to give of ourselves. As we choose gifts, so we think carefully about the person for whom we are buying. It is not simply a money transaction but rather an expression of love and self-giving.

I am looking forward to Advent and Christmas. I hope that many of you will join Celia and me at the carol services and Christingle services in our villages. We come to celebrate in joyful carols and to rejoice in the gift of God in Jesus. We come to celebrate the child who was heralded as Prince of Peace and we come to pray earnestly for that peace in our world. May 2016 bring that peace.

I wish you all a joyful Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

With my love and blessings

Debbie

Sunday November 8th 2015

November is the month of Remembrance. For the church, the 1st November is All Saints Day, when we remember and celebrate all those Christians who have lived and died and left a legacy of a true example of Christian living for us to emulate. On 2nd November, All Souls Day, we commemorate those More...

Sunday November 8th 2015

November is the month of Remembrance. For the church, the 1^st November is All Saints Day, when we remember and celebrate all those Christians who have lived and died and left a legacy of a true example of Christian living for us to emulate. On 2^nd November, All Souls Day, we commemorate those we have loved and who are no longer with us. And of course, as a nation, Remembrance Sunday calls to mind the two world wars and many bitter conflicts since which have been etched in our hearts as times of extreme valour and huge sacrifice. In July, I had the privilege of serving with a small team of clergy colleagues as chaplains at the Royal International Air Show at Fairford. Our purpose there was to support the 3000 strong volunteer force should there have been a major incident. This year’s show saw spectacular aerobatic displays given by the most modern of military hardware, but the highlight for the crowds and for the teams of aircrew was the memorial flypast of a large group of WWII Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancasters. The 50,000 strong crowd fell silent as these flying displays caught their imaginations. But what was it they imagined?

As I reflected on this, it is impossible to erase the fact that these machines are, of course, designed to kill and to maim. Their purpose, if used with integrity, is to fight for the cause of justice and peace. Even then, the concept of ‘just war’, a theory expounded by St Thomas Aquinas in the 13^th century, is a difficult one to rationalise when so many innocents are caught up in the violence of war. Sadly, military might is not always used to fight for such high ideals. In the aftermath of the 2^ndworld war, huge swathes of displaced and terrified people moved across Europe in search of safety and a better life for themselves and their children. The 1951 UN Convention for Refugees was created to provide a fair set of rules to ensure that such homeless people could settle in a place of safety and be provided with international protection if appropriate. According to the Convention, a refugee is someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. Sadly, 70 years later we are experiencing similar sights of mass migration caused by despotic and power crazy regimes.

All our parishes will be holding Remembrance Day services which will honour those from our own communities who have fought for freedom. The national Act of Remembrance at the cenotaph in London and the two minute silence at the 11^thhour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month are also intended to ensure we do not forget those who fought so valiantly and sacrificed so much. Their legacy is our privilege to live in a democracy with the freedom to express ourselves in peace whatever our opinions and views are. I hope that this year’s services will serve to offer you an opportunity to reflect on the great gift of freedom we have in this country and, for Christians everywhere, an opportunity to remind ourselves of our calling to Christ’s service – to love our neighbours as ourselves.

 

With love and blessings.

Celia. Team Curate

Friday October 23rd 2015

The waiting is over and on Saturday we all became part of history as + Rachel Treweek, the 41st Bishop of Gloucester and the first diocesan woman Bishop, was welcomed to the diocese and cathedral and placed in the Bishop’s chair – cathedra. She entered the cathedral vested in a simple surplus More...

Friday October 23rd 2015

The waiting is over and on Saturday we all became part of history as + Rachel Treweek, the 41^st Bishop of Gloucester and the first diocesan woman Bishop, was welcomed to the diocese and cathedral and placed in the Bishop’s chair – cathedra. She entered the cathedral vested in a simple surplus and as she came further into the cathedral she was asked at various points why she was there. For me the most poignant was the first question – who are you and why have you come? To which the response was "I am Rachel, a pilgrim and servant of Jesus….” reminding us that we are all pilgrims on a journey. During the service + Rachel was given symbols of the ministry of deacon, priest and Bishop. Finally Vested in cope and mitre and carrying the diocesan crozier she was presented to the congregation, and preached for the first time before calling us to remember our Baptism in Christ and our commitment to mission. As the service drew to a close we all poured out of the cathedral gathering on lower college green and Bishop Rachel, standing on the steps at the great west doors blessed the city of Gloucester and the towns and villages of the diocese. It was a wonderful occasion, a heady mixture of solemnity, humility, ceremonial and joy. There was a delightful light touch afterwards as a live band played on College Green and we all ate "Just Rachel” ice cream!

So now the Autumn is really here, Keats’s season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Late September and October bring Harvest Festivals in all our villages and remind us of the faithfulness of God as we once again gather in the fruits of the harvest of field and orchard and garden and bring them to church in thanksgiving. It is a lovely time of year because although we are approaching winter, when all seems lifeless, the autumn with its emphasis on thanksgiving is a time rich in hope. Having spent a lot of my life in academic circles I always think of the excitement of a new term, that fresh start and all the possibilities of the coming year. So as I bless the offerings that will be brought to church there will be both thanksgiving for all that has been and also hope, trust, faith and confidence in all that shall be as we journey together on our pilgrimage.

As part of that pilgrimage, keep your eyes open for all that we are planning over the next few months: Messy Church in both Pebworth and Willersey, the Pilgrim Course and much more besides. I look forward to seeing very many of you, whether in church or just as you and I go about our daily business. May we be people who live out that message of hope. You are all always in my prayers.

With my love and

Saturday September 26th 2015

As we embark on a new school year, finish the harvest, start putting gardens to bed and experience the inevitable commercial emphasis towards Halloween and then Christmas, I have been reflecting on just how much we are bombarded by words. Words come at us through the TV, radio, internet, books More...

Saturday September 26th 2015

As we embark on a new school year, finish the harvest, start putting gardens to bed and experience the inevitable commercial emphasis towards Halloween and then Christmas, I have been reflecting on just how much we are bombarded by words. Words come at us through the TV, radio, internet, books, newspapers, advertising billboards and even from your vicar and curate! Sometimes we can be overwhelmed with and by words – some beautiful, some helpful, some worthless and some downright dreadful. Is it possible to digest them all? I personally know that I don’t and perhaps that is a good thing. In trying to absorb so many words, I wonder just how blind we can become to the world around us. Do our minds ever switch to the ‘observe and listen’ button so we look around and appreciate all the wonders of God’s creation?

At the beginning of August our six churches rang with the sounds of children and their parents and carers getting stuck into indoor and outdoor activities along the theme of ‘All God’s World’. From Monday to Saturday, using the Messy Church model, children spent time inside and outside each one of our six churches looking carefully at the amazing world in which we live and enjoying the fun and the wonder of each place. We searched for sheep, looked for plants and flowers, listened to the sounds in our churchyard,orienteered, examined ‘mini beasts’ under a microscope and identified birds and butterflies, played giant Jenga and snakes and ladders and walked around one of our villages to spot cluesabout the history of its community. We were creative too, producing sheep puppets, flower pots, spiders’ webs, ladybugs and daddy long legs and our star ‘make’, an altar frontal which was used at the benefice service in August in Pebworth. At the end of each morning session, we enjoyed refreshments, a bible story, prayer and song together. The theme, All God’s World prompted us all to look more carefully at God’s creation. All our activities helped us to be more aware of the wonders of creation and the God-given gifts we have received.

And so, returning to my reflecting about the volume of words which come at us, and the busyness which will happen as children return to school and summer holidays become a memory recorded in photo and video images, I encourage you all to find time in your busy lives to stop and wonder at creation, and recall the words in Genesis which the children learnt at the end of our week of activities:

 

"God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good”

Genesis 1. v31.

 

And look out for the next Messy Church event when we will explore another theme using bible stories and fellowship in the shape of food, prayer and song together!

 

With love and blessings.

 

Celia.

Curate.

 

Friday September 11th 2015

The recent photographs from the New Horizons Space Probe have been amazing, but what I find even more amazing is the ingenuity of those who conceived the project in the first place. Indeed it has been a delight listening to some of the scientists involved, hearing their excitement and almost a More...

Friday September 11th 2015

The recent photographs from the New Horizons Space Probe have been amazing, but what I find even more amazing is the ingenuity of those who conceived the project in the first place. Indeed it has been a delight listening to some of the scientists involved, hearing their excitement and almost awe realising that their project has come to fruition. I always find it difficult to understand the supposed split between faith and religion. Scientists seem to me to be engaged in the business of finding out about how our world and our universe work. Such curiosity and such skill speak to me of God given intellect. And as for the universe, looking up into the night sky or seeing the photographs from Pluto or looking into the centre of a wayside flower or dandling a new born baby fill me with a profound sense of being a tiny part of something vast and yet something in which there is such detail and such beauty that it can only speak of God. Science seeks to explore these mysteries and these wonders. When new things are discovered, when chemical formulae are found that teach us more about the world or about the functioning of organisms, when new ways of exploring the universe are invented, then I am excited and can only think of these things in terms of understanding more of this extraordinary universe created by God.

So much for my musings about science and religion! By the time you read this letter, history will have been made and Rachel Treweek will have been ordained and consecrated Bishop of Gloucester in Canterbury Cathedral. She is not the first woman Bishop in England, but she is the first woman to be made a diocesan Bishop. The others thus far have been suffragans, that is assistant Bishops. We shall have the opportunity to welcome her to Gloucester at her inauguration service on 19^th September in Gloucester Cathedral. All of which reminds me how some of the language and titles we use are confusing so perhaps I should explain at least how things work in these six parishes. Currently I am Team Vicar and have responsibility for the parishes â€" in other words the buck stops here! Celia is the Assistant Curate which means that she is still in training. She completed a course of theological training and was ordained deacon last year, 2014 and came here to continue her training on the job. She was ordained priest this year, which means that she can now preside at the Eucharist, the Holy Communion, she can also bless and pronounce forgiveness in the name of God, baptise new believers and conduct marriages. Celia will be with us for another two to three years completing her training. All this is of course rather technical and what you will see on the ground is both of us really enjoying working together as colleagues!

During this time of holidays, I do hope that you will all manage to find some rest and relaxation. The Christian concept of Sabbath is a good one.

With my love and blessings

Debbie

Sunday August 2nd 2015

Almost a year ago life changed dramatically for me. As a newly ordained deacon, I joined this group of parishes as a complete stranger. I have been greatly blessed by your welcome and encouragement. Once again this year I can expect life to change having just been ordained priest. This doesn’t More...

Sunday August 2nd 2015

Almost a year ago life changed dramatically for me. As a newly ordained deacon, I joined this group of parishes as a complete stranger. I have been greatly blessed by your welcome and encouragement. Once again this year I can expect life to change having just been ordained priest. This doesn’t mean a move - a priest’s training spans five or six years before being considered ‘safe’ to be let loose alone among you! But whether curate or vicar, we have to accept change with good grace if we are to do our job well. One source of energy and refreshment to which all clergy are committed is time spent in daily prayer and worship. Just as we need to spend time with friends and family to get to know them better, prayer and worship are the way we get to know and develop a closer relationship with God. And strong, healthy relationships are a source of energy and security, through good times and bad, through periods of change and during times of stability. The changes I have experienced have been truly energising, not least because I know that family, friends and colleagues have been praying for me.

All of us experience change in some shape or form many times throughout our lives. Whether it is of the ‘hatched, matched and despatched’ variety, a change of job, a house move or some other event, we cannot avoid change at some point in our lives. The changes for our six parishes have been both challenging and encouraging. We have ‘morphed’ from four parishes to six. We now belong to a larger team ministry as well. We have had to say farewell to the familiar and begin to understand different ways of doing things and different people doing them. As we work together to become a united group of parishes we will inevitably experience further change. Change can create uncertainty, fear and a loss of confidence. New housing developments, property used only at weekends or as holiday lets and isolation for those who become housebound is changing the shape of our communities. While some of these changes seem difficult and our instinct is to preserve the familiar, change doesn’t need to be daunting or fearful if we keep an open mind and adopt a positive attitude.

Hospitality and thought for others are key elements of Christian living. Such an approach leads to growth while looking inwards generally runs the risk of imploding on ourselves. Christians underpin these principles of hospitality and welcome in a life of prayer and worship. Growing a relationship with God helps us to grow relationships with others. Looking outward, being positive and seeking to learn how we might grow good relationships in our communities will mean that change will no longer feel unwelcome. Prayer helps us in this enterprise. Our diocese has published a little booklet called ‘Try Praying’. The booklets are available in our parish churches. And in each of our churches you are invited to leave any prayer requests you might have. That prayer request will be said on your behalf by a member of the clergy team during the week. As we learn to adjust to continuing change in our village society and churches, I encourage you to give it a shot – try praying occasionally – you might be surprised by the outcome!

With love and blessings. Celia

Tuesday July 7th 2015

As I write this I can’t help but reflect on the terrible scenes of suffering in Nepal that we have seen on our television screens in the last month and it is quite difficult to come to terms with the sheer scale of such a disaster. I can hear you saying to me, "how can a good God allow such de More...

Tuesday July 7th 2015

As I write this I can’t help but reflect on the terrible scenes of suffering in Nepal that we have seen on our television screens in the last month and it is quite difficult to come to terms with the sheer scale of such a disaster. I can hear you saying to me, "how can a good God allow such devastation to happen?” This is perhaps the question that has been most asked down the ages. I do not have a neat and tidy answer but I will share a few thoughts. The world is filled with beauty. It is an incredibly complex and finely balanced planet and for it to support the evolution of life there has to be movement and change and vulnerability. A world where everything was fixed and immovable could not support organisms that change and develop and grow. Nor would such a world allow for human freedom and responsibility. God is no puppet master. But of course such philosophical arguments do not help the suffering people of Nepal. What I do believe is that God is not indifferent to suffering but rather in the midst of it. I am always heartened too by the response of the public to such disasters and feel comforted that compassion fatigue has not taken hold of human hearts.

Christian Aid week has further focused our thoughts on the world beyond our shores. This year we were reminded of the women of Ethiopia unable to grow crops to feed their livestock and their families because of the effects of climate change. Working alongside these women Christian Aid has enabled microfinance to draw them out of poverty to a place of hope and dignity. Thank you to the very many people in these communities who responded with generosity to this call to care for some of the poorest people in the world.

With June we shall soon be moving into the season of barbecues – I am optimistic despite the temperature as I write! And with barbecues our thoughts are of the friends with whom we can share them. Hospitality is a great gift through which we can show the value we place on others. I am conscious that in some of our communities there are new people and this gives us the opportunity to open our houses and our hearts to them in welcome. Indeed, I hope and pray that as communities we can always be alert to the stranger in our midst and through our hospitality make them companions and friends.

June also brings with it a very joyful occasion in the life of the church. Celia, our Curate will be ordained priest in Gloucester Cathedral at 3pm on Saturday 20^th and will then preside at the Eucharist for the first time in Willersey at 11am on Sunday 21^st after which there will be a celebratory lunch in the village hall. Celia has brought many gifts to the life of the churches in these villages and we look forward to her priestly ministry among us.

With love and blessings

Debbie

Friday May 22nd 2015

Easter has come and gone, lambs are frolicking in the fields and before we know it, high summer will be upon us! This year brings the General Election to add to the excitement, and 'election fever' seems to have hit our television screens, newspapers and advertising hoardings all over the place More...

Friday May 22nd 2015

Easter has come and gone, lambs are frolicking in the fields and before we know it, high summer will be upon us! This year brings the General Election to add to the excitement, and 'election fever' seems to have hit our television screens, newspapers and advertising hoardings all over the place. We are fortunate to live in a country where our democratic right to vote is so established that it is taken for granted, but sadly it is not always taken seriously. The day after our elections, 8^thMay, is the 70^th anniversary of VE day and also the anniversary of the liberation of Theresienstadt concentration camp, the last of eight such camps discovered by allied forces between July 1944 and May 1945. It is perhaps a fitting time to reflect on the importance of exercising our right to vote in a thoughtful and responsible way.

Some may argue that religion and politics do not mix. That seems to me to be flying in the face of logic. Responsible citizens living in a peaceful and generally prosperous land have a duty to participate in the way our country is governed. And most people seek to live in a society which exercises fairness and justice for all. Politics is all about how we are governed, how our lives will be ordered and who we choose to lead us as a nation. Religion is a means by which we live out our own personal lives, how we behave towards others and what we choose to worship. Mixing the personal with the public seems to be an obvious course of action. People of faith seek to live in a way which honours humanity and the environment and seeks to reach out to help those who are in difficulty through sickness, poverty or other human tragedy caused by war or natural disaster. The life and teachings of Jesus Christ embodied a mission to challenge those who were power crazed, selfish and bigoted and to encourage people to live out in action, word and deed a way of life which provided protection for the weak and the poor and the disadvantaged. Whatever our views about politics or religion, our challenge is to think carefully about the published party manifestos and exercise our democratic right to vote on 7^th May so that we may continue to live in a peaceful society which strives to do its best for each and every one of its citizens.

Whatever our political opinion or party leanings, we should make every effort to step out to the polling stations or cast our votes by post before the polls close on Thursday 7^th May. The right to vote is not to be thrown away as something we do if the mood takes us on polling day.

With love and blessings.

Celia

Tuesday April 21st 2015

By the time you read this we shall definitely be on the way to balmier weather, trees in their fresh and vibrant clothes and the more confident flowers of early summer. In the church, after the great festival of Easter, April is the month of Annual Meetings. I know those words are not likely t More...

Tuesday April 21st 2015

By the time you read this we shall definitely be on the way to balmier weather, trees in their fresh and vibrant clothes and the more confident flowers of early summer. In the church, after the great festival of Easter, April is the month of Annual Meetings. I know those words are not likely to make your hearts leap for joy, but they are important occasions and not only do the statutory business: election of churchwardens byparishioners, election of the Parochial Church Council by members of the electoral roll and the adoption of the accounts for the previous year, but they also provide the opportunity to reflect on the year that is past and look forward to what lies ahead and think about the strategic direction of the church in these communities. I am acutely aware of the affection in which the parish churches are held and I delight in that, so I would really like to encourage you to come along to our Annual Meetings to hear what we are up to, to find out where we struggle and where things are going well. You will be assured of a warm welcome and some excellent refreshments! Please don’t forget that the church is for the whole community, it is your church and not just for those who come along on a Sunday. I’ll put the dates at the bottom of this letter and look forward to seeing you.

April is also the month of showers, the month when we make certain an umbrella or waterproof is part of our general paraphernalia. Such sweet showers, as Chaucer called them, are in marked contrast to the violence we have witnessed in cyclone Pam devastating the archipelago or Vanuatu. It has left in its wake a scene of destruction: buildings have been torn apart, wells have been destroyed, there is no shelter, no clean water, no food. And yet, and yet … I am constantly filled with awe at the capacity for rebuilding that is displayed by the human spirit. I hope and pray that we shall all respond to their plight not least by holding all those affected in prayer.

Of course the other thing that April brings this year is the General Election Campaign. A few weeks ago the media responded in a variety of ways to the letter from the House of Bishops, some saying that the church should have nothing to do with politics. This is a stance with which I disagree profoundly. Jesus of Nazareth spent his earthly ministry healing and teaching in a way that challenged hypocrisy and injustice. Politics is about the way in which we live our lives, about our values and the way in which society is ordered. It does not take me to point out the overlap! One of the statements from that letter says "as bishops we support policies which respect the natural environment, enhance human dignity, and honour the image of God in our neighbour.” This seems to me a pretty good yardstick against which to measure the proposed policies of the parties.

With love and blessings

Debbie

Tuesday March 31st 2015

Dear Friends With snowdrops, crocus and daffodils flowering as I write, it feels that the dark winter days are behind us. It’s a time of new beginnings and an expectation that fresh colour and bright light will bring forth growth and warmth to our lives. At this time of the year, Christians l More...

Tuesday March 31st 2015

Dear Friends

With snowdrops, crocus and daffodils flowering as I write, it feels that the dark winter days are behind us. It’s a time of new beginnings and an expectation that fresh colour and bright light will bring forth growth and warmth to our lives. At this time of the year, Christians look towards Easter, when we celebrate the resurrection of the founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ. Jesus was put to death by the Roman authorities because He challenged both the secular and religious authorities of the day. Jesus’ challenge to them was to turn away from corruption, cruelty, hatred and selfishness. He taught that human beings should love one another and seek peace to live together in harmony, taking care of the weakest and most vulnerable in society. Not, one would think, a particularly challenging concept for the rulers of the mighty Roman Empire and the religious elite of the day. But they saw His challenge as a threat to the absolute control of their mighty empire and to the local power bases of the religious authorities in Jerusalem. The Roman authorities thought that by crucifying Him they would put an end to that threat. They failed because, despite all the publicity and hype about falling congregations and a loss of faith, Christianity is still the largest single religion. 31.5% of the world’s population today are followers of Jesus Christ. That’s an awful lot of people who have become Christians since just 12 disciples were drawn to follow Jesus over 2000 years ago. It is quite amazing that a humble Jewish carpenter from a backwater of the Roman Empire, whose non-violent message was peace and love led to His death, should have so many followers to this day.

Why should this be? Christians believe that in Christ’s teaching there lies hope of a better way to live. As we journey towards that great festival of Easter, Christians devote time to prepare and reflect on the great events of the first Easter Day. This time of preparation is known as Lent. Lent can be looked at as a kind of spring cleaning of our souls and our spiritual lives. We believe that it is in spending time in this way that we can become people who reflect the glorious colour and light which we see in the person of Jesus Christ.

In the same way that spring cleaning our houses does away with accumulated dirt, dust and unwanted rubbish to make our homes warm and welcoming for our families and friends, so too does the clearing out of the accumulated dirt and rubbish in our minds help us to be able and ready to welcome God into our lives through learning about Jesus’ life and teaching and what it means to each one of us. Making space for God in our lives gives us the chance to become more Christ like, because in making space in our hearts and minds to take in Jesus’ teaching, we create more space to become the loving, compassionate human beings which God intended us to be. It is for this reason that preparation and reflection is so important. Spending time in prayer and contemplation about how we can live in peace and harmony helps us to achieve this ‘spiritual spring-cleaning’.

Our local church communities will be doing some spiritual spring cleaning when we gather during Lent on a weekly basis to ponder some of the really big questions in life and how they relate to our Christian faith. Do come along and join us at Weston-sub-Edge Village Hall between 7.30pm and 9pm on four evenings in March. They are Wednesday 4^th March, Monday 9^th March, Friday 20^th March and Monday 23^rd March. ‘Puzzling Questions’ such as ‘How can I be happy?’ and ‘Why is there suffering in the world?’ will be presented in DVD format and then debated in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Each will give us an opportunity to reflect on God’s creation and how we might fit into it. Each one is a separate session. Perhaps too you will join us on Palm Sunday, 31^stMarch at 10am near the Seagrave Arms in Weston-sub-Edge when our worship will start with a procession and perhaps even a donkey! Palm Sunday recalls the day when Jesus made his way into Jerusalem to the life changing events which followed. Through our reflections in Lent, we will be better prepared to celebrate the greatest Christian feast of all - Easter Sunday. Do come and try some of these things out for yourselves and find out why Christianity is still a huge force for good in the world.

 

With love and blessings.

Celia

 

Tuesday February 17th 2015

Dear Friends Christmas now seems long in the past and sadly we cannot really claim that 2015 has got off to a very good start if we look around the world. The shooting in Paris has cut to the core of our western belief in the importance of freedom of speech and of religion. Nothing can ever j More...

Tuesday February 17th 2015

Dear Friends

Christmas now seems long in the past and sadly we cannot really claim that 2015 has got off to a very good start if we look around the world. The shooting in Paris has cut to the core of our western belief in the importance of freedom of speech and of religion. Nothing can ever justify such a barbarous act and I do not want to live in a world where there is no opportunity for shining a critical light onto religions, indeed if we are to be true to our faith then that seems to me essential, but I question a practice that is so knowingly offensive. The post massacre edition of Charlie Hebdo shows a picture of the prophet shedding a tear. It is intended to be conciliatory and strikes a chord with Christians. Such a picture reminds us of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem or suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, the God whose strength is made perfect in weakness, the God whose nature is forgiveness. For peace loving Muslims, however, with the prohibition of any visual representations of the Prophet or of Allah, this can only be a source of pain.

Even more shocking has been the use of a child as a human bomb, not a suicide bomber because the child had no part in the decision. To me this speaks of evil – not a word I use often – and a deep sickness, an absence of humanity and morality that makes me weep.

So how can we go forward into the year without being cast down? I am constantly heartened by the small acts of kindness that go on without really being noticed, I am heartened by the care that people show one for another, I am heartened by couples who come to see me about getting married, so clearly committed to each other and so clearly in love, I am heartened by the elderly who display the wisdom of years, I am heartened by the faces of children and I am heartened by the renewal of the land, the snowdrops that tell us that spring and summer really will come again. God is faithful in the darkness and in the hope.

February brings with it the season of Lent. Time for chocolate deprivation or whatever else we think might fit the bill! More importantly though, it is a time when we commit to spending time together once a week to reflect on elements of our faith and its relationship to the world. Last year we looked at Les Misérables and this year there will be meetings at Weston sub Edge Village Hall to look at "Puzzling Questions”, for example, why is there suffering in the world? These are the sorts of questions that I often hear posed as I go around the parishes so I hope that many of you will take the opportunity to come along.

Do not lose heart. Look around you and day by day be thankful.

With love and blessings

Debbie

Monday December 22nd 2014

Dear Friends The time of mince pies and parties is fast approaching and as usual I find myself caught between wanting people to enjoy celebration and wanting to remind them that the pre-Christmas time is a time of preparation and that the celebration doesn’t actually start until Christmas day More...

Monday December 22nd 2014

Dear Friends

The time of mince pies and parties is fast approaching and as usual I find myself caught between wanting people to enjoy celebration and wanting to remind them that the pre-Christmas time is a time of preparation and that the celebration doesn’t actually start until Christmas day and continues even beyond the 12 days of Christmas until 2^nd February, Candlemas. Somehow we have lost this and by Boxing Day most signs of Christmas have been stripped from the shops and replaced by the sales. But I am not steadfastly going to refuse to have anything Christmassy in my house. Of course there will be a Christmas Tree and of course I shall go to parties and lead carol services and Christingle services and I shall do these things with joy. But that does leave the question as to how we can at the same time honour this season of preparation and waiting. Traditionally preaching has been about the four last things: death, hell, heaven and judgement but I can’t see myself filling the churches with that diet, however interesting they are! What is essential about them though is that they are looking beyond our immediate present to the end of time. As we prepare to focus on the child in the manger, the image of human vulnerability, God made flesh, becoming one of us, a very homely human scene we need to keep that future horizon in mind.

So how then should we prepare for Christmas, other than by buying lots of carefully chosen presents and sending cards to keep our relationships alive with friends who are distant and stocking the larder? Perhaps it is quite simply about being mindful when we do these things. Choosing presents that are just right gives us the opportunity to really focus upon a person, to value and cherish who they are. Sending cards reminds us of the importance of relationships and of remembering. Stocking the larder is a way of ensuring that hospitality is a feature of the season. What better way to honour the child in the manger, the perfect gift, the expression of God’s desire for relationship with us, the child whose first home was an outhouse? Certainly I am looking forward to doing my Christmas shopping and writing our Christmas cards. Of course being mindful can’t stop there as we would be wrong not to be mindful of places in the world where Christmas will not mean presents and cards and hospitality. Our Christmas celebrations would be empty if our prayers failed to remember a hurting world. So as you get ready for Christmas I hope it will be time of great joy. Enjoy the parties (I shall), enjoy the Christmas carols and the carol services but remember too the refugees, the homeless, the lonely and above all, remember the babe in the manger.

I look forward to seeing many of you over the Advent and Christmas season.

With my love and blessings

Your very joyful Vicar

Debbie

Friday January 9th 2015

Dear Friends At the start of the New Year, many would say that Christmas is ‘done’ for another year. I often wonder what the expression means. Is it that we are ‘done’ with the shopping sprees or the Christmas parties or the Christmas eating extravaganza? Or is it because the endless advertisi More...

Friday January 9th 2015

Dear Friends

At the start of the New Year, many would say that Christmas is ‘done’ for another year. I often wonder what the expression means. Is it that we are ‘done’ with the shopping sprees or the Christmas parties or the Christmas eating extravaganza? Or is it because the endless advertising of food, toys and other luxury ‘goodies’ from TV channels, newspapers or the ‘bargain’ offers from the shops and the internet have come to an end? In the weeks before Christmas my two small grandsons became transfixed by the ever present adverts on their carefully monitored ‘doses’ of children’s TV programmes. They were seduced by the apparent brilliance of what was on offer – and were convinced that what they really needed was some amazing gadget which would transform their games and their playtime. But the fact is that what they and we all treasured most when the Christmas holidays came along was not their new toys – fun though they were – but the time we spent all together as family.

Whatever your feelings or outlook, perhaps the antidote to all of this excess is to look back to the real reason for the feasting and the celebrations – the birth of a very special baby over 2000 years ago – a baby who was born to make a difference to the way we think and act in our relationships with each and every person we meet, day by day, week by week, year by year. So as we begin a New Year, with or without a New Year’s resolution, it’s a good time to reflect on how we deal with our relationships and the way we approach each other. What Christmas really gave us all those years ago was a blueprint for building relationships which go on to create peace and harmony. A blueprint which, if used properly, will enable us all to make a difference because we will be committed to building good relationships. Relationships which exclude hostility, discrimination, selfishness and many other human actions which lead to disunity. If you have a sense that Christmas has been ‘done’ for another year, think again and remember the gifts you have given and received, the hospitality and celebrations you have enjoyed and the wonder and excitement on the faces of the children in your communities. These are expressions of love for one another. And these expressions of love andmemories can be the springboard which will make a difference this year in the relationships you will share at home, in your workplaces and in your local communities. It might only be a friendly word or a helping hand but you can be sure that it is those small gifts of love which will sow the seeds of peaceful communities and a unified world.

I wish you a peaceful New Year and pray that the gift of the Christ child in the manger will become a beacon of light which will lead to greater harmony in all the relationships we experience this year.

With love and blessings.

Revd. Celia

Saturday November 1st 2014

Dear Friends As your new parish priest I felt it would be good to introduce myself separately from the letter I have written for this month. Before 6th October I was priest in charge of Honeybourne, Pebworth, Dorsington and Marston Sicca. I have now relinquished Marston Sicca , and have joyfu More...

Saturday November 1st 2014

Dear Friends

As your new parish priest I felt it would be good to introduce myself separately from the letter I have written for this month. Before 6^th October I was priest in charge of Honeybourne, Pebworth, Dorsington and Marston Sicca. I have now relinquished Marston Sicca , and have joyfully added Willersey with Saintbury and Weston sub Edge with Aston sub Edge, three more churches and more importantly three more communities to get to know and love. I hope you will be patient with me as I gradually learn names and please don’t be offended if I ask you your name more than once!

So what would you most like to know about your new parish priest? I am married to Edward who lectures in French at Bristol University and we have four grown-up children: Elizabeth, a GP in Edinburgh, Bruce now a househusband, married to Katie and dad to Abigail (2) and Samantha (6weeks), Ruth, a secondary school teacher soon to be married to John and mum to Ethan (7 months) and Catherine, who works for a charity called Impact and who is to marry Phil next September. It is wonderfully busy and interesting when they all come home, but that doesn’t happen all that often as they are somewhat spread around the country. We are very blessed, however, that they all enjoy each other’s company and remain in touch. I enjoy reading, music, theatre, walking and giving hospitality. I have been ordained just over six years and started out as a pioneer curate in Innsworth just outside Gloucester. Before ordination I worked for seven years for an organisation that trained Christian Youth Workers, overseeing their degree programme and before that I was a teacher of French and German. I am unbelievably happy being a priest and count it an extraordinary privilege. Thank you for letting me minister among you.

With love and blessings

Debbie

Friday August 1st 2014

Over the Cotswold Edge, the bees are humming, Dawn-chorus birds send and receive their tweets; From honey-limestone folds, the sheep are coming Into St Peter’s stalls to take their seats.   I leave my soon-to-be-vacated bothy, Meet an escapee on Friday Street; I’d never catch this poor More...

Friday August 1st 2014

Over the Cotswold Edge, the bees are humming,

Dawn-chorus birds send and receive their tweets;

From honey-limestone folds, the sheep are coming

Into St Peter’s stalls to take their seats.

 

I leave my soon-to-be-vacated bothy,

Meet an escapee on Friday Street;

I’d never catch this poor lost lamb for toffee –

I pause – less with a whimper, more a bleat.

 

I look away. I’d much prefer to leave, right?

More than enough to do this Sabbath day,

Like any self-respecting priest or Levite....

Back-track to Manor Farm, report the stray.

 

Around Court Close, the woolly ones are shedding

Great-coated homespun, at the shepherd’s shears;

Relieved of all that Witney-worsted bedding

They skip for joy across this Vale of Tears.

 

Within the walls, two-legged lambs are praying

That they might slough the burden of their guilt,

Try to ignore the gilded serpent, saying:

‘No use in crying, once the milk is spilt!’

 

It’s true: their singing does not hold a candle,

These Cotswold hillside sheep who safely graze,

To oratoria by Bach or Handel;

Yet, gone astray, still fill the heavens with praise.

 

During my time, I’ve been both lion and leopard,

Sometimes I’ve worried flocks within the fold;

But now at length I come to the Good Shepherd:

A chastened Derby ram, seven decades old.

 

Fred

Saturday August 2nd 2014

As the big day approached, time hurtled towards us. No way did we feel ready for it, let alone to move house! But time and tide ... And so July 20th arrived, with no apology for its unerring punctuality. It was time to stop. And to go. The farewell service was such a powerful experience for t More...

Saturday August 2nd 2014

As the big day approached, time hurtled towards us. No way did we feel ready for it, let alone to move house! But time and tide ... And so July 20^th arrived, with no apology for its unerring punctuality. It was time to stop. And to go.

The farewell service was such a powerful experience for the celebrant that there were moments when he wondered whether he would get through, or end up in bits on the church floor. All the more so in the presence of Billie, sons Jonathan and Jeremy, along with Jonathan’s wife Helen and two of the grandchildren, Madeleine and Frances. But it was the mega-presence of the vast congregation which was so overwhelming. Rob Wilson counted 169 adults and ten children. Rarely if ever had Fred seen St Peter’s so full. To all who came: thank you so much for your support! It was a joy to have Canon Anthony at the organ – sadly for us, David Griffiths, so much valued over the years, was away on important family business. Also in church were Canon Peter Burch, the Revd Raymond Avent, and the Revd Ros Murphy with her Superintendent colleague. Add into the mix both sets of Methodist church members, who had closed their own church doors for the morning, and you get the feel. There were of course strong showing from all four churches in the benefice – Willersey, Weston, Aston and Mickleton, as well as many friends from the wider communities.

Then there was the party afterwards, in the Village Hall. Around 80 folk (legal limit, fire regulations) foregathered enjoying a splendid array of sandwiches and canapés, suitably washed down with a glass or several of wine or fruit juice. Delicious! We want to thank all who helped to make the party possible, caterers or facilitators and to make it such a pleasant occasion for us.

But there was more! Speeches and presentations followed. Fred was almost blown away for the second time by the very generous words of Rob McNeill-Wilson on behalf of the whole benefice. And so began the presents. There was a hugely generous cheque from you all – we could hardly believe what we saw. An attractive pot plant (an Acer palmatum) was presented to Billie. Mickleton church had put together a deeply moving collection of individual contributions and comments from people who had received Fred’s ministry. Earlier in the week, the Mickleton ringers had invited us to listen to a Quarter Peal rung especially in our honour: 1260 Grandsire Triples rung by eight ringers, seven of whom were pretty local and the eighth no less a person than the chair of the European federation of change-ringers (sorry, John and Chris if the terminology there isn’t quite right!). Now John Kinchin stepped up to present us with a framed certificate recording the Quarter in our honour! Both schools had marked Fred’s retirement in their own ways, including a really nice cheque from Willersey with which a suitable present will be bought! Last but not least, Fred was presented with a framed photograph of your outgoing priest with the FAST women of Willersey (not what you think ...FAmily Service Team – get it?) who with Fred have prepared the monthly services over the past five years or so.

You might say, a party wouldn’t be a party without cake. Before we left, we were presented with a magnificent collection of cup cakes, about 17 of them in all – each bearing a letter of the legend ‘FRED AND BILLIE’ plus four with gardening or musical motifs. As we write, we are still enjoying them (shall be for some days to come!). They were made by Marguerite Bell and Karen Smith, Mickleton’s own caterers..

The previous Sunday evening, on the occasions of Fred’s final visit to St Andrew’s, Aston-sub-Edge, he was presented with an original water-colour painting of the church, in the presence of a large gathering. And there have been other individual and private kindnesses. Thank you all so much.

With love and unspeakable gratitude from Billie and Fred

Sunday July 27th 2014

Cheeky, I suppose: starting this article for the magazine with three Latin words. But anyone with an RC background and enough miles on the clock will probably remember them: the final words from the Latin Roman Catholic Mass. The deacon sends the people away with this parting shot. ‘Go! You ar More...

Sunday July 27th 2014

Cheeky, I suppose: starting this article for the magazine with three Latin words. But anyone with an RC background and enough miles on the clock will probably remember them: the final words from the Latin Roman Catholic Mass. The deacon sends the people away with this parting shot. ‘Go! You are dismissed!’ That’s it, folks. Hit the road. On your bikes.

Something of the same sort comes at the end of our own service: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

The ‘missa’ bit of it comes from the Latin word for ‘to send’, mittere. Its English form has passed into our language as the Catholic name for Holy Communion: mass. And so we see that there is something at the heart of our worship about ‘mission’ (another variant of the word), sending out.

Now is my moment to say to those I have been ministering to – and who have ministered to me – these seven years: Ite missa est! True, it is I (we) who are going, not you. But this dismissal is just as real; it’s a parting, a separation, a committing of each other to God. If you want to get a good picture of the dynamics of this leave-taking, think of what happens at the end of a person’s schooldays. In my time, an assembly on the last day of term, a rendering of Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing. Not a dry eye in the house. I recall grander ceremonies when three of our children left their school in Sussex: an emotional experience like no other as the Tudor-uniformed school band beat the Retreat, finally marching off to the strains of Sussex by the Sea with the organ music of The day thou gavestwafting across the Quad from chapel. Retiring VIth formers valedicted each other with ‘Have-a-good-rest-of-your-lives!’

Schools have no monopoly in such matters. The same happens in churches and has done from early days. I love the story of the final departure of St Paul from Ephesus, where he had made many friends. A chunky leaving-sermon is recorded in Acts 20, bidding adieu to the church there. But though Paul’s address was about much more than the extreme improbability of his return, that was what his hearers remembered, what cut them to the quick. "When he had finished speaking, he knelt down with them all and prayed. There was much weeping among them all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, grieving especially because of what he had said, that they would not see him again. Then they brought him to the ship.”

St Paul knew a thing or two about poignancy. He knew that Christian work and experience are expendable, consumable. He knew that ministers might look back and wonder what tangible had been achieved. But he knew too that his work was an investment in people. He once pictured a church he’d been working with (Corinth) as a letter of testimonial, the only real evidence of his work. I’d love to be able to see these parishes in a similar way. "You yourselves are our letter, written in our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink, with the spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” I could certainly never claim such credit from my work – but I subscribe exactly to Paul’s sentiments. (2 Corinthians 3, 1-3)

Parting is such sweet sorrow, reckoned Shakespeare. And so it is. The encounters and shared experiences I’ve found in ministry here over these years have been second to none across my four-and-a-half decades as a clergyman. Some of the extraordinary people whose funeral services I have conducted – to say nothing of all who are still alive and kicking – will stay with me for the rest of my days. But, affecting as all this is (and it is!), we must still remember the gist of the Ite missa est message. We come together for a time. Seven years of ministry here for me, but just the same applies to assembling for an hour on Sunday mornings. We come together to be sent out, sent away, at the end. Not into the void, the outer darkness: but into the mission-field. Notice that same word-stem again! Long ago, a joker put it like this. "The Christian church is like the riot police – it assembles to disperse.”

We are not here for our own sakes, your priest-in-charge, your local church congregation. Our role is to lose ourselves in the worship of God and then to lose ourselves among His people in their need. What? Losers? Us?Remember that puzzling word of Jesus – those who would save their lives will lose them, and vice-versa? It is not a back-handed strategy for making sure we are on the winning side, just a statement of how it works.

Thank you for your warm welcome of Billie and me. Part of the North Cotswolds will stay with us always. But it is time to hit the road. Ite missa est.

Fred

Monday June 9th 2014

It’s a brave television series that ends (I mean really ends) with a question-mark hanging in the air, characters and viewers alike left in suspense. But followers of BBC 1’s Silk (Maxine Peake, feisty barrister) know what it’s like to be left dangling. Martha, Peake’s character, had failed in More...

Monday June 9th 2014

It’s a brave television series that ends (I mean really ends) with a question-mark hanging in the air, characters and viewers alike left in suspense. But followers of BBC 1’s Silk (Maxine Peake, feisty barrister) know what it’s like to be left dangling. Martha, Peake’s character, had failed in her bid to become head of chambers. She’d been advised by a sadder-but-wiser crooked lawyer to walk away from the job. In the very last shot, just as her devoted supporter Billy was going into anaphylactic shock across the road, she disappeared from view. To help her friend? Off to a new life? We shall never know.

How very different from the conclusion of many an old-fashioned novel where loose ends are tied up and (in the case of Jane Austen at least) there’s the half-decent chance of a double wedding. We like our story-lines sorted. We make no objection to a bit of speculation about the future in such books, just as long as we know what the main protagonists are likely to be up to. Away from literature, in real life, tidiness is also imposed where possible. We like our History in periods – Plantagenet, Tudor, Stuart etc, forgetting that – actually – life is all of a piece, a seamless garment with very little changing from one moment to the next, but perhaps everything in flux over the course of a life-time.

Go into our churches and you’ll see time marked out like that: divided into periods a priest has spent in a parish. This can vary enormously. Canon George Drinkwater Bourne was Rector of Weston-sub-Edge from 1846-1901. By contrast, the first ten names in the Willersey list of incumbents all came and went within a twenty-year span at the end of the 13^thcentury. (What was going on there, I often wonder – perhaps monks from Evesham Abbey on successive tours of duty?)

My sevenish years are about up – a convenient round number, the period that Jacob thoughthe was serving to qualify for marrying Rachel, though it turned out he had to spend another seven years in Laban’s service to get the right sister (see Genesis!) But it’s an artificial division. These parishes were much the same before we arrived and their stories will go on unfolding after our departure, the interim a minor blip in the scheme of things.

Or – perhaps – not quite. For these few years, we have together actually tried to make something work, which had been there on paper before (not working well) and which will cease to be from this summer: the Cotswold Edge (North) Benefice. Not only that but a whole crowd of people have become part of our world, as we have of theirs. And that is not going to ‘go away’ when we do.

I have been blessed by the people of this benefice, as they – you – have allowed me to become part of their stories. The plot is open-ended. None of us knows what will happen after the credits roll of the last episode. But we know that the journey will continue, the pilgrimage will go on.

Fred

Tuesday May 27th 2014

What is your favourite novel? No – let me ask the question a bit more pretentiously: which for you is the finest novel in the English language? I was writing recently about detective fiction. Chief Inspector Morse seems to have settled the question of England’s Best in his own mind. Much as h More...

Tuesday May 27th 2014

What is your favourite novel? No – let me ask the question a bit more pretentiously: which for you is the finest novel in the English language?

I was writing recently about detective fiction. Chief Inspector Morse seems to have settled the question of England’s Best in his own mind. Much as he loves Thomas Hardy, it’s really no contest. For him, Bleak House (Dickens) wins hands down. I love that Colin Dexter – Morse’s creator – has him lingering over the final chapters, just to prolong the experience. I love Bleak House, too. I can see why the splendid Inspector Bucket, who cracks the Dickens mystery, would appeal to Morse. But in the end, I disagree with him; presumably therefore also with Dexter; and go for Hardy as supplier of the greatest English novel.

For me it has to be Tess of the d’Urbervilles, recently re-read. Apart from the drama and pathos of the plot and the wonderful atmospheric descriptions of ‘Wessex’, it’s the insightful observations along the way which help to make this such a great read. When, towards the end of the book, Tess’s mother and siblings lose their home, the novelist pauses to reflect on a changing social pattern in the latter part of the 19^thcentury. Previously, families had been content to stay on one farm for the whole of their working lives. Not any more. "Latterly, the desire for a yearly removal had risen to a high pitch. With the younger families, it was a pleasant excitement which might possibly be an advantage. The Egypt of one family was the Land of Promise to the family who saw it from a distance, till by residence there it became their Egypt also; and so they changed and changed.” Using ‘Egypt’ as a symbol of economic slavery would have come naturally to anyone familiar with the Old Testament.

There is an illusion to which most of us have clung at one time or another in our lives: that ‘change’ means a new start – which in its turn will facilitate a sloughing-off of the problems and faults which have dogged our lives in the old place. I well remember moving parishes at a time when one of my sons had found life in the local primary school pretty tough, the unwelcome attention which had come from being a clergy-child. As we moved, the look in his eye seemed to express the hope and expectation that all thatwas now behind him. He found, of course, as do we all that personal baggage goes with us when we move. We can’t leave our ‘issues’ behind. They follow us. A rather depressing statistic used to be bandied about – that a greater percentage of ‘second marriages’ fail than first. I don’t know if that’s true. I’m certainly aware of many blissfully happy second marriages. But the numbers do make the point. Our personal stuff comes with us. The buttons we allow people to press in one location will have just the same effect in another, or may be with another partner, unless we have taken steps to address the underlying challenges. If we just ‘move on’, then behave in similar ways all over again, we shall be like Hardy’s workforce, leaving behind one land of slavery only to find that the garden of Eden we thought we were entering is actually as much of a prison as the last place.

35 years ago, I took part in a course run by a Christian social worker, all about personal relationships with special reference to marriage. "There are no such things as ‘new starts’”, he told us. I hope he was over-stating his case. But he did have a point.

At a less personal, more social, level the same process can be seen in the political life of our country, perhaps of any democracy. The ‘Egypt’ of one tired administration is rejected by voters in a general election, in the hopes that the Land of Promise will be reached by the next. Perhaps the Tony Blair period was a game-changer in this respect. "Things can only get better”, we were told. For several years, many of us believed it. But by the time Iraq was invaded in 2003, the Promised Land was beginning to look distinctly like Egypt once again. Creeping disenchantment with Westminster and party politics followed. In the past when oldies have become cynical, a younger generation of political enthusiasts have followed through, bringing new energy into the system. Please God, that may still be so: but there are too many who want to echo Russell Brand and say to politicians "A plague on all your houses!”. VeryEgyptian!

And – yes! – it can be the same in parishes moving from one incumbency to the next. "Next time, we’ll get it right!” I like the story of the long-serving churchwarden in conversation with the new vicar. ‘You’ve been here a long time, George?’ ‘Yes, vicar. I’ve seen seven vicars come and go.’ ‘As many as that?’ ‘Yes, vicar. And every one of them worse than the previous one ...’

New relationships can and do work. It is possible to move from Egypt towards a Promised Land. But it is not achieved by just being new and different; but by dealing with the problems which prevented things working properly in the previous place or relationship.

Or so I think.

Fred

Monday April 7th 2014

Getting ready to come here seven years ago, my imagination was stirred when I spotted a familiar place-name on the map, actually within my new patch: Burnt Norton.Surely, there couldn’t be twoplaces called that? It had (didn’t it?) to be the location used by the poet T.S.Eliot as the title for More...

Monday April 7th 2014

Getting ready to come here seven years ago, my imagination was stirred when I spotted a familiar place-name on the map, actually within my new patch: Burnt Norton.Surely, there couldn’t be twoplaces called that? It had (didn’t it?) to be the location used by the poet T.S.Eliot as the title for one of his "Four Quartets”. Well, I wasn’t wrong. Home of the Earl and Countess (who has lately published an historical novel, inspired by the story of the house) of Harrowby, Burnt Norton was visited by Eliot in the late 1920s. His memories of the rose garden fed into a whole series of recollections which inspired one of the great poems in English of the 20^th century. Much of this work is about time and memory, so it’s not surprising that I find myself returning to it at this juncture of my life.

 

Eliot, an Anglo-American who spent his working life first in banking and then as Literary Editor of the publishing house Faber and Faber, seems to have held that the journey of life is circular, that we end up where we began but with new insights about the ‘place’, which were unavailable to us first time round. These words (from the final Quartet, "Little Gidding”) sum it up:

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time”

 

I have had two striking experiences in reading over recent months, which I should like to share with you. Both are books which I have known, indeed possessed, for many years. The first was bought (though a different, now lost, copy) in my mid-teens and dipped into over the decades. The sword of Damacles hung over it whilst I was considering which books to discard. But instead I read it from cover to cover. It is Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ‘Letters and Papers from prison’. Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and teacher in Germany in the 1930s and 40s was implicated in conspiracy against Hitler: though he had already been behind bars for a year when the assassination attempt of July 1944 took place. He wrote and received an extraordinary series of letters, as well as other papers and poems between 1943 and 5, when he was hanged by the Nazis, just a few weeks before VE Day. At a personal level, they are deeply affecting to read. The ideas he put forwards about what ‘the Church’ might look like after the war, and how Christianity might become separated from ‘religion’ were deeply formative for my generation of students.

 

This correspondence also gives a vivid picture of what it was like for ordinary Germans when the Allied bombing raids were taking place and of the disruption caused by war. From the English point-of-view, it’s easy to have a one-sided impression.It’s been my privilege during my time here to conduct funeral services for WW2 fighter and bomber pilots. How we respect that generation! But reading Bonhoeffer – himself totally opposed to Nazism – reminds me anew that there were ordinary, brave and good people on both sides of that conflict:as indeed is likely to be the case in so many of our human disputes. And – coming back to Bonhoeffer after 50 years and more is like returning to my starting-point and knowing the place, properly, for the first time.

 

I suppose ‘Letter and Papers’ always stood a good chance of survival on my shelves. By contrast, my other choice for this month came within a whisker of being slung, unread.But, as I write, I’m getting deep into its pages. It is ‘Journey of a Soul’, the collected spiritual diaries of Pope John XXIII.Previous forays had left me with a sense of too much, too repetitive religious language with which I was uncomfortable. Not really sure why I started again – but I have to say, How wrong was I!

 

It’s probable you have to be at least my kind of age to have lively recollections of Pope John: larger than life, breath of fresh air after Pius XII, inspiration behind the second Vatican Council, already very aged when appointed, deeply humble and self-effacing.Angelo Roncalli was born into an Italian peasant family in 1881, a bishop at 44, later Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, and elected Pope at the age of 72. After this renewed encounter with his writings, I found myself deeply touched by his thoughts about ordained life, being called back to my own spiritual beginnings: back where I started and knowing the place for the first time. I might have picked any number of extracts to give the flavour of his work but here are just two.

 

1952 Retreat at Montmartre "Oh, this never doing or saying to others what we would not wish to have done or said to us! We are all rather remiss about this ... In every case, a caress is always better than a scratch. (A palpable hit, Your Holiness!)

 

During August 1961, he was thinking about the (conflicting?) need to be both simple and prudent. He concludes as follows:

 

"Simplicity means nothing contrary to prudence and the converse is also true. Simplicity is love: prudence is thought. Love prays:the intelligence keeps watch.‘Watch and pray’: a perfect harmony. Love is like the cooing dove: the active intelligence is like the snake that never falls to the ground or bruises itself because, before it glides along, it first probes with its head, to test the unevenness of the ground”.

 

John XXIII’s simplicity and prudence recall me to my ordination vows:back where I started, knowing better this time around I’m not sure that his words, or T.S. Eliot’s, have meanings so very different from Jesus’ when he advised his followers to be ‘wily as serpents and innocent as doves’ or, when he described the scribe instructed in the Kingdom of heaven as a householder ‘bringing out of his treasure things new and old’.

 

A heavier and longer piece this month! So, as John Ebdon used to say on the old Home Service: "If you have been – thank you for listening!”

 

Happy Easter!

Friday March 7th 2014

I stumbled into detective fiction about 20 years ago. A friend I’d served with as a curate pressed into my hand a P.D. James’ novel, "An unsuitable job for a woman”, which I eventually read. This led me into the Adam Dalgleish mysteries, all of which I devoured. Then I started on Ian Rankin’s More...

Friday March 7th 2014

I stumbled into detective fiction about 20 years ago. A friend I’d served with as a curate pressed into my hand a P.D. James’ novel, "An unsuitable job for a woman”, which I eventually read. This led me into the Adam Dalgleish mysteries, all of which I devoured. Then I started on Ian Rankin’s Rebus, of which, again, I have consumed all but the most recent. Where next?

C.J. Sansom’s excellent Tudor-based stories about the barrister, Matthew Shardlake. And finally to Morse. I’m not sure whether I have exhausted my appetite for the genre but what I have already read has given me much food for thought. None of the four ‘heroes’ is exactly a rounded, ‘normal’ human being.They have all got faults, idiosyncrasies. None of them is married, at least during the ‘real time’ of the stories. John Rebus has been in the past but like so many marriages of those driven by their work, it has fallen apart by the time we first meet him. He does have a daughter, Sammy, who plays an important part in some of the novels.Adam Dalgleish is single, but accelerating towards marriage with Emma, a Cambridge academic, by the end of the final book. Morse has never been married. But to say, "he isn’t the marrying kind” would give quite the wrong impression today – though it is true in one way: he is too selfish to make (let alone survive in) such a relationship He has too glad an eye for any woman who is "attractive”.The author, Colin Dexter, uses that description a lot, in a way which now seems

(a) dated and (b) politically incorrect. In any case, Morse is too bound up with booze and fags. Matthew Shardlake, the 16^thcentury lawyer, is clearly not immune to the promptings of the heart, but again he is too driven to allow such personal agenda room to prosper.

There’s a sense in which none of these characters is a very nice person. You can’t quite resist the conclusion that Dalgleish and Shardlake are a bit too good to be true. With Alan Dalgleish, there’s a steely remoteness, and emotional buttoned-upness which tends to keep his personal baggage out of the story-lines: though this is tempered by his poetry (he writes) and by his eventual falling for Emma.

The other two, Morse and Rebus (names suggesting codes and puzzles, NB) tend to be scamps on a good day and potential scoundrels on many another. Either will take liberties with the law in pursuit of "justice” as they see it. Both have good brains, and the capacity to crack seemingly un-solvable cases – though usually (of course) after first chasing up several blind alleys. Morse has an endearing but uncompleted university background. Study of the Classics was all going so well at St John’s College, until he went off the rails with a girl student called Wendy. (Perhaps Dexter sees Morse as a perennial Peter Pan?) The Times crossword and Wagner’s music are what remains of his cultural background. And by the way he drives a Lancia in most of the novels – the Jag doesn’t appear ‘till the ninth of thirteen. The only one of the four who is really ‘into’ religion is Adam Dalgleish: but even then (as far as we can see) not a regular church attender. P. D. James does know her Church of England – she is a member of the Prayer Book Society. All her references to ecclesiastical matters are pleasing and accurate. It is less so with Dexter’s Morse! He has a priest coming away from Confession with a green stole over his arm (for shame!) and the same High Church vicar, after the Eucharist, carrying a surplice. In reality, he wouldn’t have been wearing a Choir garment and if he had, it would have been a cotta (now I am splitting hairs!). On the other hand, Morse is pleasingly described as "a low-church atheist”. Rebus has a love-hate relationship with the kirk and, in the earlier novels, occasionally goes to talk to an RC priest in the confessional. With Matthew Shardlake, you can’t help feeling that in many ways he is the "New Man” of the Renaissance period – an early post-Christian, not really motivated by religious belief but still taking it seriously as part of the cultural scene.

All of these fictitious characters are ‘real’ in one important way. They are depicted as three-dimensional human being with foibles and short-comings.If, weighed in the balance, you have to wonder which way the scales would tilt – certainly in the case of Morse (who dies alone and lonely) and Rebus.

But with such real-life people, the Lord our God deals. For such people, such as us, our Lord Jesus Christ died. Dylan Thomas has the Revd. Eli Jenkins singing, in his Sunset Poem: "We are not wholly bad or good, Who live our lives under Milkwood; And Thou, I know, wilt be the first To see our best side, not our worst!” Amen, Lord! May it be so!

Friday February 7th 2014

Every job I’ve had in ministry (except for my first) has come via advertisements in the Church Times. For more than 40 years, I have looked on, as the styles and techniques used by parishes to promote interest in themselves have changed.It used to be simple: name of parish, type of post (vica More...

Friday February 7th 2014

Every job I’ve had in ministry (except for my first) has come via advertisements in the Church Times. For more than 40 years, I have looked on, as the styles and techniques used by parishes to promote interest in themselves have changed.It used to be simple: name of parish, type of post (vicar, curate), brief description (possibly) and contact details. Now, advertisers go to great lengths to describe the particular version of the Archangel Gabriel they are looking for and the concomitant skill-sets that applicants, imagining they have a ghost of a chance, will be expected to bring. Weirdly, the more they seek to be individual, the more they look drearily similar. Don’t even think about it unless you’re a good preacher, good with children, good with the elderly, a great administrator, a good team-player (And ‘passionate about evangelism’). And – oh yes, of course – g.s.o.h.

 

All this has a curious effect on clergy reading the ads. Partly, of course, it makes us feel inadequate. Who embodies all these qualities? Partly it makes us cynical. Some good column-inches have been written in the Church press, sending up the mind-set which expresses such requirements (but it makes no difference, the ads keep appearing) Partly, too, it reminds us that there can be a tyrannical side to people’s expectations of what clergy are there to do. When we judge ourselves by such criteria – and we nearly all fall into this trap on occasions – we put ourselves and our families under stress and probably end up failing to do anything properly. Home or away.

 

Such strong expectations are raised, on bothsides, during the appointments process.The parish is looking for the perfect vicar, who in turn is looking for the idyllic community with perfect parishioners. When the dust settles, both sides must come to terms with reality. One of the previous rectors in my last parish once said (three years into his time there):"the first year, I could do no wrong.The second year I could do no right.This year, we have all started to be more realistic”

 

None of us clergy is Gabriel. Angelic for the most part, we ain’t. Even on a very good day, it would at best be a case of "angels with dirty faces”, sometimes with fallen haloes. I am sorry for my short-comings, some of which are obvious, others less so. But it is not all bad news. Within the Christian family, we embrace each other, warts and all. We know we have all fallen short of the mark and this gives us the liberty, and the responsibility, to accept one another for what we are, made in the image of God, children of the same heavenly Father, however much we have failed to deliver on the potential He has invested in us.

 

Whateverelse the clergy are, and do, that much we have in common. When the changes come about later this year, try to be very kind to one another : patient, hopeful and accepting.

Fred

Monday January 13th 2014

Followers of The Archers – and of this column – will know that I occasionally use story-lines and characters from the Radio 4 Soap as a peg on which to hang some thoughts. This final shot in my series is the one fired by the hapless Ed Grundy, worried for weeks that his milking herd is bei More...

Monday January 13th 2014

Followers of The Archers – and of this column – will know that I occasionally use story-lines and characters from the Radio 4 Soap as a peg on which to hang some thoughts.

This final shot in my series is the one fired by the hapless Ed Grundy, worried for weeks that his milking herd is being infected by stray dogs, spreading disease. For weeks, it has seemed ‘something’s got to give’. Out rabbiting with his dad, Eddie, Ed suddenly becomes aware of barking and rapid movement. His hackles rise. Almost before he knows it, his gun is at his shoulder and the shot is fired. Moments later, we learn that the offending (now dead) animal is Baz – his estranged game-keeper brother’s pride and joy.Will, the Keeper, is close behind. The catastrophe can only be imagined – there is something operatic about it. To compound the felony, Baz was beloved of George – Ed’s step-son but William’s actual son (Keep up, there!).

Some situations seem incapable of resolution, with ‘tragedy’ or ‘accident-waiting-to-happen’ written all over them. The brothers used to get along quite well, until Will’s young wife, Emma, began an adulterous relationship with brother-in-law, Ed. There was a big wrangle as to ‘who was the daddy’ of the baby George, eventually determined in Will’s favour by DNA. This affair was never going to turn out well. Ed’s shot in the dark may have put back the cause of family peace by years, if it is attainable at all. Meanwhile, the hearts of parents Clarrie and Eddie, and granddad Joe, are heavy, if not actually broken.

As I hear the story unfold, my mind turns to a branch of modern psychology called "Transactional analysis”. Without getting technical, "TA” (as it’s called) sees human dealings on a spectrum with emotional intimacy at one end and serious destructive ‘game-playing’ at the other. In between can be all sorts of minor exchanges between people, ‘strokes’ where we show one another some attention, talk trivially about the weather, pass the time of day,. etc. But in significant relationships, these lesser encounters pale into insignificance beside the good and bad ends of the scale.

In TA theory a game is a process entered, often out of conscious awareness, in which both ‘players’ find their own doubts and insecurities about themselves and others reinforced.Game-playing always involves abandoning any attempt at emotional honesty and intimacy. And it alwaysends badly. There are ‘degrees’ of games. A third-degree game is the most serious. TA theory reckons that third-degree games end up with someone’s getting physically hurt, or dying, or in court. Will and Ed Grundy are in the midst of just such a third-degree game. The shooting of Baz clinched that.

Unscrambling such games can be very hard work. Sometimes more than two people are involved. William was an innocent party but Emma presents herself to Ed as the victim of an unhappy relationship. Ed gets drawn in as ‘rescuer’, his brother seen as ‘persecutor’. In these TA games, people find themselves changing from one role to another. Now Ed is the persecutor, Will the victim, his dog shot, leaving Emma as piggy-in-the-middle.

Such are human tragedies.They generally begin with sin, selfishness or stupidity. The messes I’ve been in, for sure, have begun with mine. They are compounded by an inability – or unwillingness – to face up to the wrong which has been done, to take on board the hurt of the genuine victims or wrong-doing. As long as we are defending our position, untenable as it very likely is, the capacity for game-playing will continue. Everybody will go on hurting. Nothing will get resolved.

At this point, as ever was, I turn to St Paul in Romans 7 "Miserable creature that I am, who is there to save me from this body doomed to death? God alone, through Jesus Christ our Lord”. There are no easy answers. Many readers will be involved in their own (hopefully a little less dramatic) versions of such games. When I am in the thick of it, almost drowning in my capacity for getting it wrong, I hanker after the intimacy which is the very opposite of game-playing. I think of the times in the Gospels when Jesus headed off such behaviour: from the Pharisees, from the likes of Zacchaeus, even from the disciples as late on as Maundy Thursday.

And, painful as it all is, I thank the BBC for such a clear and searing portrayal of how things can go so badly wrong – and, therefore, of how important it is to sort them out "while ye have time”

Fred

Tuesday December 31st 2013

All through my years of ministry – and for very much longer – the Church has tried to swim against the tide in the keeping of Christmas. The Rector who trained me took a dim view of people who only turned up for services on Christmas Day. Coming with a skin-full of ale at Midnight would have g More...

Tuesday December 31st 2013

All through my years of ministry – and for very much longer – the Church has tried to swim against the tide in the keeping of Christmas. The Rector who trained me took a dim view of people who only turned up for services on Christmas Day. Coming with a skin-full of ale at Midnight would have gained few Brownie-points with him. One year, he tried an admission-by-ticket-only policy. Of course it didn’t work and was dropped twelve months on. But even without such extreme measures, church people have frequently felt divided between the warm welcome which should always be extended to visitors and droppers-in – and disappointment in an interest which may not extend much beyond cribs and carols.

Such strains and stresses are not new. During the Oliver Cromwell period in the 1650s, there was famously an attempt to ‘ban Christmas’ as a feast-day. The Puritans thought it should be kept as a fast, a time for calling to mind our sins. Soldiers were dispatched by parliament to check out kitchens for signs of illicit feast-making. But of course (rightly!) the English people would have none of it – not for long any way – and such acts merely served to hasten the national mood of impatience with Puritanism.

Nowadays, Church wisdom says, Go with the flow!At least people still want to keep Christmas – and that’s got to be worth something, hasn’t it? So, forget all that inconvenient old stuff about observing Advent right up till Christmas Eve and give people what they want, when they want it! What’s the point of being out-of-step with Society at large? No! We should make it work for us (we tell ourselves).

And so we should – and do. But there are difficulties, challenges. And a thoughtful keeping of Christmas will not succeed in altogether avoiding them. The ‘trouble’ with Christmas is that the story invites us to look at our lives in a new light. That can be inconvenient, painful even. What’s it like to be an outsider? Mary and Joseph knew. What’s it like to be hunted down by partisans (even when government troops)? They knew that, just as millions do today in war-zones. What’s it like to be born in unhygienic conditions, without the benefit of modern medicine and hospital equipment? Just about everyone knewthat, then. Countless young families know it today, too: not much in this country, but in many other parts of the world.

We look at the players in the Nativity story and seem to see them staring back at us, and asking us: Are you for real? Are youtruly bothered about us, what we said and did, what our lives stood for? Our hearts protest Of course we are interested. They return our gaze, unblinking. Then why do you live lives so comfortable and protected, so little concerned for the likes of us around you now? And we are the first to break eye contact, because we know they speak the truth. And we are unsure how to answer.

Christmas rightly remains a joyous time for families and churches across this land and beyond. It’s no part of my intention to be judgmental about the way others ‘do’ Christmas. But neither shall I be able wholly to silence those disquieting voices and glances from the Nativity characters, challenging too comfortable a keeping of this great Feast.

Enjoy Christmas when it comes! But listen and look carefully. And perhaps use the prayer of St Augustine when you sense those heart-tugs:

‘You made us for Yourself – and our hearts find no peace until they rest in You’.

Tuesday November 5th 2013

(Let’s start at the very beginning...) This is a piece I originally wrote last Spring, and then decided was a bit too eccentric (even for me). However, fired up by the Last Night of the Proms recently, I’ve returned to it with fresh eyes (and ears): and with the hope that it might – just More...

Tuesday November 5th 2013

(Let’s start at the very beginning...)

This is a piece I originally wrote last Spring, and then decided was a bit too eccentric (even for me). However, fired up by the Last Night of the Proms recently, I’ve returned to it with fresh eyes (and ears): and with the hope that it might – just possibly – mean something to someone.

Doing ‘O’ Level Music bequeathed me with a few good gifts for the enjoyment of life, none of them I think greater than this little number. For the space of three or four sentences, I’m going to be slightly technical (bear with me, please), and then talk plain English again. Imagine a three-note chord based on ‘Do’. (Do – mi – sol ... "sew” in Sound of Music speak ... you can add in a top ‘do’ too, if you wish). The "second inversion” of this chord is when the notes are the same, but the chord does a hand-stand, with sol at the bottom, do, mi and a top sol up above. (If you want to be reallytechnical, forget Julie Andrews and say it’s the tonic, the mediant and the dominant, inverted to have the dominant at the base. But – hey – on second thoughts, let’s keep it simple.) So – when the chord usually based on ‘do’ does its handstand so that it’s now based on ‘sol’ – then you have it: tonic chord, second inversion.

Why does this excite me so much? Because, if you go to a concert with a concerto in the programme, you’re likely to become aware, suddenly, that the orchestra are playing just such a chord: tonic, second inversion. Often towards the end of the first movement (but sometimes in more than one movement), this little gem is a sure indication of what is about to follow, the orchestra’s signal for the soloist to take over and have her or his own way for the next unspecified period. S/he takes the instrument through its paces, shows off shamelessly, modulates through many different keys and back again, abandons the requirement to play in strict time and takes us through a whole range of emotions. It’s the section of the work known as the ‘cadenza’ – an Italian term just meaning ‘cadence’ or ‘step’ – a movement towards the completion of the piece, finally, by the orchestra coming back in, tutti, (i.e. the whole lot of ‘em).

So, why all this, now? Because I think I’ve reached my TCSI moment. For me, the ‘concerto’ of stipendiary ministry is drawing towards its end – or at least the finish of this particular ‘movement’. The rules say we must finish by the time we’re 70; for me, next year. Fair enough, clergy are not meant to be solo performers, moody prima donnas, let alone one-man bands. We’re part of a team – and the ‘work’ won’t work unless all play their parts properly. Nevertheless, there is something in the analogy. For much of the time, our role is rather more that of the conductor: enabling each section and player to find their voices and contribute in their own ways to the ultimate performance. Conductors undoubtedly give their own stamp to performances and interpretations. At the hands of a master, you know from the first chord that you’re in for a great performance. But equally there’s a learning curve they have to negotiate about their own transitoriness. There’s a story (probably exaggerated) about Sir Thomas Beecham. Supposedly, he was once conducting at a concert when there was a power failure: the lights went out. With enormous presence of mind, the orchestra kept playing, in total darkness. When the power came back, Sir Thomas was seen to be in tears – having had a pointed reminder that he was not, after all indispensable. So too with clergy. (But then, you knew that already.)

But, risky as it might be, I want to persevere with this image of the soloist and the cadenza. I’m going to give myself permission over the next few months to have my individual ‘say’ in this parish magazine, without fear or favour. I’m putting myself on notice that it must be a performance of total honesty. There will be up-beat and down-beat, changes of tempo and of mood. I shall not tell half-truths (or worse). I shall make no claims that I do not feel in my gut to be true. I shall endeavour to let it be a ‘warts and all’ account of who I am and what I believe. You may not agree with all of it (perhaps not with any of it!) You may sometimes think I should not be writing such things in a parish magazine.

Take courage! Cadenzas come to an end, as do periods of ministry. Others will follow on, less wacky, more reliable. And I’m hoping that when my individual contribution eventually comes to the chord which brings the whole orchestra back in, there’ll be a sense of culmination and harmony all round.

Fred

Thursday October 10th 2013

Over the years, I have never thought that prayer was my forté. To some people, it comes naturally. They listen to Jesus’ words, Ask and you shall receive etc, they get it and they just go for it. Not for them philosophical puzzles: how can bad things happen if God is all-good and all-pow More...

Thursday October 10th 2013

Over the years, I have never thought that prayer was my forté. To some people, it comes naturally. They listen to Jesus’ words, Ask and you shall receive etc, they get it and they just go for it. Not for them philosophical puzzles: how can bad things happen if God is all-good and all-powerful? Why and how would He interfere in a world created with its own laws of nature? What’s the point of telling Him things which must already be in the divine mind? Troubled with these, and other, problems since my student days, intercessory prayer has never been an easy option for me.

Until recently. Because, yes, over the last few years I have found that I have wanted to pray in this way far more than perhaps ever before. When we say to someone we care for, ‘I shall think of you’, what we are really saying (I reckon) is, ‘I shall pray for you’. We are avoiding the danger of being sanctimonious but the reality is just the same. We are holding that thought of the person/issue/cause before God. We are not necessarily bringing an agenda of what we want to happen or desirable outcomes. We are bearing in mind St Paul’s words about ‘giving thanks to God whatever happens’. We are simply holding that thought, as we see it, in the presence of God. When I engage in this emotional, mental and spiritual activity, I feel more alive and connected than I do at a good many other moments.

This should not be too surprising. The idea of having a picture-image in our prayers is hardly new. I still have, somewhere, the little handbook I was given at the time of my confirmation in the 1950s. The writer (a former vicar of the church where we were married) made a suggestion about the way communicants might use the ‘Prayer for the Church Militant here in earth’ (the long intercession prayer in the BCP Communion service). ‘Imagine you are in the street while a procession comes past,’ he wrote. ‘You can see them all – the Queen, the church leaders, government, the poor, the sick, the needy, loved ones who are no longer with us – filing past. As you watch, hold them before God in prayer.’ OK – this is a bowdlerised version remembered across five decades and more, but it was the gist! That mental image is not a bad way of thinking about intercessions.

Some years after my confirmation, a different picture came to mind. One summer evening in 1963, I was sitting alone on a hillside in Dovedale, supposedly revising for my A-Levels but actually watching a shepherd at work across the valley on the opposite hill. A sheep dog was doing his stuff. Every time the sheep had been more-or-less rounded up, one or two of them would break away and the dog would zoom into action again, ranging around until all were safely gathered into the fold. Fifty years on, I can still see it perfectly: and see it as a metaphor for prayer. Jesus spoke of being the Good Shepherd, even of being the door of the sheepfold. Perhaps it would be a justifiable extension of his metaphor to say this: when we are holding people in our prayers, we are behaving like that sheep dog, going from one beast to another in our minds to make sure that they are not left out, that they do not escape our attentions.

My intercessory prayer is not quite as patchy as it used to be – thank you, Lord, for that! But whenever in the past I returned to it, sometimes after long absences, I would find one person after another hailing me in my prayers, and saying – as it were – Don’t forget me! I need to be included too! Then I was the sheep dog, on a constant perimeter of prayer, encircling those who needed to be cared for and bringing them into the fold of the Lord’s presence.

None of this, of course, answers any of the sceptical conundrums I have always had in mind as to what on earth is going on when we pray. But I think this thought is worth holding any way. I am still moved by Tennyson: More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. We are not, after all strangers to the business of saying one thing and meaning another. Louis Armstrong reflected on the fact that when we say to friends and neighbours ‘How d’you do?’, what we’re really wanting to say is, ‘I love you.’ Similarly, in our own individual ways, ‘I’ll think of you’ = ‘I’ll pray for you.’ A prayer by any other name would be as meet.

Saturday September 7th 2013

Looking back at ourselves as we were decades ago is a weird business. This August, I find myself looking back for two reasons. One is, it’s 55 years this summer since that experience I had in Lichfield Cathedral which – eventually – brought me into the ordained ministry. Alone, locked by acci More...

Saturday September 7th 2013

Looking back at ourselves as we were decades ago is a weird business.

This August, I find myself looking back for two reasons. One is, it’s 55 years this summer since that experience I had in Lichfield Cathedral which – eventually – brought me into the ordained ministry. Alone, locked by accident in St Chad’s chapel high in the cathedral walls, intended just for private prayer where the Blessed Sacrament was reserved, I sensed/thought/suspected/came to believe/knew that ‘God was speaking to me’ and that, whatever it was He was saying, it was going to mean a big change in my young life. Within three days, I had come to believe that this was a vocation to ordination, I had told my local vicar and my parents about it.

Looking down the telescope through the wrong end, across the decades, I’ve often wondered what was going on. Had the seed been implanted by others? Quite possibly. A year or two earlier, I had played the main role in a drama about a child who felt called to ordination. Had I stepped into the role I’d been playing so recently? Was it something I fancied doing/being? If so, I felt an unlikely candidate. Just three years earlier, I’d failed my 11+. By 1958, I’d transferred to the local grammar school but knew I had much ground still to make up. Then again, was this new turn of events somehow related to issues about puberty, adolescence, feelings of inadequacy, aspirations, guilt? Almost certainly. Yet, I’ve never finally convinced myself that this sense of vocation was merely the product of all or some of these other explanations. Yes, even down the wrong end of the telescope – so remote, so distant – God was in there somewhere. Well, I really do hope so: or else what have I been spending my life doing?

Five years on from all that (so, fifty back from now), I was doing A-levels, leaving school, going off to St Chad’s College in Durham. (Bit of a recurring theme, Chad.) Looking down the telescope at that young person feels odd. Was it really me/I? It seems another life. And yet there are consistencies. My stream of consciousness is the same, sweeping me along from one experience to another, whether I like it/am ready for it or not. And I’m truly blessed in having the same partner now as then. In 1963, we weren’t yet formally engaged but we both knew where we were hoping to get. Strange to think that three of our children have spent time in Durham since then – and even their student days now long in the past. I recently read a Times supplement about Durham – an advertising inset. So much has changed but so much is still the same .The little Department of History where I studied had about a dozen (maximum) lecturers in my day. Now there are three times as many, and more. Weren’t we all civilised and respectful, back then? Didn’t the sun always shine? The past is indeed another country. They do things differently there.

So – reality check. Back to the future. Looking down the wrong end of the telescope can be seriously damage your mental health. Out come the rose-tinted specs. And we tend to see patterns there which may not have really existed: not so much looking down a telescope as into a kaleidoscope. Many readers will doubtless remember those intriguing toys from the 1950s and before. A collection of coloured sparkly shapes, an arrangement of mirrors at the end of the scope: when you looked into it, you saw wonderful symmetrical patterns, a sort of Busby Berkeley arrangement of magnificence, without the arms and legs. And isn’t it the truth that when we peer into the remote past, we are inclined to impose form and order on what we see there? It’s infinitely easier to ‘organise’ the past than the present, to knock it into shape.

Typically, therefore, people feel that ‘the past’ is more secure than the present. Which of course it is: it’s fixed, you can’t change it. But in truth it was no safer thenthan ‘now’ is, now. The only ‘safe’ thing about it is that, somehow, we got through it. Patterns more often than not are a trick of the memory, a kind of security created by people who write books and tell stories. Living in the ‘now’ has always been a bit scary. It is presently; and it was then, too.

For Christians, that is mitigated to a degree by the sense of God’s active presence in our lives. For us, He is yesterday, today and tomorrow; the Alpha and the Omega; He from whom we cannot be separated. For most of our days, this doesn’t actually make living less tricky and more certain. But in the experience of millions of Christians and others, it really does help. It is a ‘presence’ that we can cultivate through prayer, worship and in gracious personal relationships. When we think deeply about the past, the present and the future, we realise that what unifies them – or, rather, - who unifies them and makes sense of them for us is none other than our Lord God.

Fred

 

Wednesday August 14th 2013

Bilbo, aka the Hobbit, makes several appearance in Tolkien’s trilogy, Lord of the Rings. We meet him at the outset, contemplating his Eleventy-first birthday. Bilbo has had enough. In a wonderful simile, he describes himself as ‘like butter which has been spread over too much bread’. In the co More...

Wednesday August 14th 2013

Bilbo, aka the Hobbit, makes several appearance in Tolkien’s trilogy, Lord of the Rings. We meet him at the outset, contemplating his Eleventy-first birthday. Bilbo has had enough. In a wonderful simile, he describes himself as ‘like butter which has been spread over too much bread’. In the course of a long period of ordained ministry, there have certainly been moments when I could identify with that. But Bilbo’s analogy just at the moment resonates for different reasons.

Pastoral units are growing in size. I currently have four churches, five villages to look after. It was not ever thus. Go back far enough and you’ll find Saintbury with its own rector. But many changes happened during the 20^th century. In the early 1930s, the parishes of Weston-sub-Edge and Aston-sub-Edge were amalgamated into one by Orders in Council, with Weston as the parish church. Legally, that remains the situation – although by 1950, the bishop had given permission for Aston to start behaving in certain respects as though it were a separate parish. In 1977, the Sub-Edges were added to Willersey/Saintbury. That foursome continued until around ten years ago. Then Mickleton came into the reckoning, the incumbent of Willersey etc taking it under his wings. This more than doubled the population of the benefice.

In the period till 2007, the new arrangement had not seemed like a proper marriage. Mickleton, it seems, felt as though they had been tacked on to an up-and-running group (they had!) without the centre of gravity’s changing properly. However, that changed with the present appointment. When I applied for the job, I took – and have continued to take – huge satisfaction in having that parish with its fine church and interesting community as a major part of my brief. So, the group now works. When we first arrived, I thought of these parishes (rather fancifully) as a string of gems on a necklace, five beautiful villages threading along the one main road, the B4632. My experience here has not changed that view.

So in law there are presently three parishes (Willersey with Saintbury, the Sub-Edges and Mickleton) but with five villages and four open churches. The ancient philosopher Heraclitus famously wrote ‘Everything is in a state of flux’. Thousands of years on, his words remain true. Stand by for further changes! With two local clergy retirements already in the bag and others pending, the Diocese and Deanery have decided on a cut in clergy staffing levels.

In the old Campden Deanery there were five benefices: ours; Campden etc; Welford on Avon etc; Honeybourne etc; and Blockley etc. All but the last were full-time parochial ministries. Blockley had a two-thirds appointment, the remaining third of the Incumbent’s time being spent and paid for in Church House, Gloucester. The decision is that the 2/3rds appointment must go and that all the parishes of the old Deanery must be reconfigured into new groups covered by four parish priests.

This looks like the moment when push comes to shove. On the surface, all the courtesies are being observed, a process of consultation is under way (though rather jerky) and many options are said still to be open. However, it seems to be on the cards that this Cotswold Edge (North) benefice of ours will be dismantled, its parishes going in various directions. To the historian in me, it feels a bit like Austria, Prussia and Russia partitioning Poland (on three separate occasions) in the 18^thcentury!

The timing of the recommendations was such that it proved impossible to have discussions in most of the PCCs before responses were due. With a Benefice Council coming up very shortly, and other PCC meetings, I am sure that church members in this neck of the woods will have their voices heard before close of play.

We can’t avoid the harsh realities of staffing numbers and the closely-related matter of funding. But all concerned would do well to bear in mind Bilbo Baggins’ warning about butter and bread.

Fred

Wednesday July 3rd 2013

It was a something-and-nothing, almost a throw-away remark. But you could feel the shock waves. BBC TV was holding its annual gardenfest (come to think of it, one of many ...) in Chelsea Week. Nightly broadcasts: summaries, anticipations, finest moments, out-takes. Gardening gurus Alan Titchma More...

Wednesday July 3rd 2013

It was a something-and-nothing, almost a throw-away remark. But you could feel the shock waves. BBC TV was holding its annual gardenfest (come to think of it, one of many ...) in Chelsea Week. Nightly broadcasts: summaries, anticipations, finest moments, out-takes. Gardening gurus Alan Titchmarsh and Joe Swift had enthused and fawned over show gardens, large and small. The nation had been swept away by the ...well ... floriferousness of it all. I was as keen as most, catching several of the broadcasts during the week.

And then, along comes Diarmuid Gavin, garden designer extraordinaire, to spoil the party. "What do you think of this year's Show?" asks Titchmarsh. The reply?" Nothing special!" Wait a minute! Did that really happen? Were my ears deceiving me? Did a Chelsea Gold veteran just say that this year's Chelsea was nothing special? Wow! What a breath of fresh air in the midst of the statutory adulation!

The point is not whether this year's Chelsea Flower Show was, or was not, anything special. I'd find it hard to judge, never having been to the Show. Hampton Court, yes; Malvern, yes; but not Chelsea. This year's paying visitors will have made up their own minds. Now, I normally I like both Titchmarsh and Swift as presenters. I'm not wanting to knock them as such. But something seems to overtake them when they enter the grounds of the Royal Hospital, rather like Harry Enfield's Kevin who loses the power of rational thought at the moment of becoming a teenager. Based on the assessment of this Dynamic Duo, viewers could be forgiven for concluding that, year on year, it just gets better and better.

And then along comes Diarmuid Gavin. Like the little boy in the Hans Christian Anderson story who hadn't heard about the emperor's new clothes, he speaks as he finds. And his remark is a game-changer. Suddenly, one is liberated to have one's own reactions, excused from being swept along by the presenters' relentless positivity.

Don't get me wrong, Being positive in life is good - but not if the cost is ignoring reality. The parent who only ever praises a child, not tempering encouragement with constructive criticism, does the offspring few favours. Nor is it so very different for adults. It's great to be told "that was a wonderful sermon, Rector!" But the currency might hold its value better if the parson sometimes heard: "I haven't the foggiest idea what you were on about this morning, Vicar!"� There is a New Testament sound-bite for this: "speaking the truth in love" - St Paul's expression. Telling the truth in that way is one of the toughest challenges we face in our day-to-day living. It's so easy to err in one direction or the other. Either: out of love and respect we hold our tongue and don't speak at all for fear of upsetting the other; or, we give ourselves free rein to say whatever we think - often venting spleen rather than sensitively speaking the truth in love. Getting this right is, at the very least, a life-time's work.

And here's the rub, Alan, Joe and Diarmuid. Christians are aware that not everything in the garden is beautiful. It might be so in the mind and heart of God. May be that was indeed the way it was intended. But, enter the human garden designer. And, of course, Adam the gardener.

Fred

Monday June 3rd 2013

Each time I try to tell you, the words just turn out wrong So I have to say 'I love you' in a song   Some of you will remember that song. Human beings often can't find the words to express what they are feeling: at least, not words in ordinary prose. So we have to fall back on so More...

Monday June 3rd 2013

I've come to talk with you again,

Because a vision softly creeping,

Left its seeds while I was sleeping,

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence.

Fred

Friday May 10th 2013

One of the most over-used lines in cinema, it seems, is: 'You just don't get it, do you?' Jeff Smith, a film enthusiast in want of a life, has watched an untold number of movies in order to come up with an amazing statistic: that it figures in 102 feature films, a surprisingly large number o More...

Friday May 10th 2013

One of the most over-used lines in cinema, it seems, is: 'You just don't get it, do you?' Jeff Smith, a film enthusiast in want of a life, has watched an untold number of movies in order to come up with an amazing statistic: that it figures in 102 feature films, a surprisingly large number of them within the last decade. So, I've been thinking about 'getting it', wondering what I do, and don't, get.

But first I must own up to curling the lip when I hear politicians speaking of 'getting it' in this sense. Without being too party-political, I have to suppress a sneer when I hear the Prime Minister declaring: I do get it! (For instance, to do with the problems poorer families are facing as the economy shrinks.) My problem doesn't so much concern whether or not the PM understands the issues - though the likes of Nadine Dorries would have a view about that. It's more to do with the choice of language. When David Cameron or Ed Miliband declare 'I get it!', they are endeavouring to give themselves street credibility by using what they take to be the language of ordinary people, the 'demotic' as it's sometimes known. It's as if they thought, "Saying I understand just won't impress any one. I must find a way of expressing it which will register with the public.� What happens, though, is something they were neither expecting nor wanting. We are the ones who actually get it. We get where they are coming from; what they are trying to do is to cosy up, insinuating themselves under our skin, talking our language. Are we impressed? There's an unintended consequence, too. The language itself becomes devalued, empty - and that's if there were much in it in the first place. Ah, Americanisms!

But there are other times when talk of 'getting it' or 'not getting it' can be useful. Do I really get it about being a Christian? There comes a stage in our progress when it's as though the Lord whispered to us, You just don't get it, do you? Then we have to stop in our tracks and do a radical re-think. I don't know of a better illustration of this than this story of St Thomas Aquinas. On the feast of St. Nicholas in 1273, Aquinas was celebrating Mass when he had some kind of deep mystical experience that affected him so much, he was unable to continue his writing and teaching career. His greatest theological work remained unfinished. To Brother Reginald's (his secretary and friend) objections he replied, "The end of my labours has come. All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me." When later asked by Reginald to return to his writing, Aquinas said, "I can write no more. I have seen things that make my writings like straw." This most towering intellect of the Middle Ages, university teacher, layer-down of Catholic doctrine for the next eight centuries, suddenly realised that he just didn't get it.

None of us is so old or so clever as not to need this reminder from time to time. When it comes, it can be devastating; can seem to invalidate all that has gone before. I may be on the cusp of a 'not getting it' reminder. From university onwards (if not sooner), the whole of my life has been built on an attempt to be reasonable and reasoning in matters or faith. This has often made prayer more difficult than it might otherwise have been. Now, late in the day, I'm beginning to hear the whispers. "Simply enjoy My presence. Just come to Me as a loving child. (And, by the way, you've just not been getting it, have you?)"�

Leopards, of course, don't change their spots. I shall always be a questioning, skeptical person by nature. I shall still be quixotic and mercurial (the kind way of putting it) or lazy and undisciplined (nearer the truth) in my spiritual life; for at least a good part of the time. But I shall also be a person with a 'burden', a task to carry, and to carry out. This is the task of sharing with others what I take to be great truths: that when we know ourselves most keenly to be alive, we are with God (and vice versa); that when we are most aware of ourselves and our consciousness, we are closest to God (and vice versa); that when I am least inclined to justify myself and my actions at all costs, I am best placed to encounter God (and vice versa).

For me, facing all this is the beginning of getting it. (Or, to put it in a more Biblical way, the beginning of wisdom.)

Fred

Sunday April 21st 2013

 Once every couple of years, the Bishop or one of his immediate colleagues spends a whole day in each benefice. At the end of 2010, Archdeacon Robert Springett shared All Saints’ Day with us, culminating in a great Eucharist at Mickleton attended by people from all of our parishes. This ti More...

Sunday April 21st 2013

 

Once every couple of years, the Bishop or one of his immediate colleagues spends a whole day in each benefice. At the end of 2010, Archdeacon Robert Springett shared All Saints’ Day with us, culminating in a great Eucharist at Mickleton attended by people from all of our parishes. This time it’s the turn of Bishop Michael. He will spend the 6th Sunday of Easter with us - the one we used to know as Rogation Sunday (and still do, in the country!). When he visited us last year for the re-dedication of Weston parish church, it was simply for a one-off service. The other churches in the benefice gave up their own separate worship so that we could all come together at Weston. This time, by contrast, it will be ‘business as usual’ in each parish church on the morning and the evening of May 5th. With a following wind from Gloucester, Bishop Michael will reach Mickleton in time for the 8 am service. He and I will go on from there to Willersey for 9.30 am and thence to Weston for 11am. By the end of the morning, he will certainly have got the flavour of what Sunday mornings are like for your parish priest. No-one is looking to pack the pews just because the Bishop is coming: but if going to church regularly is part of what you do, then it would be a good day to try to be present.

Morning worship, though, isn’t even the half of it. There will be a lunch event at King George’s Hall, Mickleton - and you are invited! The PCC of Mickleton warmly invite all PCC and other church members from across the benefice to share in a proper knife-and-fork meal with two courses. We will gather at 12.30 pm. Spouses of course are invited as well, not just those who happen to go to church. After lunch with Bishop Michael, there will be at least three further features to share: presentations in connection with our family services, our approach to marriage preparation and a discussion about the future shape on ministry in these parts. Please do come if you can. There will be lists at the back of each church for you to sign, so we have a good idea about numbers.

Later in the afternoon, the Bishop may take the opportunity to call on one or two people who can’t get out. He will also need a bit of ‘down-time’! But, in the evening, it’s back to business with the Rogation Service at Aston-sub-Edge (6.30 pm). The Aston ‘Agricultural services’ deserve a higher profile than they sometimes receive. This annual sequence - Plough Sunday, Rogation, Lammas, Harvest - marks out the rural year, in a church situated in one of the most beautiful spots in the north Cotswolds. It’s traditionally attended by members of the local farming community as well as ‘regulars’. It will be good to share this occasion with the Bishop and with anyone else from the benefice who would like to come.

For Bishop Michael, of course, another day’s work. He must see similar occasions many times over. But he will also be sharing our life - and we shall be sharing in his ministry, as indeed we do every Sunday, every day. And - perhaps every bit as important - we shall be sharing life and experience with each other. It will be a chance for us to come away heartened and encouraged.

Let‘s make the most of it!

Fred

Monday March 11th 2013

Lent, Holy Week and Easter are not everyone's cup of tea. Seasons come, seasons go. Some of us rarely bat an eyelid. Time was, people used to turn out for special week-day festivals or solemn occasions. Now, they are mostly observed on the nearest Sunday - though there are some you can't r More...

Monday March 11th 2013

Lent, Holy Week and Easter are not everyone's cup of tea. Seasons come, seasons go. Some of us rarely bat an eyelid. Time was, people used to turn out for special week-day festivals or solemn occasions. Now, they are mostly observed on the nearest Sunday - though there are some you can't really move and people will still come along to them. Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday. Not perhaps in such great numbers as once: but for many, they still register as important times we wish to mark and honour.

Along with this, the whole pattern of churchgoing has changed more widely. Some still see weekly participation as really important. For others, it’s less frequent. All sorts of pressures have led to the change: more leisure time to go away, scattered families, the growth of alternative attractions, secularisation ...

Everyone's pattern is different. As we approach Holy Week (Palm Sunday 24th March - Easter Day 31st), my plea/suggestion would be decide what you're going to do and then put your whole self into it while it's going on.

Do what you do do well!

Happy Holy Week and Easter!

Wednesday February 6th 2013

Years ago, I used to be a huge fan of the musicals of Rogers and Hammerstein One of their lesser-known songs from a relatively-forgotten show was A Hundred Million Miracles, from The Flower Drum Song. When you’re in love, it’s true: a hundred million miracles are happening every day! I’d like to More...

Wednesday February 6th 2013

Years ago, I used to be a huge fan of the musicals of Rogers and Hammerstein One of their lesser-known songs from a relatively-forgotten show was A Hundred Million Miracles, from The Flower Drum Song. When you’re in love, it’s true: a hundred million miracles are happening every day!

I’d like to report on just four such, one for each of my four churches and their villages.
Let me tell you about Holy Communion at the Four Seasons Residential Home in Mickleton. I inherited a monthly visit there. In the early days, it was all rather chaotic. Staff didn’t always seem to know I was coming. A number of very elderly folk (whose space I was, after all invading) sat around in the main sitting room apparently taking little or no notice. One or two might have joined in with the Lord’s Prayer, or woken up sufficiently to manage communion. Then a dear lady in her 90s (who left us two years ago) took the situation in hand. She – Mary – arranged for the monthly service to take place in a separate conservatory, where four, five or six who really wanted to attend the service would be taken. Members of staff helped to start turning things around. The mood had changed completely. Another year on, and two new ‘messengers’ had arrived. (I’d like to say, ‘angels’: but that might be rather fanciful and/or embarrass them. Yet I don’t doubt that they were meant and sent.) Judith, whose mother is a resident; and Felicity who is a member of staff. They moved us back into the main lounge and actively encouraged people to attend the service. Now there were a dozen or fourteen people present, nearly all alert, interested, keen to join in. Each month, Judith prints special sheets with the lessons and prayers for the week, so that the residents can follow. Felicity’s commitment from the staff side, too, makes an invaluable contribution.

I think that being open to the enthusiastic involvement of ‘new’ people is often key to recognising miracles when they happen. My second illustration shows this in miniature. Our small congregation at Weston-sub-Edge has laboured on faithfully across many decades, very occasionally being joined by someone new. One of those ‘joinings’ happened a few years ago, when David Herbert started to attend and then, in due time, joined Barrie Knight as a second churchwarden. On David’s watch, a number of ‘fabric issues’ were pushed forward – but may be his main legacy to us is having facilitated the installation of a sound and loop system. This was meant as Step One towards producing downloaded musical accompaniments to our hymn-singing. David and his wife Kris left Weston in September and – perhaps – we all quietly wondered whether we would get as far as Step Two of the project.

Enter, stage right, another relatively new member (Ros) who volunteered to access the hymn downloads and supervise the technology at services. ‘All things work together for those who love God,’ said St Paul. This certainly seems evidenced by what happened at Weston church in December. Within two weeks, Marie’s son had offered advice about suitable websites for the music and Ros had identified and downloaded it. Wow!

‘Within two weeks...’ gives me the link for my next miracle stop: Aston-sub-Edge. On Sundays 9th and 16th December, St Andrew’s was packed. That’s not unusual for the carol service (16th) but the previous week saw the first-ever (as far as we know) Christingle Service there. Here, for me, the miracle was about the age-profile. In that small village, there were lots of children. They read beautifully at the ‘lessons and carols’. There’s a feeling of real encouragement when there are so many ‘young’ at church services, even just once in a while.

All of which leads to my Willersey ‘miracle’. St Peter’s is the church in this benefice where ‘family services’ have really taken off. We started them there in September 2007. For the first couple of years, there was a hesitant response: some ‘regulars’ chose not to attend, yet there was no noticeable influx of new people. The real break-through came when a team of church members started to meet each month to brain-storm ideas and plan the services. They have put a tremendous amount of effort and energy into this – Rachael doing much of the ‘visual aids’ preparation. Over the past twelve months, this has really borne fruit. We have done a series of presentations about the Dioceses across the world linked with Gloucester – in India, Africa, Sweden, the USA. Jenny shared her vision for a ‘village celebration’ service and that came to pass in November. On half a dozen or more occasions this year, there have been between 40 and 60 people in church at 11 am on the 3rd Sunday in the month.

This has been a very personal selection of ‘miracles’. Your list may well have been different. But I’d like to end by remembering words of the 19th century American poet, Walt Whitman:

Why! Who makes much of a miracle?
As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with anyone I love ....

Our capacity for recognising miracles – for seeing life as miraculous – may be the difference between really living and merely existing.

Fred

Monday January 14th 2013

November 20th was not a good day for the Church of England. After a preparation build-up period of several years, General Synod rejected the change of church law which would have made possible the ordination of women as bishops. This, in spite of the fact that 42 out of 44 dioceses had voted More...

Monday January 14th 2013

November 20th was not a good day for the Church of England. After a preparation build-up period of several years, General Synod rejected the change of church law which would have made possible the ordination of women as bishops. This, in spite of the fact that 42 out of 44 dioceses had voted in favour of the Measure (the C of E's equivalent of an Act of Parliament). Of course, on the day itself a majority did actually vote in favour of the change: but not a large enough majority. A vote of 2/3rds in favour is required by the General Synod for a change such as this, and in each of the three 'Houses' - bishops, clergy and laity. In the event, the bishops and clergy produced a more-than-adequate third-thirds-plus vote. The motion was lost in the House of Laity, which could only manage around 64% in favour, not the required 66.666%.

We have reached a stage where the great majority of Synod members (let alone church members more widely) accept that there will be women bishops in due course. The scrapping which is still going on is all about what kind of provision should be made for those who disagree. At one side of the debate are those who still don't want women bishops. They think that they should have legally-enshrined arrangements for separate management by bishops of their own - not only male, but men of their own persuasion. But many of those who favour the introduction of women as bishops (which is the great majority) see such an arrangement as somehow putting women bishops on an uneven footing with their male colleagues-to-be. So they favour a simple, one-clause Measure to bring in the change - leaving it to a Code of Practice (not yet written) to make arrangements for those who disagree. Those who supported the proposed changes as they stood voted in favour. Those who opposed them included some who are actually in favour of the eventual change but felt that more provision should have been made for the dissenters.

The outcome is a mess - with huge disappointment for the women who have been waiting for this recognition - as well as many men who support the change (including me). If you stayed up late that Thursday night and watched Andrew Neill's Weekly Politics show, you would have seen the columnist Anne Atkins arguing that this is nothing but a temporary blip in the scheme of things; that it's much more important to 'take everybody with us' in the decision, quite unnecessary to see it as a public-relations disaster for the C of E (which many people reckon it is). Methinks the lady did protest too much: Rowan Williams is much nearer the mark than Atkins, seeing clearly just what negative signals this result sends out to Society at large.

Just how long does the Church of England need? Synod decided in about 1976 that there was no theological objection to ordaining women: but it took another 16 years before the eventual decision was taken that they could be ordained priests. From the moment that became a reality (two years later, in 1994), it was inevitable that they would be admitted to the order of bishop as well. You can't have a 'stained-glass ceiling'. It's not just a matter of following fashions in Society, of conforming to equal-opportunities legislation (though we certainly ought to be catching up with all that). More importantly, it arises from proper theology. If we are 'made in the image of God', then how can it be possible that half of us are somehow more restricted than the other half? Something like 40% of parishes now have women on their staffs. Thousands of parishioners have attested the skills and gifts they have brought to the ordained ministry. Men and women are different - yes - but why should those inevitable biological differences extend into church governance and leadership? Until about 27 years ago, I used to have some doubts about the change. But now I look back to my mind-set as it was then, and see it as fired by a mixture of fear and prejudice, a preference for remaining in my own comfort-zone. Which parts of what the opponents are now saying, I ask myself, are different from those doubts I had, back then? I wouldn't want to see anyone needing to leave the church, whatever their beliefs: but neither do I think it is right for a process of good and necessary change to be capsized by a mixture of a reluctance to let go of the past and a failure to discern the promptings of the Holy Spirit. (Though I recognise that when people start claiming the Holy Spirit as a subscriber to their point-of-view, it's time for a reality check.)

One of the things about being in ministry for a long period is that you gain a different perspective. I'd been ordained for fewer than three years when something rather similar happened: though the subject-matter was different. In 1972, the Anglican-Methodist unity scheme was voted on by Synod. There again, two Houses were in favour but the two-thirds required majority was narrowly missed by the third. Back then, the House of Laity was progressive: it wanted the change and voted accordingly; as did the Bishops. But the vote was lost in the House of Clergy where the two-thirds requirement just failed. To my mind, it is interesting that the clergy are now the ones with courage and imagination and that the failure was down to a rear-guard action by members of the House of Laity. Apart from having to return in due time to the issue itself (women as bishops), it seems to me that there are two other issues which must be examined. First, why must we go on with this 'two-thirds' requirement system for matters of change? 66.6 (%) is, after all, the Number of the Beast! Do we want our future to be determined by that? And secondly, is there a case for overhauling the way elections to Synod work? Can it be right, in other words, that when 42 out of 44 dioceses support the change, those who are elected to General Synod seem to be of such a very different complexion? General Synod members are elected by those on Deanery Synods. They tend to be recruited from an age-group which has time and money to support attendance at residential sessions - and who are (small-c) conservative; and/or from people who have bees in their bonnets about particular issues. Is this right? Should it be changed?

Fred

Saturday December 15th 2012

( ... and I warmly invite you to consider doing so) I suggest you may think about bringing with you some or all of the following: Someone who is happy. Christmas is a great time to be happy (though it's the very time when happiness eludes many). And 'church' is a great place to bring our More...

Saturday December 15th 2012

( ... and I warmly invite you to consider doing so) I suggest you may think about bringing with you some or all of the following:

• Someone who is happy. Christmas is a great time to be happy (though it's the very time when happiness eludes many). And 'church' is a great place to bring our happiness. The poet Philip Larkin wrote a little poem called Days. One of its most telling lines:'they (days) are to be happy in'. If so of any day, how much more so of Christmas Day.

• Someone who is sad. The person whose burden you are helping to carry. The one who can only see the cinders, ashes, dust; who is failing to catch sight of the crown held out to us. The one for whom life is bleak - and whose own bleakness-of-heart (rather like Oscar Wilde's selfish giant) turns the landscape into an ice-scape.

• Someone who is asking questions, who is curious, who is (perhaps) sceptical. Church is not just a place for people claiming certainty in heart and mind. It may not primarily be for them at all. Some kinds of "total conviction" are more at home in an asylum than in church. Having honest doubt, facing open questions openly: these features are commonplace amongst church-going Christians - whatever the likes of Professor Dawkins would have us think. The Church Fathers who put together our creeds in the 4th Century spent many hours formulating these statements of faith that we recite week in, week out. My hunch is that they must sometimes have arrived at the final wording swallowing hard and with their fingers crossed behind their backs. (And if they didn't, they should have done!) No wonder we may feel the same sometimes, when we recite the creeds.

• Someone who has screwed up. Actually, which of us hasn't? But some people seem to suppose that their sin is so great that they are beyond the pail. I have been there. I know the feeling. It's what happens when we start to forget that the forgiveness of God is greater than the weakness and wickedness of us. Bring that person. Help them to rediscover they've got it wrong, they're not seeing the whole picture of God's grace.

• Someone who feels truly thankful. For just about anything ....

Now I'm not living in cloud-cuckoo land. If everyone who was going to come to church at Christmas actually brought with them five other people, it would be a miracle and it might stretch our seating capacity. (Dream on, Fred. Dream on.)

But there are two other ways in which you could rise to this challenge. The first is, when you come, identify in your heart and in prayer those amongst your circle of family, friends and acquaintances for whom these particular caps might fit. That is what intercessory prayer is all about. Bring them in your hearts and hold them before the Lord in prayer. I remember reading, when I was young, Tennyson's Morte d'Arthur. The lines that grabbed me most strongly, which I've held on to through thick and thin, were these: More things are wrought by prayer/ Than this world dreams of. Christians may not know how this works. But we do believe that it does.

The last way in which you might rise to my Christmas challenge is by holding up a mirror. You may not need to bring anyone other than yourself to church, to have encompassed all of these people: the happy, the sad, the questioning and perplexed, the messed-up, the thankful. Doesn't this describe each of us, at different times? Church is the best place I know for coming to face these truths about ourselves, for bringing them into the presence of God. And for finding that somehow, wonderfully, we are changed in the process.

Bringing these people - this person - this me - into the presence of the Infant Christ and the worshipping circle surrounding Him can seriously make a difference. "Yet, what I can, I give Him: give my heart."� This Christmas, are you ready to bring that gift?
Happy Christmas (whatever)!

Fred

Monday November 12th 2012

�You'll either get that quotation, or you won't. No half-way house. And if you do, the probability is that you were young, and a bit of a rebel, in the 1950s and 60s. It's the chorus from a grimly-funny song by an American Maths teacher, Tom Lehrer. Lehrer was out there, in the late 50s, do More...

Monday November 12th 2012

�You'll either get that quotation, or you won't. No half-way house. And if you do, the probability is that you were young, and a bit of a rebel, in the 1950s and 60s.

It's the chorus from a grimly-funny song by an American Maths teacher, Tom Lehrer. Lehrer was out there, in the late 50s, doing satire before Beyond the Fringe was heard of. Some of his songs achieved almost cult status. Poisoning Pigeons in the Park (never one of my personal favourites), The Elements Song: after rehearsing all the known items on the periodic table, to the G & S Modern Major General tune, Lehrer finished ...These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard ... And there may be many others but they haven't been discovered'. The Vatican Rag (Genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!) But then, darker songs too, like "I hold your hand in mine, dear" and "The old dope peddler". Back then, it was edgy, dangerous stuff, may be with the power to corrupt young minds.

So much so that it nearly got me into serious trouble. When, aged 15, I'd wanted a Lehrer LP as a Christmas present from my parents, my dad (deeply distrustful of anything iconoclastic) said, "No, I'll give you the money and you can buy it for yourself - if you must." Which I did. The real trouble came when I lent it to one of the girl-boarders at our school. During a routine house search, the record came to light-  with my name on the sleeve. I was hauled in before the headmaster. Pointing a yard-stick at me, he demanded: "What is Tom Lehrer?"� For shame, I did my best to argue that I was laughing at him, not with him. (Lies, lies!) May be we had both consigned the memories of this painful interview to oblivion by the time I became Head Boy three years later. Except in my case, clearly not.

Fifty years and more on, I reflect on how my attitudes have changed. My generation soaked up satire. We tuned into That Was The Week That Was religiously. We belonged to the Monty Python era. Then, gradually, as 20-something became 30-something and then more, attitudes changed. I found myself adopting some of my father's caution about destructiveness and disrespect. Now I just get irritated with the banality of (for instance) some BBC late-night comedy - or even the Radio 4 6.30 pm slot. O Mores, O Tempora! (Please - not Latin again!) How are the mighty fallen!

I have, though, retained a capacity for looking at things ironically, for bringing to situations a dark humour which sometimes may border on the inappropriate. But I do it gladly, joyfully, knowing that it is one of the tools available to me for getting through life relatively unscathed. When laughter is suppressed (even disrespectful laughter), then it is bad news for everyone. Umberto Eco's novel, The Name of the Rose, tells of the tragic events in a Mediaeval French monastery when one of the monks tries to suppress an Aristotle text about humour - because he considered it destructive to the spiritual life. Surely, the opposite is true. As long as we can laugh, there is always the possibility of picking ourselves up, shaking ourselves down and starting all over again. True, the boundaries have shifted for me over the years. I may not laugh at everything I once found hilarious. But I must remember - when I start to become old-fogeyish about what amuses the young today - that my appetite for pricking pomposity fifty years back doubtless distressed others besides my dad. And there are still things which make me fall about. You just have to hope that a generation which (sometimes) seems to hold nothing sacred will learn some sense over its own ensuing decades. As did we.

Humour is about keeping a sense of proportion, resisting the urge to take ourselves just that bit too seriously. It may seem counter-intuitive to address such a topic on the month of Remembrance Sunday, when our thoughts dwell on serious and weighty matters. Yet it was often humour, albeit dark, which saw the war generations through, which famously has left its ethnic stamp on those who recall the Death camps.

Humour which is not cruel and destructive is at least a second-cousin to joy: and for that reason it should be cherished by people of faith, not seen as a work of the Enemy. GSOH is not only a requirement on lonely hearts. (Though, come to think of it, which of us would permanently exclude ourselves from that category?)

Fred

Tuesday October 2nd 2012

Autumn is a poignant time. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Keats thought. A time for reflecting on the zigs and zags of a year hurtling on towards its conclusion. For gardeners, a time of busy-ness: harvesting, cleaning up, perhaps a window for reckoning with weeds which have dug themselves More...

Tuesday October 2nd 2012

Autumn is a poignant time. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Keats thought. A time for reflecting on the zigs and zags of a year hurtling on towards its conclusion. For gardeners, a time of busy-ness: harvesting, cleaning up, perhaps a window for reckoning with weeds which have dug themselves in during a disappointing year. A season when cold, bright, sunny days fall on our hearts and minds unctuously, like a blessing, take us by surprise, gladden our hearts – especially in a year when there have been relatively few hot bright sunny days. A time too of implicit sadness. As the year draws on towards its end, we are conscious, whether we like it or no, that our own lives are another twelve-month closer to their own full stop.

Our national calendar tells the story. Autumn puts us on notice when the throngs in the Royal Albert Hall sing Land of Hope and Glory. Next come a flurry of Harvest Festivals: so much the centre of village life for decades, centuries even, but sadly now more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Before we know where we are, Remembrance Sunday is upon us: full, grateful, sad hearts, quickened recollection, poppies, swirling mist, the Albert Hall again, the Cenotaph. Then – though no-one much cares to admit it on the second Sunday in November – Christmas itself is barely seven weeks away. Sic transit gloria mundi. (Ouch! Latin again.)

I’m reminded (for no reason that seems remotely logical) of the Danny Kaye song from the Hans Christian Anderson film: "Inchworm, inchworm, measuring the marigolds, you and your arithmetic will probably go far...” Time is a mystery. We inch our way through it, across it, making our tiny calculations which may not amount to much in the long run. On occasions, we feel as gloomy as Macbeth: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow/ Creeps in this petty pace from day to day/ Till the last syllable of recorded time. But actually as Christians we think we know better – or at least different.

Church members in the Middle Ages (and, by the way, that meant pretty much everybody) had got all this sussed. A succession of festivals and saints’ days, reverently and riotously observed, made sense of the annual calendar, drew the Faithful along a time-line which led inexorably in the direction of heaven. Herdsman, blacksmith and carpenter knew when the Mass was being celebrated, as the Sanctus bell rang out. Even the hours of the day were marked by the tolling of bells. When I was at college, a visiting BBC producer suggested to us that television scheduling had picked up where all that left off. Now, people mark the passage of time by the output of East Enders (which wasn’t in my college days) or Coronation Street (which was).

The parish church in your village has a unique contribution to make. It represents stability, continuity and tradition at a time when each of those values can appear very thin on the ground. How many houses are there in your community which are not only ancient and beautiful but where you have the right to be (untrammelled by private ownership), where you are welcome, where the doors are open most hours of the day, where you can bring joys and sorrows and where – if you wish – you can meet and share with like-minded people? The buildings are handsome, lovely, full of interest – in this benefice, they are all either Grade 1 or Grade 2* listed. In all of our parish churches bells call people to worship – bells which have been rung for centuries.

The passage of time is as keenly felt now as ever – perhaps more so, in an age which has largely jettisoned belief in heaven. Our parish churches offer a unique opportunity for us to mark, thoughtfully, the annual round. You don’t have to be a paid-up, card-carrying member of the regular congregation to come along and mark times like Remembrance Sunday, Christmas, Mothering Sunday, Easter etc etc. It’s your church, as much as anybody’s.

Fred

Sunday September 9th 2012

When the good burghers of Broadway start losing their sleep, perhaps it is time for us all to sit up and take note. At the end of July, our neighbouring benefice was catapulted into national focus because of a letter which had gone out to some parishioners, advising them that their propert More...

Sunday September 9th 2012

When the good burghers of Broadway start losing their sleep, perhaps it is time for us all to sit up and take note. At the end of July, our neighbouring benefice was catapulted into national focus because of a letter which had gone out to some parishioners, advising them that their properties may carry with them the ancient responsibility of contributing towards chancel maintenance. This early-bird warning suggests a whole flurry of avian analogies: the cat was among the pigeons, the dovecote was a-flutter, clerical vultures were about to swoop. The lullaby of Broadway was no longer sufficient to rock discomfited parishioners off at night: the dawn chorus is twittering that the tithe-man’s on his way.

Easy to sit back and write about it, of course, when you’re not affected. From across the Diocesan boundary, we wish our new colleague Michelle all the very best for her ministry in the village. It must be a horrible situation to have to deal with, in your first few months of ministry in a new parish. But there is food for thought for us all in this story. The church often gets a bad press. On the face of it, this is one more occasion when we may be in for a good kicking. But before anyone rushes to judgment, it’s worth stopping to reflect on the background to all this. We should also grasp that there are inexpensive solutions for home-owners which could bring peace of mind.

Not many miles away, the parish of Aston Cantelow in Warwickshire recently brought this whole matter into national prominence, in a case which started in 2003 and ran for six years. A family who had bought property with chancel repair liability had known about the problem for decades. The father of the 2003 owner, at the time of the original purchase, had insured against liability. The succeeding generation, though, thought better of it and decided not to renew the insurance. In due time, a claim for chancel repair liability was lodged by the PCC, which the owners resisted when they might have been able to meet it. The case dragged on. They eventually had to sell the property in order to settle a much larger claim. Procrastination in these matters does not seem the best policy, especially in retrospect.

But what’s it all about, this ancient responsibility to help maintain the parish church’s chancel? Long ago, land was given so that the parish priest could have a living â€" in other words, be maintained in his office â€" and so that he could fulfil his share of church maintenance. The Rector (priest) had to maintain the east end, where the choir and altar were. The laity were responsible for the nave. During the course of the Middle Ages, many of these lands, with their rights and responsibilities, ended up in the ownership of monasteries. When Henry VIII suppressed the religious houses, they were sold off into lay ownership: but this carried with it the responsibilities which now fell on the new owners. The matter was further complicated at the time of the enclosures of common land (late 17th-19th centuries, mostly). As these lands have gradually been sold and re-sold, divided into much smaller units and built upon, so too the ancient responsibility has been inherited. I have greatly over-simplified the story, of course. If you want to read a longer account, a good historical summary, then go to www.peterboroughdiocesanregistry.co.uk/wellman.pdf

You may or may not think that such ancient duties should still be observed and applied in our modern Society. You perhaps feel that it is unbecoming in the Church to try to make them stick. For at least thirty years now the Church has felt uneasy about the situation. Some think the old requirements should be modified, even abolished. But for now, they remain. PCCs have been advised that this ancient right, under trust, should be seen as an asset. As such, if it is to be protected it needs to be registered by October 2013: which is what has prompted the present scare.

I have conducted a little internet research myself and discovered that insurance can indeed be taken out by home-owners. One reputable company offers cover against claims of up to £1million, for as little at £15 p.a. premium. But there is a bit of a damned-if-you-do-and-if-you-don’t aspect to this. You can only insure ‘blind’, it seems. If you start to research whether your property is liable or not, you probably become uninsurable.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of all this (and it is complicated), there is a bottom-line which all parishioners need to take on board, whether they are in affected properties or not. Churches do not pay for themselves. It may be reasonable to expect most of the burden of paying for the ministry of the church to fall on those who actually go to services, more or less regularly. (Equally, it may not be reasonable â€" after all, everyone expects the ministry to be there in times of need or crisis.) What is not realistic, though, is to count on that small bunch of people to keep the church building wind and watertight. That is what this ancient chancel-repairing responsibility is all about. If it is not to fall on those who legally and traditionally should bear it, then who is going to pick up the tab?

That’s the trouble with History, isn’t it? We all love it when we’re walking round an ancient cathedral or castle, or when we’re watching an Olympics Opening Ceremony or a Diamond Jubilee. We’re not quite so sure when it hits us in the pocket.

Fred

• History can cut both ways. In the parish of Mickleton, the Richard Porter Trust (founded in 1513) dedicates a sizeable part of its assets and income to helping to support the fabric of St Lawrence’s church â€" as well, of course, as fulfilling its educational trust. The parish church is hugely appreciative of this support â€" as indeed should the whole parish be. Next year, we shall celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Trust.

Wednesday August 8th 2012

I don’t ‘do’ drugs. (The class A, B and C sort). Never have. Flirted with alcohol, yes. Not much, in the scheme of things. Ditto, ditto tobacco – untouched now for forty years. No. If I want a mid-blowing ‘high’, I look elsewhere: into the realms of poetry. Over-exposure can seriously mess up the More...

Wednesday August 8th 2012

Sunday July 1st 2012

It's not often ( ...ever? ...) I start my piece with a Latin quotation. Gone out of fashion, 'dead language', as my grandson tells me. And any way I'm a poor sort of classical scholar. But this one does seem worth thinking about right now. "Who takes care of the caretakers themselves?" "Wh More...

Sunday July 1st 2012

Tuesday June 5th 2012

I was seven-and-a-half when King George VI died (I remember the day vividly) and nearly nine when the Coronation happened. I watched it on the telly with my grandmother, who would have been able to recall Queen Victoria's funeral. History is elastic like that, a sort of relay-race. I won More...

Tuesday June 5th 2012

I was seven-and-a-half when King George VI died (I remember the day vividly) and nearly nine when the Coronation happened. I watched it on the telly with my grandmother, who would have been able to recall Queen Victoria's funeral. History is elastic like that, a sort of relay-race. I wonder if our present Queen was thinking of Elizabeth I's Armada speech at Tilbury, when she addressed the nation and Commonwealth at the end of Coronation Day 1953? Here are the two queens' speeches - so judge for yourselves!

So here is Elizabeth I putting heart into her armed forces before an invasion attempt:

My loving people
We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit our selves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood even, in the dust.

I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.

I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and We do assure you in the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean time, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people. (1588)

In a broadcast on her 21st birthday, Princess Elizabeth pledged: "I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong." Then, at the end of a long Coronation Day, she reflected:

When I spoke to you last, at Christmas, I asked you all, whatever your religion, to pray for me on the day of my Coronation â€Ã¢€Â� to pray that God would give me wisdom and strength to carry out the promises that I should then be making.

Throughout this memorable day I have been uplifted and sustained by the knowledge that your thoughts and prayers were with me. I have been aware all the time that my peoples, spread far and wide throughout every continent and ocean in the world, were united to support me in the task to which I have now been dedicated with such solemnity.

Many thousands of you came to London from all parts of the Commonwealth and Empire to join in the ceremony, but I have been conscious too of the millions of others who have shared in it by means of wireless or television in their homes. All of you, near or far, have been united in one purpose. It is hard for me to find words in which to tell you of the strength which this knowledge has given me.

The ceremonies you have seen today are ancient, and some of their origins are veiled in the mists of the past. But their spirit and their meaning shine through the ages never, perhaps, more brightly than now. I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust.

In this resolve I have my husband to support me. He shares all my ideals and all my affection for you. Then, although my experience is so short and my task so new, I have in my parents and grandparents an example which I can follow with certainty and with confidence.

There is also this. I have behind me not only the splendid traditions and the annals of more than a thousand years but the living strength and majesty of the Commonwealth and Empire; of societies old and new; of lands and races different in history and origins but all, by God's Will, united in spirit and in aim.

Therefore I am sure that this, my Coronation, is not the symbol of a power and a splendour that are gone but a declaration of our hopes for the future, and for the years I may, by God's Grace and Mercy, be given to reign and serve you as your Queen.

I have been speaking of the vast regions and varied peoples to whom I owe my duty but there has also sprung from our island home a theme of social and political thought which constitutes our message to the world and through the changing generations has found acceptance both within and far beyond my Realms.

Parliamentary institutions, with their free speech and respect for the rights of minorities, and the inspiration of a broad tolerance in thought and expression - all this we conceive to be a precious part of our way of life and outlook.

During recent centuries, this message has been sustained and invigorated by the immense contribution, in language, literature, and action, of the nations of our Commonwealth overseas. It gives expression, as I pray it always will, to living principles, as sacred to the Crown and Monarchy as to its many Parliaments and Peoples. I ask you now to cherish them - and practice them too; then we can go forward together in peace, seeking justice and freedom for all men.

As this day draws to its close, I know that my abiding memory of it will be, not only the solemnity and beauty of the ceremony, but the inspiration of your loyalty and affection.

I thank you all from a full heart.

God bless you all.

And a footnote from me. Anyone with access to the BBC iPlayer might like to replay Professor David Cannadine's Point of View, broadcast on Radio 4 on 13th April. Cannadine put the Jubilee into a wonderful historical and global perspective.

Fred

Tuesday May 1st 2012

It's a bit like the human genome, a person's genetic fingerprint, is the list of hymns that you know and love. Everybody's bag contains a different selection from everyone else's. It's a collection that you started to build up when you were at school, and/or Sunday school. For some peopl More...

Tuesday May 1st 2012

Tuesday April 3rd 2012

A Who's Who, for making sense of what follows: Dennis Potter, Playwright 1935-94; author of the television drama, The Singing Detective Philip Marlow, central character in this TV drama, suffering from psoriatic arthritis; author of 'cheap' detective novels Philip Marlow (confusingly), central ch More...

Tuesday April 3rd 2012

A Who's Who, for making sense of what follows:
Dennis Potter, Playwright 1935-94; author of the television drama, The Singing Detective
Philip Marlow, central character in this TV drama, suffering from psoriatic arthritis; author of 'cheap' detective novels
Philip Marlow (confusingly), central character in one of Marlow's own novels, The Singing Detective
Michael Gambon, actor, who plays both Marlows: the one in the play and the one in the play-within-the-play

At the time of writing (mid February), I'm enjoying the re-run on BBC4 of The Singing Detective. Actually, I'm not sure enjoying is the right word. Watching Michael Gambon's unspeakably brilliant portrayal of Philip Marlow is a searing experience. I ask myself, Did television ever get any better than this? For copyright reasons, the dramatisation has not been repeated for the best part of a decade, and only once besides that since its first broadcast in 1986. So this screening is an event.

I suppose I was always a sitting target for The Singing Detective, just the kind of person whose 'issues' would resonate with those of the central character. But Dennis Potter, the playwright, and I went back a whole lot further than that. (Not that I ever met him, you understand.) His play Son of Man - unsurprisingly about Jesus - was televised in the very early days of my ministry. Colin Blakely's Jesus was serious but enjoyed a good joke, he was confused about his own role, he was compelling. In all of those ways, he was an icon for me as I began my Rev years. There followed many television plays, each with its own uncomfortable perceptive edge, often witty and wise. And dark. In Where Adam Stood, Potter imagined a battle-of-wills between Philip Gosse (the biologist who, on Evangelical grounds, fiercely opposed Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection - survival of the fittest) and his young son Edmund. The boy had set his heart on owning a sailing ship he had seen in a shop window. In spite of his father's reluctance to buy it, Edmund eventually got his way by deciding to tell Philip that he had prayed about it, and that - the Lord wanted him to have the boat. Not only was Philip defeated game, set and match but the boy's victory was delivered in the cruellest way - proving Darwin's theory into the bargain. "Any creature, any life form that can, by however small a degree, adapt to the harshness of its environment is the one that is going to persist. Extinction awaits those creatures which cannot rise to meet the challenges of their own environment. The fit survive, the unfit perish." Thus, the closing passage of the play.

Dennis Potter's work took off in a new direction with his 1978 Pennies from Heaven when his love for 1930s popular songs found its way into his drama. But it was in The Singing Detective that this new marriage of word and music were most interwoven. Although in the end it was cancer that carried him off, Potter had been a long-term sufferer of psoriasis as was Marlow, the play's central character. As Philip Marlow works his way through the plot, mostly from his hospital bed, painful memories and unresolved tensions come flooding back. By the end of episode 1, we are in no doubt that the irritability of the novelist and the phoney suaveness of the singing detective (the novel within the play - hope you're keeping up, there!) are both directly related to all the pools of unhappiness Marlow has brought forward with him from his childhood.

One sequence in particular was for me almost unwatchable, it was so painful - though neither could I take my eyes or attention away. He was sitting in a corner in the miners' club in his Forest of Dean home, watching his father sing and his mother play. But no longer was he the ten year old boy of earlier shots; he sat fully grown, dressed in his hospital pyjamas, his face covered with scabs. Suddenly the room is empty, apart from one bullying club member whose role was to make it very clear that those days and people have gone forever. Philip, alias Dennis Potter, alias you or I, cannot understand or grasp this. "They can't have gone. There are still things I need to say to them. There are things that need to be put right." Michael Gambon's palate of sensitive expression-changes in this section of the drama is extraordinary, like a singer with a range of three octaves or more. And anyone who knows about unfinished business with the dead could not fail to find themselves moved. Carpe diem.

As I write, the serial is still running. Though I have seen it several times, I shan't be able to avoid the emotional roller-coaster which inevitably results from following the story through. 18 years on since I last saw it, I can't remember exactly how it ends. But I do recall that there was some kind of resolution, closure. And even the hint of resurrection. Well, for me, any way.

This is the month when Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to keep singing in our hearts amid gloom and discouragement. We need to be detectives, to catch glimpses of Resurrection wherever they are to be found. Watching Dennis Potter's drama, for me, points us in the right direction even at the most unexpected moments.

And, as the Singing Detective might himself have put it: Who could ask for anything more?

Thursday March 8th 2012

Baptised. Christened. Or whatever you want to call it. This year, Bishop Michael wants us all to ask these questions. He hopes that we'll respond positively, in the present tense: I am baptised! Our baptism may have taken place many decades ago. It may be completely inaccessible to our cons More...

Thursday March 8th 2012

Baptised. Christened. Or whatever you want to call it.

This year, Bishop Michael wants us all to ask these questions. He hopes that we'll respond positively, in the present tense: I am baptised! Our baptism may have taken place many decades ago. It may be completely inaccessible to our conscious memories. But if it happened, it happened! We became members of the Church, life-long members. The old Prayer Book catechism put it succinctly. In my baptism, I became "a member of Christ, a child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. We may be sleeping members, or have turned consciously away. But it's there, waiting to come back to life in us.

The problem is that far fewer are baptised now than used to be the case. When I was a curate, 40 years back, someone wrote: ’27 million baptised, 9 million confirmed, 3 million Easter Communicants. What went wrong?’ Now, four decades later, those numbers look like something good beyond our wildest imaginings.

What can we do in this benefice about meeting the Bishop's challenge? At a PCC meeting, the question was asked: "How about a whole class baptism at school?" (No, not compulsory, of course not! But, making it possible for a group of children, with the support and approval of their parents, to think about 'belonging' and to receive the sacrament if they weren't christened as babies. Interesting thought.)

Baptism is the basis of Christian belonging. It's true that in the Church of England, confirmation has normally been required before a person can be admitted to Holy Communion. Yet even that is changing, as more churches admit seven and eight year olds who attend church regularly to communion - without waiting for Confirmation. Baptism should be the door to full membership.

This year, the theme of baptism is going to be at the fore-front in this Benefice for another reason completely. The parish church at Weston-sub-Edge (at the geographical centre of the benefice) will be re-branded on June 24th, St John the Baptist's Day. Dedicated for eight centuries to the Baptist and only changed to St Lawrence 100 years ago, John is celebrated in many of the church's windows. The Bishop will preside and preach that day at a service for all our churches, at 11 am on that day. Afterwards, there will be lunch for all who can stay, in Weston village hall.

When you next visit Weston-sub-Edge parish church, take a careful look at those windows. In one of them, we see John baptising Jesus Himself. The Spirit descends and the Lord indicates His approval: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. At the end of his pastoral letter, the bishop reminds us that we are all called to be the beloved sons and daughters of God. In a unique way, our baptism tells that story and confirms that truth.

Fred

Wednesday February 1st 2012

It's been a while since my first piece on The Archers, time enough for my quiver to be brimming full with further reflections. The big issue for me (and all other listeners) lately has been the capacity of the past to turn up like an avenging Fury and to play havoc with personalities a More...

Wednesday February 1st 2012

It's been a while since my first piece on The Archers, time enough for my quiver to be brimming full with further reflections. The big issue for me (and all other listeners) lately has been the capacity of the past to turn up like an avenging Fury and to play havoc with personalities and relationships in the present. That's the way it has been for Pat and Tony Archer and their offspring for weeks now, as the spectre of dead son John's one-time relationship with no-better-then-she-ought-to-be Sharon has cast its shadow over the plot. Is Sharon's 13 year-old son, Rich, John's offspring and therefore Pat and Tony's grandson, a miraculous survival of their dearly-beloved John? And, if so, might it be possible to re-establish links with alienated Sharon, and so with this grand-progeny? What would the implications be for Helen and Tom, siblings of the late John? All this has become a magnificent obsession in Pat's mind, brilliantly written and acted in an utterly searing way. The pain felt by both parties in the phone call between Pat and Sharon in early December was palpable. It was almost unbearable, even for a listener who knew full well that this was fiction, not reality. Except, of course, that it is realty: in the sense that many of us have such situations with which to deal and/or come to terms.

As an Archers buff, I remember basing a sermon on the death of young John Archer 14 years ago. For people who take their soaps seriously, it felt really grim - though, once again, the point actually was that it resonated with so many experiences in real life. What I didn't know then (and I'm guessing, neither did the script-writers, unless they were playing a very long game) was that these events would return nemesis-like half a generation on for a tragic-looking end game.

The Pat-and-Tony unit of the Archer clan has been skating on thin ice for long enough. Pat, unsurprisingly, suffered serious depression after her eldest child, John, had died. It took a great deal of getting through, was only negotiated at all by the final realisation that Life goes on, that her remaining family still needed her. Under her resolute exterior, the hurts have remained. Then daughter Helen has had her own huge set of issues: the brother she 'worshipped' dead, her long-term relationship with game-keeper Matt also ending abruptly when he died. ("Every one I love is taken away from me ...") So she underwent her own depression, accompanied by serious eating disorders. Recovery was slow and painful - but, by degrees, achieved.

Tony, Pat & Co. can usually 'get through', providing they're not constantly faced with mega-problems. But enter, stage left, a hapless Clarie Grundy, accidentally bringing food poisoning into the family's dairy unit and so closing down the precious Bridge Farm brand. As if that were not bad enough, a village funeral is attended by Sharon's daughter - so exposure to the long-vanished former girlfriend of John is once again on the horizon. Inquisitive Pat picks up on a passing reference to Sharon's brother, Rich, and begins a Facebook search. When Helen and Tom discover what's in the wind, they go bananas (Helen especially) at the thought of opening up all those old wounds, whether or not 'ËÅ"Rich' turns out to be their nephew. Yet Pat can only see the positives: the prospect of a 'new' grandson, a living link with John. But she is on a descending spiral. The fateful phone-call call with Sharon only makes matters worse .....

Anyone familiar with Transactional Analysis will recognise all this as having the makings of a 'third degree game' - a series of interactions between people, loaded with old hidden agendas and bereft of detached grown-up thinking, in which the outcome is most likely to be disastrous: the participants end up feeling even worse about themselves and each other than they did at the outset. If it really is 'third degree', then someone will end up in court, or physically hurt - or perhaps even dead. So let's hope that it may not come to that. But we should be aware that 'skating on thin ice' is not limited to radio or TV soap shows, that many of us have areas on experience which remain unresolved and unhealed - and that 'to go there' will always be a risky business which ought to be considered very carefully before taking the fateful step.

I think we sometimes set ourselves, and others, a standard of perfection for personal relationships which is mostly impossible to reach. When we know and accept that we are broken people, then we can come to God and to each other for healing and encouragement. Sometimes, this will mean living with the fruit of our past mistakes, accepting that things can't always be mended: and declaring in time-honoured tradition "Alleluia any way!" Yes, it is in the nature of human behaviour and experience to hope and to yearn. Yearning in particular is something we would do well to recover the capacity for, in modern life. It's terrific when there's a break-through: a moment of grace we didn't see coming, something we'd thought desirable but impossible - which has happened contrary to all expectations.

So - what will the outcome be in this latest piece of 'Archery'? Will Pat's hopes and dreams hit the mark? Or must she go on, like so many, living with areas of life which are less than perfect?

Stay tuned!

Fred

Monday January 2nd 2012

I've never spent the festive season north of the border, but they tell me that, in Scotland, Hogmanay is a bigger deal than Christmas Day. It's not a competition - but I can kind of see why that might be. In the depths of winter, when all seems dormant, dark and depressing, it's important to More...

Monday January 2nd 2012

I've never spent the festive season north of the border, but they tell me that, in Scotland, Hogmanay is a bigger deal than Christmas Day. It's not a competition - but I can kind of see why that might be. In the depths of winter, when all seems dormant, dark and depressing, it's important to keep an eye open for the light that hath shined in the darkness, and the darkness consumed it not.

A couple of dark months are behind us already. Poets in the past have captured their essence. Many people learned Thomas Hood's November in their school days:

No sun - no moon! No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! -
November!

A bit tougher is John Donne's dismal reflection on December 13th - St Lucy's Day - which he thought of as the year's shortest day:

'TIS the year's midnight, and it is the day's,
Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks ;
The sun is spent, and now his flasks
Send forth light squibs, no constant rays ;
The world's whole sap is sunk ....

And now, the jollifications over, we face two or three months gradually-remitting greyness. More than ever, it's important for us to keep our eye on that 'Daystar' which arose at that first Christmas, which we hope, pray, believe and trust will never set and which sheds all the light we need in our small corners. But, yes, sometimes it's hard to keep that vision clearly before us, especially in the depths of winter.

Many people today are afflicted with seasonally affected disorder, 'SAD'. Hardly surprising that our bio-rhythms and moods vary with ambient conditions, when you think about it. Yet the Christian experience is that Jesus hangs in there with the Sad, that there is no place we can take ourselves which will be out of the reach of His love. When you feel afflicted by spiritual sadness, try reading Psalm 139.

No wonder the theme of light has been so strong in Christian hymnody over the years! Lead, kindly Light amid th' encircling gloom .... Sometimes a light surprises the Christian when he sings ... Hail, gladdening light, of His pure glory poured ... Shine, Jesus, shine! And the Lord whispers to each one of us, in our moments of all-pervading gloom: "You'd better believe it, sunshine!

2012 promises to be a very upbeat year in some ways (sporting, largely) and a remarkably difficult one in others (as the new economic situation begins to bite). We need to stay grounded through all of this, aware of the darkness all around us but more than ever convinced that Jesus is the Light of the World.

Happy New Year!

Fred

Tuesday November 1st 2011

DIYDO, DIYDO! What’s this? An onomatopoeic rendering of a police car or fire engine sound? Words from a backing group in a 1960s love song? None of the above. It’s a mnemonic. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t: a suitable strap-line, perhaps, for the month of Remembrance. November commemo More...

Tuesday November 1st 2011

Thursday December 1st 2011

Ass, You, Me ....... Get it? I heard it from a verger in my last parish. I’m guessing most readers will have come across it, from wherever. This is how it goes, this gem of wisdom: "The trouble with assuming is that it makes an ass of ‘u’ and me.” Right. You’d better believe it. But it’s possible More...

Thursday December 1st 2011

Ass, You, Me ....... Get it?

I heard it from a verger in my last parish. I’m guessing most readers will have come across it, from wherever. This is how it goes, this gem of wisdom: "The trouble with assuming is that it makes an ass of ‘u’ and me.” Right. You’d better believe it. But it’s possible to assume in a good way, too and that’s the subject I wish to address in the Christmas edition of this magazine.
It all goes back to a 4th Century bishop in (what is now) Turkey: Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the three so-called Cappadocian Fathers. Gregory hit on a very simple principle, proof positive for him, that Jesus really must have become fully human. "That which was not assumed is not healed”, he wrote. In other words: if Jesus did not enter completely into the experience of being a man, if he did not assume the human condition, then everything is a sham. That was Gregory’s line of thinking. St Paul, too, puts it neatly in his letter to the church at Philippi. Jesus did not regard equality with God "as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.”
So, the first challenge this December: don’t assume you know what Christmas is all about if you haven’t got your head and your heart and your soul around this central feature of our faith – that God in Jesus assumed our human nature, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.
But that’s only the beginning. Even if you leave the heavy-duty theology out of it, there are still issues for us about ‘assuming’. Being human requires us to assume responsibility for what we do. This can be hard. We let ourselves off the hook. We cast around for excuses when we do bad things. We are eager to blame others. King David made a complete ass of himself – and in the most despicable way – when he sent Bathsheba’s husband Uriah off into battle to face certain death. He assumed all the powers of royalty and made them work for him, in order to cover his own back. It took a wise but tough talking-to by the prophet Nathan to wake the king up to what he had done. ‘You are the man’, declared Nathan after feeding back to David, in parable form, just how the king had behaved. It is in that moment of seeing, perhaps for the first time, that ‘you are the man, or the woman, or the child’ who is responsible, that responsibility begins to be assumed – and that changes can be made. As I’ve had cause to reflect before today: there’s only one thing worse than being found out. And that’s not being found out. That way, we can go on avoiding responsibility all our lives.
May be, in spite of the verger’s witty observation, we need to put the ass back into assume. (Let’s not quibble about fine distinctions between asses, donkeys, colts and foals ...) Mary is traditionally depicted as journeying to Bethlehem on a donkey. Jesus makes that final, fateful entry into Jerusalem on some such similar beast. If you want to see a ‘Little Donkey’ with super-human insight (and attitude), read the charming if incredible story of Balaam’s ass in Numbers 22. The clue is, there’s something about this humble and silent beast of burden which comes very close to the heart of what God was doing in Jesus. If we assume the Christian life and faith, as Jesus assumed our condition; if we assume responsibility for ourselves, our behaviour, our environment; it may sometimes feel as though we are carrying the woes of the world on our shoulders – but may be we shall be getting very close to the experience of God in Jesus. As always, Paul has a way of putting it (Colossians 1.24): I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.
We might simply say, ‘Doing our bit’.
Now, where’s that list of carols ..... ?
Happy Christmas!
Fred

Monday September 12th 2011

That Ella Fitzgerald moment I was recently passing a household where two young people, a while back, had got themselves a reputation for being potential ‘trouble'. I'm not sure the notoriety was justified â€" but that's another matter. What struck me this particular night was t More...

Monday September 12th 2011

Saturday August 20th 2011

First, an apology – and a belated word of congratulation! 13months ago (August 2010), I published a little quiz in this magazine, What had all the saints I listed got in common with each other? Promises of glittering  prizes for right answers, etc etc. Then I broke my ankle and spent the best More...

Saturday August 20th 2011

First, an apology – and a belated word of congratulation! 13months ago (August 2010), I published a little quiz in this magazine, What had all the saints I listed got in common with each other? Promises of glittering  prizes for right answers, etc etc. Then I broke my ankle and spent the best part of three months out of circulation. The quiz got lost in the ensuing chaos, leaving those of you who bothered to take part feeling a tad frustrated.What these saints had in common was, their feast-days all fell within the month of August. Simples. Well done, all who took part – memorably Mary Stephenson of Willersey and Emma Phillips of  Mickleton/Willersey – for your high degrees of accuracy. Sorry about the prizes, however.

 

One of the August saints' days is especially significant for me. Oswald was King of Northumbria (and for a while ‘overlord' of all England)from 634 to 642, the year of his death. On 5^th August in that year, he led his troops against the pagan King Penda of Mercia at ‘Maserfield', usually taken to be our Oswestry, and perished in battle. The Venerable Bede, writing just under a hundred years later, records that even in death, Oswald watched over his men and prayed for them. In Christian art, Oswald is often depicted carrying a wooden cross, which denotes both his humility in spite of being a king, and his strong adherence to Jesus as his Lord.

 

I have good reason to dwell on the story of Oswald. I grew up as a member of St Oswald's church in Ashbourne, a parish which watched over my young progress from secondary-modern boy, late transfer to the GrammarSchool, altar server, ordinand, university student and finally ordination. When, ten years later, I was appointed to my first benefice, my Latinmaster-cum-Lay Reader and the Anglo-Catholic head server both took the trouble to come to my Induction. St Oswald's was actually a ‘middle-of-the-road' parish with no particular devotion to the saints but I can't help wondering now whether Oswald wasn't keeping aweather-eye open for me even back then as I progressed from one improbable stage of my life to the next.

 

Then on St Oswald's day last year I went mountain-climbing with my son and grandson. Around 5.30 pm I slipped and heard a sickening crunch as my foot landed and twisted through around 90°. I'm not going to recount thestory yet again but within an hour I was being winched into an RAF helicopter and on my way to Bangor hospital. Accidents always raise difficult questions for us. Why does bad stuff happen? Carelessness? Lack of paying proper attention? A poor decision? (Mine, that day, was to go on ahead of my companions). Or are there deeper, more significant, influences? In the Middle Ages, the faithful might have asked, Why was not my patron saint watching over me when that happened? But others may have preferred: Thank God he was watching, because what happened could have been so much worse than it actually was! Just a short distance from Tryfan where I slipped are the Idwal Slabs, yet more hazardous, at the bottom of which, I was later told, a Scout song used to relate how an accident victim was "scraped up like raspberry jam”. St Oswald, thank you for saving me from the preserving pan!

 

All such thinking, of course, involves a decision about our world-view, our preferred way of seeing things. We might rightly observe that there is no one right way, or even wrong way, of interpreting what happens to us. Or that no such view can be proved (or disproved). But what many religious people and others are left with when the dust has settled is a sense that we really are being watched over, that the Lord will watch our going out and our coming in. It isn't a charm, or a mantra, or superstition. For many of us, it's an absolute conviction, the stuff of our faith. It doesn't provide us with a set of fool-proof answers to questions like Why do bad things happen to good people?But it does give us something to do with our experience, a lens through which to see it. We are being watched over: watched over by a loving heavenly Father who sees our foolishness, our fauxpas, and forgives us. We are being watched over by a Crucified Lord from the Cross, whose role is not to change what is coming our way but to help us take the strain whatever befalls. Paul put it a different way: All things work together for those who love God.

 

Almost exactly 1000 years after the death of St Oswald, another ‘watcher' uttered a memorable prayer. Sir Jacob Astley was a commander in the King's army during the Civil War. Before the Battle of Edgehill in 1642,  he offered these words: ‘O Lord! thou knowest how busy I must be this day; if I forget thee, do not thou forget me …March on, boys!' Astley had a lively faith in a God who watches over us. He himself lived to a ripe old age. And he was still watching over his family – and their backs – when he wrote to his daughter, about to send her ten year-old son away to school: ‘Full littell thincke you how his bumbe will suffer, for they ar all churlish masters thear'.(This quotation is too charming to be apocryphal – but I take it on trust from Wikipedia!)

 

Watching and caring can take many forms. Let us pray for each other and care for one another.

Fred

 

Saturday July 30th 2011

Many readers, doubtless, watch or listen to ‘soaps'. In my time, so have I. I saw the first ever episode of Coronation Street. For a few months, late in 1978, we were aficionados of Emmerdale Farm (when it was ‘Farm'). And – yes- for a good long while I watched East Enders, admired its brillian More...

Saturday July 30th 2011

Many readers, doubtless, watch or listen to ‘soaps'. In my time, so have I. I saw the first ever episode of Coronation Street. For a few months, late in 1978, we were aficionados of Emmerdale Farm (when it was ‘Farm'). And – yes- for a good long while I watched East Enders, admired its brilliant production, its characterisations, its wonderful comedic portrayals (Dot, Holly etc). But then – cold turkey. Now I don't care two figs for it (mixing food metaphors) and rarely even dip in.

No, you don't get to live in this part of the world for four years without learning a thing or two about Archery.

 

 

We don't know how it will all turn out. Being a ‘soap', there's a reasonable chance that in the end, it will be sorted. It would take a very courageous script-writer and producer to resist an eventual resolution. But which of us does not know the pain of family dislocation, even if only slight and occasional? When it touches us, we hope and pray for reconciliation, bridging gaps, meeting people half-way, when there have been break-downs within the family circle. Sometimes they come, these mendings, sometimes they seem long-delayed. In our families, we have to learn to pray the prayer of the mid-20^th century German-American theologian, Reinhold Neiburh: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Perhaps that is the prayer of Jill Archer, who told her other daughter recently how she takes her problems into church with her and speaks to God about them. A nice piece of positive publicity there for us, I thought. Jill knows a thing or two about de-fusing familial tensions. I've never heard her quote Proverbs 15.1 – but she certainly puts it into practice: A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. She has been in the programme long enough, a sufficiently seasoned character, to know that miracles "can sometimes take a little longer”

But they are never to be discounted.

 

Fred

Thursday June 16th 2011

Summer doesn't get much of a look-in in the New Testament. Pop the word into a Concordance search-engine (or even try looking in a hard-back) and you'll find pretty much just one reference to the season anywhere in the twenty-seven books. (Well, actually three, but it comes down to the same word o More...

Thursday June 16th 2011

Wednesday June 1st 2011

When I belonged to a church youth group in the 1950s, we produced a duplicated magazine. To be more accurate, I produced it. It involved using stencils (‘skins') and – in my case – a primitive one-sheet-at-a-time duplicator, with a hand-roller that you had to run over the stencil, to press More...

Wednesday June 1st 2011

When I belonged to a church youth group in the 1950s, we produced a duplicated magazine. To be more accurate, I produced it. It involved using stencils (‘skins') and – in my case – a primitive one-sheet-at-a-time duplicator, with a hand-roller that you had to run over the stencil, to press the ink through on to the paper. The technology was ancient even then but it was all that was available to us. Later, as a curate, I was to graduate on to a hand-operated cylindrical model, enabling multiple sheets to be run off rapidly. The kind of corporate technology that slipped memorably out of Jane Fonda's control in the Nine to Five print room was an impossible dream. Since those days, we have come to take much hi-tech stuff for granted. The parish office in my last job had a monster of a machine that would produce finished, stapled magazines in a little tray with a satisfied electronic grunt, leading the secretary to comment, ‘It's laid another egg.' And what is true of reprographic progress is equally so in many other areas of technological advance.