Thought for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Friends

2 Corinthians: 4 – 16 – Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

Are you a glass half-empty or a glass half-full sort of person? Do you read this and think “Every day I become a day older” or do you think, “Every day, I become a day wiser”? There is of course a third option: you could ask for a smaller glass, tip the contents into it and claim your glass is full to the brim. Many of us will remember singing the children’s chorus:

Running over, running over

My cup’s full and running over

Since the Lord saved me,

I’m as happy as can be,

My cup’s full and running over.

I am going to be away on leave from this Sunday until the 26th of August and, having had no leave yet this year, I am looking forward to it very much. For some of us, this summer will bring holiday and rest, and for others a slow return to work or normal life, and still others some fear still that the virus is out there, and life is not easy or normal and may not be so again, at least for a very long time.

Paul, in his writing to the early Christians at Corinth, recognises many of these issues. Life in every time and place has its own challenges, and for some those are very difficult indeed. Yet he writes with hope, and more with faith, of the inward renewal by the Holy Spirit, through our relationship with Christ. So let us this summer seek renewal and refreshment in our outward lives as we perhaps enjoy meeting with friends, or the beauty of parks and gardens, and our inward lives as we pray and read our Bibles and meditate on the word of God. Perhaps also, we might wonder whether part of what the last 18 months have given us is an understanding that a smaller glass can be full all the way to the top and that simply wanting less can allow our needs to be filled fully.

Inwardly, we are being renewed day by day. What a hope, what a faith to draw on.

God bless,

Vicci

Thought for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Friends

In Isaiah 40:30-31 we read this: Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. 

It is a reminder to me, this verse, that I have not become quick-tempered, fractious and incautious with my words overnight; instead, a year without time off has caught up with me.  We all need a rest, and I am greatly looking forward to my leave in two weeks’ time. 

Outside my window sometimes, I see red kites flying, high up above.  They are a success story of returning wildlife to places where it has died out.  And they remind me of this verse.  I grew up on the West Coast of Scotland, on the Isle of Arran.  I have seen the eagles soar, and I know that they may have to work hard to fly up to find the wind currents, when they find the right place they no longer need to flap, or make any effort really, instead they spread their wings and the wind takes them as they rest on it, swooping and wheeling and soaring in apparent effortlessness. 

I dream sometimes of flying, but more often, when I realise I am flying, I fall.  My brain, becoming aware of the dream as an impossibility, jerks me awake in that sudden jolt of adrenaline that means sleep will be some little time coming again. 

And yet…

The Holy Spirit is likened to wind.  We don’t know where it comes from or where it is going to, but we hear it, we feel it, we see the results of it passing.  For me this verse from Isaiah and these red kites flying remind me, yes of the importance of holiday rest, but also of the importance of just resting in the Spirit sometimes, of letting go and letting God take us where he will, high or low, to feel the presence of the Spirit.

Even eagles cannot soar for ever.  Nests must be built, food must be caught, chicks must be hatched, guarded and taught.  The basic stuff of life is the same for all living things.  But sometime this summer, let us take ourselves somewhere quiet and make a date with the wind of God, that we too may soar like eagles, resting in his presence, and born up by his Spirit. 

God bless, Vicci

Thought for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Friends

Well, the long-awaited moment has arrived and this Sunday we can sing again in church. Freedom though has come with more of a whimper than a bang and although we travel hopefully, we know that it’s not all over yet. I am telling my children to remember this because in fifty years’ time their local primary school will be asking them to come in and tell the children of the day all about the great COVID lockdown of 2020 and how it went on into 2021 and the terrible shortage of eggs and flour and how Amazon and Zoom between them took over the world. And yet, even as I note the A to Z inherent in that flippant statement, I am reminded that it is God who said: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

As we seek to find God in COVID and in these days through which we live, we are reminded that the faithful have lived through plague and war, fear and triumph for two thousand years and will likely do so again. I was fascinated to read in Jean Kirkwood’s wonderful little book “The Centenary Story” that “..throughout the country, the non-conformist churches lost ground in the early 1850’s and membership of the Wesleyan church slumped particularly. 100,000 members had been lost in the five years 1850 to 1855 and the Home Missions Department was created in 1856 to meet the challenge. Various reasons have been suggested why this might have happened ranging from emigration to the poverty caused by the Crimean War and in Wesleyan Methodism following unfortunate internal wrangling, but there was also an increasingly secular use of the Sabbath.” Jean goes on to speak of thousands of people on excursion trains to London and shops open and tradesmen doing business and all of these things that were concerning the churches in the 1850s continue and have their impact today. There is truly nothing new under the sun. The penultimate paragraph of Jean’s book says this: “Our church still stands on the corner of Alma Road …the symbol that in his strong compassion, God stoops from his everywhere down to our here. Because there were always men and women who did not lose heart when the going was tough and did not become slack when the going was easy.” May it be so for us in our time.

God bless,

Rev’d Vicci

Thought for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson Friends

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4. I wonder how many of you, like me, learned this in Sunday School and can still remember it, if not chapter and verse, then certainly remember the words.

I wonder how many of you noticed that it started “Man” as opposed to “Humanity” or “People”? I wonder of those of you who noticed, how many thought it mattered? I am of a generation where it was still totally normal to learn these verses in the King James version and completely understood that “man” used in this context, meant humanity. It didn’t really bother me that much, although there were times when the easy assumption of my peers that I couldn’t do something because I was a woman was an irritant and the Anglicans lost me in 1990 because my Vicar wouldn’t allow me as a woman to train as a lay reader. Now of course, that would be unlikely to happen, but I am a Methodist through and through.

However, whatever our position on these things, the Methodist Conference has asked us to be very intentional about using inclusive language. As the mother of a female mechanic, I understand that there is a need for this. I recognise that a company proud of having female mechanics can quickly become one that singles out the one or two they have in a field where it is still rare, and I also recognise that this can be embarrassing and belittling, as if somehow it is the fact that Sophie is a woman, rather than her top marks at college that make her of interest to the company.

In Galatians 3:28 we hear “In Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female for all of you are one in Christ.” We will not always be perfectly right as we seek to be inclusive, but let us try to be as careful of each other as we can so that no-one feels excluded, and when we notice someone else getting it wrong, let us also be understanding of the ways in which old habits die hard and the King James verses that we learned with such discipline as youngsters still roll off the tongue. Let us be kind both in our trying to be inclusive and in our trying to understand each other’s history.

God bless,

Rev’d Vicci

Thought for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Brothers and Sisters

The weather really has changed and as we get out our sandals, we also start to experience something of the dirt and the dust on our feet that would have been the daily experience of Jesus and his contemporaries. That dust, in a world where walking was the usual way around, was inevitably uncomfortable, and so the rules of hospitality involved bringing a bowl of water and a towel to wash your guests’ feet. When Jesus visits the home of Simon where his feet are washed and anointed by a woman who dries them with her hair Jesus points out that she has only done in an exaggerated way, what Simon should have done as a matter of course.

By and large, our feet remain quite clean. The roads of 21st century Britain are not as dusty as 1st century Palestine and we walk far less than our far-off ancestors. I wonder what our equivalency might be? That regular gesture of hospitality which, when offered in kindness and care shows regard for the needs of those who visit us at home or at church. Perhaps it is the regular coffee, tea and biscuits that are our equivalency, or perhaps in such weather as this, we could offer fruit juice as a refreshing alternative after church as an extra touch of hospitable thinking.

More than anything however, I would suggest that when Mary Magdalene, noticing that an act of hospitality had been omitted, made up for it with shameless generosity, she was modelling something very important. The jar of nard was often worn around a woman’s neck, added to whenever possible, developing a pension pot for future need. This was not a premeditated action perhaps, but instead a wiping out of the rudeness by treating the slighted Jesus with extra love and extra care, using what was to hand.

How wonderful to spot that something has been left out, someone has been hurt or treated with disrespect, and without saying anything to anyone else, to make up for it a thousand-fold. Next time we realise our feet are particularly grubby after a day in sandals, we might use it as a chance to reflect on how best we make sure that no-one in our church feels left out, hurt or treated with disrespect. To notice and repair the hurt is surely part of our calling as the followers of he who washed his disciples’ feet two thousand years ago.

God bless,

Rev’d Vicci

Thought for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Brothers and Sisters

After Jesus had been raised from the dead, he appeared to the disciples on more than one occasion. In the Gospel of Luke we read: Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised: so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.

” Just as Jesus asked his disciples to wait for Pentecost, so we too wait. Perhaps this year that waiting is more potent than ever before, because for the first time we are waiting for something that is more than just a special service in our churches. We are waiting in some cases for our churches to re-open, we are waiting for a tomorrow, when our lives as we remember living them start to return, we are waiting for an opportunity to move forward into the dynamic outreach that we have been planning for over this fallow period. And so it was for the disciples. The ministry of Jesus on earth had come to a dramatic full stop on Good Friday, an extraordinary – some would say unbelievable – resurrection on Easter morning and then he had left them, returning to heaven with a promise that if they waited, he would not leave them alone.

What did they think he meant? The writers do not record it. What we know is that on that first Pentecost something happened – something which was inexplicable, and which changed the disciples from nervous people hiding away to confident evangelists, spreading the news of the Gospel to the four corners of the world. As we celebrate Pentecost this year, let us pray that we too should have the confidence in our faith to share it when we feel called to do so, and the power in our words that allowed Peter to preach for ten minutes and have three thousand added to their number.

Now of course, I understand that we don’t have space for another three thousand just now, but let’s step out in faith and in hope to share the love of God in our communities this year.

God bless,

Vicci

Prayers for India and Brazil

We continue to lift up those around the world who are greatly affected by the Coronavirus pandemic especially in India and Brazil. We pray for peace, comfort and strength to all who are struggling at this time. We also pray for wisdom and access to the right resources for leaders to meet the needs of the people. Lord please keep them in your care.

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2.

Thought for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson and news of the ukulele group for 6 - 12 year starting up…..

Brothers and Sisters

“I am the resurrection and the life” says the Lord.

“Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.”

“God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in times of trouble.”

At every funeral service I take, I speak these words as I walk in front of the coffin to the front of the church. They are not just a clanging cymbal, signifying nothing, but an eternal promise of the love of God.

This week, with the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh bracketed by funerals for members at Windsor I have been reflecting on the importance of private grief and communal grief. Private grief is what we need to heal from loss; it is the price we pay for having loved. Communal grief is something different and particularly so at this time when we have lost so much.

As we start to come out of what we all hope will be the final lockdown, we will come out into a world that is grieving. The loss we mourn will be people, opportunities, endings or beginnings that weren’t effected well, jobs, finances, relationships, mental health – a huge litany of loss.

Revelation 21:4 says this: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

For we who are still living in “the old order of things” it is hard. Let us not add to our difficulties by imagining that we should somehow pretend it is not. But let us also travel hopefully for there is comfort, there is love, there is much hope and strangely enough, it is in daring to share and speak of our grief that we both give and receive the strength and the grace for the day.

God bless,

Vicci

ALOUD!! Sing aloud, play aloud, it's all allowed!

The new singing and ukulele group for 6 - 12 year olds starts on the 15th of May at 4 pm. Lasting one hour and including a short break for snacks (hooray!) this group will meet fortnightly and have fun singing and learning to play the ukulele. Bring a friend, bring a smile, bring a ukulele (if you have one - we've got spares) and prepare to have a great time. This is a drop and go session which will be led by Vicci and Kim who have up-to-date DBS checks and loads of experience working with this age-group. Come along and give it a go!

Thought for the week from Rev'd Vicci & A Reflection on Thomas by Richard

Brothers and Sisters

I write this in that strange “now and not yet” place that we are all living through at the moment.  The country is starting to open up, but as a non-drinking, non-gym-going, non-recreational shopper who is too cold-blooded for drinking coffee or eating outside in these not-so-warm early spring days, I am not seeing a lot of difference yet.  My mind is focused on the day I can go into a coffee shop and have lunch with a friend or invite people round to the manse for afternoon tea and whereas we have a date for that, it is not yet. 

Liturgically too, we are living in the now and not yet of the Easter season.  The disciples were overjoyed that Jesus had returned to them, but didn’t really know what that meant.  For Jesus, the final task has been accomplished.  He has beaten the mockers of Golgotha and returned from the dead more emphatically than if he had somehow torn himself down from the cross.  He has been declared Lord over sin and death by the actions of the Father and he knows that soon he will return to the Father’s side and the Holy Spirit will come in his stead.  For the disciples though, although he spoke of these things, they will have been difficult to understand until the hindsight of post-Pentecost makes sense of them.

If we live in the now and not yet of COVID, wondering what the “new normal” might look like and not really able to understand until it happens, then as Christ’s followers, we also live in the now and not yet of the life of the Church.  We know that there is a promise that Christ will return, but it makes no more sense to us than the promise that the Messiah would die, would rise, or would leave them his Holy Spirit made to those first disciples.  We are a “travelling, wandering race” as the old song has it, and we travel and wander through a landscape that we do not fully understand because without the benefit of hindsight, we cannot know what the return of Jesus will look like or means. 

In a post-resurrection, post-covid, post-truth world, we are called more than ever to be people of integrity.  If we cannot be trusted, how can our faith be believed?   “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed” Jesus said to Thomas.  It is the faith, the love and integrity of we who carry the story that allows that belief to endure.

God bless,

Vicci

A reflection on Thomas (John 20:24-29) – from Richard

What did you think about the recent census? Did you find it an intrusion into your personal life, or did you relish it as an opportunity to record your own place in these historically difficult times? For those interested in family history, census time is greeted with great excitement, as it means that the census from 100 years ago will soon be released for public viewing. Unfortunately, this has been delayed until next January, but I, for one, will be eagerly awaiting it, so that I can find out more about what my ancestors were doing in 1921.

At this time in the church calendar, we remember the disciple Thomas, who has been rather unfairly labelled ‘the doubter’ or ‘doubting Thomas’. We may not be directly related to Thomas, but in many ways, he is our ancestor of faith or, more pertinently, doubt.

Shortly after Jesus was crucified, the disciples huddled together behind locked doors fearing for their lives, their leader, Jesus, had been killed and their lives were full of fear and uncertainty. Into this scene of turmoil Jesus appears in his risen form, he reassures them, and offers them his peace. But a quick headcount of the gathered disciples, reveals that one of them is missing - Thomas. When he returned, the other disciples couldn’t wait to tell him that they had seen Jesus, risen from the dead, and it is here that Thomas utters the words that will define him forever: ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’

It was rather disappointing that the other disciples couldn’t convince him, it didn’t exactly bode well for the future of evangelism! However, when Jesus next appears to the disciples, Thomas is there also, but far from judging Thomas for his lack of faith, Jesus simply offers him the assurance he needs: ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’

I prefer to think that Thomas didn’t actually inspect Jesus’ wounds, he knew Jesus when he saw him, and he simply exclaims: ‘My Lord and my God!’ In the past year many people, myself included, have had their faith tested and it has been found wanting. Yet in those times when we question our faith, particularly when the normal things of life are turned upside down, we can draw comfort from Thomas. Here was a disciple who knew Jesus personally and who had heard, with his own ears, Jesus say that he would die and then rise from death, and yet when it came down to it, he couldn’t take that step of faith.

In his response to Thomas, Jesus acknowledges that faith can be hard, and also pays tribute to future believers who wouldn’t have the benefit of Thomas’s experience - that’s you and me! “Do you believe because you see me? How happy are those who believe without seeing me!”

In the year 2121 our descendants will look back at the census we have just completed and ponder how we coped with the pandemic, and their faith will be a testament to those of us who kept our faith alive amidst doubt and uncertainty during the dark days of the early 2020s.

Richard

Easter Greetings

Thought for the week: from our Minister, Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Brothers and Sisters Christ is alive!

Let Christians sing

His cross stands empty to the sky

Let streets and homes with praises ring

His love in death shall never die.

The great Easter hymn was written by URC Minister Brian Wren for his congregation in Essex. On April 4th 1968, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr had been assassinated in Memphis. Faced on the one hand with the devastating news of this violent death of the leader of the nonviolent movement for Civil Rights and on the other the responsibility to preach the Good News of the resurrection only ten days later, Wren wrote this hymn. He noted afterwards: “I tried to express an Easter hope out of that terrible event, in words which could be more widely applied, and wrote ‘Christ is alive!’ because our available hymns spoke of Easter as a glorious event long ago, far away, and high above.”

Charles Wesley too, in his time, wrote of the resurrection of Jesus in the present tense: “Christ the Lord is risen today.” As we celebrate with all who have gone before, and all who are still to come, we remember that this truth is for us, for our children, and our children’s children and that our challenge and our joy is to live the truth of Easter – the pain and the glory – in every day of our lives, to do our little bit to ensure that the joy, justice, love and praise of our Lord is spread throughout the world.

Christ is alive! His Spirit burns

Through this and every future age

Till all Creation lives and learns

His joy, his justice, love and praise.

Happy Easter!

God bless,

Vicci

Thought for the week: from our Minister, Rev’d Vicci Davidson and news of the prayer group

Brothers and Sisters The fuse box blew in the manse this morning. It happens from time to time that everyone is doing something and the one extra pull on the circuit occasioned by a hair-dryer or kettle going on is the final straw. This time though, we couldn’t get the fuse to re-set and the electrician had to be called. We have two different circuit boards and a very efficient manse steward, so it was at worst a minor inconvenience, sorted out by the great electrician who looks after so much of the electrical requirements across the Circuit. It reminded me though how much we take these things for granted.

I remember walking around Cambridge in the first few days of living in the university there and agreeing with Mark that we must never take the privilege of living in such a beautiful city for granted. Then there have been times when I have visited countries where tap water is still not fully safe for drinking and teeth-brushing, and bottled water is the only way to go, and I have promised myself that I will never again take the assumption that water coming out of the tap in my kitchen is safe to drink as anything but a privilege.

Of course, I forget. I got used to the beauty of central Cambridge, I run myself a glass of water from the tap without even thinking about it, and I will doubtless forget all about the extraordinary gift that electricity is by tomorrow.

As we get closer to the events of Easter, with Palm Sunday next week and all that Holy Week and Easter morning bring, I am reminded how easy it is to take these things for granted as well. That the Son of Man came and lived among us and died and rose again. Brothers and sisters, let us not take the scandal of the cross, or the joy of Easter for granted. Let us remember that, however much we have got used to the idea of it, it is an extraordinary thing that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

God bless

Vicci

Our Church Prayer Group:

Rev’d’ Vicci is keen to restart this with Rev’d Malcolm – so please note it will hopefully start on Wednesday 19 May. It will meet 6 pm to 6.30 every alternate Wednesday and will be confirmed in the newsletter. This is such an important, special time and all are welcome.

Thought for the week from Rev'd Vicci

Some years ago when Sophie, my youngest, was about seven or eight, we were walking down the road at about this time of year and she noticed all of the adverts in the shop windows saying “Don’t forget mother’s day.”  “Huh!” she said, “You don’t catch them having a child’s day!”  I tried pointing out to her that this was because every day of a mother’s year revolved around children and their needs, but I don’t think she was convinced.  She may feel slightly different now that she is a mother herself…

Nevertheless, it is perhaps the memory of this conversation that made me take 1 Timothy 4:12 to our Zoom Sunday School the Sunday before last: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.” 

We talked about the things that mattered to the young people in church and then wrote a prayer of thanksgiving.  Here are the things that our young people wanted to give thanks for: for food and water, for all the living life on earth, for family, for clothes, for everybody being different.

Of course, the proper noun for “everybody being different” is diversity, and members of the Local Preachers and Worship Leaders Fellowship meeting had a great training session led by Revd Anne Ellis, in which she introduced the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion tool kit to us, helping us to think about some of our subconscious prejudices. 

This theme of diversity has come up yet again in the wake of the interview given by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in America.  Irrespective of where we stand on this particularly public family breakdown, we can perhaps all recognise the genuine pain felt by all concerned.  We can do nothing to heal that particular situation but must do something to heal the hurt of racism, the conscious and the unconscious, in our society.  Perhaps the first step is to join our young people in giving thanks for everybody being different. 

Paul does this in an extraordinarily simple and yet important way in 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 when he reminds the church at Corinth that “The body does not consist of one member, but of many” and goes on to speak of each part having an important job to do: “If the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.” 

We can seek fairness by trying to give everyone the same or we can seek it by allowing everyone to flourish in their own glorious uniqueness.  Brothers and sisters, let’s give each other the space and the time to say “This is what I like and this is how I like to do things,” and even if it’s not what we like, to say, “Let’s try that – let’s see what there is about it that speaks to us,” and in so-doing we will learn about each other.  Let’s join our Sunday School in saying thank you to God for everybody being different.

God bless

Vicci    

Thought for the week from Rev'd Vicci plus an anonymous writing - ‘One solitary life’

Brothers and Sisters

In my pre-ordained ministry days, I was a church organist.  I was in my early twenties and like many free-lance performers, taking on more work than I really had time to do for fear that next month there would be nothing and so I ended up not arranging for the pianos to be tuned as early as I should have.  There was a rehearsal where the piano in the choir vestry was really rather bad.  Two days later, one of my altos rang me.  “I know you will be on top of this,” she said, “But I am seeing my piano tuner tomorrow and I wondered if it would be helpful if I asked if he had time to do the pianos at the church?  I’m sure you have planned it, but if you haven’t had the time to ring anyone, I could take that job off you.”  It was the kindest, most loving offer of help, while at the same time reminding me of my obligations, that I have ever had.  I took her up on the offer with great thanks, but she never had to make it again. 

During our lives, we meet many of these every-day saints.  They are not going to win “Britain’s got talent”, they would cringe if they were in the newspapers, and they take pride in living restrained and orderly lives.  Yet the impact they have on the people around them is significant.  Here I am, telling you a story that is 30 years old and yet it affected not just the quality of the day or the week in which it happened, but my whole approach to reminding, nagging or otherwise giving people what for! 

None of us will have the impact on the lives of those around us that Jesus did.  Perhaps this is one of the proofs of his divinity.  But all of us can seek to be a force for good in the lives of those whom we live, work and socialise with.  As we come towards what we all hope will be the end of the final lockdown, it is tempting to want to tell people off when we see them disobeying the rules, and yet we know that the harsh word will only send our adrenaline levels up and may have little or no effect on the person we are speaking to.  Ultimately, God’s love is not about letting people walk all over us, but it is about removing the plank from our own eyes, so that we can see to help our brother or sister with the speck that is in theirs, it is about judging not that we be not judged, it is about loving our neighbour as ourselves.  And so I pray for all of us patience with ourselves and with each other and a safe journey on the path laid out on the road map with which we have been presented. 

God bless

Vicci  

‘One solitary life’

(This is an anonymous writing that some of you may know. It is thoughtfully written and especially so to people who don’t know, as we do, how amazing and wonderful our Lord is!)

‘Here is a young man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He worked in a carpenter’s shop until he was thirty and then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He did none of those things we normally associate with greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

While he was still a young man, the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth, and that was his coat. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed tomb, through the pity of a friend.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race, and the leader of the column of progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings (and queens) that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as has that …………. One solitary life!

The long-awaited road map, a Reflection by Richard & Rosie’s Rainbow Fund - read all about it!

Newsletter Thought for the Week – 28th February 2021

Brothers and Sisters

The long-awaited road map has been published and we can see a path back to normality in front of us.  It is a longer path than many of us had hoped for, but a shorter path than some scientists had warned us might be required, and we pray that the time and care will mean that we can come out of Covid restrictions without the fear of needing to go back in again.   Many of you will have received your first vaccination and if all continues to go as hoped and planned for, then the conversations of the summer may be about what we want to do next year and not whether we will be able to do it.  If the Annual Church Meeting will have to be by Zoom, it is because by so-doing we will be able to have a Harvest Supper with Barn-Dance in the Autumn.  

Those of you who joined us for the Zoom service last week will know that I linked the experience of Jesus in the desert with that of the Jewish people after the Exodus, and on into our own desert experiences over the last year.  As Moses handed over leadership of the people to Joshua, God said to him, “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear or be in dread of them: for it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”  (Deuteronomy 31:6).  God is speaking to Joshua about leading the people into the Promised Land and about the people who are already there.  This story of conquest and battle is disturbing to our modern sensitivities but the promise of a God who goes before us preparing the way, is a promise we can all hear with hope in these times.  We are again reminded that God leads, but it is the actions of his followers that result in success or failure.  Having led them to the borders, the people of Israel still had to do the work of entering and fighting, settling and working the land; trying to follow God in the good times as well as the bad. 

As things start to re-open, we will be encouraged to play our part in the re-energising of our economy, to spend and go out and engage as much as possible when we are allowed to do so, and I am really looking forward to that.  But we know that this year has given many people time and space to think about the things of faith.  Let’s not lose that hard-fought ground.  Let’s be awake and aware to those who are questioning and if we have used this time to re-engage with reading, prayer and quiet-time in the practice of our own faith, let us not lose that in the excitement and the joy of re-engaging with the outside world over the future months. 

God bless

Vicci

A Reflection - by Richard

“For many years, my job was to repair aircraft equipment which went on a variety of airplanes from the Airbus 380 to the Red Arrows. The faulty items would come back from many different countries, and as I took them apart and worked on them, I would often ponder that all around the world there were items that I had touched. In my current job I have occasionally tested components for satellites, and so items I have touched are now out in Space too!

Throughout our lives we ‘touch’ many other people’s lives in many different situations. With family or friends, we may have relationships that span decades, whilst other people we may meet only once and never again. However, the effect we have on others is not directly proportional to the amount of time we spend with them. An act of kindness towards a stranger may be remembered for years; equally, losing our temper with another road user or being short with a shop assistant can also leave its mark. For the Christian, these daily interactions can present a challenge, because they are informed by our faith in Christ. This is a tall order because Jesus’ actual touch would often mean physical healing and a chance encounter with him could be life changing.

In John 4: 1-26 we read of the woman who goes to the local well one day to draw water for her family. As she approaches the well, she sees a strange man sitting there, it is Jesus. He is thirsty but has no means of getting water from the well, but his simple request for a drink completely throws her. Why should a strange man from a different culture even speak to her, let alone ask her for a drink? But for Jesus it is merely a way of starting a conversation, a conversation that will turn her life around. This woman who arrived with an empty water jar but a life full of insecurities and burdens, leaves them all behind as she dashes back to tell her friends and family about this man she has just met, a man who knew her better than she knew herself. She even leaves her water jar behind in her excitement!

We may not have the life changing powers of Jesus, but in these difficult times, we do well to remember that a listening ear and few well-chosen words can make a big difference. We may never know the effect that the things we do or say may have on others, but if we consider the way Jesus treated each person that he met, we cannot go far wrong… we may even lead someone a little closer to him.

As I sit at my desk typing I wonder who will read this, I know that previously the newsletter has been read in Kent, Oxford and even as far as New Zealand. My prayer is that you may all experience the touch of Jesus on your life … wherever in the world you may be!

Richard

Rosie’s Rainbow Fund - Rev’d Vicci

It was announced last week that Church Council had decided to embark upon a period of fundraising to be split between the Church and Rosie’s Rainbow Fund and to culminate in a big celebration for the 30th anniversary of the refurbishment of the building.

Rosie’s Rainbow Fund is a Maidenhead Charity that puts music therapists into hospitals across Berkshire to work with children, particularly those who are long-term sick. It provides music therapy for special needs children in schools and centres around Berks, Bucks and Oxon, and supports disabled children in schools and respite centres with essential equipment. It also provides specialist counsellors for those have experienced the death of a child. Like many small charities, it has found the last year very difficult with the usual fund-raising activities cancelled or curtailed, and when I wrote to the Chair and founder, Carolyn Keston after Church Council, she said that they were desperate to be able to get their therapists back into the hospitals.

Carolyn is Rosie’s mum and was my boss when I taught at Redroofs Theatre School and I knew and taught Rosie from age three until she died when she was 12. Rosie was a very talented performer and singer and was passionate about doing something to help other sick children. After she died, the family felt that setting up a charity that would help these children through music would be a fantastic way of honouring Rosie’s memory and I was really pleased when Church Council decided that this would be the most appropriate charity for us to fundraise for over this period.

If you would like to find out more about this wonderful charity, then please visit the website: rosiesrainbowfund.co.uk

God bless

Vicci

Rev’d Vicci's thought for the week

Brothers and Sisters As I look out of the window this morning at the lightly falling snow, I wonder, as we all do, what the spring will bring. I have a hopeful daffodil blossoming under the kitchen window, yellow head nodding under a shower of white sleet, and it reminds me of my own experience: hoping for a good spring and yet knowing that at the moment we are still in the winter. We are in the winter as a nation battling Covid-19; we are in the winter as a congregation seeking God’s direction for the next decades; we are in the winter as people hoping to be allowed to hug our friends and meet for coffee and potter around garden centres, galleries and theatres.

When Jesus walked this earth, the Jewish people too were in a kind of winter. Occupied by Rome, they struggled to find ways to live at peace. Many of the leaders of the day achieved this by coming to some sort of accommodation with the conquering army, others tried to rebel, while others were focused on getting through each day and tried not to let it impinge upon them too much.

Faced, not with an occupying virus, but an occupying army, Jesus went around healing and teaching – sharing food and fellowship along with a unique understanding of the love of God.

There will be days when the very existence of the pandemic and its impact on our lives may challenge our faith. On those days, it is worth remembering that although there were people who wanted Jesus to lead them in a military coup against the oppressor, that is not what he offered. Instead, he taught them to be God’s people in the middle of an occupied land; to trust that God would lead them and feed them, but not fulfil their every wish like some genie in a lamp or great Father Christmas in the sky.

Times like this help us to readdress our theology. When we catch ourselves asking God, “Why have you let this happen?” and then remember all the other times that bad things happened to good people we are reminded that our faith is not about sunshine every day, but rainbows glimmering after the storm, freedom after slavery, hope after fear, resurrection after death and love after all seems lost. Perhaps the real reason it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven is that when we need nothing, there is no reason to pray; when we have everything we want by the work of our own hands, we have no reason to thank; when we are well, we have no need of healing; and when all our needs are met, we do not notice the poverty of our spirits, nor do we remember to bring our cares to God. God bless

Vicci

Prayers for the Nation

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby invites everyone to join him at 6 pm each day during February. Please follow this link: https://www.churchofengland.org

Thought for the week from Rev'd Vicci, Thames Valley Sound of Music Lent Bible Study & Prayers for the Nation

Brothers and Sisters

I wonder how many years it has been since you last read the Narnia books; that wonderful fantasy series that begins with “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” set in wartime England where four children are evacuated to a house in the country and discover a different world accessed through the back of a magical wardrobe?  It was of course, written by C.S. Lewis and is therefore as theologically sound a fantasy series as you are likely to find and the wonderful dedication reminds us that although we may outgrow fairy-tales, we also grow back into them at some point.  If you have not read it recently, it would be a lovely way to while away some lockdown days. 

In “The Silver Chair” C.S. Lewis says this: “Crying is alright in its way while it lasts.  But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.”  As we continue to travel hopefully towards a post-lockdown world, while grieving for the lives of over 100 000 people in this country and over 2.2 million deaths world-wide from covid-19, we are encouraged to pray.  The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have suggested that Christians in this country might commit to specifically covid-related prayer at 6pm every day this month and certainly, whether or not that is a discipline you wish to hold, we will all be praying consistently for the needs of the country and the world in this crisis. 

I often wonder what happened to Lazarus after he returned from death.  Surely, life would have been different.  Surely, he couldn’t just have carried on as if nothing had happened.  Would he have felt joyful to be given a second chance?  Would he have felt that he had a responsibility to live the second part of his life more fully, more joyously, in a more God-centred way?  We are not told.  Still, it seems to me that he would have taken this new lease of life and lived it with all the joy and all the love and all the faith that he could muster.

In the face of our faith and hope, tempered with the grief of what we are witnessing, well-meaning people will tell you “It’s okay to not be okay”.  I would go further.  Faced with the death of his friend, even knowing what he was going to respond by calling Lazarus back to life, Jesus wept.  I would suggest that we need to not be okay and that if these times are not affecting us adversely then we are refusing to process them.  Some of us will be able to remain fairly upbeat and some will suffer attacks of depression and anxiety – we all deal with things differently because we have all lived different lives in different bodies with different chemical make-ups.  C S Lewis was right on both counts: “Crying is alright in its way” and also plans must be made, hopes must be allowed to stir and then we must decide what to do.  Grief does not last for ever, but let’s not fail to grieve when it is called for.  It is a part of loving and we should allow ourselves to experience it on behalf of the world in such times. 

God bless

Vicci   

The Sound of Music Lent Bible Study

Last year, when we went into the first lockdown during Lent, some wag put "This is the Lentiest Lent I have ever Lented" on Facebook and it was shared by thousands of people with whom it resonated.  As we think about entering Lent once more, we have not really left those initial feelings behind.  There is a sense in which, however hard we tried to celebrate and mark the passage of the Church year, we have been in the desert since last March.  The Circuit staff felt that this was not the time to embark upon a Bible Study that addressed some of the more traditional themes of Lent but that instead we needed something a little more uplifting, something that resonated with living through difficult times but held out hope, joy and Julie Andrews!  This year, the Lent Bible Study has been written by the Circuit Staff and will look at songs from one of the most popular musicals ever, linking them to major Biblical themes and allowing us to meet together over Zoom to reflect on climbing mountains, remember favourite things and wonder if somewhere the hills are still alive with the Sound of Music.  Join us on Ash Wednesday and subsequent Wednesdays in Lent (not the 3rd of March) at 7:30 for an hour of fun,song, Bible Study and prayer.

Prayers for the Nation

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby invites everyone to join him at 6 pm each day during February. Please follow this link: https://www.churchofengland.org

Thought for the week from Rev’d Vicci and news from our district

Our Superintendent Minister, Rev’d Vicci Davidson’s thought for the week

Brothers and Sisters I know that you will not all have managed to log on to the excellent service that Revd Anne Ellis led last week on Jonah, but you will be very familiar with the story – a story that we have heard told in various ways since childhood. Reflecting on it over the last two days, it seems to me that we are very much in the belly of the whale right now. By and large, so long as we stick to the rules and stay at home where we can, we are kept safe; but we are constrained and restricted and for many of us it is not comfortable.

Yet eventually, as it was with Jonah, we will come out of this and we will go out and about. Initially that will be a careful unlocking into tiers and eventually, perhaps taking as long as another year, we will be able to meet and eat and sing together.

We don’t often think of the world in which we live as being like Ninevah, and I don’t think we should, but nevertheless we should be different to the world. It should feel slightly foreign to us because we are espousing a different way of living. I wonder what that will be like for us when we return to whatever normality looks like after lockdowns and tiers are over. What different and distinctive message do we want to bring as Church when we leave the belly of the whale? How will we deliver that message to our communities? How will we demonstrate to the world that we are different and that this difference is an all-encompassing, amazing way of living and loving through relationship with Jesus?

I suppose that we demonstrate that through the way that we live and love – proving God is in us because what we offer and who we are is unusual, extra-ordinary, unexpected and life-affirming. I wonder how we might do that? I wonder how we might show that? I wonder how we might live that life? A life that says “When Jesus came, he said that he had come so that ‘they might have life in all its fullness’ and that is for me and for you, for your children and your children’s children until the end of time.”

For many of us, our faith is such a part of who we are and has been for so long, that we forget just how special it is. When we step out of the belly of the whale, I wonder what message God has put on your heart to deliver to the world around us.

God bless

Vicci

DISTRICT TESTIMONY SERVICE – Rev Dan Balsdon 

Message from our Superintendent Vicci:

Testimony services, being received into full connexion and ordination are all very different this year because of the pandemic. and Dan should have been ordained last year.  He was received into full connexion at Conference, but it was not possible for ordinations to happen, and the District hoped that by postponing his testimony service, there would be an opportunity for face-to-face fellowship once more.  Sadly, this has not happened, and the decision has been taken to have Dan's testimony service online.  Although he may not be well known in this Circuit, it is an opportunity for us to take part in some small way in District-wide worship and in support of a new presbyter.  I hope that at least some of you will be able to "tune in" to the service on Youtube on the 7th February.

Message from our District:

Following the weekly Superintendents’ meeting earlier this week please find below the YouTube details for the District Testimony Service which is taking place on

Sunday, 7 February 2021 at 6 pm.  It will be live streamed via YouTube starting a little before 6 pm to allow time for you to join the service.  Access is either from Dan’s circuit website

https://westsussexcoastanddownscircuit.co.uk/2021/01/21/district-testimony-service/

or by the direct YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo-lyusGbXMszrVxswo-hNg/live

Thames Valley Circuit: Pastoral Letter January 2021

Brothers and Sisters

I don’t know about you, but I always get a little bit of energy at the beginning of a new year. However many times people tell me that the 1st of January is just another day, there is something about that brand new year that sets my brain to thinking about planning in new ways, making new starts and of course, New Year’s resolutions. It reminds me of the excitement of getting a new jotter in primary school with that pristine first page, and the determination to do my very best handwriting.

God understands the power of new beginnings and offers it through forgiveness of sin and the opportunity to repent: to turn away from old ways and into new paths. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old is gone, the new is here.” Every year, either in early January or September, Methodists hold the Covenant service that reminds us of that new beginning, re-promising to God all that we have and all that we are.

Yet this year has been different. We looked hopefully to 2021, and of course, it is likely that the ending of the year will be better, but just now it seems harder than ever. The numbers are going up, the NHS is under unprecedented pressure, we know people who have died or been very ill because of COVID and yet when we do go out, there are still people taking risks, not just with their own health, but with ours. It is hard.

I find myself turning again to that well-trodden, well-loved passage in the 23rd Psalm. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. For you are with me, your rod and staff they comfort me…Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of God for ever.”

This Psalm is believed to be written by King David either when he was hiding from Saul who wanted to kill him before he became king, or from his own son Absalom who wanted to kill him and take the throne. He was probably in a cave, locked down, afraid to go out. Yet he could still write that he believed God was with him, even in the dark times, even if he died. The year will get better, but we are in for more valley before we get to climb to the peaks. In the valley it is dark, and sometimes frightening, but God is with us and all valleys end and all paths start to move upwards towards the sun. As we step forward in hope this new year, let us keep the faith, obeying the stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives rules; remembering the advice to take extra vitamin D(*) while we are not able to be outside as much and looking out for those of our neighbours who may struggling.

The God who spreads a table in the presence of our enemies will not forget to bring us through to a time when we can once more have pot-luck lunches, Harvest Suppers and faith teas. 2021 is a year of hope, but it is longed for and journeyed towards not given to us with a bang on an arbitrary date. In the meantime, stay safe, know you are loved and till we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

God bless

Vicci (Revd Vicci Davidson Circuit Superintendent)

(*) Public Health England: Statement from PHE and NICE on vitamin D supplementation during winter. Notices for week commencing Sunday 24 January 2021

And finally, a lovely hymn from Singing the Faith 409):

Let us build a house where hands will reach

beyond the wood and stone

to heal and strengthen, serve and teach,

and live the Word they've known.

Here the outcast and the stranger

bear the image of God's face;

let us bring an end to fear and danger:

All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

( Well you certainly will be when we are open!!)

Covenant Service via Zoom this Sunday 17th January

Brothers and Sisters

After the star, the dim day.

After the gifts, the empty hands.

And now we take our secret way

Back to far lands.

After the cave, the bleak plain.

After the joy, the weary ride.

But journey we, three new-made men,

Side by side.

Came we by old paths by the sands.

Go we by new ones this new day,

Homewards to rule our lives and lands

By another way.

This poem, written by an unknown author and quoted in Celtic Daily Light by Ray Simpson, feels already to be about another time of year.  Surely, Christmas with its stories of a baby in a manger, of angels and shepherds and wise men is over for another year.  And yet, as I write this on the Tuesday before you read it, we are only six days after Epiphany.  Christmas comes and goes so quickly and though we remind ourselves to keep Christmas every day in our hearts, even in a normal year, that is hard to do, and this year is hardly a normal one. 

And yet we are called, by the story of wise men, travelling towards an unknown ending, to step out into the new year in faith and in hope.  More than that, because we are not those first travellers, we know the ending of the story, we know what they found and who he grew to be.  We are truly called to journey joyfully, new-made and side by side as we prepare to make our Covenant together and to remind ourselves once more of our calling to serve God and his promise that we will be his people. 

Not all of you will be able to join me in our Zoom Covenant Service and the Covenant Prayer is printed below so that you may speak it with us at around 11 am on Sunday. 

Methodist Covenant Prayer

I am no longer my own, but thine.  Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering*. Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

 * Note that in this prayer the word “suffering” is used in the sense of “patiently enduring” - the opposite of “doing”. We are not inviting God to inflict pain on us.

And may the Covenant we now speak on earth by ratified in Heaven.

God bless

Vicci

A message from our Minister Rev’d Vicci, a Reflection from Shirley and some Circuit News

Brothers and Sisters

As I write this, we are once more plunged back into lockdown. My children are attending zoom meetings at odd hours to find out if they are to be furloughed again and my husband is girding up his loins as numbers of funerals increase. I wrote last week about the darkness before the dawn, but it seems it is still to get darker. And yet, we have a hope that is steadfast and certain and I find myself again and again being drawn back to a teenage memory of a preacher quoting another preacher – a famous sermon, so wonderful that 35 years later I still remember it, so wonderful that it can be found printed out on the internet, that amazing repository of human endeavour and God-given understanding.

The preacher quoted was Shadrach Meshach Lockridge and the sermon, too long to reproduce here begins:

It’s Friday Jesus is praying

Peter’s a sleeping

Judas is betraying

But Sunday’s coming… …

and ends…

It’s Friday Jesus is buried A soldier stands guard

And a rock is rolled into place

But it’s Friday

It is only Friday

Sunday is a coming.

Brothers and sisters, it is Friday and it will be a long Friday and a long Saturday, but we have a vaccine, we have a plan, we have an extraordinary group of people ready to execute that plan, we have a level of resilience that humanity finds over and over again when things become difficult. It’s Friday, and Saturday will be a long day. But Sunday is a coming.

This Friday I shall have the honour and the sorrow of conducting the Funeral of Neville Smith, a man who I spoke to only twice and only on the telephone. It will be the first funeral that I conduct in this Circuit, but it won’t be the last. Friday is tough, and it is not over quickly, but Sunday’s coming and we are a Sunday people, we are a resurrection people, we are an Easter people. As we prepare for this next period of waiting and watching of staying home, (2) protecting the NHS and saving lives, we remember that we are doing it so that we are all here to stand together on Easter morning and celebrate Sunday once again.

God bless.

Vicci

A Reflection on ‘Christmas’ by Shirley

Recently, I found myself pondering on the word ‘Christmas’. Obviously, we all know Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, hence ‘Christ’ and then the syllable ‘mas’ which we understand as coming from ‘mass’ church services, and also associated with the celebration of saints lives. Hence (3) there is no other name for the great celebration other than ‘Christmas’. As I dwelt on this, I thought sadly of all the people to who don’t see Christmas as the great celebration of the birth of Jesus but only as a celebration of families/friends getting together with material presents (often unnecessary indulgences), pretty decorations, and eating and drinking. Not necessarily wrong but oh so sad to know what they are missing! Maybe for them, as they take the ’Christ’ out of ‘Christmas’, they are left with M and S! No disrespect to Marks and Spencer!! So, as our job is spread the ‘Good News’, we’ve got our work cut out …….

Prayer: ‘Holy Father, please give us the love, wisdom, and energy we need to melt their hearts, and open their eyes and minds to You.’

News from the Circuit

Conference declared 2020/2021 a year of prayer so that our Church-wide commitments to evangelism, church growth, church at the margins, and pioneering and church planting will flow from a deep, contemplative orientation to God’s grace and love. Be part of this movement of prayer as we ask the Holy Spirit to help us be a growing, evangelistic, inclusive, justice-seeking Church of gospel people.

Weekly Online Prayer Meeting - Tuesdays at 12.45pm. Join others across the Methodist Church to pray together every Tuesday from 12.45 to 1.00pm You will need to copy and paste this link into your browser:

https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-work/our-work-in-britain/evangelismgrowth/year-of-prayer/

You will need to register to receive weekly prayer guidance. To join on zoom one has to register but once you have the link it works every week. It starts promptly but sometimes it goes on for a minute or so but always down before 1.03 pm.