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Rector's Letter - June 2008

Dear Friends,

Thanks once again to all those who contributed so generously to my “canoning” present, which I have just spent on a new toy .... my very own satnav.

Some of you may, of course, share my son's concerns which he voiced recently at one of our Sunday evening youth group meetings, to much amusement. “Mum has two areas of life she really isn't any good at. One is driving and the other is technology. If you put the two together the combination could actually be very dangerous” !!!

But I would like to tell you that actually the satnav has revolutionized my long distance driving. Instead of struggling with map in one hand and wheel in the other, as well as trying to keep one eye on the road, I can now just punch in a post code and follow the voiced instructions. It is so different and so much easier.

In the past, I've tried AA route planner, typed out from the internet. I've tried jotting down the notes people give me to their homes and I've tried a simple map book. But the number of times I have got lost is legion.

I once spent most of an afternoon driving around East Grinstead, intermittently stopping to phone up the elderly lady I was supposed to be visiting. When I described a landmark I'd reached, she kept telling me I was nearly there but she could never quite work out which way I was facing and she apparently had no knowledge of any local street names in the vicinity in which I'd stopped. Those of you who drive alone will know the problems well.

I guess there are good parallels with following a Christian way of life. Trying to live by instruction manuals which are supposed to chart the journey is mighty difficult. Even trying to get instructions from others doesn't always work very well, if they don't really know where you are or which way you are facing. Yet the great joy about the Christian faith, is that the one we try to follow actually took a very similar journey He was an ordinary human being, facing all the hazards on route through everyday life and knowing about joys and sorrows. This was the one who promised not to leave us alone but to send us one who would lead us into all truth.

I guess the real question for us today is, “How do you hear the prompts of the Holy Spirit?” Few of us would claim to hear a voice as clear as the lady on my satnav. But most of us, on this particular journey, do feel that we have sensed a guiding presence at various times in our lives. It often seems to be when we are within our church community, at worship, or study, or prayer together, that the route seems clearest. Some would say that being part of the church gives their life direction.

And don't forget that I never knew what I'd been missing till I bought a satnav!

With much love ..

Gill

Rector's Letter - May 2008

Dear Friends,

Waking to the early morning news broadcasts over the last few weeks, one could hardly fail to be aware of what is regularly referred to as the current “global credit crunch”. Interest rates, mortgage availability and falling house prices seem to dominate our thoughts.

What a far cry from the concerns of the vast majority of our world! And I am not just referring to those living in Zimbabwe with its 100,000 per cent inflation rate as our magazine goes to press. What about those in other places, who still have to walk miles each day for water, who do not know whether they will eat today, whose nearest health centre is hundreds of miles away and whose children are unlikely to get even a basic education?

Are you aware that £9.8 billion is spent each year on cosmetics in the U.S.A? .... more than double the £4.43 billion it would take to provide clean water and basic sanitation for everyone in our world?

Having worked in a developing country myself, I cannot speak highly enough of Christian Aid as an organization which helps some of the poorest people in our world. It does not just give aid. Their fieldworkers find really worthwhile local organizations helping people and then go into partnership with them, helping with the funding needed to keep them going. They range from helping women to set up their own market garden plots, to building wells, or funding relief programmes for refugees.

This year the first Sunday of Christian Aid Week falls at Pentecost. Christians across the globe will be celebrating the Holy Spirit's transforming of lives and empowering of communities by bringing them into the new life and liberty of the Risen Christ. What better time to remember those who are so disadvantaged.

Christian Aid's slogan has long been “Let's live more simply that others can simply live” So how about doing a couple of things this month.

Firstly set aside the amount now, which you could spare this month, to help those who are fighting for survival while we have so much. Have it ready to go into that envelope which will drop through your door, rather than just putting a bit of loose change in the envelope (and don't forget to “gift aid” it, by writing your name and address on the envelope).
And secondly, if you can spare just an hour or so somewhere in the week, pick up a packet of envelopes from the back of your church (all three churches in the village are involved) and get delivering.

Let's see if we, who live in this beautiful comfortable Kentish Wealden village with so much on offer, can show our gratitude and generosity this month by a bumper Christian Aid collection.

With much love ..

Gill

Rector's Letter - April 2008

Dear 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

Assistant Priest's Letter - March 2008

Dear Friends,

Win or Lose?

“I hate to lose, and I do whatever I can to win, and if it is ugly, it is ugly” - Pete Sampras

Anyone for tennis?

If so, is it only fun if you win? Writer James Alison tells a story about two families with a parent teaching a child to play tennis. They both adjust themselves to their children's level and gradually play harder and harder so that the children's strength and skill gradually grow. Neither humiliate them by thrashing them. But one wants to teach her child to win. She never lets herself be beaten and winds the child up to be really competitive by holding the prize of winning just out of reach. The other wants to teach his child to play. Sometimes he skilfully loses, without being patronising, so that the child can experience the joy of winning whilst learning that you don't have to win. That rivalry has limits. That the relationship is more important.

“Live to win, take it all, just keep fighting 'til you fall, day by day kicking all the way” - KISS vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley

Anyone for living?

All species have a deep survival instinct. They do everything they can to secure their own survival chances. That's as true of humans as it is of the Siberian tiger or the lowliest of bacteria. And so we fear death. That's why we have to win. And by winning we create losers. Or victims. Not just in big ways, but in little, daily acts of survival. And not just as individuals. The pursuit of power and material wealth creates social, economic and environmental victims. Our dread of death affects how we live, yet winning does not remove our fear. We have to learn that rivalry has limits. That relationship is more important.

“If you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you will surely find it.” - Jesus of Nazareth

Anyone for playing?

There is another way. Jesus tells us why Easter is so vital in Matthew 10:38-40. He likens the cross to the second parent who wants his child to learn to play. There, Jesus deliberately loses to those who had to win to show that it's the playing - the relationship - not the winning, that counts. To do this takes great power, the power of one who is not a rival at all - but the one in charge. And he likes those he's playing with so much that he wants them to learn to lose too. To be free from always having to win so they can just enjoy playing.

And to know that there is no need to create victims in order to survive. For with the resurrection dawns the realisation that God has nothing to do with death. So that perhaps we can learn, bit by bit, not to be driven any more by the fear of death in our living. That rivalry has limits. That relationship is more important.

Love,

John