Priest's Corner
February's Message from Revd. Peter
Dear All,
Here we already into the third week of 2012, where does the time go?
I suppose that we have had about one sixth of Adam's sabbatical. It has been, to say the very least, an interesting time so far. As with the rest of you all I can do is to grit my teeth, as it were, and get on with the job. Needless to say this period after Christmas has been busy on the funeral front, although I am pleased to say that there have been enquiries about baptisms, but none for marriages.
By the time you receive the February edition of this magazine, our editor should be married to Ian and I pray that all has gone well. We send them our good wishes and prayers for a very happy future.
In addition we will have celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and will be looking forward to Lent, Easter (and Adam's return on Palm Sunday). On the question of Lent may I suggest that you start thinking about how you will mark this time. If you are anything like me it will pop up out from nowhere and the mind will be a complete blank. Well, I have now reminded you and by implication myself. The next thing will be to do something about it!
The two ideas that I have for keeping Lent are either to read some devotional book (whatever interests you) and/or attend a Lent Course. In the latter case I suggest that you look out for announcements about them.
Please do not be afraid to contact me with any problems or queries, I will do my best to help.
Prayers and best wishes.
Peter.
Assistant Curate.
Christmas Message 2011
Revd. Peter Grosse's message
I have to confess two things about our reading from St John’s Gospel that you have just heard. Firstly it is one of my favourite passages from the Bible, one of those with the tingle factor. On the other hand as a mere human being it is one that I find very challenging.
The writer of John’s Gospel is seeking to put into words what he believes to be the great mystery of the Incarnation – God taking on human form and coming to earth as a tiny helpless baby. The problem is that all of us are limited by the language we use. The Gospel was written in a form of Greek that is no longer spoken and it used thought processes different from the ones we use today. You need to remember that it was written nearly 2,000 years ago.
We then have the problem that God is a being who has only been seen by people 2,000 years ago and that was in the form of Jesus. This means that we can only guess what God is like. It is probably easier to say what he is not like but at the same time we can realise some aspects of his nature, his character. We are then back to the problem of words and our own thought processes. We can only describe him using words of our language. As we all know language is not something that stands still. A word may have had a particular meaning, say 50 or 60 years’ ago but now it may be totally different. In the past my wife has made the comment that a girl in her class at school was called “Gay”. It may be that today that girl might not want to have her name with its modern connotations. A word in one language when translated into another may very well not have the same significance in that second language. Even when we nominally speak the same language such as between this Country and the United States of America there are some words which have totally different meanings in each.
In my Christmas sermon two years ago I made the point that the Scrabble Champions are only interested in the spelling of words and their value as a score in the game. They are not usually bothered about its meaning. We as Christians should be concerned with the meaning of words and how they can change our lives.
Our Gospel reading is wonderfully poetic. Could it be that it is one of those passages which we need to let speak to our hearts; to let it grow and mature within us. It is almost as if we should not try to understand it with our brains more let it become part of our whole being. We need to let God through the Holy Spirit speak to us and show us the way he wants us to go.
However, we treat our reading, it seems to me that the basic truth that the writer is seeking to convey is that God in the person of Jesus, who was the word of God or the very essence of God, came to earth as a human being. BUT let us think for a little while about all that this implies. We read in the Bible that he was born in the most basic of accommodation – it was no fancy house. It was where the animals were kept although this could be a separate building which the word stable suggests or it could be that the animals lived at one end of a building and the family at the other. Already we have the problem of words. Then we are told that his family had to flee for fear of their lives from an evil ruler; they had to live in a foreign land until the ruler died. It was only after this that they could return to their own country. Thus Jesus and his family knew what it was like to be wanted by a repressive regime, to be a refugee and an asylum seeker. No doubt they were probably homeless at various times. Surely all this has echoes of problems both in our modern society and in times past.
God experienced at first hand what it was like to be homeless, a refugee, someone who was looking for a place of safety in a foreign land. This is the God who we worship tonight and remember with thanks his birth. This is no cosy Christmas card story nice and warm. It is one of harsh reality. This is the God who loves us so much that he took on our human nature, died on the Cross for all the wrongdoings of the world and then rose again for us to prove that death has no power over him. He gives us the hope of life with him.
This may all sound very harsh and not Christmassy, but this is our God. He loves us and showed his love for us by coming to earth as a tiny, helpless baby. This is the God who wants us to love him in return and to show that love by worshipping him.
I would invite you to take our Gospel reading into your hearts and let it speak to you so that God may come to you this Christmas Time.
Revd Adam Carlill's message
Some of you may know the shortest verse in the Bible: "Jesus wept." (John 11: 35) Have you ever wondered what that meant? I mean, Jesus wept - it's a mild expletive. Does it mean that Jesus shed a small, quiet tear? Does it mean that Jesus completely broke down and sobbed his heart out? Or is it somewhere in between? The truth is, we simply don't know. We don’t know how much he cried. What we do know is that there are only two occasions when Jesus is reported to have wept: here, when his good friend had died and again, when he approached Jerusalem a few days before his death. (Luke 19: 41)
Why am I telling you this? Because at Christmas we celebrate the fact that Jesus was fundamentally human. He is, in the best sense, like you and me. He knew pain, he knew poverty, he knew anxiety. The problem is, our experience is so much more varied than what is written in the Bible. If you have ever broken down or shed a quiet tear you can read your experience into the words I just quoted. But it will still be your experience, your tears.
There is a sense in which Jesus is a peg. We can focus our own lives and choices and meanings on to him. We can hang them there and see what they look like. We can try out who we are and see how we compare. This needn't be a guilt-ridden, breast-beating, "oh-aren't-I-sinful" type process. Many aspects of our human existence are neither good nor bad, they are simply there. Feeling happy or sad, fearful or confident - there is nothing particularly moral about these things. It's just how we are. What is helpful, though, is to try to see whether Jesus might actually have been like that. And if Jesus was like that and was the Son of God (whatever that means!), if Jesus was like that, then it is ok for us to be like that too.
It seems to me that for too many years now, western religions in general, and Christianity in particular, have focused far too much energy on telling people what they shouldn't be like, and not enough energy on congratulating people for what they already are like. David Cameron the other day called for Church leaders to preach "Christian values." I'm not sure what he means by "Christian values", but when I hear calls like that I worry. I read between the lines. I look at what is not being said. Things like, "Why don't you religious people tell people off when they're bad?" Actually, so called "Christian values" are not distinctively Christian anyway. Most societies around the world think that hurting people is bad, that community is good, that we should care for the weak and so on.
What is distinctive about Christianity is that we worship somebody who was weak, who was poor, who was a refugee – remember, they had to run away to Egypt. Jesus was abused, tortured, murdered. Christianity in particular has found ultimate good in horrific situations. That's why we worship Jesus. That's why we try and see how our lives fit with his. That's why we celebrate Christmas. Jesus the baby is just as important as Jesus the man, because babies and children and people with disabilities or old age or simply faces that won’t make it onto X-Factor, are just as important as stronger people. Christians celebrate everybody for who they are, not what they might be. And that includes you. Whatever you do or do not believe, however you have lived your life so far, whatever you feel about yourself, you are unique, you are special, you are loved. The possibilities for you are endless - I have no idea what they are, and it would spoil the fun if I did.
"Jesus wept." Yes, he did. And when I weep or cry or sob I see myself in him, and him in me.
Amen.
December 2011
Dear Friends,
This is my last letter to you in the parish magazine before I go off on sabbatical for three months as I explained in my letter two months ago. My final Sunday services will be at Midnight Mass at St. George's, and on Christmas morning at St. Mary Magdalen's. I will be taking the Tuesday and Wednesday services on 27th and 28th December before taking a short holiday to mark the start of the sabbatical. I shall start back at St. George's on Palm Sunday, and at both churches in one way or another during Holy Week and Easter. During my sabbatical my phone message will direct you to Peter, Michael and Canon Brian Shenton, the Area Dean. Similarly my emails will automatically send an "out of office" reply. Before I go, though
Visit of the Bishop of Reading to St. Mary Magdalen's
I am very pleased to announce that the Bishop of Reading, The Rt. Revd. Andrew Proud, will be taking the Sunday services at St. Mary Magdalen on December 11th. He will preach and preside at both 8.00am and 9.30am on that Sunday. I am very pleased that Bishop Andrew is taking time out of his very busy schedule to be with us for an ordinary Sunday morning and I do hope you will make a special effort to come to worship with him. (I am very hopeful that Bishop Andrew will make a similar visit to St. George's some time next year.)
Announcement of Some Very Important Changes Next Year
It is with some trepidation that I write the next part of this letter, but it is about something very important so I hope you keep reading to the end! Back in October it was confirmed to me by Peter and Michael that they are both intending to retire from licensed ministry during 2012. I am hugely grateful to both of them for the years of dedicated service that they have both put in at St. George's and St. Mary Magdalen's. We have been very blessed by their hard work and commitment to their ministry, in addition to looking after children, grandchildren and holding down various paid and unpaid jobs. Following Duncan's move to what is called "permission to officiate", Michael and Peter will be asking the Bishop to make the same change, so that they can spend more time with their families. This does not mean that we will be saying goodbye to them. They, like Duncan, have indicated to me that they will be wanting to help out at St. George's and St. Mary Magdalen's. However, because they should be allowed to retire properly, it does mean that we will be facing a very different situation.
From Sunday 7th October 2012 I will be the only priest serving the two parishes in an official capacity. This means that the current service pattern will be unsustainable. Try as I might, I cannot be around to take services at 8am, 9am, 9.30am and 10.30am in two churches that are over a mile apart. Something has to give. Clergy numbers across the country are reducing drastically at the moment due to the age profile of those in ministry. This is the point where this fact hits home here.
In response to this situation I am making the following commitments.
1. I will commit to taking the main Sunday service at both churches every Sunday, with the exception of six Sundays a year when I shall be on holiday. For nine years I have been present at one of the churches and not at the other each week, and I have found this a very unsatisfactory arrangement. It is too easy for me not to notice when somebody is missing for a few weeks, and, inevitably, this has led on a number of occasions to people feeling that I don't care about them. This, of course, isn't true. I do care very much, but not having the opportunity to show that care is leading to hurt. It is time to do something about that.
2. I will commit to taking two additional weekday services, one at St. George's on Mondays and one at St. Mary Magdalen's on Thursdays.
3. I will instigate two weekly community drop-ins, one in each church hall dovetailing with the services on Mondays and Wednesdays.
In order for this to happen we will need to make the following changes.
1. The early morning Sunday services at both churches (8am at St. Mary Magdalen's, 9am at St. George's) will cease to take place from Sunday 7th October 2012. Neither of these services has a particularly large congregation and I have to focus my energies on the main services. I shall be sad to see them go, not least because my own family attends one of them regularly.
2. For me to be present properly on a Sunday, and not just rushing in, taking the service, and dashing out again, each of the two main Sunday services will need to take place in a three-hour window that allows for pastoral contact between me and the congregations before and after the service. The timings of the two three-hour windows can be any time between 8.30am-1pm or 2pm-7pm. Naturally, these sessions cannot overlap at all. This means that one church will need to be in the morning sometime, and the other one in the afternoon or early evening. What times these are and which church goes where will be the main decision that we need to make. I do not propose to make any changes to the content and form of the main Sunday services at this point, but merely to transfer them to their new time slots. That is a big enough change to deal with on its own, without making additional ones. Whichever time slots are chosen, those will be the same every week. The experience of many other churches who have gone through this process is that when the service time remains the same every week the local people find it easier to know what is going on.
3. At St. Mary Magdalen's in particular we have been experimenting with new styles of service which take place immediately after the main Sunday service. Having a full three-hour window within which the main Sunday service takes place enables experimental and occasional services to be offered in addition to the main service. For the church that takes the morning slot these can happen after the main service. For the church that takes the afternoon slot they can take place before or after. Such services can include, All Souls Day services, Baptisms, Healing services in addition to social events like teas, lunches and dinners. In all this we can be flexible which will help both newcomers and existing members who want to organise things on an ad hoc basis. Being a bit more flexible about when Baptisms take place, for instance, should mean that we will avoid the overcrowding that has occasionally happened at St. George's.
4. So far it looks as though Carlill is doing all the work! In the last few weeks I am pleased to say that two groups have stepped up to the plate to form two new ministry teams, one for each church. These are people who are already doing an awful lot of things in the churches, but they will have the task of organising, along with the churchwardens, some of the practical aspects of this new pattern of ministry. I am very encouraged by their enthusiasm for Christian service and I look forward to seeing how they develop, and to working with them on a regular basis.
Inevitably we are going to have to think long and hard about how we do this. I shall be looking to build some sort of concensus about the way forward when I get back from my sabbatical. We shall have a series of consultations beginning at the APCMs on 22nd and 29th April and running through to the end of July. During these I will take soundings from as wide a spectrum of church- and hall-users as possible about the best way forward. I do not anticipate absolute agreement between churches and individuals over this. This is too big a matter to rely on that. However, if it looks as though a strong concensus is being reached, within the parameters that I have indicated, I shall go with it. If not, I will make a decision in August about what to do and announce it at the beginning of September.
Please, while I am away, take the opportunity to imagine what this might feel like, what it might look like, what new things might grow out of it, so that, when I come back on 1st April, we can have a really good discussion about it. At this point, I do not want any feedback at all. Knee-jerk responses are not helpful and can be hurtful. As Christian people we are reasonable, gentle, patient and, above all, kind. Please remember that above all things.
Finally, may I commend all of you to God's love and protection while I am on sabbatical. May God bless you and keep you. May he make his face to shine on you and be gracious to you. May God lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace.
