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Rector's Letter - April 2008

Dear Friends,

It's been good to hear recently from both Phil Osler and John Mackenzie, previously our curates here. They have both found life pretty busy over the Easter period, leading services and events in their own parishes. We have all been reminiscing about the days when we were all working together with the rest of you in the All Saints crew ,and how good it is to be part of a team, working collaboratively.

Of course in our church communities, teams are constantly changing and reforming. This month we shall definitely miss the part our sacristan Glenda has played over many years, preparing for the smooth running of all our services and keeping everything spic and span. Glenda is now retiring, as husband Ian also stops full time work, giving them some well earned time for enjoying family and, perhaps, even having a bit of rest and relaxation together. Thank you Glenda for all you have done and thank you all those of you who have agreed to help cover that long list of jobs she used to do. Please be patient everyone if there are a few hiccups, in the coming weeks.

And it was good to announce last month that, at the end of June, we shall be welcoming a new curate coming to train here for four years. Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy will be coming down from Durham where he is studying at present. He will be ordained deacon in Canterbury on Saturday June 28th.

He writes,

“Born in 1977 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (known at the time as Zaire), I spent the first 8 years of my life between Congo and the Central African Republic before moving to Belgium in the autumn of 1985 with my family. Both my primary and secondary education were spent in Belgium. In 2000 I took my licence at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at Brussels University and had qualified as a teacher in Protestant religion. I taught RE in Brussels for a year before being sent to serve as the minister of the French protestant church in Canterbury (Huguenot church). I arrived in Canterbury in the summer of 2001 and alongside my work with the French church, I acquired a certificate in European business from Christ Church University Canterbury in 2002 and an MA in Christian Ethics from Kings College London in 2004. I'm fluent in French and English, and also speak two African languages. I'm a keen footballer and enjoy a number of other sports and outdoor activities. I enjoy reading, music.and a variety of cultural activities. Current affairs and international politics are at the heart of my interests.”

So we look forward to a new ministry unfolding here in the months to come. And, as we reflect on others ministries, it might be a good time to think about what part we each play in the team. After our Annual Parish Church Meeting (APCM) which is held on April 21st in the parish room, we shall be looking for people to help on all our sub-committees and working groups, developing the mission of our church. I wonder what God would like you to do here.

Do have a word with me if you have time or talents to share.

With much love ..

Gill

Assistant Priest's Letter - March 2008

Dear Friends,

Win or Lose?

“I hate to lose, and I do whatever I can to win, and if it is ugly, it is ugly” - Pete Sampras

Anyone for tennis?

If so, is it only fun if you win? Writer James Alison tells a story about two families with a parent teaching a child to play tennis. They both adjust themselves to their children's level and gradually play harder and harder so that the children's strength and skill gradually grow. Neither humiliate them by thrashing them. But one wants to teach her child to win. She never lets herself be beaten and winds the child up to be really competitive by holding the prize of winning just out of reach. The other wants to teach his child to play. Sometimes he skilfully loses, without being patronising, so that the child can experience the joy of winning whilst learning that you don't have to win. That rivalry has limits. That the relationship is more important.

“Live to win, take it all, just keep fighting 'til you fall, day by day kicking all the way” - KISS vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley

Anyone for living?

All species have a deep survival instinct. They do everything they can to secure their own survival chances. That's as true of humans as it is of the Siberian tiger or the lowliest of bacteria. And so we fear death. That's why we have to win. And by winning we create losers. Or victims. Not just in big ways, but in little, daily acts of survival. And not just as individuals. The pursuit of power and material wealth creates social, economic and environmental victims. Our dread of death affects how we live, yet winning does not remove our fear. We have to learn that rivalry has limits. That relationship is more important.

“If you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you will surely find it.” - Jesus of Nazareth

Anyone for playing?

There is another way. Jesus tells us why Easter is so vital in Matthew 10:38-40. He likens the cross to the second parent who wants his child to learn to play. There, Jesus deliberately loses to those who had to win to show that it's the playing - the relationship - not the winning, that counts. To do this takes great power, the power of one who is not a rival at all - but the one in charge. And he likes those he's playing with so much that he wants them to learn to lose too. To be free from always having to win so they can just enjoy playing.

And to know that there is no need to create victims in order to survive. For with the resurrection dawns the realisation that God has nothing to do with death. So that perhaps we can learn, bit by bit, not to be driven any more by the fear of death in our living. That rivalry has limits. That relationship is more important.

Love,

John