The Sunday Archive: The Pilot, September 1994 – Part 8
HOLY TRINITY
From
TONY KEOGH Rector
Dear Friends,
I thought that I had seen most things in my fifty-nine years of life but I was wrong. Recently, I received a brochure advertising traditional harvest loaves. What was puzzling was that the word "Engineering" was in the firm's title; then I looked a little closer. The loaf was made of fibreglass. I think that we will stick to the real thing.
Jesus and bread are inextricably bound together in the heart of our faith. In the Lord's Prayer, we are not just making a request for our daily bread, we are also acknowledging our dependence on God. Harvest-time is the festival when we especially acknowledge that dependence. Man is not self-sufficient, in spite of his knowledge and skill, his science and his techniques; he still needs God. All our farming and our industry are acts of co-operation; man adapts and uses the gifts of God in nature, man is dependent on God for sun, rain all weather —so at harvest-time, we give thanks that "All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above."
All of this is God's response to our physical needs and yet there is a hunger in the hearts of us all that Christ can satisfy, there is a spiritual hunger as well as a physical hunger. If our bodies are filled but our souls are empty, we cannot be truly and completely happy. St John of the Cross called that hunger the God-shaped blank of our souls.
We try to push and squeeze all kinds of things — many of them good things in themselves — into that blank spot but, in the end, the only thing that fits is God and to find God, we need to stop thinking of God solely, as one person put it to me recently, ". . . as a bloke out there."
At harvest-time, we especially need to think of the imminence, the closeness and the ordinariness of God. We do not need to look out to some distant horizon, He is under our very noses. Jesus could not have put it more succinctly, "I am the bread of life, he who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst."
HARVEST THANKSGIVING (Sunday 25th September): 8.30 am, Holy Communion; 10.30 am, Family Eucharist (when the children will present their gifts); 6 pm, Festal Evensong and Sermon.
HARVEST SUPPER (Friday 30th September). This will be held at the Parish Hall, 7.30 pm for 8 pm. Tickets, adults £3.50, children under 15, £2.00, will be available from the Church Officers and members of the Church Advisory Committee.
FLOWERS. High Altar: 4th, Mrs Dingle;
HOLY TRINITY
From
TONY KEOGH Rector
Dear Friends,
I thought that I had seen most things in my fifty-nine years of life but I was wrong. Recently, I received a brochure advertising traditional harvest loaves. What was puzzling was that the word "Engineering" was in the firm's title; then I looked a little closer. The loaf was made of fibreglass. I think that we will stick to the real thing.
Jesus and bread are inextricably bound together in the heart of our faith. In the Lord's Prayer, we are not just making a request for our daily bread, we are also acknowledging our dependence on God. Harvest-time is the festival when we especially acknowledge that dependence. Man is not self-sufficient, in spite of his knowledge and skill, his science and his techniques; he still needs God. All our farming and our industry are acts of co-operation; man adapts and uses the gifts of God in nature, man is dependent on God for sun, rain all weather —so at harvest-time, we give thanks that "All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above."
All of this is God's response to our physical needs and yet there is a hunger in the hearts of us all that Christ can satisfy, there is a spiritual hunger as well as a physical hunger. If our bodies are filled but our souls are empty, we cannot be truly and completely happy. St John of the Cross called that hunger the God-shaped blank of our souls.
We try to push and squeeze all kinds of things — many of them good things in themselves — into that blank spot but, in the end, the only thing that fits is God and to find God, we need to stop thinking of God solely, as one person put it to me recently, ". . . as a bloke out there."
At harvest-time, we especially need to think of the imminence, the closeness and the ordinariness of God. We do not need to look out to some distant horizon, He is under our very noses. Jesus could not have put it more succinctly, "I am the bread of life, he who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst."
HARVEST THANKSGIVING (Sunday 25th September): 8.30 am, Holy Communion; 10.30 am, Family Eucharist (when the children will present their gifts); 6 pm, Festal Evensong and Sermon.
HARVEST SUPPER (Friday 30th September). This will be held at the Parish Hall, 7.30 pm for 8 pm. Tickets, adults £3.50, children under 15, £2.00, will be available from the Church Officers and members of the Church Advisory Committee.
FLOWERS. High Altar: 4th, Mrs Dingle;
11th, Mrs C Edwards; 18th, Miss M Ward
25th Harvest, Mrs B Pallot. Lady Chapel: 4th, Mrs C Le Sueur; 11th & 18th, Mrs R Barthorp; 25th, Mrs J Allenet. War Memorial: 4th, Mrs L Gallichan; 11th, Mrs S Le Var; 18th, Miss M du Val; 25th, Mrs D Le Quesne.
HOLY BAPTISM. 10th July, Ross Peter Davis; 17th July, William George Ross Hall and Edward Rupert lain Hall; 24th July, James Jotham Mucklow; 31st July, Donovan Kamil Barrett.
HOLY MATRIMONY. 9th July, Julian de la Cour to Victoria Elizabeth O'Neil; 20th July, David Poole to Sarah Auckland; 6th August, Paul Dimbleby to Judith Grady.
FUNERAL. Olive Audrey Robert, née du Feu.
ST PAULS
IAN LE MARQUAND Churchwarden
GOODBYE TO MICHAEL AND ANGIE. Pentecost Sunday was Michael's last Sunday at St Paul's. The Fellowship enjoyed a buffet meal together at St Clement's Parish Hall and Michael and Angie were presented with various gifts. Michael's period of ministry at St Paul's was a very fruitful period of ten years during which the Church Fellowship grew both numerically and spiritually. Substantial improvements were made to the Church building and the St Paul's Centre development is proceeding apace. When the history of St Paul's in the last decades of the 20th century comes to be written I believe that his ministry will be viewed as being highly successful.
On 17th June I and a number of other people from St Paul's were able to be present for Michael Stear's induction and installation as Team Rector of Radipole and Melcombe Regis (the eastern half of Weymouth). The service was conducted by the Bishop of Salisbury assisted by the local Archdeacon and the local Rural Dean and was attended by about 300 people. At the reception afterwards the former Dean of Jersey the Very Rev Basil ministry at St Paul's.
Michael has become Team Rector of an area with five churches and a church plant. The normal team of clergy is three plus two curates. Michael will be mainly involved with St John's and the church plant in a nearby church hall. The area of the whole parish has a population of 13,500 and there appears to be great scope for growth. I have no doubt that Michael will be extremely effective in this new situation.
On Sunday 19th June we were able to attend Michael's first service and first sermon, which was very well received. At the end of the weekend I was left with the impression of very friendly people at Weymouth who would give Michael and Angie the love and support which they will need in these early months of Michael's new ministry. I am sure that Michael will be very good for them and they for him and for Angie.
HELLO TO DUNCAN AND JOY WHYTE. Sunday 7th August was the first Sunday of the Rev Duncan Whyte's ministry amongst us as he came to serve as our locum for a period of three months.
Duncan is well known to many at St Paul's as the General Secretary of the London City Mission, a post he held for 26 years, and a regular visitor to Jersey. However, he had experience of parish life, both as a Curate and as a Vicar, before then. I am sure that St Paul's will greatly benefit from his wisdom and experience for these three months. I would particularly like to thank the Vicarage Trustees for their efforts in furnishing the Vicarage for this period.
GIFT DAY FOR THE CENTRE. Our Gift Day in late July resulted in gifts totalling £23,000 at the time of writing which was very encouraging. Work is continuing apace at the Centre and the full potential of the new building as a church-based community centre is becoming increasingly apparent.
ST PETER
BARRY GILES Rector
WE have so much for which to be grateful. Even if we are arthritic, or lame, or cannot see as well as we did, or hear as clearly as once we could, or have all the aches and pains of growing older, or have multitudinous complaints, we still have a great deal for which to be thankful. The advances of medicine and surgery during my lifetime, let alone yours, have been extraordinary. Where are the TB hospitals I was once in? Yes, there is cancer, but it is not, thank God, the scourge it was a few years ago. It is still a scourge, but not so wholesale as it was. Medicine and surgery, and the gifts of healing, are making inroads into its differing effects. Yes, there is the scourge of AIDS, and this is being targeted by the forces of medicine and social compassion. I am not being complacent about illnesses and disease but wishing to make the point that for most of us, we do indeed have a great deal to be thankful for, in spite of our aches and pains.
This has once again been brought in upon me as I have struggled again with crutches after my recent operation. It was good, not so long ago, for our politicians to navigate through town in wheelchairs and to realise what it is like. It has made me realise how slow and difficult it is to be unable to walk; and how more difficult to be dependent upon others, even to carrying an empty cup across the room! I say this with no sense of self-pity but to make the point that we have a lot for which to be grateful.
There are two opportunities this month for us to express something of that gratitude. St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy, in London, exists to provide a marvellous service to our Church's clergy and their families. Doctors and surgeons of the highest renown give their skills in the service of the Church of England at St Luke's and the laity of the Church ensure its running costs by gifts and donations. We have tried to do this for many years at St Peter's, though sadly not too recently. My wife and I have benefitted from St Luke's, not least through my ankle operation in July. I hope that you will express your thanks to God, partly for the health that you do have and as an expression of gratitude for all clergy and their families by doing all you can to make this Silent Auction — on 14th September at Church House, St Helier — a great success. Details of how to do so are in this issue and also on our weekly newssheet.
The other opportunity to say thank you for all you have and all good gifts that are sent from heaven above, to coin a phrase, is at our Harvest Thanksgiving services on the last Sunday of this month (25th). The timings of the services are normal but the content of our worship will reflect the depth of our gratitude. If you are grateful then I am sure that you will be there to express your gratitude. I hope that we shall all do this twice that day, morning and evening. It is unfashionable to go to church twice on
Sunday these days but if we are truly grateful we can do so in the best possible way in the Harvest Eucharist at .10.30 am and also at 6.30 pm when we join in a jubilation of words and music in our Harvest Songs of Praise.
We have so much for which to be thankful every day of our lives. The days of 14th and 25th September pinpoint two areas of our total dependency upon God and of how mankind works with Him in Creation and Re-Creation.
THE HARVEST SUPPER will, once again, be organised by Carol and Robin Mallet and friends. Tickets will be available early in the month. So, unless you want to miss out on what was last year an excellent meal and evening, obtain yours soon! The venue is the Parish Hall at 7.0 for 7.30 pm prompt on Friday 30th September.
25th Harvest, Mrs B Pallot. Lady Chapel: 4th, Mrs C Le Sueur; 11th & 18th, Mrs R Barthorp; 25th, Mrs J Allenet. War Memorial: 4th, Mrs L Gallichan; 11th, Mrs S Le Var; 18th, Miss M du Val; 25th, Mrs D Le Quesne.
HOLY BAPTISM. 10th July, Ross Peter Davis; 17th July, William George Ross Hall and Edward Rupert lain Hall; 24th July, James Jotham Mucklow; 31st July, Donovan Kamil Barrett.
HOLY MATRIMONY. 9th July, Julian de la Cour to Victoria Elizabeth O'Neil; 20th July, David Poole to Sarah Auckland; 6th August, Paul Dimbleby to Judith Grady.
FUNERAL. Olive Audrey Robert, née du Feu.
ST PAULS
IAN LE MARQUAND Churchwarden
GOODBYE TO MICHAEL AND ANGIE. Pentecost Sunday was Michael's last Sunday at St Paul's. The Fellowship enjoyed a buffet meal together at St Clement's Parish Hall and Michael and Angie were presented with various gifts. Michael's period of ministry at St Paul's was a very fruitful period of ten years during which the Church Fellowship grew both numerically and spiritually. Substantial improvements were made to the Church building and the St Paul's Centre development is proceeding apace. When the history of St Paul's in the last decades of the 20th century comes to be written I believe that his ministry will be viewed as being highly successful.
On 17th June I and a number of other people from St Paul's were able to be present for Michael Stear's induction and installation as Team Rector of Radipole and Melcombe Regis (the eastern half of Weymouth). The service was conducted by the Bishop of Salisbury assisted by the local Archdeacon and the local Rural Dean and was attended by about 300 people. At the reception afterwards the former Dean of Jersey the Very Rev Basil ministry at St Paul's.
Michael has become Team Rector of an area with five churches and a church plant. The normal team of clergy is three plus two curates. Michael will be mainly involved with St John's and the church plant in a nearby church hall. The area of the whole parish has a population of 13,500 and there appears to be great scope for growth. I have no doubt that Michael will be extremely effective in this new situation.
On Sunday 19th June we were able to attend Michael's first service and first sermon, which was very well received. At the end of the weekend I was left with the impression of very friendly people at Weymouth who would give Michael and Angie the love and support which they will need in these early months of Michael's new ministry. I am sure that Michael will be very good for them and they for him and for Angie.
HELLO TO DUNCAN AND JOY WHYTE. Sunday 7th August was the first Sunday of the Rev Duncan Whyte's ministry amongst us as he came to serve as our locum for a period of three months.
Duncan is well known to many at St Paul's as the General Secretary of the London City Mission, a post he held for 26 years, and a regular visitor to Jersey. However, he had experience of parish life, both as a Curate and as a Vicar, before then. I am sure that St Paul's will greatly benefit from his wisdom and experience for these three months. I would particularly like to thank the Vicarage Trustees for their efforts in furnishing the Vicarage for this period.
GIFT DAY FOR THE CENTRE. Our Gift Day in late July resulted in gifts totalling £23,000 at the time of writing which was very encouraging. Work is continuing apace at the Centre and the full potential of the new building as a church-based community centre is becoming increasingly apparent.
ST PETER
BARRY GILES Rector
WE have so much for which to be grateful. Even if we are arthritic, or lame, or cannot see as well as we did, or hear as clearly as once we could, or have all the aches and pains of growing older, or have multitudinous complaints, we still have a great deal for which to be thankful. The advances of medicine and surgery during my lifetime, let alone yours, have been extraordinary. Where are the TB hospitals I was once in? Yes, there is cancer, but it is not, thank God, the scourge it was a few years ago. It is still a scourge, but not so wholesale as it was. Medicine and surgery, and the gifts of healing, are making inroads into its differing effects. Yes, there is the scourge of AIDS, and this is being targeted by the forces of medicine and social compassion. I am not being complacent about illnesses and disease but wishing to make the point that for most of us, we do indeed have a great deal to be thankful for, in spite of our aches and pains.
This has once again been brought in upon me as I have struggled again with crutches after my recent operation. It was good, not so long ago, for our politicians to navigate through town in wheelchairs and to realise what it is like. It has made me realise how slow and difficult it is to be unable to walk; and how more difficult to be dependent upon others, even to carrying an empty cup across the room! I say this with no sense of self-pity but to make the point that we have a lot for which to be grateful.
There are two opportunities this month for us to express something of that gratitude. St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy, in London, exists to provide a marvellous service to our Church's clergy and their families. Doctors and surgeons of the highest renown give their skills in the service of the Church of England at St Luke's and the laity of the Church ensure its running costs by gifts and donations. We have tried to do this for many years at St Peter's, though sadly not too recently. My wife and I have benefitted from St Luke's, not least through my ankle operation in July. I hope that you will express your thanks to God, partly for the health that you do have and as an expression of gratitude for all clergy and their families by doing all you can to make this Silent Auction — on 14th September at Church House, St Helier — a great success. Details of how to do so are in this issue and also on our weekly newssheet.
The other opportunity to say thank you for all you have and all good gifts that are sent from heaven above, to coin a phrase, is at our Harvest Thanksgiving services on the last Sunday of this month (25th). The timings of the services are normal but the content of our worship will reflect the depth of our gratitude. If you are grateful then I am sure that you will be there to express your gratitude. I hope that we shall all do this twice that day, morning and evening. It is unfashionable to go to church twice on
Sunday these days but if we are truly grateful we can do so in the best possible way in the Harvest Eucharist at .10.30 am and also at 6.30 pm when we join in a jubilation of words and music in our Harvest Songs of Praise.
We have so much for which to be thankful every day of our lives. The days of 14th and 25th September pinpoint two areas of our total dependency upon God and of how mankind works with Him in Creation and Re-Creation.
THE HARVEST SUPPER will, once again, be organised by Carol and Robin Mallet and friends. Tickets will be available early in the month. So, unless you want to miss out on what was last year an excellent meal and evening, obtain yours soon! The venue is the Parish Hall at 7.0 for 7.30 pm prompt on Friday 30th September.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment