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The Reverend Lusa Nsenga-NgoyCurateTel: (01580) 892324 Email: Not available on Fridays |
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Clergy Magazine Letter - March 2011
One fond memory I keep of my student years in Brussels is the improvised post-midnight feasts with friends who would show up at my flat unannounced and often in need of some form of feeding. Unfortunately, the fridge was not always as ready as I was to offer hospitality and comfort. Luckily, I lived just a couple of minutes walk from a corner shop that was open 24/7. Our regular visits might have given the impression that we were strange night creatures that slept during the day and only woke up to feed at night.Over ten years on, it seems that my level of endurance is much lower than it was. Now, the excess of energy and the insouciance of a responsibility-free life are a mere memory of the past. My readiness to embrace any opportunity for a good time with friends has been substituted by a more considerate use of time, with a greater respect for the post-midnight hours.
As we all consider exciting chapters of our lives, most of us have to come to terms with the harsh reality that the years have stolen some of our vitality. At the approach of Lent I cannot help but wonder, how does this compare to the journey of faith? Do we always run on a full tank? If no, how do we refill the spiritual tank?
This year, Bishop Trevor has invited us all to join with him in renewing our discipleship, the way we live our lives as followers of Christ. This Lent, in response to the Bishop's call, we will be running a course that our diocese has put together, a course which forms part of the Canterbury Diocesan 'Year of Discipleship'. The Confident disciple course, as stated on the diocese website *, aims at 'getting the Church thinking and talking about what it means to be a 'disciple' of Jesus Christ today. Learning from the Bible and from each other, people will have the opportunity to
- think more deeply about what it means to be disciples of Jesus Christ, moving beyond being just 'believers' or 'churchgoers'
- be affirmed, challenged and equipped to live out their faith 24/7
- become more excited about what a life lived with Jesus can be like
- discover appropriate resources for the journey ahead
Perhaps, as part of your own Lenten discipline, you will join our course and sample the breadth of services on offer, paying a particular attention to the variety of evening services (Eucharist with prayer for healing and wholeness, ignite, Evensong ,Taizé and Cafe Church). Hopefully, our coming together will provide you with the energy and inspiration you need to carry on the journey.
Lusa
* http://www.canterburydiocese.org/247liveit/
Download Details of our Course here..
Back to TopClergy Magazine Letter - February 2011
Dear friends,Those of you used to dealing with children know how pertinent and often challenging some (if not most) of their questions can be. These may vary from the simple “what's that?” to the more complex “how does a car run?” or the popular “why is the sky blue?” However erudite our answers may be, they never seem to fully satisfy their curiosity. One such interesting question was recently put to me by a child: ”“what language does God speak?”
There was a hot argument in Texas in the 1920s about whether Spanish should be used in the classroom to teach kids who came from Mexico, or whether only English should be permitted. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson the state's first woman governor ended the debate when she held up a Bible and allegedly proclaimed, “If the King's English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for the children of Texas!”
It seems that children are not the only ones preoccupied with the question of God's language. However, the answers provided are not always the most satisfactory. What “Ma” Ferguson and many others have not been able to realise is that any attempt to answer this question often betrays our own prejudices and bigotry.
This year sees the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James translation of the Bible (otherwise known as the Authorised Version). It has been called the noblest monument of English prose and has been praised as one of the literary works (alongside the complete works of Shakespeare and the Oxford dictionary) that has helped shape the English language and culture. Many turns of phrase and speech patterns still in use today derive from the King James Bible: “the apple of his eye”, “go the second mile”, “a thorn in the flesh” and “by the skin of the teeth”, to name but a few. As someone recently put it, the words of the King James Bible have become “all things to all men”.
Held by many as the only truly valid edition of the Bible, the Authorised Version has generated, over the years, multiple debates and arguments between its detractors and its most fervent defenders. The arguments often oscillate between the beauty of its language, for some, against its antiquity, for others; its collusion with oppression against the historical tradition it carries.
The King James translation was read in every church at every service. It is not surprising that its language passed from the pulpit to the street. It came out of the church and embedded itself in the everyday culture. Many, in the British Isles and around the world will mark this significant anniversary through a series of events. I hope that you can join us as we, at All Saints, join the celebrations within the course of the year.
Whether we return to the King James text from a faith perspective or purely for its aesthetic, we are offered an opportunity to reconnect with a part of British culture and history. Furthermore, we are given an insight into the bigger picture that the Bible narratives offer. Perhaps we might glance something of the Hebrew understanding of the Bible that believes that each letter was more than a letter, it told a story.
“What language does God speak?” By way of answer, the first chapter of the Gospel of John suggests that if God has a language, it is that of love; a love made real in God's embrace of the human condition. “The word became flesh and dwelt among us.” These words of John can resonate afresh in our ears and help us to inscribe our own narratives in the greater narrative of humanity's relationship to God.
Are we joining the debate for or against the King James Version? In the end, as the Archbishop of Canterbury puts it, the translation that matters the most is the one of our lives.
Lusa
Back to TopCurate's Letter 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
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New Curate !
Lusa, our new curate, was ordained as a Deacon on 28th June. Lusa was recently at the Lambeth Conference where he was one of the principle translators. Lusa also acted as Deacon at the Communion on Sunday 20th July assisting Archbishop Rowan Williams.
Photographs © Lambeth Conference
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