Author: Worth Parish

Pewsheet for 26th April 2015

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The Curate Writes…

Clergy

‘I am the good shepherd’ is our Gospel reading today and at different times a good shepherd will gather his flock – and this is at the heart of the Big Church Day Out.

‘What’ is the Big Church Day Out? And ‘Why’ am I writing about it?

The ‘What Question’ – The Big Church Day Out seeks to bring whole Church families together to have fun and fellowship in the stunning setting of Wiston House in the West Sussex countryside.

The ‘Why Question’ – because Liz and I are co-ordinating a group from the Parish – Sunday 24th May – gates open at 10am and close at 10pm.

Liz will leave early and set up a space for our Parish to gather together for the day.

After the Church services, Anthony, James and I will then leave to join everyone for a bring-your-own picnic (I will be trawling other picnics for the best bits!). Then you will be free to enjoy the wide range of fun things to do – from the main concert stage to the peace and prayer space of the Wiston Chapel – to the cream tea tent with Graham Kendrick playing, while others will enjoy rock climbing, face painting and fairground rides.

There is something for everyone – including a vast array of cafes and catering vans. The day will end with Bishop Richard launching the Diocesan Mission Strategy on stage. We have a big discount on tickets; £18 for adults, £12.50 for children (age 5 to 16) and £2.50 for under 5’s. There is a “sign up sheet” and more info at the back of both Churches, but do ask Steve and Liz about anything. These days are so important in building and deepening the Church family.

Steve

The Associate Vicar Writes…

Clergy

If there was one point to make about the Gospel this Sunday then it should be this: The disciples’ unbelief knows no bounds.

  • They are told by the women and don’t believe that someone could be raised from the dead.
  • They didn’t believe the two disciples who running back from Emmaus after their encounter with the risen Christ came to tell them the good news.
  • When Jesus enters the room they believe he is a ghost.
  • Even after Jesus shows him his wounds they still don’t believe it possible that Jesus could have come back from the tomb.

It takes Jesus eating for them to believe that he was alive.  It is not only Thomas who doubts but all eleven disciples are struggling to come to terms with this weird and wonderful news.

David Lose, president of the Lutheran seminary in Philadelphia, and one of my favourite bloggers, writes on this Sunday’s reading “If you don’t have serious doubts about the Easter story, you’re not paying attention.”  That a human being is able to be raised from the dead is so improbable that it demands of us to completely rethink how we believe the world functions.  What looked like total failure suddenly became a victory that changed the world.

And so doubt is inextricably part of our faith.  It is part of the process that enables us to expand our understanding of how God works in our world.  And how God works in and through everyone of us! The disciples’ understanding of the world was changed by meeting the risen Christ.  Our understanding should change too, if we are paying attention.

This also affects how we see ourselves within our Christian community.  What wonderful works is God able to do with us?  We might have to re-imagine how God can use us as God’s Church in our parish.

Pewsheet for 12th April 2015

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The Curate writes…

Clergy, Uncategorized

I am writing this, having just got in from a round of golf at Tilgate. I teed off at 6am all alone with the sun just rising and just enough light to see my golf ball.  The next few hours I was alone amongst God’s wonderful creation, with my golf clubs, a small white ball and several deer for company.

I was thinking what I might write in this weeks pew sheet – should I expand upon the need to have healthy doubts, such as Thomas in our Gospel reading, and always be willing to ask ourselves questions so that our faith remains real, open and vibrant. However, as I swung a golf club and then looked for my ball in the woods – my thoughts settled on the enormous challenging picture that our Acts reading offers of the early Church. A place where testimonies were given, there was no envy, there was no need and there was grace upon them all.

What about our Parish? As a family we have found the last year financially challenging as we made the decision that Liz would not seek paid employment in order to support the girls and our ministry in the Parish. This was okay apart from some rather large car bills, but God has blessed us even then – for several anonymous cash gifts arrived that exactly covered the bills. We also received two bags of food goodies at Christmas and a bag of Christmas gifts on our doorstep. This has meant that we have all felt loved, valued and provided for by a loving family – a family that this weekend bids goodbye to Meurig (thank you, Meurig, for all you have done). A family that can at times truly reflect the picture of Church, painted in Acts.

Thank You – the Burstons

The Rector Writes…

Clergy

Alleluia. Christ is risen!

Last night at the Easter Vigil, bells rang out and we brought the church out of darkness into light – the light of Christ.

This morning we celebrate afresh, in the spirit of Mary Magdalene, the glorious Gospel … the Good News that Christ died and on the third day rose again … the Good News that heralds the joyous fact that from that moment on everything was different. Our celebration continues today with the wonderful privilege of baptising, as has been the custom of the Church on this day since the earliest times, three precious young children.

We welcome three children, their families and friends today for baptism. Our celebration today is a far cry from the media’s insistence that Easter, like Christmas, has lost its real meaning; that it has become just another retail season. The BBC writes, “A large, feathery egg stands in the middle of a small street in a shopping area in north London. Beneath it is an Easter message: ‘This egg is to remind people to shop at the independent retailer’”.

Such messages reinforce the importance of our telling, re-telling and telling again the Good News of the Easter Story – just as Peter and Paul do in our readings. It is the re-telling of this story, our story, which has been at the heart of our Holy Week Services. And so we have been reminded that it remains just as much Good News today as it did to the early Christians. Following the risen Christ means life, abundant and joy-filled life. That is what we celebrate today in the renewal of our Baptismal vows together with those being newly baptised.

He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

The Curate Writes…

Clergy

It must have been an amazing moment for the disciples.  They had spent several years waiting for it.  Their Teacher was entering the city of Jerusalem to the acclaim of the masses – surely this was the time when the Jewish nation would be restored and the Roman occupation ended.

At the euphoria, Jesus’ prediction of his suffering death must have faded briefly away.  However, as we know, the cheers of the masses soon disappeared through Holy Week.  What the crowd saw as the way to restore the Jewish Nation was not God’s plan.

In many ways, being surprised by God has been the story of my life.  I was happy in the police with a career mapped out to retirement and then I came to faith.  The plan I had sketched out for myself was gone, God had rather different, exciting and challenging plans.  Indeed, when I started Theological College I had a clear vision of the type of Church I would serve my curacy in. Again God had different ideas – Liz, the girls and I found us called to the wonderful Parish of Worth.

Likewise, I have no doubt that the new members and existing members of our PCC never expected to be members and for some Church and Deputy Church Wardens.

So, as they enter their terms of office I would like to thank them for stepping out in faith and ask them and all of us to be continually open that God’s plans might not always be our plans.

Steve

Pewsheet for 29th March 2015 – Palm Sunday

Pewsheets

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