Author: Worth Parish

From the Rector…

Clergy

As we come together in the Parish Eucharist this morning to recall the Baptism of Christ, and to welcome Andrea as a new member of the Christian family, it is an appropriate time for each one of us to reflect on what our baptismal promises mean to us and what we do to sustain ourselves on our faith journey.  This Tuesday, the first of our new Home Groups begins. I use the term ‘new’ loosely as we have had the Pilgrim Course Group meeting for nearly two years, which could well be described as a Home Group.  Many churches encourage such groups as a further opportunity for providing fellowship and support to one another as we journey through life as well as offering a safe and open opportunity for learning more about our faith. We are seeking to build on the success of our Alpha Course and the experience of the Pilgrim Course by now offering the chance for all of you to become part of a Home Groups (initially there will be 4 across the Parish).  In baptism, we come to share in the priesthood of all believers, but can often struggle to work out what that means in practice.  Often when people make a (much needed!) offer to help we have listed the different roles that need filling as an indicator of where they could be involved. We have not always looked at the particular gifts or experience of those offering their precious time. The ‘new’ Home Groups will initially look at helping each of us identifying the gifts that we have been given (we have ALL been given them!) and then how we might nurture them and use them at our work, in our homes and within our Church family as we live out our baptismal calling.  The times and locations of the Home Group meetings are available from the Parish Office, Steve or me.

Epiphanytide blessings to you all!

Pewsheet for 10th January 2016 – the Baptism of Christ

Pewsheets

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Happy New Year to you all !

Pewsheets

A new year, new beginnings, a new life.

When a new year begins we often look back on the year gone-by to reflect on its joys, sadness, achievements, failings and then we make a resolution to improve, to move forward with determination to do better. That is my theory anyhow but at the end of 2016 will I, will you, look back again and wonder, what and why, or will we be really impressed with our achievements ?

In 2016 there are a lot of new things to plan, new ventures there for some of us, for me too, I hope and pray – but what and for whom? We cannot make the decisions on our own, we should not rush headlong into something; we need to pray, to think and to consider what God would want us to do. We do not know His plans but we do know He will show us the way, if we let Him in to our hearts and minds; we need to be still, quiet and listen for that still, small voice that is calling us, then we may have an idea.

Next week we will celebrate the Baptism of Christ and all over Christendom, including here in our Parish Eucharist, there will be new Christians baptised, born in to the family of God, not knowing what they will do with their lives but knowing it is a new beginning for them; just as a new calendar year is a new beginning for everyone, with all its joys and sorrows, all its uncertainties.

I pray that all of us may go forward with the Lord as our guiding light, helping, healing and leading us on the right path; showing us why things happen and how we can turn to Him for our strength and salvation.

Go forward, as I shall, with hope, joy, peace and love in my heart and mind, and attempt to work “ ‘to the greater glory of God’. ”

Joan Tick – (retiring) pew sheet compiler

Pewsheet for 27th December 2015 – the First Sunday of Christmas

Christmas, Pewsheets

Click here to see this week’s pewsheet.

Tip: If this, or any other, PDF document opens at too large a size, here’s what you do:

  1. Open Adobe Reader, for example, by opening a *.pdf document you have on your computer.
  2. From the Edit menu, click Preferences.
  3. With Page Display selected in the left hand list of Categories, on the right hand side of the window, choose a Page Layout and Zoom level that suits you, for example Single Page and Fit Page.
  4. Now any time you open a PDF, it will open at this zoom level.

From the Curate…

Clergy

As we approach the New Year – we have as a Church gathered on several occasions to celebrate the birth of the Hope of the World – Jesus Christ.  I preached before Christmas at St Nicholas’, that if we choose to really follow the teaching of Jesus Christ then -‘how quickly our world could change’.  Our world could change if we said words like “I’m sorry” to those we were estranged from, “forgive me” to those we had wronged, “use me”, “guide me” or “cleanse me” to God in order to make him the centre of our lives. That is quite a challenge, and if you felt that after too much Turkey the challenge of the Gospel – good news, would simply disappear amongst our own overeating and tiredness – then think again!

Our reading from Colossians  doesn’t lower the bar so we may, in our post-Christmas heavier state, just limp over it. No  – it raises the bar even higher by issuing us with the challenge of the Christian life. ‘Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other’. Clearly this is written by a man that has never spent a Christmas Day with the in-laws!  But there it is in black and white – followed by the words ‘above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony’. As Christians the bar seems high and it is – for we can only achieve it with the help of the Holy Spirit.  But if we do aim high and invite the Holy Spirit to help us then we might also grow as Samuel and Jesus grow in wisdom, stature and favour.

Blessings,
Steve

From the Rector…

Pewsheets

Have you every missed a bus or train for which you were waiting because you were so engrossed in doing (or thinking about) something else?  This week, I read an Advent meditation by Paula Gooder – a theologian for whom I have considerable affection and respect.  She wrote about two kinds of waiting:  an active waiting that demands we are alert, with our senses finely tuned to what is going on around us, looking keenly for the signs of the arrival of that for which we wait; and a passive waiting that is simply about the passing of time, with senses dulled or focused on something else.

Advent is supposed to be the former, but too often we can become so engrossed in getting ready for Christmas (writing cards, buying presents, planning and cooking meals …) that when the great feast comes – that moment when we celebrate God becoming flesh amongst us – we are so tired, or bored or still so focused on those preparations that the moment passes us by.  Let’s not let that happen to us.  Rather let us follow the example of Elizabeth and Mary in our gospel reading.

Here two pregnant women, Elizabeth who has waited almost too long for her pregnancy and Mary who bears the long-awaited Messiah.  As they meet their dynamic, active waiting gives over to a deep recognition (shown by John’s leaping in the womb) of God’s blessing.  And, significantly, that recognition flows out into praise.

Paula’s prayer is mine too: “may each one of us experience this kind of Advent waiting: a waiting that ends not in a whimper of exhaustion, but in joyful recognition and praise of him for whom we wait.

Every blessing for the rest of Advent and a joyous Christmas when it comes,

Anthony