Ministry Team Letters January – June 2006
By the time you read this, you will have read the Bishop’s official announcement about our new priest-in-charge, and we look forward to the day when he will be in post. He comes to a very lively church.
Services are well attended, and we provide different kinds of service to meet the needs of different kinds of people. The electoral roll is bigger than it was a year ago and, when we hosted the Deanery confirmation service, we had more candidates than the rest of the Deanery put together. I expect all of us visit other churches when, for example, we go to stay with friends; and, like other clergy, I take services elsewhere from time to time. Those experiences are often pleasurable – but not always.
When they are not, the experiences (and they are not necessarily all my own) are instructive: they say something about what we seem to get right. Let me quote a few examples without saying where the churches are (and they are not necessarily in this Diocese).
One church had a rather grubby altar, the silver was uncared for and the purificator (that’s the linen cloth we use to wipe the chalice) was a piece of kitchen paper. The message was: God doesn’t matter as much as our own dinner tables at home. We are fortunate in a having a small army of folk who make, and keep, our church beautiful. Visitors invariably comment.
Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England is not a prayer book like the old Book of Common Prayer, or even the Alternative Service Book that we used for twenty years. It is a resource book. Our Worship Committee has used it to construct a series of service booklets, each appropriate to a different season of the year. They don’t differ all that much: just enough to catch the mood of the different seasons.
Some churches have a single service booklet, which is used throughout the year. That has the disadvantage that one is using the same words at, say, Easter, as ones used in Lent. We use vestments of different colours to mark the different seasons: slight changes in wording may be appropriate too. Some churches don’t have booklets at all. Everyone is given a copy of the resource book. Most of it is unused and the President is forever saying something like, ‘You’ll find the Creed on page 173’.
We are fortunate in having established, over a good many years, a very high standard of worship. That is true of our slightly catholic Eucharists, our welcoming all-age services, our evangelistic Grassroots services, our meditative healing services, our thoughtful Evensong and the services we hold for the town, schools, scouts and guides. That doesn’t mean that things can’t get even better.
So we look forward to the arrival of our new parish priest whose presence will be accompanied by a downside. Much of our success during the past year has been the result of Ally Barrett’s skill and hard work. Ally will now be looking for a parish of her own and we shall all miss her greatly – and Sam and Joanna. When the time does come for them to move on, they will go with our love and thanks and good wishes.
Jeremy Craddock
Assistant Priest
Dear Friends,
It’s your call …
May 7 this year is what the church calls ‘Vocations Sunday’, and we are delighted that the Diocesan Director of Ministry, Canon Vanessa Herrick, will be our guest preacher at the 9.45 Sung Eucharist that day. We often think of vocation as something that is just for ‘special’ people: doctors, teachers, nurses, priests, etc. But in God’s world everyone is special, so Vocations Sunday is a chance for us to celebrate the fact that God calls every single one of us. First he calls us simply to belong to his people, his ‘flock’, and second he calls us to carry out our particular vocation, something which is unique to each of us – finding out what that unique ‘something’ is, is the exciting journey of our lives.
This year in our Lent Groups we looked at vocation and what God’s calling might be for us. We looked at the gifts and talents that God has given us, and explored how we can listen to God to see what he has in mind for us. Then we also thought more about the issue of how to live out a Christian vocation at home, at work, and in modern society – not an easy task, especially for those who find that their Christian values are challenged by the situations in which they must live and work. We ended by reflecting on what we have to offer God, and how we can get the courage and confidence to grow into the people God wants us to be, for it is when we are living out God’s calling in our lives that we really flourish and feel ‘fully alive’.
This May our gardens will all be growing, changing, developing. Perhaps new plants will come up that we’d forgotten we’d planted, and we may at times feel frustrated by the unpredictability of such abundant growth. But the God who made this world to be full of life and change and growth, also made us, his people, to be constantly developing, and flourishing in new ways – or perhaps rediscovering parts of ourselves that have been hidden or set aside. This month, if you can, take a few moments a day to thank God for the things that make you who you are, and ask him to show you the person you are to become. And may you all know the fullness of life that comes from living out God’s purposes.
Yours in Christ,
Ally Barrett
Dear Friends
During a course that I am doing we were asked to take one picture which shows the meaning of Jesus’ death and write a front page article for the Easter edition of our own parish magazine expressing in today’s language the message conveyed by the ‘picture’. I would like to share my response with you this Easter.
‘Jesus is the Lamb of God’
John 1:36b
As Christians, we are Easter people. But to understand the true meaning of Easter we have to ask ourselves, what are we really celebrating?
At the time of the Old Testament lambs were sacrificed as sin offerings. This act of ‘atonement’ not only took away the persons sins but both he and God would be reconciled to one another. By then taking away and sharing the sacrificed lamb with family and friends, their sins too would be forgiven.
For me the ‘picture’ of Jesus’ death brings to mind a sacrificial lamb, because every time we celebrate the Holy Communion, it reminds me of the fact that God gave us Jesus who unselfishly offered himself as a ‘living sacrifice’. As we take and eat the bread and drink the wine, I am reminded that Jesus’ body and blood were broken and spilled to take away our sins and by doing that we will be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. I feel truly humbled and privileged to be able to share and to know with others, that this is the pure and unselfish act of God’s love.
As Christians, whether we are baptised as a child or as an adult, baptism is the start of our journey with God which then continues for the rest of our lives. By being baptised we accept Jesus as our saviour, accept that his sacrifice on the cross was made for all of us and know that through his resurrection we will be raised to new life in Christ. So to me, Jesus’ death was not an ending but a beginning.
When someone we love dies, suddenly we are thrown into total confusion. We are shocked by what has happened. We feel numb, yet torn apart. Our whole world comes crashing down around us. Questions arise like; what will happen now? How will I cope? What is to become of me? I think that this is what the disciples must have felt like when Jesus was suddenly taken from them and crucified.
If that had been the end of the story the lives of Christians would be meaningless. When Jesus appeared to the disciples for the first time what an amazing and joyous Easter feeling it must have been for them. All their confusion and disbeliefs turning to understanding of what Jesus’ life and death was all about. The transformation of the lives of the disciples who claimed they had seen Jesus risen, is the last thing we should expect, and hence is a powerful witness to the truth of what was said. When we put our trust in Jesus, joining God’s family through baptism, our eternal life in Christ starts here and now.
‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes;
Death will be no more;
Mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
For the first things have passed away’
Revelation 21:4
With love to you all at this Easter time
Linda Watson
I wonder if you’ve ever longed to be dependent on someone? These days society tends to encourage us to strive for independence: married couples increasingly have separate bank accounts, and more and more people are setting up their own businesses because their experience is that it’s better to be your own boss than to work for someone else. Even if we’re not the next Alan Sugar or Richard Branson, many of us would recognise in ourselves a certain pride at not admitting our weaknesses, not asking for help even when we need it, and hating to feel dependent on others.
But dependence on the care of others isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In a very real sense, we all are dependent upon each other – the ideal of self-sufficiency depicted in ‘The Good Life’ is, for the vast majority of people in this country, something they would neither want nor be able to achieve! The groceries we buy come from all over the world, and it has taken literally hundreds of people to get them from the tree or the ground via the exporters and importers, the factories, the wholesalers and the supermarkets to get them into our kitchen cupboards. This is a very good time of year to reflect on this process, because 6 to 19 March is Fairtrade Fortnight (see later in the magazine for more details), and although we may sometimes feel that the poorest people of the world are dependent on us for their survival, we are also dependent on them for some of the food and other products that we often take for granted.
This dependency on each other is also something more personal: as human beings, we have a responsibility to be attentive to the needs of others, so that they may never have to reach the point of asking for help, because we will already have offered it: this applies just as much to our neighbours in Godmanchester as it does across the continents in our attitude towards third-world farmers.
But this is also a good time of year to reflect on our dependence on God. The season of Lent, which starts on 1 March this year, and runs through to Easter, is a time when Christians remember not only the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness, but also the forty years that the people of God spent in the wilderness many hundreds of years before. While the Israelites were wandering in that barren wasteland, with no way of growing their own food, God provided them ‘manna from heaven’ (probably a sort of fast-growing edible mushroom) every morning – enough food for the day ahead. But if they tried to keep the manna overnight, it went rotten! This taught them a very important lesson: that they could trust God absolutely and that they were, really and truly, dependent on his love and his grace.
Lent has traditionally been a time when people give up things – whether it’s chocolate or something more unusual. The idea of this is not just to lose a few pounds (though I am hoping to do that, too!), but to get rid of a few of the ‘props’ that make us feel we are doing OK on our own, so that we are then free to realise that independence isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and that God longs for us to depend on him.
Yours in Christ,
Ally Barrett
The Sundays of February bring us to a short period between Epiphany and Lent known as Ordinary Time. There is a much longer period of Ordinary Time later in the year between Pentecost and the Kingdom Season, but for us now February is a month in which we stand between the festivities of Christmas and the seriousness of Lent.
But before the time of Lenten preparation begins, we have these four weeks of Ordinary Time. The colour for Ordinary Time is green. Our service booklets are green, the priest's vestments are green, the various hangings in the church are green. They are all a reminder that this Church season is about growth — the growth of our faith and understanding and the growth of our commitment to Christ, both as individuals and as a church community.
Each year at this time we have a service for Education Sunday. This is a national day of prayer and celebration for everyone involved in the world of education, and it has been celebrated in this country every year since 1878. It is the day when churches join to offer to God the work of education, in schools of all kinds, in colleges and universities and in the church. It is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of education, to recognise the challenges, and to support and pray for all who are involved with teaching.
This year Education Sunday falls on 12 February, and at the 9.45 Eucharist the preacher will be Mrs Anthea Kenna, head teacher at St Anne's School. We look forward very much to hearing what she has to share with us about her work here in Godmanchester.
We often associate education and learning with children and schools, but in fact all of us have opportunities to learn all the time ina variety of situations. Learning doesn't stop when we leave school — and the Church is one of the many places we come to learn. Sunday by Sunday the readings and sermon offer opportunities for reflection and challenge, not only for the adults, but also for the teenagers in the Vestry Group who disappear for twenty minutes after the Gospel reading for their own time of discussion. The members of Children's Church look at these same readings and do their own reflecting and craft work, which they share with us at the end of the service.
We also have weekday opportunities for learning, especially through the Emmaus Home Groups, which meet fortnightly for Bible study, discussion and prayerful fellowship, and through the Foundations Groups for those who would like to explore the basics of Christianity. Meeting once a month are the Bible Study Group and the Prayer Group — both providing opportunities for growth. The forthcoming season of Lent provides weekly study groups — see the details later in the magazine. There is, too, our newly-named group for under-fives and their carers, now called Stepping Stones, which meets at the Baptist Centre at 1.30 pm each Monday in term time.
Each of these activities provides us with opportunities to listen to God's word and to develop healthy attitudes towards God, towards others and towards ourselves. They are built on our conviction that in his earthly ministry Jesus was a wonderful teacher, whose life continues to inspire and teach us today.
The weeks of Ordinary Time are a good time for us each to consider the growth of our own Christian faith. Any member of the ministry team can tell us more about the opportunities for learning and growth in our own church. After all it's what these green Sundays are all about.
Yours in Christ,
Pat Saunders
Dear Friends
Why do St Thomas' and St Bartholomew's (Bart's) hospitals in London have those names? Because they were once run by the Church: hospitals were attached to monastries. These days, hospital staff wear sensible functional clothes and have sensible managerial titles. When I worked in a hospital 50 years ago, nurse wore attractive headdresses and the senior ones were called 'Sister'. Why – because their predecessors were nuns. Healing has always been part of the function of the Church.
Once society became Christian, all sorts of activities – medicine, social care, marriage preparation, bereavement counselling – were taken over by the State and by voluntary organisations. That's good. Each of these activities deserves specialists and there is no way a parish priest can fulfil all of them in the detail the specialists can. If you need your appendix removed, the Vicar is probably not the person to wield the scalpel. Knowledge gets more complicated as the years go by.
That does not mean that the Church is now irrelevent – and it is unfortunate that some folk think it is. One of the current, and helpful, buzzwords is 'holistic'. When I was a boy, doctors treated the disease and seemed to regard the patient as an encumbrance. Now we talk to, and enjoy, each other – and the patient gets better more quickly. Patients are thought of holistically – as whole people.
Part of the wholeness is spiritual and it is clear that there is a huge hunger for spirituality. You need only to look at the bookshelves in WH Smith to see that – and to see the dead ends people go for because they can't see anything better. We ought to love them enough to offer them something more.
I read somewhere that the church in St Marylebone has regular healing services and also has a healing centre, which includes clergy, a psychotherapist and a medical practice. They really do offer something holistic, and they sound like the inspiration for some of Susan Howatch's recent religious novels – which are well worth reading. We are not there yet, but we have started on that road.
We held a well-attended service in September, and the next is at 11.30 on 8 January. The format will be much the same. There will be some Bible, some prayers and a homily. That's not different from what we do at any service. There will be a time when we can pray by ourselves – as we may well do quite normally while we and others receive communion.
During that time, some may want to receive the laying on of hands or to be annointed. Actually, the laying on of hands is quite normal too: it happens every week at the 9.45, but then it is limited to those who are not confirmed. But why should I be left out, just because I have been confirmed? Anointing happens in public whenever there is a baptism or confirmation; and in private for the sick and dying. But why should I be left out, just because I am already confirmed, and not yet dying?
So what went on in September, and what will happen in January, is about making people whole. I expect we have all read our Gospels well enough not to need telling that making people whole was part of the ministry of Jesus – and it is the privilege of all of us, clergy and lay, to continue that.
Jeremy Craddock
Assistant Priest