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You are here > Home > Current Magazine Letter > Parish Magazine Clergy Letters 2002 |
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Rector's Letters 2002
December 2002Dear Friends, Visiting Staplehurst Primary School recently for their Harvest Festival presentations made me realise I'm getting old! I'm well past the days when I used to go to my own children's school productions and I'm already getting excited about going to see the grandchildren perform. In the next few weeks I know many of you, like me, will enjoy attending Nativity plays and tableaux put on in our village and beyond. That tradition has gone on down the years and some of us feel quite cheated if we find our particular playgroup or school are putting on a modern Christmas production. We value the traditional hymns and description of Jesus birth, which follows the same Biblical story, even though most teachers and vicars have a collection of jokes about things children have said or done which don't quite stick to the script. Yet for many of us, children and adults, its easy to forget that the Nativity story is really quite irrelevant to our lives today, unless we have a grasp of who that small baby in the manger was and what he came to do. After all, the only reason we mark a historic figure's birthday is because of the life they led afterwards. So how about remembering during this season a few more facts about him: Jesus was born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago. During his first thirty years he shared the daily life and work of an ordinary home. For the next three years he went about healing sick and troubled people and teaching small groups in villages, in the fields and by the lakeside. He gathered 12 ordinary men to be his helpers. He had no money. He had no university degree. He commanded no army. He wielded no political power. During his ministry he never traveled more than 200 miles in any direction. He was executed by crucifixion at the age of 33. Jesus taught by what he said, by what he was and by what he did. He taught us to trust God, as a loving father, to pray in faith and to be sensitive to the needs of others, following him in lives of generosity, faith, simplicity and love. He taught that to God we are each infinitely precious so we should look out for one another with understanding, respect and forgiveness. Amazingly, even after all those years, there are over 1000 million people who follow this guy, who call him Lord. They believe that after his cruel death on a torture implement, God raised him from the dead to demonstrate to all people, for all time, that goodness will triumph over evil; justice over injustice, love over hate. Now I reckon that really is worth celebrating so do have a very Happy Christmas. yours Gill  Back to Top
November 2002Dear Friends, Some of you will no doubt remember Sheila Cassidy, the doctor who was tortured and imprisoned in Chile. after unwittingly treating an injured freedom fighter, fleeing for his life during the Pinochet regime. Sheila has a tried and tested Christian faith and she once defined prayer as “wasting time with God”. For her such “wasting time” is an essential ingredient in her busy daily round. A regular time, set aside, underpins what she calls overflow prayer which bubbles up when she watches the news, or meets someone in some sort of pain, or senses some particular need herself. I wonder if you pray, if you “waste time with God” at all. Alex Ferguson spoke during the search for the two little girls from Soham . (you will remember they were wearing Manchester United shirts when they went missing). He said, “I pray that they will be found” and when quizzed by the interviewer about his praying, he said, “No, well I mean I hope that they will be found I really wish that they will be found.” Isn't holding out our hopes and our wishes to God, all part of praying, together with all those other feelings and thoughts which we need to express? I wonder why Alex Ferguson was uncomfortable with the word “pray”. We are told from surveys that most people pray at some time in their lives, even those who are not sure about whether there is a God at all. And prayer does not have to be , as in school “hands together, eyes closed,” or as in church, “kneel down and look devout!”. In our village there are so many different ways of praying three churches with regular patterns of worship, to start with, and then several prayer groups who meet around the place. There is also All Saints church, open daily with 8.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m. prayers every weekday. This month there is also opportunity for prayers of thanksgiving for those who died in our wars and those of our loved ones who have died more recently. But maybe you are a person who likes to pray privately, in the car, whilst doing the ironing or walking the dog or even on the train. Take a topic each day and you will find you are actually joining others, although you are in your own space, in praying for the needs of our village and beyond. Do contact me if you would like us to include any particular prayer request either in future prayer prompts or in our church's regular prayers. One subject we shall be praying for regularly in the weeks ahead is the parish to which our village's former curate, Peter Harnden, has moved, to be Vicar. It is the parish of Tokyngton in north west London and we hope to learn from one another as we develop a link between our two very different communities. As so often, we are none of us quite sure how to start that partnership, or how it will develop, but we shall pray about finding the right first step. So do explore one of the many ways of praying. Pray as you can and not as you can't and watch out! Prayer changes things. yours Gill Back to Top
October 2002Dear Friends, Last month saw a large number of visitors coming into our church in order to enjoy a splendid Flower Festival masterminded by Mrs Marion Christie. As many readers will already know, we were blessed with glorious weather and the team of helpers worked incredibly hard. The concert on Saturday, as well as the services on Sunday, were well attended and refreshments were served continuously. It looks as if the profit will be over £2,500. Congratulations to all those involved! On such occasions many people who are not regular worshippers have a good opportunity to use our church for their own time of quiet and reflection. Not everyone finds our services helpful and some of you, who visited, may have noticed something new in the church which was very well used both on September 11th and over this weekend. It is a votive candle stand, which was acquired on loan for the first anniversary of the twin towers attack, but which a kind donor has now purchased for permanent use in the church. We intend to put the stand near the entrance to the St George's chapel and we hope it will enable many , to “speak” their concerns or celebrate their joys through the symbolic act of lighting a candle. Years ago such stands were only found in Roman Catholic churches but recently they have become more and more popular in churches of many denominations. It is interesting to see how today people of all faiths, and none, feel the need to “speak” through the laying of flowers at the site of road traffic accidents or tragedies, like the murder of the two little girls at Soham. Symbolic acts seem to be important ways of people expressing their feelings . So we hope many of you will appreciate this addition to our church and use it before or after services or indeed, when you visit “All Saints” at other times. And finally, watch out for another innovation at All Saints. We have a new curate, although this time, not the paid sort! Phil Osler who has long been a member of “All Saints” was selected for training for the ordained ministry some three years ago and has been training with the “South Eastern Institute for Theological Education” (SEITE) on a part time course. On September 28th he was ordained in Canterbury cathedral and will serve our village in an unpaid capacity (as a non-stipendiary deacon) for the next year. After this he will go back to Canterbury Cathedral to be priested. Phil works, in London, for the Civil Aviation Authority and is married to Janet. They have three children; Laura, Helen and David and his mother Joan also lives in the village. We are very privileged to have Phil here and much appreciate his generous giving of time and gifts to serve our church and village. We wish him and the family well as he begins to dovetail his responsibilities at work, church and home, in his new role. Enjoy the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” yours Gill Back to Top |
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