Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson and links to photographs taken at the Stations of the Cross event on Holy Saturday

Friends

In my teens I became increasingly short-sighted and, as is often the case, was unaware of it for quite a while. Eventually, I had my eyes tested and was given glasses. It was an extraordinary experience to have 20/20 vision for the first time in years. Spooky looking trees and corners turned out to be perfectly ordinary, and the fellow teen who I had fancied from afar for ages turned out not to be as utterly gorgeous as I had imagined (albeit with very good bone structure!) It was both wonderful and slightly disappointing to see the world as it really is.

When we read the Easter story, particularly those of us who have stayed with it throughout the Christian year and starting with Advent have prepared ourselves for the coming of God as a baby, been witnesses of Simeon’s response in the temple, rushed back to Jerusalem in fear when Jesus was lost at 13, observed the first miracles, heard the teaching and journeyed to the foot of the cross, we see how obvious it is that Jesus would rise. We may even feel rather frustrated with those first disciples, who didn’t get it, or certainly not until they saw it. If those are our feelings, we should perhaps be kinder. We all have 20/20 vision in hindsight, and only by resurrection hindsight do we behold Christ’s glory.

As we look back over the long sweep since Christmas, and as we look forward to Pentecost and Ordinary Time, we can see clearly that the only possible outcome of the death of the Son of God was resurrection. Faced with this truth, what then do we do with it? Soldier on, believe in “pie in the sky when you die” and don’t make a fuss, because it will all be better when we get to glory, was once the answer. But it isn’t a good enough answer for most people now. Instead, there is something about allowing the story to change us and in so doing to encourage us to move our little bit of the world closer to Heaven. To behave more like Christ, to notice and respond to need, to try to hear his word over the noisiness of twenty-first century life is our call. We are told in the Gospel of John 1:12 “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” A frustration of motherhood is that we carry our child for 9 months, not all of them easy, only to be told for at least as long afterwards “Don’t they look like their Dad?” We too should carry the family marks. We too should have people look at us and say, “Aren’t they like the Father? Can’t you see that this is a sibling of Jesus?

God bless,

Vicci

The Stations of the Cross on Holy Saturday:

This was a wonderful, peaceful and thought-provoking event and if you were unable to attend then please follow the link below to view photographs on our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064930801235

or visit the Thames Valley Circuit website to view photos in the “Gallery”section:

www.methodistthamesvalley.org.uk

 

Thoughts for Holy Week by Rev'd Vicci Davidson

Friends

Once more, we have come through Holy Week.  We have journeyed with Jesus through the East Gate as the crowds gathered round donkey and colt to wave palms, to lay down their cloaks, to cry “Hosannah to the Son of David!”  We have entered the courts of the Temple and experienced the terrible anger of Jesus as he over-turned the tables of money-changers and animal-sellers and we have hoped that it will never be said of us: “It is said that my house shall be called the house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”  We have heard Jesus’ authority challenged and witnessed the decision of Judas to betray him.  We have heard the words “This is my body broken for you, do this as often as you eat it in remembrance of me” for the very first time and reflected as the Master knelt to wash feet and have been inspired again to love one another, as Christ has loved us.  We have sung our hymns and gone out into the night to the garden and witnessed Jesus plead with his Father that “if there is another way, let this cup be taken from me” and we too have hoped that in the end, we would have said with Jesus, “Yet not my will, but thine be done.”  We have fallen asleep whilst Jesus prayed and we have followed the betrayed Son of God to the courtyard of the High Priest’s house only to deny him as he is condemned by the Sanhedrin.  We have watched Pilate wash his hands and followed Jesus down the Via Dolorosa to the very foot of the cross, have watched the soldiers dice for his clothing and as he died we have wondered at his request to God, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  Our hearts have been torn by the great cry “Eloi, eloi, lema sabachthani?” and “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”  In the end, we too have said, “Surely, this man was the Son of God” and in that moment it was as if we were the only one to have ever thought it.  It is finished. 

Now, everything begins.  The hill on which thieves and perfection hung side by side is silent.  The cross lies empty to the sky.  The stone is rolled away.  Soldiers are allowed to say they had slept on watch without punishment.  Angels are seen.  Women, entering the tomb to wash and prepare the body find the place empty, the winding cloths in place, the head wrap folded and laid where we, night after night, position our pillows.  Mary has seen our Lord in the garden.  The world has changed.  Nothing will ever be the same again.

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

God bless,

Vicci

Saturday 8 April Praying the Stations of the Cross

There will be a series of artistic representations in various mediums, including painting, floral arrangements and even cake, of the stations of the cross. These will be accompanied by a sheet of meditations which will lead you around the church and the story, from Upper Room to Garden Tomb. Spend as much or as little time as you would like at each station and then join us in the Falder Hall for coffee and hot cross buns, or leave in the silence as you wish. The church will be open between 10 and 12 and you may start at any point. Drop in and take some time to reflect this Easter. All are welcome.

Fairtrade Fortnight

Fairtrade Fortnight 2023 is taking place 27 February – 12 March 2023.

This Fairtrade Fortnight, join us in spreading a simple message: making the small switch to Fairtrade supports producers in protecting the future of some of our most-loved food and the planet. 

Did you know?

Coffee, bananas and chocolate could soon be much more difficult to buy.

Climate change is making crops like these harder and harder to grow. Combined with deeply unfair trade, communities growing these crops are being pushed to the brink. 

But here’s the good news.  

More people choosing Fairtrade means extra income, power and support for those communities.

By making the small switch to Fairtrade, we can all support producers in protecting the future of some of our most-loved food and the planet. 

To read more about this visit the website…….

https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/get-involved/current-campaigns/fairtrade-fortnight

The Transfiguration: A Reflection by Richard Cracknell

Friends:

A few years ago we were on holiday in Austria, it was July so it was shortsleeved shirt weather. One day we decided to take a trip up the Kitzsteinhorn mountain and we enjoyed cracking views of the sun-drenched countryside as we went up in the cable cars. As we got nearer the top, however, it began to get misty and patches of white appeared on the grassy banks below us. Soon we were fully enveloped in cloud and the ground was now covered in snow. It was like we had suddenly been transported to another world, where people were skiing dressed-up in thick coats, hats and gloves. We didn’t stay long at the top, mingling with the skiers who regarded us in our summer clothes with amusement. It’s fair to say I’ve seldom felt so out-of-place, or indeed so cold in all my life!

The mountain-top experience is a familiar motif in the Bible and some of the most important Biblical characters went up a mountain and found a different world above the cloud. A world where the boundaries between Earth and Heaven were blurred: Moses receiving the ten commandments, Elijah finding God in a gentle whisper. In last week’s gospel however, it is Jesus’ turn for a mountain-top experience which we know as the Transfiguration. This account comes shortly after Jesus speaks to His disciples for the first time about how He must suffer and be put to death. They all need time to process this news so Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a mountain to pray. But once they are on the mountain, He appears to take on the heavenly glory of His divine nature, we are told that:

‘His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.’

He is joined by Moses and Elijah who were maybe able to offer Him some support and re-assurance from their unique perspective. Peter wants to prolong the moment by offering to build tents for them, but he is interrupted by a voice from the cloud saying:

“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

As quickly as it had occurred the transfiguration experience was over, and Jesus and His disciples returned from the mountain top, but I expect their experience stayed with them for the rest of their lives.

Maybe we crave our own mountain-top experience of God, an experience that would strengthen our faith and cement our own credentials as disciples of Jesus, but I think these are few and far between. We mustn’t be disheartened, however, for we are called to inhabit the lowlands of Gods kingdom and to share our faith and hope with those around us. For we believe that the glorious kingdom of God, glimpsed by those three disciples of old, will be shared by us all one day. This was made possible by Jesus who, having been re-assured by Moses, Elijah and God Himself on the mount of Transfiguration, took the path of obedience all the way to the cross. So that one day we too can ascend through the clouds - so to speak – to another world, a world without pain or conflict, a world full of the glory of God, where we shall be with Him in eternity, on the mountain top.

Richard”

Thought for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Sophie and Tommy have taken a couple of days leave and travelled a little further north. Today they went to Warwick Castle and it reminded me of going myself at 18 when I was staying with a school friend. There was a talk on when it had been used as a prison which we joined. I don’t remember much about it now, excepting that we were told there had been a time when a judge could offer you a choice between hanging and deportation to Australia. There were a couple of Australians in the party who, as you might imagine, found the idea that it had actually been a choice hilarious. “Yes,” said one, “Guaranteed death or a life in Paradise, that’s a tough choice!” I am not going to rehearse all the reasons that using Australia as a penal colony was a terrible thing – we know it was – I merely note that I am aware of this in case anyone thinks I am being blasé or flippant about it. However, the Australian girl’s comment is fascinating in terms of Christianity. “Guaranteed death or a life in Paradise, that’s a tough choice!” Of course, she was being sarcastic. From her point of view, it was a no-brainer – Australia every time. Mark’s work as a chauffeur-bearer for a Funeral Director takes him into some extraordinary churches, particularly in central London. They are glorious works of art which were intended to give the poor and down-trodden working classes of the city a glimpse of the glory of heaven. However hard daily life was, they would come to church on a Sunday and for one brief hour rest their bodies and feast their eyes. Never mind if the text was impenetrable and the preaching boring, they could see the future promise of the Christian life. We live more in the now than in the future and of course, the “Pie in the sky when you die” model of Christian hope was never a good one. Jesus came “that they may have life in all its fullness” on earth and not just in some nebulous future. Nevertheless, I wonder if in our busy lives, we need to have some time still to think about the glories of heaven, if only so that we will remember that when we say “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” we recall that we seek as disciples to grow more like Christ in who we are and how we are, and in so-doing, to shape a world that is more like heaven, a world that, because Jesus came, has a pattern and a way that leads us into paths of justice and mercy. God bless, Vicci

A thoughtful message for the week from Rev'd Vicci

Friends

Sophie and Tommy have taken a couple of days leave and travelled a little further north.  Today they went to Warwick Castle and it reminded me of going myself at 18 when I was staying with a school friend.   There was a talk on when it had been used as a prison which we joined.  I don’t remember much about it now, excepting that we were told there had been a time when a judge could offer you a choice between hanging and deportation to Australia.  There were a couple of Australians in the party who, as you might imagine, found the idea that it had actually been a choice hilarious.  “Yes,” said one, “Guaranteed death or a life in Paradise, that’s a tough choice!”

I am not going to rehearse all the reasons that using Australia as a penal colony was a terrible thing – we know it was – I merely note that I am aware of this in case anyone thinks I am being blasé or flippant about it.  However, the Australian girl’s comment is fascinating in terms of Christianity.  “Guaranteed death or a life in Paradise, that’s a tough choice!”  Of course, she was being sarcastic.  From her point of view, it was a no-brainer – Australia every time.

Mark’s work as a chauffeur-bearer for a Funeral Director takes him into some extraordinary churches, particularly in central London.  They are glorious works of art which were intended to give the poor and down-trodden working classes of the city a glimpse of the glory of heaven.  However hard daily life was, they would come to church on a Sunday and for one brief hour rest their bodies and feast their eyes.  Never mind if the text was impenetrable and the preaching boring, they could see the future promise of the Christian life.

We live more in the now than in the future and of course, the “Pie in the sky when you die” model of Christian hope was never a good one.  Jesus came “that they may have life in all its fullness” on earth and not just in some nebulous future.  Nevertheless, I wonder if in our busy lives, we need to have some time still to think about the glories of heaven, if only so that we will remember that when we say “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” we recall that we seek as disciples to grow more like Christ in who we are and how we are, and in so-doing, to shape a world that is more like heaven, a world that, because Jesus came, has a pattern and a way that leads us into paths of justice and mercy. 

 

God bless,

Vicci

Friends

As we come to the end of this season of Covenant, we have an unusual Circuit Service on the morning of the 29th at Windsor.  Unusual because it is a Circuit Service in the morning and because it is a concert of Gospel Blues music. 

When the advertising from the band who are playing (“Sanctified”) first came across to us, I nearly queried the use of the word “Concert” because this is of course worship, and indeed it will be recognisably a morning service with prayers, readings, a sermon and congregational singing, it’s just that the congregational singing will be Gospel Blues and not our usual fare. 

Performance, or the hint of it, is a difficult topic in the Church and it has saddened me over the years when professional performers have shared their gifts in an act of offering and been seen as “performing” and therefore not worthy to be there.  It seems that we in the Church like it to be good, but not too good.  Which is ridiculous if you think about it.  Surely nothing we can offer is as good as the worship of the angels.  God knows and loves the spirit in which our gifts are made.  Other times, people have told me that they can tell if someone is worshipping or performing, but after decades of working in the performing arts with people of all ages and stages, I would challenge that.  In my experience, all artists present their work with a hope that it will be able to inform, educate, challenge or entertain, and that it will move people and yes, be judged as good.  But the idea that people who are professional performers do it from a spirit of “Look at me everyone” is just not true.  Indeed, professional performers are among the most insecure people I have ever met.

More than that though, I would challenge it because it comes from a position of “those people up there offering worship” and it being offered to the congregation – an audience whose job is to judge if it is good enough.  But of course, we all know really that it’s not about us at all.  It’s about God and worship is offered by the whole congregation, the whole of the time.  Sometimes that worship is led by worship leader, reader, musician and preacher, but it is our response in singing, thinking and focusing on God that makes it worship.  I am looking forward to being a part of the truth of that in all the worship that is led across the Thames Valley Circuit in the coming year as we too join with Miriam and David in singing and dancing, as well as praying and thinking, in response to the joy of our relationship with God.

God bless,

Vicci

Rev'd Vicci's thought for the week

Friends

As we arrive at the last Sunday in Advent, we come also to that week when we recall Mary’s gift to the world: the agreement to be the Theotokos, the one who gave birth to God – or as Luke says it “Mother of the Lord.”  In the Greek Orthodox church they say: “The love poured into the Theotokos to allow her to love so fully in her turn.”  Much is made at this time of the year of Mary’s obedience, less so of Joseph’s which is perhaps a shame.  But it may be we should also make much of their love for their child and the life that he called them to live. 

As we think of families displaced from their home towns at this time through war, corruption, global warming, political upheaval, we remember that Mary and Joseph said yes to being political refugees.

As we think of people who are homeless or living in insecure accommodation, we remember that Mary and Joseph said yes to having their baby in a stable, pushed there by the Roman Emperor who didn’t need people to go to where they had been born to be counted, but who wanted to put his stamp on the country; to say to them that they were under occupation and they had to do what they were told. 

As we think of the many children who will not survive this winter across the world, we remember that Mary and Joseph said yes to a flight into a foreign country in order to avoid being caught up in a massacre – the slaughter of the innocents.

As we think of the many gifts and the good food that we are perhaps already being offered this close to Christmas, we remember that Mary and Joseph knew food insecurity and will have worried about their status in Egypt at least until Joseph could get some work. 

As we think of the power or lack of power we have over our own lives, we remember that God himself chose to give up power we cannot begin to comprehend, emptying himself out so that he could be born as a human baby and live our lives from birth to death as the Son became the child who would grow into the man who would save the world. 

May God bless you with his love this Christmas season as we try to respond with the love of Mary and of Joseph. 

God bless,

Vicci

Thought for the day from Rev'd Vicci Davidson

Friends

 

This week we hear more about John the Baptist, that man who was “The voice of one calling in the wilderness ‘prepare ye the way of the Lord’.”  I wonder if sometimes he felt that he was not so much calling in the wilderness as whistling down the wind.  There are times, are there not, when we feel like that about sharing our own faith?  It is not so much that we can’t, or that we don’t dare, but more that other people just don’t seem to care.  Even our own families who we worked so hard to bring up in the faith, may have fallen away or become indifferent to something that is for us so very important. 

And yet… perhaps at this time of year when the darkness is lit by little points of light, little points of hope, others might still recognise something of the glory and the promise of the Christmas story.  If the stars are not as bright in our light-polluted landscapes as they were on that first Christmas Eve, still there is something magical about the twinkle of lights in the High Street, our neighbour’s houses, on our Christmas trees.  If the lights where you are don’t shine that brightly, or are too garish for your tastes, drive out to Cookham one evening and enjoy the magic of the little High Street lit by thousands of white Christmas lights. 

What do they represent, these little lights?  Well, they remind us of the star which wise men followed of course, but it seems to me that in this time of fear and worry, these little twinkling points of light in the gloom remind us that there is always hope.  That in the context of no room at the inn, there was still a stable.  In the context of a King desperate to maintain his own power, there were still people prepared to disobey him, and gifts that allowed the little family to flee to Egypt.  In the context of poverty and a little-respected job as shepherds, angels appeared to tell the Good News.  In the context of fear and occupation, a child was born, a Son was given and from that tiny, surprising, scarce-witnessed beginning, a hope was sent to the entire world that even today is offered, needed and longed for. 

Let us pray this Advent, that some at least will follow the lights of town centres and homes across the Circuit all the way to the door of the Church and on arriving will find that there is room for them. 

God bless,

Vicci

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Friends

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

“The past is a foreign country they do things differently there.”

“Last night I dreamed of Manderley.”

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

All these famous introductions to books leave us wanting to know more of the story. How could it be both the best of times and the worst of times? Is it really a universally acknowledged truth? The past is a foreign country – yes, we can recognise that. Where or what or who is Manderley? And what is this Word that was in the beginning and was not just with God but was God?

This Sunday is the last of the Church Year and next Sunday will be the first of Advent and our lectionary readings will come round again to year A. Have we enjoyed the book? Has it led us onwards into the story so that we wanted to hear the next bit on the next Sunday, or has it been a dry round of unfamiliar and difficult bits, intertwined with stories we know so well that we switch off? How do we ensure that the story remains fresh and engaging so that those who hear it for the first time are excited and others are reminded or challenged by unfamiliar readings? These are the questions preachers ask themselves each week. How do we ensure that our reading and interpretation of the Bible seeks social justice as fiercely as Dickens, engages hearts and minds as strongly as Austen, holds us in a story-teller’s grip as firmly as JB Priestley and keeps us in suspense as much as Du Maurier?

This time of year, as we come to the end of the story and prepare to start it anew, let us “read” the story of the Church year with as much intent and excitement as we read the novels of our great writers, let us seek to find the Bible as un-put-downable as A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, The Go-Between or Rebecca. For we too have a story with a memorable beginning.

God bless,

Vicci

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Dear Friends

I learned a fantastic new word recently: “Koyaanisqatsi”. This is a Native American Hopi word which means “nature that is out of balance or a way of life that is so crazy that it cannot continue long-term”.

We know that the planet is struggling under the weight of all that we demand from it. Ocean acidity has increased over 25% from pre-industrial times, increased carbon dioxide is causing glaciers to melt which in turn is causing sea levels to rise, causing more floods.

We are told that 18% of the world’s greenhouse gases are produced by livestock, so eating less meat and fewer animal products is brilliant for helping to re-balance nature. Recently the Pope has called on Catholics to return to the tradition of fasting from meat on a Friday. Even when I was a school child, fish was served on Friday for lunch and now I realise why. Fasting on Friday was a tradition because Jesus was crucified on a Friday and of course, Sunday was always a feast day because that was the day that Jesus rose. Of course, we tend to prefer feasting to fasting. However, perhaps we would enjoy our Sunday roasts more if we had abstained from meat on a Friday.

In Isaiah 58:6-7 we are told: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”

We have always taken these words seriously as Methodists, and perhaps that’s why we don’t have a tradition of fasting to draw on. Nevertheless, in the face of the Koyaanisqatsi of human-driven climate change and a corresponding increase in natural disasters, perhaps we too should wonder about the benefits of fasting from meat once or twice a week. I’m not sure that we will manage it on a Friday in the manse – the youth work that we do on a Friday tends to be based around pizza – but I have been thinking for a while that we need more fish in our diets and I think that a weekly fish-eating day will not be a bad thing. I don’t think that a few of us changing our diets a little will make a big enough change, but by joining in with something the Catholics are doing who is to say what small but significant improvements we might make by such an ecumenical act?

God bless,

Vicci

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Dear Friends

The final words of George Eliot’s book “Middlemarch” say this: “But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts: and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”

In last Sunday’s evening service at Windsor, I reflected on the way in which ordinary people have helped to grow and develop our story as disciples of Christ Jesus and ordinary people in the Bible, such as Mary, Martha and Lazarus have inspired us and drawn us into their stories.

Day by day we are encouraged to dream big dreams and to live them out on the world stage. Our young people can do that in a way we never imagined because of the power of social media, and we are told over and over “You can be anything you want to be.” I don’t know how true that really is – we are hemmed about by the vagaries of our upbringing, our education, our genetic inheritance and the traumas we have experienced and all of these impact the choices we are able to make. It seems to me however, that it is worth remembering that for every Olympian there are thousands of young people enjoying sport for sport’s sake; for every politician there are millions of people setting the world to rights over the morning coffee or the evening dinner table; for every saint there are hundreds of the faithful, patterning their lives as closely as possible on that of Jesus and praying that their witness will be true.

To those who knew Jesus as he grew up, he was simply the carpenter’s son, then an itinerant preacher, notable for his ability to heal, who Rome and the Jewish authorities eventually decided to be too much of a good thing and crucified. The only reason his life was not a faithfully lived but hidden one was because he refused to remain in the tomb and his leaping forth at Easter to cry resurrection promise, made ordinary the idea of eternity. Not ordinary in that there is nothing special in it, but in that it is available to all. At this season of remembrance, let us hold fast to that truth for ourselves and for those who have gone before, that Jesus is the resurrection and the life and those who believe in him, even though they die will live, and everyone who lives and believes in him shall never die.

God bless,

Vicci

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Dear Friends

I write this on the 25th of October, and incredible as it seems, it is scarcely more than six weeks since the Queen died, only two days after asking a new prime minister to form a government. Subsequently, we have been moved by the pomp and circumstance of a state funeral, concerned by a signalled return to the trickle-down economic policies of the 1980’s and then seen the new prime minister ousted in less than six weeks and a new leader selected and confirmed in five days. Meanwhile the wildly fluctuating markets may have given us some idea of how the rest of the world sees the whole sorry mess.

As I tried to make some theological sense of the whole thing, I turned in the Bible to 1 Samuel 8. Samuel of course, was that boy who served in the temple and heard God call him in the night, and having three times gone to the priest Eli thinking it was him, is told to say “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” He goes on to be a great prophet and leader, but when he appoints his sons as judges over Israel, they are not men of integrity, and the people demand a king. They want to be the same as the other countries of the Ancient Near East and although Samuel, instructed by God, points out to them that a king will take taxes and ask their sons to serve in his armies, still they demand a king and Saul is chosen. God says that it is not Samuel’s leadership that has been rejected, but that God himself has been ignored as king over Israel.

Now, just to be very clear about this, I am not advocating that we don’t have a king, or for that matter a prime minister. We need leaders and our system at its best works very well. However, we are reminded in the story of ancient Israel, and the future history of kingship in the Old Testament, that stability, humility, competence and integrity are all things that matter very much. My hope is that our new Prime Minister, who has explicitly said that he wants to bring all these things in his premiership, is able to do so.

In our prayers this week, let us pray for Rishi Sunak, that he will be given wisdom and discernment, that he will lead a government that balances the need for economic stability with compassion for the poor, that he will have the strength to cope with the extraordinary weight of these turbulent times and that as he seeks to do so, his family will not suffer. For we pray recognising the importance of good government but also in the power of the one who we call King of Kings, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

God bless,

Vicci

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Friends

The Bath Road gets very congested on a Sunday because of the Taplow car boot sale, and I drive up through Burnham and down via Cliveden if I am preaching at Cookham Rise. It is a magnificent route to take at this time of year when the trees are almost all the colours of the rainbow. It is hard to see such beauty and not believe that there is a creative hand at work behind it.

However, it is also true that without the creative hand of humanity cutting the road through the woodland, I would not have been able to witness God’s wonderful paint palate on Sunday; it would have been hidden away in impenetrable forest. God allows us to shape the world in which we live, to be a part of the creative process. We see this in the first account of Creation in Genesis 1:26-28 when God gives humankind dominion over animals and plants. It's important to understand that the Jewish word used here is a word that is usually translated as authority, and which is used to suggest authority like God’s – i.e. a loving care that wants what is best. The word used in Genesis 2 which is translated as “till” (as in “tilling the soil”) is more usually translated as “serve”. We were created with authority over the land, the plants and the animals to be exercised as loving service, not as grabbing everything that we could for our own satisfaction.

On days like today, I realise how blessed we are to be given such a task, to be asked to work alongside God for the good of all creation. Yet at this time in the history of the world, it feels at best a difficult job and at worst impossible that the planet can come out of the trajectory we are now on. Scientists tell us that we are hurtling towards increased numbers of extreme weather events, and changes in climate are causing constant migration for people who can no longer feed themselves on land that has kept them for generations. What does it mean I wonder, to be God’s gardeners in this environment, in this age?

It seems to me that when we read the Bible, it is full of stories of ordinary people. Some do extraordinary things but there are also ordinary people who disappear from the story. They presumably go on to do ordinary things. But if they do them well, they too must add to the joy of those around them and the glory of God. Let us seek through the ordinary living of our lives to take up our task to care for the earth, the plants and the animals with renewed energy, knowing that in so doing, we are following God’s earliest commands to us.

God bless,

Vicci

Thoughts from Rev’d Vicci Davidson & After the Rob Halligan Concert

Friends,

I wanted to share with you the song lyrics from a song I used at the Cookham Rise Harvest Festival, which began with a short service outside at the Community Allotment. It was written by Jean Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) who was an American folk singer and Appalachian dulcimer player and who became known as "The Mother of Folk".

My Lord, He said unto me

Do you like My garden so fair?

You may live in this garden if you keep the grasses green

And I'll return in the cool of the day

And my Lord, He said unto me

Do you like my garden so pure?

You may live in this garden, if you keep the waters clean

And I'll return in the cool of the day

Now is the cool of the day

Now is the cool of the day

This earth it is a garden, the garden of my Lord

And He walks in His garden in the cool of the day

And my Lord, He said unto me

Do you like my pastures so green?

You may live in this garden if you will feed My lambs

And I'll return in the cool of the day

Chorus

My Lord, He said unto me

Do you like my garden so free?

You may live in this garden if you keep the people free

And I'll return in the cool of the day

God bless,

Vicci

Rob Halligan concert

Last Saturday we enjoyed a very entertaining concert by musician, Rob Halligan. His wonderful singing, incredible guitar skills and humorous anecdotes were greatly appreciated by all who attended. The money raised will be split between Rosie’s Rainbow Charity and church funds.

Thoughts for the week from Rev'd Vicci & Harvest Supper News

Friends

Famine in Somalia, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the politics of our own country all conspire to cause concern, and as we turn to our Bibles, we do so knowing that to some of our friends and neighbours it is a hopelessly naïve response.

“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you hope, and a future.”  (Jeremiah 29:11)

It doesn’t sit well with our understanding of a loving God that his plans might be unveiled in such difficult ways, and yet it depends on our interpretation of what is happening around us.  In the Genesis story of Joseph, Pharoah’s dreams are interpreted as meaning that there will be seven fat years and seven lean years.  The advice is to store up grain in the years where there is excess harvest so that come the time of difficulty there will be enough saved up to help the people survive.  It would seem that God did not plan the harvests, but rather the warning and the presence of an interpreter.

By this logic, it would be irrational to see these great difficulties that we are living through as being sent from God, but it would seem in keeping with our Biblical history to imagine that he would send warnings and those who can speak such warnings.  Yet it is hard to find these prophets and perhaps still harder to understand them.  When the news trumpets “Death and Disaster” are the writers speaking prophetically or are they trying to increase the thrill factor for the sake of sales?  It is so hard for us to interpret what is true and what is not, and yet our faith doesn’t give us answers, doesn’t even give us prophets, what it gives us is hope.  Hope that God cares enough to make plans for us; hope that there is a way through; hope that God, who “so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16) has not forgotten us and never will.  We, like the Psalmist may cry: “How long, O Lord?   Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me? ” (Psalm 13:1) but like the Psalmist, we too can say with conviction, “Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.” (Psalm 126:6)

As the Harvest season draws to a close, may these well-loved verses bring us peace and confidence.

God bless,

Vicci

The International Harvest Supper held on Saturday 24th September was a great success, with over 50 members and friends in attendance. A worldwide variety of delicious food was served and thoroughly enjoyed by all! We are very grateful to everyone who helped to make this evening so enjoyable. Thanks also to all the fantastic cooks and all who attended or supported the event in other ways. We are all delighted that approximately £350 was raised for the charity ‘Rosie’s Rainbow’ and our much-needed Church Funds!