|
|
 |
You are here > Home > Current Magazine Letter > Parish Magazine Clergy Letters 2008 |
||
 |
Parish Magazine Letters 2008Rector's Page
Rector's Letter - April 2008Dear 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 Rector's Letter - February 2008Dear Friends,One of our church newspapers had a good cartoon in it, in the week after Christmas. It was a picture of a small, balding man slumped over his desk with his head in his hands.. and the caption was “On Boxing Day, the Vicar sat down to prepare the Lent course”! With Easter coming earlier this year than many can remember, the cartoon seemed very apt. We shall only just have got into February when Lent starts. February 5th is Shrove Tuesday, so come and get your pancakes in church between 6pm and 7.30pm. Then the next day we have two services (morning and evening) which mark the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday). However, unlike the cartoon vicar, I have no worries about planning a Lent Course, because this year we are doing something different. Instead of having several courses running parallel, we are going to meet together in the Staplehurst School and anyone is welcome to join us. Some months ago I invited the Canon Pastor from Canterbury Cathedral, Canon Clare Edwards to run our course and I was overjoyed when she said “yes”. Those of you who heard Clare some years ago at “Points of View” ,will know how well she speaks and those of us who have benefited from her reflections during courses and conferences, know just how helpful these have been. We are privileged to have her travelling all the way to Staplehurst each week from Canterbury, where she lives. Clare has called her five week course “Dying to live”“. It starts on Thursday 14th February at 8pm and she intends to look at living Lent and life fully, exploring what makes up a Christian lifestyle and looking at different ways of praying. Often, when we run courses we get the same people attending from our congregation. Perhaps you have never tried a church course or maybe don't attend church very often. You could be someone recently confirmed who has not found any way of nourishing their faith, or perhaps you're not even sure whether you are a Christian at all. Please take this letter as a personal invitation to join us. All are welcome to come and hear Clare and I can't think of a better way of preparing ourselves for Easter. Do come... and bring a friend if you like! With much love .. Gill Rector's Letter - January 2008Dear Friends,January is the month when Karen (our parish administrator) and I review all the weddings we have booked for the year ahead. I'm always reminded how preparing for a wedding is quite different from preparing for a lifetime's marriage. It's so easy to become preoccupied with getting all the details of the wedding right and everything else pales into insignificance. That is why, some ten years ago, I trained as a facilitator with “Prepare/Enrich”, a marriage preparation programme. In our parish, and many others worldwide, couples are given the opportunity to take this short course. They then spend about an hour in the Rectory one evening, each working alone, responding to some 170 statements on a questionnaire. This is then sent away for analysis, (without conferring), and a week or so later I receive a totally confidential report on the partnership. The couple is known only by a number. We then meet together afterwards, when I facilitate a dialogue resulting from the 12-page printout about their relationship. It is a programme that can be used at any stage in a partnership's journey. There is different paper work for each type of couple, including couples who are blending their existing families, to a couple who have been married many years and whose relationship has hit a low patch. How I wish such a facility had been offered to my ex-husband and I. Our story might have been quite different. About half the couples marrying in our church use this opportunity. I know some have found it really helpful, enabling them to see where they and their partner differ, removing the tendency of accusing the other of “being in the wrong” when they do not see eye to eye. Some of the follow-up work is about communication and dealing with conflict. The reason I'm telling you all of this, is that one good bit of the follow-up booklet each couple receive, is all about goals. It is suggested that a couple who are marrying might like to list three personal goals each and three couple goals, for the next one to five years. When people share their goals they talk about hopes and dreams and grow closer. Some of the couples I have married review their goals at each anniversary. We know that celebrating New Year is great and making a resolution or two is fine, but both can be rather short-lived events (like a good wedding day). You, like our couples, might find it helpful to prepare for the longer journey by setting yourselves a few goals. They might be personal goals. couple goals or church goals. Striving to achieve our goals lends a sense of purpose to our activities and can add meaning to lives which often seem to be going nowhere in particular, a fact Our Lord pointed out to so many people he met on his focused journey. So, do have a very happy 2008 Much love .. Gill  Back to Top |
 |
|