Mothly letters 2008
Monthly letters/editorials from 2008.
| January | February | March | April | May | June |
| July | August | September | October | November | December |
Methley Rectory
Dear Friends.
This month. January. hosts the great Feast of the Epiphany. The showing of Jesus to the Gentiles. What drew those Gentiles, the wise men to Bethlehem. was the desire to worship the Prince of peace. We've all probably received cards with a picture of three men on camels making their way to the stable, led by a glittering star. The visit of these wise men has great significance. In journeying to Jesus, and in giving gifts to Him, those magi are conveying, right now, good news from God to you and me.
They were foreigners. They represented the whole pagan world, the Gentile world outside Israel. So they journeyed to Christ on behalf of us all - and that is good news for you and me, for it means that God, the Father of Jesus, is the God of all nations.
These foreigners offered gifts, which were valuable in their eyes, according to their culture and these gifts were accepted - and that is good news for us all. It is a sign that God accepts whatever people have to offer that is from the heart.
The account of the kings tells us that God in Christ doesn't mind where people have journeyed from, and that He accepts whatever gifts they can offer Him. He is the God of all nations of the world.
He began claiming that fact from when he was a baby, when humble shepherds, people from the Iowest rungs of the social ladder, came to visit him, and then when the wealthy foreigners came journeying. Jesus shows that God has no favourites, no special people who are particularly acceptable.
This is tremendousIy good news. The wise men, foreigners who journeyed from distant lands to give the baby Jesus their gifts, have brought us good news again - today.
What can we give Him? In the words of the Carol - "give my heart".
Dear Friends
Lindsey and I recently stayed in Kent and we visited Canterbury. We also visited a nearby WW2 memorial and it was interesting to note that during an air raid in 1942 bombs rained round the cathedral but not one hit it. There's a famous picture of St. Paul's Cathedral in London similarly enduring the blitz but not taking a hit itself. Coventry, in November 1940, was less fortunate, the medieval cathedral virtually destroyed.
Coventry is twinned with Dresden - which took a hammering from the RAF in 1945 - and in the ruins of the old cathedral there is a cross, made from burned timbers. Nearby are the simple words: "Father, forgive." We can be thankful that Britain has 'enjoyed' relative peace from bombs (notwithstanding the occasional atrocities meted out by terrorists) but still innocent civilians die as a result of bombing raids in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. We are still at war.
A lack of forgiveness leads to all kinds of violence. Imagine for a moment: as a direct consequence of 9/11 (2001) that the Americans, instead of invading Afghanistan, wrote off billions of dollars worth of debt as an act of mercy. A strange response but more than ten times those killed in the Twin Towers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war goes on. Father, forgive.
The most well known prayer in the Western world is the Lord's Prayer. The person who prays it asks that they might be forgiven as they forgive. It is worthy of note that the prayer does not end "through Jesus Christ our Lord" so this is a prayer anyone of any faith, or of none, can say. In church we say it. It is prayed in government and it is prayed in military chapels. What a world we might live in if we prayed it and meant it.
Lent comes early this year: Ash Wednesday is February 6th. Starting on Tuesday 12th February (7.3Opm each week in Methley Methodist Chapel), there will be a 5-week course on 'The Lord's Prayer: praying it, living it, meaning it.' That sounds challenging to me. The support for last year's course on the environment was very good. Let's continue that support in 2008 and learn how to be part of a forgiving community.
Father, forgive us; help us to amend what we have been and direct what we shall be.
Andrew
Holy Week and Easter have a special claim on Christian people. We reflect once again upon the passion of Our Lord following so soon on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. How fickle public opinion is!
Being a Christian is a commitment to continue Christ's work as the faithful servant of God. It isn't just "going to church" though we cannot follow the example or the teaching of Jesus if we willingly stay away!
A Christian knows that following Our Lord's way may well lead to rejection, ridicule, misunderstanding and humiliation. But is it worth it? The world says it isn't and sets easier standards of its own. The Gospel is a gift before it is a demand; but it is also a demand.
Holy Week is the week when we consider that if God loved us so much He sent His only Son to die for us, He must have thought we were worth it! Take time to reflect about that with care.
In our services in Holy Week, we enter as fully as we can into the actions and feelings of Our Lord. We act out, in a real way, the events of that week from the donkey ride up to Jerusalem through the foot washing and the Vigil of Maundy Thursday and the public witness of Good Friday to the handful of disciples stumbling through the dark to find the truth of New Life at the Lord's empty tomb.
Those who share in all this will experience the reality of Holy Week and its events in a way which non-participants cannot. But there is nothing automatic about it. Worship is just a rigmarole unless it takes something out of us. When you prepare for worship as carefully as some have to, all this becomes clear.
"I don't really feel new" said someone after one Easter. "What sort of a Lent did you keep?" I asked, "and what did you do in Holy Week?" The answer was the key to the difficulty
The Vicarage
Dave, Paul and Terry. No, not a pop group but three men who are important in the life of the vicarage and the lives of many people in the parish for that matter. Dave is the milkman who brings our daily pinta; Paul (who shares his name with the weatherman on BBC Look North) is the postman; and Terry runs "Smiffies" the newsagent and general store at the top of Oulton Lane!
Having lived in the parish for over a year now I am finding my way around and a major part of my ministry is of a pastoral nature: reaching out to people and visiting them in their homes: people who may be poorly, people offering their babies for baptism, couples wanting to be married, visiting the bereaved and so on. Dave, Paul and Terry also have a pastoral role insofar as their work brings them into contact with people; indeed they may be the only outside contact for some people in our parish.
Within the life of the church there are many roles to be played, quite apart from the vicar. The church would be much the poorer but for the efforts of Sue and Paul, our churchwardens; Brian, our verger; Eric, our very long-standing treasurer; and Joan, our church council secretary. These last three want to hang up their proverbial clogs this year so pray God that others will come forward and replace them.
There are other ministries (works carried out on behalf of Jesus' church) which are less obvious but important nonetheless. We need visitors who also serve as encouragers. You may in fact be surprised to find that when you go and visit somebody that you come away feeling more blessed than when you went (you are the one who has been ministered to). Vitally important is the ministry of prayer, something which people who are housebound can offer. Upholding the life of our parish and its church, taking it to the Lord in prayer.
Early this month is the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (6th April) and, if you can't come to it, and if you can't serve on the Parochial Church Council/PCC, then you're still important in the eyes of God. Dave, Paul and Terry are important to our community; Brian, Eric and Joan are important to our church.
Pray that others will come forward to serve Jesus in this place and in their places. To quote the Lottery: it could be you!
Andrew
Happy Birthday! May 11th is Pentecost, or Whit-Sunday, the Birthday of the Church.
You remember that on that day the power of the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles gathered in that room. Look at the difference it made to them. In the previous weeks they had lived through the betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus. One had betrayed Him, others had fled when they were in the garden. One had powerfully denied that he knew Jesus. All had been bewildered and afraid at what was happening. They just did not understand.
After the crucifixion they huddled together in the upper room with the doors locked through fear of the crowds outside. Then the power of the spirit descended upon them described as the sound of a rushing wind and flames of fire.
This new power changed their lives. They were now given the strength to throw open the doors and leave the room they were in and go out into the streets full of crowds at the festival time. They were given the strength to actually preach about Jesus to the crowds who had previously demanded His death - and also the power to be understood by the different nationalities present.
Such was and is the tremendous power of the Holy Spirit to change and strengthen. At our Confirmation we were given that power and it is up to us to make full use of it as the disciples did.
Remember, the Lord does not require more of us than He knows we are able to undertake.
The Vicarage
Dear Friends,
June, like the two months that proceed it, is also a girl's name (and July is soon rendered Julie to make a fourth). The female half of the human species (actually 51%!) does rather well when it comes to flowers too, for example, Daisy, Iris, Lily, Poppy, Rose and Violet; even trees get a Iook in, with Hazel and Holly springing to mind. This really is a beautiful time of the year and, the Church, not wanting to miss out, has green service books which last right through until November and the start of Advent!
In this issue of the magazine we are reminded that early on in June there wilI be a Flower Festival with the theme "Showtirne". People (mainly women) will be arranging bright displays of flowers offering their own vivid interpretations of the names of shows and musicals. When you see these you may think, "Oh, I wouldn't have done it like that' or, 'I can't see how that has anything to do with…" and so on. Yet they will be using their God-given gifts, thoughts and insights, as well as quite a bit of manual dexterity, to show something musical (mainly an audio experience) through the medium of plants, (that which is visual and perhaps also for our olfactory organs - our noses!).
I have a book which is called "Plants of the Bible." and this serves to remind us that the history of God's plan of salvation for humanity, as well as for the creation, is immersed in the real world. Most notable is probably the vine. Jesus spoke of himself as "the true vine" (John 15.1) but much earlier Noah, in Genisis 9.20, "a man of the soil, planted a vineyard." We have a vineyard on our doorstep across the river in Swillington, so this is a plant not so far from our experience and imagination. Thistles and nettles, the scourge of so many gardeners, are in the scriptures but so too are some lovely herbs and trees such as: coriander, saffron, oak, olive, walnut and cedar.
We do well to read our bibles and see in there not just religious events stories and holy (and unholy) people but also buildings, the countryside and animals and the plants. Our faith ought to engage all our senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. The Incarnation (Our Lord becoming a human being) reminds us that Jesus lived inside our skin and encountered everyday stuff just like us. I sometimes wonder what he makes of our church buildings but I can't help thinking that the Lord approves of flower festivals, occasions when we bring the outside world into our place of worship in bucket and spade loads. So, as well as thanking God for the beauty of the flowers, I thank God too for the talents which will bring our God's creation into displays which will make us think and which will 'showcase' our church.
God bless you this summer.
Andrew
Methley Rectory
A local High School, attended by a few youngsters from this parish, has a sign outside saying
Could you, in all honesty, place such a sign outside your house? It makes no claim to perfection, but it takes a stand on the law of love.
If you are part of the community of Faith which meets at Saint John's please take this time this month to reassess your commitment on these lines -- It will help if you look up the verses in the Bible, too. (Acts 2.44ff; Romans 12.4-5; 1 Cor 12.12-3 1; Ephesians 2. 19-21).
The Bible pictures the church as the Body of Christ with many parts - all different but making up one complete body. It is a special community of Faith, the people of God. Does the Church of God today measure up to the task? If God sets the agenda, do we have the resources here to carry it out? The answer to both questions is a resounding YES. But it must be God who sets the agenda and we must be led by Him in all that we do
Fr Michael.
Dear Friends,
In February 1942 my parents were married at St. John's, Malden, in Surrey. Within weeks my father was on a massive convoy to the Far East and three years fighting the Japanese in Burma. My mother continued to worship at St. John's, then under the leadership of Fr. Kenneth Ross and that summer, a curate arrived: Fr. Maurice Bird. An aunt of mine remembers him as a little man whom they called "Dickey Bird"! Maurice was there only eight months and had to leave owing to pleurisy but nearly half a century later, he and his wife Eileen, arrived in this parish and, as Eileen has pointed out, these past twenty years make for the longest time they have lived together in one place.
Anyone who was at Maurice's funeral in Wakefield Cathedral on 9th July cannot fail to have been impressed. Almost 400 people were there - as many as attended Bishop Ralph Emmerson's funeral earlier this year at Ripon Cathedral. Maurice was no Bishop though but just an ordinary parish priest. Clearly however, he touched many people's lives and in many beautiful ways. Eileen told me of a young man whom Maurice thought would make a good priest. The day he thought that, the man called at the Vicarage. "I know why you've come" Maurice told him. That man went on to be ordained priest. Discerning a vocation so clearly (as Maurice did) is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Maurice, born in August 1919, read Military History at Oxford and he tried for the RAF as ground crew in the War but the ordained ministry for which he was training was a reserved 'occupation'. As well as that curacy in Malden he served two further curacies at Headington (Oxford Diocese) and Eastney (Portsmouth) before he became Chaplain of the Hostel of God in Clapham, a place destined to change his life because that is where he met Eileen. Maurice then led three parishes: Winterton (1959-71) and Heigham St. Barnabas (1971-82), both in the Norwich Diocese; and Edington (1982-88) in the Salisbury Diocese. Retirement to Woodlesford followed and with it ministry in this parish, at Wakefield Cathedral and as a voluntary chaplain to Wakefield Hospice.
Visiting in this parish I have been struck by how much Maurice was loved (and Eileen continues to be). He was a good priest, Christian man, husband and father. He didn't always think so himself and it is telling how he worried that he did not do enough to tell people about Jesus (refuted by those hundreds of people at his funeral). His zeal for the Good News of Jesus was unabated to the end. On 11th June, the feast day of St. Barnabas, he preached a 25-minute sermon to the Mothers' Union, just a week before he and Eileen went to Israel, where he died, in the holy city of Jerusalem, on Thursday 26th June.
Before he died, Maurice and Eileen renewed their marriage vows in Cana in Galilee (see St. John's Gospel, chapter 2, verses 1-11) and that same day they visited Mount Tabor, the site associated with the Transfiguration of Our Lord (see St. Luke's Gospel chapter 9, verses 28-36), now celebrated on 6th August. At 7.3Opm on that day, this month, we shall hold in St. John's, Oulton, a Requiem Mass for Maurice. This will not be a sad occasion for we shall remember a man who walked humbly with his Lord, a man who wanted Easter hymns at his funeral and who asked people to turn up not in funereal black and white but in colour!
Maurice was, and will remain, an inspiration to many people. He has been described to me as a 'constant.' This parish has seen a lot of changes over the past two decades, not least with clergy comings and goings and the closure of All Saints', but Maurice was always there, a constant source of prayer, guidance, encouragement and hope. We do well to emulate him and consider: if we loved him and the way he followed Jesus then why don't we go and do likewise?
I have recently visited my own father in a residential home in Cornwall (also aged 88) but in Maurice Bird I saw a true Father in God - a man of prayer, holiness, wit, hospitality, boldness for the Gospel, in one word: a man of love. These are things to ponder during this holiday month of August. Ask yourself: how can I deepen my faith in Jesus? Then look back on Maurice's long life of faithfulness to God. There are plenty of clues in the life of one whom I believe absolutely is at peace with Our Father in heaven.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace: and rise in glory. Amen.
God bless you and your loved ones, living and departed, this summer and always.
We are coming to the time of the year where the fun of summer and holidays comes to an end, and we settle down to the routine of life through autumn and winter. Youngsters go back to school and begin a new routine of study and we ourselves concentrate on the everyday but important things of life. Here is where a Rule of Life comes in.
First, it must be realised that the only Rule of Life is the Bible (Basic Information Before Leaving Earth). I would say the minimum is to take the Sunday pew sheet and study the three readings. Have a determination to see how they affect and change your life.
Second, it leads to a sense of Christ being present with you, in your prayers, in your work and above all in your relationships. Concentrating on the text of the Bible leads inevitably to awareness of Christ. A Rule of Life recognises that we live in relationships with others, and the most unlikely persons are most likely to reveal Christ's presence to us.
Third. a Rule of Life is about Life. It includes prayer, of course, which should be decided on and then practised regularly and faithfully. It also includes time for reflection. Also physical work. Time with and serving others. And leisure and rest. A Rule of Life takes active and calculated steps to make us complete and whole persons.
Fourth. a Rule of Life must be built around personal relationships. Often, of course, others may seem to prevent us praying. A mother with small children, a carer with a dependent relative, somebody with a demanding job, is not able to decide how to spend their time, but rather the needs or desires of others decide this for them. While this may demand some ingenuity in following a spiritual life, it cannot impede it.
Over the summer one of the books I read took me back almost forty years - to the Apollo space programme which put twelve men on the Moon. The book, published in 2005, is called "Moon Dust" and charts the success of its author, Andrew Smith, in tracking down the surviving nine Moonwalkers. The most elusive of them is also the most famous, Neil Armstrong, who was the First Man on the Moon, whose statement "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind" is almost as famous as anything by Shakespeare.
The abiding question which the book asks is: "Was it worth it?" Was it worth the total $24 billion (at 1969-72 prices)? Today that would be around $100 billion, or £60 billion. Price-wise, a useful comparison is that the Vietnam War cost the USA $30 billion each year. Was it worth the human cost given that other astronauts died in the pursuit of landing on the Moon? Was it worth it, all that technology, just to give us non-stick "Teflon" saucepans?
The answers to all these questions are both 'Yes' and 'No' but they miss the point, and the point is that the Apollo missions were a kind of theatre or art. They were also about science (or what science plus imagination can achieve) but the point of going to the Moon was about living out a dream. It's a kind of sadness that the two great technological achievements of the I960s, Apollo and Concorde, are now dinosaurs and more and more people find it difficult to believe that they actually happened; of Apollo, conspiracy theorists claim it all happened on a set in the Nevada Desert.
As a youth I took part in a drama called "The Strange Behaviour of Mr. Haon" {Noah' backwards] who wanted to build a rocket to get away from it all, leave the problems on Earth behind but as the play wore on it became clear that those problems would go with Mr. Haon into space. It was also clear that the moral of the tale was to stay on Earth and deal with its problems there.
A lot of those problems have to do with human sin, our inability to deal well with our neighbours (whoever they may be, known to us or not) or with God, or with the created order. Among some of the astronauts who saw the Earth as never before are some who have discovered God in both a marvelous and a personal way. They found Him in the sheer beauty of creation and in the person of Jesus Christ. The last Sunday of Trinity (26th October this year) is sometimes called Bible Sunday and we do well to remind ourselves of the very first verse in Genesis, chapter 1: "In the beginning God.....".
Methley Rectory
I have recently been reading the book "Station X" by Michael Smith. It records the history of the code breakers at Bletchley Park during the last war (where my father worked at that time). Extreme boffins worked night and day to break the German Enigma codes. (One such was Dilly Knox, son of Bishop Wilfred Knox. one of the founders of OGS. Another was Alan Turing, inventor of the first computer). These men and their staff made a considerable contribution to the war effort, shortening the war by years, and contributing to the Allies' success.
We have come to the time of year when we centre our thoughts on ALL those who gave their lives in both world wars and those who still bear the scars of those wars. And not only them but all who worked to liberate us from the threat of German domination. To them I would say we have an enormous debt of gratitude for their victories and we give thanks at this Remembrance Tide. To these we add our thankful prayers for those who have continued to protect the freedom of so many in subsequent hostilities.
One only needs to contemplate what life would be like now if those victories had not been won and our freedom maintained. Words can hardly express our immense gratitude. We thank God for all of them.
In addition to these thanksgivings we remember, this month, those who are near and dear to us who have died. We owe them, too, an immense debt of gratitude for helping us to be where we are now.
Praise God for all these lives that have given so much to us.
One of the things which I welcome over the Advent and Christmas period are those letters known as "Round Robins".These come from far and near and tell the news of particular family and friends over the past year.
One letter sticks in my mind as it describes the tale of a young boy, Luke, who played in his back garden and was occasionally joined by a friend whose house backed on to theirs. Such was the height of the fence between them and the distance round the block to get passed that fence - along two streets, one of them a busy road - these two boys did not play together often.
Then one night a strong gale blew one of the fence panels down and the boy from 'the other side' was able to come and play with Luke and they enjoyed (and, no doubt, continue to enjoy) each other's company on a regular basis.
Christmas is like this. A big barrier (like a fence) has separated humanity from God. Part of that barrier is our sin and the distance we put between our lives and the life of God, but in the person of Jesus (just a baby to begin with as with any human life) God has broken into our lives, taking our flesh and blood upon Himself. In Jesus we have a personal approach to God.
Another Luke tells us of simple shepherds (who, in their day, were looked upon like we today might consider used car salesmen!) receiving a vision of angels telling them of the Good News of this miraculous birth - of Emmanuel that is, - God - with - us. It is good and remarkable news, which we need to be reminded of from year to year because God is no longer a distant, bearded figure in the clouds but is a child in our midst.
May the peace of the Christ child be with you this Christmas.
Andrew