Monthly letters 2009

Monthly letters/editorials from 2009.

January February March April May June

July August September October November December

January

Methley Rectory

Dear Friends,

I have a very dear friend who, like Hilda Baker the comedienne, often gets words wrong. Once I heard her talking about making New Year "Revolutions" After a good laugh it dawned on me that this was a good way of thinking. I've never really bothered about New Year Resolutions because they soon get forgotten. But here is a new way of thinking - a Revolution!

So, what is there in your life that can do with a Revolution? What needs turning around and sorting out? Well, of course, only you know that and it is entirely your business, but it's worth thinking about. We Christians do have one special gift, the gift of forgiveness. We know that if we go about some problem in the right way we can receive forgiveness and that is very encouraging and comforting.

Perhaps one revolution that would be welcome is the avoidance of negative attitudes. We are very quick with all sorts of reasons why we should not do something. What about all the reasons for actually doing something?

Well, what about your revolution? Get thinking. I wish you a very Happy and Blessed New Year.

Yours sincerely Father Michael

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February
The Vicarage

Dear Friends

It's still not long since Christmas and even less since the Epiphany (6th Jan) and the annual remembrance of the wise men bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (in Matthew 2.1-12). Fr. Derek Peet reminded us (on 8th January, a third Epiphany for some of us!) of the significance of these unusual gifts for a baby.

The gold was a sign of his kingship, that Jesus would be King of the Jews and Gentiles alike, ushering in the Kingdom of God. The frankincense which, when burned would give off clouds of beautifully -scented smoke, an illustration of prayer, was a sign that here was a holy person, a special (or, high) priest. The myrrh may have given an impression of foreboding as it was used to embalm the dead, recognising that this king-priest would die before his time but would live.

Now, this month, another presentation takes place but the gift that is offered is Jesus himself. His parents took him, as the Jewish Law required, as a first-born male, to the temple in Jerusalem (see Luke 2.22 - 40). An elderly priest, Simeon, had been promised by God a sight of the Messiah before he died. Another older person, Anna, spoke of Jesus in extraordinary terms. These two lovely people are Biblical role models for those of riper years and a warning to the younger ones to take our elders seriously and see them as I having God-given value.

Matthew and Luke are the Gospels of the wise men and the shepherds which provide the foundation of the nativity story but they also, prophetically, point way into the future: to Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection, as well as to how this Good News is up to date news for all people of every generation. The 'goodwill and peace' which the angels proclaimed (to the shepherds) is as much needed in Israel-Palestine today as it was when Roman authority held sway in Biblical times.

The self-offering of Jesus in the Temple (celebrated on 1st or 2nd February as Candlemas) prefigures our own churchgoing and worship. We are called to offer ourselves, our gifts and our money, to this HoIy One, who gives everything, even his life, on a cross, in order that we might be restored to a right relationship with God, with our neighbour, and with the creation. Candlemas is a turning point. We turn from Christmas and Epiphany towards Lent, Holy Week and Easter (so there are the Sundays before Lent, of Lent, and then Palm Sunday and Easter itself).

We can look at modern Israel-Palestine (from a distance or, for some of us this month, up close and personal) and pity it or even pour scorn upon it. Those who suffer in the Gaza Strip deserve our prayers at the very least. Yet the suffering of the modem 'Holy Land' in some ways echoes our own lives. When God seems a long way from our lives it is most likely that it is we who have moved away from Him. The peace that Jesus offered in a particular land and time is of eternal value.

Before the month is ended (25th Feb.) we will reach Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent and some of us will be 'ashed', a reminder of our state as 'dust and ashes', our ties with the earth (the first man, Adam, was of the ground/earth/soil). A good thing, I think, about the Christian faith, is that it doesn't avoid the difficult questions like suffering - which lies at the heart of Jesus' own self-offering.

Turning from the 'happy' state of Christmas (a new baby and presents!) to the passion of Jesus' temptations, suffering and death, we are invited to examine our lives in the light of such sacrificial love. The resurrection will be the fuller for us - yes, each one of us personally - if we have lived through this holy time of the Church Year alongside Our Lord Jesus Christ with all its joys and sorrows.

Happy Candlemas and have a good Lent too.

May God bless you Andrew
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March

Methley Rectory

In response to the question "What does 0 G S mean‏"

Father Michael responds:

ORATORY OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Some people have asked what 0 G S stands for, and I'm surprised that they have no idea that monks, nuns and friars exist in the Church of England but assume, incorrectly, that they are only in the Roman Catholic Church. Here we are living a short distance from the largest men's community at Mirfield, the Nuns at Horbury, the Convent in York and at Sneaton Castle up on the hill in Whitby. There are Franciscan Friars near Newcastle. And that is just in the North, they are all members of the Church of England.

Father Michael, together with Father Peter Baldwin before him, are members of the Oratory of the Good Shepherd, a Society of celibate priests and laymen who live under a Religious Rule which provides as large an element of common discipline as the work of its members permits. They now have no specific house or monastery but work wherever they are sent.

The Oratory was founded in Cambridge in 1913, by four Chaplains of Colleges in the University. They met daily for Mass and mid-day prayers, and for a Chapter once a week. Bishop John How and Father Wilfred Knox were among these early members. For a while members lived in community at Little Gidding, whose founder, Nicholas Ferrar, is the patron of the Oratory. They are a definite society for Prayer, and the priestly work of each received special emphasis in its dedication to the Good Shepherd.

Membership extends to parish priests, Bishops and schoolmasters, to isolated missionaries, academics and to laymen in their particular vocations. Two years ago four Sisters became professed in a new parallel fellowship. All members enjoy the help given by a close fellowship and a common Rule.

There are three Colleges of the Oratory in Europe, one in the USA and Canada
(where the Superior at present resides), one in Southern Africa and two in Australia.

A distinctive duty of the Oratory is the "Labour of the mind", a special duty of
thought and study, to meet the questions of the twentieth first century.

Further details are to be found at www.ogs.net

Yours sincerely

Father Michael

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April

The Vicarage

Dear Friends

I recently watched a TV news bulletin in which a man who had been made redundant is advertising himself on eBay. This is a kind of auction house on the Internet where items are bought and sold (a bit like a car boot sale) but this man, a logistics manager with 23 years experience, is a bit like Norman Tebbit's father, 'getting on his bike', and selling his skills in a novel way. He hopes that an employer out there will take notice and reward his opportunism.

The credit crunch and recession are clearly taking hold when someone has to resort to such tactics to get a job. I have some experience of the credit crunch given that when I went to Israel in 2008 I got seven Shekels to the Pound (£) but in 2009 the exchange rate is down to five to the £, a big drop in one year. Now the Government is bailing out banks left, right and centre, which means that the taxpayer is saddled with a huge debt. Each newlyborn child, along with the rest of us, owes in the region of £30,000 (and it's still rising).

To the first paragraph above, I want to say that all life is sacred and valued and that that man is therefore loved by God not because of what he can do for a living but because of who he is as a child of God. In work or out of it, he is a unique person with a unique contribution to make in this world. There is a danger, especially within the life of the Church, that we consider well those who earn a great deal and contribute more to society (or they should do) but we look down our noses at those on benefits or without work. In a parable about workers in the vineyard Jesus tells of an owner who rewards everyone the same wage, whether they have worked for an hour or for a long, hot day. God's love is shown equally - see: Matthew 20.1-16.

Concerning the second paragraph there is an Easter message to this but it is not obvious and it may not be easy to hear or to read. Debt is, and always has been, big news. The TV or radio news always talks of 'the markets' meaning the cost or value of money. The Pound Sterling's value is based not least upon confidence in this nation. Quite clearly, in the last couple of decades, we have either borrowed or been allowed to borrow far too much money. I have come across people with 125% mortgages. This buys them both the house and all its contents. I was taught by my parents to save for such things.

So, we (the people of this land) are heavily in debt. According to John 19.30, Jesus said on the cross just before he died, "It is finished." Another rendition of the original Greek word used here, tetelestai is "the debt has been paid." Yes, Jesus died on the cross to pay for our debts. We are indebted to the God of love who gives us life and the world around us but what gratitude do we show? We mess up the earth, we mess up human relationships and, too often, behave as if God didn't exist and yet:God still loves us. The debt, or sin, that separates us from God (and that's what hell is: the absence of God) is dealt with, once and for all, by Jesus' death on the very first Good Friday - that is why it is called good.

When we pray the Lord's Prayer we say: 'Forgive us our trespasses;' in other translations that becomes, 'Forgive us our sins…..our debts.' We are called to make amends, to change or modify our behaviour, not to carry on regardless. As God forgives each one of us so we are called to forgive one another. This is the message to people within the life of Christ's body, the Church, but ultimately, such forgiveness - and ending of debts - should reach out to the whole of the society, nation and the world of which we are a part.

Here then is the deep meaning of Easter, that through such forgiveness and healing there comes new hope, indeed, new life. I want to add, 'debt-free life' but, Christian or otherwise, we may still have that bank or building society loan or mortgage. Within our experiences of life, we may still feel there is stuff that hasn't been dealt with, that there is sin or something like it that gets in the way of our relationships with God, neighbour and the creation. Easter is an annual reminder that if we can let go of a lot of this stuff, taking it to the foot of the - now empty - cross of Jesus, then God can wipe away these debts.

We may then discover the power and meaning of the empty tomb. "He is not here: He is risen from the dead!" The new life of Jesus is offered to all people, to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. The empty cross and empty tomb invite us to hear and see new things and in new ways. This is a season of hope, calling on the Church and on Christian believers (those who believe in the resurrection of Jesus) to in turn bring hope to a world which can't yet see beyond crunch and recession. Easter (with its relative, Christmas) is a real crunch moment for the world for, with God, nothing will be impossible.

Happy Easter to you all, Andrew

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May

Methley Rectory

Dear Friends,

There used to be published every few years or so a royal picture book. The publication coincides with some royal occasion, a wedding, a jubilee, or a coronation.

The book is a collection of photographs illustrating the life of the particular royal personage concerned. In it you will see pictures of him or her engaged in all sorts of activities, in formal attire opening some building, or less formal perhaps, visiting some youth organization. Possibly he will appear in uniform as a naval or army officer.

You may see him or her playing tennis, yachting, shooting, fishing, or, as a youngster, learning to ride a pony. Most likely you will see him also as a baby, sitting on his or her mother's knee. But somewhere in the book, lest by any chance one should forget who it is who does all these various things, one will find a picture of the royal person in robes of state, wearing orders and decorations. Still more, if it be the sovereign, one will see him or her at the Coronation. A picture of that there must be somewhere in the book, for without it the book would not be complete: it would not properly show the person as a truly royal.

So it is that Ascension Day, this month, comes into the Church Calendar. The Church during her liturgical year shows us, as it were, a picture book of Christ. We see him at various times in the course of his earthly life. We see him born as a helpless infant at Bethlehem, presented in the Temple in accordance with Jewish law, shown to the Wise Men. Later, we see him fasting in the Wilderness, riding into Jerusalem, holding the Last Supper, being crucified. Subsequently we see him rising from the dead on Easter Day, and meeting his disciples. But finally, lest there should be any doubt in our minds as to who it is who does all these things, we see him ascending into heaven. The Christ, we are reminded, is not merely the child of Bethlehem, the carpenter of Nazareth, the prophet of Galilee, the hero of Calvary; he is God; he is King; he is entitled to the highest honour heaven affords.

So Ascension Day (May 21st) fitly concludes the other festivals of our Lord, those festivals (and fasts) that we have been keeping in solemn succession since Christmas-time. Just as a picture of an earthly king in his robes of state gives point and meaning to all other pictures of him, so this festival gives point and meaning to all its predecessors.

Rightly therefore does Ascension Day rank in the Church Year alongside Christmas Day and Easter Day as a prelude to the Church's birthday on Pentecost (May 31st). The world is full of students of Jesus, and glad we are that it is so, but the sad thing is that they are content, so many of them, with only some of the pictures that he left behind, and not this last. They collect and treasure up mental pictures of Jesus as he was here upon earth. They overlook what he is all the time; and, in overlooking that, they forget what is due to him-now.

Yours sincerely,

Father Michael

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June

The Vicarage

Dear Friends

A sign seen on a wayside pulpit: UR missing from CH _ _ CH" (it reminds me of the riddle which is the other way round where the letters ERGO are given but you have to find the same three letters to put on the front and on the end in order to give a well-known feature of getting around London - no prizes!).

"Church' is more than a building although that's how a lot of people see it. I well remember a sermon where the preacher kept speaking of an LOC; we were eventuallv enlightened: "lovely old church"! This is how a lot of wedding couples regard St. John's: they go and book their reception at Oulton Hall, spot St. John's and are soon asking me about having a church service. Some of these couples come quite a distance (from Doncaster and from Bolton to give two examples) and will gladly worship with us for the requisite six months in order to go on the church's Electoral Roll to satisfy the law to marry in a parish church other than their own.

Similarly, Baptism families bring children to be christened even when they live outside the parish. There are virtually no laws surrounding Baptism (in the ways that there are with Marriage) but it is a courtesy that these families should seek the permission of the parish priest where they live for their child to be baptised elsewhere. Funerals too: people who have not lived here for a while contact Father Michael or myself (usually via a funeral director) about a loved one having their funeral in church. This can be complex for if there is a grave of a relative then that can be re-opened but by moving away from the parish a person forfeits their right to a new grave and grave plots can not he booked in advance (contrary to what some people may think).

The church building then may be seen as a kind of family chapel and there is nothing wrong with that. This means that some people will come to church just occasionally, which is why christenings, weddings and funerals are known as the occasional offices or rites of passage or 'hatched, matched, dispatched'!

Yet church is ultimately people. It is the people of God in a given place. The simplest definition of church I know is where 2 or 3 people are gathered in the name of Jesus. The church can meet almost anywhere, weather permitting, even outdoors. Up to the end of May the Thursday morning service has been held in All Saints' Parish Hall and will do so again when work to build a new roof is completed in early September (see articles elsewhere in this magazine on this matter). That 9.3O am service will continue throughout the summer in St. John's which some might regard as the 'proper' church but church is a word where we need to drop the word 'the'.

Church in the Christian sense is dynamic and fluid, and Spirit-willing, lively. The early Church (e.g. in Biblical times) grew rapidly, often meeting in people's homes. This is something we need to re-discover. I have a vision that we shall move towards such a church: small groups of people learning from each other about the power of the spirit of God at work in each other. Churches that meet in this way and in which people look at the Bible and pray together are churches which tend to grow.

May the living Lord be with you all.

Andrew

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July

Methley Rectory

My Dear Friends

Ascensiontide and Pentecost have now passed and we are in the season of Trinity. The scripture readings at our services now depict more of what Jesus had to say and teach.

How does this now affect me, you might wonder? Well, when our Lord Jesus Christreturned to heaven at His Ascension He promised that help would he sent to allHis disciples - and their numbers had grown considerably in a fairly short time. Thathelp came atPentecost with the spectaculardescent of the Holy Spirit.

Help? Yes, we allneed helpin one way or another and the gift of the Holy Spirit is this gift of help. Itis there if we care to ask orseek it. Our Lord never asks moreof us thanHe knows we can achieve, and Hehas provided the help of the Holy Spirit to assist us. I'm thinking now of how we use his help.

What do we need help with? All sorts of things I'm sure, but have you really tried laying the need before the Lord and seeking His help? Discuss the needs of Your everydav life with Him in the same way that you would discuss family needs within the family. And not just your own but the needs of those whom you love, and those with whom you have contact. He knows our needs belore we ask, that is all part of His love for us - but He expects us to talk about and share our concerns and ask Him. This is personal prayer. Notice the healing miracles; when. a person comes (or is brought) to Jesus seekin g aid in one way or another,

Put this another way. The power of the Holy Spirit has been sent into the Church; you and me now. Accept it, use it, allow it to guide and strengthen you.

Yours sincerely

Father Michael

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August

The Vicarage

Dear Friends

Can we reclaim the 'holy' in holidays? The whole of this month is for schools, colleges and universities, at least, one long holiday. For some students it will be a big change as they move on to high school or to a college/university. For all pupils, and for teachers, it will be a time to take a good break from the past academic year. For many more besides, this will be a time to visit the seaside or the countryside, a stately home (or two or three) perhaps, and so on. If school is about the three Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic then a holiday is also a time for three Rs: recreation, refreshment and renewal.

Recreation: For many this means the world of sport and if the game is played in a good spirit and with fairness in mind then that is good in itself. But the word suggests that we are involved in re-creating something. I think we are called, by and with God, to help build and sustain the created world. God saw what He had made and, according to Genesis, it was very good. The Christian calling is to be involved in the world not just for goodness' sake but also for God's sake. During our holidays we need to find things to do which will build us up and 'feed' and sustain us for the autumnal and wintry months ahead. Gardening is good in this sense; I think it was St. Benedict who said that we need to get our fingers into the earth (soil) at some point every day!
Refreshment: This is finding out what it is to be fresh all over again! It may be said of something: "Now, that is a refreshing change." If you do get away this month (or at other times of the year), don't miss out on church worship but try a new church, and see how they do it. See how they worship (for how long, whether the church is welcoming or not, what they do in terms of refreshment afterwards: tea, coffee, doughnuts, etc.). We might go on holiday but God doesn't - there are services here every Sunday of the year and so there are elsewhere. You might go along to a different denomination altogether; try the Salvationists, the Vineyard, Baptists or Moravians, to name a few! Then come back and share with us what you have encountered and pester us (!) and ask why we don't try doing something like that here.
Renewal: Something that Jesus did quite a lot of in the Gospels was to go away quietly somewhere to pray to his (and our) Father. Holidays - holy days - should present us with opportunities and time to be away from it all and to spend time with God. Of course, such prayer time should be part of the daily life of a Christian person but holidays - getting away from it all? - create new kinds of space in our lives, space that we may be able to bring back home with us.
Renewal of the human spirit, in the ways of God, is vital to Christian life. As a priest, I am urged to take a retreat from time to time, in order that I may, at other times, advance. We all need to get away from it all at times, from our neighbours (whom it may be difficult to love), from the workplace (which for some may be soul-destroying or demeaning), even from church, our regular place of worship and fellowship (which makes heavy demands on a few).
I will be away for some of this month (Father Michael was away in July) and, if you have the opportunity but have not yet grasped it then I do urge you to take a holiday. You may find that God feels really close while you're away!
May the Lord God bless you, home or away, Andrew.
Fifty (or Sixty) Years - And Counting
As one married for less than a quarter of a century I can not let Sunday 14th June 2009 pass without comment. On that day I took two regular worshippers at St. Oswald's, Methley to Ripon Cathedral for the annual Golden Wedding Service. Believe it or not, there were over 300 couples there celebrating major marital milestones. Whilst the vast majority were only marking fifty years there were, so Paul Shepherd, the organiser of the service told us, some two dozen couples marking 60 years - our Methley couple among them. One other couple were marking 65 years. Also there from St. John's, Oulton there were two other couples with a century between the four of them!
It was a magnificent service and a reminder (not least to me) that it is good, from time to time, to encounter worship in such a setting and on a grand scale. The Cathedral boasts a Girls' Choir (as well as a Boys' Choir) and they sang beautifully in Psalm 121, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills," the setting by Henry Walford Davies, and the anthem, John Rutter's setting of the Gaelic Blessing, "The Lord bless you and keep you," music which sets the hairs on the back of my neck tingling! There were four great hymns: "Christ is made the sure foundation," "Angel-voices ever singing," "O thou who camest from above," and "Love Divine, all loves excelling."
The most amazing part of the service was when all those couples stood up to renew (or re-affirm) their marriage vows; there was around 16,000 years of marriage represented!!! Having so affirmed their commitments husbands and wives said to each other, 'All that I am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you, within the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.' The Dean of Ripon, the Very Rev. Keith Jukes, gave an 'afterword', and told an amusing tale - the upshot of which he urged all the men present: "You may kiss the bride." He also made a presentation (obviously a bottle of sorts) to Paul Shepherd.
A good and witty sermon was preached by Canon Paul Hooper, Vicar of St. Mark's in Harrogate. He told the following tale which had everyone falling about with laughter:
After 52 years of marriage the wife dies and goes up to heaven. At the Pearly Gates she is met by St. Peter who says that she may enter heaven if she answers a question correctly. He asks her to spell a word. "Which word?" she replies. "Any word." So she says, "Well, I was married for over fifty years so I will spell the word 'love' - L-O-V-E." Well done!" says St. Peter, "you may enter into your Father's glory."
She is hardly over the threshold before St. Peter then says, "Look, I've got to go and deal with some chores. Can you look after the Gates while I've gone?" She agrees to this big request but says to the Apostle, "What if someone comes up?" "Just ask them the same question that I asked you," says St. Peter. And so it is that within sixty seconds of taking up her sentry duty she spies a figure coming up to the Pearly Gates and she instantly recognises her late husband. "What happened to you?" she asks. "Well," he said, "I'd just been to your funeral and then on the way home I had a bad accident - and here I am. Is this heaven?" "Yes, it is," says she, "but to come in here you've got to spell a word." "What's the word?" he asks and she replies, "Czechoslovakia."
Andrew Pearson
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September
Methley Rectory
My dear friends,
During my recent holiday I found myself being introduced to people I had never met before as being "from Yorkshire". (3 of us fitted that description.) Now, I know that Yorkshire men and women are so proud of belonging to Yorkshire, be it East, West or North Riding. Apart from when I was in Leeds as a student I have only lived here for a little over 20 years yet I do feel at home and proud to be described in this way.
Our Christian Church is also divided into parts and we are proud of the part to which we belong. We Anglicans are proud of being part of the one great Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church (as we say in the creed).
We can be proud of being Christian or Yorkshire, or Anglican or West Riding. But there is one big difference. We can proudly belong to Yorkshire itself, or the West Riding, but is doesn't involve any action. To be Christian or Anglican does involve action. But many will disagree, preferring to remain inactive - they may do lip-service to membership on special occasions, but the Gospels teach us that this is not enough. Remember how Jesus told his followers after His Resurrection to be off doing something particular.
Come on let ALL of us be doing something for Jesus - there are plenty of things to choose from. If in doubt ask me or any other active member of the Church: "What can I do?"
Yours sincerely,
Father Michael
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October
The Vicarage
Dear friends,
Our Harvest Festival falls this month on Sunday 18th October, which is also the feast day of St. Luke the Evangelist. St. Luke, who gives his name to the 'St. Luke's Little Summer', some fine weather which we are overdue after the forecasters got it so badly wrong this year about the great summer we were going to have!
St. Luke was the author not only of the third Gospel but also of the Acts of the Apostles. He was a doctor and, even then, around two thousand years ago, his scientific training was to the fore. "I have examined the evidence" he writes and he was clearly a man who checked his sources carefully. St. Luke is, not surprisingly, the patron saint of doctors and physicians, and there are several hospitals dedicated to his name. Mind you in his time his main tool was probably not a stethoscope (which they didn't have then); more likely it was a saw to cut off a leg or arm which was diseased! Better to lose a limb than for the whole body to be infected. Those were the days!
Luke has given to the world of literature, not just Christians or readers of the Bible, unique and great stories such as the parable of the Good Samaritan and of the Prodigal Son. The former (Luke chapter 10, verses 25-37) tells of hospitality and outreach by the stranger to 'one who fell on hard times' an example where the reader is invited to 'go and do thou likewise' and the latter is the story of two sons and a father but who is it truly about? Read Luke 15.11-32 and judge for yourself.
On 18th October we will have St. Luke in our minds but we will give thanks for 'all that is safely gathered in'. In truth, it will have been gathered mainly in the summer (yes, there was one!), or in early September at the latest, but the times and seasons are changing. I took a funeral at Rothwell in July of a local farmer and his son spoke of the new combine harvester they'd just bought - with caterpillar tracks. The son and I were both at the same agricultural college in 1981 and neither of us foresaw that climate change would mean that the land was too wet.

From St. Luke's saw to the 21st century combine, the technology changes but our dependence upon the good Lord does not. Over the summer I have been impressed by prayers offered and by prayers answered. God, the scripture says, 'is faithful and just.' The tradition of a harvest of first fruits has ancient roots although our 'modem' Harvest Festival is a Victorian creation (as are most of the hymns we sing - 'Come, ye thankful people, come' and 'We plough the fields and scatter') but we remain, in spite of our sophistication, people who need to love and to be loved. The love of Christ calls each of us to be workers in another harvest - bringing those who do not yet know Jesus closer to his reign of everlasting love.

God Bless, Andrew
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November
Methley Rectory

My dear friends,

November is the month for "remembering" in our Church life. November 1st is All Saints' Day and November 8th is Remembrance Sunday.

The Saints should be a great inspiration to us. Most of them were ordinary people like you and me. They were concerned with their families, their work and above all the Kingdom of God. Most are now totally unknown-these we commemorate on All Saints' Day.

They have left a memory behind them and we can honour them for what we
know. The one particular distinguishing mark of all the saints is their single-minded devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ. They did not gain sanctity sitting and waiting for something to happen. They gained sanctity through their positive thoughts and actions; through their attention to helping and furthering the Kingdom of God; even in bad times when all seemed lost - but it never was lost, thanks to their love and devotion.

The Saints, we believe, will have heard the words of our Lord, "Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy rest".

We remember, too, those who gave their lives in two World Wars and later wars: those who served their country in the fight for freedom and right. They surely, will have received the same welcome from our Lord."Well done thou good and faithful servant".

As we give our thanks this month to all the saints and to all the heroes of conflict so we can dedicate ourselves again to serving our Lord and our neighbours to the limit of our ability.

We can be as truly positive as they were - can further the work of the Kingdom, as the saints and the heroes have done.



Fr Michael.

December

The Vicar Writes…..

Christmas will come early at St. John's this year, or so it will seem. Over the first weekend in December we shall be holding a Christmas Tree Festival which will also mark the 180th anniversary of the consecration of the church building. As well as the usual large Christmas tree in the sanctuary there will be a further twenty trees around the church decorated according to the theme of "Christmas Carols".

Both the tradition of the Christmas Tree and nearly all the carols we sing are Victorian inventions. The practise of sending Christmas cards by post goes back to about 1840 and the beginning of the postal service. Just eleven years before that, still in the Victorian era, the Archbishop of York consecrated St. John's Church. We worship in a Victorian church but in the 21st century.

There are so many 'trappings' to Christmas: crackers, mince pies, turkey, tinsel, and the maxim (written in stone), "Christmas is for the children." You can probably add more ideas and 'must haves' to this list but we should also remind of ourselves that two thirds of the word Christmas is Christ.

John Betjeman, in his lovely poem, "Christmas", penned eight verses, the last three of which speak far better than I am able, about this tension between our desire to deal with "tissued fripperies, the sweet and silly Christmas things," and the powerful final verse:

'No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.'

St. Paul put it rather succinctly in his letter to a new Mediterranean church in Colossians 1, verse 19: "All the fullness of God was in him pleased to dwell." The real message of Christmas is, and always has been, mind-blowing. The followers of Jesus Christ are those who believe that somehow the man Jesus is as complete a picture as we can have of God. He was perfectly in tune with God and sang from the same song sheet (or perhaps that's 'carol sheet'). That word 'believe' is very important here because it is very close to beloved. Christian believers are the beloved of God.

Betjeman's poem spoke of Palestine, a place impossible to think of today without reference to Israel and a bloody conflict in the Holy Land. I visited that land earlier this year and stayed in hotels in Nazareth and Bethlehem. The 'little town' we sing of in the carol is now little for an altogether different reason: it is surrounded by a 9-metre high Separation Wall. The people of the town of Our Lord's birth are today prisoners, women and children included.

Christmas is a festival about connections. The message of the angels, "Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth," needs to be heard again and again and it needs to take root in the hearts and minds of those who hear it. Mary's Child is Emmanuel, God-with-us, the Divine wrapped not in swaddling clothes but in human flesh. He is weak, vulnerable, attractive, in need of love, and oozing with love for all creation. This Jesus, two thirds of Christmas, is the One we seek, the One we come to worship, the One whom we need at the centre of our lives, now in this 21st century of Our Lord.

Have a good Advent, a merry Christmas and a blessed New Year. Andrew.

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