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Parish Magazine Clergy Letters 2010
Clergy Magazine Letter - December 2010
Dear friends,For the last few weeks I've been doing something many of you know all about. I've been “downsizing”. I mean getting rid of much of my furniture, books and other possessions that have accompanied me for a long time on my journey. You see I'm leaving here in January to move to my much smaller retirement flat at Littlestone-by-sea and I know I have to be ruthless but it's hard work. It's not just arduous physically but also quite draining in other ways too.
Mementoes from the homes of parents and grandparents, as well as all sorts of “stuff” from my own life is being picked over and then discarded. Some has been sold, some given away, some burned or binned. I have a strange mix of emotions. There is a feeling of having really achieved something as another cupboard, or box from the loft is cleared, but there is also a feeling of sadness as something which has been kept for a long time now has to go.
The whole process has made me reflect on just how easily we become attached to “things” and yet how insignificant those “things” really are. I'm reminded of the time a friend gave up all that she owned in order to become a nun and how aghast I was as she gave everything away. Yet there was a little bit of envy in me too, because I saw her gaining a sort of freedom to focus her life entirely on building relationship and not on possessions any more.
This month we prepare for a festival which so often seems to centre on getting more and more things. Things which our advertisements tell us we really must have if we are going to be happy this Christmas; from the most trendy toys for the children to the very best food and drink for their parents. I wonder if we've rather missed the point.
It seems to me that the emphasis being made by Jesus' birth was that our God cares about people and wants to show them himself through a real human relationship. We read in the letter to the early Christians at Philippi of Jesus being “poured out”, “emptying himself”, “becoming like a slave” (who had nothing) in order to show us what God was like, and we Christians believe he wants us to continue to show his love through all our human relationships too. So of course, we shall celebrate this holiday (holy day) with good food and presents shared with our family and friends. But also how about finding some time this year to demonstrate our belief that relationships come first and it's relationships that last, long after all the “things” are worn out , used up or thrown away .
Maybe you could pick up the phone and spend some time chatting to a friend or relation you've neglected for a while, but who you know will not see many people over the Christmas period. Or maybe you could pop round for a short visit to a neighbour or someone you know who is house bound. Is this perhaps the time to heal a rift amongst family or friends? There are so many ways we could make this Christmas an occasion to strengthen relationships, rather than just accumulate more stuff.
May God bless you and yours as you celebrate a very special birth.
With much love and best wishes for a very Happy Christmas
Gill
Back to TopClergy Magazine Letter - November 2010
Dear friends,“Love never fails. It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres.”
The next few weeks are going to be filled with excitement and celebration for Mirjam and myself. No, it is not the prospect of the forthcoming performance of the Great American Songbook, or the promise of an evening of fun and entertainment with the Lacey Theatre Company, not even fireworks night. WE ARE GETTING MARRIED!
In fact, as you are reading these words, we are probably still sipping some tequila or pina colada on the Mexico Caribbean coast. These few weeks of 'gentle' partying will start with a Registry office ceremony in Bishop's Palace in Maidstone on the fourteenth of October, followed by a church blessing in Delft on the twenty third of October, and will culminate with a thanksgiving service back home in Staplehurst, on the sixth of November.
“Love never fails. It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres.”
As Mirjam and I were busy designing our wedding invitations, we chose to include these words of St Paul on both the invitations and the service order. Love never fails. Is it just wishful thinking? Is it not a bit naive of us to think that? Certainly this can only be a recipe for catastrophe.
In a recent conversation, a friend who has just experienced the most tragic break in her marriage challenged what she saw as naive optimism. Her experience of love is one of failure, betrayal, mistrust and abandonment. How can we claim that love never fails when, in her case (and many others), it clearly does?
Her remark caused us to think further about our reasons for including these words. As we discussed and pondered further, it seemed to us that choosing those words was more a case of realism than optimism. We are under no illusion that our love, our relationship is fragile and subject to failure. However, we want to believe that love, as an expression of God, can be the bond that holds us together.
I recently came across the words of the American theologian Isabel Carter Heyward. Describing the Christian vocation, she writes: “When a human being reaches out to comfort, to touch, to bridge the gap separating each of us from everyone else, God comes to life on that act of reaching, of touching, of bridging. The act is love and God is love. And when we love, we God.”
Of course, our relationships falter and break down. There is no denying that feelings and sentiments can fade and disappear. But love, I would like to suggest, is more than butterflies in the stomach and more than on cloud nine.
Love, in the Christian scriptures, is not a noun but a verb. It is an action that is always turned towards the other, not merely to satisfy needs and desires, but to allow full and shared humanity to thrive.
As I consider with excitement the prospect of getting married, I sincerely hope that there will be, in this relationship, plenty of room for love, plenty of room for God. Furthermore, I wish that we, in Staplehurst, may create enough room to reach out, to comfort, to touch, to bridge the gap separating each of us from everyone, to God.
Lusa
Back to TopClergy Magazine Letter - October 2010
Dear friends,The deadline for this month's parish magazine material was the eve of the 9/11 anniversary and, as I write this letter, there is one big news story filling our TV screens and our papers. Pastor Terry Jones, from a tiny, previously unknown Pentecostal church in Florida has decided to burn “The Koran” as a protest. As I put pen to paper (or rather finger to keyboard) fear mounts as to whether he will, or will not, carry out this threat and just what the ramifications of this would be not just in America, but throughout our whole world.
I reflect yet again on our attitude to “Religion”. Since I was ordained I, like many of my fellow priests, often find myself in the hot spot on social occasions when people, who are not adherents of any particular faith want to express their views on “Religion and all its failings” and there are usually two main opinions expressed.
The first is that those calling themselves Christians are moralistic, judgemental and arrogant in claiming they are “right”. They are seen as people who take the high ground on ethical issues and do a lot of finger wagging, whilst living lives which in no way exhibit such high standards. We are sometimes described as hypocrites, although people are usually far too polite to say that over a convivial gin and tonic!
The second view, often expressed with reference to our Archbishop, Rowan Williams, is that we are a wishy-washy lot of people who never really take any particular stand on anything any more. We have lost our cutting edge and what the church today needs is people who stand up in public, make a clear stand on what is wrong and what is right, drawing our nation back into a decent way of living.
And what often makes me smile is that those two conflicting views are so often expressed by the same person. Oh dear! It seems we just can't get it right for our critics.
The solution for me is to go back to the four gospel stories - the core of our Christian belief, where we see the one we believe had got it right. Interestingly he did say some harsh words and he did do quite a bit of finger wagging but it was only against the religious people and scholars of his day who thought they were so much better than everyone else and were always banging on about rules, to the exclusion of any real compassion. In all the stories about what Jesus did and said, we see gentleness and empathy, with a real love and understanding of people who were feeling lost one way or another. He challenged and he questioned, but he lived out that lovely maxim “the best criticism of the bad is the living out of the better”. I think I know what he would have said to Pastor Terry Jones and think that sometimes (!) I know what he is saying to me.
Attacking “the other” with violent words or actions has so often been where our religious practice has gone wrong. Try reading St Luke's gospel in a modern version, in one sitting if possible, and I think you'll see what I mean.
Gill
Back to TopClergy Magazine Letter - September 2010
Dear friends,Recently I heard a story from another parish in our diocese which really made me think.
A corner of a country churchyard had become a rubbish dump. For generations the flower ladies, as those tending graves had thrown dead flowers into this far corner and there were little poly bags of dog mess there and all kinds of paper and plastic rubbish. The growing heap had almost reached a number of children's graves.
So the members of the church organised a working party to level and seed the site, plant some rose bushes and place a new bench to face the beautiful view.
Shortly after this purge, one Friday morning, the handful of people attending morning prayer found a small tent pitched in precisely this corner. It belonged to a young man from the nearby town whose life had fallen apart. He had lost his job, his partner, and his young son, and needed some time to reflect before moving on to find a new life elsewhere. It was agreed with the community warden that he could stay over the weekend. We'll call him “James”.
That Sunday happened to be the Annual Parish Church Meeting followed by a bring-and-share lunch. James was invited. He came and talked to lots of people. He returned for choral evensong, sharing in the singing and listening intently to the sermon. Afterward one member of the congregation invited him home for a shower. She and her husband had a friend coming to supper. James joined them and was given a warm, comfortable and dry bed for the night. He was profoundly grateful and on Monday morning packed his tent and left the village.
What a wonderful story of Christian acceptance and hospitality. But sadly that wasn't the end of the story!
At the next PCC meeting all hell broke loose. There was talk of children's graves being desecrated; local people being put at risk, and especial outrage that the rubbish heap that had just been banished from the spot was replaced that weekend by James and his tent.
How often we churchgoers lose sight of what we are here for, and indeed, of the “good news” we can talk about so easily, but don't always exhibit by the way we live.
No wonder Jesus told that story with the punch-line - “For when I was hungry you gave me food; when thirsty you gave me drink; when I was a stranger you took me into your home; when naked you clothed me; when I was ill you came to my help and when in prison, you visited me. Truly I tell you: anything you did for one of my brothers here, however insignificant, you did for me”.
Do we practice what we preach?
With much love
Gill
Back to TopClergy Magazine Letter - August 2010
Dear friends,As I write this letter to you I am caught between worrying about last week and worrying about next week. Maybe you know the feeling? You see, there are all sorts of things that have cropped up in the last few days which are cause for concern and need my response. Then, there is also a pile of papers on the floor of my study which need sorting and reading before my trip to York tomorrow for what looks like being one of the most challenging meetings of our General Synod. And, of course, on my return there will be the church fete to get ready for, and... and... and... !
I wonder how many of you find your waking hours are spent mostly worrying about what has happened or worrying about what will happen. I have the feeling I am not alone. Those of us of an anxious disposition often seem incapable of fully engaging with the here and now. Even those who are not quite so anxious probably spend a good deal of their lives looking backwards or forwards, with pleasure or regret.
Maybe people like me, need to be reminded every so often of Brother Lawrence. Nicholas Herman of Lorraine was born of peasant stock in 1614. Poverty and despair drove him into the army, where he was assured of board and lodging. The sight of a winter tree bereft of leaves brought about his conversion when he was 18 years old. Then, leaving the army disabled from an injury, and seeking more of God, he entered a monastery in Paris as Brother Lawrence. He was set to work as a skivvy in the cookhouse, and later the sandal repair shop.
Of course the monastic life revolved around the rhythm of organized prayer times, but Brother Lawrence revolutionised this idea. He found a new way of praying which has become known as “Practising the presence of God in the present moment”. He said, “The time of business does not differ with me from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”
So for us, he suggests prayer isn't just the attending of the Sunday Eucharist or a hurried morning or evening prayer. It is a continuing commentary on all that we see, hear and experience each day. Sometimes its just holding out to God for a second or two, the thoughts or people running through our minds. I am reminded of one retired parishioner who said she said her prayers of intercession as she watched the needy places and people on the TV screen. And what about the spontaneous hymn of praise when you see something of real beauty. Some experiences might evoke a comment to God about injustice or we might just want to have a moan to him. Maybe we can't let go of something we said or did and a quick prayer of penitence could clear the air.
St. Paul said that we should pray without ceasing. That sounds impossible, but maybe it isn't if we follow Brother Lawrence's approach. Savouring the moment and holding it out to God sounds a much wiser way of living than constantly worrying about the past and the future.
With much love
Gill
Back to TopThe Pastoral Letter - July 2010
Dear friends,Being given the opportunity and privilege of writing the monthly letter for the Parish Magazine is not one that I would have anticipated even a few years ago. The reason I am doing so lies in the fact that, if all goes according to plan, on the 18th July I will be licensed by Bishop Trevor in the Cathedral as a Reader in the diocese.
For the last three years I have been studying, writing essays, attending seminars and tutorials, all those things that I had thought I had long put behind me, to gain the necessary diploma. I will admit, it's been a struggle at times, but I have been wonderfully supported by Gill and my local group drawn from the congregation.
So, as Lesley enjoys what we all hope is a long and happy retirement on the golf course and in the wee church at Pitlochry, I shall be trying in some way to continue her role in the teaching and preaching ministry, which is what the office of Reader is all about.
On Sunday 6th June, D-Day, there was a Service of Remembrance for the airmen who operated from Staplehurst Advanced Landing Ground in 1944, and an official unveiling of a memorial commemorating them. The fields adjacent to Chickenden Farm were home to men from Squadron No's. 401, 411 and 412 RCAF and 363rd Fighter Group 9th USAAF in the run-up to D-Day. The creation of the memorial is the work of a team led by Ted Sergison, to “provide a focus for pilgrimage and remembrance for years to come.”
And it is right that those who travelled thousands of miles and laid down their lives to defend the freedoms that we all too readily take for granted, should be remembered and honoured “before endeavours fade”. Every year we pay homage with wreaths laid in St. George's Chapel on Remembrance Sunday, but it is very fitting that this permanent memorial dignifies the now peaceful place from which they went forth.
“Greater love has no man than this”, Jesus said, “that he lay down his life for his friends”. As Christians, we believe that Jesus laid down his life for all of us, to free us from tyranny, not the tyranny of a perverted ideology, but the tyranny of our own selfish natures.
A few weeks ago, I was very privileged to meet another airman who took part in that conflict, Stuart Sendall-King. If you were to ask the average person which was the world's busiest airline, I very much doubt if you would get the correct answer, which is MAF, the Mission Aviation Fellowship; yet, on average, every three minutes, somewhere in the world, a MAF light plane takes off carrying vital medical supplies, personnel and cargo to “reach the unreachable”. Stuart, you see, was one of a number of Christian airmen who had the vision and the call to use their skills, born in conflict and destruction, to “beat their swords into ploughshares”, to use aircraft to reach and aid people in hours in situations where the time of delivering help was previously measured in weeks, owing to impassable jungles, mountains and swamps. His book, “Hope has Wings” is a wonderful account of that mission. You should read it.
Peace be with you,
Kevin
Back to TopClergy Magazine Letter - June 2010
Dear friends,Last month, I spent ten days staying in a friend's flat on the south coast of Brittany. The flat overlooks the tiny fishing harbour of St Jacques with a suntrap of a balcony. It was a real holiday or “holy day” - a time set apart for doing nothing much, except for recharging rundown batteries.
For many hours each morning we lounged on the balcony and did practically nothing. We watched. We listened. Sometimes we felt the intense warmth of the sun and sometimes the chill of the breeze. I am reminded of St Benedict's instructions at the beginning of his “Rule of life” for his monks, “Listen my child, with the ear of your heart”.
We spent time watching the sky, monitoring the tides, listening to the halliards rattling against the masts of the myriad of tiny craft moored below us. When the tide was out, we watched the shrimpers and people scavenging all over the rocks in their waders, hunting for shell fish. When the tide was in, we watched the crew of the little fishing boats emptying their crab and lobster pots.
Picking up my reading material seemed like a really energetic exercise! But whilst there I read a story which spoke to me then, and continues to speak to me in the busyness to which I have now returned. Maybe it will speak to you.
At a Metro station in Washington DC, a man started to play the violin. It was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During the rush hour it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station. After three minutes a middle aged man stopped for a few seconds and then hurried on. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip tossed into the box by a woman without slowing her stride. A few moments later someone leaned against the wall to listen, but after looking at his watch began to walk quickly on his way. The one who paid most attention was a three year old boy. His mother hurried him along but the child stopped in front of the violinist. Reluctantly the boy was dragged away looking back all the time.
During the 45 minutes that the musician played, only six people stopped and stayed for a while. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one applauded him or showed any sign of recognition. The violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the world's finest musicians. He had played some of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million. The event was organised by “The Washington Post” as part of a social experiment about perception, and the priorities of people.
I have a feeling I'm not the only one who, in our frenetic multi-tasking world, needs to stop, to look and to listen if we are to hear the beautiful music all around each one of us. What a gift!
Have a good summer
Gill
Back to TopClergy Magazine Letter - May 2010
Dear friends,“Hi, stranger!”
“Are you a visitor to our church today?”
“Hang on a minute; I think I've met you before...”
I've been getting some ironic comments about not being at church much lately! A friend explained over coffee: “John, we know what Gill and Lusa are up to, and we're kept up to date with how Steve and Kevin's training is going, but no-one really knows what you're doing”.
So what am I doing? Well, I only do vicaring part time, usually on a Sunday. Otherwise, I'm a full-time student at the University of Kent doing a research project for the Diocese of Canterbury - studying church growth and decline. Let me explain.
The loss of £800 million during the 1980's recession meant that the Church of England no longer had excess funds to pay for churches, ministers or admin. From then on, it needed to manage resources very carefully, plan for growth and rely on income from the giving of its members. Strategic changes were made to do this, but the last 20 years has still seen decline:
| Usual Sunday Attendance, 1989-2007 *** | ||||||
| Church of England | Diocese of Canterbury | |||||
| Year | Adults | Under-16s | Total | Adults | Under-16s | Total |
| 1989 | 921,000 | 234,500 | 1,155,500 | 17,200 | 4,600 | 21,800 |
%  down |
-20% | -44% | -25% | -15% | -37% | -20% |
| 2007 | 736,000 | 132,200 | 868,200 | 14,600 | 2,900 | 17,500 |
If these trends were to continue, the Church of England would be struggling to survive by 2050, so we have to find a way to turn it around. However, there are exceptions to decline. Some dioceses, churches and services are growing. I'm studying both the decline and the growth to try and find out precisely what the underlying factors are. Then I'll make some recommendations to the diocese which they can use to shape future strategy, if they want.
So what have I found so far? Loads! But here are perhaps the two most important:
First, about 95% of churchgoers went to church as children. An adult faith is closely linked to a childhood church experience. But, as you can see from the table above, child churchgoing is plummeting. In the future, there will be fewer and fewer adults with a childhood faith to return to. The church has to be better at attracting families with children.
Right now, about 23% of the adult population in England have never been to church, apart from occasions like weddings or funerals. But this proportion is growing. At current rates, it would be 32% in 2020, and 55-62% by 2050. Yet only 5% of churchgoers don't have a churchgoing childhood. The church must get better at connecting with people with no faith background.
Second, a picture of growing churches is beginning to emerge. They are churches in all kinds of different settings, but which are marked by:
- a culture in which newcomers feel welcomed, valued, and at home;
- inspiring worship;
- a sense of significance from belonging to the Christian community being nourished;
- support being given in times of major life-change;
- leaders who can inspire both community and mission;
- a clear mission focus;
- an understanding that discipleship, including the giving of time, skills and money, is integral to Christian identity.
John Walker
*** Source: Research and Statistics Unit of the Archbishops' Council, and used with permission. Data for 2001 onwards is freely available from: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/statistics/churchstatisticslink.html We don't yet have the final figures for 2008.
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Rector's Magazine Letter - April 2010
Dear friends,I could tell you a story about cards and candles; about parties and presents; about turkey and tinsel ....
But I want to tell you a story about the source of creative energy in our universe, emptying himself of his power to make himself vulnerable as one of us; sharing our lot; laughing and crying; sometimes hungry and tired; enjoying parties and experiencing pain; walking our earth; much like you and me.
And I could tell you a story about bunnies and hot cross buns; about fluffy chicks and chocolate eggs ....
But I want to tell you a story about betrayal, denial, abuse and torture, countered by gentleness and steadfast, unwavering love, where even death could not overcome goodness; where new life broke out.
And I could tell you a story about a church obsessed with its own internal concerns and rivalries; a divided community where factions hold on to historic animosities; where anger festers; where people's pains are ignored and where power games are played out; where no one trusts the other ....
But I want to tell you a story about a body of “Easter people” who, losing themselves, reach out to each other and to those way outside their circle; with open arms of acceptance and gestures of love, made even to the most unlovable; where people are more important than projects; where all acknowledge their own brokenness and inadequacy, yet work together for the common good, pooling their strengths; where people disagree without being disagreeable; where hope abounds.
I can hear some saying,
“Dream on!”
But I can hear others saying,
“That is a group we'd like to join. Show it to us please!”
HAPPY EASTER
and much love
Gill
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Clergy Magazine Letter - March 2010
Dear friends,Do this in remembrance...
Kseniya Simonova is a 24-year old Ukrainian artist who won “Ukraine's Got Talent” with a sand animation. Yes, that's right, she draws pictures in sand. She uses an illuminated sand board and sculpts swiftly changing images with nothing but her hands to the accompaniment of sounds and music. She's good; very good. But what also won her the big prize was her choice of subject. During World War 2, it's estimated that about 1 in 4 Ukrainians died. Such immense loss means that it's not just a subject for the history books, it's written into the personal story of every Ukrainian family. Kseniya's 8 minute animation tells the story of that loss as she portrays the effect of Germany conquering Ukraine in the Second World War.
Life and hope struggles with despair and death. A couple on a bench become the woman's face, fearful of war, but joyful at the birth of their child. A peaceful park is consumed by conflagration. A confident young woman becomes an old woman weeping with grief before morphing into a monument to an unknown soldier. A mother and child take leave of a father through a window, his hands pressed to the glass. Simonova oozes anger at the relentlessness of destruction as she destroys and recreates her scenes and, with deft strokes, sprinkles and sweeps, keeps the narrative moving. The lighting and extinguishing of a candle marks the performance as a sacramental moment. Audience and judges alike are moved to tears as she subtitles the final scene “You are always near”. Watch it - it's unmissable 1.
What struck me was how many younger people on the show were tearful. They saw the images and knew what they meant. Although now some 60 years in the past, they were connected with this history - the memory of memories shared was real, moving, meaningful. I wondered how many British young people would have been so affected if this had been a contestant on “Britain's Got Talent”. We seem more disconnected here, despite the efforts of school and church each November.
The memories and meaning of faith too, like those of a nation, become disconnected if it's stories are not told with passion or heard as being of vital importance to the storyteller; as defining the life we now have. Parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters - tell your faith stories to children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, siblings. And, unless you want our Christian heritage to entirely disappear, bring them to church. It is a powerhouse of faith stories, ancient and new. Too many parents argue, “we'll let them decide when they're older”. But people rarely choose things which are of no importance to those they look up to or that they know nothing about. Consider this:
- Only 7% of churchgoers never went as children. Many return later in life to a faith they once knew. Few embrace an unknown faith 2.
- 14.5% of under-15s attended church in 1979. By 2005 that had dropped to 6.95% and is probably 6% by now. Fewer and fewer of today's children will have a faith to return to 3.
- Christian values are connected with Christian belonging. For example, British Social Attitude research suggests that:
- adults aged 18-34 who have no religion are 9 times more likely to be financially dishonest than 18-34 year olds who are regular churchgoers, and 2-and-a-half times more likely to be racially prejudiced;
- regular churchgoers are almost twice as likely to give money for the relief of the starving or sick overseas than people with no religion;
- as churchgoing rates have fallen over the years, so the incidence of these kind of values has become rarer 4.
Revd John Walker
1 Watch it on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518XP8prwZo. Don't forget to turn your sound on.
2 British Social Attitudes Survey, 1998 [computer file]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive [distributor], June 2000. SN: 4131.
3 Peter Brierley, ed., UK Christian Handbook Religious Trends No. 6 - 2006/2007 (London: Christian Research, 2006), p.12.3, Table 12.3.4.
4 Robin Gill, Churchgoing and Christian Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), especially pp.180, 188-89.
Back to TopRector's Magazine Letter - February 2010
Dear friends,The parish magazine is a wonderful resource isn't it? So many times when I've been searching for the details of a local firm, tradesman or therapist, its to the parish mag, that I've been directed. It happened only yesterday, when a friend needed to know the phone number of our local physiotherapist.
Whatever papers, journals or magazines we read, I guess there are bits we read assiduously, bits we really value and bits to which we do not give a second glance. For some in our village, I know the list of prayer topics for each month fall into the latter category. Many also find it extremely strange that we should have a rotation of prayer prompts for our local roads.
Yet those lists are important to those of us who try to focus our hearts and minds on others in the times we pray. We try to widen our focus of concern by using such lists. We use cycles of prayer in our regular 8.00am weekday morning prayers in church. I find it helpful to have my vision widened by such tools, rather than just holding out to God my personal concerns or those of my family or friends. It is said “Prayer changes things” and, for me, the first thing it often changes is my attitude to situations I find myself considering. I knew one elderly lady who told me how she always prayed after the 9.00 o'clock news as she sat in her chair and entered some of the remote, troubled places in our world by following the stories on her TV screen.
Its impossible to explain to anyone what the efficacy of prayer is, or how it works. But for many of us (churchgoers or not) a regular time of stillness and reflection enables us to try to attune our wills to God's. It is a vital component of our daily life. Many of you reading this, like me, will know how it has felt to know you are upheld by the prayers of others during tough times. Meditation techniques and prayer patterns vary so much from religion to religion and person to person. I remember a young Buddhist with whom I worked. He always spent two hours chanting before he came to work. He told me how his chants helped him focus on different personal, national, or international concerns. Maybe you do your reflecting over the ironing, or when walking the dog, or when having a long soak in the bath. Prayer does not have to fit any formula and I value the old adage, “pray as you can and not as you can't”.
What I am sure of, is that all of us need some “down time”. It's during the times when I've stopped rushing about and let my mind be still that I have often become aware of new possibilities and opportunities on my journey. Some would say it's only then that God can get a word in edgeways!
So maybe you could take a prayer topic from the list if it seems helpful; or perhaps hold a particular part of our village in your thoughts this week; or how about trying to take 5 minutes each day doing absolutely nothing. Our newly refurbished St George's Chapel at “All Saints” is open each day for anyone and everyone to use for just such an exercise.
With much love ..
Gill
Back to TopCurate's Letter - January 2010
Dear friends,It has been a long time coming, but now the beautiful game is heading South. In six months, long after we have all sobered up from the New Year festivities, the eyes of the world will all be focused on the African continent for the football World Cup. Soon, our radio waves will be invaded by our favourite World Cup anthems, our headlines filled with tales of past glory and future hopes, and our sport pundits will once more tell us why England has got the best chances to win. Let's hope they are right this time. It is just a simple thing, a ball and a goal, but, once every four years, that simple thing changes the world. It is a simple thing that fills us with passion and pride, giving respect and hope to countries and often achieving more than politicians ever could. This year, the nation of South Africa has the honour of hosting the event. It will be a wonderful opportunity for the Rainbow Nation to put on show what it has best.
When travelling around South Africa, one is struck by the beauty and diversity of the landscape. It is without any doubt one of the most exciting places I have visited so far. South Africans are a beautiful, passionate, hard working and proud nation. Despite the years of apartheid, the people of SA have been able to rise and own a new identity. There is in this country such a vital energy that inexorably attracts and mesmerizes whoever sets foot in it. For those like me, fascinated by cultural variety and diversity, South Africa will give you a good run for your money. Food, music, traditions, history, it is all in abundant supply for a starving mind. The Rainbow Nation really lives up to most expectations.
However, South Africa is certainly not the peaceful haven it often appears to be. Underneath this veneer of comfort, prosperity and unity, lies another reality to the African dream. A reality carved by years of segregation, abuse and injustices of all kind that have left a nasty wound on this beautiful part of the world. This ugly face of South Africa is too often encountered in a rampant violence that finds its way into people's lives through so many different ways. The efforts of the post apartheid governments to level the social divide through policies such as the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has certainly borne fruits for an increasing minority of blacks, turning South Africa into a land of opportunities. But for a great majority of the children of that land life is still a daily battle for survival.
South Africa has an uphill journey before it is able to bridge the racial and social divide deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of its people during those long dark years of discrimination. The inspiring ideal of a Rainbow Nation will, I am sure, become a reality in the near future, as most South Africans are willing to be part of this wind of change and embrace whole heartedly this amazingly crazy dream. Today, the Rainbow Nation may be true on paper only, but a new dawn of hope has risen on the land of the South and her children, blacks, whites, coloured and Indians, rich and rich to be, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Sotho, Venda, Tsonga, Ndebele, Swazi, and Afrikaners, all will be gathered in one, prosperous and equal society.-. somewhere over the rainbow.
The challenges faced by South-Africans is in fact not foreign to our own experience. In our streets, our churches, our homes we are constantly confronted by differences; social, ethnic, religious, gender or sexual orientation. Unfortunately, those differences often prevent us seeing and embracing the person behind the mask. My hope and prayer is that as we enjoy 2010 (and hopefully celebrate England's victory in July), we will not simply try to iron out our differences but, holding together, allow our own Rainbow to become a reality beyond which our humanity can flourish.
As the song says: There's a place for us, a time and place for us. Hold my hand and we're half way there. Hold my hand and I'll take you there somehow, someday, somewhere! (“Somewhere - A Place for Us” by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim).
Happy New Year. Bonne Annee. Gelukkig Nieuwjaar. Heri Za Mwaka Mpya.
Yours in Christ,
Lusa
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