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December Letter by the Revd Mandy Flaherty, Curate to the Parish

Location. Location. Location !

Dear Friends,

In recent months I have had the privilege of visiting two different sites of huge historical significance. The first was the wonderfully preserved city of Ephesus in Turkey -- the site of Paul's controversial speech in the amphitheatre and a place forever preserved in the Christian mind as the site of one of the earliest Christian churches: a place where Paul spent two years living and working with the Ephesians. Standing in the amphitheatre or looking down the road to the amazing library, fantastically preserved. I got a huge sense of being completely linked with the past as a fellow human being, living out my life as a Christian in 2006, yet connected to the city of Ephesus in some way. even if it was only by virtue of reading Paul's letter to the Ephesians regularly in my daily readings. There was a connection with the past.

The second site I had the privilege of visiting was Ground Zero in New York City - the site where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once stood. And, of course, we all remember the day, not in the distant past. where the towers were attacked and crumbled to the ground, killing thousands and heralding a new age and a new war. Standing at Ground Zero. I had quite a different feeling. There was hardly a sense of what had happened here as the area was taken over by a huge, fenced off construction site, like any other construction site. Pictures of the heroes of 9/1 I were on the wire mesh and a lone flute played a melancholy tune that was lost in the chaos and busyness of New Yorkers and tourists going about their business. I had not expected it to be a special place actually and I was not surprised or disappointed by its mundane and chaotic appearance. The grandeur of the two twin towers was certainly lost as was any sense of reflection on the event or macabre tourism. It is, after all, a burial ground. Perhaps in its reconstruction it will help us reflect on the
events. of 9/11 but for now it was merely a building site.
world and how we fit into the world. And in England, the English church up and down this land, is a historical., cultural and religious landmark. 1 am sure that, in the - parish, we hold our church buildings dean. We certainly spend much time, effort and money on them and are rightly proud of the heritage they bring and the Christian presence they reflect in Oadby. Perhaps one day, someone will stand at the site of one of our churches and feel connected with us and the Christian lives we have lived out here. Or perhaps nothing will be felt as it fades into insignificance.

When Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God to the Pharisees in Luke 17:20f; he answers their implied question of where it will actually be by saying it will not come with anything observable because 'the Kingdom of God is among you'. By that he meant himself and wanted to make clear that the Kingdom was a spiritual place not a physical place and required faith in Him as God's son living among them. The Temple, in all its glory. would never equate to a real living faith in Jesus.

Places do help us to connect - with the past and with our faith which makes it broader and richer. But understanding that the Kingdom of God is amongst us means Ming God's presence with us as we go into situations and places and recognising that the inner, spiritual life is what makes us live well and grow.

Mandy

  November Letter from Simon Harvey, Team Vicar

Have you noticed how much religion there is in the news at the moment? There are the horrors of religiously-inspired violence; the Christian BA check-in clerk who was told to remove or hide her cross; the debate over the rights and wrongs of a Muslim teacher wearing a face veil; the discussion about admission arrangements of religious schools – it’s sometimes hard to watch a news bulletin without a religious story.

How things have changed! I don’t think anyone would have predicted all this a generation ago.

Whatever happened to atheism?

In 1943, Winston Churchill gave a speech to an audience at Harvard University in which he made a startling prediction, “The empires of the future will be empires of the mind.”

Churchill was suggesting that power was shifting from nations to ideas. Instead of nations disputing territories, the world was entering a new era in which competing political-economic ideologies would vie to shape the lives of billions. The human mind, not physical space, was to be the front line in a wholly new kind of struggle.

For the next half-century, it looked like Churchill was right. One ideology, Nazism, had already been defeated and the Cold War saw a new struggle between Marxism and the capitalist ideologies of the West. Churchill’s ‘empires of the mind’ were these modern ideas that captivated hopes and loyalties. They offered competing systematic interpretations of the state of humankind and each made proposals that promised substantial advances in the great endeavour of human progress. And in this development, the assumption was that religion was dead, or at least dying. How could religious belief possibly survive when the exciting new ideas were so rational and sophisticated?

According to theologian Alistair McGrath, it has been estimated that by 1960 half the population of the world was nominally atheist. Academics described ‘secularisation’ – the process by which religion was rapidly disappearing in developed nations. The equation seemed straightforward; progress meant the death of the idea of God. In this country, as our churches steadily emptied, it appeared to some that if Christians wanted to offer the world anything, they should quickly ditch their mythologies and superstitions in order to embrace the brave new world of rationality and modernity. Some writers and preachers tried to distil the ‘timeless essence’ of the faith so that they could offer a Christian ideology that was free of any embarrassing spiritual baggage.

The world didn’t listen much to those offerings from liberal theologians of the sixties and seventies. Attempts to change Christianity so that it had a plausible, modern voice might have given the churches something to think about but they hardly changed the world. With hindsight, we can see now that the era of competing rational ideologies as the dominant force in the world order was about to change. In the eighties, idealism had given way to pragmatism; what mattered was what worked.

Public voice

We may feel encouraged that the development of evangelical faith in the eighties and nineties has helped the faith of thousands in our country to grow. But there has also been a withdrawal from the marketplace of ideas and the public realm. We might ask whether in the 1980s, Christian faith (along with railways, telecoms companies and airlines!) became privatised. The Church still had big ideas to offer but it seemed that no one was interested in big ideas any more.

And now thing have moved on again. What we urgently need now are not grand theories but compelling theological responses to issues of identity and to the challenges of living in a connected, highly differentiated and mobile society. This autumn has seen a remarkable shift. Our politicians, journalists and commentators have been willing to discuss the practical issues that arise from multi-culturalism. There have been some extreme voices and we must be very careful not to see one sector of our population as the root of a problem. The Church, once desperate for a public voice and ideally placed to offer insight and perspective, seems to be rather timid and quiet.

At a local level, it’s easy for parishes to carry on as if nothing has really changed. We can plough on with our usual range of activities and events as if we were still living in 1961, 1981 or pre-September 11, 2001.

Parallel Living

How tempting it is to live our church life in a kind of bubble; self-contained and blissfully separate. Indeed, this kind of parallel living, in which communities barely brush against each other but don’t engage, is very close to the heart of today’s concerns.

When we shut out the world around us, it’s easy to pretend that our faith can remain unaffected by the controversies and complexities of a multi-cultural society and a multi-cultural Oadby. If we only focus on the things we need to ensure our churches’ survival and health we distract ourselves from the calling we have to offer real hope to a fractured and broken world.

In this climate, I’m finding the situation and ministry of the early Church inspiring. The letters of the New Testament were written to Christian communities that were immersed in a complicated and confusing world. In Corinth , for example, the enthusiastic believers lived in a city full of ideas, foreign workers and economic migrants, at a hub of trade routes. In that kaleidoscopic world of innovation, political turmoil and economic ferment it was tempting for Christians to get carried away in insular and self-obsessed fervour that neglected generous provision for the poor. Paul offered a corrective vision – the reality of human weakness, a new life in Christ, the supremacy of love and above all, the amazing grace of God. Like the communities that later received the letters of Peter, it seems there was need to find encouragement to live among others who are not Christians in a wholesome and attractive way, rather than in ways that brought the gospel into disrepute.

The New Testament writings urged Christian communities to model a new kind of connection – with God, and also with each other and with the world. The momentous discovery that God’s mission was not simply a renewal of the nation of Israel but a global mission for the renewal of all people and all peoples made the early church reflect hard on how to live with difference. They learned that relations with those who do not share the Christian faith must not be hostile or defensive. In contrast with later sects, the walls of the early Christian community were permeable and accommodating. With a radical combination of devotion to Jesus as the Way, Truth and Life and a world-embracing engagement with outsiders, Christianity avoided simply fizzling out within a few decades.

As the tide of atheism in our world retreats, new questions have emerged. We in the Church have a moment of opportunity that was unavailable to any previous generation in our land. We may find ourselves in a bewildering marketplace of ideas and beliefs - but people are listening.

Simon

October Letter from Simon Harvey, Team Vicar

Do I have your full attention? I mean, are you casually glancing at this month’s Parish Magazine until something more interesting comes along, or are you really investing yourself in this moment with these words? Don’t worry; I won’t be offended if you find something more worthwhile to do. After all, these musings are hardly likely to be life-changing. Go ahead, put the magazine down and get on with the important or the urgent. But if you’ve got the time, I’d like you to spend it with me as we reflect together on the subject of attention. We live in a world of attention-deficit, and the deficit’s growing. People of every age are groaning about being busier than they ever have been. But I’m wondering if that’s the real problem. Along with the busyness comes something else that’s more of an issue than our over-full diaries. The real problem is our distraction. This inattentiveness is another sign of a changed world. Just think about our public spaces, which have become polluted with the junk of all the stuff intended for somewhere else. Until quite recently, the voices you heard in public were always addressed to someone who was present. Our shopping centres, buses, pavements and pubs were once full of two-way conversations. Now, chances are the voice you hear on the bus is someone shouting into a mobile phone, the litter of a conversation which belongs elsewhere. All around us people are turning their backs, composing a vital text-message or tuned out of the present with an Ipod or zoned into a portable game. Rather than entering shared space and time with all the possibility of meeting others, we discover that our common places have become dis-locations with fewer opportunities for meaningful encounter. As public space is privatised, almost every activity has become infinitely interruptible and vulnerable to all that’s not actually present. Like a pretty village ruined by a major new road, the prioritisation of elsewhere degrades the pleasures of being here, now. I have a hunch that it’s this distraction from our present that causes much of the wearying stress that we blame on busyness. Even if we’re not addicted to mobile phones, our pre-occupation with what has not yet happened or what is not immediately available to our senses forces us to live in a state of more or less permanent mental distraction. And it’s making us tired and lonely. Grab a coffee, snatch a meal, listen to the news as you plan for tomorrow and fret about what happened yesterday. Divided attention prevents us from truly hearing each other or attending to the kind of deep feeling which can’t be expressed in a sentence. Such emotional multi-tasking is disastrous for sustaining real relationships. So perhaps we should take another look at the moments and places where space and time are shared in more deliberate ways. Where are people prepared to turn off their mobile phones and give complete attention to the here and now? Where do people come together to give themselves fully to a moment, and what happens when they attend in this way? There’s something sacred about times and places in which such moments are shared. I see it at weddings and funerals, when people come together with a unity of purpose and focus and it is immensely healing. The whole idea of communing with others runs counter to our fretful distraction and helps us to re-order re-imagine our lives. We instinctively know this to be true, but for most people such moments of shared delight or sorrow are few and far between. Regular worship in a community in which we are known and loved is deeply renewing and restoring. Ironically, as worshippers shed their pre-occupations and self-obsession, they find expression for their deepest longings and can draw on fresh resources for living. As a community of worship makes itself vulnerable to the transcendence of God, self-forgetfulness allows people to be attentive to one another. That’s why weekly corporate worship has always been of immense importance across a whole range of religious traditions. In private prayer and lingering with God, we can open ourselves to something very different from distraction. When we grasp God’s immanence – the way he is fully present to us – we attend to reality rather than escape from it. Attending in the way that Psalm 46 suggests, “Be still and know that I am God”, isn’t anti-social at all. It’s about losing the distractions that pull us away from the reality of the moment. So corporate worship and private prayer are healthy responses to a world of distraction and inattentiveness. We, and especially our children, need these opportunities for restoration and recovery. Are you allowing yourself the opportunities you need? 

Simon Harvey

September Letter from Revd Helen Bence, Team vicar

Dear Friends,

It's September again and for young people and teachers alike that means only one thing - a new academic year has just begun.

Ever since the Prime Minister declared that "Education education, education" was to be at the centre of what he hoped his government would achieve, media attention has been focused on SATs and league tables and targets for just about everything, and a whole army of civil servants have beavered away, deluging education establishments with a mountain of regulations and bureaucracy.

Behind all this activity lies the realisation that, without education, we simply cannot have the society to which we aspire. If we are to have a fair and just society, all our children deserve to be given equal chances to achieve: if, as a society we are to compete economically in a global market, we must have a highly educated workforce; and if we are going to be able to afford a well-funded retirement for our senior citizens, ali our working lives must be as productive as possible. No-one would argue with any of this – it's just plain common sense. All the rest seems to follow just as logically. Economic reality lies behind all state funding and when funding is "applied", the "results" it produces need to be measurable. The difficulty lies in what you measure because. while the government's motive is to ensure that we have the best educated work force in order to achieve maximum economic productivity and to monitor our progress towards that with tests and league tables, others assess the reality of the success or otherwise of education in very different ways.

What employers want are numerate, literate employees who can think for themselves. have a responsible attitude and can work as a team. They are looking for an end result and they frequently complain that, despite the much publicized raising of educational standards, they are not getting new recruits educated to the standard they require.
Universities want students who can benefit from tertiary education, yet, every year, there are reports in the press of students who have been admitted to universities on the strength of their A levels having to undertake remedial education in the basics before they are ready to begin their degree courses. Parents approach education from a different angle again. Foremost in their thinking is the well-being and happiness of their children. What they don't want is for their children to experience pressure to "succeed" and they most definitely don't want their children to be labelled as failures if they don't achieve the government set targets. Recently, head-teachers drew attention to the stress experienced by 7 and 11 year olds when they sit their SATs. The government's response was that it is the schools that are put in leagues tables and judged to be successful or otherwise as a result – not the individual children. The trouble is the head-teachers know the children don't see it that way, and I suspect many of the parents of 7 and 11 year olds don't see it that way either.

It would appear that, despite the undeniably good intentions of the government, it doesn't seem to be working out quite as well as it should, so it's not unreasonable to ask why that is the case.

As many of you will know, I am the head of a private nursery school. What you might not be aware of is that government bureaucracy is as heavy a burden on this sector of education as every other. No less than fourteen "National Standards" govern every aspect of our work; policies and procedures abound; there is even a curriculum in place for children aged
3 – 5 and one in preparation from children aged 0-5 including Knowledge and Understanding of the World for babies! Just to make sure we keep up to scratch, OFSTED regulates and inspects and reports and new initiatives flow at an unbelievable rate from the deepest recesses of Whitehall. To give you just one example of the bureaucratic overload thus engendered, last year I photocopied over 1000 very closely typed A4 pages which represented the reports 1 was required to produce for just 36 leavers aged 3+- going into 4+ reception classes (that's 3 copies for each 3 to 4 year old child of a 9 page report -. one for the child's next school, one for the parents and one for us to keep for our records – and each report containing far more information than it would be possible for any teacher at the child's next school to usefully use).

In among all this distraction from the real business of teaching the children (because, as the saying goes `"you can't increase the weight of a pig by weighing it"), I try to focus on the main task – that is, the actual education of the children. Each year I encounter up to seventy two children aged two to four, each. without doubt. a "one-off' – with potential even beyond their parents' wildest imaginings. My school is non-selective yet virtually all the children attain an academic standard well beyond what the government expects for children of their age. Nor is this achieved at the
expense of their social or emotional development: the atmosphere of harmony and love which pervades the school is continually remarked upon by visitors and parents alike.

The question is, if every child sets out on life's journey with such enormous God-given potential, why do so few demonstrate it as they progress through their education and in later life? My own experience of education both as a pupil and as a parent was that it was a profoundly disabling process and I can't help wondering whether this is because the enabling of God-given human potential is, at some unacknowledged level, too frightening a prospect for society to cope with. Is it a co-incidence that so often, teachers are constrained by time, class size, limited funding, bureaucratic overload and political control of the curriculum? Certainly the result is that it is increasingly impossible for the school to be there for the children, and so, by default, the children are there for the school, to be moulded into what is required of them by government. Yet, when the school is there for the child, the release of God-given potential is amazing. My vision, both as a parent and teacher, is to radically challenge what has become the educational norm by demonstrating in my school an education which enables each child to be and to become the person God made him or her to be and become – I can think of no finer purpose for my life and no finer Christian ministry because at the heart of all this lies a profound Christian truth – love not law. Once love is there, everything else follows but you cannot legislate for love.

Jesus had a lot to say about the teachers of the law and the Pharisees who burdened the people with the minutiae of rules and regulations, religious hoops to be jumped through and standards to attain and forgot about what was centrally important

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." (Matthew 23.23).

Jesus taught the law of love – because he knew that once love was in place, everything else would follow.

It seems to me that this same principle applies to education. If teachers are treated like naughty children who won't deliver the goods unless they are constantly required to divert from their teaching duties to comply with external bureaucratic monitoring, the desired results of everyone's effort (children, teachers, inspectors, bureaucrats and government alike) will not be achieved, but if teachers are treated as professionals who can be trusted to want the best for their pupils and work hard to achieve it, then I believe it is much more likely that everything else will follow.
In this country we have had a wonderful tradition of education which was pioneered by the Christian Church at all levels from the village school to the ancient universities. Even today, church schools feature disproportionately among the highest ranked in the league tables and parents, knowing a good thing when they see one, are very keen to have their children admitted to them. Could it be that this is because these schools recognise, and act upon, the fact that, at heart. education is about allowing each child to be and become everything God created them to be and become? As a society. if we want to regain our pre-eminence in education, then I would suggest that God must be central rather than peripheral to the process. Governments can only rule by laws – God rules only by love.

Centuries before the birth of Jesus, God commanded his people:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I gave you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road. when you lie down and when you get up." (Deuteronomy 6:5-7).

For, as it says in Proverbs:
"Train a child the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it." (Proverbs 22:6).

It's a sacred trust and an ongoing process down the ages:

"We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders he has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so that the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands." (Psalm 78:4-7).

If we are worried about the way education is going, we would do well to admit that we need to play our part to ensure that this particular aspect of learning is once more at the heart of what we teach – his commandments are as relevant today as they ever were and they were summed up by Jesus:
'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and wit} all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22. 37-40)
All true education hangs on them too, 

Helen Bence

August Letter from the Rector

Dear Friends,

The summer is a time for holidays: to take time out, to enjoy rest, relaxation and refreshment. Not everyone of course is able to go on holiday, and many nowadays choose to holiday at different times of the year. Sometimes sickness or bereavement or some other calamity overtakes us and we are in no position to go holidaying. But wherever we are, and however we find ourselves this summer, it is important to step back a bit and take stock and if possible, actually enjoy life.

There is much to worry about in the world: the ghastly outburst of hostilities in the Lebanon; the continued instability of Iraq and Afghanistan; the soaring summer temperatures — an indication of the reality and rapidity of global warming. In the Church of England there is much concern: the impasse over the ordination of women to the episcopate; the friction over human sexuality which threatens to tear the Anglican Communion apart; and most important of all, the daily challenge of engaging our friends and neighbours in the things of God so that the church can make a useful contribution in enabling individuals and society as a whole to turn away from the idolatry and ultimate misery of materialism and secularism. Then there is our own family, our health and a thousand other worries to keep us awake at night and to experience real misery. Much to depress us and discourage us. But, however, worrying, none of these issues can be tackled with a heavy heart.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us not to worry: "Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life... Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" (Matthew 6.25,27 NI V).
So whatever the worries, let's put them to one side and seek to enjoy this holiday month. The Revd. Dr. Hugh Rayment-Pickard has the right idea. Writing in the Church Times, he has come up with some ideas to make the Church of England a happier place. Perhaps you would like to add one or two of your own:

1. Once a year, all clergy must sit through a videotape of themselves presiding and preaching at worship. This will remind the clergy how longsuffering the lay people of the Church of England are.
2. A contract will negotiated with an international coffee-house chain to supply nice-tasting hot beverages after church services around the country. (Instant coffee may only be used in an emergency).
3. PCC meetings will last no longer than 60 minutes, members will be encouraged to make their contributions once only and as briefly as possible.
4. Electric buttons marked "f don't know this hymn" will be fitted in all news and will relay to a display in the incumbent's stall.
5. Once a year all Evangelical clergy will have to dress up and use incense; and all Anglo-Catholic clergy preside in knitwear. and display the liturgy on overhead projector.
6. There will be a £1 fine every time the word "just" is used in prayers. ("We just want to thank you, Lord" etc. etc.) There is no biblical precedent for it; there are no "justs" in the Lord's Prayer, for example. All proceeds to charity.

It is important whatever life is throwing at us for us to be able to smile. For the smile can be God's way of lifting the shadow of sorrow from our hearts. So as we enjoy the rest of this summer, let us take to heart, Augustine's prayer and make it our own:

Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding:
pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you in all things and above all things,
may obtain you promises.
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Michael Rusk.

July Letter from the Rector

"Thine be the glory'

Dear Friends,

It's stupid to hold Wimbledon this year," declared my daughter Connie, "
no one is going to have time to watch it because of the World Cup." For
many of us the World Cup has overtaken our lives. Thankfully by the evening of July 9th, even the most ardent football supporter will be given back their freedom and can finally leave their couch potato lifestyle in front of the television. So how has the experience been so far?

Well there have been one or two exciting games, particularly those featuring Argentina. The France v Spain game was also a delight to watch. England's performances, however, through to the last 16 have been distinctly underwhelming. Quite a few matches have been turgid affairs which are eminently forgettable. Some matches have revealed the ugly side of the game: countless bookings and sendings off by referees desperately trying to gain some degree of control. The moments of glory -- those moments of skill and beauty like Joe Cole's goal against Sweden, or Wayne Rooney's nutmeg of the Ecuador's right back, have been few and far between. Yet millions throughout the world have been watching and waiting for these glimpses of transcendence that are so rare. In the country there is a sense of dissatisfaction if England "-do the job" but provide no delight, no excellence, no sense of glory on the way.
So where does this desire to experience something out of the ordinary come from? Could there be possibly a spiritual yearning that is trying to find fulfilment in sport? Are there parallels between sport and religion? Is it just a coincidence that the BBC's theme tune for this World Cup is the Christian resurrection hymn "Thine be the glory"? Can, for example, football stadia be thought of as quasi Cathedrals; the crowds as the
Holy Communion; the match itself a liturgy; the players the ministers or priests
whose task it is to provide experiences of transcendence? There are those who talk about sport as a kind of invisible religion, in some places taking over the role that traditional religion has occupied in the past. So it is important to reflect on what this experience may he about in our modern, highly secular western world,

One incident that is of real religious interest to me has been the treatment of the referee Graham Poll. During the had tempered match between Croatia and Australia., the over stretched referee made the mistake of booking a Croatian player - Simunic - three times. The player should have been sent off after the second bookable offence. The media have had a field day. How could a referee be so incompetent? Did he and his assistants keep no records of who had been booked? Think of the possible injustice if Simunic had scored and Australia knocked out. There was only one conclusion: the referee had just to pack his bags and return to England in disgrace.

What is remarkable about this is the sense of outrage that the referee should fail so spectacularly to administer justice and fairness. Nothing is said about Simunic who once he realised that the referee had omitted to send him off, quietly got on with the business on the pitch. The referee hadn't noticed and the player wasn't going to volunteer the information although he knew he shouldn't be there.

Yet when it comes to our relationship to God as our judge, our behaviour is often like that of Simunic. Psalm 1302 demonstrates that we have been yellow carded many times: if you Lord should note what we do wrong, who then, 0 Lord, could stand?" St, Paul makes it quite clear that each one of us has been red carded: quoting Psalm14.1-3 in Romans 3.10-12 he sums up the human condition as follows: "There is no-one righteous, not even one: there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one." Given this universal assessment of the human condition, there is, however, no detectable outrage if human sin at times appears to go unpunished by God. Rather there is a tendency to slink away and hope that God doesn't notice, Genesis 3.8-9 describes this tendency wonderfully:
:`Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"

So I feel sorry for Graham Poll, I suspect that the journalists who have castigated his oversight with such ridicule will just be praying that on the Day of Judgement God will not keep a strict count of all that they have got up to in their lives. For the Christian, there is hope: it is as if Christ offers to serve the suspension on our behalf, and then restores us to the field of play in such a way that we learn to play with elegance, flair, grace and fairness and reach out for those moments of transcendence that ultimately give us true glimpses of eternity. That is the real trophy that we want to win.

Michael Rusk.

June letter from Simon Harvey, Team Vicar.

Why ‘choosing the right church’ is a problem

I’m preparing for the funeral of Doris Bemrose, who was a member of St Paul’s from 1989 when she moved into the nearby retirement flats until frailty led her to move into a residential home. I never knew Doris in her churchgoing days but, by all accounts, she was a very committed member. I’ve heard how she’d generously give lifts to people who couldn’t walk to church and how she used her organising skills to arrange the bible readers’ rota.
As Doris’ daughters described their mother’s background in rural Lincolnshire and Norfolk, I realised that the kind of churches she knew for most of her life were quite unlike the style of worship at St Paul’s. But for Doris, the matter was straightforward – St Paul’s was her church and she would not only attend but she would give generously of herself to the church community and beyond. No wonder she is fondly remembered.
Doris’ story offers us a perspective on the question of ‘choosing the right church’. 

• Choose a church that caters especially for people like you. Chances are, you’ll like the people there and have similar interests and outlook. You won’t have to try too hard to understand the values and experiences of other people, because these will be reassuringly familiar.

• Choose a church in which the worship style exactly fits your personality and taste. You’ll never find yourself singing anything you don’t enjoy.

• Choose a church where the minister’s style is entertaining and engaging. Over a year, you’ll be spending many precious hours listening to sermons, so find a preacher who’ll ‘push your buttons’ and reassure you in your beliefs.

• Choose a church not too close to home, so that you can put a safe distance between your private life and your church life. Keep yourself to yourself – pleasant chit-chat after the service is fine, but don’t get drawn into networks and relationships that might mean getting too involved.

• Choose a church that reminds you that although the world can be scary and bewildering, there’ll always be a place that’s just right for you, safe from challenge and uncertainty.

• Choose a church where you can dip in and out, turning up when you feel like it and not making any substantial contribution to anything that ‘isn’t your thing’. Be a passenger, be entertained, and be reassured.

Do I believe this is the right approach? Of course not! There’s an old adage that you’ll never find the perfect church, and that even if you do, it won’t be perfect after you join.

Sadly, there are signs in our country that this kind of church-choosing is becoming more prevalent, with all the fracturing of real community that involves. Some churches are responding by deliberately appealing to one age-group, one socio-economic profile, or one kind of worship-style. I believe this kind of mono-cultural church is inevitably introspective, passive and disconnected from the world.

Paul’s letter to the Galatians includes an appeal for Christians to be forbearing towards one another. Paul’s vision is for much more than a pleasant experience of church – he has been gripped by a vision of the fullness of God’s mission for the world. The post-Pentecost church is to be a place of the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Not because these virtues deliver a nice experience for those who belong, but because these God-given characteristics are vital in a community where compromise, disappointment and the messiness of failed human relationships are unavoidable.

So may I offer you another kind of checklist:

• Belong to a church in which God is regularly encountered and where his presence is recognised. Look out for celebrations of God’s grace in the everyday living of the community as well as in the mysteries of worship in spirit and truth.

• Belong to a church where people are not all like you. And expect to learn from the youngest, the oldest, the poorest, the visitor and the long-standing member. Listen to their stories with respect and share your story too, for the same God loves you all.

• Belong to a church where God will reveal himself through unfamiliar worship, songs, music, and architecture as well as through the things you love. Sound doctrine is not the property of one tradition alone but God’s truth expressed in love is a treasure surpassing any matter of style.

• Belong to a church in which you will be transformed by grace and called upon to risk and adventure for the sake of the Kingdom of God, where the Holy Spirit gifts you and God calls you out of your comfort zone.

• Belong to a church where growth occurs not because of stunts or tricks but because lives are given to God and discipleship deepens.

• Belong to a church where you will be forgiven and where forgiveness will be asked of you, where you will learn how to receive as well as how to give, where your failures will be occasions for redemption, where relationships will be broken and healed, where you will experience the sorrows and the joys that come with hopeful and honest community life.

• Belong to a church where you risk being known as you truly are, not as the mask you put on until you get back in the car to drive home.

• Belong to a church where the Lordship of the crucified, risen and ascended Jesus Christ is more than a slogan, where courage is needed to live a life charged with possibility and where people and communities are transformed.

I won’t be surprised if the church you belong to now doesn’t exactly fit this second list. After all, this is the real world and even the early churches of the New Testament struggled to make progress. But the advice that comes from St Paul and other apostles is not to withdraw and try to find somewhere ‘better’. Instead, we are to be the people who are becoming the Church that God wants.

In this, people like Doris have set us an example of generosity and maturity. Let’s do likewise.

Simon Harvey

May letter from the Revd Helen Bence 

Dear Friends, 

I wonder if you received any Easter Cards this year. They seem to be increasingly popular but, just like many Christmas cards, most of them seem to want to mark the occasion without any real understanding of what Easter is really about, and so the greatest event in human history - the defeat of the power of death won for all humanity by the resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God, from the dead - is ignored in favour of lambs, baby rabbits, spring bulbs, eggs and chicks. 

The irony is that these twee pictures, which have served as safe and familiar images of new life guaranteed not to offend anyone by alluding too directly to the central truth of Easter, are in danger of not working any more. I wonder what those who work on the land make of them - the very real threat of bird flu may well destroy the poultry industry in the same way as farmers affected by foot and mouth found their pastures brutally turned into killing fields. If images of poultry being slaughtered on a massive scale become common, as well they may, then chicks would become a sign of death, and eggs would disappear from our supermarkets. But rabbits would still be OK wouldn't they? Well no. I can still remember hundreds of rabbits sitting in fields and beside the road dying a slow and painful death from myxemitosis and that awful disease is still around, killing rabbits forty years on. Spring bulbs might still be a sign of life, but the sight of the havoc wrought to my spring bulbs by the squirrels in my garden is enough to turn my thoughts to death and destruction for the whole squirrel population. 

The truth is that death is everywhere - on our farms; in our families; images of death on our TV screens in Iraq or as a result of the Pakistan earthquake or the Tsunami or the tidal way in New Orleans - man-made and natural disasters, global destruction and personal tragedy. And how can we believe in the defeat of the power of death when we are surrounded by death on every side? Surely to believe in a life after death won for us by Jesus on the cross is just pie-in the sky-when-we-die; a crutch for those who can't face the reality of life; something we wish we could believe in but can't? I don't think so. The good news of the gospel is that the power of death has been defeated, and, as Archbishop William Temple said, the gospel is public truth not personal opinion; the eye-witness accounts of many, many people at the time and the spiritual experience of millions of millions of Christians over the last 2000 years bear witness. 

There is nothing more certain to focus the mind on ultimate reality than when you actually face the imminent prospect of your own death or are faced with the death of a loved one. A few years ago, I sustained a head injury and was rushed to hospital by ambulance. I spent 24 hours in hospital being observed for signs of inter-cranial bleeding and, after one such routine observation, was rushed to have an emergency scan because the signs were looking ominous. I've watched enough episodes of Casualty to know that when an inter-cranial bleed builds up, death can be a second away. I've never been afraid of dying - perhaps it was growing up in a house next door to a graveyard - and I wasn't afraid as I was taken to have my scan. I knew with absolute certainty that I have a loving Father God who will welcome me home to spend eternity with him when my time on this earth is done. I spoke recently to a friend undergoing tests for ovarian cancer but she told me she was not a bit afraid - she too knows where she is going and she knows who will welcome her when she arrives. And the truth is that it's impossible to be dishonest with yourself in such circumstances. As a minister, it has been my privilege to minister to those who are dying or who have lost loved ones. For those who believe, the reality of the gospel is not a crutch - it's a life-affirming beacon of hope; a truth to be witnessed to and celebrated. I've seen the power of its effect in action too many times to not believe it. 

The resurrection of Jesus is a fact of history - the fact of history - it's those who haven't faced that reality who live their lives in denial - trying to blot out their own mortality by frenetic activity - working too hard and playing too hard, engaging in constant activity to avoid facing the truth, or alternatively, trying not to think about their own mortality and plodding through life in quiet despair. 

Funerals are the only time most people think about death and many try to get them over and forget about them as quickly as possible. They try - but it doesn't work. The fact of death is there and and if we fear it, that fear refuses to go away. It's good if we can use the opportunity funerals give us to face the reality that each of us will one day die and to think through what remains of our own lives from that perspective. When C.S. Lewis was mourning the death of his wife, he writes that he was "surprised by joy", and it can be so for us too - joy both for the happy memories of our departed loved one, but, much more significantly, joy at discovering, if you haven't already done so, that death is not the end 

But resurrection is about more than life after death. The Christian Aid slogan is "We believe in life before death." It's what all Christians believe in. It's a travesty to portray Christianity as kill joy and life denying. Jesus came so that we could have life and have it in abundance. (John 10.10). So, how does the resurrection of Jesus make a difference in the here and now? What difference does it make if we live as people who believe in the resurrection?

 As I have already said, the first thing is that our attitude to dying will be completely different but, as a result, our attitude to living will be completely different too - if death is not the end, then this world is not all there is and we when we realize that, we will live our lives in the knowledge that we can have eternal life with God, but only if we want to acknowledge his existence. That will lead us to re-assess our view of the world with God our creator, sustainer and redeemer at the centre of our lives and then we truly will experience life in all its fullness. 

On Good Friday it looked as if "EVIL WON", but on Easter Day when Jesus rose from the dead, the horror of Good Friday was turned right around. The message of Easter Day is "NOW LIVE."

There's a wonderful prayer from funeral service: 

Heavenly Father,

You have not made us for darkness and death, 

But for life with you for ever.

Without you we have nothing to hope for;

With you we have nothing to fear. 

Speak to us now your words of eternal life.

Lift us from anxiety and guilt - 

To the light and peace of your presence,

And set the glory of your love before us; 

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I pray that you will know the gospel truth contained in this prayer; that you will be released by it from the fear of death into the glorious freedom of being a child of God and that you will know resurrection hope and joy in your life this Eastertide. 

Helen M Bence

April Letter from Revd Mandy Flaherty, Curate to the Parish

Dear Friends.

I remember being in an assembly once where the teacher taking it started out by telling us all how they had got up that morning. They meticulously described their routine. with a few funny anecdotes dropped in along the way, and then went on to describe leaving their home and travelling to school.

 We all played along, wondering where this `ice breaker' was going and what moral point would be made at the end of it. After about 10 minutes of lively description of a teacher's ordinary morning routine, the teacher reached the point where they had walked into assembly that morning. They then paused and said, 'I bet you didn't think I could stand her in front of all you lot and have you captivated by describing myself... and all because I had forgotten that I was taking assembly this morning'! We felt cheated... but on the other hand, it is one of the few school assemblies 1 have remembered so it had its merits and, in hind sight, have admired the brazen skill of the teacher to hold his audience.

 Recently Grace and I have both been ill and I have to admit that it's not been easy to focus my mind on writing this article when 1, too, have had a rather lively routine. It all started on Wednesday night when she was sick. it always happens in the middle of the night doesn't It? Anyway, one change of clothes and bedding later, she was back in her cot.. only for 10 minutes before the next lot came up. 

And on it went. Three changes of bedding, a washer going at 2a.m. and a sick child. Eventually the sickness stopped and I stopped the washer.... Then the other end started. More washing. That end didn't stop... and then I got sick. At this point, I had better not describe our environment in detail but it was rather bizarre having a 13 month old and a 42 year old unable to eat and needing frequent trips to the bathroom. speak with some light heartedness but it has had Its moments of panic and worry. And 

It's also a time where everything appears to stop because you are incapacitated and need to get over the illness before you can do anything else.. You emerge out of the fog and gloom of a bug and then need to pick up what has been going on while you've been. It's also one of the very ordinary things in life and, at the moment, stomach bugs seem to be hitting everybody. I'm a practical person at heart and in my irreverent moments, wonder how Jesus and the disciples would have coped with ordinary things like stomach bugs. And they must have had them to cope with. And what. did they do without washers??? And disinfectant??? And Dioralyte??? Nevertheless, whatever the routine and measures taken in Jesus' day. I am sure it would have irritated and incapacitated them as much as it does us. I love the fact that scattered throughout the gospels are little nuggets that describe Jesus' ordinary life. 

Things like 'Then he went home` (Mark 3:19), going to visit Simon's mother in haw (Mark 1:29), description of his childhood, lots of eating, weddings, talking etc. Food is part of the ordinary' as well as the extraordinary and sometimes its really comforting to remember tiat. So, as you ponder on my 'routine' description' and tenuous spiritual link, perhaps you'll forgive my indulgence in ordinary household affairs as I ponder on what the psalmist says 'He (God) gives to His beloved, sleep.' And, I might add, a washing machine that continues to work...

                                                                    Bliss! 

Thanks for listening.

Mandy.

March Letter

Dear Friends.

"Well you have restored my belief in angels," I said amazed at the providential turn of events that I still couldn't quite believe. It was late Sunday evening at the John F. Kennedy airport in New York. My friend, Canon Chuck Robertson and I had just flown in from Phoenix -- a five hour flight and then a three hour time change that brought us close to midnight.

It had been a busy day: up at 6.30am that morning; 7.00am in the car through the quiet suburbs to Trinity Cathedral to preach at the 8.00am Holy Communion. A quiet service which was followed by another preachment at the wonderful Choral Eucharist attended by a large congregation at 10.00am. Lunch in a restaurant before being whisked to the airport to undergo the stringent security checks that are now part and parcel of American life. The airport was uncannily quiet due to the American Superbowl being played that Sunday afternoon. But now I was in JFK and about to get a taxi for the half hour journey into the city.

The trip to New York had emerged just before I left the UK. It provided an opportunity to visit the Episcopal Church Foundation - a lay organisation that seeks to support the Episcopal Church. Back in Oadby, I had tried unsuccessfully to get my air ticket changed. I could fly directly from New York to Heathrow, of course, but that would cost me the princely sum of an extra £450. I had declined that possibility and my itinerary consisted of having to fly back to Phoenix and then boarding a flight for London. 

So my friend and I decided to have one last try and talk to the official at the British Airways desk. Without holding out any hope for my non transferable ticket to be altered, we found a lift to the first floor and quickly located the British Airways desk. There was no queue and the young British Airways official greeted us politely. My friend explained my dilemma and she took my passport and checked my details into the computer. My expectation was that she would say, "I am very sorry, sir, but you have a non-transferable ticket." Instead, she exclaimed: "You're are Anglican. So am I! The ticket is non-transferable but what flight and seat would you like from New York direct to Heathrow? Can I tell you about my church?" And so she did. 

For me, it was an angelic intervention saving me hours of extra flying and related jet lag.
Jesus said, "Ask , and it will be given you." I did just that and an angel, who happened to be an Anglican said "Yes!"

Michael Rusk.

February Letter

Dear Friends,

Willersley Castle is a delightful Christian Guild Hotel situated close to Matlock Bath in Derbyshire. If you haven't been to Matlock Bath, I recommend you think of visiting it in the spring or early summer. The impressive and fast flowing River Derwent has shaped the landscape over the years: the steep cliffs on either side a mark of its ancient power. Alongside the river, there are the great eighteenth and nineteenth century mills built by Sir Richard Arkwright which used to supply the British Empire with woven cloth. Willersley Castle was built for Arkwright and it has a commanding presence overlooking the river. This was the setting for a week long conference attended by 25 clergy from the Dioceses of Leicester, Derbyshire, and Nottingham & Southwell, as well as from the URC church in the East Midlands .

The Clergy Leadership Course is the brainchild of Rob Mackintosh who is based in Canterbury . The aim is to give clergy an opportunity to acquire "Wisdom in turbulent tunes."  To achieve this, three important strands are woven together with which each participant as an individual and as a member of a group is invited to engage. The first thread was that of Bible Study - particularly the way in which Jesus went about his ministry: both the power and authority that he displayed in teaching and healing, and the other times when he withdrew and renewed himself through prayer and solitude. The more we studied the scriptures, the more impressed we were at the inner strength of Jesus - an inner strength gained from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit at his baptism and sustained through his relationship with God.

The second strand was a study and an attempt to attune our lives to the way of St. Benedict. Each day was structured in a Benedictine kind of way: there were 3 times in the day for prayer and meditation. The morning and early evening were given over to work, but the afternoon was for exercise and relaxation. There was a concerted effort to highlight the importance of developing a rhythm for life: for each day to be measured and balanced. Of particular interest were the qualities needed of the Cellarer in the Benedictine Monastery. The Cellarer was the person responsible for all the food provisions and wine. Naturally, many would press upon him all kinds of requests and demands, particularly if food was scarce and had to be rationed. In the Rule of St. Benedict, it is stated: "A Cellarer of the monastery, there should be chosen from the community someone who is wise, mature in conduct, temperate & God fearing and like a parent to the whole community. He will take care of everything, but will do nothing without an order from the Abbot." Let him keep to his orders.  Over a six month period, the course aims to cultivate these qualities in each participant. These are qualities that are not only deeply attractive but also essential for any leader. Moreover these are qualities that perhaps we should all seek to attain as Christian Responsibility for any task in the Christian Community can enable us to grow on the inside as well as make a useful contribution to the body of Christ.

The third thread was to draw on the insights of modern leadership theory There were many new ideas in this and yet many connections with t! I-,­Christian life. But behind all the theory and expertise from the Harvard Business School , there were two primary questions: What is the one thing that, if you did it consistently, would make the most positive difference to your life? And what stops you from doing it?

Over the next six months, I am required to take time out and seek to acquire the discipline and qualities discovered in each of these threads. Then in July, I have to go back and give an account of what has been achieved and what changes have come about in my life and work as a result. I am required to have a mentor to encourage me in this, as well as others from my group keeping in touch with how things are going.

But the fostering of the spiritual life by a deep attentiveness to who we are and what we are doing is something from which we can all benefit. Each new day presents us with a unique opportunity to experience God's blessings and to follow the Christ-like path of discipleship. It is my hope that as I go about this spiritual journey that you too will join me. By reflecting on these three threads there is the possibility that all of us can acquire a deep Christian wisdom that can enable us to face the turbulence of modern life.

Michael Rusk

PS. The hotel is Willersley Castle , Cromford, Matlock. Derbyshire DE4 5JH. 
Tel. 01629 582270 willersley@cgholidays.co.uk