The Sunday Archive: The Pilot, July 1997 - Part 1
THE DEAN'S LETTER
WHEN the Church of England was going through a bad patch in the early 18th century it decided to invest, to budget for growth. They opened theological colleges and looked for new men to be trained as clergy. They built new churches in the newly developing suburbs of the major towns. Here in Jersey, rather than whine about the state of affairs, they built what we now call the District churches. They invested in more clergy to serve the growing number of residents; and finally, in the 1860s, embarked on an ambitious plan of renovation at the Town Church which had fallen into a terrible state of disrepair.
At the meeting of the Ecclesiastical Court to swear-in the Churchwardens and Almoners I warned them that, over the next few months, they would frequently hear two words: "confidence" and "commitment." Our Bishop is determined to lead the Church forward. Throughout this summer he is visiting all the Deaneries to discuss the draft of a policy document, the Diocesan Strategy. In this Deanery we will get the chance to hear about it in September and contribute to it — if there is anything left to be said! Then, in October, the Diocesan Synod should approve the final document and order its publication throughout the Diocese.
Congregations may then feel it right to meet and consider how best to turn the vision into reality. Through the autumn and winter months churches can hold "Vision Days," set up study groups, or go away for a residential weekend, to prepare plans. Again the characteristics "confidence" and "commitment" will be important, but they will have to be more than mere words.
ST HELIER PILGRIMAGE
In the meantime I invite all Christians to celebrate the memory of the Island's patron, Saint Helier, and gather at Elizabeth Castle on Sunday 13th July, for an ecumenical service. The traditional Procession of Pilgrimage will leave St Helier Parish Church at 4.30 pm. Others may prefer to make their own way independently, by foot or by transport, to the Castle. All may like to take a picnic so that after the service we can enjoy the evening. Maybe this is an opportunity to cancel the usual local evening worship so that, together, we can be an impressive act of witness to the confidence and commitment of the Church of Christ in Jersey.
JOHN SEAFORD
JULY will be a dramatic month for the Parish of St Brelade with its daughter church at St Aubin. At the beginning, they will welcome their new Rector-Designate (Ministre Desservant) Reverend Noel Carter, who comes, with his wife Gill and family, all the way from Penrith on the northern edge of the English Lake District. While at the end they will say "good bye" to Paul and Janet and their family.
Paul has been part of the ministerial team in the parish since arriving in the Island from Watford in 1993, with special care for the congregation at St Aubin-on-the-Hill and Communicare. For the past twelve months, since the retirement of the previous Rector, he has had the additional responsibility of being Ministre Desservant with oversight of the whole parish. His ministry has been greatly appreciated by the congregations at each of the churches and at Communicare, and by the Constable and all at the Parish Hall where he has well fulfilled his municipal responsibilities.
In the Deanery Paul has also been a zealous chairman of the Social Responsibility Committee. But perhaps his most notable achievement, because it was seen by millions of people, was the planning and management of the Choral Eucharist on Low Sunday last year at Fort Regent, celebrated by the Bishop of Winchester with a congregation from all the Anglican churches in Jersey which was broadcast by Anglia TV across the Channel 3 network, and at which the Archbishop of Canterbury preached.
Now Paul will become the Vicar of his own parish of Squirrels Heath in the Diocese of Chelmsford. We thank him for his ministry here and wish him and Janet every blessing in their new home.
THE DEAN'S LETTER
WHEN the Church of England was going through a bad patch in the early 18th century it decided to invest, to budget for growth. They opened theological colleges and looked for new men to be trained as clergy. They built new churches in the newly developing suburbs of the major towns. Here in Jersey, rather than whine about the state of affairs, they built what we now call the District churches. They invested in more clergy to serve the growing number of residents; and finally, in the 1860s, embarked on an ambitious plan of renovation at the Town Church which had fallen into a terrible state of disrepair.
At the meeting of the Ecclesiastical Court to swear-in the Churchwardens and Almoners I warned them that, over the next few months, they would frequently hear two words: "confidence" and "commitment." Our Bishop is determined to lead the Church forward. Throughout this summer he is visiting all the Deaneries to discuss the draft of a policy document, the Diocesan Strategy. In this Deanery we will get the chance to hear about it in September and contribute to it — if there is anything left to be said! Then, in October, the Diocesan Synod should approve the final document and order its publication throughout the Diocese.
Congregations may then feel it right to meet and consider how best to turn the vision into reality. Through the autumn and winter months churches can hold "Vision Days," set up study groups, or go away for a residential weekend, to prepare plans. Again the characteristics "confidence" and "commitment" will be important, but they will have to be more than mere words.
ST HELIER PILGRIMAGE
In the meantime I invite all Christians to celebrate the memory of the Island's patron, Saint Helier, and gather at Elizabeth Castle on Sunday 13th July, for an ecumenical service. The traditional Procession of Pilgrimage will leave St Helier Parish Church at 4.30 pm. Others may prefer to make their own way independently, by foot or by transport, to the Castle. All may like to take a picnic so that after the service we can enjoy the evening. Maybe this is an opportunity to cancel the usual local evening worship so that, together, we can be an impressive act of witness to the confidence and commitment of the Church of Christ in Jersey.
JOHN SEAFORD
THE REVEREND PAUL WILKIN
JULY will be a dramatic month for the Parish of St Brelade with its daughter church at St Aubin. At the beginning, they will welcome their new Rector-Designate (Ministre Desservant) Reverend Noel Carter, who comes, with his wife Gill and family, all the way from Penrith on the northern edge of the English Lake District. While at the end they will say "good bye" to Paul and Janet and their family.
Paul has been part of the ministerial team in the parish since arriving in the Island from Watford in 1993, with special care for the congregation at St Aubin-on-the-Hill and Communicare. For the past twelve months, since the retirement of the previous Rector, he has had the additional responsibility of being Ministre Desservant with oversight of the whole parish. His ministry has been greatly appreciated by the congregations at each of the churches and at Communicare, and by the Constable and all at the Parish Hall where he has well fulfilled his municipal responsibilities.
In the Deanery Paul has also been a zealous chairman of the Social Responsibility Committee. But perhaps his most notable achievement, because it was seen by millions of people, was the planning and management of the Choral Eucharist on Low Sunday last year at Fort Regent, celebrated by the Bishop of Winchester with a congregation from all the Anglican churches in Jersey which was broadcast by Anglia TV across the Channel 3 network, and at which the Archbishop of Canterbury preached.
Now Paul will become the Vicar of his own parish of Squirrels Heath in the Diocese of Chelmsford. We thank him for his ministry here and wish him and Janet every blessing in their new home.
JOBS: Where do we go from here?
"GIVE US A JOB" is the cry of 20 million people in Europe who are out of work: Unemployment corrodes the soul of individuals and society, so it is not surprising that the Churches are in the forefront of the search for solutions.
The Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland recently issued the challenging report of its working party on The Future of Work. Among many constructive suggestions in it were a call for a national minimum wage (without restoring differentials higher up the pay scale) and reform of the benefit system.
The report says that all work is to be valued, not just the economically productive. "Everyone has a vocation, a role to play; there is a duty, and a right, to work and earn in a way most appropriate to gifts given by God."
One idea currently being promoted by a number of thinkers is that of a Citizen's Income. This was first proposed exactly 200 years ago, in 1797, by a man called Tom Paine. The idea is championed today by a Quaker, Sir Richard Body, who explains that a Citizen's Income could replace the whole social security system. Everyone would receive from the State say £60 a week, or whatever was judged to be enough to pay for the necessities of life. The incentive to obtain a part-time job would be considerable, as it would not lead to loss of the basic income.
Employers would also have an incentive, being able to take on workers at a lower wage than an employee could otherwise afford to accept. Lower wage costs would cut prices, reducing the cost of living in the UK, and make our exports more competitive.
Sir Richard points out that the present tax system encourages employers to replace people with machines. If national insurance contributions were phased out, and capital allowances ended, a new computer would no longer be artificially cheap compared with giving someone a job.
"GIVE US A JOB" is the cry of 20 million people in Europe who are out of work: Unemployment corrodes the soul of individuals and society, so it is not surprising that the Churches are in the forefront of the search for solutions.
The Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland recently issued the challenging report of its working party on The Future of Work. Among many constructive suggestions in it were a call for a national minimum wage (without restoring differentials higher up the pay scale) and reform of the benefit system.
The report says that all work is to be valued, not just the economically productive. "Everyone has a vocation, a role to play; there is a duty, and a right, to work and earn in a way most appropriate to gifts given by God."
One idea currently being promoted by a number of thinkers is that of a Citizen's Income. This was first proposed exactly 200 years ago, in 1797, by a man called Tom Paine. The idea is championed today by a Quaker, Sir Richard Body, who explains that a Citizen's Income could replace the whole social security system. Everyone would receive from the State say £60 a week, or whatever was judged to be enough to pay for the necessities of life. The incentive to obtain a part-time job would be considerable, as it would not lead to loss of the basic income.
Employers would also have an incentive, being able to take on workers at a lower wage than an employee could otherwise afford to accept. Lower wage costs would cut prices, reducing the cost of living in the UK, and make our exports more competitive.
Sir Richard points out that the present tax system encourages employers to replace people with machines. If national insurance contributions were phased out, and capital allowances ended, a new computer would no longer be artificially cheap compared with giving someone a job.
As part of his course, Reader-in-Training Martin Dryden is studying the prophets. Published below is Martin's prophesy to the modern world as a meditation on the environment in the style of the prophet, Hosea.
`Nations will be devastated by catastrophic climate changes — for you have not followed in my ways'
BECAUSE you indulge in things that are contrary to nature, feeding animals to themselves, abusing the land with chemicals and not allowing it to lie fallow, misusing natural resources, pumping out hydrocarbons into the atmosphere, polluting the environment, see how you will be punished — see how nature will turn against you.
Nations will be devastated by catastrophic climate changes caused by the destruction of natural vegetation, the rain forest, by preventing rivers flooding as in days of old, by bending the land and the waters to your own will and not to the will of the Father. This was not how I ordained it long ago. The great deserts will advance, the sun will burn your skins, your crops will be devastated by disease.
You have made your technology and your possessions into gods. Therefore the works of your hands will become your masters. And because you abuse yourselves and you abuse each other and show no love or respect but are filled with self-centredness, greed and dissatisfaction, I will set husband against wife, children against parents, family against family and nation against nation, for you have not followed in my ways. I will sow discord and anger among you for you have turned away from me. You drown me out with your noise and your distractions so that I cannot speak to you and tell you of my love for you.
If only you would remember me and turn from your selfish ways, I will again bless you and you will again tend my garden and I will be your God.
`Nations will be devastated by catastrophic climate changes — for you have not followed in my ways'
BECAUSE you indulge in things that are contrary to nature, feeding animals to themselves, abusing the land with chemicals and not allowing it to lie fallow, misusing natural resources, pumping out hydrocarbons into the atmosphere, polluting the environment, see how you will be punished — see how nature will turn against you.
Nations will be devastated by catastrophic climate changes caused by the destruction of natural vegetation, the rain forest, by preventing rivers flooding as in days of old, by bending the land and the waters to your own will and not to the will of the Father. This was not how I ordained it long ago. The great deserts will advance, the sun will burn your skins, your crops will be devastated by disease.
You have made your technology and your possessions into gods. Therefore the works of your hands will become your masters. And because you abuse yourselves and you abuse each other and show no love or respect but are filled with self-centredness, greed and dissatisfaction, I will set husband against wife, children against parents, family against family and nation against nation, for you have not followed in my ways. I will sow discord and anger among you for you have turned away from me. You drown me out with your noise and your distractions so that I cannot speak to you and tell you of my love for you.
If only you would remember me and turn from your selfish ways, I will again bless you and you will again tend my garden and I will be your God.
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