We will be uploading Daily Devotions here for our community. These may be in the form of video, prayer or a some brief thoughts. If you would like to contribute, you are welcome to send them to the Parish Office at parishoffice@sswsj.org. Please note that we cannot guarantee everyone's submissions will be posted but we will do what we can to share your thoughts.
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Wednesday 9th June 2021
I shall never forget the first time I cycled from Glasgow to Iona. The road from the ferry port of Craignure to Fionnphort on Mull, is one of the finest cycle routes I’ve ever taken. As you come over the pass towards Loch Beg, winding past the slopes of Ben More on your right, you get your first glimpse of one of Scotland’s most beautiful Islands - Iona. No wonder Kings and ‘would-be’ Prime Minsters wish to be buried here. However I should imaged that St Columba would have haviewed this magnificent little island from a different angle, coming as he would have, from the other direction, by boat from Ireland, from whence he was banished by the King for starting a war. Before leaving Ireland to settle on Iona, Columba was trained as a monk by Finnian about and then founded several monasteries himself, including probably that of Kells. He took with him twelve companions and the number grew as the monastic life became more established and well-known. Columba seems to have been an austere and, at times, harsh man who reputedly mellowed with age. He was concerned with building up both the monastery and its life and of enabling them to be instruments of mission in a heathen land. He converted kings and built churches, Iona becoming a starting point for the expansion of Christianity throughout Scotland. In the last four years of his life, when his health had failed, he spent the time transcribing books of the gospels for them to be taken out and used. He died on this day in the year 597. We often find ourselves in situations that are out of our comfort zone, or views things differently to what we might have expected or imagined. As we give thanks for Columba, let us also give thanks for the beauty of the things we see - whatever the angle we might view... The Collect O God, by the preaching of your blessed servant Columba you caused the light of the Gospel to shine in Scotland: Grant, we pray, that, having his life and labours in remembrance, we may show our thankfulness to you for the things we see and by following the example of his zeal and patience; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. https://www.visitscotland.com/info/towns-villages/isle-of-iona-p246471 Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Tuesday 8th June 2021
“He who sings, prays twice.” These famous words from St Augustine may seem particularly poignant to us when we are still not able to sing hymns together in church. A great hymn tune sung together can move us profoundly, and simply watching others sing the hymns doesn’t quite feel the same. In our Sunday services, however, Graham has suggested that we might speak the words along with the choir, which made me think about the words of our hymns a little more than I might have done when just focusing on the tune.
Hymn writing is an extraordinary skill. The ability to wrap up sometimes complicated theology in rhyme and rhythm so that it can be set to a tune and move hearts and minds must require an enormous amount of prayer and dedication. Today the church remembers one of our great hymn writers of the seventeenth century – Thomas Ken. A man whose name I did not recognise, but when I started to scroll through the list of hymns he has written realised I knew (at least through his hymnary) very well indeed. Here is just one of them, but a favourite hymn of mine. Here is a link if you wish to sing along with it, or maybe just read through the text as a prayer.
NEH 232
1 Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise
To pay thy morning sacrifice.
2 Redeem thy mis-spent time that's past,
Live this day as if 'twere thy last:
Improve thy talent with due care;
For the great day thyself prepare.
3 Let all thy converse be sincere,
Thy conscience as the noon-day clear;
Think how the all-seeing God thy ways
And all thy secret thoughts surveys.
4 Awake, awake, ye heavenly choir,
May your devotion me inspire,
That I like you my age may spend,
Like you may on my God attend.
5 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,
Praise him, all creatures here below,
Praise him above, ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
“He who sings, prays twice.” These famous words from St Augustine may seem particularly poignant to us when we are still not able to sing hymns together in church. A great hymn tune sung together can move us profoundly, and simply watching others sing the hymns doesn’t quite feel the same. In our Sunday services, however, Graham has suggested that we might speak the words along with the choir, which made me think about the words of our hymns a little more than I might have done when just focusing on the tune.
Hymn writing is an extraordinary skill. The ability to wrap up sometimes complicated theology in rhyme and rhythm so that it can be set to a tune and move hearts and minds must require an enormous amount of prayer and dedication. Today the church remembers one of our great hymn writers of the seventeenth century – Thomas Ken. A man whose name I did not recognise, but when I started to scroll through the list of hymns he has written realised I knew (at least through his hymnary) very well indeed. Here is just one of them, but a favourite hymn of mine. Here is a link if you wish to sing along with it, or maybe just read through the text as a prayer.
NEH 232
1 Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise
To pay thy morning sacrifice.
2 Redeem thy mis-spent time that's past,
Live this day as if 'twere thy last:
Improve thy talent with due care;
For the great day thyself prepare.
3 Let all thy converse be sincere,
Thy conscience as the noon-day clear;
Think how the all-seeing God thy ways
And all thy secret thoughts surveys.
4 Awake, awake, ye heavenly choir,
May your devotion me inspire,
That I like you my age may spend,
Like you may on my God attend.
5 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,
Praise him, all creatures here below,
Praise him above, ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Monday 7th June 2021
I do realise that cricket is not everyone’s cup of tea! But you might be aware that I love cricket. So it was so good to have the opportunity to go over the weekend to see the first Test Match to have supporters in the ground for over a year at Lords: Just a shame about England’s performance! It was also good, last month, to have the opportunity to interview Mike Brealey (past England Captain and Psychotherapist) about his new book, The Spirit of Cricket, for Sion College. He talked about the fact that if someone were to say 'it's not tennis', or 'not football' of shabby behaviour in any walk of life, he or she would not be understood. But if they said “It’s not just Cricket!”, they might be understood. Is there some special spirit of cricket?
In Spirit of Cricket, Mike Brearley alternates between issues and examples within the game - from 'Mankading' and the 'Sandpaper' affair to sledging, mental disintegration and racism - as well as broader issues. Brearley examined the issue of how far what purports to be justice (in law or in spirit) may or may not be the expression of the powerful within the activity or within society.
Mike Brearley is a thoughtful, engaging and eclectic thinker and it was an honour to interview him. His book even had a good review in the Church Times and is a good read. So in this light it was with interest I followed the issue of the England Cricketer Ollie Robinson. For those who do not know, Ollie Robinson has been suspended from international cricket pending an investigation into racist and sexist tweets he made 10 years ago, which came to light by a journalist, whilst he was on the field during the middle of this match.
There is no place for this in whatever sport or warp of life. But it does highlight that our actions of our past, however long ago, have an effect on us in the ‘here and now’. There are lots of issues that arise from this, but yesterdays sermon by Rabbi Richard Jacobi, really challenged us all to take responsibility for our wrongs, and to acknowledge our part and call to repentance whatever our religion, whatever our sport…! I am sure Ollie Robinson is now on such a journey. But is is probably “not just cricket” to point and accuse. Let us all take seriously our actions of the past to make a better today.
Jesus,
You opened the eyes of the blind,
healed the sick, forgave the sinful woman,
and after Peter's denial confirmed him in your love.
Listen to our prayers:
forgive our sins, renew your love in our hearts,
help us to live in unity with all people
that we may proclaim your saving love
to all the world. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
I do realise that cricket is not everyone’s cup of tea! But you might be aware that I love cricket. So it was so good to have the opportunity to go over the weekend to see the first Test Match to have supporters in the ground for over a year at Lords: Just a shame about England’s performance! It was also good, last month, to have the opportunity to interview Mike Brealey (past England Captain and Psychotherapist) about his new book, The Spirit of Cricket, for Sion College. He talked about the fact that if someone were to say 'it's not tennis', or 'not football' of shabby behaviour in any walk of life, he or she would not be understood. But if they said “It’s not just Cricket!”, they might be understood. Is there some special spirit of cricket?
In Spirit of Cricket, Mike Brearley alternates between issues and examples within the game - from 'Mankading' and the 'Sandpaper' affair to sledging, mental disintegration and racism - as well as broader issues. Brearley examined the issue of how far what purports to be justice (in law or in spirit) may or may not be the expression of the powerful within the activity or within society.
Mike Brearley is a thoughtful, engaging and eclectic thinker and it was an honour to interview him. His book even had a good review in the Church Times and is a good read. So in this light it was with interest I followed the issue of the England Cricketer Ollie Robinson. For those who do not know, Ollie Robinson has been suspended from international cricket pending an investigation into racist and sexist tweets he made 10 years ago, which came to light by a journalist, whilst he was on the field during the middle of this match.
There is no place for this in whatever sport or warp of life. But it does highlight that our actions of our past, however long ago, have an effect on us in the ‘here and now’. There are lots of issues that arise from this, but yesterdays sermon by Rabbi Richard Jacobi, really challenged us all to take responsibility for our wrongs, and to acknowledge our part and call to repentance whatever our religion, whatever our sport…! I am sure Ollie Robinson is now on such a journey. But is is probably “not just cricket” to point and accuse. Let us all take seriously our actions of the past to make a better today.
Jesus,
You opened the eyes of the blind,
healed the sick, forgave the sinful woman,
and after Peter's denial confirmed him in your love.
Listen to our prayers:
forgive our sins, renew your love in our hearts,
help us to live in unity with all people
that we may proclaim your saving love
to all the world. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Friday 4th June 2021
As I look forward to joining the congregation on Sunday morning, I’d like to offer a thought arising from a difference in how Judaism and Christianity read the same text.
In Judaism, the Ten Commandments are known in Hebrew by a slightly different name - Aseret Ha-dibrot, which means “Ten Statements”. The first of our Ten is what Christianity sees as a prelude: “I am the Eternal One, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” The second is “You shall have no other gods before me; you shall not make for yourself a carved image …”
This pairing has been seen in the rabbinic tradition of 1800 years ago as the words spoken out loud by God to everyone gathered by the mountain, after which everything else was told to Moses. I love an abbreviated version of these two ‘commandments’ by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, which became the title of this book, “I’m God, You’re Not.” In his introduction, Kushner says:
"To paraphrase the Talmud, God says, 'There ain't enough room in this here world for your ego and Me. You pick.’ I now suspect that the real reason for religion is to help you keep your ego under control."
When I’m feeling strong, this teaching helps to ground me. (The flip-side is what to do when I can’t locate my ego or forgive myself for my erring. More about this on Sunday.)
Rabbi Richard Jacobi
Rabbi Richard Jacobi was ordained in 2008, serving Woodford Liberal Synagogue until it merged with a neighbouring Liberal community in January 2017. He is now leading this larger community through these traumatic Covid times alongside an amazing array of lay leaders and volunteers. Married for 30+ years, enjoying grand-parenting and watching children holding adult responsibilities, and grappling with ageing!
As I look forward to joining the congregation on Sunday morning, I’d like to offer a thought arising from a difference in how Judaism and Christianity read the same text.
In Judaism, the Ten Commandments are known in Hebrew by a slightly different name - Aseret Ha-dibrot, which means “Ten Statements”. The first of our Ten is what Christianity sees as a prelude: “I am the Eternal One, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” The second is “You shall have no other gods before me; you shall not make for yourself a carved image …”
This pairing has been seen in the rabbinic tradition of 1800 years ago as the words spoken out loud by God to everyone gathered by the mountain, after which everything else was told to Moses. I love an abbreviated version of these two ‘commandments’ by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, which became the title of this book, “I’m God, You’re Not.” In his introduction, Kushner says:
"To paraphrase the Talmud, God says, 'There ain't enough room in this here world for your ego and Me. You pick.’ I now suspect that the real reason for religion is to help you keep your ego under control."
When I’m feeling strong, this teaching helps to ground me. (The flip-side is what to do when I can’t locate my ego or forgive myself for my erring. More about this on Sunday.)
Rabbi Richard Jacobi
Rabbi Richard Jacobi was ordained in 2008, serving Woodford Liberal Synagogue until it merged with a neighbouring Liberal community in January 2017. He is now leading this larger community through these traumatic Covid times alongside an amazing array of lay leaders and volunteers. Married for 30+ years, enjoying grand-parenting and watching children holding adult responsibilities, and grappling with ageing!
Thursday 3rd June 2021
If we are familiar with the round of the Christian year, we are familiar with the odd way in which Christian feasts fit into our understanding of time. As we remember and celebrate the events of Jesus’s life and ministry, we do so in a way that partakes of both “now” and “then.” During Advent, we await Christ’s arrival at the same time as we celebrate what Christ has done for us having arrived. At Christmas, we speak of Jesus born today, as well as “Once in Royal David’s City.” Just a few months after we celebrate his birth, we celebrate the events of our Lord’s passion, death and resurrection in Holy Week and Easter – itself a feast celebrated on a different day each year. “Jesus Christ is risen today” we sing every year. The feasts that follow – The Ascension and Pentecost – come at the “correct” time after Easter as gleaned from the Gospels and Acts, but are still dependent on that moveable feast. Christian feasts live in both the past and present tenses. As a child, feasts were described to me as pinpricks going through the fabric of time, anchoring us to our faith in an ever moving, ever changing world.
Today’s feast, however, is all about the present. Corpus Christi (along with Trinity Sunday) is part of the answer to the “so what?” of all the rest of the feasts of the church’s year. It is the day where we celebrate Christ’s continuing, incarnate presence among us in the bread and wine that are consecrated at the altar. That transformative presence that we literally take into ourselves as we receive. The extraordinariness of Jesus’s presence here, now, in the ordinariness of bread and wine. When we come to the altar, we come as we are now, with our own internal tangles of past and present, and enter into an eternal present moment of communion with God.
One of the many things that we have had to mourn in this past year is that we have not always been able to receive communion, and so it is particularly poignant to be able to celebrate that eternal present moment in this year’s feast. We are delighted to be joined by some members of the Civil Service Choir to help us to celebrate, and hope you can join us too at 6pm this evening in church, and on Facebook Live.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
If we are familiar with the round of the Christian year, we are familiar with the odd way in which Christian feasts fit into our understanding of time. As we remember and celebrate the events of Jesus’s life and ministry, we do so in a way that partakes of both “now” and “then.” During Advent, we await Christ’s arrival at the same time as we celebrate what Christ has done for us having arrived. At Christmas, we speak of Jesus born today, as well as “Once in Royal David’s City.” Just a few months after we celebrate his birth, we celebrate the events of our Lord’s passion, death and resurrection in Holy Week and Easter – itself a feast celebrated on a different day each year. “Jesus Christ is risen today” we sing every year. The feasts that follow – The Ascension and Pentecost – come at the “correct” time after Easter as gleaned from the Gospels and Acts, but are still dependent on that moveable feast. Christian feasts live in both the past and present tenses. As a child, feasts were described to me as pinpricks going through the fabric of time, anchoring us to our faith in an ever moving, ever changing world.
Today’s feast, however, is all about the present. Corpus Christi (along with Trinity Sunday) is part of the answer to the “so what?” of all the rest of the feasts of the church’s year. It is the day where we celebrate Christ’s continuing, incarnate presence among us in the bread and wine that are consecrated at the altar. That transformative presence that we literally take into ourselves as we receive. The extraordinariness of Jesus’s presence here, now, in the ordinariness of bread and wine. When we come to the altar, we come as we are now, with our own internal tangles of past and present, and enter into an eternal present moment of communion with God.
One of the many things that we have had to mourn in this past year is that we have not always been able to receive communion, and so it is particularly poignant to be able to celebrate that eternal present moment in this year’s feast. We are delighted to be joined by some members of the Civil Service Choir to help us to celebrate, and hope you can join us too at 6pm this evening in church, and on Facebook Live.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Click image for link to Tate's original image
Wednesday 2nd June 2021
Yesterday I went to see an art exhibition at the Pallant House Gallery entitled: ‘Richard Hamilton: Respective’. What made this visit so interesting was that I saw many of the paintings and exhibits previously on online on a webinar, given by the Gallery, thinking that they might not able to host the exhibition due to covid. It was fascinating seeing Hamliton’s art having a little prior knowledge and understanding. For those who might not know, Richard Hamilton (1922-2011) is widely considered to be a founding figure in British pop art, and a leading proponent of what the art critics call a 'fine/pop art continuum', in which all art is equal and there is no hierarchy of value. Hamilton was fascinated by the impact of photography on painting, the use of collage and the increasing digital means used to produce and transmit images and information. Hamilton studied at the Royal Academy Schools (1938-1940), and after the Second World War, he attended the Slade School of Art (1948-1951).
The picture is one that I took of a collage entitled ‘Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different?’ It is a remake of an image Hamilton originally created in 1956 as part of his contribution to the group exhibition ‘This is Tomorrow’ which was held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery.
As we return to do some of the things we haven’t been able to do, we might believe that we have prior knowledge or understanding. But like seeing the art in the ‘in flesh’ - it gives fresh and deeper insights into the knowledge we might have acquired. So let the collage of ‘what makes today’s life so different’ be a true thanksgiving to God for all those things in that life take for granted.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Yesterday I went to see an art exhibition at the Pallant House Gallery entitled: ‘Richard Hamilton: Respective’. What made this visit so interesting was that I saw many of the paintings and exhibits previously on online on a webinar, given by the Gallery, thinking that they might not able to host the exhibition due to covid. It was fascinating seeing Hamliton’s art having a little prior knowledge and understanding. For those who might not know, Richard Hamilton (1922-2011) is widely considered to be a founding figure in British pop art, and a leading proponent of what the art critics call a 'fine/pop art continuum', in which all art is equal and there is no hierarchy of value. Hamilton was fascinated by the impact of photography on painting, the use of collage and the increasing digital means used to produce and transmit images and information. Hamilton studied at the Royal Academy Schools (1938-1940), and after the Second World War, he attended the Slade School of Art (1948-1951).
The picture is one that I took of a collage entitled ‘Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different?’ It is a remake of an image Hamilton originally created in 1956 as part of his contribution to the group exhibition ‘This is Tomorrow’ which was held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery.
As we return to do some of the things we haven’t been able to do, we might believe that we have prior knowledge or understanding. But like seeing the art in the ‘in flesh’ - it gives fresh and deeper insights into the knowledge we might have acquired. So let the collage of ‘what makes today’s life so different’ be a true thanksgiving to God for all those things in that life take for granted.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 1st June 2021
Today the church commemorates the early saint - Justin, c.165. Justin was born at the beginning of the second century in Palestine. As a young man he explored many different philosophies before, at the age of thirty, embracing Christianity. He continued to wear the distinctive dress of a professional philosopher, and taught Christianity as a philosophy first at Ephesus, and later at Rome. He became an outstanding apologist for the Christian faith, and is honoured as the first Christian thinker to enter into serious dialogue with the other intellectual disciplines of his day, including Judaism. Justin always sought to reconcile the claims of faith and reason. It was at Rome in about the year 165 that he and some of his disciples were denounced as Christians, and beheaded. The authentic record of their martyrdom based on an official court report has survived. Traditionally, Justin is often surnamed ‘Martyr’ because of his two-fold witness to Christ, through his apologetic writings and also put to death in Rome, alongside some of his students. We give thanks for his life and witness. And as we do so, and pray this collect set for today, I ask you also please take a couple of minutes of your time to fill out this short questionnaire for us, thank you: http://www.sswsj.org/daily-devotions-survey.html
Prayer:
God our redeemer,
who through the folly of the cross taught your martyr Justin
the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ:
remove from us every kind of error
that we, like him, may be firmly grounded in the faith,
and make your name known to all peoples;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today the church commemorates the early saint - Justin, c.165. Justin was born at the beginning of the second century in Palestine. As a young man he explored many different philosophies before, at the age of thirty, embracing Christianity. He continued to wear the distinctive dress of a professional philosopher, and taught Christianity as a philosophy first at Ephesus, and later at Rome. He became an outstanding apologist for the Christian faith, and is honoured as the first Christian thinker to enter into serious dialogue with the other intellectual disciplines of his day, including Judaism. Justin always sought to reconcile the claims of faith and reason. It was at Rome in about the year 165 that he and some of his disciples were denounced as Christians, and beheaded. The authentic record of their martyrdom based on an official court report has survived. Traditionally, Justin is often surnamed ‘Martyr’ because of his two-fold witness to Christ, through his apologetic writings and also put to death in Rome, alongside some of his students. We give thanks for his life and witness. And as we do so, and pray this collect set for today, I ask you also please take a couple of minutes of your time to fill out this short questionnaire for us, thank you: http://www.sswsj.org/daily-devotions-survey.html
Prayer:
God our redeemer,
who through the folly of the cross taught your martyr Justin
the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ:
remove from us every kind of error
that we, like him, may be firmly grounded in the faith,
and make your name known to all peoples;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Image from Wikipedia, click on image for link
Friday 28th May 2021
Today the church commemorates Lanfranc. He was born in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy in c. 1005. A Benedictine who became archbishop of Canterbury (1070–89) and a trusted counsellor of William the Conqueror, and was largely responsible for the excellent church–state relations of William’s reign after the Norman Conquest of England. Lanfranc's carried out reforms and changes in the Church in England which laid the foundations of our church today. Some of these changes were purely political and involved replacing Saxon bishops and abbots with foreigners wherever possible. To effect his reforms, he held a series of councils; those of Winchester (1072 and 1076) and London (1075) were of great importance. He tried to enforce stricter discipline in monasteries and the rule of celibacy upon the secular clergy. He also presided over the removal of bishoprics from villages to towns; for example, in 1075 the sees of Lichfield, Sherborne, and Selsey were transferred to Chester, Salisbury, and Chichester. About the same time, no doubt with Lanfranc's approval, William ordered that Church cases should no longer be heard in secular courts. Lanfranc also claimed supremacy for Canterbury over York; his claims were endorsed by a legatine council held at Winchester in 1072. He died this day May 28, in 1089
We all need change and reform, even in our lives and in the life of our church. For the past year, we have brought to you a daily devotion each day throughout this time of the pandemic. However, we noticed that not so many of you are looking or using this. To help our time to be more efficient and rather than any sweeping Lanfranc reforms, we ask you to help us, and fill out this simple questionnaire to aid any reforms we might take.
Lord, as we prepare our hearts and minds for this time of change,
we ask that your divine nature will be clear to us.
Help us and use us to make the necessary changing in our church and in our lives
so that we might reflect your glory, not ours, more efficiently and effectively.
As we look to You for strength and guidance,
allow your way to rule in our thoughts and actions:
Guide and direct us, we pray.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today the church commemorates Lanfranc. He was born in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy in c. 1005. A Benedictine who became archbishop of Canterbury (1070–89) and a trusted counsellor of William the Conqueror, and was largely responsible for the excellent church–state relations of William’s reign after the Norman Conquest of England. Lanfranc's carried out reforms and changes in the Church in England which laid the foundations of our church today. Some of these changes were purely political and involved replacing Saxon bishops and abbots with foreigners wherever possible. To effect his reforms, he held a series of councils; those of Winchester (1072 and 1076) and London (1075) were of great importance. He tried to enforce stricter discipline in monasteries and the rule of celibacy upon the secular clergy. He also presided over the removal of bishoprics from villages to towns; for example, in 1075 the sees of Lichfield, Sherborne, and Selsey were transferred to Chester, Salisbury, and Chichester. About the same time, no doubt with Lanfranc's approval, William ordered that Church cases should no longer be heard in secular courts. Lanfranc also claimed supremacy for Canterbury over York; his claims were endorsed by a legatine council held at Winchester in 1072. He died this day May 28, in 1089
We all need change and reform, even in our lives and in the life of our church. For the past year, we have brought to you a daily devotion each day throughout this time of the pandemic. However, we noticed that not so many of you are looking or using this. To help our time to be more efficient and rather than any sweeping Lanfranc reforms, we ask you to help us, and fill out this simple questionnaire to aid any reforms we might take.
Lord, as we prepare our hearts and minds for this time of change,
we ask that your divine nature will be clear to us.
Help us and use us to make the necessary changing in our church and in our lives
so that we might reflect your glory, not ours, more efficiently and effectively.
As we look to You for strength and guidance,
allow your way to rule in our thoughts and actions:
Guide and direct us, we pray.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Photo from New Scientist. Please click photo for link
Thursday 27th May 2021
I have always gone on silent retreat once a year throughout my ministry. This has been in a variety of places. Now, my annual silent retreat is usually in Glasshampton Monastery. But at the start of my ministry, I used to go to Hillfield Friary, in Dorset. My prayer was punctuated with local walks, where the countryside was/is always stunning and varied in that part of the world. So it was with great interest that I read an article in the New Scientist early this week, about the Cerne Abbas giant - a place I would often walk to. The origins of the Cerne Abbas giant are shrouded in mystery: many historians and archaeologists have argued that the huge figure of a naked man, carved onto a chalk hillside in this part of Dorset, is prehistoric. But as there is no written record of it until 1694, others have argued that it was created in the 17th century - perhaps to mock Oliver Cromwell. But now, scientists have recently analysed soil samples to determine its origins, and found that the giant most likely dates to the late Saxon period, around the 10th century, which is extraordinary. “Everyone was wrong, and that makes these results even more exciting,” said geoarchaeologist Mike Allen in the article. The researchers used a thing called an ‘Optically Stimulated Luminescence’, which can determine when grains of sand were last exposed to sunlight, and so were able to work out when the chalk-filled trenches that form the giant's outline were dug. And it produced a time frame of AD700 to AD1000 at the earliest.
They speculated that the giant was created by local people when the area was pagan and then became overgrown and forgotten after it was converted to Christianity by the monks at Cerne Abbey, founded in AD987. Then, sometime in the mid-17th century, someone spotted the faint lines in of the giant, cut the grass and re-filled the trenches. This, the article states, would explain why the figure is not mentioned in the abbey's medieval records, nor in an extensive 1617 survey of the area. Intriguingly, it may only have been in the 17th century that the giant acquired its phallic nakedness - courtesy, perhaps, by a local prankster. Topographical mapping reveals that a “belt” line that goes across the figure's middle, suggesting the giant once wore trousers.
I find it fascinating that we are making such discoveries today about our yesterday. So as part of our daily devotion today, let us celebrate the providence of God and gift of scientific discovery:
We give thanks to you, God our Father, Maker of the universe,
for the unity and order of created things;
for the resources of the earth;
for the gift of human life;
for our share in the continuing work of creation.
O Creator and Lord of all, we thank you for the hidden forces of nature now brought within our control by scientific discovery. We thank you for creative vision and inventiveness, and for the different abilities and skills which you have given us and which we use in daily work. Help us to use all your gifts wisely and faithfully, for the benefit of humankind, that all may rejoice in your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
I have always gone on silent retreat once a year throughout my ministry. This has been in a variety of places. Now, my annual silent retreat is usually in Glasshampton Monastery. But at the start of my ministry, I used to go to Hillfield Friary, in Dorset. My prayer was punctuated with local walks, where the countryside was/is always stunning and varied in that part of the world. So it was with great interest that I read an article in the New Scientist early this week, about the Cerne Abbas giant - a place I would often walk to. The origins of the Cerne Abbas giant are shrouded in mystery: many historians and archaeologists have argued that the huge figure of a naked man, carved onto a chalk hillside in this part of Dorset, is prehistoric. But as there is no written record of it until 1694, others have argued that it was created in the 17th century - perhaps to mock Oliver Cromwell. But now, scientists have recently analysed soil samples to determine its origins, and found that the giant most likely dates to the late Saxon period, around the 10th century, which is extraordinary. “Everyone was wrong, and that makes these results even more exciting,” said geoarchaeologist Mike Allen in the article. The researchers used a thing called an ‘Optically Stimulated Luminescence’, which can determine when grains of sand were last exposed to sunlight, and so were able to work out when the chalk-filled trenches that form the giant's outline were dug. And it produced a time frame of AD700 to AD1000 at the earliest.
They speculated that the giant was created by local people when the area was pagan and then became overgrown and forgotten after it was converted to Christianity by the monks at Cerne Abbey, founded in AD987. Then, sometime in the mid-17th century, someone spotted the faint lines in of the giant, cut the grass and re-filled the trenches. This, the article states, would explain why the figure is not mentioned in the abbey's medieval records, nor in an extensive 1617 survey of the area. Intriguingly, it may only have been in the 17th century that the giant acquired its phallic nakedness - courtesy, perhaps, by a local prankster. Topographical mapping reveals that a “belt” line that goes across the figure's middle, suggesting the giant once wore trousers.
I find it fascinating that we are making such discoveries today about our yesterday. So as part of our daily devotion today, let us celebrate the providence of God and gift of scientific discovery:
We give thanks to you, God our Father, Maker of the universe,
for the unity and order of created things;
for the resources of the earth;
for the gift of human life;
for our share in the continuing work of creation.
O Creator and Lord of all, we thank you for the hidden forces of nature now brought within our control by scientific discovery. We thank you for creative vision and inventiveness, and for the different abilities and skills which you have given us and which we use in daily work. Help us to use all your gifts wisely and faithfully, for the benefit of humankind, that all may rejoice in your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Wednesday 26th May 2021
A super blood moon will be seen in parts of the world tonight as a total lunar eclipse will bring some magnificent views. Evidently Hawaii will have the best view of May’s full supermoon, followed by California, the Pacific north-west, New Zealand and Australia. Sadly London doesn’t feature, but this will be the first total lunar eclipse in more than two years and coincides with a supermoon this week for quite a cosmic show of a super “blood” moon. If you happen to be in one of these “hot-spots”, you’d better look quick: for the total eclipse will last about 15 minutes as Earth passes directly between the moon and the sun. However, the entire show will last five hours, as Earth’s shadow gradually covers the moon, then starts to ebb. I understand that the reddish-orange colour is the result of all the sunrises and sunsets in Earth’s atmosphere projected on to the surface of the eclipsed moon. I find this all so facinating, and hope that we will be able to see some good pictures, like this one taken in Marseille in France over two years ago:
A super blood moon will be seen in parts of the world tonight as a total lunar eclipse will bring some magnificent views. Evidently Hawaii will have the best view of May’s full supermoon, followed by California, the Pacific north-west, New Zealand and Australia. Sadly London doesn’t feature, but this will be the first total lunar eclipse in more than two years and coincides with a supermoon this week for quite a cosmic show of a super “blood” moon. If you happen to be in one of these “hot-spots”, you’d better look quick: for the total eclipse will last about 15 minutes as Earth passes directly between the moon and the sun. However, the entire show will last five hours, as Earth’s shadow gradually covers the moon, then starts to ebb. I understand that the reddish-orange colour is the result of all the sunrises and sunsets in Earth’s atmosphere projected on to the surface of the eclipsed moon. I find this all so facinating, and hope that we will be able to see some good pictures, like this one taken in Marseille in France over two years ago:
Photo from the Guardian, please click on photo for link to source
Prayer from John Calvin for our daily devotion:
Grant, Almighty God, that as we have not only been created by thee, but when thou hast placed us in this world, thou hast also enriched us with abundance of all blessings, - O grant, that we may not transfer to others the glory duo to thee, and that especially since we are daily admonished by thy word, and even severely reproved, we may not with an iron hardness resist, but render ourselves pliable to thee, and not give ourselves up to our own devices, but follow with true docility and meekness, that rule which thou hast prescribed in thy word, until at length having put off all the remains of errors, we shall enjoy that blessed light, which thou hast prepared for us in heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Revd Graham M Buckle |
Talking of France, the Church commemorates today the French reformer John Calvin. He was born at Noyon in Picardy in 1509 and, unbelievably, he received his first benefice at the age of twelve. Two years later he began studying theology at Paris but for some reason changed to law and moved to Orléans where he came under his first Protestant influences. He broke with the Roman Church in 1533, having had a religious experience which he believed commissioned him to purify and restore the Church of Christ. The first edition of his Institutes appeared in 1536, which was a justification for his Reformation principles. Calvin accepted a position in Geneva which involved organizing the Reformation in that city and spent most of his life there. His immense reputation and influence have continued in the churches of the Reform to the present day. He died on this day in 1564. I have looked that this great reformer rather than the other saints also commemorated today, because he is reputed to have said:
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Tuesday 25th May 2021
Today the church remembers St Bede – often known as the Venerable Bede – who was born in the north of England in 673, and died in 735. If St Helena (who we celebrated last Friday) was a travelling saint, Bede was a window saint. He certainly didn’t travel, as he was possibly born and certainly lived his whole life in the same Northumbrian town. His writings did travel, however, and it is these writings that he is most remembered for.
Bede gives us both a window onto the contemporary thinking of his day, and also on the history of Britain. He was something of a polymath, writing a series of scientific treatises, as well as a “Martyrology” (a list of martyrs and saints arranged in calendar order) which became the model on which later martyrologies were written, and his most famous Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum – The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
Bede’s Ecclesiastical History remains crucial for our understanding of the establishment and spread of Christianity in England, and the emergence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. He tells us which works he draws upon, citing them in the text, and so giving us another window on texts that have since been lost. There are biases and omissions – Bede didn’t have access to many sources about the west of England, for example – but the Ecclesiastical History nevertheless rapidly grew in popularity and began to spread to other countries. The British Library holds French copies of the text made as early as the beginning of the ninth century.
It is not only Bede’s actual writings that give us a window onto his time, and the history leading up to it, but also what happened to the physical manuscripts. This image is from the earliest extant copy of the Ecclesiastical History, also held in the British Library, and was made within a few years of his death in the monastery where he had lived and worked. It’s written in a script that facilitated rapid copying (rather than the high-grade script we might recognise from prestigious manuscripts), which points to how popular the work already was that copies were needed this fast. The manuscript then left England, and was in France for a very long time, perhaps since the reign of Charlemagne. It was then moved to the cathedral in Le Mans, before being acquired by the Bishop of Ely in the early eighteenth-century. Click on the image for more information and more images of the manuscript.
Bede opens a window for us on the sprititual and wordly life of his day, as well as a window onto what came before. He didn’t think that his scientific treatises were any less to do with God than his scriptural writings, or his Ecclesiastical History, instead seeing them all as dealing with the works of God. Like Helena inspires us to seek Holy Things and Holy Places, may Bede inspire us to see the work of God in all creation, and moving in our own lives and our own histories.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Today the church remembers St Bede – often known as the Venerable Bede – who was born in the north of England in 673, and died in 735. If St Helena (who we celebrated last Friday) was a travelling saint, Bede was a window saint. He certainly didn’t travel, as he was possibly born and certainly lived his whole life in the same Northumbrian town. His writings did travel, however, and it is these writings that he is most remembered for.
Bede gives us both a window onto the contemporary thinking of his day, and also on the history of Britain. He was something of a polymath, writing a series of scientific treatises, as well as a “Martyrology” (a list of martyrs and saints arranged in calendar order) which became the model on which later martyrologies were written, and his most famous Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum – The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
Bede’s Ecclesiastical History remains crucial for our understanding of the establishment and spread of Christianity in England, and the emergence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. He tells us which works he draws upon, citing them in the text, and so giving us another window on texts that have since been lost. There are biases and omissions – Bede didn’t have access to many sources about the west of England, for example – but the Ecclesiastical History nevertheless rapidly grew in popularity and began to spread to other countries. The British Library holds French copies of the text made as early as the beginning of the ninth century.
It is not only Bede’s actual writings that give us a window onto his time, and the history leading up to it, but also what happened to the physical manuscripts. This image is from the earliest extant copy of the Ecclesiastical History, also held in the British Library, and was made within a few years of his death in the monastery where he had lived and worked. It’s written in a script that facilitated rapid copying (rather than the high-grade script we might recognise from prestigious manuscripts), which points to how popular the work already was that copies were needed this fast. The manuscript then left England, and was in France for a very long time, perhaps since the reign of Charlemagne. It was then moved to the cathedral in Le Mans, before being acquired by the Bishop of Ely in the early eighteenth-century. Click on the image for more information and more images of the manuscript.
Bede opens a window for us on the sprititual and wordly life of his day, as well as a window onto what came before. He didn’t think that his scientific treatises were any less to do with God than his scriptural writings, or his Ecclesiastical History, instead seeing them all as dealing with the works of God. Like Helena inspires us to seek Holy Things and Holy Places, may Bede inspire us to see the work of God in all creation, and moving in our own lives and our own histories.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Monday 24th May 2021
Picture from Wikipedia, click on picture for link
Friday 21st May 2021
St Helena is a travelling saint. Throughout her life she moved through very different places in very different circumstances, and not until the later years of her life did she have much choice in the matter. Despite being the wife (though possibly not formally married) of one Emperor, and the mother of another, we actually know very little about her for certain – but from what we do know we can glean something of her wanderings.
We don’t know where she was born – traditions range from her being the daughter of “Old King Cole” (King Coel of Colchester), to being born in Greece, to being an innkeeper that Constantine took a liking to and took under his protection. She gave birth to the future Emperor Constantine when in modern day Serbia, and in 289AD was set aside by her husband and lived a long time in obscurity. In 306AD her son Constantine became Emperor, and he brought Helena back to Rome and appointed her Augusta Imperatrix. At this point, Helena was given access to the Imperial Treasury in order to find Christian relics, and undertook her journey to Palestine where she found the true cross, and instigated the building of several basilicas of the Christian faith – kickstarting the tradition of pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
During much of her life, Helena would have had little to no control over what happened to her – a feeling that Evelyn Waugh’s ahistorical but extremely atmospheric novel of her life captures profoundly. Once she became Imperatrix, however, she suddenly had the resources and the status to take more control, at which point she decided to seek out Holy Places and Holy Things. Helena went all the way to Jerusalem, but we don’t need to travel that far – or travel at all! Helena, for me, has always been a reminder to actively try to find Holy Places and Holy Things, even if it’s just at home, or outside our front door. And, no matter how far we travel, or how winding our life’s road might be, to try to travel always towards our Lord.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
St Helena is a travelling saint. Throughout her life she moved through very different places in very different circumstances, and not until the later years of her life did she have much choice in the matter. Despite being the wife (though possibly not formally married) of one Emperor, and the mother of another, we actually know very little about her for certain – but from what we do know we can glean something of her wanderings.
We don’t know where she was born – traditions range from her being the daughter of “Old King Cole” (King Coel of Colchester), to being born in Greece, to being an innkeeper that Constantine took a liking to and took under his protection. She gave birth to the future Emperor Constantine when in modern day Serbia, and in 289AD was set aside by her husband and lived a long time in obscurity. In 306AD her son Constantine became Emperor, and he brought Helena back to Rome and appointed her Augusta Imperatrix. At this point, Helena was given access to the Imperial Treasury in order to find Christian relics, and undertook her journey to Palestine where she found the true cross, and instigated the building of several basilicas of the Christian faith – kickstarting the tradition of pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
During much of her life, Helena would have had little to no control over what happened to her – a feeling that Evelyn Waugh’s ahistorical but extremely atmospheric novel of her life captures profoundly. Once she became Imperatrix, however, she suddenly had the resources and the status to take more control, at which point she decided to seek out Holy Places and Holy Things. Helena went all the way to Jerusalem, but we don’t need to travel that far – or travel at all! Helena, for me, has always been a reminder to actively try to find Holy Places and Holy Things, even if it’s just at home, or outside our front door. And, no matter how far we travel, or how winding our life’s road might be, to try to travel always towards our Lord.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Thursday 20th May 2021
Today the church commemorates Alcuin of York, 804. Alcuin was descended from a noble Northumbrian family. Although the date and place of his birth are not known, it was thought that he was probably born in the year 735 in or near York. He entered the cathedral school there as a child, continued as a Scholar and became Master. In 781, he went to Aachen as adviser to Charlemagne on religious and educational matters and as Master of the Palace School, where he established an important library. Although not a monk and served as a deacon, in 796 he became Abbot of Tours, dying there in the year 804. This is obviously good news to our deacon - Helena! Alcuin wrote poetry, revised the lectionary, compiled a sacramentally and was involved in other significant liturgical work. He achieved so much in his life. Perhaps as we look at this early picture of Alcuin and pray the collect set for today, we might use our daily devotion to contemplate what we have achieved and what we would still like to do for our God:
A Carolingian manuscript, c. 831. Rabanus Maurus (left), with Alcuin (middle), dedicating his work to Archbishop Odgar of Mainz (right)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcuin
God of wisdom, eternal light,
who shone in the heart of your servant Alcuin,
revealing to him your power and pity:
scatter the darkness of our ignorance
that, with all our heart and mind and strength,
we may seek your face
and be brought with all your saints
to your holy presence;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.
PS. On Sunday is the feast of Pentecost, please don’t forget our AGM and also Slow Art. Do watch John’s short video where he talks about this feast and the pictures we are look at together: https://vimeo.com/552482926?ref=em-share
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today the church commemorates Alcuin of York, 804. Alcuin was descended from a noble Northumbrian family. Although the date and place of his birth are not known, it was thought that he was probably born in the year 735 in or near York. He entered the cathedral school there as a child, continued as a Scholar and became Master. In 781, he went to Aachen as adviser to Charlemagne on religious and educational matters and as Master of the Palace School, where he established an important library. Although not a monk and served as a deacon, in 796 he became Abbot of Tours, dying there in the year 804. This is obviously good news to our deacon - Helena! Alcuin wrote poetry, revised the lectionary, compiled a sacramentally and was involved in other significant liturgical work. He achieved so much in his life. Perhaps as we look at this early picture of Alcuin and pray the collect set for today, we might use our daily devotion to contemplate what we have achieved and what we would still like to do for our God:
A Carolingian manuscript, c. 831. Rabanus Maurus (left), with Alcuin (middle), dedicating his work to Archbishop Odgar of Mainz (right)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcuin
God of wisdom, eternal light,
who shone in the heart of your servant Alcuin,
revealing to him your power and pity:
scatter the darkness of our ignorance
that, with all our heart and mind and strength,
we may seek your face
and be brought with all your saints
to your holy presence;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.
PS. On Sunday is the feast of Pentecost, please don’t forget our AGM and also Slow Art. Do watch John’s short video where he talks about this feast and the pictures we are look at together: https://vimeo.com/552482926?ref=em-share
Revd Graham M Buckle
Wednesday 19th May 2021
Opening Up
It was in 2013 that the Actors’ Church Union, founded in 1899, was relaunched as Theatre Chaplaincy UK. At the time, we wrote a prayer for the charity, reflecting something of the wonder of a creative God and the ups and downs of the vocation of those called to work in the theatre. The prayer included the words, “… give them humility in success and hidden reserves when the going is tough”. We had no idea back then, just how tough things could get.
For almost all of those who work in the theatre - producers, performers, technical crew, box office and front of house staff - the last 14 months have been horrendously hard. This has been the case even more so for the 70% of the theatre workforce who are freelance, and so didn’t qualify for either of the government’s financial support schemes. Hopes were rising when a few theatres managed to re-open briefly in December, but were dashed only days later when we went from Tier 3 to Tier 4 and they had to go dark once more.
Finally this week our theatres are allowed to re-open, albeit with distancing still in place. I’ll be watching a preview tonight and I can’t wait to be back in a theatre! We hope and pray that this time our theatres really will stay open. It is a time for cautious optimism, but some of the larger shows are not able to return until later in the summer or even the autumn and must be patient for a few more months.
This week will be full of excitement for many, along with a whole host of emotions, so please spare a prayer for the apprehension experienced by those who have been cast into the wilderness for over a year. Many have become key workers, in supermarkets, in teaching or as couriers. It was suggested during lockdown that one branch of Sainsbury’s had so many West End people working there that they could have staged their own musical! I know of one stage manager who has been working for a funeral director, and of an actor in a high profile West End show who has been working on a building site in Germany.
Coming back in front of a live audience after such a long time can bring its own anxiety and there are many whose confidence will have taken a considerable knock. They are the lucky ones. There are others who still don’t know when, how or even if they will find their way back. So as we give thanks in this momentous week, and as we look to the future, we pray the going may never be this tough again.
The TCUK Prayer
Creator God, Source of all life,
from you comes the inspiration
and the talent to create.
Encourage those who seek through
the performing arts to portray faithfully
the struggles, hopes, tears and laughter
of life’s journey.
Inspire them by your Spirit;
give them humility in success and
hidden reserves when the going is tough.
Bless all who work in the sacred spaces
of stage and studio, that their craft may be
a source of healing, hope and unity
in our broken world. Amen.
The Revd Lindsay Meader
Opening Up
It was in 2013 that the Actors’ Church Union, founded in 1899, was relaunched as Theatre Chaplaincy UK. At the time, we wrote a prayer for the charity, reflecting something of the wonder of a creative God and the ups and downs of the vocation of those called to work in the theatre. The prayer included the words, “… give them humility in success and hidden reserves when the going is tough”. We had no idea back then, just how tough things could get.
For almost all of those who work in the theatre - producers, performers, technical crew, box office and front of house staff - the last 14 months have been horrendously hard. This has been the case even more so for the 70% of the theatre workforce who are freelance, and so didn’t qualify for either of the government’s financial support schemes. Hopes were rising when a few theatres managed to re-open briefly in December, but were dashed only days later when we went from Tier 3 to Tier 4 and they had to go dark once more.
Finally this week our theatres are allowed to re-open, albeit with distancing still in place. I’ll be watching a preview tonight and I can’t wait to be back in a theatre! We hope and pray that this time our theatres really will stay open. It is a time for cautious optimism, but some of the larger shows are not able to return until later in the summer or even the autumn and must be patient for a few more months.
This week will be full of excitement for many, along with a whole host of emotions, so please spare a prayer for the apprehension experienced by those who have been cast into the wilderness for over a year. Many have become key workers, in supermarkets, in teaching or as couriers. It was suggested during lockdown that one branch of Sainsbury’s had so many West End people working there that they could have staged their own musical! I know of one stage manager who has been working for a funeral director, and of an actor in a high profile West End show who has been working on a building site in Germany.
Coming back in front of a live audience after such a long time can bring its own anxiety and there are many whose confidence will have taken a considerable knock. They are the lucky ones. There are others who still don’t know when, how or even if they will find their way back. So as we give thanks in this momentous week, and as we look to the future, we pray the going may never be this tough again.
The TCUK Prayer
Creator God, Source of all life,
from you comes the inspiration
and the talent to create.
Encourage those who seek through
the performing arts to portray faithfully
the struggles, hopes, tears and laughter
of life’s journey.
Inspire them by your Spirit;
give them humility in success and
hidden reserves when the going is tough.
Bless all who work in the sacred spaces
of stage and studio, that their craft may be
a source of healing, hope and unity
in our broken world. Amen.
The Revd Lindsay Meader
Picture from ‘The Week’ May 15 Issue 1331
Tuesday 15th May 2021
I meeting a few of my cousins today to conclude sorting out my Auntie Joan’s estate. She died of Covid-19 over a year ago after being sadly being expose to the virus in hospital with a broken hand. One of the many memories I have of her is our family holidays - and my mum having to protect Joan from any wasps that might be buzzing by - for Auntie Joan had an unnecessary and over the top phobia of them. I wonder if she would have been any different if she’s had read the article I read on Saturday - ‘Wasps are under-appreciated’. It is interesting how we love, cherish and protect bees, yet wasps are considered a pest, and squished on sight, and like my mum protecting her younger sister, would do everything in her power to swipe and kill any that might be near her. Yet they both sting, so why are we so waspish about wasps? The answer, according to a wasp expert, is simple: we don't know what wasps do. There are some seeking to rectify this. In a new paper, Dr Seirian Sumner, of University College London, and her colleagues drew on the existing research in order to make the case for wasps. They found evidence that wasps pollinate at least 960 plant species, including 164 that are dependent on them. The insect world's "top predators", wasps play a vital role in regulating insect populations, and so protect a wide variety of crops. Their nests and larvae are a source of human food; their venom has antimicrobial properties; and what's more, they're beautiful, says Sumner, whereas bees are just "fat and furry”. They don't make honey, however - and they're not exactly benign: whereas bees "buzz around harmlessly", wasps like to capture insects, take them to their nests, lay eggs on them, and then watch as their young feast on their prey's still-living bodies. "You don't have to love them," concedes Sumner. "But they are useful." All this fits in nicely with one of our young people’s prayer requests. Allegra, (age 4) has suggested that we ask God to "protect all of the insects". So let this be our daily devotion today as we pray:
Creator God,
you made the goodness of the land,
the riches of the sea
and the rhythm of the seasons;
as we thank you for your gracious providing
may we cherish and respect insects who inhabit
this planet and with us peoples,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
I meeting a few of my cousins today to conclude sorting out my Auntie Joan’s estate. She died of Covid-19 over a year ago after being sadly being expose to the virus in hospital with a broken hand. One of the many memories I have of her is our family holidays - and my mum having to protect Joan from any wasps that might be buzzing by - for Auntie Joan had an unnecessary and over the top phobia of them. I wonder if she would have been any different if she’s had read the article I read on Saturday - ‘Wasps are under-appreciated’. It is interesting how we love, cherish and protect bees, yet wasps are considered a pest, and squished on sight, and like my mum protecting her younger sister, would do everything in her power to swipe and kill any that might be near her. Yet they both sting, so why are we so waspish about wasps? The answer, according to a wasp expert, is simple: we don't know what wasps do. There are some seeking to rectify this. In a new paper, Dr Seirian Sumner, of University College London, and her colleagues drew on the existing research in order to make the case for wasps. They found evidence that wasps pollinate at least 960 plant species, including 164 that are dependent on them. The insect world's "top predators", wasps play a vital role in regulating insect populations, and so protect a wide variety of crops. Their nests and larvae are a source of human food; their venom has antimicrobial properties; and what's more, they're beautiful, says Sumner, whereas bees are just "fat and furry”. They don't make honey, however - and they're not exactly benign: whereas bees "buzz around harmlessly", wasps like to capture insects, take them to their nests, lay eggs on them, and then watch as their young feast on their prey's still-living bodies. "You don't have to love them," concedes Sumner. "But they are useful." All this fits in nicely with one of our young people’s prayer requests. Allegra, (age 4) has suggested that we ask God to "protect all of the insects". So let this be our daily devotion today as we pray:
Creator God,
you made the goodness of the land,
the riches of the sea
and the rhythm of the seasons;
as we thank you for your gracious providing
may we cherish and respect insects who inhabit
this planet and with us peoples,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Monday 14th May 2021
I hope the Chelsea’ fans in the congregation will forgive me if I mention Saturday’s FA cup final. What a game!: It was not just because Youri Tielemans scored one of the great FA Cup final goals ever. Or the fact that Leicester City won the trophy for the first time after four attempts. Or indeed that it was an emotional win, given the previous owner died tragically three years ago in a helicopter accident leaving the stadium after watching Leicester. His son who took over the helm and directorship, was obviously moved to tears. It was a good game to watch full of tactical intrigue and incident. Personally, what made it so special was the fact that a team, which has come from humble roots won. This to me is essence of the competition, which every football team in the land, have a chance to win.
www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zkn247h
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/leicesters-celebration-owner-epitome-what-24118874?
fbclid=IwAR1hv3YUHmuTcrBrFowQA__zXyGBMX3p-qWppjnyfXLewo5YFZguSBvlIg4
By beating Chelsea 0-1 on Saturday, Leicester beat a team that had experience of winning the FA Cup many times before, probably tipped as favourites on the day and regarded as one of the “big 6”. Being a Londoner, I was rooting for Chelsea, but there was part of me that was delighted that Leicester over came all the odds to win. Yes, I like the underdog, my son even bought me the book: “Underdog” - knowing my appreciation of such teams, and of course supporting Crystal Palace we know what it is like not to be “favourites”. It’s all about hope: hope that the ordinary might become great, might have a real chance too…to dream. This is something that the creators of the European Super League failed to recognise not just in the football, but in life. And it resonates within our faith too. As Christians, we all have that hope of fulfilment and winning, regardless of our background, ability or culture. As we await the coming of God’s Holy Spirit this Pentecost, as we pray “Thy Kingdom Come”, we know that all of us are apart of the dream of God being with us …
O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
I hope the Chelsea’ fans in the congregation will forgive me if I mention Saturday’s FA cup final. What a game!: It was not just because Youri Tielemans scored one of the great FA Cup final goals ever. Or the fact that Leicester City won the trophy for the first time after four attempts. Or indeed that it was an emotional win, given the previous owner died tragically three years ago in a helicopter accident leaving the stadium after watching Leicester. His son who took over the helm and directorship, was obviously moved to tears. It was a good game to watch full of tactical intrigue and incident. Personally, what made it so special was the fact that a team, which has come from humble roots won. This to me is essence of the competition, which every football team in the land, have a chance to win.
www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zkn247h
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/leicesters-celebration-owner-epitome-what-24118874?
fbclid=IwAR1hv3YUHmuTcrBrFowQA__zXyGBMX3p-qWppjnyfXLewo5YFZguSBvlIg4
By beating Chelsea 0-1 on Saturday, Leicester beat a team that had experience of winning the FA Cup many times before, probably tipped as favourites on the day and regarded as one of the “big 6”. Being a Londoner, I was rooting for Chelsea, but there was part of me that was delighted that Leicester over came all the odds to win. Yes, I like the underdog, my son even bought me the book: “Underdog” - knowing my appreciation of such teams, and of course supporting Crystal Palace we know what it is like not to be “favourites”. It’s all about hope: hope that the ordinary might become great, might have a real chance too…to dream. This is something that the creators of the European Super League failed to recognise not just in the football, but in life. And it resonates within our faith too. As Christians, we all have that hope of fulfilment and winning, regardless of our background, ability or culture. As we await the coming of God’s Holy Spirit this Pentecost, as we pray “Thy Kingdom Come”, we know that all of us are apart of the dream of God being with us …
O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Image from Wikipedia, click on photo for link
Friday 14th May 2021
Today the church celebrates St Matthias the Apostle (14th May). After the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, the apostles brought their number back to twelve by choosing Matthias to replace him. He was chosen by lot from amongst the disciples (cf Acts 1.15–26). The author of the Acts of the Apostles sees apostleship differently from Paul’s interpretation of the rôle and seems to reflect the understanding of the gospel of Luke. The number had to be restored so that they might ‘sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel’. It was conditional that they had to have been with Jesus during his earthly ministry and witnesses to the resurrection. The point of being chosen by lot, rather than by some democratic method, indicated the election or choosing by God, rather than by mortals. Now you know a little about him, why not come along to St John’s Smith Square today at 1:15pm for our Sung BCP Holy Communion to celebrate him.
Let us prayer
Almighty God,
who in the place of the traitor Judas
chose your faithful servant Matthias
to be of the number of the Twelve:
preserve your Church from false apostles
and, by the ministry of faithful pastors and teachers,
keep us steadfast in your truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Today the church celebrates St Matthias the Apostle (14th May). After the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, the apostles brought their number back to twelve by choosing Matthias to replace him. He was chosen by lot from amongst the disciples (cf Acts 1.15–26). The author of the Acts of the Apostles sees apostleship differently from Paul’s interpretation of the rôle and seems to reflect the understanding of the gospel of Luke. The number had to be restored so that they might ‘sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel’. It was conditional that they had to have been with Jesus during his earthly ministry and witnesses to the resurrection. The point of being chosen by lot, rather than by some democratic method, indicated the election or choosing by God, rather than by mortals. Now you know a little about him, why not come along to St John’s Smith Square today at 1:15pm for our Sung BCP Holy Communion to celebrate him.
Let us prayer
Almighty God,
who in the place of the traitor Judas
chose your faithful servant Matthias
to be of the number of the Twelve:
preserve your Church from false apostles
and, by the ministry of faithful pastors and teachers,
keep us steadfast in your truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Thursday 13th May 2021
One of my favourite things about artistic depictions of the Ascension is the feet! There has been a tradition down the centuries for artists to depict the Ascension with only Jesus’s feet sticking out of the bottom of a cloud. This stained-glass window from the chapel of The Queen’s College, Oxford is one I know well, and looks a little like Jesus is paddling or swimming up into the sky. In the Ascension Chapel in Walsingham, there is a sculpture of Jesus’s feet disappearing into the ceiling, complete with rays of light coming off them. It all looks rather silly, really, but it makes a profound point about what is actually happening.
If you look closely at the stained-glass window, you can see Jesus’s footprints between the two angels. These footprints, along with the potential silliness of the way the feet are “paddling” point to the fact that this is a bodily happening. It isn’t a metaphor, Jesus isn’t a wafting spirit, he is a physically incarnate body, and he is rising into heaven. This is an essential point about the resurrection – Jesus rose from the dead in his body. He eats fish, he invites Thomas to touch him, he leaves footprints, and it is this incarnate body that ascends. This is crucial, because it is part and parcel of the fundamental change that the incarnation has wrought upon us. As the incarnate body of Jesus ascends to heaven, so are we caught up in the eternal life of the Trinity.
GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God,
that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens;
so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend,
and with him continually dwell,
who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost,
one God, world without end.
Amen.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
One of my favourite things about artistic depictions of the Ascension is the feet! There has been a tradition down the centuries for artists to depict the Ascension with only Jesus’s feet sticking out of the bottom of a cloud. This stained-glass window from the chapel of The Queen’s College, Oxford is one I know well, and looks a little like Jesus is paddling or swimming up into the sky. In the Ascension Chapel in Walsingham, there is a sculpture of Jesus’s feet disappearing into the ceiling, complete with rays of light coming off them. It all looks rather silly, really, but it makes a profound point about what is actually happening.
If you look closely at the stained-glass window, you can see Jesus’s footprints between the two angels. These footprints, along with the potential silliness of the way the feet are “paddling” point to the fact that this is a bodily happening. It isn’t a metaphor, Jesus isn’t a wafting spirit, he is a physically incarnate body, and he is rising into heaven. This is an essential point about the resurrection – Jesus rose from the dead in his body. He eats fish, he invites Thomas to touch him, he leaves footprints, and it is this incarnate body that ascends. This is crucial, because it is part and parcel of the fundamental change that the incarnation has wrought upon us. As the incarnate body of Jesus ascends to heaven, so are we caught up in the eternal life of the Trinity.
GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God,
that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens;
so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend,
and with him continually dwell,
who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost,
one God, world without end.
Amen.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Wednesday 12th May 2021
As we continue to give thanks for agriculture on these three Rogation days before Ascension Day it gives us an opportunity to reflect on how Covid has shown us that living in here the centre of London we mustn’t take supply networks for granted.
Before Covid a Rogation Day would’ve seemed a distant tradition for us here in Westminster and Pimlico, after all we are unlikely to see Graham ‘beating the bounds’ of the parish as vicars traditionally used to do when the UK was largely rural. However, this past year we have been brought up against just how much we are dependent on creation and all those who have worked so hard to keep us supplied during the pandemic. Let’s use today to remember and give thanks to God for those who not only work in agriculture or have devised and manufactured vaccines but all those we see around us each day keeping us supplied: the delivery drivers, the workers in supermarkets and stores and especially small food businesses, restaurants and cafes that have struggled to keep going during lockdown.
And as we give thanks for those who provide us with food and goods from God’s creation we mustn’t forget the fragility of creation itself as we are warned daily about the despoliation of the land and sea environments and the problem of Climate Change. As we give thanks for God providing for us let us also ask His forgiveness for how we have treated His creation and pray for those who both warn us of the trouble it is in while caring for it.
A possible confession we might like to use as we pray:
Let us ask God to have mercy on our tired land,
and to prosper the work of our soiled hands.
Let us ask God to forgive our delusion of self-sufficiency
so that we may praise him for his provision and goodness.
Amen.
Jeremy Cavanagh
As we continue to give thanks for agriculture on these three Rogation days before Ascension Day it gives us an opportunity to reflect on how Covid has shown us that living in here the centre of London we mustn’t take supply networks for granted.
Before Covid a Rogation Day would’ve seemed a distant tradition for us here in Westminster and Pimlico, after all we are unlikely to see Graham ‘beating the bounds’ of the parish as vicars traditionally used to do when the UK was largely rural. However, this past year we have been brought up against just how much we are dependent on creation and all those who have worked so hard to keep us supplied during the pandemic. Let’s use today to remember and give thanks to God for those who not only work in agriculture or have devised and manufactured vaccines but all those we see around us each day keeping us supplied: the delivery drivers, the workers in supermarkets and stores and especially small food businesses, restaurants and cafes that have struggled to keep going during lockdown.
And as we give thanks for those who provide us with food and goods from God’s creation we mustn’t forget the fragility of creation itself as we are warned daily about the despoliation of the land and sea environments and the problem of Climate Change. As we give thanks for God providing for us let us also ask His forgiveness for how we have treated His creation and pray for those who both warn us of the trouble it is in while caring for it.
A possible confession we might like to use as we pray:
Let us ask God to have mercy on our tired land,
and to prosper the work of our soiled hands.
Let us ask God to forgive our delusion of self-sufficiency
so that we may praise him for his provision and goodness.
Amen.
Jeremy Cavanagh
Tuesday 11th May 2021
Two things happened this weekend which gave me a glimmer of hope. Firstly, I ran my first competitive race for over a year. I entered the Regents Park 10k organised by ‘Nice Work’ - it was so lovely to be able to have the opportunity to run and to race along side (or near) others, to just feel a bit alive running again and not just on ones own. Of course, due to Covid restrictions, it was a little different; no mass start, no running along side ones fellow runners, no spectators, no fuel stops etc. But nevertheless it was still a wonderful thing to partake in.
The second thing, a little closer to home - The wonderful cake sale that Isabel Campbell initiated and ran, out of her concern and care for the homeless, on Sunday after our service. What joy it was to see people outside our church interacting, joying themselves and raising much needed funds together. Of course, due to covid restrictions, it was run slightly differently; we had to observe the correct distances, the cakes, biscuits, and soap (yes - hand made soap!) had to be prepared and packaged in a special way, and you could pay by credit card via Just Giving (you can still contribute here).
Two things happened this weekend which gave me a glimmer of hope. Firstly, I ran my first competitive race for over a year. I entered the Regents Park 10k organised by ‘Nice Work’ - it was so lovely to be able to have the opportunity to run and to race along side (or near) others, to just feel a bit alive running again and not just on ones own. Of course, due to Covid restrictions, it was a little different; no mass start, no running along side ones fellow runners, no spectators, no fuel stops etc. But nevertheless it was still a wonderful thing to partake in.
The second thing, a little closer to home - The wonderful cake sale that Isabel Campbell initiated and ran, out of her concern and care for the homeless, on Sunday after our service. What joy it was to see people outside our church interacting, joying themselves and raising much needed funds together. Of course, due to covid restrictions, it was run slightly differently; we had to observe the correct distances, the cakes, biscuits, and soap (yes - hand made soap!) had to be prepared and packaged in a special way, and you could pay by credit card via Just Giving (you can still contribute here).
Both these events showed what we’ve missed but also gave a glimmer of hope of the possibility of a return to life. It showed me was how others - the organisers of the race and our young bakers - worked for others, for community and for the common good.
The danger with lockdown is that we have all become a little bit agoraphobic, that we have lost our ability to truly interact with others, not just personally but also collectively. It’s a vital that we use this time, particularly as restrictions begin to lift, to ensure that we begin to interact with each other creatively and as a community. It was so encouraging to see those volunteers helping and ensuring that the 10k race happened and was safe. It was so lovely seeing all those young people in church but also outside selling their wares and creating a sense of community. We need to ensure that we re-engage with others - that we converse and partake in these events as Christians; they can be great opportunities for mission too. Perhaps we need to lift off the shackles of lockdown fatigue and almost relearn how to communicate fully with others again. Well done ‘Nice Work’ (aptly named) and nice work Isabelle, Amelia and their young friends, we can learn from them as we return to being a community again and so know God more fully.
Let us pray:
Lord of light, we pray that unity may prevail in our church and in our community. Help us to be an instruments of Your peace. Help us in the city to come together to resolve the issues that affect us all. Help us cooperate well in overcoming health issues and prejudice. Help us to be community and church again, in your name we pray, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
The danger with lockdown is that we have all become a little bit agoraphobic, that we have lost our ability to truly interact with others, not just personally but also collectively. It’s a vital that we use this time, particularly as restrictions begin to lift, to ensure that we begin to interact with each other creatively and as a community. It was so encouraging to see those volunteers helping and ensuring that the 10k race happened and was safe. It was so lovely seeing all those young people in church but also outside selling their wares and creating a sense of community. We need to ensure that we re-engage with others - that we converse and partake in these events as Christians; they can be great opportunities for mission too. Perhaps we need to lift off the shackles of lockdown fatigue and almost relearn how to communicate fully with others again. Well done ‘Nice Work’ (aptly named) and nice work Isabelle, Amelia and their young friends, we can learn from them as we return to being a community again and so know God more fully.
Let us pray:
Lord of light, we pray that unity may prevail in our church and in our community. Help us to be an instruments of Your peace. Help us in the city to come together to resolve the issues that affect us all. Help us cooperate well in overcoming health issues and prejudice. Help us to be community and church again, in your name we pray, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Image from Liturgical Arts Journal, Click on picture for link
Monday 10th May 2021
Today we as Anglicans throughout the word celebrate Rogation day. If you look Rogation Day up you will find that they “are days of prayer and fasting in Western Christianity. They are observed with processions and the Litany of the Saints. The so-called major rogation is held on 25 April; the minor rogations are held on Monday to Wednesday preceding Ascension Thursday. However, Rogation Days remind us that our lives and seasons are in God’s hands”. But what does “Rogation” mean? Well “Rogation” comes from the Latin noun rogatio, meaning “asking” (the verb is rogare, “to ask”). “Rogation Days are the three days preceding Ascension Day, especially devoted to asking for God’s blessing on agriculture and industry“. Yesterday, the Sixth Sunday of Easter (the fifth Sunday after Easter Sunday BCP) is traditionally known as “Rogation Sunday.” This is because the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the following week are known as the “Rogation Days,. The Thursday of that week is the feast of the Ascension, which comes on a Thursday, the 40th day after Easter (when Easter Sunday is counted as the 1st day). Churches have often marked the Rogation days with a “Rogation procession,” and the praying of the Great Litany. “The Great Litany is especially appropriate for Rogation days, other days of fasting or thanksgiving, and occasions of solemn and comprehensive entreaty”
Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly receiving good things from your hand, may always give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Today we as Anglicans throughout the word celebrate Rogation day. If you look Rogation Day up you will find that they “are days of prayer and fasting in Western Christianity. They are observed with processions and the Litany of the Saints. The so-called major rogation is held on 25 April; the minor rogations are held on Monday to Wednesday preceding Ascension Thursday. However, Rogation Days remind us that our lives and seasons are in God’s hands”. But what does “Rogation” mean? Well “Rogation” comes from the Latin noun rogatio, meaning “asking” (the verb is rogare, “to ask”). “Rogation Days are the three days preceding Ascension Day, especially devoted to asking for God’s blessing on agriculture and industry“. Yesterday, the Sixth Sunday of Easter (the fifth Sunday after Easter Sunday BCP) is traditionally known as “Rogation Sunday.” This is because the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the following week are known as the “Rogation Days,. The Thursday of that week is the feast of the Ascension, which comes on a Thursday, the 40th day after Easter (when Easter Sunday is counted as the 1st day). Churches have often marked the Rogation days with a “Rogation procession,” and the praying of the Great Litany. “The Great Litany is especially appropriate for Rogation days, other days of fasting or thanksgiving, and occasions of solemn and comprehensive entreaty”
Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly receiving good things from your hand, may always give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Friday 7th May 2021
Tomorrow is the Feast Day for Julian of Norwich (1343 – after 1416), also known as Dame Julian or Mother Julian. She is someone who has interested me ever since I studied some of her writings in the original English as part of my Theology Degree. Julian was an English anchorite of the Middle Ages , who lived practically her whole life in the English city of Norwich, which was an important centre for commerce that also had a vibrant religious life. The city suffered the devastating effects of the Black Death of 1348–50; the Peasants' Revolt, which affected large parts of England in 1381; and the suppression of the Lollards. At this time, aged thirty and seriously ill she thought she was dying; During which Julian received a series of visions or "shewings" of the Passion of Christ. She recovered from her illness and wrote two versions of her experiences. The best known surviving book in the English language written by a mystic, Revelations of Divine Love. The book is the first written in English by a known woman author.
For much of her life, Julian lived in permanent seclusion as an anchoress in her cell, which was attached to St Julian's Church, Norwich. Please us either the prayer or extract below for your daily devotion today. Also do watch John’s weekly video, which is about Dame Julian: https://vimeo.com/545522658
"For we are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend it. No created being can ever know how much and how sweetly and tenderly God loves them. It is only with the help of his grace that we are able to persevere in spiritual contemplation with endless wonder at his high, surpassing, immeasurable love which our Lord in his goodness has for us."
- Julian of Norwich
Lord God, in your compassion you granted to the Lady
Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining
love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all
things, for in giving us yourself you give us all; through
Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Tomorrow is the Feast Day for Julian of Norwich (1343 – after 1416), also known as Dame Julian or Mother Julian. She is someone who has interested me ever since I studied some of her writings in the original English as part of my Theology Degree. Julian was an English anchorite of the Middle Ages , who lived practically her whole life in the English city of Norwich, which was an important centre for commerce that also had a vibrant religious life. The city suffered the devastating effects of the Black Death of 1348–50; the Peasants' Revolt, which affected large parts of England in 1381; and the suppression of the Lollards. At this time, aged thirty and seriously ill she thought she was dying; During which Julian received a series of visions or "shewings" of the Passion of Christ. She recovered from her illness and wrote two versions of her experiences. The best known surviving book in the English language written by a mystic, Revelations of Divine Love. The book is the first written in English by a known woman author.
For much of her life, Julian lived in permanent seclusion as an anchoress in her cell, which was attached to St Julian's Church, Norwich. Please us either the prayer or extract below for your daily devotion today. Also do watch John’s weekly video, which is about Dame Julian: https://vimeo.com/545522658
"For we are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend it. No created being can ever know how much and how sweetly and tenderly God loves them. It is only with the help of his grace that we are able to persevere in spiritual contemplation with endless wonder at his high, surpassing, immeasurable love which our Lord in his goodness has for us."
- Julian of Norwich
Lord God, in your compassion you granted to the Lady
Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining
love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all
things, for in giving us yourself you give us all; through
Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Thursday 6th May 2021
One of the glorious things that I have discovered this spring is the existence of live “nest cams.” As a child I absolutely loved Springwatch, and the fact that I can just go to a webpage and watch these beautiful wild animals live whenever I wish on my computer has been a joy when I’ve felt very stuck indoors. Salisbury cathedral has a live nest cam of their resident Peregrine Falcons, with four very fluffy chicks! And there are plenty of others a quick Google away.
I find it very easy to lose track of the cycle of the seasons in the centre of the city, and so lose some of the wonder of God’s creation. In this season of Eastertide, we think a lot about the cycle of death and rebirth as present in the natural world, and one of my favourite Easter hymns is “Now the Green Blade Riseth.”
Now the green blade riseth, from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.
When I can’t get into the countryside and experience some of the joy of Spring for myself, being able to watch the birth and growth of these little chicks has been a blessing. The Salisbury Cathedral Peregrine Falcon webcam can be found here.
Creator God, forgive our moments of ingratitude,
the spiritual blindness that prevents us
from appreciating the wonder that is this world,
the endless cycle of nature,
of life and death and rebirth.
Forgive us for taking without giving,
reaping without sowing.
Open our eyes to see,
our lips to praise,
our hands to share,
and may our feet tread lightly
on the road that, together, we travel.
Amen.
The Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
One of the glorious things that I have discovered this spring is the existence of live “nest cams.” As a child I absolutely loved Springwatch, and the fact that I can just go to a webpage and watch these beautiful wild animals live whenever I wish on my computer has been a joy when I’ve felt very stuck indoors. Salisbury cathedral has a live nest cam of their resident Peregrine Falcons, with four very fluffy chicks! And there are plenty of others a quick Google away.
I find it very easy to lose track of the cycle of the seasons in the centre of the city, and so lose some of the wonder of God’s creation. In this season of Eastertide, we think a lot about the cycle of death and rebirth as present in the natural world, and one of my favourite Easter hymns is “Now the Green Blade Riseth.”
Now the green blade riseth, from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.
When I can’t get into the countryside and experience some of the joy of Spring for myself, being able to watch the birth and growth of these little chicks has been a blessing. The Salisbury Cathedral Peregrine Falcon webcam can be found here.
Creator God, forgive our moments of ingratitude,
the spiritual blindness that prevents us
from appreciating the wonder that is this world,
the endless cycle of nature,
of life and death and rebirth.
Forgive us for taking without giving,
reaping without sowing.
Open our eyes to see,
our lips to praise,
our hands to share,
and may our feet tread lightly
on the road that, together, we travel.
Amen.
The Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Wednesday 5th May 2021
Over the Bank Holiday weekend, many people have taken part in the Captain Tom 100 challenge to raise funds for charity and continue the legacy of the selfless centenarian who raised £38.9 million for the NHS. Captain Tom Moore was rightly hailed for his positivity and determination in the last year of his life, not giving in to his advanced age or physical health challenges but facing them in a way that inspired thousands not just here in the UK but around the world. His was an example of self-giving, of ‘living outwards’ right up to the end of his life, when tragically, Covid claimed him. Nevertheless, his generosity, positivity and spirit live on. I’m reminded of this life in full bloom in E.J. Scovell’s poem, “Deaths of Flowers”:
Over the Bank Holiday weekend, many people have taken part in the Captain Tom 100 challenge to raise funds for charity and continue the legacy of the selfless centenarian who raised £38.9 million for the NHS. Captain Tom Moore was rightly hailed for his positivity and determination in the last year of his life, not giving in to his advanced age or physical health challenges but facing them in a way that inspired thousands not just here in the UK but around the world. His was an example of self-giving, of ‘living outwards’ right up to the end of his life, when tragically, Covid claimed him. Nevertheless, his generosity, positivity and spirit live on. I’m reminded of this life in full bloom in E.J. Scovell’s poem, “Deaths of Flowers”:
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I would if I could choose
Age and die outwards as a tulip does; Not as this iris drawing in, in-coiling Its complex strange taut inflorescence, willing Itself a bud again - though all achieved is No more than a clenched sadness, The tears of gum not flowing. I would choose the tulip’s reckless way of going; Whose petals answer light, altering by fractions From closed to wide, from one through many perfections, Til wrecked, flamboyant, strayed beyond recall, Like flakes of fire they piecemeal fall. The Revd Lindsay Meader, Senior Chaplain, Theatre Chaplaincy UK, Lead Theatre Chaplain, Diocese of London |
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Tuesday 4th May 2021
On July the 3rd I get ordained as a deacon, God willing, only two months away and then I’ll begin my curacy across St Stephen’s and St Saviour’s. The past two years of study and training has flown by and now I can start to reflect on it.
In my training to be a minister formation has been very much emphasised, that is; formation as a minister, a deacon, a priest and formation as servant, shepherd, steward, messenger and sentinel in Christ. It’s a whole life thing. When I started training at St Augustine’s its principal, wrote a letter to us new ordinands telling us that formation was a journey that will last our lifetimes and even beyond. After two years I can see how wise that letter was, I have barely begun to scratch the surface of formation.
Everyone at St Stephen’s have been part this journey of formation, for which I am deeply grateful. What you see next in my development and growth as a minister, deacon, priest over the next three years will be partly a reflection of each and everyone at St Stephen’s and made possible by God’s love, patience and wisdom. Any shortcomings will be mine but I am looking forward to everyone at St Stephen’s being a part of this journey in Christ over the next three years.
Jeremy Cavanagh
On July the 3rd I get ordained as a deacon, God willing, only two months away and then I’ll begin my curacy across St Stephen’s and St Saviour’s. The past two years of study and training has flown by and now I can start to reflect on it.
In my training to be a minister formation has been very much emphasised, that is; formation as a minister, a deacon, a priest and formation as servant, shepherd, steward, messenger and sentinel in Christ. It’s a whole life thing. When I started training at St Augustine’s its principal, wrote a letter to us new ordinands telling us that formation was a journey that will last our lifetimes and even beyond. After two years I can see how wise that letter was, I have barely begun to scratch the surface of formation.
Everyone at St Stephen’s have been part this journey of formation, for which I am deeply grateful. What you see next in my development and growth as a minister, deacon, priest over the next three years will be partly a reflection of each and everyone at St Stephen’s and made possible by God’s love, patience and wisdom. Any shortcomings will be mine but I am looking forward to everyone at St Stephen’s being a part of this journey in Christ over the next three years.
Jeremy Cavanagh
Friday 30th April 2021
Today the Church of England commemorates a very special woman - Pandita Mary Ramabai. Rambai (1858-1922) faced most of the obstacles a woman could encounter in the India of her lifetime. She was denied access to formal education and was ostracized from society as first an orphan and then a widow. She experienced first-hand the effects of India’s rigid caste system that placed discriminatory walls between social and racial groups. Yet she fought back, first as a Hindu, then as a Christian.
Mary Ramabai was born in 1858, the daughter of a Sanscrit scholar who believed in educating women, who taught her both the Sanskrit language and the Vedas, the sources classical Hindu beliefs. The famine of 1876 killed most of her family and a few years later a cholera epidemic killed her husband of nineteen months. Ramabai was increasingly drawn to social work and in 1883 traveled to England where she spent time with the Wantage Sisters, an Anglican religious community near Oxford. Whilst here she Converted to Christianity, but she nevertheless remained loyal to many aspects of her Hindu background, pioneering an Indian vision of the faith. Ramabai returned to India six years later and, like Mother Teresa later, worked tirelessly among India’s poor, depending on the generosity of others to fund her activities. She became well known as a lecturer on social questions. Being fluent in several languages, Ramabai translated the Bible into Marathi, a West Indian language. It was little wonder that she was the first woman to be awarded the title ‘Pandita’, meaning “the learned one.” She spent many years working for the education of women and orphans, founding schools and homes. Personally, she lived in great simplicity and was a prominent opponent of the caste system and child marriage. Her evangelical enthusiasm never waned. “What a blessing this burden does not fall on me. But Christ bears it on his shoulders,” she wrote, and “no one but He could transform and uplift the downtrodden womanhood of India and of every land.” She died on this day in 1922.
Everliving God,
you called the women at the tomb to witness to the resurrection of your Son:
We thank you for the courageous and independent spirit of your servant Pandita Ramabai, the mother of modern India;
and we pray that we, like her, may embrace your gift of new life, caring for the poor,
braving resentment to uphold the dignity of women,
and offering the riches of our culture to our Saviour Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Today the Church of England commemorates a very special woman - Pandita Mary Ramabai. Rambai (1858-1922) faced most of the obstacles a woman could encounter in the India of her lifetime. She was denied access to formal education and was ostracized from society as first an orphan and then a widow. She experienced first-hand the effects of India’s rigid caste system that placed discriminatory walls between social and racial groups. Yet she fought back, first as a Hindu, then as a Christian.
Mary Ramabai was born in 1858, the daughter of a Sanscrit scholar who believed in educating women, who taught her both the Sanskrit language and the Vedas, the sources classical Hindu beliefs. The famine of 1876 killed most of her family and a few years later a cholera epidemic killed her husband of nineteen months. Ramabai was increasingly drawn to social work and in 1883 traveled to England where she spent time with the Wantage Sisters, an Anglican religious community near Oxford. Whilst here she Converted to Christianity, but she nevertheless remained loyal to many aspects of her Hindu background, pioneering an Indian vision of the faith. Ramabai returned to India six years later and, like Mother Teresa later, worked tirelessly among India’s poor, depending on the generosity of others to fund her activities. She became well known as a lecturer on social questions. Being fluent in several languages, Ramabai translated the Bible into Marathi, a West Indian language. It was little wonder that she was the first woman to be awarded the title ‘Pandita’, meaning “the learned one.” She spent many years working for the education of women and orphans, founding schools and homes. Personally, she lived in great simplicity and was a prominent opponent of the caste system and child marriage. Her evangelical enthusiasm never waned. “What a blessing this burden does not fall on me. But Christ bears it on his shoulders,” she wrote, and “no one but He could transform and uplift the downtrodden womanhood of India and of every land.” She died on this day in 1922.
Everliving God,
you called the women at the tomb to witness to the resurrection of your Son:
We thank you for the courageous and independent spirit of your servant Pandita Ramabai, the mother of modern India;
and we pray that we, like her, may embrace your gift of new life, caring for the poor,
braving resentment to uphold the dignity of women,
and offering the riches of our culture to our Saviour Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Thursday 29th April 2021
Well the Saints are now coming thick and fast in the liturgical calendar, especially as Easter is drawing to its conclusions. Today we celebrate the life of Catherine of Siena, who witnessed her Christian faith in the late 1300’s. Catherine Benincasa was born in 1347, the second youngest of twenty-five children...yes you read correctly - twenty-five! Families were bigger then. From a young age, Catherine lived a pious life, and she overcame family opposition to her vocation and became a Dominican tertiary at the age of eighteen. Nourished by a life of contemplative prayer and mystical experience, she devoted herself to active care for the poor and sick. She became increasingly sought out as an adviser on political as well as religious matters and, in 1376, she journeyed to Avignon as an ambassador to the pope and influenced his decision to return to Rome. She wrote a Dialogue on the spiritual life as well as numerous letters of counsel and direction, which stressed her devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus. She suffered a stroke on 21 April and died eight days later, on this day in the year 1380.
God of compassion,
who gave your servant Catherine of Siena
a wondrous love of the passion of Christ:
grant that your people may be united to him in his majesty
and rejoice for ever in the revelation of his glory;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Well the Saints are now coming thick and fast in the liturgical calendar, especially as Easter is drawing to its conclusions. Today we celebrate the life of Catherine of Siena, who witnessed her Christian faith in the late 1300’s. Catherine Benincasa was born in 1347, the second youngest of twenty-five children...yes you read correctly - twenty-five! Families were bigger then. From a young age, Catherine lived a pious life, and she overcame family opposition to her vocation and became a Dominican tertiary at the age of eighteen. Nourished by a life of contemplative prayer and mystical experience, she devoted herself to active care for the poor and sick. She became increasingly sought out as an adviser on political as well as religious matters and, in 1376, she journeyed to Avignon as an ambassador to the pope and influenced his decision to return to Rome. She wrote a Dialogue on the spiritual life as well as numerous letters of counsel and direction, which stressed her devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus. She suffered a stroke on 21 April and died eight days later, on this day in the year 1380.
God of compassion,
who gave your servant Catherine of Siena
a wondrous love of the passion of Christ:
grant that your people may be united to him in his majesty
and rejoice for ever in the revelation of his glory;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Image from Wikipedia, click image for link
Wednesday 28th April 2021
Today the church commemorates Peter Chanel. To be honest I knew little about him, but having looked him up it is easy to see why he has a special day. Peter was born at Cras in France in 1803 and, after ordination, joined the Marist missionary congregation in 1831. In 1836 he was sent to the islands of the South Pacific to preach the faith. Peter and his companions brought healing medicines as well as the gospel and were much loved and respected. On the island of Futuna in the Fiji group, where Peter was living, the chief’s son asked for baptism, which so infuriated his father that he dispatched a group of warriors with explicit orders to murder Peter. They attacked him with clubs, axes and knives and he died on this day in the year 1841. Within a year, the whole island was Christian and Peter became revered throughout the Pacific Islands and Australasia as its protomartyr. So as we commemorate Peter, let us give thanks for all those who have given their lives for the sake of the gospel, remembering those who are in danger today and who worship in dangerous and difficult circumstances:
Almighty God,
by whose grace and power your holy martyr Peter and all your martyrs throughout the ages
triumphed over suffering and was faithful unto death:
strengthen us with your grace,
that we may endure reproach and persecution
and faithfully bear witness to the name
of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Today the church commemorates Peter Chanel. To be honest I knew little about him, but having looked him up it is easy to see why he has a special day. Peter was born at Cras in France in 1803 and, after ordination, joined the Marist missionary congregation in 1831. In 1836 he was sent to the islands of the South Pacific to preach the faith. Peter and his companions brought healing medicines as well as the gospel and were much loved and respected. On the island of Futuna in the Fiji group, where Peter was living, the chief’s son asked for baptism, which so infuriated his father that he dispatched a group of warriors with explicit orders to murder Peter. They attacked him with clubs, axes and knives and he died on this day in the year 1841. Within a year, the whole island was Christian and Peter became revered throughout the Pacific Islands and Australasia as its protomartyr. So as we commemorate Peter, let us give thanks for all those who have given their lives for the sake of the gospel, remembering those who are in danger today and who worship in dangerous and difficult circumstances:
Almighty God,
by whose grace and power your holy martyr Peter and all your martyrs throughout the ages
triumphed over suffering and was faithful unto death:
strengthen us with your grace,
that we may endure reproach and persecution
and faithfully bear witness to the name
of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
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Tuesday 27th April 2021
Today the church remembers Christina Rossetti – a Victorian poet best known for her carols “In the Bleak Midwinter” and “Love Came Down at Christmas.” Rossetti was a devout Anglican all her life, and wrote many religious poems. Her carols are her most famous, but many of her poems deal with suffering, loss, and unrequited love. It can sometimes be hard to tell whether a poem is supposed to be “religious” or not, as for her all life is completely bound up in a life lived in God. In one poem, entitled “Trust Me” she writes: I cannot love you if I love not Him. I cannot love Him if I love not you. Rossetti was a part of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, of which her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a founding member. She posed for him in several of his religious paintings, including his first completed oil painting “The Girlhood of Mary Virgin.” Rossetti was the model for the Virgin Mary in this, and many other of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s paintings. For the Pre-Raphaelites, the natural world was an important source of inspiration and imagery, and that is certainly true for Rossetti. Below one of two poems that she wrote inspired by Jesus’s sayings in Matthew 6: Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? |
Dante Gabriel Rossetti - The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1848)
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CONSIDER THE LILIES OF THE FIELD
FLOWERS preach to us if we will hear:--
The rose saith in the dewy morn:
I am most fair;
Yet all my loveliness is born
Upon a thorn.
The poppy saith amid the corn:
Let but my scarlet head appear
And I am held in scorn;
Yet juice of subtle virtue lies
Within my cup of curious dyes.
The lilies say: Behold how we
Preach without words of purity.
The violets whisper from the shade
Which their own leaves have made:
Men scent our fragrance on the air,
Yet take no heed
Of humble lessons we would read.
But not alone the fairest flowers:
The merest grass
Along the roadside where we pass,
Lichen and moss and sturdy weed,
Tell of His love who sends the dew,
The rain and sunshine too,
To nourish one small seed.
Rev'd Helena Bickley-Percival
FLOWERS preach to us if we will hear:--
The rose saith in the dewy morn:
I am most fair;
Yet all my loveliness is born
Upon a thorn.
The poppy saith amid the corn:
Let but my scarlet head appear
And I am held in scorn;
Yet juice of subtle virtue lies
Within my cup of curious dyes.
The lilies say: Behold how we
Preach without words of purity.
The violets whisper from the shade
Which their own leaves have made:
Men scent our fragrance on the air,
Yet take no heed
Of humble lessons we would read.
But not alone the fairest flowers:
The merest grass
Along the roadside where we pass,
Lichen and moss and sturdy weed,
Tell of His love who sends the dew,
The rain and sunshine too,
To nourish one small seed.
Rev'd Helena Bickley-Percival
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Monday 26th April 2021
2021 marks the 60th anniversary of Graham Sutherland’s painting Noli Me Tangere which is displayed on the altar of the Mary Magdalene Chapel in the south-eastern corner of Chichester Cathedral. The painting depicts the moment when Mary Magdalene discovers the tomb of Christ lying empty and on encountering Christ resurrected, mistakes him for a gardener. Not just a significant piece of modern art, the painting is important symbolically as it portrays the first realisation by a mortal that Christ had indeed risen from the dead. Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) was commissioned by Walter Hussey when he was Dean of Chichester Cathedral. |
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To mark the 60th anniversary of this extraordinary work, The Reverend Canon Daniel Inman and Director of Pallant House Gallery Simon Martin explored the painting’s significance and symbolism in an online webinar I attended, delivered via Zoom.
In the first in a series of three short films, The Reverend Canon Daniel Inman, Chancellor of Chichester Cathedral, considers the depiction of Jesus and Mary Magdalene within Graham Sutherland's Noli Me Tangere. Please use the painting, video or both as part of your daily devotion today.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
In the first in a series of three short films, The Reverend Canon Daniel Inman, Chancellor of Chichester Cathedral, considers the depiction of Jesus and Mary Magdalene within Graham Sutherland's Noli Me Tangere. Please use the painting, video or both as part of your daily devotion today.
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
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Friday 23rd April 2021
I hope you have enjoyed this weeks offerings of different short videos which have been important to me personally. I would like to conclude the week with a video we used in a previous parish as part of an autumn initiative we were involved with - ‘Back to Church Sunday’. Whilst some of the material was a trifle “cringe-worthy” which needed careful selection, we found the video material really useful in trying to entice people back to church. The video I have selected for our Daily Devotion is one people particularly enjoyed and related to. As the easing of the restrictions come more to the fore, I do hope that people might feel confident and able to begin to return to church to enhance our worshiping community in person, for, as the video concludes - “church is about relationship”. So can I ask that as you watch this video as part of our devotion today, please hold St Stephens Church in your prayer. Rev’d Graham M Buckle |
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Thursday 22nd April 2021
Carrying on with the theme of our link with CHT, our friend Yvonne O’Neal from New York has been involved in a series of social media videos, some we have previously, throughout this past year, uploaded as part of our Daily Devotion. I have really enjoyed and occasionally been challenge by some of the contributions. I asked Yvonne to write a paragraph about it and she states: “Just as the UK went into lockdown in March 2020, One Boat: International Chaplaincy for Covid Times, a Facebook page, was started by the Revd Dr Carrie Pemberton Ford "to connect those of formal and less formalised faith who wish to respond to Pope Francis' call to acknowledge we are during these strange and altered times, members of one fragile boat, the boat of humanity, and pray.” A two-woman crew of captain and chief helms-woman, Carrie Ford and Yvonne O’Neal, respectively, seek diversity on the boat. They were pleased to welcome The Revd Lindsay Meader, Lead Theatre Chaplain in the Diocese of London and member of our community, with a reflection on the role of the Arts during times of conflict, lock-down, grief and challenge.” Please use Lindsay’s contribution as part of your Daily Devotion and prayer today: https://fb.watch/4VwW56zoF3/
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Carrying on with the theme of our link with CHT, our friend Yvonne O’Neal from New York has been involved in a series of social media videos, some we have previously, throughout this past year, uploaded as part of our Daily Devotion. I have really enjoyed and occasionally been challenge by some of the contributions. I asked Yvonne to write a paragraph about it and she states: “Just as the UK went into lockdown in March 2020, One Boat: International Chaplaincy for Covid Times, a Facebook page, was started by the Revd Dr Carrie Pemberton Ford "to connect those of formal and less formalised faith who wish to respond to Pope Francis' call to acknowledge we are during these strange and altered times, members of one fragile boat, the boat of humanity, and pray.” A two-woman crew of captain and chief helms-woman, Carrie Ford and Yvonne O’Neal, respectively, seek diversity on the boat. They were pleased to welcome The Revd Lindsay Meader, Lead Theatre Chaplain in the Diocese of London and member of our community, with a reflection on the role of the Arts during times of conflict, lock-down, grief and challenge.” Please use Lindsay’s contribution as part of your Daily Devotion and prayer today: https://fb.watch/4VwW56zoF3/
Rev’d Graham M Buckle
Wednesday 21st April 2021
I always look forward to been spiritually fed every week by our friend John Beddingfield. His weekly Wednesday Videos on a range of current topics and religious themes is something, members of my family and myself really look forward to. I have found them invaluable, occasionally assuming but always relevant, particularly during this past year - so thank you John. Don’t forget you also can always watch them each Wednesday either on the CHT website or via their FB page: https://www.holytrinity-nyc.org/ This week’s John meditation is on ‘Unlearning & Learning towards Anti-Racism’, please use this video as part of your daily devotion today: https://vimeo.com/539268851
Revd Graham Buckle
I always look forward to been spiritually fed every week by our friend John Beddingfield. His weekly Wednesday Videos on a range of current topics and religious themes is something, members of my family and myself really look forward to. I have found them invaluable, occasionally assuming but always relevant, particularly during this past year - so thank you John. Don’t forget you also can always watch them each Wednesday either on the CHT website or via their FB page: https://www.holytrinity-nyc.org/ This week’s John meditation is on ‘Unlearning & Learning towards Anti-Racism’, please use this video as part of your daily devotion today: https://vimeo.com/539268851
Revd Graham Buckle
Tuesday 20th April 2021
Each week we receive an email from our diocese of London promoting all sorting of articles, news and videos to watch. It can occasionally be a little “information overload”, but generally there are some material of interest; and I encourage you to look at the diocesan website which has all these to upload with other interesting articles, news and prayers: https://www.london.anglican.org
Last Friday’s edition captured my attention as it featured our friend Revd Harry Ching who lived in Helena’s flat when he first came to London, and Harry also preached about his work as a Chinese Chaplain at Evensong last year. The article/video stated that least 130,000 people are expected to migrate to the UK from Hong Kong this year. Please watch, pray and share:
https://vimeo.com/524352181?utm_source=Full+Diocese+list+2020&utm_campaign=8b2b11ddb7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_06_25_09_32_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_33ff8205dc-8b2b11ddb7-453567905
Each week we receive an email from our diocese of London promoting all sorting of articles, news and videos to watch. It can occasionally be a little “information overload”, but generally there are some material of interest; and I encourage you to look at the diocesan website which has all these to upload with other interesting articles, news and prayers: https://www.london.anglican.org
Last Friday’s edition captured my attention as it featured our friend Revd Harry Ching who lived in Helena’s flat when he first came to London, and Harry also preached about his work as a Chinese Chaplain at Evensong last year. The article/video stated that least 130,000 people are expected to migrate to the UK from Hong Kong this year. Please watch, pray and share:
https://vimeo.com/524352181?utm_source=Full+Diocese+list+2020&utm_campaign=8b2b11ddb7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_06_25_09_32_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_33ff8205dc-8b2b11ddb7-453567905
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Monday 19th April 2021
This week I would like to share with you each day various short videos that I have found useful recently, and I hope you might be able to use as part of your daily devotion. I would like to begin the week with short animated film by award–winning director and filmmaker Emily Downe - ‘My Dream, My Taste’ 9 30/03/2021). It was part of Zoom discussion evening I attended hosted by ‘Theos’ - a Christian think tank based in Westminster, who helped us with last week’s Daily Devotion. The film is based on an audio clip from episode 50 of The Sacred podcast with Professor Miroslav Volf, in which the film brings us into the world of a young girl who, in pursuit of her dreams, ends up detached from others and the world around her. Interestingly it was produced before any lockdowns - but is most poignant for us today. I do not want to go into the discussion findings, I would rather leave that to you to come to your own conclusions as you pray with this film. Revd Graham Buckle |
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Friday 16th April 2021
We thank the Theos team this week for their Easter reflections. If you would like to know more about their theological work please visit: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/
Seedlings
In recent months, our relatively normal 2nd floor flat has been transformed into a greenhouse. Three varieties of potatoes sprouting in the living room, rose cuttings lining a wall of the kitchen, an old bucket filled with earth and dry bulbs and trays of tiny tomato seeds sat in a sunny spot by the window.
Given the limited opportunities for entertainment of late it’s been rather captivating viewing. To start with nothing at all, just bare soil. Watering, waiting and watching. Until one by one little green tips started breaking through the dark earth. Most remarkable of them all, the transformation of the tomato seed. A tiny, dry fleck planted in some soil but completely lifeless, it was hard to imagine anything could come from something so seemingly dead. Until we saw it shoot, bright green, face tilted towards the sun, one day to become a towering plant with armfuls of fruit each filled with hundreds of seeds.
Jesus uses the metaphor of a seed/a grain of wheat in the gospel of John to speak about his imminent death.
“Let me make this clear, a single grain of wheat will never be more than a single grain of wheat unless it drops into the ground and dies. Because then it sprouts and produces a great harvest of wheat—all because one grain died.”
And theologian John Stott puts it this way, “as long as a seed remains in the dry, warm, security of the granary it will never reproduce itself. It has to be buried in the cold, dark grave of the soil and there it has to die. Then out of its wintry grave, the springtime grain will sprout.”
This is the Christian hope of Easter. That because Jesus didn’t cling to life, but died in darkness there is life for the world. And with that death, a chain of events that means our broken earth will one day be fully beautiful again, bursting with life but without the sting of death or decay. Without injustice or sickness. No longer watered by our tears.
My tomato plants are a very imperfect picture of this remarkable exchange, but after a year of death feeling so close at hand, they remind me that it won’t have the final word.
Lizzie Harvey is Head of Communications at Theos
(Reprinted with the kind permission of Theos)
We thank the Theos team this week for their Easter reflections. If you would like to know more about their theological work please visit: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/
Seedlings
In recent months, our relatively normal 2nd floor flat has been transformed into a greenhouse. Three varieties of potatoes sprouting in the living room, rose cuttings lining a wall of the kitchen, an old bucket filled with earth and dry bulbs and trays of tiny tomato seeds sat in a sunny spot by the window.
Given the limited opportunities for entertainment of late it’s been rather captivating viewing. To start with nothing at all, just bare soil. Watering, waiting and watching. Until one by one little green tips started breaking through the dark earth. Most remarkable of them all, the transformation of the tomato seed. A tiny, dry fleck planted in some soil but completely lifeless, it was hard to imagine anything could come from something so seemingly dead. Until we saw it shoot, bright green, face tilted towards the sun, one day to become a towering plant with armfuls of fruit each filled with hundreds of seeds.
Jesus uses the metaphor of a seed/a grain of wheat in the gospel of John to speak about his imminent death.
“Let me make this clear, a single grain of wheat will never be more than a single grain of wheat unless it drops into the ground and dies. Because then it sprouts and produces a great harvest of wheat—all because one grain died.”
And theologian John Stott puts it this way, “as long as a seed remains in the dry, warm, security of the granary it will never reproduce itself. It has to be buried in the cold, dark grave of the soil and there it has to die. Then out of its wintry grave, the springtime grain will sprout.”
This is the Christian hope of Easter. That because Jesus didn’t cling to life, but died in darkness there is life for the world. And with that death, a chain of events that means our broken earth will one day be fully beautiful again, bursting with life but without the sting of death or decay. Without injustice or sickness. No longer watered by our tears.
My tomato plants are a very imperfect picture of this remarkable exchange, but after a year of death feeling so close at hand, they remind me that it won’t have the final word.
Lizzie Harvey is Head of Communications at Theos
(Reprinted with the kind permission of Theos)
Thursday 15th April 2021
Jesus was a morning person
I love mornings. I will happily wake up with my alarm and bounce straight out of bed, picking up unfinished conversations with my husband from the night before and thinking through the day ahead. Mistakes have not yet been made, ideas have yet to be tested, and nobody quite knows exactly how the day will pan out. It’s exciting, if we allow it to be.
The Bible is full of references to the morning, using this tangible, everyday occurrence to illustrate the refreshment and renewal that Christians believe is on offer through the presence of God. The book of Lamentations reminds readers that, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning”. Psalm 30 gives the encouragement that “Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes with the morning”.
Mornings, especially early ones, buzz with potential. Perhaps this is why Jesus embraced them, too. Luke’s gospel tells us that Jesus would preach in the temple “early in the morning”. Mark’s gospel similarly reports that Jesus would get up “very early in the morning, while it was still dark”, in order to pray. And, perhaps most significant of all, the resurrection of Jesus was discovered “at dawn on the first day of the week” (Matthew 28:1). Easter Sunday is a time when Christians remember that the extraordinary, history–shaping resurrection of Jesus means a fresh start. A new day, filled with space for forgiveness, celebration and hope. The resurrection is the sign to all who wish to see it that death – in all its thievery and pain – is not the end, and that another reality is possible. As is often the case in life, this idea is perfectly summed up by the inimitable Nina Simone: “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me; and I’m feeling good”.
Lucy Colman is Head of Development at Theos
(Reprinted with the kind permission of Theos)
Jesus was a morning person
I love mornings. I will happily wake up with my alarm and bounce straight out of bed, picking up unfinished conversations with my husband from the night before and thinking through the day ahead. Mistakes have not yet been made, ideas have yet to be tested, and nobody quite knows exactly how the day will pan out. It’s exciting, if we allow it to be.
The Bible is full of references to the morning, using this tangible, everyday occurrence to illustrate the refreshment and renewal that Christians believe is on offer through the presence of God. The book of Lamentations reminds readers that, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning”. Psalm 30 gives the encouragement that “Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes with the morning”.
Mornings, especially early ones, buzz with potential. Perhaps this is why Jesus embraced them, too. Luke’s gospel tells us that Jesus would preach in the temple “early in the morning”. Mark’s gospel similarly reports that Jesus would get up “very early in the morning, while it was still dark”, in order to pray. And, perhaps most significant of all, the resurrection of Jesus was discovered “at dawn on the first day of the week” (Matthew 28:1). Easter Sunday is a time when Christians remember that the extraordinary, history–shaping resurrection of Jesus means a fresh start. A new day, filled with space for forgiveness, celebration and hope. The resurrection is the sign to all who wish to see it that death – in all its thievery and pain – is not the end, and that another reality is possible. As is often the case in life, this idea is perfectly summed up by the inimitable Nina Simone: “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me; and I’m feeling good”.
Lucy Colman is Head of Development at Theos
(Reprinted with the kind permission of Theos)
Wednesday 14th April 2021
The Tendency to Fix
We humans have the tendency to grip happiness and positivity the moment it peeps out of the ground. For good reason; we all want to look forward to something. An NHS Manager described the desperation to put the bad past behind us as “banking something before it has ended” and that really, that is not the right thing to do. I love BBC1’s ‘The Repair Shop’ but humans are not fixable as easily as a musical box or leather bag. Our permanent state is fragile with the capacity to be broken. Pain and exhaustion cannot be ticked off like another task on the ‘to do’ list. Adopt Leonard Cohen’s thought – we’re all full of cracks, that’s how the light gets in.
C. S. Lewis writes in The Four Loves: “Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God.” The embodiment of that couldn’t be much more evident than in the nailing of a human to a make–shift wooden cross at Golgotha – meaning ‘skull’. Some years I’ve sensed the sigh of relief amongst some Christians on Easter Sunday when Resurrection is celebrated and the weight of torture is behind, almost to the point of “let’s forget all that nasty stuff”. A bit like our attitude to the pandemic at times. But that’s not reality and nor is it particularly helpful for those still on crosses.
R.S. Thomas reminds us –
When we are weak, we are
strong. When our eyes close
on the world, then somewhere
within us the bush
burns. When we are poor
and aware of the inadequacy
of our table, it is to that
uninvited the guest comes.
Easter is a short period of time when all of life’s long spectrum of experience is encapsulated – the darkest and most painful of experiences take place and can remain with us, while simultaneously hope and light filter through. A theme expressed so beautifully by Annie Dillard, alluding to that dark Golgotha as being also home to hope, in Pilgrim At Tinker Creek: “Cruelty is a mystery…But if we describe a world to compass these things…then we bump against another mystery: the inrush of power and light, the canary that sings on the skull.”
Anna Wheeler is Operations and Events Manager at Theos
(Reprinted with the kind permission of Theos)
The Tendency to Fix
We humans have the tendency to grip happiness and positivity the moment it peeps out of the ground. For good reason; we all want to look forward to something. An NHS Manager described the desperation to put the bad past behind us as “banking something before it has ended” and that really, that is not the right thing to do. I love BBC1’s ‘The Repair Shop’ but humans are not fixable as easily as a musical box or leather bag. Our permanent state is fragile with the capacity to be broken. Pain and exhaustion cannot be ticked off like another task on the ‘to do’ list. Adopt Leonard Cohen’s thought – we’re all full of cracks, that’s how the light gets in.
C. S. Lewis writes in The Four Loves: “Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God.” The embodiment of that couldn’t be much more evident than in the nailing of a human to a make–shift wooden cross at Golgotha – meaning ‘skull’. Some years I’ve sensed the sigh of relief amongst some Christians on Easter Sunday when Resurrection is celebrated and the weight of torture is behind, almost to the point of “let’s forget all that nasty stuff”. A bit like our attitude to the pandemic at times. But that’s not reality and nor is it particularly helpful for those still on crosses.
R.S. Thomas reminds us –
When we are weak, we are
strong. When our eyes close
on the world, then somewhere
within us the bush
burns. When we are poor
and aware of the inadequacy
of our table, it is to that
uninvited the guest comes.
Easter is a short period of time when all of life’s long spectrum of experience is encapsulated – the darkest and most painful of experiences take place and can remain with us, while simultaneously hope and light filter through. A theme expressed so beautifully by Annie Dillard, alluding to that dark Golgotha as being also home to hope, in Pilgrim At Tinker Creek: “Cruelty is a mystery…But if we describe a world to compass these things…then we bump against another mystery: the inrush of power and light, the canary that sings on the skull.”
Anna Wheeler is Operations and Events Manager at Theos
(Reprinted with the kind permission of Theos)
Tuesday 13th April 2021
The Risk of Love
The past year or so we have all, perhaps, become increasingly aware of our humanity; reminded daily of our fragility, our mortality, and increasingly aware of those connections that make us human in their absence.
As this Easter approaches, I’ve found myself re–reading Herbert McCabe on the Easter triduum – particularly his sermon on Good Friday, in which he emphasises and re–examines Christ’s humanity. He remarks upon how we see in the Gospels that Jesus doesn’t want the cross – especially in Matthew, Mark, and Luke – “not my will but thine be done.” He is recognisably human in the Garden of Gethsemane. He panics. He is in obvious distress.
It’s often tempting to take this route, to see Christ as most human when He’s experiencing moments of pain or distress, united with us in our suffering. Perhaps there is more reason than ever, this year, to do this. But McCabe offers a powerful, differing view of Christ’s humanity: “As I see it, not Adam but Jesus was the first human being, the first member of the human race in whom humanity came to fulfilment, for whom to live was simply to love – for this is what human beings are for.”
Christ, for McCabe, represents the fulfilment of humanity in his capacity for love. He is “the human being we dare not be. He takes the risks of love which we recognise as risks and so for the most part do not take.” McCabe goes further on the risk of love in separate sermons in God Matters, at one point remarking that: “If you do not love, you will not be alive. If you do love, you will be killed.”
Love, of course, makes us vulnerable to loss, to heartbreak. There has been too much of that of late, and I suspect it won’t go unremarked upon in sermons across the land that we celebrate this time of victory over death at the same time that the worst of a deadly pandemic appears to be behind us. As we emerge renewed from another Easter season, my hope is that we emerge more like Christ – more willing to take the risk of love.
Pete Whitehead is Research, Communications and Events Assistant at Theos
(Reprinted with the kind permission of Theos)
The Risk of Love
The past year or so we have all, perhaps, become increasingly aware of our humanity; reminded daily of our fragility, our mortality, and increasingly aware of those connections that make us human in their absence.
As this Easter approaches, I’ve found myself re–reading Herbert McCabe on the Easter triduum – particularly his sermon on Good Friday, in which he emphasises and re–examines Christ’s humanity. He remarks upon how we see in the Gospels that Jesus doesn’t want the cross – especially in Matthew, Mark, and Luke – “not my will but thine be done.” He is recognisably human in the Garden of Gethsemane. He panics. He is in obvious distress.
It’s often tempting to take this route, to see Christ as most human when He’s experiencing moments of pain or distress, united with us in our suffering. Perhaps there is more reason than ever, this year, to do this. But McCabe offers a powerful, differing view of Christ’s humanity: “As I see it, not Adam but Jesus was the first human being, the first member of the human race in whom humanity came to fulfilment, for whom to live was simply to love – for this is what human beings are for.”
Christ, for McCabe, represents the fulfilment of humanity in his capacity for love. He is “the human being we dare not be. He takes the risks of love which we recognise as risks and so for the most part do not take.” McCabe goes further on the risk of love in separate sermons in God Matters, at one point remarking that: “If you do not love, you will not be alive. If you do love, you will be killed.”
Love, of course, makes us vulnerable to loss, to heartbreak. There has been too much of that of late, and I suspect it won’t go unremarked upon in sermons across the land that we celebrate this time of victory over death at the same time that the worst of a deadly pandemic appears to be behind us. As we emerge renewed from another Easter season, my hope is that we emerge more like Christ – more willing to take the risk of love.
Pete Whitehead is Research, Communications and Events Assistant at Theos
(Reprinted with the kind permission of Theos)
Monday 12th April 2021
My First Sermon
John Everett Millais
(1829-1896)
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My Second Sermon John Everett Millais (1829-1896)
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When looking for a picture for my reflection for Evensong last night, I stumbled across these two small paintings by John Everett Millais. Titled My First Sermon and My Second Sermon the image of a little girl dressed up for her first church service, and then the same little girl fast asleep in the box pew at her second might speak to us in these days after Easter. After all the excitement of Holy Week, and perhaps a surfeit of Easter Eggs and images of bunnies and chicks, it’s so easy to lapse back into the comfortable everyday. Especially at the moment, as things seem to be returning to something more like normality – a normality I certainly long for, as I think do many others – the scandal and the shock of the events of Holy Week already feel rather distant. Like the little girl, we begin to fall asleep.
The death of his Royal Highness, Prince Philip last Friday upset any of that sense of the slide into the everyday. Any death is a shock, but one that causes the normal life of the nation to be put on hold can be peculiarly disturbing. The fact that the BBC has received so many complaints about coverage of Prince Philip’s death disturbing the normal programming is testament to this. The fact that it happened in the most joyful week of the church’s year makes it even more jarring. And yet, amid the media coverage and mourning, funeral plans and reflections on Prince Philip’s life, there is a greater shock that we have all experienced last week – and that is the events of Easter Day. The empty tomb, the Son of God risen, death defeated. Death jolts us out of the everyday, but so too does the resurrection. As we pray for Prince Philip, and all of his family, we pray in the resurrection promise and the resurrection hope – a hope so profoundly disturbing and deeply shocking that some who first heard it ran away and were afraid. As we move away from Easter, let us hold on to that eternal surprise of the resurrection, startling us with that new fact about the universe – death is not the end. Stay awake!
The Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
The death of his Royal Highness, Prince Philip last Friday upset any of that sense of the slide into the everyday. Any death is a shock, but one that causes the normal life of the nation to be put on hold can be peculiarly disturbing. The fact that the BBC has received so many complaints about coverage of Prince Philip’s death disturbing the normal programming is testament to this. The fact that it happened in the most joyful week of the church’s year makes it even more jarring. And yet, amid the media coverage and mourning, funeral plans and reflections on Prince Philip’s life, there is a greater shock that we have all experienced last week – and that is the events of Easter Day. The empty tomb, the Son of God risen, death defeated. Death jolts us out of the everyday, but so too does the resurrection. As we pray for Prince Philip, and all of his family, we pray in the resurrection promise and the resurrection hope – a hope so profoundly disturbing and deeply shocking that some who first heard it ran away and were afraid. As we move away from Easter, let us hold on to that eternal surprise of the resurrection, startling us with that new fact about the universe – death is not the end. Stay awake!
The Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Friday 9th April 2021
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God of our lives, we give thanks for the life of Prince Philip, for his love of our country, and for his devotion to duty. We entrust him now to your love and mercy, through our Redeemer Jesus Christ. Amen. The Church of England has an online condolence book, which can be accessed here. |
Happy Easter!
We wish you all a very blessed and joyful Easter
We wish you all a very blessed and joyful Easter
Titian - Noli me Tangere
Maundy Thursday, 1 April - Exodus 12.1–4[5–10] 11–14
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. 4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. [5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7 They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10 You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.] 11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
Reflection
The “new normal” is a phrase often thrown around during the pandemic with a mixture of anxiety and hope. While we might pride ourselves on our flexibility, we often encrust the future with past expectations. The paschal story and Maundy Thursday invite us to readiness to move out of anxiety into brave and rooted humble hope. Brave, because resolve in the face of hardship needs resolve. Rooted because the stories and rituals we inhabit help transform simple, ordinary things like meals and water into reminders of God’s love and God’s faithfulness to God’s people. Humble because we do not pretend foreknowledge of what awaits us. But hopeful, because although suffering is real and leaves deep scars, we know it transforms into an expansion and new appreciation of a fuller life integrated with God. It invites us into God’s every expanding and evolving new normal, which moves in us, through us, towards us, and beyond us—even in the most inconspicuous things like food and water.
Calvyn du Toit, Holy Trinity (Theologian and 6PM Musician)
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. 4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. [5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7 They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10 You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.] 11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
Reflection
The “new normal” is a phrase often thrown around during the pandemic with a mixture of anxiety and hope. While we might pride ourselves on our flexibility, we often encrust the future with past expectations. The paschal story and Maundy Thursday invite us to readiness to move out of anxiety into brave and rooted humble hope. Brave, because resolve in the face of hardship needs resolve. Rooted because the stories and rituals we inhabit help transform simple, ordinary things like meals and water into reminders of God’s love and God’s faithfulness to God’s people. Humble because we do not pretend foreknowledge of what awaits us. But hopeful, because although suffering is real and leaves deep scars, we know it transforms into an expansion and new appreciation of a fuller life integrated with God. It invites us into God’s every expanding and evolving new normal, which moves in us, through us, towards us, and beyond us—even in the most inconspicuous things like food and water.
Calvyn du Toit, Holy Trinity (Theologian and 6PM Musician)
Wednesday of Holy Week, 31 March - Isaiah 50.4–9a
4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.
O Morning by morning he wakens—wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backwards.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
7 The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
8 he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
9 It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
Reflection
There are points in life where we are the teacher, and those where we take the role of a listening student. In both cases, there is always potential for wonderful, active learning and growth. For those who teach, in its very broadest form - parent, uncle, aunt, service provider, friend, colleague, manager, professional - the role takes a lot of time, growth and a desire to relate to others in away that improves their experience of the world, and the world around us. This can sometimes be in the smallest, tiniest way - yet I truly believe positive ripples can be sent out that have numerous benefits, sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle. The role of a teacher means staying honest to yourself and conveying your experience and knowledge to those who listen and are inspired. There may be times when things throw you off track, and that’s ok, you can re-find your path and continue to offer guidance, love and support - which is at the heart of any teaching. We can all be teachers in this way, simultaneously learning, evolving as students, asking ourselves important questions, that we encourage others to reflect upon. Now that social media is so enormously present, we need to reflect carefully on the words we choose. Follow thoughtful, kind, reflexive teachers, and realise that we all have a responsibility on those platforms. Each and every one of us becomes a teacher when we write, or speak, and so chose your words carefully, create positivity, care and love, because you never know who might read or interpret your words - you can lead by example.
Charles Smith, St Stephen’s Church (Yoga Teacher @ St Stephen’s)
4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.
O Morning by morning he wakens—wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backwards.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
7 The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
8 he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
9 It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
Reflection
There are points in life where we are the teacher, and those where we take the role of a listening student. In both cases, there is always potential for wonderful, active learning and growth. For those who teach, in its very broadest form - parent, uncle, aunt, service provider, friend, colleague, manager, professional - the role takes a lot of time, growth and a desire to relate to others in away that improves their experience of the world, and the world around us. This can sometimes be in the smallest, tiniest way - yet I truly believe positive ripples can be sent out that have numerous benefits, sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle. The role of a teacher means staying honest to yourself and conveying your experience and knowledge to those who listen and are inspired. There may be times when things throw you off track, and that’s ok, you can re-find your path and continue to offer guidance, love and support - which is at the heart of any teaching. We can all be teachers in this way, simultaneously learning, evolving as students, asking ourselves important questions, that we encourage others to reflect upon. Now that social media is so enormously present, we need to reflect carefully on the words we choose. Follow thoughtful, kind, reflexive teachers, and realise that we all have a responsibility on those platforms. Each and every one of us becomes a teacher when we write, or speak, and so chose your words carefully, create positivity, care and love, because you never know who might read or interpret your words - you can lead by example.
Charles Smith, St Stephen’s Church (Yoga Teacher @ St Stephen’s)
Tuesday of Holy Week, 30 March - Isaiah 49.1–7
1 Listen to me, O coastlands,
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me before I was born,
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
3 And he said to me, ‘You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’
4 But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the Lord,
and my reward with my God.’
5 And now the Lord says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honoured in the sight of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength--
6 he says,
‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’
7 Thus says the Lord,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers,
‘Kings shall see and stand up,
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.
Reflection
A number of reflections crossed my mind when I first read through this reading. I thought, well I was born in Cleethorpes which is definitely on the coast.
‘Made my mouth like a sharp sword’ - You should have met my Methodist Geordie grandmother. She certainly didn’t hide and didn’t need to be hidden.
‘I have laboured in vain’ - I can’t stand moaners, especially those who feel sorry for themselves. Maybe I did inherit that from my grandmother.
God taking the credit for creating Isaiah in the womb as a tool to sort Israel out? - I wonder if the present Israeli government feels the same?
And then I moved onto verse 6 - Definitely sounds like a revolution to me. Very evangelical. He’s certainly given Isaiah, and Jacob, one heck of a job. I think the job spec could have been a bit clearer when Isaiah took it on, don’t you?
Kate McCarthy, Chair of School Governors – St Barnabas CofE Primary School
1 Listen to me, O coastlands,
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me before I was born,
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
3 And he said to me, ‘You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’
4 But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the Lord,
and my reward with my God.’
5 And now the Lord says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honoured in the sight of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength--
6 he says,
‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’
7 Thus says the Lord,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers,
‘Kings shall see and stand up,
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.
Reflection
A number of reflections crossed my mind when I first read through this reading. I thought, well I was born in Cleethorpes which is definitely on the coast.
‘Made my mouth like a sharp sword’ - You should have met my Methodist Geordie grandmother. She certainly didn’t hide and didn’t need to be hidden.
‘I have laboured in vain’ - I can’t stand moaners, especially those who feel sorry for themselves. Maybe I did inherit that from my grandmother.
God taking the credit for creating Isaiah in the womb as a tool to sort Israel out? - I wonder if the present Israeli government feels the same?
And then I moved onto verse 6 - Definitely sounds like a revolution to me. Very evangelical. He’s certainly given Isaiah, and Jacob, one heck of a job. I think the job spec could have been a bit clearer when Isaiah took it on, don’t you?
Kate McCarthy, Chair of School Governors – St Barnabas CofE Primary School
Monday of Holy Week, 29 March 2021 - Isaiah 42.1–9 (CHT)
1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
5 Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
7 to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the Lord, that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
I tell you of them.
Reflection
“A bruised reed he will not break.”
I have always loved this phrase. It is part of Isaiah’s vision of Israel’s Messiah, the Suffering Servant. Christians came to see Jesus the Messiah as the Suffering Servant who suffered on behalf of sinful humanity. Because he bore the pains of human life, including death on the Cross, Christ can even now share our own suffering. We can bear our misfortunes, Isaiah adds, because God has “taken us by the hand and kept” us.
So, while we cannot expect a perfect existence on earth, we can believe that God will help us to endure the problems that come our way. While these problems may “bruise” us—bruise us terribly, sometimes—they will not break us. For Christ bears our pains with us. The God who is revealed in the Suffering Servant takes us by the hand and keeps us.
The Rev. J. Douglas Ousley, Holy Trinity, Honorary Priest Associate and NY Coordinator (with Graham Buckle) of the Diocese of London – Diocese of New York Link Program.
1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
5 Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
7 to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the Lord, that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
I tell you of them.
Reflection
“A bruised reed he will not break.”
I have always loved this phrase. It is part of Isaiah’s vision of Israel’s Messiah, the Suffering Servant. Christians came to see Jesus the Messiah as the Suffering Servant who suffered on behalf of sinful humanity. Because he bore the pains of human life, including death on the Cross, Christ can even now share our own suffering. We can bear our misfortunes, Isaiah adds, because God has “taken us by the hand and kept” us.
So, while we cannot expect a perfect existence on earth, we can believe that God will help us to endure the problems that come our way. While these problems may “bruise” us—bruise us terribly, sometimes—they will not break us. For Christ bears our pains with us. The God who is revealed in the Suffering Servant takes us by the hand and keeps us.
The Rev. J. Douglas Ousley, Holy Trinity, Honorary Priest Associate and NY Coordinator (with Graham Buckle) of the Diocese of London – Diocese of New York Link Program.
Friday, 26 March (Harriet Monsell, 1883) - Jeremiah 20.10–13
10 For I hear many whispering: ‘Terror is all around!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’
All my close friends are watching for me to stumble.
‘Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him,
and take our revenge on him.’
11 But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble,
and they will not prevail.
They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonour will never be forgotten.
12 O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous,
you see the heart and the mind;
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
13 Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hands of evildoers.
Reflection
I was once told that I was pathologically happy. I think they meant it as a critism, but that wasn’t the way I saw it or took it. Yes, we can look at the world and think – what and awful place it is – or we can look up and out and around and see and touch and feel and taste and hear the wonders of God’s world.
Times would have been hard in Jeremiah’s era. But probably no less hard than now. Just different. This reading speaks of endless possibilities. Knowing that God walks with us each step of the way, preventing us from stumbling, if we keep our eyes on him.
Ignore that whisperings of the negative, the pessimistic and gloom-sharers. And listen to the whisperings of God in our lives, in our churches and in society. And once again ‘Sing to the Lord’ our praises of thanksgiving and joy – albeit we can only sing at home!
John Pearson-Hicks, parish priest, St Barnabas Pimlico
10 For I hear many whispering: ‘Terror is all around!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’
All my close friends are watching for me to stumble.
‘Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him,
and take our revenge on him.’
11 But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble,
and they will not prevail.
They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonour will never be forgotten.
12 O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous,
you see the heart and the mind;
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
13 Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hands of evildoers.
Reflection
I was once told that I was pathologically happy. I think they meant it as a critism, but that wasn’t the way I saw it or took it. Yes, we can look at the world and think – what and awful place it is – or we can look up and out and around and see and touch and feel and taste and hear the wonders of God’s world.
Times would have been hard in Jeremiah’s era. But probably no less hard than now. Just different. This reading speaks of endless possibilities. Knowing that God walks with us each step of the way, preventing us from stumbling, if we keep our eyes on him.
Ignore that whisperings of the negative, the pessimistic and gloom-sharers. And listen to the whisperings of God in our lives, in our churches and in society. And once again ‘Sing to the Lord’ our praises of thanksgiving and joy – albeit we can only sing at home!
John Pearson-Hicks, parish priest, St Barnabas Pimlico
Thursday, 25 March (Annunciation BVM) - Isaiah 7.10–14
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. 13 Then Isaiah said: ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
Reflection
God speaks to Ahaz
as he did of old to humankind
and offers a sign.
Proud Ahaz refuses.
‘”I will not put the Lord to the test”
Isaiah finds him tiresome
and opens himself to receive
the sign God sends anyway,
The Good News of the birth
of Immanuel, God with us.
Here is his promise that
He will be with us stumbling humans.
Jesus will speak God’s truth to us.
For us an amazing prophecy;
But for God, all time is present.
Patsy Weille, Holy Trinity (Poet & Coordinator of Trinity Cares)
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. 13 Then Isaiah said: ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
Reflection
God speaks to Ahaz
as he did of old to humankind
and offers a sign.
Proud Ahaz refuses.
‘”I will not put the Lord to the test”
Isaiah finds him tiresome
and opens himself to receive
the sign God sends anyway,
The Good News of the birth
of Immanuel, God with us.
Here is his promise that
He will be with us stumbling humans.
Jesus will speak God’s truth to us.
For us an amazing prophecy;
But for God, all time is present.
Patsy Weille, Holy Trinity (Poet & Coordinator of Trinity Cares)
Wednesday, 24 March (Walter Hilton, 1396; Paul Couturier, 1953; Oscar Romero, 1980) - Daniel 3.14–20, 24–25, 28
14 Nebuchadnezzar said to them, ‘Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods and you do not worship the golden statue that I have set up? 15 Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble to fall down and worship the statue that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?’ 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defence to you in this matter. 17 If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.’ 19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace to be heated up seven times more than was customary, 20 and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. 24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up quickly. He said to his counsellors, ‘Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?’ They answered the king, ‘True, O king.’ 25 He replied, ‘But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god.’28 Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed the king’s command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.
Reflection
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, together with Daniel, were young Jewish aristocrats who Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon in the fifth century BC, had selected as ‘young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for any kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace’. They were to be taught the language and literature of the Babylonians and to be fed with food and wine from the king’s table. But, to the dismay of the court official responsible for them, led by Daniel their leader, they refused the royal diet but compromised on one of vegetables and water, and as early vegans they finished up looking better nourished than those on royal food. They became favourites of the King, who found them wiser than all the magicians and enchanters of his kingdom, even though they remained loyal to to the God of Israel. Daniel in particular excelled at interpreting the King’s dreams as God’s prophesies, and the King put him in charge of all the wise men in Babylon. Meanwhile Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were made administrators.
Nebuchadnezzar (who seems to have had much in common with Donald Trump) erected a ninety feet high gold image - the Bible does not say if it was of himself - and summoned all the governors, advisers, treasurers and judges to come and worship it every time they heard the sound of music, otherwise they would be thrown into the furnace. But the faithful young Israelites, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, refused to worship the image, and the King was furious. They stood up to him, resolving to face the fire rather than betray their God.
As the furnace was made seven times hotter they prayed to God to deliver them, but - and this is the point this story makes - they vowed that, even if God did not deliver them, they would still submit to the fire rather than betray God by worshipping an image.
And isn’t this the proviso that is, or perhaps should be, part of all prayer? Not my will but thine be done? We can pray desperately for the outcome we want, but always knowing - or fearing - that it might not be what God intends. Or is it the fundamental doubt that always haunts some of us? The plea of St Thomas to the risen Jesus: ‘Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief’. As for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, God did indeed give them what they hoped for.
Margaret Duggan, St Stephen’s Church (Retired Journalist - Church Times)
14 Nebuchadnezzar said to them, ‘Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods and you do not worship the golden statue that I have set up? 15 Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble to fall down and worship the statue that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?’ 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defence to you in this matter. 17 If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.’ 19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace to be heated up seven times more than was customary, 20 and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. 24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up quickly. He said to his counsellors, ‘Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?’ They answered the king, ‘True, O king.’ 25 He replied, ‘But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god.’28 Nebuchadnezzar said, ‘Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed the king’s command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.
Reflection
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, together with Daniel, were young Jewish aristocrats who Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon in the fifth century BC, had selected as ‘young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for any kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace’. They were to be taught the language and literature of the Babylonians and to be fed with food and wine from the king’s table. But, to the dismay of the court official responsible for them, led by Daniel their leader, they refused the royal diet but compromised on one of vegetables and water, and as early vegans they finished up looking better nourished than those on royal food. They became favourites of the King, who found them wiser than all the magicians and enchanters of his kingdom, even though they remained loyal to to the God of Israel. Daniel in particular excelled at interpreting the King’s dreams as God’s prophesies, and the King put him in charge of all the wise men in Babylon. Meanwhile Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were made administrators.
Nebuchadnezzar (who seems to have had much in common with Donald Trump) erected a ninety feet high gold image - the Bible does not say if it was of himself - and summoned all the governors, advisers, treasurers and judges to come and worship it every time they heard the sound of music, otherwise they would be thrown into the furnace. But the faithful young Israelites, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, refused to worship the image, and the King was furious. They stood up to him, resolving to face the fire rather than betray their God.
As the furnace was made seven times hotter they prayed to God to deliver them, but - and this is the point this story makes - they vowed that, even if God did not deliver them, they would still submit to the fire rather than betray God by worshipping an image.
And isn’t this the proviso that is, or perhaps should be, part of all prayer? Not my will but thine be done? We can pray desperately for the outcome we want, but always knowing - or fearing - that it might not be what God intends. Or is it the fundamental doubt that always haunts some of us? The plea of St Thomas to the risen Jesus: ‘Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief’. As for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, God did indeed give them what they hoped for.
Margaret Duggan, St Stephen’s Church (Retired Journalist - Church Times)
Tuesday, 23 March - Numbers 21.4–9
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.’ 6 Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ 9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
Reflections
Jenni writes - This is a stern God speaking. Not much sympathy or compassion for the hardships of those on pilgrimage to a better life. It is hard not to look on this passage other than in an allegorical way, given these grim times. Perhaps not a bronze serpent on a pole but the cross of Christ: bitten or not by the virus, we can look to the Cross for relief. Apologise and by the grace of God we move on. Forgive and we will be forgiven. The wrath of the stern God will not last if we keep the faith.
David writes - Cairo to Jerusalem is about 450 miles. Walking 6 miles a day at four miles an hour would take 3 weeks, instead it took 40 years. The Exodus is not only a fascinating, at times horrifying, historical story, it is also an allegory of human life. It tells of dissension, yearning, disobedience, carnage and repentance. And yet at the end of the epic there is the Promised Land; though curiously Moses is only able to view it from Mount Pisgah. One must not presume!
Jenni Hopkins, Church Warden and David Batchelor, St Barnabas Pimlico
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.’ 6 Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.’ 9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
Reflections
Jenni writes - This is a stern God speaking. Not much sympathy or compassion for the hardships of those on pilgrimage to a better life. It is hard not to look on this passage other than in an allegorical way, given these grim times. Perhaps not a bronze serpent on a pole but the cross of Christ: bitten or not by the virus, we can look to the Cross for relief. Apologise and by the grace of God we move on. Forgive and we will be forgiven. The wrath of the stern God will not last if we keep the faith.
David writes - Cairo to Jerusalem is about 450 miles. Walking 6 miles a day at four miles an hour would take 3 weeks, instead it took 40 years. The Exodus is not only a fascinating, at times horrifying, historical story, it is also an allegory of human life. It tells of dissension, yearning, disobedience, carnage and repentance. And yet at the end of the epic there is the Promised Land; though curiously Moses is only able to view it from Mount Pisgah. One must not presume!
Jenni Hopkins, Church Warden and David Batchelor, St Barnabas Pimlico
Artwork: Artemisia Gentileschi, Susanna and the
Elders , 1610
Monday, 22 March - Susannah 1–9, 15–17, 19–30, 33–62 (CHT)
1 There was a man living in Babylon whose name was Joakim. 2 He married the daughter of Hilkiah, named Susanna, a very beautiful woman and one who feared the Lord. 3 Her parents were righteous, and had trained their daughter according to the law of Moses. 4 Joakim was very rich, and had a fine garden adjoining his house; the Jews used to come to him because he was the most honoured of them all. 5 That year two elders from the people were appointed as judges. Concerning them the Lord had said: ‘Wickedness came forth from Babylon, from elders who were judges, who were supposed to govern the people.’ 6 These men were frequently at Joakim’s house, and all who had a case to be tried came to them there. 7 When the people left at noon, Susanna would go into her husband’s garden to walk. 8 Every day the two elders used to see her, going in and walking about, and they began to lust for her. 9 They suppressed their consciences and turned away their eyes from looking to Heaven or remembering their duty to administer justice.
15 Once, while they were watching for an opportune day, she went in as before with only two maids, and wished to bathe in the garden, for it was a hot day. 16 No one was there except the two elders, who had hidden themselves and were watching her. 17 She said to her maids, ‘Bring me olive oil and ointments, and shut the garden doors so that I can bathe.’
19 When the maids had gone out, the two elders got up and ran to her. 20 They said, ‘Look, the garden doors are shut, and no one can see us. We are burning with desire for you; so give your consent, and lie with us. 21 If you refuse, we will testify against you that a young man was with you, and this was why you sent your maids away.’ 22 Susanna groaned and said, ‘I am completely trapped. For if I do this, it will mean death for me; if I do not, I cannot escape your hands. 23 I choose not to do it; I will fall into your hands, rather than sin in the sight of the Lord.’
24 Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and the two elders shouted against her. 25 And one of them ran and opened the garden doors. 26 When the people in the house heard the shouting in the garden, they rushed in at the side door to see what had happened to her. 27 And when the elders told their story, the servants felt very much ashamed, for nothing like this had ever been said about Susanna.
28 The next day, when the people gathered at the house of her husband Joakim, the two elders came, full of their wicked plot to have Susanna put to death. In the presence of the people they said, 29 ‘Send for Susanna daughter of Hilkiah, the wife of Joakim.’ 30 So they sent for her. And she came with her parents, her children, and all her relatives. 33 Those who were with her and all who saw her were weeping.
34 Then the two elders stood up before the people and laid their hands on her head. 35 Through her tears she looked up towards Heaven, for her heart trusted in the Lord. 36 The elders said, ‘While we were walking in the garden alone, this woman came in with two maids, shut the garden doors, and dismissed the maids. 37 Then a young man, who was hiding there, came to her and lay with her. 38 We were in a corner of the garden, and when we saw this wickedness we ran to them. 39 Although we saw them embracing, we could not hold the man, because he was stronger than we are, and he opened the doors and got away. 40 We did, however, seize this woman and asked who the young man was, 41 but she would not tell us. These things we testify.’
Because they were elders of the people and judges, the assembly believed them and condemned her to death.
42 Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and said, ‘O eternal God, you know what is secret and are aware of all things before they come to be; 43 you know that these men have given false evidence against me. And now I am to die, though I have done none of the wicked things that they have charged against me!’
44 The Lord heard her cry. 45 Just as she was being led off to execution, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young lad named Daniel, 46 and he shouted with a loud voice, ‘I want no part in shedding this woman’s blood!’
47 All the people turned to him and asked, ‘What is this you are saying?’ 48 Taking his stand among them he said, ‘Are you such fools, O Israelites, as to condemn a daughter of Israel without examination and without learning the facts? 49 Return to court, for these men have given false evidence against her.’
50 So all the people hurried back. And the rest of the elders said to him, ‘Come, sit among us and inform us, for God has given you the standing of an elder.’ 51 Daniel said to them, ‘Separate them far from each other, and I will examine them.’
52 When they were separated from each other, he summoned one of them and said to him, ‘You old relic of wicked days, your sins have now come home, which you have committed in the past, 53 pronouncing unjust judgements, condemning the innocent and acquitting the guilty, though the Lord said, “You shall not put an innocent and righteous person to death.” 54 Now then, if you really saw this woman, tell me this: Under what tree did you see them being intimate with each other?’ He answered, ‘Under a mastic tree.’55 And Daniel said, ‘Very well! This lie has cost you your head, for the angel of God has received the sentence from God and will immediately cut you in two.’
56 Then, putting him to one side, he ordered them to bring the other. And he said to him, ‘You offspring of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has beguiled you and lust has perverted your heart. 57 This is how you have been treating the daughters of Israel, and they were intimate with you through fear; but a daughter of Judah would not tolerate your wickedness. 58 Now then, tell me: Under what tree did you catch them being intimate with each other?’ He answered, ‘Under an evergreen oak.’59 Daniel said to him, ‘Very well! This lie has cost you also your head, for the angel of God is waiting with his sword to split you in two, so as to destroy you both.’
60 Then the whole assembly raised a great shout and blessed God, who saves those who hope in him. 61 And they took action against the two elders, because out of their own mouths Daniel had convicted them of bearing false witness; they did to them as they had wickedly planned to do to their neighbour. 62 Acting in accordance with the law of Moses, they put them to death. Thus innocent blood was spared that day.
Reflection
The story of Susannah and the Elders is full of intrigue and steeped in symbolism and patriarchy. Found in the Apocrypha, it is Daniel Chapter 13 in the Catholic Bible, and also in the Eastern Orthodox Bible. It is likely from the First Century BCE; the Book of Daniel is from the Second Century BCE. It takes place during the Babylonian Exile.
Susannah, meaning lily, is pure and innocent; she has a good upbringing and married a wealthy man. In a show of abuse of power when Susannah refuses to lie with them, two men accuse her of adultery with a young man and are believed. We see how justice can be twisted when two people give false witness against a third person declared guilty. Susannah appealed to her God, and he heard her cry. A young Daniel comes forward; he has become a legendary hero. He follows the proper stringency in examining witnesses as laid out in tractate Sanhedrin, in the Mishnah and G'marah. There is vindication, with these two lecherous men not identifying the tree that they say they saw Susannah under in the act of adultery, an act punishable by death. For baring false witness, the two elders were put to death. Thus innocent blood was spared that day.
This story has been depicted in art by famous painters such as Rembrandt, Rubens, and Tintoretto. But an Italian Baroque woman artist, Artemisia Gentileschi, outshines them all with her painting of Susannah and the Elders when she was just 17 years old. Gentileschi’s Susannah notices the men and looks distressed. As depicted by male artists, Susannah does not notice the men watch her and is portrayed in a voluptuous, sensual way as if encouraging the men. Gentileschi herself had a similar fate to that of Susannah – she had to endure unwanted sexual advances and was raped by her art teacher. Throughout the ages, the continuing scourge of violence against women must end once and for all. Let us follow the example of the Province of Southern Africa, that our Lenten focus should be on gender-based violence and its elimination.
Yvonne O’Neal, Holy Trinity (Warden of Vestry, Activist & Diocesan Leader)
1 There was a man living in Babylon whose name was Joakim. 2 He married the daughter of Hilkiah, named Susanna, a very beautiful woman and one who feared the Lord. 3 Her parents were righteous, and had trained their daughter according to the law of Moses. 4 Joakim was very rich, and had a fine garden adjoining his house; the Jews used to come to him because he was the most honoured of them all. 5 That year two elders from the people were appointed as judges. Concerning them the Lord had said: ‘Wickedness came forth from Babylon, from elders who were judges, who were supposed to govern the people.’ 6 These men were frequently at Joakim’s house, and all who had a case to be tried came to them there. 7 When the people left at noon, Susanna would go into her husband’s garden to walk. 8 Every day the two elders used to see her, going in and walking about, and they began to lust for her. 9 They suppressed their consciences and turned away their eyes from looking to Heaven or remembering their duty to administer justice.
15 Once, while they were watching for an opportune day, she went in as before with only two maids, and wished to bathe in the garden, for it was a hot day. 16 No one was there except the two elders, who had hidden themselves and were watching her. 17 She said to her maids, ‘Bring me olive oil and ointments, and shut the garden doors so that I can bathe.’
19 When the maids had gone out, the two elders got up and ran to her. 20 They said, ‘Look, the garden doors are shut, and no one can see us. We are burning with desire for you; so give your consent, and lie with us. 21 If you refuse, we will testify against you that a young man was with you, and this was why you sent your maids away.’ 22 Susanna groaned and said, ‘I am completely trapped. For if I do this, it will mean death for me; if I do not, I cannot escape your hands. 23 I choose not to do it; I will fall into your hands, rather than sin in the sight of the Lord.’
24 Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and the two elders shouted against her. 25 And one of them ran and opened the garden doors. 26 When the people in the house heard the shouting in the garden, they rushed in at the side door to see what had happened to her. 27 And when the elders told their story, the servants felt very much ashamed, for nothing like this had ever been said about Susanna.
28 The next day, when the people gathered at the house of her husband Joakim, the two elders came, full of their wicked plot to have Susanna put to death. In the presence of the people they said, 29 ‘Send for Susanna daughter of Hilkiah, the wife of Joakim.’ 30 So they sent for her. And she came with her parents, her children, and all her relatives. 33 Those who were with her and all who saw her were weeping.
34 Then the two elders stood up before the people and laid their hands on her head. 35 Through her tears she looked up towards Heaven, for her heart trusted in the Lord. 36 The elders said, ‘While we were walking in the garden alone, this woman came in with two maids, shut the garden doors, and dismissed the maids. 37 Then a young man, who was hiding there, came to her and lay with her. 38 We were in a corner of the garden, and when we saw this wickedness we ran to them. 39 Although we saw them embracing, we could not hold the man, because he was stronger than we are, and he opened the doors and got away. 40 We did, however, seize this woman and asked who the young man was, 41 but she would not tell us. These things we testify.’
Because they were elders of the people and judges, the assembly believed them and condemned her to death.
42 Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and said, ‘O eternal God, you know what is secret and are aware of all things before they come to be; 43 you know that these men have given false evidence against me. And now I am to die, though I have done none of the wicked things that they have charged against me!’
44 The Lord heard her cry. 45 Just as she was being led off to execution, God stirred up the holy spirit of a young lad named Daniel, 46 and he shouted with a loud voice, ‘I want no part in shedding this woman’s blood!’
47 All the people turned to him and asked, ‘What is this you are saying?’ 48 Taking his stand among them he said, ‘Are you such fools, O Israelites, as to condemn a daughter of Israel without examination and without learning the facts? 49 Return to court, for these men have given false evidence against her.’
50 So all the people hurried back. And the rest of the elders said to him, ‘Come, sit among us and inform us, for God has given you the standing of an elder.’ 51 Daniel said to them, ‘Separate them far from each other, and I will examine them.’
52 When they were separated from each other, he summoned one of them and said to him, ‘You old relic of wicked days, your sins have now come home, which you have committed in the past, 53 pronouncing unjust judgements, condemning the innocent and acquitting the guilty, though the Lord said, “You shall not put an innocent and righteous person to death.” 54 Now then, if you really saw this woman, tell me this: Under what tree did you see them being intimate with each other?’ He answered, ‘Under a mastic tree.’55 And Daniel said, ‘Very well! This lie has cost you your head, for the angel of God has received the sentence from God and will immediately cut you in two.’
56 Then, putting him to one side, he ordered them to bring the other. And he said to him, ‘You offspring of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has beguiled you and lust has perverted your heart. 57 This is how you have been treating the daughters of Israel, and they were intimate with you through fear; but a daughter of Judah would not tolerate your wickedness. 58 Now then, tell me: Under what tree did you catch them being intimate with each other?’ He answered, ‘Under an evergreen oak.’59 Daniel said to him, ‘Very well! This lie has cost you also your head, for the angel of God is waiting with his sword to split you in two, so as to destroy you both.’
60 Then the whole assembly raised a great shout and blessed God, who saves those who hope in him. 61 And they took action against the two elders, because out of their own mouths Daniel had convicted them of bearing false witness; they did to them as they had wickedly planned to do to their neighbour. 62 Acting in accordance with the law of Moses, they put them to death. Thus innocent blood was spared that day.
Reflection
The story of Susannah and the Elders is full of intrigue and steeped in symbolism and patriarchy. Found in the Apocrypha, it is Daniel Chapter 13 in the Catholic Bible, and also in the Eastern Orthodox Bible. It is likely from the First Century BCE; the Book of Daniel is from the Second Century BCE. It takes place during the Babylonian Exile.
Susannah, meaning lily, is pure and innocent; she has a good upbringing and married a wealthy man. In a show of abuse of power when Susannah refuses to lie with them, two men accuse her of adultery with a young man and are believed. We see how justice can be twisted when two people give false witness against a third person declared guilty. Susannah appealed to her God, and he heard her cry. A young Daniel comes forward; he has become a legendary hero. He follows the proper stringency in examining witnesses as laid out in tractate Sanhedrin, in the Mishnah and G'marah. There is vindication, with these two lecherous men not identifying the tree that they say they saw Susannah under in the act of adultery, an act punishable by death. For baring false witness, the two elders were put to death. Thus innocent blood was spared that day.
This story has been depicted in art by famous painters such as Rembrandt, Rubens, and Tintoretto. But an Italian Baroque woman artist, Artemisia Gentileschi, outshines them all with her painting of Susannah and the Elders when she was just 17 years old. Gentileschi’s Susannah notices the men and looks distressed. As depicted by male artists, Susannah does not notice the men watch her and is portrayed in a voluptuous, sensual way as if encouraging the men. Gentileschi herself had a similar fate to that of Susannah – she had to endure unwanted sexual advances and was raped by her art teacher. Throughout the ages, the continuing scourge of violence against women must end once and for all. Let us follow the example of the Province of Southern Africa, that our Lenten focus should be on gender-based violence and its elimination.
Yvonne O’Neal, Holy Trinity (Warden of Vestry, Activist & Diocesan Leader)
Church of Light by Tadao Ando: © https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Light
Friday, 19 March (Joseph of Nazareth) - 2 Samuel 7.4–16
4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: 5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. 7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’ 8 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; 9 and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 15 But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.
Reflection
What kind of world do you want to build?
King David wanted to build a permanent home for the ark of God, one as splendid as his own new palace. But God reveals to the prophet Nathan that rather than David building a house for God, God will build David a house - a dynasty - that will reign for ever.
In my working life I am fortunate to encounter architects who are great visionaries. We know when we walk in to a glorious building because we can feel it. These spaces are always more than the sum of their parts - more than what is seen.
How often, like David, do we jump to conclusions about the world we want to build, based on what we see from the windows of our own palaces?
How much more glorious the world can be if we allow God to broaden our perspective.
Phillip Dawson, St Stephen’s Church (Ordinand at St Augustine’s College)
4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: 5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. 7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’ 8 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; 9 and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 15 But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.
Reflection
What kind of world do you want to build?
King David wanted to build a permanent home for the ark of God, one as splendid as his own new palace. But God reveals to the prophet Nathan that rather than David building a house for God, God will build David a house - a dynasty - that will reign for ever.
In my working life I am fortunate to encounter architects who are great visionaries. We know when we walk in to a glorious building because we can feel it. These spaces are always more than the sum of their parts - more than what is seen.
How often, like David, do we jump to conclusions about the world we want to build, based on what we see from the windows of our own palaces?
How much more glorious the world can be if we allow God to broaden our perspective.
Phillip Dawson, St Stephen’s Church (Ordinand at St Augustine’s College)
Thursday, 18 March (Cyril of Jerusalem, 386) - Exodus 32.7–14
7 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; 8they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” ’ 9The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.’
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, ‘O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12Why should the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth”? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.” ’ 14And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Reflection
“You shall have no other Gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them”. But the Israelites became impatient. Instead of worshipping the God who brought them out of Egypt, the people turned to a god of their own making, that of a golden calf. We see a human reaction from God – someone who displays wrath and threatens revenge. Moses argues with God reminding him of his own promises, particularly to remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel to whom he promised multiple descendants and the land for them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
God’s response to Moses tells us much about being faithful. He chose not to destroy his people because of his covenant faithfulness. It also shows us how the free will of humans which can cause suffering and grief may also challenge God himself at times and despite his initial reaction displaying anger, God chooses to embrace the relationship with his people and to love them unconditionally.
It demonstrates that regardless of the thanklessness of God’s people, God is willing to forgive and to give them another chance. Let us draw comfort from the times when we fail God and know that his mercy and compassion are always there for us, and let it lead us closer to God.
Fiona Andrews, St Saviour’s, Pimlico and St Barnabas, Pimlico
7 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; 8they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” ’ 9The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.’
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, ‘O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12Why should the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth”? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.” ’ 14And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Reflection
“You shall have no other Gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them”. But the Israelites became impatient. Instead of worshipping the God who brought them out of Egypt, the people turned to a god of their own making, that of a golden calf. We see a human reaction from God – someone who displays wrath and threatens revenge. Moses argues with God reminding him of his own promises, particularly to remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel to whom he promised multiple descendants and the land for them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
God’s response to Moses tells us much about being faithful. He chose not to destroy his people because of his covenant faithfulness. It also shows us how the free will of humans which can cause suffering and grief may also challenge God himself at times and despite his initial reaction displaying anger, God chooses to embrace the relationship with his people and to love them unconditionally.
It demonstrates that regardless of the thanklessness of God’s people, God is willing to forgive and to give them another chance. Let us draw comfort from the times when we fail God and know that his mercy and compassion are always there for us, and let it lead us closer to God.
Fiona Andrews, St Saviour’s, Pimlico and St Barnabas, Pimlico
Wednesday, 17 March (Patrick of Ireland, c.460) - Deuteronomy 32.1–9
Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching drop like the rain,
my speech condense like the dew;
like gentle rain on grass,
like showers on new growth.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
ascribe greatness to our God!
4 The Rock, his work is perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God, without deceit,
just and upright is he;
5 yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him,
a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Do you thus repay the Lord,
O foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your father, who created you,
who made you and established you?
7 Remember the days of old,
consider the years long past;
ask your father, and he will inform you;
your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High apportioned the nations,
when he divided humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the gods;
9 the Lord’s own portion was his people,
Jacob his allotted share.
Reflection
This passage opens with an eloquent plea for help. Help speaking and teaching in a way that will be welcomed, listened to, inspirational and transformational for those who hear it. Exactly what I pray for every time I teach a yoga class. The above exaltation of God is also deeply familiar from church and from the mat--yoga is prayer done with one’s body. I’d like to say that to me the “degenerate children” mentioned are the students who dare to talk during class…but that’s not the case! We all err, forgetting about God, following our own desires and worse. But we return to the Lord just the way we return to our yoga practice: rejoicing that both are always there for us, that we belong, allowing ourselves to be filled with hope and astonished at the gifts we receive.
Liz Poole, Holy Trinity (Usher Coordinator, HTNC Board member, Yoga Teacher, advertising consultant)
Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching drop like the rain,
my speech condense like the dew;
like gentle rain on grass,
like showers on new growth.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
ascribe greatness to our God!
4 The Rock, his work is perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God, without deceit,
just and upright is he;
5 yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him,
a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Do you thus repay the Lord,
O foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your father, who created you,
who made you and established you?
7 Remember the days of old,
consider the years long past;
ask your father, and he will inform you;
your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High apportioned the nations,
when he divided humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the gods;
9 the Lord’s own portion was his people,
Jacob his allotted share.
Reflection
This passage opens with an eloquent plea for help. Help speaking and teaching in a way that will be welcomed, listened to, inspirational and transformational for those who hear it. Exactly what I pray for every time I teach a yoga class. The above exaltation of God is also deeply familiar from church and from the mat--yoga is prayer done with one’s body. I’d like to say that to me the “degenerate children” mentioned are the students who dare to talk during class…but that’s not the case! We all err, forgetting about God, following our own desires and worse. But we return to the Lord just the way we return to our yoga practice: rejoicing that both are always there for us, that we belong, allowing ourselves to be filled with hope and astonished at the gifts we receive.
Liz Poole, Holy Trinity (Usher Coordinator, HTNC Board member, Yoga Teacher, advertising consultant)
Tuesday, 16 March - Ezekiel 47.1–9, 12
Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple; there, water was flowing from below the threshold of the temple towards the east (for the temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 2 Then he brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me round on the outside to the outer gate that faces towards the east; and the water was coming out on the south side. 3 Going on eastwards with a cord in his hand, the man measured one thousand cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was ankle-deep. 4 Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water; and it was knee-deep. Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water; and it was up to the waist. 5 Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be crossed. 6 He said to me, ‘Mortal, have you seen this?’ Then he led me back along the bank of the river. 7 As I came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on one side and on the other. 8 He said to me, ‘This water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh. 9 Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes. 12 On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.’
Reflection
As we read it, we interpret the river to be a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. Flowing from the temple: something that is easier to walk with, rather than try to cross and walk away from.
At this juncture, it could represent our own Christian faith and the way faith manifests in our lives. We feel supported in our journey, with Christ moving beside us, sometimes even pushing us along and keeping us with his flow. Things have happened in our lives that are too unusual to explain: for instance meeting each other; or finding St Stephen’s on moving to the parish. For many reasons, we find life easier to walk with Christ rather than not.
In the daily decisions we make we try to have a Christian attitude and outlook. As the river of our lives continues, those around us hopefully benefit. Equally, as they bear fruit around us, we can be stimulated and nourished by them, rather than our lives stagnate. As the river flows with us, around us, and between us, hopefully a betterment of life can evolve in us and around everyone we whom we interact.
Rob & Nick Davies, St Stephen’s Church (Congregants & Local Doctors)
Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple; there, water was flowing from below the threshold of the temple towards the east (for the temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 2 Then he brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me round on the outside to the outer gate that faces towards the east; and the water was coming out on the south side. 3 Going on eastwards with a cord in his hand, the man measured one thousand cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was ankle-deep. 4 Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water; and it was knee-deep. Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water; and it was up to the waist. 5 Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be crossed. 6 He said to me, ‘Mortal, have you seen this?’ Then he led me back along the bank of the river. 7 As I came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on one side and on the other. 8 He said to me, ‘This water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh. 9 Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes. 12 On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.’
Reflection
As we read it, we interpret the river to be a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. Flowing from the temple: something that is easier to walk with, rather than try to cross and walk away from.
At this juncture, it could represent our own Christian faith and the way faith manifests in our lives. We feel supported in our journey, with Christ moving beside us, sometimes even pushing us along and keeping us with his flow. Things have happened in our lives that are too unusual to explain: for instance meeting each other; or finding St Stephen’s on moving to the parish. For many reasons, we find life easier to walk with Christ rather than not.
In the daily decisions we make we try to have a Christian attitude and outlook. As the river of our lives continues, those around us hopefully benefit. Equally, as they bear fruit around us, we can be stimulated and nourished by them, rather than our lives stagnate. As the river flows with us, around us, and between us, hopefully a betterment of life can evolve in us and around everyone we whom we interact.
Rob & Nick Davies, St Stephen’s Church (Congregants & Local Doctors)
Monday, 15 March - Isaiah 65.17–21
17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.
20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Reflection
This reading makes me think of the pandemic, because it is talking about new beginnings and making the world a better place and right now we are stuck in a dismal time but we are all hoping for a better future. We are all feeling that we are a bit stuck in lockdown and it is hard not playing with our friends and going to school the way we usually do. But this reading promises that God is going to hear our worries and help us out when we are feeling down. It is hard to remember a time when we didn’t need to wear our masks and stay at home, but soon we will have a new start. Just like in the reading, we will get to eat the fruit of all of our hard work during lock down, which means we will get back to normal. I (Alfie) am looking forward to playing football with my friends again, and I (Imogen) can’t wait to hug my friends again and see my grandparents as well.
Alfie and Imogen Bates – aged 9 years, St Barnabas Pimlico
17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.
20 No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Reflection
This reading makes me think of the pandemic, because it is talking about new beginnings and making the world a better place and right now we are stuck in a dismal time but we are all hoping for a better future. We are all feeling that we are a bit stuck in lockdown and it is hard not playing with our friends and going to school the way we usually do. But this reading promises that God is going to hear our worries and help us out when we are feeling down. It is hard to remember a time when we didn’t need to wear our masks and stay at home, but soon we will have a new start. Just like in the reading, we will get to eat the fruit of all of our hard work during lock down, which means we will get back to normal. I (Alfie) am looking forward to playing football with my friends again, and I (Imogen) can’t wait to hug my friends again and see my grandparents as well.
Alfie and Imogen Bates – aged 9 years, St Barnabas Pimlico
Friday, 12 March - Hosea 14
Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
2 Take words with you
and return to the Lord;
say to him,
‘Take away all guilt;
accept that which is good,
and we will offer
the fruit of our lips.
3 Assyria shall not save us;
we will not ride upon horses;
we will say no more, “Our God”,
to the work of our hands.
In you the orphan finds mercy.’
4 I will heal their disloyalty;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel;
he shall blossom like the lily,
he shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon.
6 His shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be like the olive tree,
and his fragrance like that of Lebanon.
7 They shall again live beneath my shadow,
they shall flourish as a garden;
they shall blossom like the vine,
their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?
It is I who answer and look after you.
I am like an evergreen cypress;
your faithfulness comes from me.
9 Those who are wise understand these things;
those who are discerning know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right,
and the upright walk in them,
but transgressors stumble in them.
Reflection
The photograph formed part of our art installation - the stones have been painted by Year 5 & 6 children, depicting images of "growth as we emerge from this pandemic" with each child illustrating on a natural river stone, an image of what they are most looking forward to doing once we have our freedom back.
The images are:
Dove - Peace and Freedom
Beach Scene - visiting friends and relatives abroad
Bowling Pins - going out - to indoor venues
Park Scene - Playing with friends - no restrictions on numbers
Heart - Love and care for others
Grandparent - Giving and Receiving a Hug!
These are all linked to the verse from the Old Testament passage we were given: “They shall again live beneath my shadow, they shall flourish as a garden; they shall blossom like the vine"
Yvonne Barnett, St Stephen’s Church (Head Teacher at Burdett Coutts Primary School)
Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
2 Take words with you
and return to the Lord;
say to him,
‘Take away all guilt;
accept that which is good,
and we will offer
the fruit of our lips.
3 Assyria shall not save us;
we will not ride upon horses;
we will say no more, “Our God”,
to the work of our hands.
In you the orphan finds mercy.’
4 I will heal their disloyalty;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel;
he shall blossom like the lily,
he shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon.
6 His shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be like the olive tree,
and his fragrance like that of Lebanon.
7 They shall again live beneath my shadow,
they shall flourish as a garden;
they shall blossom like the vine,
their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?
It is I who answer and look after you.
I am like an evergreen cypress;
your faithfulness comes from me.
9 Those who are wise understand these things;
those who are discerning know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right,
and the upright walk in them,
but transgressors stumble in them.
Reflection
The photograph formed part of our art installation - the stones have been painted by Year 5 & 6 children, depicting images of "growth as we emerge from this pandemic" with each child illustrating on a natural river stone, an image of what they are most looking forward to doing once we have our freedom back.
The images are:
Dove - Peace and Freedom
Beach Scene - visiting friends and relatives abroad
Bowling Pins - going out - to indoor venues
Park Scene - Playing with friends - no restrictions on numbers
Heart - Love and care for others
Grandparent - Giving and Receiving a Hug!
These are all linked to the verse from the Old Testament passage we were given: “They shall again live beneath my shadow, they shall flourish as a garden; they shall blossom like the vine"
Yvonne Barnett, St Stephen’s Church (Head Teacher at Burdett Coutts Primary School)
Thursday, 11 March - Jeremiah 7.23–28
23 But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.’ 24 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels, and looked backwards rather than forwards. 25 From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; 26 yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did. 27 So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 You shall say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.
Reflection
This is a reading that really speaks to me as a teenager. I feel it is a call to make sure your voice is heard – to speak your truth loudly so that you cannot be denied. I liked how Jeremiah talked about being persistent and how people need to keep trying to be heard. It is hard to keep speaking up when people aren’t listening and it can be easy to feel cast aside and not listened to, which is hurtful. As a teenager, I know the feeling of having to shout to feel heard. I think it is important for everyone to make sure that they share their ideas and that they also take the time to listen to other people’s ideas. The world is built of new thoughts – we need to be open to them. Our minds are like parachutes – they work best when they are open.
Nell Bates – aged 13, St Barnabas Pimlico
23 But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.’ 24 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels, and looked backwards rather than forwards. 25 From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; 26 yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did. 27 So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 You shall say to them: This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.
Reflection
This is a reading that really speaks to me as a teenager. I feel it is a call to make sure your voice is heard – to speak your truth loudly so that you cannot be denied. I liked how Jeremiah talked about being persistent and how people need to keep trying to be heard. It is hard to keep speaking up when people aren’t listening and it can be easy to feel cast aside and not listened to, which is hurtful. As a teenager, I know the feeling of having to shout to feel heard. I think it is important for everyone to make sure that they share their ideas and that they also take the time to listen to other people’s ideas. The world is built of new thoughts – we need to be open to them. Our minds are like parachutes – they work best when they are open.
Nell Bates – aged 13, St Barnabas Pimlico
Wednesday, 10 March - Deuteronomy 4.1, 5–9
So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
5 See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 6You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’ 7For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? 8And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? 9 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.
Reflection
Moses called the people to hear and obey the rules of conduct that God had given them to observe. Successful conquest and full enjoyment of life in the Land was based on submission to God’s law. Moses keeps reminding them that their eternal life and their well-being on this earth is dependent upon total obedience to the LORD. The statutes and the judgements are for all of the people. Moses will teach them before they enter the Promised Land, because he will not go into the Promised Land with them. They must go in and possess the land of promise. They must obey God.
The one thing that set Israel aside, was the fact that God had entrusted them with His law.
Israel’s obedience to God’s law would provide a testimony to the world that God was near to His people and that His laws were righteous. One purpose of the law was to make Israel morally and spiritually unique among all the nations and, therefore draw those nations to the true and living God. They were from their beginnings to be a witness nation. The law and statutes God had given Israel was not just to please God, but to cause Israel to live uprightly.
Deuteronomy stresses the responsibility of parents to pass on their experiences with God and the knowledge they have gained from Him to their children. This law is not just for this generation, but for all the generations to come. They must walk in the knowledge God had entrusted them with. They were to keep themselves holy before the LORD. We are all warned to gird up our mind. Sin begins in the heart and mind of men. Sin is the transgression of the law. Sin brings death. They must live by the law that God gave them. We Christians, must walk in our salvation that we have received. It is important to stay in the Christian walk, after you receive your salvation.
The Book of Deuteronomy restates God’s love for Israel, the history of His provision for them, the benefits or blessings of walking in covenant with God, and the consequences for disobeying the stipulations of the covenant. Christians today live in a New Covenant relationship with God, based on the blood of Christ, a covenant written on the heart rather than on tables of stone.
Lydia Colón, Holy Trinity (Member of Vestry and HTNC Board)
So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
5 See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 6You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’ 7For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? 8And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? 9 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.
Reflection
Moses called the people to hear and obey the rules of conduct that God had given them to observe. Successful conquest and full enjoyment of life in the Land was based on submission to God’s law. Moses keeps reminding them that their eternal life and their well-being on this earth is dependent upon total obedience to the LORD. The statutes and the judgements are for all of the people. Moses will teach them before they enter the Promised Land, because he will not go into the Promised Land with them. They must go in and possess the land of promise. They must obey God.
The one thing that set Israel aside, was the fact that God had entrusted them with His law.
Israel’s obedience to God’s law would provide a testimony to the world that God was near to His people and that His laws were righteous. One purpose of the law was to make Israel morally and spiritually unique among all the nations and, therefore draw those nations to the true and living God. They were from their beginnings to be a witness nation. The law and statutes God had given Israel was not just to please God, but to cause Israel to live uprightly.
Deuteronomy stresses the responsibility of parents to pass on their experiences with God and the knowledge they have gained from Him to their children. This law is not just for this generation, but for all the generations to come. They must walk in the knowledge God had entrusted them with. They were to keep themselves holy before the LORD. We are all warned to gird up our mind. Sin begins in the heart and mind of men. Sin is the transgression of the law. Sin brings death. They must live by the law that God gave them. We Christians, must walk in our salvation that we have received. It is important to stay in the Christian walk, after you receive your salvation.
The Book of Deuteronomy restates God’s love for Israel, the history of His provision for them, the benefits or blessings of walking in covenant with God, and the consequences for disobeying the stipulations of the covenant. Christians today live in a New Covenant relationship with God, based on the blood of Christ, a covenant written on the heart rather than on tables of stone.
Lydia Colón, Holy Trinity (Member of Vestry and HTNC Board)
Tuesday, 9 March - Song of the Three 2, 11–20
2 Then Azariah stood still in the fire and prayed aloud:
11 For your name’s sake do not give us up for ever, and do not annul your covenant.
12 Do not withdraw your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham your beloved and for the sake of your servant Isaac and Israel your holy one,
13 to whom you promised to multiply their descendants like the stars of heaven and like the sand on the shore of the sea.
14 For we, O Lord, have become fewer than any other nation, and are brought low this day in all the world because of our sins.
15 In our day we have no ruler, or prophet, or leader, no burnt-offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, no place to make an offering before you and to find mercy.
16 Yet with a contrite heart and a humble spirit may we be accepted,
17 as though it were with burnt-offerings of rams and bulls, or with tens of thousands of fat lambs; such may our sacrifice be in your sight today, and may we unreservedly follow you, for no shame will come to those who trust in you.
18 And now with all our heart we follow you; we fear you and seek your presence.
19 Do not put us to shame, but deal with us in your patience and in your abundant mercy.
20 Deliver us in accordance with your marvellous works, and bring glory to your name, O Lord.
Reflection
As for all for whom making live music is the raison d’etre, last year was on the face of it disastrous for the Civil Service Choir. We cancelled our Holy Week concert with only three weeks’ notice and our main summer and autumn concerts followed soon after. In all we would have had over 20 performances large and small in 2020. All gone.
However, out of these despairing times I have sustained a hope that we shall come out the other side and that it is worth persevering. Instead of seeing the year as a disaster, in some respects it was remarkably successful. We have produced four virtual recordings so far and within guidelines a few of us met for real and sang in St Stephen’s for All Souls and for our own carol service. The carol service was viewed by 770 people and overall our virtual outputs have been viewed over 16,000 times. Operating virtually is not sustainable and the choir and I are desperate to return to real activities as soon as these are practicable and safe but undoubtedly there will be longer term benefits from having to adapt, not least in widening participation and our audiences through technology.
Pleni sunt caeli from Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass sung by members of the Virtual Civil Service Choir: https://youtu.be/vRa_xs45dZM with brief footage from the choir’s live performance in 2019.
Stephen Hall, St Stephen’s Church (Music Director of the Civil Service Choir)
2 Then Azariah stood still in the fire and prayed aloud:
11 For your name’s sake do not give us up for ever, and do not annul your covenant.
12 Do not withdraw your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham your beloved and for the sake of your servant Isaac and Israel your holy one,
13 to whom you promised to multiply their descendants like the stars of heaven and like the sand on the shore of the sea.
14 For we, O Lord, have become fewer than any other nation, and are brought low this day in all the world because of our sins.
15 In our day we have no ruler, or prophet, or leader, no burnt-offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, no place to make an offering before you and to find mercy.
16 Yet with a contrite heart and a humble spirit may we be accepted,
17 as though it were with burnt-offerings of rams and bulls, or with tens of thousands of fat lambs; such may our sacrifice be in your sight today, and may we unreservedly follow you, for no shame will come to those who trust in you.
18 And now with all our heart we follow you; we fear you and seek your presence.
19 Do not put us to shame, but deal with us in your patience and in your abundant mercy.
20 Deliver us in accordance with your marvellous works, and bring glory to your name, O Lord.
Reflection
As for all for whom making live music is the raison d’etre, last year was on the face of it disastrous for the Civil Service Choir. We cancelled our Holy Week concert with only three weeks’ notice and our main summer and autumn concerts followed soon after. In all we would have had over 20 performances large and small in 2020. All gone.
However, out of these despairing times I have sustained a hope that we shall come out the other side and that it is worth persevering. Instead of seeing the year as a disaster, in some respects it was remarkably successful. We have produced four virtual recordings so far and within guidelines a few of us met for real and sang in St Stephen’s for All Souls and for our own carol service. The carol service was viewed by 770 people and overall our virtual outputs have been viewed over 16,000 times. Operating virtually is not sustainable and the choir and I are desperate to return to real activities as soon as these are practicable and safe but undoubtedly there will be longer term benefits from having to adapt, not least in widening participation and our audiences through technology.
Pleni sunt caeli from Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass sung by members of the Virtual Civil Service Choir: https://youtu.be/vRa_xs45dZM with brief footage from the choir’s live performance in 2019.
Stephen Hall, St Stephen’s Church (Music Director of the Civil Service Choir)
Monday, 8 March (Edward King, 1910; Felix, 647; Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, 1929) - Ezekiel 34.11–16
11 For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12 As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
Reflection
During the Babylonian Exile, the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of God searching for his scattered sheep, the strays, the lost, the injured, to bring them back to their homeland which will once again flow with abundance.
Ezekiel’s words lull us into a blissful tranquility of joy and happiness. Yet, the tone changes when we read that God will feed the fat and the strong [think wicked] “with justice.” God’s love demands righteousness and justice from his creatures. As I read this, I thought “Yikes, which group will I be in, the good or the fat?” (I am a bit overweight!)
Unsure, I read further, finding my answer in Ezekiel 33:10-20. Here God “takes no pleasure in in the death of the wicked, but that…[they] turn from their wickedness and live.” Turning from “sin and [doing] what is lawful and right…none of the sins…shall be remembered against them.” Our God is both just and merciful.
Lent in the time of pandemic, as we remain at home with our lives slowed, gives us extra space for the self-examination and reflection to which we are called during this Holy Season. Time to assess our deeds, good and bad, and to turn to our Creator with repentance and joy, knowing that he is indeed a good shepherd, “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love…forgiving iniquity.” (Exodus 34:6) So after many months when true gratitude has often been hard to muster, let us relish this extra time and this solitude. Let us be grateful!
Helen Goodkin, Holy Trinity (Member & Bible Teacher)
11 For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12 As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
Reflection
During the Babylonian Exile, the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of God searching for his scattered sheep, the strays, the lost, the injured, to bring them back to their homeland which will once again flow with abundance.
Ezekiel’s words lull us into a blissful tranquility of joy and happiness. Yet, the tone changes when we read that God will feed the fat and the strong [think wicked] “with justice.” God’s love demands righteousness and justice from his creatures. As I read this, I thought “Yikes, which group will I be in, the good or the fat?” (I am a bit overweight!)
Unsure, I read further, finding my answer in Ezekiel 33:10-20. Here God “takes no pleasure in in the death of the wicked, but that…[they] turn from their wickedness and live.” Turning from “sin and [doing] what is lawful and right…none of the sins…shall be remembered against them.” Our God is both just and merciful.
Lent in the time of pandemic, as we remain at home with our lives slowed, gives us extra space for the self-examination and reflection to which we are called during this Holy Season. Time to assess our deeds, good and bad, and to turn to our Creator with repentance and joy, knowing that he is indeed a good shepherd, “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love…forgiving iniquity.” (Exodus 34:6) So after many months when true gratitude has often been hard to muster, let us relish this extra time and this solitude. Let us be grateful!
Helen Goodkin, Holy Trinity (Member & Bible Teacher)
Friday, 5 March 2021 - Genesis 37.3–4, 12–13, 17–28
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.
12 Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, ‘Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.’ He answered, ‘Here I am.’ 17 The man said, ‘They have gone away, for I heard them say, “Let us go to Dothan.” ’ So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. 18 They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. 19 They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.’ 21 But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, ‘Let us not take his life.’ 22 Reuben said to them, ‘Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him’—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; 24 and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. 25 Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, ‘What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.’ And his brothers agreed. 28 When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
Reflection
Joseph’s brothers resented him for being loved by his father, Jacob. Whether it was the gift of a robe, or something else that finally put the brothers over the edge, everything came to a head at a place named for its two wells, where Joseph found his brothers tending sheep. In what proceeded, I’m struck by the utter contempt that Joseph’s brothers seemed to have for him, even as they talked themselves out of killing him in favor of selling him for a profit. When Reuben spoke up in dissent against the injustice he was witnessing, no one else had the courage to say, “Hey, this is wrong, and it needs to stop.” I wonder how that might connect to what happens (or doesn’t happen) today when we notice someone else speaking out against injustice. May we listen for the Reubens around us and add our voices to theirs.
Paul Chernick, Holy Trinity (Secretary of Vestry)
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.
12 Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, ‘Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.’ He answered, ‘Here I am.’ 17 The man said, ‘They have gone away, for I heard them say, “Let us go to Dothan.” ’ So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. 18 They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. 19 They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.’ 21 But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, ‘Let us not take his life.’ 22 Reuben said to them, ‘Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him’—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; 24 and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. 25 Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, ‘What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.’ And his brothers agreed. 28 When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
Reflection
Joseph’s brothers resented him for being loved by his father, Jacob. Whether it was the gift of a robe, or something else that finally put the brothers over the edge, everything came to a head at a place named for its two wells, where Joseph found his brothers tending sheep. In what proceeded, I’m struck by the utter contempt that Joseph’s brothers seemed to have for him, even as they talked themselves out of killing him in favor of selling him for a profit. When Reuben spoke up in dissent against the injustice he was witnessing, no one else had the courage to say, “Hey, this is wrong, and it needs to stop.” I wonder how that might connect to what happens (or doesn’t happen) today when we notice someone else speaking out against injustice. May we listen for the Reubens around us and add our voices to theirs.
Paul Chernick, Holy Trinity (Secretary of Vestry)
Thursday, 4 March - Jeremiah 17.5–10
5 Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord.
6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
7 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
8 They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.
9 The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it?
10 I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.
Reflection
What is the passion that ignites your heart, or you treasure the most, your loved one, job promotion, or renovating a beautiful home that provides comfort, status and security? What if that you held most dear was taken away? Working in the mental health field, I have seen a lot of breakdowns. For the homeless nation of Israel, God tested their faith in their attachment to the land. Abraham trusted God in leaving his homeland, but disobedience added 40 years travelling time to the Promised Land and repeated exile into foreign lands. We need to embrace the love of God in Christ Jesus, as the treasure beyond which nothing can compare and to put our trust in Him. Trust involves risk, uncertainty and the way of the cross is not an easy path, but we have the blessed assurance of God’s abiding presence throughout all adversity. Picture yourself as a Poplar Tree with branches raised to heaven, giving praise and glory to God in all seasons. Poplar trees are known for their strong roots anchoring your heart, soul and being firmly in Christ, as you draw from the stream of Living Waters of the Holy Spirit that flows into the River of Life.
Christina Loughran, St Barnabas Pimlico
5 Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord.
6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
7 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
8 They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.
9 The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it?
10 I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.
Reflection
What is the passion that ignites your heart, or you treasure the most, your loved one, job promotion, or renovating a beautiful home that provides comfort, status and security? What if that you held most dear was taken away? Working in the mental health field, I have seen a lot of breakdowns. For the homeless nation of Israel, God tested their faith in their attachment to the land. Abraham trusted God in leaving his homeland, but disobedience added 40 years travelling time to the Promised Land and repeated exile into foreign lands. We need to embrace the love of God in Christ Jesus, as the treasure beyond which nothing can compare and to put our trust in Him. Trust involves risk, uncertainty and the way of the cross is not an easy path, but we have the blessed assurance of God’s abiding presence throughout all adversity. Picture yourself as a Poplar Tree with branches raised to heaven, giving praise and glory to God in all seasons. Poplar trees are known for their strong roots anchoring your heart, soul and being firmly in Christ, as you draw from the stream of Living Waters of the Holy Spirit that flows into the River of Life.
Christina Loughran, St Barnabas Pimlico
Tuesday, 2 March (Chad, 672) - Ecclesiasticus 3.17–24
17 My child, perform your tasks with humility;
then you will be loved by those whom God accepts.
18 The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself;
so you will find favour in the sight of the Lord.
20 For great is the might of the Lord;
but by the humble he is glorified.
21 Neither seek what is too difficult for you,
nor investigate what is beyond your power.
22 Reflect upon what you have been commanded,
for what is hidden is not your concern.
23 Do not meddle in matters that are beyond you,
for more than you can understand has been shown to you.
24 For their conceit has led many astray,
and wrong opinion has impaired their judgement.
Reflection
The Collect - Chad, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary
Almighty God,
from the first fruits of the English nation who turned to Christ,
you called your servant Chad
to be an evangelist and bishop of his own people:
give us grace so to follow his peaceable nature,
humble spirit and prayerful life,
that we may truly commend to others
the faith which we ourselves profess;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Extracts from A Seventeenth-century Nun's Prayer
Lord, Thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and will some day be old. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion. Release me from the craving to straighten out everybody's affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody; helpful not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all, but Thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.
Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point...
I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken...
Deborah Cassidi asked people from all walks of life to choose a favourite prayer or write one for her compilation 'Favourite Prayers' (1998). I thought, when I read her prayer, how much I would have enjoyed meeting this nun. She came to mind as I reflected on St Chad's life and on the verses written by Ben Sira. With thanks to Richard & Elaine for the book, and for their endless kindness and encouragement.
Julia Redfern, member of the St Barnabas Bible Study group
17 My child, perform your tasks with humility;
then you will be loved by those whom God accepts.
18 The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself;
so you will find favour in the sight of the Lord.
20 For great is the might of the Lord;
but by the humble he is glorified.
21 Neither seek what is too difficult for you,
nor investigate what is beyond your power.
22 Reflect upon what you have been commanded,
for what is hidden is not your concern.
23 Do not meddle in matters that are beyond you,
for more than you can understand has been shown to you.
24 For their conceit has led many astray,
and wrong opinion has impaired their judgement.
Reflection
The Collect - Chad, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary
Almighty God,
from the first fruits of the English nation who turned to Christ,
you called your servant Chad
to be an evangelist and bishop of his own people:
give us grace so to follow his peaceable nature,
humble spirit and prayerful life,
that we may truly commend to others
the faith which we ourselves profess;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Extracts from A Seventeenth-century Nun's Prayer
Lord, Thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing older and will some day be old. Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion. Release me from the craving to straighten out everybody's affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody; helpful not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all, but Thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.
Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point...
I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken...
Deborah Cassidi asked people from all walks of life to choose a favourite prayer or write one for her compilation 'Favourite Prayers' (1998). I thought, when I read her prayer, how much I would have enjoyed meeting this nun. She came to mind as I reflected on St Chad's life and on the verses written by Ben Sira. With thanks to Richard & Elaine for the book, and for their endless kindness and encouragement.
Julia Redfern, member of the St Barnabas Bible Study group
Monday, 1 March (David of Wales, c.601) - Ecclesiasticus 15.1–6
Whoever fears the Lord will do this,
and whoever holds to the law will obtain wisdom.
2 She will come to meet him like a mother,
and like a young bride she will welcome him.
3 She will feed him with the bread of learning,
and give him the water of wisdom to drink.
4 He will lean on her and not fall,
and he will rely on her and not be put to shame.
5 She will exalt him above his neighbours,
and will open his mouth in the midst of the assembly.
6 He will find gladness and a crown of rejoicing,
and will inherit an everlasting name.
Reflection
The restrictions and difficulties that the world continues to endure in these times of the pandemic have inevitably produced a global re-assessment of life’s fundamental values and needs. On 1st March we commemorate St David, underneath whom the ground was miraculously raised whilst he preached to a gathered crowd, 1500 years ago. This is a dramatic image for a man who led a famously ascetic and basic life and whose spiritual legacy can be summed up with his simple instructions “be joyful, keep the faith and do the little things”. David, it seems, would have coped better than most in a lockdown, focusing as he did on the straightforward and unfussy sides of life. In the 12th century he was canonised and recognised as the patron saint of his country of birth, Wales. Today’s lesson, from Ecclesiasticus, resonates enormously with David’s life and legacy: a (literally) exalted orator, but a humble man whose words were filled with wisdom and learning. We have lots to learn from him all these years later – especially at the moment - and, if you are not familiar with his story, it is well worth looking up.
My short poem, written for today, reflects certain associations with Wales (a certain well-known hymn, for instance…) but aims to remind us of David’s life and his legacy within this context.
Be here dragons breathing fire, stalking this ancient land
Where the anthracite that powered the globe was hewn by Celtic hand
Where once in a bay with tiger’s blood the waters raged and rushed
Before the mines and steelworks calmed and the hills and valleys were hushed?
This country blessed with native saint, who rouses, uplifts and inspires
And animates its famous bards and moves its manifold choirs
A humble figure, exalted for neighbours, gathered for his oration
On a hilltop summoned by God above supplying elevation
David, Dewi, Dyfed-born, from tempest wild and turmoil
Whose words and works and way of life suffused his people’s soil
Miracle-worker, preacher of wisdom with simple observance of love
Symbolised and immortalised by the Holy Spirit’s dove
With bread of heaven and bread of learning, nourish and restore
As your people pray with hope and yearning, to feed them evermore
Your life your nation takes to its heart, inspired and touched it sings
To strive for joy, to keep the faith and do the little things
Dr Kevin Walsh, St Stephen’s Church (Teacher at Westminster School)
Whoever fears the Lord will do this,
and whoever holds to the law will obtain wisdom.
2 She will come to meet him like a mother,
and like a young bride she will welcome him.
3 She will feed him with the bread of learning,
and give him the water of wisdom to drink.
4 He will lean on her and not fall,
and he will rely on her and not be put to shame.
5 She will exalt him above his neighbours,
and will open his mouth in the midst of the assembly.
6 He will find gladness and a crown of rejoicing,
and will inherit an everlasting name.
Reflection
The restrictions and difficulties that the world continues to endure in these times of the pandemic have inevitably produced a global re-assessment of life’s fundamental values and needs. On 1st March we commemorate St David, underneath whom the ground was miraculously raised whilst he preached to a gathered crowd, 1500 years ago. This is a dramatic image for a man who led a famously ascetic and basic life and whose spiritual legacy can be summed up with his simple instructions “be joyful, keep the faith and do the little things”. David, it seems, would have coped better than most in a lockdown, focusing as he did on the straightforward and unfussy sides of life. In the 12th century he was canonised and recognised as the patron saint of his country of birth, Wales. Today’s lesson, from Ecclesiasticus, resonates enormously with David’s life and legacy: a (literally) exalted orator, but a humble man whose words were filled with wisdom and learning. We have lots to learn from him all these years later – especially at the moment - and, if you are not familiar with his story, it is well worth looking up.
My short poem, written for today, reflects certain associations with Wales (a certain well-known hymn, for instance…) but aims to remind us of David’s life and his legacy within this context.
Be here dragons breathing fire, stalking this ancient land
Where the anthracite that powered the globe was hewn by Celtic hand
Where once in a bay with tiger’s blood the waters raged and rushed
Before the mines and steelworks calmed and the hills and valleys were hushed?
This country blessed with native saint, who rouses, uplifts and inspires
And animates its famous bards and moves its manifold choirs
A humble figure, exalted for neighbours, gathered for his oration
On a hilltop summoned by God above supplying elevation
David, Dewi, Dyfed-born, from tempest wild and turmoil
Whose words and works and way of life suffused his people’s soil
Miracle-worker, preacher of wisdom with simple observance of love
Symbolised and immortalised by the Holy Spirit’s dove
With bread of heaven and bread of learning, nourish and restore
As your people pray with hope and yearning, to feed them evermore
Your life your nation takes to its heart, inspired and touched it sings
To strive for joy, to keep the faith and do the little things
Dr Kevin Walsh, St Stephen’s Church (Teacher at Westminster School)
Friday, 26 February - Ezekiel 18.21–28
21 But if the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and do what is lawful and right, they shall surely live; they shall not die. 22None of the transgressions that they have committed shall be remembered against them; for the righteousness that they have done they shall live. 23Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live? 24But when the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity and do the same abominable things that the wicked do, shall they live? None of the righteous deeds that they have done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which they are guilty and the sin they have committed, they shall die. 25 Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? 26When the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed they shall die. 27Again, when the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life. 28Because they considered and turned away from all the transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they shall not die.
Reflection
Oh, Sentinel Ezekiel, who ate the honeyed scroll,
We read of your days of siege and suffering.
We read of our shame, our disgrace,
How you grasped the burning coals from the wheelwork
so stone hearts might turn to flesh.
We read how you dug through our walls in warning,
how wickedness had warped our way to the Lord!
We give thanks to you, Prophet Ezekiel, for sharing your visions.
We give thanks to God for offering us,
the remnant of the House of Israel,
another undeserved chance through your book.
Yes, God is merciful. God is eternally faithful to our covenant,
even when we were not.
Brother Ezekiel, you are saying that we are individuals
in the eyes of God; you are saying that the sins of our parents,
our tribes, our nations are not our burden forever
and we may lay them down. Thanks be to God for this.
We may still be granted life eternal if we can obey.
Even the worst of sinners who repent are rewarded like all the other saints.
Dear Ezekiel, you told us that we musn't judge the fairness of God's compassion.
This we can do. This I can do on my own.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor your ways, my ways, says the Lord.”
(Isaiah 55:8)
Later new lessons will expand on your essential truth.
Prodigal sons, hired workers—in another time, another place! Amen.
Ashley Malmfeldt Shepherd, Holy Trinity (Artist & Volunteer)
21 But if the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and do what is lawful and right, they shall surely live; they shall not die. 22None of the transgressions that they have committed shall be remembered against them; for the righteousness that they have done they shall live. 23Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live? 24But when the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity and do the same abominable things that the wicked do, shall they live? None of the righteous deeds that they have done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which they are guilty and the sin they have committed, they shall die. 25 Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? 26When the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity, they shall die for it; for the iniquity that they have committed they shall die. 27Again, when the wicked turn away from the wickedness they have committed and do what is lawful and right, they shall save their life. 28Because they considered and turned away from all the transgressions that they had committed, they shall surely live; they shall not die.
Reflection
Oh, Sentinel Ezekiel, who ate the honeyed scroll,
We read of your days of siege and suffering.
We read of our shame, our disgrace,
How you grasped the burning coals from the wheelwork
so stone hearts might turn to flesh.
We read how you dug through our walls in warning,
how wickedness had warped our way to the Lord!
We give thanks to you, Prophet Ezekiel, for sharing your visions.
We give thanks to God for offering us,
the remnant of the House of Israel,
another undeserved chance through your book.
Yes, God is merciful. God is eternally faithful to our covenant,
even when we were not.
Brother Ezekiel, you are saying that we are individuals
in the eyes of God; you are saying that the sins of our parents,
our tribes, our nations are not our burden forever
and we may lay them down. Thanks be to God for this.
We may still be granted life eternal if we can obey.
Even the worst of sinners who repent are rewarded like all the other saints.
Dear Ezekiel, you told us that we musn't judge the fairness of God's compassion.
This we can do. This I can do on my own.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor your ways, my ways, says the Lord.”
(Isaiah 55:8)
Later new lessons will expand on your essential truth.
Prodigal sons, hired workers—in another time, another place! Amen.
Ashley Malmfeldt Shepherd, Holy Trinity (Artist & Volunteer)
Thursday, 25 February - Esther 14.1–5, 12–14
Then Queen Esther, seized with deadly anxiety, fled to the Lord. 2 She took off her splendid apparel and put on the garments of distress and mourning, and instead of costly perfumes she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she utterly humbled her body; every part that she loved to adorn she covered with her tangled hair. 3 She prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and said: ‘O my Lord, you only are our king; help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, 4 for my danger is in my hand. 5 Ever since I was born I have heard in the tribe of my family that you, O Lord, took Israel out of all the nations, and our ancestors from among all their forebears, for an everlasting inheritance, and that you did for them all that you promised. 12 Remember, O Lord; make yourself known in this time of our affliction, and give me courage, O King of the gods and Master of all dominion! 13 Put eloquent speech in my mouth before the lion, and turn his heart to hate the man who is fighting against us, so that there may be an end of him and those who agree with him. 14 But save us by your hand, and help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, O Lord.
Reflection
There are two versions of the book of Esther, with and without Greek additions which were discovered later. This passage is from one of the additions. The better-known (pre-addition) original version is famous as the only book in the Bible that does not mention God. Esther, a Jewish orphan (whose religion is not openly known) is chosen from a large harem to be Queen, and goes on to risk her life in petitioning the King to prevent a slaughter of the Jewish people in Persia. Her strategy was successful and she saved her people.
One young woman
Little known
Much mystery
Chosen
A product or a victim of her time?
Astute with a wisdom and
courage beyond her years
And eloquence to match
She has learned
When to speak
When not to speak
And how to speak
For maximum effect.
A brain as sharp
As her body is beautiful
A woman without authority
Who yet understands
Her power
Her position
Her potential.
A woman who embraces destiny
With faith in what is right
And so she uses
Not just her gifts
But her circumstances
To save her people.
So she intercedes
Not knowing if she will succeed
Willing, if it must be
To lay down her life for others.
A woman
Little known
Yet familiar
Chosen
Resonant with one
We know
All
Too
Well.
We should know her better
For she may not speak of God,
But like that other,
She shows us God
With her life.
As we know History
So we should know
Her story:
Esther
Christa.
Rev Lindsay Meader, St Stephen’s Church (Chaplain to the Theatre Chaplaincy UK)
Then Queen Esther, seized with deadly anxiety, fled to the Lord. 2 She took off her splendid apparel and put on the garments of distress and mourning, and instead of costly perfumes she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she utterly humbled her body; every part that she loved to adorn she covered with her tangled hair. 3 She prayed to the Lord God of Israel, and said: ‘O my Lord, you only are our king; help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, 4 for my danger is in my hand. 5 Ever since I was born I have heard in the tribe of my family that you, O Lord, took Israel out of all the nations, and our ancestors from among all their forebears, for an everlasting inheritance, and that you did for them all that you promised. 12 Remember, O Lord; make yourself known in this time of our affliction, and give me courage, O King of the gods and Master of all dominion! 13 Put eloquent speech in my mouth before the lion, and turn his heart to hate the man who is fighting against us, so that there may be an end of him and those who agree with him. 14 But save us by your hand, and help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, O Lord.
Reflection
There are two versions of the book of Esther, with and without Greek additions which were discovered later. This passage is from one of the additions. The better-known (pre-addition) original version is famous as the only book in the Bible that does not mention God. Esther, a Jewish orphan (whose religion is not openly known) is chosen from a large harem to be Queen, and goes on to risk her life in petitioning the King to prevent a slaughter of the Jewish people in Persia. Her strategy was successful and she saved her people.
One young woman
Little known
Much mystery
Chosen
A product or a victim of her time?
Astute with a wisdom and
courage beyond her years
And eloquence to match
She has learned
When to speak
When not to speak
And how to speak
For maximum effect.
A brain as sharp
As her body is beautiful
A woman without authority
Who yet understands
Her power
Her position
Her potential.
A woman who embraces destiny
With faith in what is right
And so she uses
Not just her gifts
But her circumstances
To save her people.
So she intercedes
Not knowing if she will succeed
Willing, if it must be
To lay down her life for others.
A woman
Little known
Yet familiar
Chosen
Resonant with one
We know
All
Too
Well.
We should know her better
For she may not speak of God,
But like that other,
She shows us God
With her life.
As we know History
So we should know
Her story:
Esther
Christa.
Rev Lindsay Meader, St Stephen’s Church (Chaplain to the Theatre Chaplaincy UK)
Wednesday, 24 February - Jonah 3
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’ 3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8 Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’ 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
Reflection
Doom. Eat, drink & be merry? Run for the hills, every man for himself? Shoot or shame the messenger? Find a scapegoat! A loophole! A bribe! OR (Who knows!) maybe don’t quit before the miracle. Maybe as in Ninevah and 12-Step fellow-ships: Band together, in healthy guilt, busboy to king. Admit & amend our faults; clean up our acts & egos; lead from our hearts.
Like Jonah, (Ch 4), I don’t like changes; would rather be dead than embarrassed or wrong (a thinker can avoid error OR seek truth, per Wm. James). I’ve been given gifts, then looked for rewards. Toxic fear, shame and pride shrink God and turn me, clueless, to stone. Better to stay open. Work. Trust (don’t play) God. Not take myself so seriously. Listen to Johnny Mercer! Watch --stem to stern -- Inauguration 2021. Laugh at The Russians Are Coming! .. (1966). God’s infinite mercy moves, unstrained. Divine.
Virginia Lambert, Holy Trinity (Member & Community Volunteer)
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’ 3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. 8 Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’ 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
Reflection
Doom. Eat, drink & be merry? Run for the hills, every man for himself? Shoot or shame the messenger? Find a scapegoat! A loophole! A bribe! OR (Who knows!) maybe don’t quit before the miracle. Maybe as in Ninevah and 12-Step fellow-ships: Band together, in healthy guilt, busboy to king. Admit & amend our faults; clean up our acts & egos; lead from our hearts.
Like Jonah, (Ch 4), I don’t like changes; would rather be dead than embarrassed or wrong (a thinker can avoid error OR seek truth, per Wm. James). I’ve been given gifts, then looked for rewards. Toxic fear, shame and pride shrink God and turn me, clueless, to stone. Better to stay open. Work. Trust (don’t play) God. Not take myself so seriously. Listen to Johnny Mercer! Watch --stem to stern -- Inauguration 2021. Laugh at The Russians Are Coming! .. (1966). God’s infinite mercy moves, unstrained. Divine.
Virginia Lambert, Holy Trinity (Member & Community Volunteer)
Photo© JPH Poly(Carpic) Form I, 1989
Tuesday, 23 February (Polycarp of Smyrna, c.155) - Wisdom 5.15–20
15 But the righteous live for ever, and their reward is with the Lord; the Most High takes care of them.
16 Therefore they will receive a glorious crown and a beautiful diadem from the hand of the Lord, because with his right hand he will cover them, and with his arm he will shield them.
17 The Lord will take his zeal as his whole armour, and will arm all creation to repel his enemies;
18 he will put on righteousness as a breastplate, and wear impartial justice as a helmet;
19 he will take holiness as an invincible shield,
20 and sharpen stern wrath for a sword, and creation will join with him to fight against his frenzied foes.
Reflection
The definition of the word ‘polycarp’ is ‘fruitful’ or ‘rich in fruit’. This leap of thought took me back over 30 years to a period in my life where I was at art college and producing vast numbers of textile and organic sculptures – a series of which were called, ‘polycarp forms’ – growths emerging from the ground.
We are formed in the womb, grow, develop and are fruitful or fruit filled in myriad ways. Maybe we are shielded or shielding. We all wear armour of some kind or other. Every living thing has an outer layer, a protective covering, something that preserves the flesh hidden beneath. At times we will feel, or have felt, invincible. At other times we may have retreated, and sought additional protection or even hidden from the world. Hiding our true selves from others or even from ourselves, but never from God. For God always takes care, if we but allow him to enter beneath our outer shells.
John Pearson-Hicks, parish priest – St Barnabas Pimlico
15 But the righteous live for ever, and their reward is with the Lord; the Most High takes care of them.
16 Therefore they will receive a glorious crown and a beautiful diadem from the hand of the Lord, because with his right hand he will cover them, and with his arm he will shield them.
17 The Lord will take his zeal as his whole armour, and will arm all creation to repel his enemies;
18 he will put on righteousness as a breastplate, and wear impartial justice as a helmet;
19 he will take holiness as an invincible shield,
20 and sharpen stern wrath for a sword, and creation will join with him to fight against his frenzied foes.
Reflection
The definition of the word ‘polycarp’ is ‘fruitful’ or ‘rich in fruit’. This leap of thought took me back over 30 years to a period in my life where I was at art college and producing vast numbers of textile and organic sculptures – a series of which were called, ‘polycarp forms’ – growths emerging from the ground.
We are formed in the womb, grow, develop and are fruitful or fruit filled in myriad ways. Maybe we are shielded or shielding. We all wear armour of some kind or other. Every living thing has an outer layer, a protective covering, something that preserves the flesh hidden beneath. At times we will feel, or have felt, invincible. At other times we may have retreated, and sought additional protection or even hidden from the world. Hiding our true selves from others or even from ourselves, but never from God. For God always takes care, if we but allow him to enter beneath our outer shells.
John Pearson-Hicks, parish priest – St Barnabas Pimlico
Monday, 22 February - Leviticus 19.1–2, 11–18
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord. You shall not defraud your neighbour; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a labourer until morning. You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling-block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
You shall not render an unjust judgement; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbour. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbour: I am the Lord. You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbour, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.
Reflection
The law in scripture which is also found in Exodus 20 against lying, cheating, stealing, taking the name of the Lord in vain by swearing to false God’s, injustice, slandering other people, etc are rules that we are taught in our homes from infancy to adulthood. They are not only taught in religious homes but non religious and pagan homes ye, it is amazing how often we fail over and over again. In our relationships, workplaces and business, these virtues are not only taught but expected.
In giving these commands, God begins by saying “be holy for I the Lord your God am holy” ( Vs 1 & 2) He also follows each command by reminding us of who he is by saying “I am the Lord, perhaps also as a way to remind us that it is not Moses speaking but God. Have you ever wondered why though gave this command, many still think the only way through life is to do the things God says we should not do. Through the ages, children have always lied to their parents, workers cheat their employers, businessmen deceive their partners, while injustice stares at us in every sphere of life and we appear unable to do anything about it. As children of God we slander our fellow church members. Many of us would know of someone in a parish or diocese that this has happened to and as we have seen, it took the pandemic for us to show love to our neighbours by shopping and talking more as well as showing many other acts of kindness.
As we go through the lent period in this continuing pandemic, it is time to reflect again on God’s word to us and the purpose; these commands are to form and shape our lives. On our own, we are unable to keep these commands but our God who is holy, distinct and set apart is able to enable us keep these commands.
Prayer: Thank you that you remind us you are a holy God and you want us to be Holy. Please help us to be obedient to these laws so that through the lives we live, we will be a testimony to our God whose promise in Exodus 34 is I am the Lord God who is merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin -----“. Amen.
Comfort Fearon, St Stephen’s Church (PCC Member)
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord. You shall not defraud your neighbour; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a labourer until morning. You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling-block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
You shall not render an unjust judgement; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbour. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbour: I am the Lord. You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbour, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.
Reflection
The law in scripture which is also found in Exodus 20 against lying, cheating, stealing, taking the name of the Lord in vain by swearing to false God’s, injustice, slandering other people, etc are rules that we are taught in our homes from infancy to adulthood. They are not only taught in religious homes but non religious and pagan homes ye, it is amazing how often we fail over and over again. In our relationships, workplaces and business, these virtues are not only taught but expected.
In giving these commands, God begins by saying “be holy for I the Lord your God am holy” ( Vs 1 & 2) He also follows each command by reminding us of who he is by saying “I am the Lord, perhaps also as a way to remind us that it is not Moses speaking but God. Have you ever wondered why though gave this command, many still think the only way through life is to do the things God says we should not do. Through the ages, children have always lied to their parents, workers cheat their employers, businessmen deceive their partners, while injustice stares at us in every sphere of life and we appear unable to do anything about it. As children of God we slander our fellow church members. Many of us would know of someone in a parish or diocese that this has happened to and as we have seen, it took the pandemic for us to show love to our neighbours by shopping and talking more as well as showing many other acts of kindness.
As we go through the lent period in this continuing pandemic, it is time to reflect again on God’s word to us and the purpose; these commands are to form and shape our lives. On our own, we are unable to keep these commands but our God who is holy, distinct and set apart is able to enable us keep these commands.
Prayer: Thank you that you remind us you are a holy God and you want us to be Holy. Please help us to be obedient to these laws so that through the lives we live, we will be a testimony to our God whose promise in Exodus 34 is I am the Lord God who is merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin -----“. Amen.
Comfort Fearon, St Stephen’s Church (PCC Member)
Friday, 19 February -Isaiah 58.1–9a
Shout out, do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practised righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgements,
they delight to draw near to God.
3 ‘Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day,
and oppress all your workers.
4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 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?
7 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?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
Reflection
As I read this psalm, the first thing that jumped out at me were verses 6-8. These words could have been written today as these same injustices exist. As then there are those having to flee their country to seek refuge elsewhere for example.
To me Isaiah's fundamental message is that God is more concerned in the way we treat other people than in religious observances such as fasting. Within our parish there are rough sleepers, vulnerably housed, disadvantaged. All lives matter and through caring for each other, sharing our food with the hungry and looking after people who are homeless and hungry. God tells his people that if they do that, he would always be with them to protect them.
To conclude if the above were applied the difference it would make to all people’s lives.
Irene Wood, St Stephen’s Church (Volunteer at the Second Half Club)
Shout out, do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practised righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgements,
they delight to draw near to God.
3 ‘Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day,
and oppress all your workers.
4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 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?
7 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?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
Reflection
As I read this psalm, the first thing that jumped out at me were verses 6-8. These words could have been written today as these same injustices exist. As then there are those having to flee their country to seek refuge elsewhere for example.
To me Isaiah's fundamental message is that God is more concerned in the way we treat other people than in religious observances such as fasting. Within our parish there are rough sleepers, vulnerably housed, disadvantaged. All lives matter and through caring for each other, sharing our food with the hungry and looking after people who are homeless and hungry. God tells his people that if they do that, he would always be with them to protect them.
To conclude if the above were applied the difference it would make to all people’s lives.
Irene Wood, St Stephen’s Church (Volunteer at the Second Half Club)
Thursday, 18 February - Deuteronomy 30.15–end
15 See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Reflection
My immediate reaction to this reading was one of resistance. The message seemed to be “if you and your family want to things to go well for you in life, you have to obey this long list of rules.” We all know of people who follow the rules and who still struggle in life and people who don’t who do well. But after rereading this passage in context in an old KJV Bible, it clicked – the main message is the importance of loving God above other gods, not all the rules. It reminded me of advice my pastor in Maryland gave when I asked him whether it would be in keeping with Christian practice to accept an offer of a much better job – he said that it was fine for people to improve their standard of living as long as they don’t turn the pursuit of materials things into a god, but instead use good fortune as a means to follow in the ways of God.
Carol Haley, Holy Trinity (Retired Health Policy Administrator and Biologist)
15 See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Reflection
My immediate reaction to this reading was one of resistance. The message seemed to be “if you and your family want to things to go well for you in life, you have to obey this long list of rules.” We all know of people who follow the rules and who still struggle in life and people who don’t who do well. But after rereading this passage in context in an old KJV Bible, it clicked – the main message is the importance of loving God above other gods, not all the rules. It reminded me of advice my pastor in Maryland gave when I asked him whether it would be in keeping with Christian practice to accept an offer of a much better job – he said that it was fine for people to improve their standard of living as long as they don’t turn the pursuit of materials things into a god, but instead use good fortune as a means to follow in the ways of God.
Carol Haley, Holy Trinity (Retired Health Policy Administrator and Biologist)
Ash Wednesday 17 February- Isaiah 2.1–2,12–17
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near--
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful army comes;
their like has never been from of old,
nor will be again after them
in ages to come.
12 Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13 rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain-offering and a drink-offering
for the Lord, your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
16 gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged;
gather the children,
even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her canopy.
17 Between the vestibule and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.
Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord,
and do not make your heritage a mockery,
a byword among the nations.
Why should it be said among the peoples,
“Where is their God?” ’
Reflection
Should we be afraid? Should we be scared of God, scared of the day of darkness and gloom? Scared of the great and powerful army that should come? Is that what Lent is about – the fear of God provoking us into ever greater attempts to atone by denying ourselves, by giving up the things we enjoy in order to appease him? No. Lent is a season grounded in hope, that looks forward at all times to the events of Good Friday and of Easter. It is a season in which we set aside time to consider our relationship with God, and try to strengthen it. We may look at our lives and see how we have elevated things to the status of God, turning our faces towards those idols and away from him, and seek to redress that balance. We may spend time in our different ways saying sorry to God, asking for his forgiveness for the sins that separate us from Him and from each other, but we should do so out of love, not out of fear. For, as Isaiah tells us, the Lord our God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Isaiah’s call to all people, no matter where they are and what they are doing, to come and spend time in God’s presence is a call to all of us this Lent. On Ash Wednesday, we are traditionally signed with the sign of the cross on our foreheads – an expression of repentance for what we have done wrong, but also the sign of our certain hope that those sins will be forgiven by the Cross of Jesus Christ. ‘Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart.’ May you know the love of God, and the promise of his forgiveness, ever more clearly this Lent.
Rev. Helena Bickley-Percival, St Stephen’s, Curate
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near--
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful army comes;
their like has never been from of old,
nor will be again after them
in ages to come.
12 Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13 rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain-offering and a drink-offering
for the Lord, your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
16 gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged;
gather the children,
even infants at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room,
and the bride her canopy.
17 Between the vestibule and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.
Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord,
and do not make your heritage a mockery,
a byword among the nations.
Why should it be said among the peoples,
“Where is their God?” ’
Reflection
Should we be afraid? Should we be scared of God, scared of the day of darkness and gloom? Scared of the great and powerful army that should come? Is that what Lent is about – the fear of God provoking us into ever greater attempts to atone by denying ourselves, by giving up the things we enjoy in order to appease him? No. Lent is a season grounded in hope, that looks forward at all times to the events of Good Friday and of Easter. It is a season in which we set aside time to consider our relationship with God, and try to strengthen it. We may look at our lives and see how we have elevated things to the status of God, turning our faces towards those idols and away from him, and seek to redress that balance. We may spend time in our different ways saying sorry to God, asking for his forgiveness for the sins that separate us from Him and from each other, but we should do so out of love, not out of fear. For, as Isaiah tells us, the Lord our God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Isaiah’s call to all people, no matter where they are and what they are doing, to come and spend time in God’s presence is a call to all of us this Lent. On Ash Wednesday, we are traditionally signed with the sign of the cross on our foreheads – an expression of repentance for what we have done wrong, but also the sign of our certain hope that those sins will be forgiven by the Cross of Jesus Christ. ‘Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart.’ May you know the love of God, and the promise of his forgiveness, ever more clearly this Lent.
Rev. Helena Bickley-Percival, St Stephen’s, Curate
Tuesday 16th February
This year during Lent our Daily Devotion we shall be using the fourth edition of our Lent booklet. This year, in addition to our link parish team of St. Stephens, Westminster and Holy Trinity, Manhattan, we delighted to be joined by St. Stephen’s neighbouring church and friends from St Barnabas, Pimlico. We look for- ward to this expanded community of reflection and fellowship as we get to know one an- other, ourselves, and God, this season of Lent.
Some of us remember well those early days of the pandemic, when we first joined one another’s Zoom links or Facebook live streams in order to worship and pray together. We have urged each other on and grow stronger in faith and fellowship, thanks to the comfort- ing patters of Daily Prayer and worship on the Sabbath. There have been times when one city might be in lockdown, but we drew encouragement knowing that our sister parish elsewhere might still be open, or be open in new ways. We continue to learn from one an- other, to be strengthened, and to laugh. And then laugh some more.
Perhaps now, more than ever, is the time when we should be reading and looking at our Hebrew Scriptures, to reflect on what it might be saying to us in this peculiar time; maybe to even examine some of those awkward passages we would rather skip over or ignore. Please take time to create an appropriate space in your homes or work for prayer and re- flection, and carefully read through the piece of Old Testament Scripture set for the day - maybe even beyond. Take a few moments of silence before you read and pray the reflection offered to us by one of our community.
Today and in the coming, as you use this wonderful resource and booklet let us pray the Ash Wednesday Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may receive from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Please join us tonight on this Shrove Tuesday evening for our pancake and quiz to herald in Lent - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88555227753?pwd=NWMrMzFMTSsyc0psM0NoajVrZ0hSQT09
Revd Graham Buckle
This year during Lent our Daily Devotion we shall be using the fourth edition of our Lent booklet. This year, in addition to our link parish team of St. Stephens, Westminster and Holy Trinity, Manhattan, we delighted to be joined by St. Stephen’s neighbouring church and friends from St Barnabas, Pimlico. We look for- ward to this expanded community of reflection and fellowship as we get to know one an- other, ourselves, and God, this season of Lent.
Some of us remember well those early days of the pandemic, when we first joined one another’s Zoom links or Facebook live streams in order to worship and pray together. We have urged each other on and grow stronger in faith and fellowship, thanks to the comfort- ing patters of Daily Prayer and worship on the Sabbath. There have been times when one city might be in lockdown, but we drew encouragement knowing that our sister parish elsewhere might still be open, or be open in new ways. We continue to learn from one an- other, to be strengthened, and to laugh. And then laugh some more.
Perhaps now, more than ever, is the time when we should be reading and looking at our Hebrew Scriptures, to reflect on what it might be saying to us in this peculiar time; maybe to even examine some of those awkward passages we would rather skip over or ignore. Please take time to create an appropriate space in your homes or work for prayer and re- flection, and carefully read through the piece of Old Testament Scripture set for the day - maybe even beyond. Take a few moments of silence before you read and pray the reflection offered to us by one of our community.
Today and in the coming, as you use this wonderful resource and booklet let us pray the Ash Wednesday Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may receive from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Please join us tonight on this Shrove Tuesday evening for our pancake and quiz to herald in Lent - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88555227753?pwd=NWMrMzFMTSsyc0psM0NoajVrZ0hSQT09
Revd Graham Buckle
Image taken from BBC
Monday 15th February
I was so sorry to hear the untimely news of the death of Mary Wilson last Tuesday at age 76. Mary was an American singer, who gained worldwide recognition as a founding member of The Supremes, the most successful Motown act of the 1960s. The Supremes became the best-charting female group in U.S. chart history, well as one of the best-selling girl groups of all-time, with such well known hits as ‘Baby Love’ and ‘You Can't Hurry Love’.
As we remember such artists and give thanks to God for their life and talent, I imagine we are also reminded, not only of all those who have died this past difficult year, but also our own morality. I occasionally remind mourners at funerals I conduct that such deaths are a “timely reminder to us all that we must all prepare for this final step that each of us will take: A step into eternity. We don’t have a choice as to when, where or how we meet death. The only choice we have is the condition we meet death. We will take this step into eternity...we choose the path in which we travel. No one forces us, it’s our choice...”
A Commendatory Prayer
Into your hands, O merciful Saviour, we commend your servants we remember. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lambs of your own flock, sinners of your own redeeming. Receive them into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.
May their souls and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace and rise in Glory. Amen.
Revd Graham Buckle
I was so sorry to hear the untimely news of the death of Mary Wilson last Tuesday at age 76. Mary was an American singer, who gained worldwide recognition as a founding member of The Supremes, the most successful Motown act of the 1960s. The Supremes became the best-charting female group in U.S. chart history, well as one of the best-selling girl groups of all-time, with such well known hits as ‘Baby Love’ and ‘You Can't Hurry Love’.
As we remember such artists and give thanks to God for their life and talent, I imagine we are also reminded, not only of all those who have died this past difficult year, but also our own morality. I occasionally remind mourners at funerals I conduct that such deaths are a “timely reminder to us all that we must all prepare for this final step that each of us will take: A step into eternity. We don’t have a choice as to when, where or how we meet death. The only choice we have is the condition we meet death. We will take this step into eternity...we choose the path in which we travel. No one forces us, it’s our choice...”
A Commendatory Prayer
Into your hands, O merciful Saviour, we commend your servants we remember. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lambs of your own flock, sinners of your own redeeming. Receive them into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.
May their souls and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace and rise in Glory. Amen.
Revd Graham Buckle
Friday 12th February
Today we join our friends at Holy Trinity, New York to think about the importance of hospitality. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we are told 'do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it' (Hebrews 13:2). One of the great sadnesses of lockdown has been that we can't entertain people as we would like - St Stephen has always prided itself on its welcome and its hospitality, and we are looking forward to the time when we can once again welcome people into the church without reserve, with open arms and open hearts, and sit and eat together once more.
If you are missing the great St Stephen's hospitality, think about joining us for one of our Zoom social events. We have a virtual Pancake Party and quiz on the 16th February, and every Wednesday during Lent we will be having a supper and study evening. If you would like to join us for any of those, the links will be in our What's On page here. All are very welcome.
Today we join our friends at Holy Trinity, New York to think about the importance of hospitality. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we are told 'do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it' (Hebrews 13:2). One of the great sadnesses of lockdown has been that we can't entertain people as we would like - St Stephen has always prided itself on its welcome and its hospitality, and we are looking forward to the time when we can once again welcome people into the church without reserve, with open arms and open hearts, and sit and eat together once more.
If you are missing the great St Stephen's hospitality, think about joining us for one of our Zoom social events. We have a virtual Pancake Party and quiz on the 16th February, and every Wednesday during Lent we will be having a supper and study evening. If you would like to join us for any of those, the links will be in our What's On page here. All are very welcome.
Thursday 11th February
Chinese New Year 2021 falls tomorrow - Friday, February 12th, and celebrations will culminate with the Lantern Festival on February 26th
This year is the year of the Ox, which I read, is the second of all zodiac animals. According to one myth, the Jade Emperor said the order would be decided by the order in which they arrived to his party. The Ox was about to be the first to arrive, but Rat tricked Ox into giving him a ride. Then, just as they arrived, Rat jumped down and landed ahead of Ox. Thus, Ox became the second animal.
Tradition has it that Oxen are the hard workers in the background, intelligent and reliable, but never demanding praise.
Sadly, due to Coronavirus, this year will not see the celebrations that we usually see on the streets of London, particularly in Chinatown; usually hundreds of thousands of people descend on the West End to enjoy a colourful parade, free stage performances and traditional Chinese food, and to wish each other “Xin Nian Kuai Le” (Happy New Year in Mandarin) or “San Nin Faai Lok” (in Cantonese).
However, there are many ways in which we can join our Chinese sisters and brothers in celebrating this important festival. Celebrate the Year of the Ox in London, which is normally home to the biggest Chinese New Year celebrations outside Asia.
So, you can enjoy London's Chinese New Year
entertainment from home with an online celebration of past Chinese New Year festivities, alongside performances from emerging Chinese artists. For the latest updates on the day of the Chinese New Year London celebrations, follow the official #CNYLondon hashtag on social media do visit https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/event/4733685-chinese-new-year-in-london For more information.
So let us pray for our Chinese community in our parish, in our church and in our country:
Dear God, we thank you that in all cultures the New Year means a chance for a fresh start and a new beginning. We pray especially for our Chinese brothers and sisters as they celebrate Chinese New Year of the Oxen, that they will come into a deeper knowledge of You. Thank you for putting the hunger for better times ahead and the hope for renewal of goodness and health into every heart. This we ask through your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit as we say: 新年快乐
Revd Graham Buckle
Chinese New Year 2021 falls tomorrow - Friday, February 12th, and celebrations will culminate with the Lantern Festival on February 26th
This year is the year of the Ox, which I read, is the second of all zodiac animals. According to one myth, the Jade Emperor said the order would be decided by the order in which they arrived to his party. The Ox was about to be the first to arrive, but Rat tricked Ox into giving him a ride. Then, just as they arrived, Rat jumped down and landed ahead of Ox. Thus, Ox became the second animal.
Tradition has it that Oxen are the hard workers in the background, intelligent and reliable, but never demanding praise.
Sadly, due to Coronavirus, this year will not see the celebrations that we usually see on the streets of London, particularly in Chinatown; usually hundreds of thousands of people descend on the West End to enjoy a colourful parade, free stage performances and traditional Chinese food, and to wish each other “Xin Nian Kuai Le” (Happy New Year in Mandarin) or “San Nin Faai Lok” (in Cantonese).
However, there are many ways in which we can join our Chinese sisters and brothers in celebrating this important festival. Celebrate the Year of the Ox in London, which is normally home to the biggest Chinese New Year celebrations outside Asia.
So, you can enjoy London's Chinese New Year
entertainment from home with an online celebration of past Chinese New Year festivities, alongside performances from emerging Chinese artists. For the latest updates on the day of the Chinese New Year London celebrations, follow the official #CNYLondon hashtag on social media do visit https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/event/4733685-chinese-new-year-in-london For more information.
So let us pray for our Chinese community in our parish, in our church and in our country:
Dear God, we thank you that in all cultures the New Year means a chance for a fresh start and a new beginning. We pray especially for our Chinese brothers and sisters as they celebrate Chinese New Year of the Oxen, that they will come into a deeper knowledge of You. Thank you for putting the hunger for better times ahead and the hope for renewal of goodness and health into every heart. This we ask through your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit as we say: 新年快乐
Revd Graham Buckle
Wednesday 10th February
We don’t know much about Jesus as a child or a teenager. What we do know we get from the Gospel of Luke, where we hear the story of how Jesus gets left behind in Jerusalem at the age of twelve, only to be found by his parents in the Temple astonishing those who heard him with his wisdom. After they had gone home, we are told that Jesus “increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour” (Luke 2:52) – and that’s it until the beginning of his ministry!
It is perhaps this lack of information about this part of Jesus’s life that has led artists to try to fill in the gap – including this extraordinary painting by John Everett Millais. It was extremely controversial when he painted it in 1849, since it showed the Holy Family as just a “normal” family, doing normal things. There are no halos, no angels, and although there are many Christian symbol if you look closely (the blood on Jesus’s hand and foot appear to foreshadow the wounds of the crucifixion, and the dove on the ladder as a symbol of the Holy Spirit) it is not an overtly “religious” painting. Millais even based the background on a carpenter’s shop in Oxford Street! It completely defied peoples’ expectations of what the Holy Family looked like, and deeply unsettled them. Charles Dickens said that Jesus looked like a “wry-necked, blubbering red-headed boy in a bed-gown” – hardly the saviour of the world.
And yet, this is the saviour of the world. Christ became incarnate as a human child, capable of getting into an accident in his father’s workplace. He became incarnate not to be a remote, idealised figure, but to be one of us. I love Millais’ painting, because it reminds me of that sometimes-uncomfortable truth. In this time of preparation for Lent, I encourage you to spend some moments with this painting, and to reflect on the words that were its only caption at its unveiling: 'And one shall say unto him, What are those wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.' (Zech. 13:6)
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
We don’t know much about Jesus as a child or a teenager. What we do know we get from the Gospel of Luke, where we hear the story of how Jesus gets left behind in Jerusalem at the age of twelve, only to be found by his parents in the Temple astonishing those who heard him with his wisdom. After they had gone home, we are told that Jesus “increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour” (Luke 2:52) – and that’s it until the beginning of his ministry!
It is perhaps this lack of information about this part of Jesus’s life that has led artists to try to fill in the gap – including this extraordinary painting by John Everett Millais. It was extremely controversial when he painted it in 1849, since it showed the Holy Family as just a “normal” family, doing normal things. There are no halos, no angels, and although there are many Christian symbol if you look closely (the blood on Jesus’s hand and foot appear to foreshadow the wounds of the crucifixion, and the dove on the ladder as a symbol of the Holy Spirit) it is not an overtly “religious” painting. Millais even based the background on a carpenter’s shop in Oxford Street! It completely defied peoples’ expectations of what the Holy Family looked like, and deeply unsettled them. Charles Dickens said that Jesus looked like a “wry-necked, blubbering red-headed boy in a bed-gown” – hardly the saviour of the world.
And yet, this is the saviour of the world. Christ became incarnate as a human child, capable of getting into an accident in his father’s workplace. He became incarnate not to be a remote, idealised figure, but to be one of us. I love Millais’ painting, because it reminds me of that sometimes-uncomfortable truth. In this time of preparation for Lent, I encourage you to spend some moments with this painting, and to reflect on the words that were its only caption at its unveiling: 'And one shall say unto him, What are those wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.' (Zech. 13:6)
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Sir John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents, 1849-50, oil on canvas, 86.4 x 139.7 cm (Tate Britain, London)
Tuesday 9th February
Monday 6th February
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve…
Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me.
1 Cor 15. 3-5,8 (NRSV)
Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me.
1 Cor 15. 3-5,8 (NRSV)
I wonder what is the most important thing you have learned during this past year?
And what might be your main aim for today?
Perhaps, what might be the top priority in these uncertain months ahead?
Past, present and the future, we all need to occasionally sort out and take a look at self in relation to the world we are apart. Questions not just for ourselves, but also for our church - to examine, reflect and try to know what is really crucial in life.
Jesus’ followers were challenged to sort out their priorities in the light of his death and resurrection, a reality that turned their worlds upside down. Paul makes it very clear that Christ’s death and resurrection are fundamental; remove these and the good news ceases to be good or news or trustworthy.
The problem for us in today’s world is that we are bombarded by so many messages that this fundamental one can be lost among the general noise, fake news and cheap promises and restrictions, it's hard to know the ‘truth’. Why should Jesus Christ stand out amongst so many claims on our time, emotions and money? For Paul, the message makes sense because of experience - his encounter with Jesus Christ. Through this he knows he is called to follow and proclaim Jesus.
I suppose the final questions to ask is can that be our priority and experience, too? Can our world be turned upside down by a new age that will dawn upon us? I believe it can if we give our attention to that story handed on to us, as we meet Christ today in many different guises and allow his story become ours. Then, like Paul, we will know what is ‘of first importance’.
Perhaps for our ‘Devotion’ today we might ponder what is most important in our life…
Adapted from one of this month's Bible Reading Fellowship notes by Revd Terry Hinks
Revd Graham Buckle
And what might be your main aim for today?
Perhaps, what might be the top priority in these uncertain months ahead?
Past, present and the future, we all need to occasionally sort out and take a look at self in relation to the world we are apart. Questions not just for ourselves, but also for our church - to examine, reflect and try to know what is really crucial in life.
Jesus’ followers were challenged to sort out their priorities in the light of his death and resurrection, a reality that turned their worlds upside down. Paul makes it very clear that Christ’s death and resurrection are fundamental; remove these and the good news ceases to be good or news or trustworthy.
The problem for us in today’s world is that we are bombarded by so many messages that this fundamental one can be lost among the general noise, fake news and cheap promises and restrictions, it's hard to know the ‘truth’. Why should Jesus Christ stand out amongst so many claims on our time, emotions and money? For Paul, the message makes sense because of experience - his encounter with Jesus Christ. Through this he knows he is called to follow and proclaim Jesus.
I suppose the final questions to ask is can that be our priority and experience, too? Can our world be turned upside down by a new age that will dawn upon us? I believe it can if we give our attention to that story handed on to us, as we meet Christ today in many different guises and allow his story become ours. Then, like Paul, we will know what is ‘of first importance’.
Perhaps for our ‘Devotion’ today we might ponder what is most important in our life…
Adapted from one of this month's Bible Reading Fellowship notes by Revd Terry Hinks
Revd Graham Buckle
Friday 5th February
In Evening Prayer recently we’ve been reading through the whole of the Book of Genesis. Just last night we came to the story of the birth of Isaac – the child from whom the whole nation of Israel would be descended. When Isaac was conceived and born, both Abraham and Sarah were old, and it was thought that Sarah would never have any children. When the Lord promised Sarah that she would have a child, she laughed in disbelief, but then denied it because she was afraid. In today’s reading, however, when the child is born, Sarah laughs for joy! She says: ‘God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears it will laugh with me’ (Genesis 21:6).
Laughter is one of life’s great gifts. It is infectious, as Sarah knew, and it can even be medicinal. Medical studies have shown that laughter can reduce stress, help in both physical and mental rehabilitation, and even might lead to a longer life. There are even laughter clubs and laughter yoga to help people get a daily dose of humour – just as you might eat your five portions of fruit and veg! There is evidence in the Bible of laughter as a joyful response to God as well, not just with Sarah, but we are also told that God ‘will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy’ (Job 8:21).
At this time, when we might feel particularly in need of a pick-me-up, laughter and joy become even more important, especially when they feel far away. What makes you laugh with others? What makes you laugh with delight? Next time you find yourself giggling, give thanks to God for this gift of laughter, and may those who hear you laugh with you.
Dear Lord Jesus, there are so many sad and troublesome things to face in the world today, which too often cause our hearts to become weighed down with difficulties and doubts, but I pray that Your joy would fill my heart and strengthen my soul, and that times of joyful laughter would replace those seasons of weeping and hardship.
I pray that in Christ, I may be clothed in strength and dignity, wisdom and grace and that I may be enabled to laugh in the storms and not to fear the future, knowing that my times are in Your hands. You have promised to draw near to each one of us, and be with us in every circumstance of life that may come our way.
I pray that Your joy and laughter may flow through me to others who are facing similar difficulties and hardships, and that together we may maintain an ever deepening trust in You, as we look for Your any day return to take us to be with Yourself. This I ask in Jesus' name,
Amen.
Source: https://prayer.knowing-jesus.com/Prayers-for-Joy
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
In Evening Prayer recently we’ve been reading through the whole of the Book of Genesis. Just last night we came to the story of the birth of Isaac – the child from whom the whole nation of Israel would be descended. When Isaac was conceived and born, both Abraham and Sarah were old, and it was thought that Sarah would never have any children. When the Lord promised Sarah that she would have a child, she laughed in disbelief, but then denied it because she was afraid. In today’s reading, however, when the child is born, Sarah laughs for joy! She says: ‘God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears it will laugh with me’ (Genesis 21:6).
Laughter is one of life’s great gifts. It is infectious, as Sarah knew, and it can even be medicinal. Medical studies have shown that laughter can reduce stress, help in both physical and mental rehabilitation, and even might lead to a longer life. There are even laughter clubs and laughter yoga to help people get a daily dose of humour – just as you might eat your five portions of fruit and veg! There is evidence in the Bible of laughter as a joyful response to God as well, not just with Sarah, but we are also told that God ‘will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy’ (Job 8:21).
At this time, when we might feel particularly in need of a pick-me-up, laughter and joy become even more important, especially when they feel far away. What makes you laugh with others? What makes you laugh with delight? Next time you find yourself giggling, give thanks to God for this gift of laughter, and may those who hear you laugh with you.
Dear Lord Jesus, there are so many sad and troublesome things to face in the world today, which too often cause our hearts to become weighed down with difficulties and doubts, but I pray that Your joy would fill my heart and strengthen my soul, and that times of joyful laughter would replace those seasons of weeping and hardship.
I pray that in Christ, I may be clothed in strength and dignity, wisdom and grace and that I may be enabled to laugh in the storms and not to fear the future, knowing that my times are in Your hands. You have promised to draw near to each one of us, and be with us in every circumstance of life that may come our way.
I pray that Your joy and laughter may flow through me to others who are facing similar difficulties and hardships, and that together we may maintain an ever deepening trust in You, as we look for Your any day return to take us to be with Yourself. This I ask in Jesus' name,
Amen.
Source: https://prayer.knowing-jesus.com/Prayers-for-Joy
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Image from Ecology Asia website. Click image for access
Thursday 4th February
I was fascinated by a recent article in The Guardian about the monkeys who roam the Uluwatu Temple in Bali. Evidently they are notorious robbers, with a particular penchant for unsuspecting tourists, who they hold to ransom, returning their possessions only when food is offered. A scientific team from Canada have completed an interesting piece of research discovering that these long-tailed macaques (see below) have worked out which objects are most valued to rob, and so most likely to be exchanged for food! Targeting such things as mobile phones, wallets, and sunglasses reaps a far greater reward. The team, from the University of Lethbridge, spent 273 day filming the monkeys and tourists. They discovered that whilst the monkeys might easily hand over low-value objects relatively quickly, they were less amendable when high-value items were at stake, with bartering going on for nearly 20 minutes and the wait for as much as 30 minutes! Dr Leca, the lead researcher, stated that such “behaviours are socially learned and have been maintained across the generations of monkeys for at least 30 years”.
This made me wonder what we are learning to be of value? I expect one might include ‘Zoom’. Indeed, ‘zoom’ has been a wonderful addition to our lives, during these difficult times; Something which has enable those online, to interact with others in ways we never would have believed a year ago. However, I doubt if we would barter it in the same way as those long-tailed macaques, for, however valued a commodity zoom is today, nothing quite values face to face social interaction. I play cribbage with some friends on a Sunday evening, I have done for many years and we found a website to keep this important support going. But, we all agreed last week, that nothing quite “does it” like actually meeting each other in the flesh. Let us hope that our new learnt behaviours do not supersede the important and necessary social interaction of being together, especially in our church community, but rather that they might act as an important addition, when we return to whatever ‘normal’ might look like in the future.
Revd Graham Buckle
I was fascinated by a recent article in The Guardian about the monkeys who roam the Uluwatu Temple in Bali. Evidently they are notorious robbers, with a particular penchant for unsuspecting tourists, who they hold to ransom, returning their possessions only when food is offered. A scientific team from Canada have completed an interesting piece of research discovering that these long-tailed macaques (see below) have worked out which objects are most valued to rob, and so most likely to be exchanged for food! Targeting such things as mobile phones, wallets, and sunglasses reaps a far greater reward. The team, from the University of Lethbridge, spent 273 day filming the monkeys and tourists. They discovered that whilst the monkeys might easily hand over low-value objects relatively quickly, they were less amendable when high-value items were at stake, with bartering going on for nearly 20 minutes and the wait for as much as 30 minutes! Dr Leca, the lead researcher, stated that such “behaviours are socially learned and have been maintained across the generations of monkeys for at least 30 years”.
This made me wonder what we are learning to be of value? I expect one might include ‘Zoom’. Indeed, ‘zoom’ has been a wonderful addition to our lives, during these difficult times; Something which has enable those online, to interact with others in ways we never would have believed a year ago. However, I doubt if we would barter it in the same way as those long-tailed macaques, for, however valued a commodity zoom is today, nothing quite values face to face social interaction. I play cribbage with some friends on a Sunday evening, I have done for many years and we found a website to keep this important support going. But, we all agreed last week, that nothing quite “does it” like actually meeting each other in the flesh. Let us hope that our new learnt behaviours do not supersede the important and necessary social interaction of being together, especially in our church community, but rather that they might act as an important addition, when we return to whatever ‘normal’ might look like in the future.
Revd Graham Buckle
Wednesday 3rd February
Today is Helena’s birthday - We all hope you have a very happy day, and that you are able to celebrate it in some fitting way during this difficult time. I notice that Helena’s birthday falls on the day the church commemorates Anskar. A native of Picardy, Anskar was a monk of Corbie near Amiens who, after the conversion of the King of Denmark to Christianity, went to Schleswig and attempted to start a Christian school there. He was expelled by the locals but went on to Sweden, where he is reputed to have built the first Christian church. In 832 he was consecrated Archbishop of Hamburg and sixteen years later became Archbishop of Bremen. He returned to Denmark to convert the King of Jutland. He preached widely throughout Scandinavia and was much-loved for his work with the poor and in mitigating the slave trade. He is the patron saint of Denmark and was popularly known as ‘The Apostle of the North’. He died in the year 865. I am not sure if Helena has any association with Scandinavia, but as we give thanks for the zeal and missional endeavours of this extraordinary man, let us also remember Helena, as we pray together:
Father,
you sent Saint Anskar
to bring the light of Christ to many nations.
May his prayers help us
to walk in the light of your truth.
May your blessings be upon us and
Especially Helena this day.
This we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Revd Graham Buckle
Today is Helena’s birthday - We all hope you have a very happy day, and that you are able to celebrate it in some fitting way during this difficult time. I notice that Helena’s birthday falls on the day the church commemorates Anskar. A native of Picardy, Anskar was a monk of Corbie near Amiens who, after the conversion of the King of Denmark to Christianity, went to Schleswig and attempted to start a Christian school there. He was expelled by the locals but went on to Sweden, where he is reputed to have built the first Christian church. In 832 he was consecrated Archbishop of Hamburg and sixteen years later became Archbishop of Bremen. He returned to Denmark to convert the King of Jutland. He preached widely throughout Scandinavia and was much-loved for his work with the poor and in mitigating the slave trade. He is the patron saint of Denmark and was popularly known as ‘The Apostle of the North’. He died in the year 865. I am not sure if Helena has any association with Scandinavia, but as we give thanks for the zeal and missional endeavours of this extraordinary man, let us also remember Helena, as we pray together:
Father,
you sent Saint Anskar
to bring the light of Christ to many nations.
May his prayers help us
to walk in the light of your truth.
May your blessings be upon us and
Especially Helena this day.
This we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Revd Graham Buckle
The picture taken from Twitter “Lord have mercy on #London” a contemporary woodcut on the Great Plague which ravaged the City in 1665.
Tuesday 2nd February
Last Saturday evening I attended a fascinating online talk by Nick Richmond. A guided tour entitled: ‘Pestilence and Pandemic - A Virtual History of London's Plagues’
We were taken, pictorially via PowerPoint, through London’s 2000 year history, examining how our great city of London has survived all manner of outbreaks - cholera, typhoid, bubonic plague and Spanish flu. We discovered plague pits, hospitals and landmarks around the city to show how London was affected by vicious diseases and how many tried (and often failed) to guard against and eradicate them.
Using eyewitness accounts, from the likes of Daniel Defoe, Samuel Pepys, David Lloyd George, together with the ordinary folk of London, Nick looked at how medical innovation, technical genius and human endeavour dealt with some of the darkest times our city has experienced.
In retrospect, I realise how fortunate we are, to have at our fingertips, such events and lectures, keeping our minds active during these difficult times. Do look out for such events. Do keep your eyes open to see if the ‘Guided Tours of Brighton and West Sussex’ https://www.meetup.com/guided-walks-in-BrightonandSussex/ happen to run the tour on Plagues again - I thoroughly recommend it! I’m looking forward to the next one I’m attending on the sewers and sewer systems of London.
Finally, please continue to pray for all those affected by the pandemic we are experiencing today. Perhaps even to pray the prayer ‘In the time of any common plague or sicknes’ that was used in the great plague found in the BCP of 1662:
O Almighty God, who in thy wrath didst send a plague upon thine own people in the wildernes for their obstinate rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and also in the time of King David, didst slay with the plague of pestilence threescore and ten thousand, and yet remembring thy mercy didst save the rest: have pitie upon us miserable sinners, who now are visited with great sicknes and mortality, that like as thou didst then accept of an atonement, and didst command the destroying Angell to cease from punishing: so it may now please thee to withdraw from us this plague and grievous sicknes, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Revd Graham Buckle
Last Saturday evening I attended a fascinating online talk by Nick Richmond. A guided tour entitled: ‘Pestilence and Pandemic - A Virtual History of London's Plagues’
We were taken, pictorially via PowerPoint, through London’s 2000 year history, examining how our great city of London has survived all manner of outbreaks - cholera, typhoid, bubonic plague and Spanish flu. We discovered plague pits, hospitals and landmarks around the city to show how London was affected by vicious diseases and how many tried (and often failed) to guard against and eradicate them.
Using eyewitness accounts, from the likes of Daniel Defoe, Samuel Pepys, David Lloyd George, together with the ordinary folk of London, Nick looked at how medical innovation, technical genius and human endeavour dealt with some of the darkest times our city has experienced.
In retrospect, I realise how fortunate we are, to have at our fingertips, such events and lectures, keeping our minds active during these difficult times. Do look out for such events. Do keep your eyes open to see if the ‘Guided Tours of Brighton and West Sussex’ https://www.meetup.com/guided-walks-in-BrightonandSussex/ happen to run the tour on Plagues again - I thoroughly recommend it! I’m looking forward to the next one I’m attending on the sewers and sewer systems of London.
Finally, please continue to pray for all those affected by the pandemic we are experiencing today. Perhaps even to pray the prayer ‘In the time of any common plague or sicknes’ that was used in the great plague found in the BCP of 1662:
O Almighty God, who in thy wrath didst send a plague upon thine own people in the wildernes for their obstinate rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and also in the time of King David, didst slay with the plague of pestilence threescore and ten thousand, and yet remembring thy mercy didst save the rest: have pitie upon us miserable sinners, who now are visited with great sicknes and mortality, that like as thou didst then accept of an atonement, and didst command the destroying Angell to cease from punishing: so it may now please thee to withdraw from us this plague and grievous sicknes, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Revd Graham Buckle
Taken from Wikipedia
Monday 1st February
Today the church remembers St Brigid, a contemporary of St Patrick who founded a monastery in Kildare, and whose care for the poor, wisdom and learning have led to her becoming one of the patron saints of Ireland. We don’t know much for sure about her life, partly because she is such an early saint (born around 450 AD), but also because there was a pagan Irish goddess also called Brigid, and it is thought that some of the miracles and stories associated with St Brigid may have come from traditional stories about the goddess.
One of the places in which this overlap can be most clearly seen is in St Brigid’s Cross, a picture of which you can see here. The cross is traditionally made today, on the 1st February, and then set over doorways and windows to protect the home from any kind of harm. A St Brigid’s cross is particularly supposed to protect from fire – not otherwise associated at all with St Brigid – and probably a leftover from stories of the goddess.
Despite these possibly pagan origins, there is a lovely Christian origin story for the St Brigid’s Cross. Brigid was asked to come and console a local pagan chieftain as he lay dying, but when she arrived, she found that he was completely delirious. Not giving up hope, Brigid sat down by his bed, and took up some of the rushes that lay on the floor. Speaking quietly, she began to weave a cross with these rushes. The chieftain’s interest was caught by this, and he began to ask what she was doing. Brigid explained the cross, and as she talked and wove the chieftain’s delirium quietened, and he began to question her about Christ more closely. At the end of their conversation, the chieftain converted and was baptised before he died.
It is easy to forget, sometimes, that prayer is a full-body experience. Brigid wove a cross whilst she prayed, and it helped to calm those around her. I often like to use a rosary when I pray to help me to still both mind and body when it is difficult to settle. You may not be weaving a St Brigid’s Cross this 1st February, but maybe think about whether doing something with your hands might help when you pray. You could light a candle, draw, or even mould something with clay or plasticine. May the prayers of St Brigid be with us, as we worship God with all our mind, all our heart, and all our body.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Today the church remembers St Brigid, a contemporary of St Patrick who founded a monastery in Kildare, and whose care for the poor, wisdom and learning have led to her becoming one of the patron saints of Ireland. We don’t know much for sure about her life, partly because she is such an early saint (born around 450 AD), but also because there was a pagan Irish goddess also called Brigid, and it is thought that some of the miracles and stories associated with St Brigid may have come from traditional stories about the goddess.
One of the places in which this overlap can be most clearly seen is in St Brigid’s Cross, a picture of which you can see here. The cross is traditionally made today, on the 1st February, and then set over doorways and windows to protect the home from any kind of harm. A St Brigid’s cross is particularly supposed to protect from fire – not otherwise associated at all with St Brigid – and probably a leftover from stories of the goddess.
Despite these possibly pagan origins, there is a lovely Christian origin story for the St Brigid’s Cross. Brigid was asked to come and console a local pagan chieftain as he lay dying, but when she arrived, she found that he was completely delirious. Not giving up hope, Brigid sat down by his bed, and took up some of the rushes that lay on the floor. Speaking quietly, she began to weave a cross with these rushes. The chieftain’s interest was caught by this, and he began to ask what she was doing. Brigid explained the cross, and as she talked and wove the chieftain’s delirium quietened, and he began to question her about Christ more closely. At the end of their conversation, the chieftain converted and was baptised before he died.
It is easy to forget, sometimes, that prayer is a full-body experience. Brigid wove a cross whilst she prayed, and it helped to calm those around her. I often like to use a rosary when I pray to help me to still both mind and body when it is difficult to settle. You may not be weaving a St Brigid’s Cross this 1st February, but maybe think about whether doing something with your hands might help when you pray. You could light a candle, draw, or even mould something with clay or plasticine. May the prayers of St Brigid be with us, as we worship God with all our mind, all our heart, and all our body.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Friday 29th January
Yesterday at Morning Prayer, many of us struggled as we listened to the New Testament reading from 1 Corinthians (11.2-16) in which Paul wrote to the Corinthians (a particular people at a particular time in a particular context) including the lines: “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it’s degrading to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is to her glory?” Paul advised that women who will not cover their head to pray or prophecy should shave their heads.
By pure coincidence (or Godincidence?), I had planned to give myself another DIY lockdown haircut, and went ahead regardless of the morning’s reading. I sought solace once again in the words and images of Michael Leunig:
We give thanks for the mystery of hair.
Too little here and too much there.
Censored and shaved, controlled and suppressed:
Unwelcome guest in soups and sandwiches.
Difficult growth always needing attention.
Gentle and comforting;
Complex and wild;
Reminding us softly
That we might be animals.
Growing and growing
‘Til the day we die.
And the day after as well
So they say!
In all of its places
And in all of its ways
We give thanks for the blessing of hair.
AMEN.
Revd Lindsay Meader
Yesterday at Morning Prayer, many of us struggled as we listened to the New Testament reading from 1 Corinthians (11.2-16) in which Paul wrote to the Corinthians (a particular people at a particular time in a particular context) including the lines: “Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it’s degrading to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is to her glory?” Paul advised that women who will not cover their head to pray or prophecy should shave their heads.
By pure coincidence (or Godincidence?), I had planned to give myself another DIY lockdown haircut, and went ahead regardless of the morning’s reading. I sought solace once again in the words and images of Michael Leunig:
We give thanks for the mystery of hair.
Too little here and too much there.
Censored and shaved, controlled and suppressed:
Unwelcome guest in soups and sandwiches.
Difficult growth always needing attention.
Gentle and comforting;
Complex and wild;
Reminding us softly
That we might be animals.
Growing and growing
‘Til the day we die.
And the day after as well
So they say!
In all of its places
And in all of its ways
We give thanks for the blessing of hair.
AMEN.
Revd Lindsay Meader
Thursday 28th January
Our friends in New York City, had their Annual Church Meeting last Sunday. John Beddingfield gave his Rector’s Annual Report in a marvellous video format on ‘vimeo’, with a moving recollection of the last year’s extraordinary events for the Church of the Holy Trinity. And gosh hasn’t been a year? So, today, I would like you to use this short video as your daily devotion. Praying, as you hear John recount the events and things of the past year, and giving thanks of our unique friendship and churches. Let us continue to learn from each other, and grow in mutual support in building the Kingdom of God in our respective Cities and communities:
https://vimeo.com/503974434
I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:1-3
Almighty God, help our churches to walk together in mutual love and companionship. Aid us in all our interactions to have humble and gentle hearts. Grant to our churches of St Stephens and Church of the Holy Trinity, unity and peace; That we may walk humbly with You, God, in the manner of our calling during these difficult times; this we ask in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Revd Graham Buckle
Our friends in New York City, had their Annual Church Meeting last Sunday. John Beddingfield gave his Rector’s Annual Report in a marvellous video format on ‘vimeo’, with a moving recollection of the last year’s extraordinary events for the Church of the Holy Trinity. And gosh hasn’t been a year? So, today, I would like you to use this short video as your daily devotion. Praying, as you hear John recount the events and things of the past year, and giving thanks of our unique friendship and churches. Let us continue to learn from each other, and grow in mutual support in building the Kingdom of God in our respective Cities and communities:
https://vimeo.com/503974434
I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:1-3
Almighty God, help our churches to walk together in mutual love and companionship. Aid us in all our interactions to have humble and gentle hearts. Grant to our churches of St Stephens and Church of the Holy Trinity, unity and peace; That we may walk humbly with You, God, in the manner of our calling during these difficult times; this we ask in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Revd Graham Buckle
Wednesday 27th January
1 O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
with gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
kneel and adore him: the Lord is his name.
2 Low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness:
high on his heart he will bear it for thee,
comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness,
guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.
3 Fear not to enter his courts in the slenderness
of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine:
truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness,
these are the offerings to lay on his shrine.
4 These, though we bring them in trembling and fearfulness,
he will accept for the name that is dear;
mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness,
trust for our trembling and hope for our fear.
5 O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
with gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
kneel and adore him: the Lord is his name.
This is one of my favourite hymns, and one of the joys of Epiphanytide (the time between Epiphany and Candlemas) is that it is set to be sung every evening at Evening Prayer. Singing something over and over again at first feels boring and repetitive, but after a while I find it helps me to see new things in the words that I wouldn’t have noticed before. Every time before that I have sung “low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness,” I had thought it had meant something that you carry carefully, because it’s precious. Now, however, I realise that it means your burden of cares – the things that worry you and oppress you – that you are being told to lay at the feet of Jesus so that he can bear them for you.
In this time of many cares and many burdens, I find the reminder that we can lay them all at the feet of Jesus, trusting him for love and for guidance, really helpful. No matter how heavy our burdens, no matter how unworthy we feel, we can always approach the Lord, trusting his goodness to us. For all those who need it at this time, may mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness, trust for our trembling, and hope for our fear.
Please click below if you would like to hear, and maybe sing along to the hymn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwQzwlZs_rA
Helena Bickley-Percival
1 O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
with gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
kneel and adore him: the Lord is his name.
2 Low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness:
high on his heart he will bear it for thee,
comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness,
guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.
3 Fear not to enter his courts in the slenderness
of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine:
truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness,
these are the offerings to lay on his shrine.
4 These, though we bring them in trembling and fearfulness,
he will accept for the name that is dear;
mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness,
trust for our trembling and hope for our fear.
5 O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
with gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
kneel and adore him: the Lord is his name.
This is one of my favourite hymns, and one of the joys of Epiphanytide (the time between Epiphany and Candlemas) is that it is set to be sung every evening at Evening Prayer. Singing something over and over again at first feels boring and repetitive, but after a while I find it helps me to see new things in the words that I wouldn’t have noticed before. Every time before that I have sung “low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness,” I had thought it had meant something that you carry carefully, because it’s precious. Now, however, I realise that it means your burden of cares – the things that worry you and oppress you – that you are being told to lay at the feet of Jesus so that he can bear them for you.
In this time of many cares and many burdens, I find the reminder that we can lay them all at the feet of Jesus, trusting him for love and for guidance, really helpful. No matter how heavy our burdens, no matter how unworthy we feel, we can always approach the Lord, trusting his goodness to us. For all those who need it at this time, may mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness, trust for our trembling, and hope for our fear.
Please click below if you would like to hear, and maybe sing along to the hymn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwQzwlZs_rA
Helena Bickley-Percival
Tuesday 26th January
Last night we celebrated Burns in true St Stephen’s style. The toasts and readings were brilliant and so creative. The Scottish dancing was extraordinary; and the Haggis, whiskey and Iron Bru were all in abundant evidence. However what made this evening so wonderful was the fact it was celebrated all online in a way we could have never preciously been able to. Friends from Cornwall , Scotland and link church in New York City all joined and partook on Zoom…it was a great evening and one which I shall never forget. I suppose it is still not too late for you to use 'The Selkirk Grace’" when you have your meal today:
Last night we celebrated Burns in true St Stephen’s style. The toasts and readings were brilliant and so creative. The Scottish dancing was extraordinary; and the Haggis, whiskey and Iron Bru were all in abundant evidence. However what made this evening so wonderful was the fact it was celebrated all online in a way we could have never preciously been able to. Friends from Cornwall , Scotland and link church in New York City all joined and partook on Zoom…it was a great evening and one which I shall never forget. I suppose it is still not too late for you to use 'The Selkirk Grace’" when you have your meal today:
Revd John Beddingfield
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Some Folk hae meat that canna eat,
And some can eat that want it; But we hae meat, and we can eat, So let the Lord be Thanket! Thank you too all those who took part and made it such a special evening. But also thank you to the technology which is available to allow use to meet in new and exciting ways. Let us pray: Almighty God, You have made us in your image and likeness, Giving us the ability to be creative just as you are the Creator. May the gifts be used in our prayer and worship of you, who live and reign forever. Amen Revd Graham Buckle |
Monday 25th January
Leaving for university in September marked the start of a new chapter in mine, and many others’, life. Saying goodbye to the people you know and love best, knowing you won’t see them for 3 months is a very strange feeling. I was talking to my friend the other day and we were discussing how some parts of university are just bizarre, like being thrown in with a load of new people and expected to make friends. Now this doesn’t seem like a strange concept, but I would argue making friends at 18 is a very different experience to when you do at other formative times of your life. Realistically, the most natural times to make new friends are when you start primary school or when you start secondary school, and from what I remember, when I was 5, I didn’t really care what people thought of me. At school the pace and ease you can become comfortable with someone is rapid, you are with the same people every day, same classes, same breaks, same timetable, it is as though you can’t escape them. Whereas at university, you need to consciously make the effort to meet up with people, factor in time for social life and make yourself known. This idea of making yourself known is quite interesting as you are the only one responsible for putting yourself out there and making the effort to meet new people. Luckily, I have always been quite extroverted so have never found it difficult talking to new people, but university has made me aware that this isn’t the case for everyone.
As humans, we are constantly faced with change and new chapters. Whether that be starting university or losing your job, you need to be yourself and be confident being yourself. We should all just try to view change as an exciting new chapter in our lives, one that can lead to many new opportunities and experiences, helping us to adapt and embrace anything that happens to us.
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” - Deuteronomy 31:6
Anastassia Puttman
Leaving for university in September marked the start of a new chapter in mine, and many others’, life. Saying goodbye to the people you know and love best, knowing you won’t see them for 3 months is a very strange feeling. I was talking to my friend the other day and we were discussing how some parts of university are just bizarre, like being thrown in with a load of new people and expected to make friends. Now this doesn’t seem like a strange concept, but I would argue making friends at 18 is a very different experience to when you do at other formative times of your life. Realistically, the most natural times to make new friends are when you start primary school or when you start secondary school, and from what I remember, when I was 5, I didn’t really care what people thought of me. At school the pace and ease you can become comfortable with someone is rapid, you are with the same people every day, same classes, same breaks, same timetable, it is as though you can’t escape them. Whereas at university, you need to consciously make the effort to meet up with people, factor in time for social life and make yourself known. This idea of making yourself known is quite interesting as you are the only one responsible for putting yourself out there and making the effort to meet new people. Luckily, I have always been quite extroverted so have never found it difficult talking to new people, but university has made me aware that this isn’t the case for everyone.
As humans, we are constantly faced with change and new chapters. Whether that be starting university or losing your job, you need to be yourself and be confident being yourself. We should all just try to view change as an exciting new chapter in our lives, one that can lead to many new opportunities and experiences, helping us to adapt and embrace anything that happens to us.
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” - Deuteronomy 31:6
Anastassia Puttman
Friday 22nd January
Seven years ago tomorrow, I was inducted and instituted as the vicar of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. On such occasions one is tempted to lapse into a victor-ionic reminisce about all the successes one feels they’ve achieved. However, as you are aware, priestly ministry is never that simple and I know I’ve made a few mistakes along the way. So first and foremost I would like to apologise for these. Suffice it to say, I am absolutely delighted and thrilled that you entrusted me, ‘warts and all’, to be your vicar and minister amongst you.
At our PCC meeting last Tuesday I was so encouraged with the positivity of what we as a community have learnt in this past year of uncertainty and pandemic. We looked creatively at what we might take with us into our future as a christian community. I was so encouraged by the feedback from one of our discussions groups, who felt that our church had been a beacon of stability and positivity in the midst of chaos. Given the past year, this was perhaps, one of the most encouraging understandings of ‘church’ I have encountered, not just in the past seven years, but in my entire 30 years of priestly ministry. So I would like to take the opportunity of thanking everyone, for all you have given and ministered to me.
Please continue to pray for the clergy, as we do for you. May God’s abiding presence continue to work with us, as we continue to build God’s kingdom in our wonderful part of London. Thank you, and please use the following prayer as part of your daily devotion today, not just for your clergy, but also for yourselves:
Creator God,
thank you for our church and its people.
For our parish and our clergy.
Fill us all with your Holy Spirit
so that our church may grow.
Help us to see you in everyone we meet
and fill our lives with your praise.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Revd Graham Buckle
Seven years ago tomorrow, I was inducted and instituted as the vicar of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. On such occasions one is tempted to lapse into a victor-ionic reminisce about all the successes one feels they’ve achieved. However, as you are aware, priestly ministry is never that simple and I know I’ve made a few mistakes along the way. So first and foremost I would like to apologise for these. Suffice it to say, I am absolutely delighted and thrilled that you entrusted me, ‘warts and all’, to be your vicar and minister amongst you.
At our PCC meeting last Tuesday I was so encouraged with the positivity of what we as a community have learnt in this past year of uncertainty and pandemic. We looked creatively at what we might take with us into our future as a christian community. I was so encouraged by the feedback from one of our discussions groups, who felt that our church had been a beacon of stability and positivity in the midst of chaos. Given the past year, this was perhaps, one of the most encouraging understandings of ‘church’ I have encountered, not just in the past seven years, but in my entire 30 years of priestly ministry. So I would like to take the opportunity of thanking everyone, for all you have given and ministered to me.
Please continue to pray for the clergy, as we do for you. May God’s abiding presence continue to work with us, as we continue to build God’s kingdom in our wonderful part of London. Thank you, and please use the following prayer as part of your daily devotion today, not just for your clergy, but also for yourselves:
Creator God,
thank you for our church and its people.
For our parish and our clergy.
Fill us all with your Holy Spirit
so that our church may grow.
Help us to see you in everyone we meet
and fill our lives with your praise.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Revd Graham Buckle
Thursday 21st January
There is a particular quality to light after a storm, as if the rain and wind have scoured the sky, leaving it bright and pristine. There may even be the chance of a rainbow – that symbol of hope and reminder of God’s promises to us. Over the last weeks and months, we’ve spoken a lot about light: the light at the end of the tunnel; the light coming to us at Christmas; the darkness of our current times, and the sparks of light we have seen in each other as people pull together to help. This theme of light after a time of darkness featured strongly in Amanda Gorman’s poem that she wrote and delivered for President Biden’s inauguration yesterday. She began “When the day comes, we ask ourselves where we can find light in this never-ending shade?” The seemingly never-ending shade of pandemic, of discord and division, even of despair. But Gorman’s poem is ultimately a hopeful one, if not without challenge. That coming of light requires something of us all, lest “our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation,” and what it requires is love, and a willingness to see the good and act upon. In the midst of the flood, God remembered Noah, in the midst of the storm, Jesus awoke and calmed it. This darkness will end, if we turn towards the light for, as Gorman ends, “there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it, if only we are brave enough to be it.”
Please find the link to Gorman’s poem below.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/20/amanda-gorman-poem-biden-inauguration-transcript
Helena Bickley-Percival
There is a particular quality to light after a storm, as if the rain and wind have scoured the sky, leaving it bright and pristine. There may even be the chance of a rainbow – that symbol of hope and reminder of God’s promises to us. Over the last weeks and months, we’ve spoken a lot about light: the light at the end of the tunnel; the light coming to us at Christmas; the darkness of our current times, and the sparks of light we have seen in each other as people pull together to help. This theme of light after a time of darkness featured strongly in Amanda Gorman’s poem that she wrote and delivered for President Biden’s inauguration yesterday. She began “When the day comes, we ask ourselves where we can find light in this never-ending shade?” The seemingly never-ending shade of pandemic, of discord and division, even of despair. But Gorman’s poem is ultimately a hopeful one, if not without challenge. That coming of light requires something of us all, lest “our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation,” and what it requires is love, and a willingness to see the good and act upon. In the midst of the flood, God remembered Noah, in the midst of the storm, Jesus awoke and calmed it. This darkness will end, if we turn towards the light for, as Gorman ends, “there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it, if only we are brave enough to be it.”
Please find the link to Gorman’s poem below.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/20/amanda-gorman-poem-biden-inauguration-transcript
Helena Bickley-Percival
The Vicar with Jonathan (member of St Stephen’s) @ Lords
Wednesday 20th January
I’m not one for snooker to be honest, but I have to admit watching, late Sunday night, the Chinese snooker player, Yan Bingtao, become the youngest Masters champion in 26 years was enjoyable. Yan is only the second Asian player ever to win one of snooker's major tournaments, beating the champion John Higgins - after being 5-3 and 7-5 down. Surprisingly, it was rather exciting even if there was no spectators present.
This was followed in the same week by one of the most extraordinary cricket matches in history! Now even if you don’t like cricket, this was something rather special. I was so riveted that I arose early Tuesday morning to hear the last couple of hours of this enthralling match. Now I know cricket isn’t everyone’s ‘cup of tea’...but as a member of the MCC and Cricket Society, I was captivated, as against all the odds and set a huge total to chase in their second innings, India beat Australia to win the game, and the series in the last few overs (minutes) of the game - incredible : https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/55716268
I appreciate that sport is not to everyone’s liking, something I’m constantly reminded by my staff team. But we all have to acknowledge that sport plays a huge part of many people’s lives: therefore it is vital that Christians know, participate and pray for those engaged and who watch sport. It is a difficult time for many in this industry; Many clubs and associations have been hit hard by the pandemic. As we pray for them, let us also give thanks for those who support them, particularly ‘Christians in Sport’, who work tirelessly in this vital missionary field - https://www.christiansinsport.org.uk
I’m sure our friend Andrew, who often joins us for evening prayer, together with 99% of the people of India will have been celebrating a momentous victory yesterday, as have the people of China. Well done, and played, the India Cricket Team and Yan Bingtao, and let us pray together this short sports day prayer as part of your daily devotion today.
Dear God,
Thank you for the joy of sports,
for the challenge of becoming stronger and fitter.
Please help us to embrace the sporting events that take place,
and to release in those who participate
all the training, commitment and skills that they have.
Lord, you are our inspiration and companion,
and we worship you, in whatever we do.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Read more: https://www.living-prayers.com/people/sports_prayer.html#ixzz6jztUubE2
Also, John's video today is worth a watch! Watch “Wednesday’s Word, January 20, 2021” on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/502672958?ref=em-share
Revd Graham Buckle
I’m not one for snooker to be honest, but I have to admit watching, late Sunday night, the Chinese snooker player, Yan Bingtao, become the youngest Masters champion in 26 years was enjoyable. Yan is only the second Asian player ever to win one of snooker's major tournaments, beating the champion John Higgins - after being 5-3 and 7-5 down. Surprisingly, it was rather exciting even if there was no spectators present.
This was followed in the same week by one of the most extraordinary cricket matches in history! Now even if you don’t like cricket, this was something rather special. I was so riveted that I arose early Tuesday morning to hear the last couple of hours of this enthralling match. Now I know cricket isn’t everyone’s ‘cup of tea’...but as a member of the MCC and Cricket Society, I was captivated, as against all the odds and set a huge total to chase in their second innings, India beat Australia to win the game, and the series in the last few overs (minutes) of the game - incredible : https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/55716268
I appreciate that sport is not to everyone’s liking, something I’m constantly reminded by my staff team. But we all have to acknowledge that sport plays a huge part of many people’s lives: therefore it is vital that Christians know, participate and pray for those engaged and who watch sport. It is a difficult time for many in this industry; Many clubs and associations have been hit hard by the pandemic. As we pray for them, let us also give thanks for those who support them, particularly ‘Christians in Sport’, who work tirelessly in this vital missionary field - https://www.christiansinsport.org.uk
I’m sure our friend Andrew, who often joins us for evening prayer, together with 99% of the people of India will have been celebrating a momentous victory yesterday, as have the people of China. Well done, and played, the India Cricket Team and Yan Bingtao, and let us pray together this short sports day prayer as part of your daily devotion today.
Dear God,
Thank you for the joy of sports,
for the challenge of becoming stronger and fitter.
Please help us to embrace the sporting events that take place,
and to release in those who participate
all the training, commitment and skills that they have.
Lord, you are our inspiration and companion,
and we worship you, in whatever we do.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Read more: https://www.living-prayers.com/people/sports_prayer.html#ixzz6jztUubE2
Also, John's video today is worth a watch! Watch “Wednesday’s Word, January 20, 2021” on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/502672958?ref=em-share
Revd Graham Buckle
Tuesday 19th January
It was with great joy and interest that I read of the amazing achievement by 10 Nepalese climbers, who set a new world record by becoming the first to reach the summit of K2 in winter - no mean feat - it being the second highest and most technical mountain in the world. A climbing friend stated, this is “great for Nepal and their mountain community who seem to be taken for granted more and more with the rise in commercialism”. Mountains have a huge significance for the people of Nepal, particularly their Buddhist community. Of course they play an important part in all the major religions. In the Bible, mountains are seen as the place of encounter (with God) and teaching (about God). So it should be no surprise that the Alpine Mountaineering Club was set up by an Anglican Missionary, Revd Walter Weston in Japan in 1800s. Having climbed a few mountains in my younger days, I can see how theology and encounter of Mountains play such a significant part of religion. In Oct/Nov 2008, I was part of a small British Team to climb the Manaslu Pass when it reopened earlier that year. It was such a privilege and life changing experience. Being, what seemed to be on top of the world, is certainly a thin place, not just literally with altitude but theologically, as one feels the presence of God in many ways.
It was with great joy and interest that I read of the amazing achievement by 10 Nepalese climbers, who set a new world record by becoming the first to reach the summit of K2 in winter - no mean feat - it being the second highest and most technical mountain in the world. A climbing friend stated, this is “great for Nepal and their mountain community who seem to be taken for granted more and more with the rise in commercialism”. Mountains have a huge significance for the people of Nepal, particularly their Buddhist community. Of course they play an important part in all the major religions. In the Bible, mountains are seen as the place of encounter (with God) and teaching (about God). So it should be no surprise that the Alpine Mountaineering Club was set up by an Anglican Missionary, Revd Walter Weston in Japan in 1800s. Having climbed a few mountains in my younger days, I can see how theology and encounter of Mountains play such a significant part of religion. In Oct/Nov 2008, I was part of a small British Team to climb the Manaslu Pass when it reopened earlier that year. It was such a privilege and life changing experience. Being, what seemed to be on top of the world, is certainly a thin place, not just literally with altitude but theologically, as one feels the presence of God in many ways.
We were indebted to our Nepalese friends who acted as our guides and porters; Here is a picture of them, the real heroes:
And these were the kind of strong people who amazingly climbed K2 in WINTER! Such a feat and very well done to them - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55684149
Lucy Larcom was an American poet who wrote beautiful poems and hymns about the mountains she climbed. Two of her poems form what is now known as “A mountaineer’s prayer”. Although the language is of its time, any hiker can relate to the scenes she paints. So as we praise the wonder of God’s creation; as we give thanks for the wonderful people of Nepal; let us pray her poem as part of our Daily Devotion today:
A MOUNTAINEER’S PRAYER - Lucy Larcom, 1885
Gird me with the strength of Thy steadfast hills,
The speed of Thy streams give me!
In the spirit that calms, with the life that thrills,
I would stand or run for Thee.
Let me be Thy voice, or Thy silent power,
As the cataract, or the peak, --
An eternal thought, in my earthly hour,
Of the living God to speak!
Clothe me in the rose-tints of Thy skies,
Upon morning summits laid!
Robe me in the purple and gold that flies
Through Thy shuttles of light and shade!
Let me rise and rejoice in Thy smile aright,
As mountains and forests do!
Let me welcome Thy twilight and Thy night,
And wait for Thy dawn anew!
Give me the brook’s faith, joyously sung
Under clank of its icy chain!
Give me of the patience that hides among
The hill-tops, in mist and rain!
Lift me up from the clod, let me breathe Thy breath,
Thy beauty and strength give me!
Let me lose both the name and the meaning of death,
In the life that I share with Thee! Amen.
Revd Graham Buckle
And these were the kind of strong people who amazingly climbed K2 in WINTER! Such a feat and very well done to them - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55684149
Lucy Larcom was an American poet who wrote beautiful poems and hymns about the mountains she climbed. Two of her poems form what is now known as “A mountaineer’s prayer”. Although the language is of its time, any hiker can relate to the scenes she paints. So as we praise the wonder of God’s creation; as we give thanks for the wonderful people of Nepal; let us pray her poem as part of our Daily Devotion today:
A MOUNTAINEER’S PRAYER - Lucy Larcom, 1885
Gird me with the strength of Thy steadfast hills,
The speed of Thy streams give me!
In the spirit that calms, with the life that thrills,
I would stand or run for Thee.
Let me be Thy voice, or Thy silent power,
As the cataract, or the peak, --
An eternal thought, in my earthly hour,
Of the living God to speak!
Clothe me in the rose-tints of Thy skies,
Upon morning summits laid!
Robe me in the purple and gold that flies
Through Thy shuttles of light and shade!
Let me rise and rejoice in Thy smile aright,
As mountains and forests do!
Let me welcome Thy twilight and Thy night,
And wait for Thy dawn anew!
Give me the brook’s faith, joyously sung
Under clank of its icy chain!
Give me of the patience that hides among
The hill-tops, in mist and rain!
Lift me up from the clod, let me breathe Thy breath,
Thy beauty and strength give me!
Let me lose both the name and the meaning of death,
In the life that I share with Thee! Amen.
Revd Graham Buckle
Monday 18th January
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We have been putting out Sermonettes, such as the one posted here, every Sunday for our Young People, who must feel the lockdown very keenly and miss the interaction with their friends and extended families. The Sermonette, we hope, will serve to bring the week's readings to young people. Please do spread the word and the video can be found every Monday under Resources for families. |
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Friday 15th January
HOPE
One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link
“Back in mid March, when it was determined that needed to close the church for a time, we decided to change our outdoor noticeboards to something that would last for a few days or a few weeks and now of course it has been a few months.
HOPE
One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link
“Back in mid March, when it was determined that needed to close the church for a time, we decided to change our outdoor noticeboards to something that would last for a few days or a few weeks and now of course it has been a few months.
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Thought we are currently open partially at Holy Trinity, we are not sure for how long. This is a prayer which is known by many as the serenity prayer. It is part of a longer prayer which was popularised by the German-American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. It gives comfort and strength to thousands of people who are growing through twelve-step recovery, but it is a useful prayer for all of us I think:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. During the pandemic, this prayer and a deepening of this prayer in my life has been a great gift, as daily I am reminded that so much is out of my control, and yet there are a few things within my control and with discernment and grace, God can strengthen me and give me the creativity to continue doing what I can do. So if you don’t know the serenity prayer, I offer it to you as a great gift as it has been offered to me. May God bless us and keep us safe.” (Reverend John Beddingfield) |
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The Fourth H
The last extraordinary 9 months have taught us so much about our lives and priorities; realising, in the words of the old adage that often it’s the little things in life that are really the big things, things we might never take for granted again – what I’ve come to think of as the three H’s: handshakes, hugs and . . . haircuts! But for me, I know I’ve learned the deepest lessons and received the greatest gifts when I find my eyes unexpectedly welling up and my heart swelling. Two key moments stand out for me. The first was my first experience of a live performance since lockdown began. Through my work as a theatre chaplain, I’m fortunate that I get to see a lot of theatre - a privilege you can come to take for granted, including annual visits to the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. But in May, for the first time in 59 years, the theatre announced it would not open this year. However, when lockdown restrictions were eased, the theatre staged a one month run of a concert version of their successful production of Jesus Christ Superstar, with the cast remaining socially distanced throughout. I saw it on the last day of its run, at the end of September. I wasn’t quite prepared for the visceral impact the second the live band struck up. And I had trouble focussing on the performers during the first moments as my eyes were blurred with tears of emotion at the sheer wonder of being back in an audience once more after so long. And to see the energy of the performers and an audience so stirred and moved by the story of the last week of Jesus’ life on earth was a gift.
The second is much more recent but equally impactful. It was yesterday evening, standing in a dark and wet school playground as part of a surprisingly fantastic turnout for St Stephen’s outdoor carol service. After 18 years of parish ministry, you get used to multiple opportunities to start singing. carols even before Advent begins. But yesterday was the first – and possibly only – opportunity to come together and in extraordinary circumstances, to do something we used to take for granted but have missed so much, and - significantly - to sing those songs that tell the story of the light the darkness cannot overcome. I found myself thinking of those in other lands who can’t sing such songs for fear of persecution. There in the rain, masked and partially hidden by my umbrella, as the rain fell, so did my tears as I realised the gift we all need, the gift we were sharing with one another, from bubble to bubble, is the fourth H: Hope.
(Reverend Lindsay Meader, Theatre Chaplain)
The last extraordinary 9 months have taught us so much about our lives and priorities; realising, in the words of the old adage that often it’s the little things in life that are really the big things, things we might never take for granted again – what I’ve come to think of as the three H’s: handshakes, hugs and . . . haircuts! But for me, I know I’ve learned the deepest lessons and received the greatest gifts when I find my eyes unexpectedly welling up and my heart swelling. Two key moments stand out for me. The first was my first experience of a live performance since lockdown began. Through my work as a theatre chaplain, I’m fortunate that I get to see a lot of theatre - a privilege you can come to take for granted, including annual visits to the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. But in May, for the first time in 59 years, the theatre announced it would not open this year. However, when lockdown restrictions were eased, the theatre staged a one month run of a concert version of their successful production of Jesus Christ Superstar, with the cast remaining socially distanced throughout. I saw it on the last day of its run, at the end of September. I wasn’t quite prepared for the visceral impact the second the live band struck up. And I had trouble focussing on the performers during the first moments as my eyes were blurred with tears of emotion at the sheer wonder of being back in an audience once more after so long. And to see the energy of the performers and an audience so stirred and moved by the story of the last week of Jesus’ life on earth was a gift.
The second is much more recent but equally impactful. It was yesterday evening, standing in a dark and wet school playground as part of a surprisingly fantastic turnout for St Stephen’s outdoor carol service. After 18 years of parish ministry, you get used to multiple opportunities to start singing. carols even before Advent begins. But yesterday was the first – and possibly only – opportunity to come together and in extraordinary circumstances, to do something we used to take for granted but have missed so much, and - significantly - to sing those songs that tell the story of the light the darkness cannot overcome. I found myself thinking of those in other lands who can’t sing such songs for fear of persecution. There in the rain, masked and partially hidden by my umbrella, as the rain fell, so did my tears as I realised the gift we all need, the gift we were sharing with one another, from bubble to bubble, is the fourth H: Hope.
(Reverend Lindsay Meader, Theatre Chaplain)
Thursday 14th January
SIMPLE PLEASURES
One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link
SIMPLE PLEASURES
One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link
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“The gift I would like to receive is the continuation, from the early days of lockdown, of my ability to appreciate the detail of the little things in the world all around us, close to home. There is so much to see and enjoy and be content about. The simple pleasures of sunshine, or a flower, or the details of architecture, or other people around us. I have found myself noticing and revelling in things I completely took for granted before lockdown.” (Jackie)
“The gift I would like to receive is vistas, vistas of ocean, skies and country marked by colour, lines, sound and light going off into the distance and disappearing below the horizon. I grew up with vistas and whenever I come upon them I stop and become absorbed emerging refreshed.” (Jeremy) ““By walking more, I’ve found these new places that I never knew were there – within half an hours walk of my house.” (Liz) |
Wednesday 13th January
LISTENING
LISTENING
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One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link “I can give the gift of listening, I don’t see it myself, but friends of mine, say I can listen well.” (Jeremy) “I need a quiet mind and can give a sympathetic ear” (Anne via Instagram) “The gift I would like to give to others, to help them flourish, is the time to listen to them, fully and kindly, without my attention wandering. This will allow for better, deeper and more meaningful relationships.” (Jackie) |
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Tuesday 12th January
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JOY
One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link A Poem by Elizabeth Witts I pray for the gift of laughter, to laugh as life flies by, and for the gift of joking that others may laugh till they cry! |
Monday 11th January
TIME
One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link.
“The lockdown has really helped me to slow down – at a point when I really needed to slow down – it made me take time. Simple things like not taking public transport and walking everywhere, which might mean a journey takes an hour rather than fifteen minutes. That slowing down and making you think about what you are doing is really helpful. Thinking about how to shape your day; what’s important, what feeds you. Making time for prayer where there wasn’t time for prayer before.” (Helena)
TIME
One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link.
“The lockdown has really helped me to slow down – at a point when I really needed to slow down – it made me take time. Simple things like not taking public transport and walking everywhere, which might mean a journey takes an hour rather than fifteen minutes. That slowing down and making you think about what you are doing is really helpful. Thinking about how to shape your day; what’s important, what feeds you. Making time for prayer where there wasn’t time for prayer before.” (Helena)
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The gift is finding the gift in the Time of Pandemic. The gift is the Time Time to retreat To retreat to the place of assessment To assess the life that we know To know the loss and recognise the gain To gain the awareness of hitherto unseen acts To enact the kindness in return To return to the stillness To still the mind To mind the time To find the gift. The gift is finding the gift in the Time of pandemic. A poem written by Charlie Hughes-D’Aeth, Voice Coach for The Old Vic & RSC |
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Friday 8th January
KINDNESS
One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link.
KINDNESS
One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link.
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“I’ve had so much thrown at me in the lockdown in the way of love from other people, in the way of opportunities to do stuff that I have been moaning for forty years I can’t do – I’ve been doing a lesson swap with another teacher up the road. I’m teaching him to write songs and he’s teaching me how to draw.” (Rosemary) “It’s such a diverse community, you never know who is going to walk through the door.” (Andrew) ”The kindness of people who know me and my situation has been amazing. That generosity of spirit has been fantastic.” (Liz) “I’ve become a befriender, so I write letters to a lady every Friday. She is from Mauritius and is finding it very hard.” (Irene) |
Thursday 7th January
SUPPORT
One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link
SUPPORT
One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link
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“We work at I Can Be, a small children’s charity with offices in the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. I Can Be brings disadvantaged children into the world of work, to help them discover the breadth of opportunity around them. We aim to broaden their horizons and promote high aspirations. One tremendous gift that we’ve received during lockdown has been the increase in goodwill that we’re seeing from people who want to support us by becoming virtual volunteers. This gift is helping us provide our programmes virtually and online, which means we can keep the window of opportunity’ open for our girls. It has been inspiring to hear from many more people who want to give their time to help I Can Be deliver our programmes for children across London. We’re now gearing up for our first ever I Can Be ‘virtual visits’ programme in 2021, with the support of our new virtual volunteers. We’ll therefore be passing the volunteers’ ‘gift of goodwill’ on to the children we support!” (Claire and Anastasia, ICanBe)
“During the first Covid-19 lockdown, like everybody else, I spent much of my time at home. I realised how privileged I was to have the gift of a happy family life. This made me think of people living on their own and how I could help support them whilst they were in isolation. I hope the arrival of the vaccine will mean that by Easter the impact of Covid-19 on our lives will be diminishing, but we will not forget that there will be lonely people in our community who will need our support.” (Councillor Tim Mitchell) |
“Everyone has a talent, everyone has got a purpose. We help people to rediscover that. Last week we were doing something in the art group – making flowers. I said to a client, just come in – he made the most amazing flowers. After the session he said “you really helped me rediscover something I had forgotten I had.” That’s what we’re here for. That’s what we want to do with all our clients really.” (Michael, a support worker at The Passage, which is based in the parish, describing his work during the lockdown)
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Wednesday 6th January
HEALING
HEALING
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One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full at this link
“I want to receive the gift of learning to look after myself better and take the time to relax physically and rest the mind. To connect more with nature, take time out from work and meditate and undertake mild exercise (there is plenty of opportunity to do this currently working from home) and get a good night’s sleep. If I want to help others to flourish and get through this pandemic I need to be good to myself as well as to others.” (Anthony) “Put something in your day that you can look forward to. Put on your best perfume, put on your best clothes. Because it’s important that before we can get alongside someone else, we can be strong ourselves. I suppose it’s having been a carer for fifty years – that is just in me.” (Irene) |
Touched
How should we be feeling, now, a species programmed to explore,
Since the astronomer cast us out from the centre so we were special no more?
And what do we see and hear, now, with our giant eyes and ears,
As the dark vacuum of space draws in our deepest hopes and fears?
How do we appear, now, from a distant planetary retreat?
A squirming globe dancing uneasily to a pandemic’s frenzied beat?
A time to reflect, slow down, take stock, consider the truths that elude us
Step out from the shadows, embrace a new light and banish the clouds that occlude us
Yes, turn the telescope inwards, now, and feel the bond deep inside,
The pull on the heart, the yearning that aches and the swell and tug of life’s tide
Sense again the hand in your hand, and the warmth of a loved one’s clutch
Be moved by the Spirit, compelled by the Godhead, be healed by the Saviour’s touch.
(Kevin Walsh)
How should we be feeling, now, a species programmed to explore,
Since the astronomer cast us out from the centre so we were special no more?
And what do we see and hear, now, with our giant eyes and ears,
As the dark vacuum of space draws in our deepest hopes and fears?
How do we appear, now, from a distant planetary retreat?
A squirming globe dancing uneasily to a pandemic’s frenzied beat?
A time to reflect, slow down, take stock, consider the truths that elude us
Step out from the shadows, embrace a new light and banish the clouds that occlude us
Yes, turn the telescope inwards, now, and feel the bond deep inside,
The pull on the heart, the yearning that aches and the swell and tug of life’s tide
Sense again the hand in your hand, and the warmth of a loved one’s clutch
Be moved by the Spirit, compelled by the Godhead, be healed by the Saviour’s touch.
(Kevin Walsh)
Tuesday 5th January
FRIENDSHIP
FRIENDSHIP
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One of the "Nine Lessons in Lockdown" sent to us by those who live, work and worship in and around the parish of St Stephen’s Rochester Row. Thank you so much for all the contributions which you can read in full here.
“I have learnt to value the care and kindness I have received from the dance community now anchored to the church. I can offer others the gift of making strong and longlasting friendships through dance.” (Amanda Jane) “Whether you are in the physical presence of other people or whether you are three thousand miles away makes no difference whatsoever to God – there is this link, which we can feel.” (Rosemary) “The gift I’ve received during the lockdown is the blessing of connectivity with people and increased intentional prayer with others.” (Jen) “For me personally, I am thankful that gardening gave a shape to an otherwise formless week safeguarding existing and forming new and enriching friendships.” (Sue) |
“What gift can I offer to help others flourish? The gift of friendship and practical help when people are suffering hardship. Providing food for families that have nothing to eat, especially over the Christmas period.” (Tony)
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Monday January 4th
As many of you are aware, students on placement from St Augustine’s spoke to many in our congregation and community about lessons learnt during the lockdown. This has been collated into a full video and scrapbook of all the contributions received. During the next two weeks, during this time of Epiphany, we will break down each of the lessons into vignettes and contributions for that particular lesson. Please you these to give thanks for our church of St Stephen’s as part of your Daily Devotion.
You can see the full video and scrapbook below.
NINE LESSONS IN LOCKDOWN (Full Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcKmxBQlVEk&feature=youtu.be
Link to Scrapbook: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FyLl4qg4ZxHGhE4dfVB6HnCAng9cj2dU/view
Revd Graham M Buckle
Vicar
As many of you are aware, students on placement from St Augustine’s spoke to many in our congregation and community about lessons learnt during the lockdown. This has been collated into a full video and scrapbook of all the contributions received. During the next two weeks, during this time of Epiphany, we will break down each of the lessons into vignettes and contributions for that particular lesson. Please you these to give thanks for our church of St Stephen’s as part of your Daily Devotion.
You can see the full video and scrapbook below.
NINE LESSONS IN LOCKDOWN (Full Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcKmxBQlVEk&feature=youtu.be
Link to Scrapbook: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FyLl4qg4ZxHGhE4dfVB6HnCAng9cj2dU/view
Revd Graham M Buckle
Vicar
Christmas Week
We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very blessed and happy Christmas.
Take care, and we look forward to seeing you in some sort of capacity in the New Year!
Please use this modern depiction of an ancient icon of the nativity for your Daily Devotion during this coming week:
We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very blessed and happy Christmas.
Take care, and we look forward to seeing you in some sort of capacity in the New Year!
Please use this modern depiction of an ancient icon of the nativity for your Daily Devotion during this coming week:
Friday 25th December
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year!
Thank you to the Civil Service Choir for providing our 'A Carol a Day' throughout December, and for today we present a final joyful hymn of praise!
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year!
Thank you to the Civil Service Choir for providing our 'A Carol a Day' throughout December, and for today we present a final joyful hymn of praise!
There is also a playlist of all the carols that we have enjoyed this December, which can be accessed by clicking here.
Thursday 24th December
We are delighted to have this special recording of the Corelli Christmas Concerto performed in our church to share with you all. Please enjoy, and our thoughts and prayers are with you at this very special time.
Christmas Concerto Op.6, No. 8
Arcangelo Corelli
James Maggs—Violin
Duncan McCombie—Violin
Helen Prentice—Viola
Lizzie Heighway—Cello
We are delighted to have this special recording of the Corelli Christmas Concerto performed in our church to share with you all. Please enjoy, and our thoughts and prayers are with you at this very special time.
Christmas Concerto Op.6, No. 8
Arcangelo Corelli
James Maggs—Violin
Duncan McCombie—Violin
Helen Prentice—Viola
Lizzie Heighway—Cello
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Wednesday 23rd December
O Emmanuel O come, O come, and be our God-with-us, O long-sought with-ness for a world without, O secret seed, O hidden spring of light. Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name, Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame, O quickened little wick so tightly curled, Be folded with us into time and place, Unfold for us the mystery of grace And make a womb of all this wounded world. O heart of heaven beating in the earth, O tiny hope within our hopelessness, Come to be born, to bear us to our birth, To touch a dying world with new-made hands And make these rags of time our swaddling bands. Malcom Guite - Sounding the Seasons (Cant. Press 2012) |
O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver, the hope of the nations and their Saviour: Come and save us, O Lord our God. 
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Tuesday 22nd December
O Rex Gentium O King of our desire whom we despise, King of the nations never on the throne, Unfound foundation, cast-off cornerstone, Rejected joiner, making many one: You have no form or beauty for our eyes, A King who comes to give away his crown, A King within our rags of flesh and bone. We pierce the flesh that pierces our disguise, For we ourselves are found in you alone. Come to us now and find in us your throne, O King within the child within the clay, O hidden King who shapes us in the play Of all creation. Shape us for the day Your coming Kingdom comes into its own. Malcom Guite - Sounding the Seasons (Cant. Press 2012) |
O King of the nations, and their desire, the cornerstone making both one: Come and save the human race, which you fashioned from clay. 
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Monday 21st December
O Oriens First light and then first lines along the east To touch and brush a sheen of light on water, As though behind the sky itself they traced The shift and shimmer of another river Flowing unbidden from its hidden source; The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera. Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice Are bathing in it now, away upstream . . . So every trace of light begins a grace In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam Is somehow a beginning and a calling: 'Sleeper awake, the darkness was a dream For you will see the Dayspring at your waking, Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking.' Malcom Guite - Sounding the Seasons (Cant. Press 2012) Friday 18th December
O Adonai Unsayable, you chose to speak one tongue; Unseeable, you gave yourself away; The Adonai, the Tetragrammaton, Grew by a wayside in the light of day. O you who dared to be a tribal God, To own a language, people and a place, Who chose to be exploited and betrayed, If so you might be met with face to face: Come to us here, who would not find you there, Who chose to know the skin and not the pith, Who heard no more than thunder in the air, Who marked the mere events and not the myth; Touch the bare branches of our unbelief And blaze again like fire in every leaf. Malcom Guite - Sounding the Seasons (Cant. Press 2012) |
O Morning Star, splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness: Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. 
O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm. ,_mos%C3%A8_e_il_roveto_ardente,_1465-70_ca._02.JPG)
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Thursday 17th December
When we say evening prayer every day, there are different ways that it changes to mark special feasts, or the liturgical season that we're in. One of those ways is to have a different sentence before the Magnificat at Evening Prayer, and from today the church has a special set of those sentences, called antiphons, that mark the final countdown to Christmas. The O Antiphons are ancient, going back as far as the sixth century, and they celebrate different aspects of Christ each day until Christmas. They have inspired music and poetry for centuries, and as part of our devotion leading up to Christmas, we will be exploring these antiphons through poetry.
From today until Christmas Day we posting each of Malcolm Guite’s THE GREAT O ANTIPHONS poems from his collection of Sounding the Seasons (Cant. Press 2012), alongside the Antiphon for each day.
When we say evening prayer every day, there are different ways that it changes to mark special feasts, or the liturgical season that we're in. One of those ways is to have a different sentence before the Magnificat at Evening Prayer, and from today the church has a special set of those sentences, called antiphons, that mark the final countdown to Christmas. The O Antiphons are ancient, going back as far as the sixth century, and they celebrate different aspects of Christ each day until Christmas. They have inspired music and poetry for centuries, and as part of our devotion leading up to Christmas, we will be exploring these antiphons through poetry.
From today until Christmas Day we posting each of Malcolm Guite’s THE GREAT O ANTIPHONS poems from his collection of Sounding the Seasons (Cant. Press 2012), alongside the Antiphon for each day.
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Thursday - O Sapientia
I cannot think unless I have been thought, Nor can I speak unless I have been spoken; cannot teach except as I am taught, Or break the bread except as I am broken. O Mind behind the mind through which I seek, O Light within the light by which I see, O Word beneath the words with which I speak, O founding, unfound Wisdom, finding me, O sounding Song whose depth is sounding me, O Memory of time, reminding me, My Ground of Being, always grounding me, My Maker's bounding line, defining me: Come, hidden Wisdom, come with all you bring, Come to me now, disguised as everything. |
O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,
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Wednesday 16th December
Ode to (Advent) Joy It has been wonderful to spend this term with you and I have greatly enjoyed the fine music at your church. My home church (also dedicated to St Stephen!) is similarly blessed. Before the second lockdown, we had planned a season of concerts to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th Anniversary, which falls on 16th December. Sadly, we have had to cancel the live concerts, but will be broadcasting two free concerts online including a unique performance of Symphony no. 9 (the Choral Symphony) arranged for piano (four hands) by Franz Xaver Scharwenka (1850-1924) performed by my talented friends Ben Schoeman and Tessa Uys and accompanied by our Choral Scholars. There’s a brief behind-the-scenes snippet in this video from ‘Ode to Joy’ – the fourth movement of the symphony. |
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Ode to Joy was written by the poet Friedrich Schiller and a slightly re-worked text was set to music by Beethoven after Schiller’s death. Some academics suggest the original text was an Ode to ‘Freedom’ and Beethoven’s composition has been sung by people across the world who are seeking freedom from oppression, from Chile to China.
Writing for the Schiller Institute, the musicologist Fred Haight suggests that as artists, both Schiller and Beethoven were motivated by the desire for the emancipation of mankind which found expression in the American Revolution, but were horrified by the barbarity of Revolutionary France. Freedom doesn’t mean doing whatever we want, but freedom from our selfish concerns to do God’s will. He writes:
“For Beethoven, as for Schiller, freedom is the freedom to develop one’s own cognitive powers, in order to carry out that necessary mission, on behalf of humanity as a whole, for which the Creator put us here in the first place.”
As Christians, that is the freedom to which we have been brought, in and through Christ.
Advent this year brings a glimmer of light that freedom from the lockdown is on the horizon, but the consequences of the pandemic will be long-lasting and our calling, as Christ's church, will be as important as ever. Let us live our lives as an Ode to Joy - and Freedom.
Phillip Dawson, Ordinand, St Augustine’s College of Theology
Thank you to everyone who joined us last week on Zoom to share their ‘Lessons from Lockdown’ which we hope to share with you in church on Sunday 20th December. There’s still time to contribute to the project. Please do email us one word or a sentence, a picture, a video or a poem to lessonsinlockdown@gmail.com
Writing for the Schiller Institute, the musicologist Fred Haight suggests that as artists, both Schiller and Beethoven were motivated by the desire for the emancipation of mankind which found expression in the American Revolution, but were horrified by the barbarity of Revolutionary France. Freedom doesn’t mean doing whatever we want, but freedom from our selfish concerns to do God’s will. He writes:
“For Beethoven, as for Schiller, freedom is the freedom to develop one’s own cognitive powers, in order to carry out that necessary mission, on behalf of humanity as a whole, for which the Creator put us here in the first place.”
As Christians, that is the freedom to which we have been brought, in and through Christ.
Advent this year brings a glimmer of light that freedom from the lockdown is on the horizon, but the consequences of the pandemic will be long-lasting and our calling, as Christ's church, will be as important as ever. Let us live our lives as an Ode to Joy - and Freedom.
Phillip Dawson, Ordinand, St Augustine’s College of Theology
Thank you to everyone who joined us last week on Zoom to share their ‘Lessons from Lockdown’ which we hope to share with you in church on Sunday 20th December. There’s still time to contribute to the project. Please do email us one word or a sentence, a picture, a video or a poem to lessonsinlockdown@gmail.com
Tuesday 15th December
Finding the positive
I have had to learn to look for tiny increments in daily life. Without wishing to become a Pollyanna I have found that there are things to be glad about. I can't go to the gym for my weekly very sociable exercise class and long swim but I have come across new places near where I live, I had no idea there were so many parks within walking distance. I know about the ones nearby but trek on a bit further and there are some lovely discoveries. I have occasionally been a little over-ambitious - a walk to and then around Alexandra Park with Elinor was 7 miles and I realise I need to be very much more fit.
No, I can't have times in the pub or in cafes with my friends and relations but thinking about Elinor, she doesn't live very far away so she and her partner and I are now in a "bubble" and able to meet for supper once a week in one of our homes.
But I can't do that with Catrin. We've got round it by meeting for socially distanced walks and that led to another discovery, Wanstead Park is halfway between here and Deptford, where she lives, so we met there and had a lovely walk, I picked a sprig of holly ready for Christmas and we saw a jay and a woodpecker as well as too many parakeets.
There have been so many discoveries to be thankful for, both of places and of personal abilities.
Prayer of Thanksgiving:
Thank you, Lord, for the blessings you have bestowed on my life. You have provided me with more than I could ever have imagined. You have surrounded me with people who always look out for me. You have given me family and friends who bless me every day with kind words and actions. They lift me up in ways that keep my eyes focused on you and make my spirit soar. Thank you, Lord, for keeping me safe. I am extremely grateful for all of your blessings in my life, Lord. I pray that you remind me of just how blessed I am and that you never allow me to forget to show my gratitude in prayer and returned acts of kindness. Thank you, Lord. Amen.
Liz Szewczyk, Churchwarden
Finding the positive
I have had to learn to look for tiny increments in daily life. Without wishing to become a Pollyanna I have found that there are things to be glad about. I can't go to the gym for my weekly very sociable exercise class and long swim but I have come across new places near where I live, I had no idea there were so many parks within walking distance. I know about the ones nearby but trek on a bit further and there are some lovely discoveries. I have occasionally been a little over-ambitious - a walk to and then around Alexandra Park with Elinor was 7 miles and I realise I need to be very much more fit.
No, I can't have times in the pub or in cafes with my friends and relations but thinking about Elinor, she doesn't live very far away so she and her partner and I are now in a "bubble" and able to meet for supper once a week in one of our homes.
But I can't do that with Catrin. We've got round it by meeting for socially distanced walks and that led to another discovery, Wanstead Park is halfway between here and Deptford, where she lives, so we met there and had a lovely walk, I picked a sprig of holly ready for Christmas and we saw a jay and a woodpecker as well as too many parakeets.
There have been so many discoveries to be thankful for, both of places and of personal abilities.
Prayer of Thanksgiving:
Thank you, Lord, for the blessings you have bestowed on my life. You have provided me with more than I could ever have imagined. You have surrounded me with people who always look out for me. You have given me family and friends who bless me every day with kind words and actions. They lift me up in ways that keep my eyes focused on you and make my spirit soar. Thank you, Lord, for keeping me safe. I am extremely grateful for all of your blessings in my life, Lord. I pray that you remind me of just how blessed I am and that you never allow me to forget to show my gratitude in prayer and returned acts of kindness. Thank you, Lord. Amen.
Liz Szewczyk, Churchwarden
Monday 14th December
Saint John of the Cross
As part of my Theology Degree, ‘Western Spiritual Tradition’ was one of the modules. It was a real privilege to study and examine the life and writing of the Spanish Mystic and poet, St John of the Cross, who the church commemorates today. Born in 1542 in Fontiveros, Spain, Juan, was the son of a rich merchant. His father died when he was very young, leaving his mother to raise him alone. At age 18, he began to study with the Jesuits and entered the Carmelite Order in 1563. Ordained in 1567, Juan met St. Teresa of Avila, another Christian mystic and followed her lead in attempting to reform his Order. In 1568, Juan and three other friars began to live a strict monastic life in a small farmhouse. They would go barefoot as confirmation of their pledge of poverty. He changed his name to Juan de la Cruz. There seemed to be some hostility from his former brothers, who regarded his strict discipline as a criticism of their relaxed way of life. In 1576, they had him arrested and imprisoned. But it was during this period of imprisonment, that Juan wrote most of his exquisite poetry. He died this day in 1591.
Please use his following poem as part your daily devotion today.
Revd Graham M Buckle
The Dark Night
Saint John of the Cross
As part of my Theology Degree, ‘Western Spiritual Tradition’ was one of the modules. It was a real privilege to study and examine the life and writing of the Spanish Mystic and poet, St John of the Cross, who the church commemorates today. Born in 1542 in Fontiveros, Spain, Juan, was the son of a rich merchant. His father died when he was very young, leaving his mother to raise him alone. At age 18, he began to study with the Jesuits and entered the Carmelite Order in 1563. Ordained in 1567, Juan met St. Teresa of Avila, another Christian mystic and followed her lead in attempting to reform his Order. In 1568, Juan and three other friars began to live a strict monastic life in a small farmhouse. They would go barefoot as confirmation of their pledge of poverty. He changed his name to Juan de la Cruz. There seemed to be some hostility from his former brothers, who regarded his strict discipline as a criticism of their relaxed way of life. In 1576, they had him arrested and imprisoned. But it was during this period of imprisonment, that Juan wrote most of his exquisite poetry. He died this day in 1591.
Please use his following poem as part your daily devotion today.
Revd Graham M Buckle
The Dark Night
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One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings - ah, the sheer grace! - I went out unseen, my house being now all stilled. In darkness, and secure, by the secret ladder, disguised, - ah, the sheer grace! - in darkness and concealment, my house being now all stilled. On that glad night in secret, for no one saw me, nor did I look at anything with no other light or guide than the One that burned in my heart. This guided me more surely than the light of noon to where he was awaiting me - him I knew so well - there in a place where no one appeared. |
O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn! O night that has united the Lover with his beloved, transforming the Beloved into his Lover. Upon my flowering breast, which I kept wholly for him alone, there he lay sleeping, and I caressing him there in a breeze from the fanning cedars. When the breeze blew from the turret, as I parted his hair, it wounded my neck with its gentle hand, suspending all my senses. I abandoned and forgot myself, laying my face on my Beloved; all things ceased; I went out from myself, leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies. |
Friday 11th December
As you may have seen in previous Daily Devotions, we are delighted to have a group of students from St Augustine's Theological College with us at the moment to do a project called Lessons in Lockdown, which you can still take part in by emailing lessonsinlockdown@gmail.com . The students put together a fantastic video last Sunday for our Young People, and we wanted to share it more widely. Do enjoy, and if you haven't already, consider joining their fantastic project. More details can be found here.
As you may have seen in previous Daily Devotions, we are delighted to have a group of students from St Augustine's Theological College with us at the moment to do a project called Lessons in Lockdown, which you can still take part in by emailing lessonsinlockdown@gmail.com . The students put together a fantastic video last Sunday for our Young People, and we wanted to share it more widely. Do enjoy, and if you haven't already, consider joining their fantastic project. More details can be found here.
Thursday 10th December
Zoomed Isolation
There is a very particular isolation to be experienced when Zooming with friends, family and participants in various meetings. Depending on what sort of meeting it is I set up my Zoom studio (aka the dining room table). For meetings with people I don't know very well I turn the laptop around so all they see is a very boring staircase. For friends I decamp to the sitting room, coffee in hand, feet up on the sofa.
For church I make a holy place. Since we started worshipping this way, months ago when the weather was warm, I collected flowers from the allotment or my garden and made sure there was always a bunch in view on the corner of the table. People sent me flowers occasionally so they would be my bit of nature. On Advent One I had my Advent Candles. I haven't been able to buy new ones, my annual trip to the shop next to Westminster Cathedral is cancelled, I will order online but for now I'm reusing the old, partly burnt ones and perhaps that's significant this year. It's almost like wartime "make do and mend". This is a sort of battle - for health, for sanity and for hope that eventually we will come safely out of this period of peculiarity and grief for loss.
And I make my communion. I have bread, I have wine and I have the words of the consecration and blessing beamed into the small holy corner of my home.
Liz Szewczyk, Churchwarden
Zoomed Isolation
There is a very particular isolation to be experienced when Zooming with friends, family and participants in various meetings. Depending on what sort of meeting it is I set up my Zoom studio (aka the dining room table). For meetings with people I don't know very well I turn the laptop around so all they see is a very boring staircase. For friends I decamp to the sitting room, coffee in hand, feet up on the sofa.
For church I make a holy place. Since we started worshipping this way, months ago when the weather was warm, I collected flowers from the allotment or my garden and made sure there was always a bunch in view on the corner of the table. People sent me flowers occasionally so they would be my bit of nature. On Advent One I had my Advent Candles. I haven't been able to buy new ones, my annual trip to the shop next to Westminster Cathedral is cancelled, I will order online but for now I'm reusing the old, partly burnt ones and perhaps that's significant this year. It's almost like wartime "make do and mend". This is a sort of battle - for health, for sanity and for hope that eventually we will come safely out of this period of peculiarity and grief for loss.
And I make my communion. I have bread, I have wine and I have the words of the consecration and blessing beamed into the small holy corner of my home.
Liz Szewczyk, Churchwarden
Wednesday 9th December
Tuesday 8th December
Zooming - again...
To Zoom or not to Zoom that is a daily question. I can remember asking a small child to stop zooming around on a bike because we were all in danger of being crashed into and there are times when that instruction feels appropriate to these peculiar days - which sets me off thinking about "peculiar". Once upon a time it mean "unto itself" but then it became "odd, unusual, strange" so in these peculiar, peculiar days I am thinking hard about zooming into each other and attempting to avoid accidental injury in the process.
Graham zoomed up to Finsbury Park on his bike the other day, and I zoomed a little less rapidly to join him for some essential paperwork signing on a slightly damp picnic table in the park. We talked about the isolation of these days and I began thinking about how we circumvent it. There are many ways, some more satisfactory than others, but Zoom has been a godsend - God sent? - although I suspect its inventors might disagree.
I am writing this on Advent Sunday, shortly before we all Zoom into the 10 o'clock and, for this Sunday, I will be able to see everyone because we are all stuck at home in the current lockdown. Rather selfishly I prefer these lockdown Sunday services because we are all in the same boat. When we are a hybrid congregation I can only see the people who, like me, are stranded at home. When my fellow congregants who live near enough to St Stephen's, or who don't have to isolate, are able to be in the building I am envious and also a bit cross because I feel left out, and yet it's amazing to be able to speak in real time to South Africa, Cornwall and parts of Pimlico. But those "lucky" people able to be in the building can't talk to each other or stay on for coffee and a catch up as I can with the Zoom congregation so it's not all good.
Liz Szewczyk, Churchwarden
Zooming - again...
To Zoom or not to Zoom that is a daily question. I can remember asking a small child to stop zooming around on a bike because we were all in danger of being crashed into and there are times when that instruction feels appropriate to these peculiar days - which sets me off thinking about "peculiar". Once upon a time it mean "unto itself" but then it became "odd, unusual, strange" so in these peculiar, peculiar days I am thinking hard about zooming into each other and attempting to avoid accidental injury in the process.
Graham zoomed up to Finsbury Park on his bike the other day, and I zoomed a little less rapidly to join him for some essential paperwork signing on a slightly damp picnic table in the park. We talked about the isolation of these days and I began thinking about how we circumvent it. There are many ways, some more satisfactory than others, but Zoom has been a godsend - God sent? - although I suspect its inventors might disagree.
I am writing this on Advent Sunday, shortly before we all Zoom into the 10 o'clock and, for this Sunday, I will be able to see everyone because we are all stuck at home in the current lockdown. Rather selfishly I prefer these lockdown Sunday services because we are all in the same boat. When we are a hybrid congregation I can only see the people who, like me, are stranded at home. When my fellow congregants who live near enough to St Stephen's, or who don't have to isolate, are able to be in the building I am envious and also a bit cross because I feel left out, and yet it's amazing to be able to speak in real time to South Africa, Cornwall and parts of Pimlico. But those "lucky" people able to be in the building can't talk to each other or stay on for coffee and a catch up as I can with the Zoom congregation so it's not all good.
Liz Szewczyk, Churchwarden
Monday 7th December
Seeking light in the lockdown
As we approach Advent – a season of waiting – after what has felt like a year of waiting, for some of us, this time of seeking light in the darkness has never before been so real. The words of the Collect for the first Sunday in Advent are words to be prayed when perhaps we are at a loss for words.
The words of the Collect remind me of Psalm 139 where the psalmist says in verses 11 and 12: “If I say, ‘surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me’, even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”
After what has felt like an Advent year – a year of waiting and wondering – hoping for chinks of light in persistent, uncertain and lonely darkness, may the story of the coming of Emmanuel – God with us – resonate with each of us in a new way, and help us put on the armour of light.
Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever
Through our “Lessons in Lockdown” project we are hoping to record your moments of light, of revelation, during the lockdown. What are your “lessons from lockdown”? What have you learnt about yourself? What gifts have you discovered? What have you learnt that you need to be the person you are meant to be? Please do get in touch to share your thoughts – perhaps a word, sentence, picture, video or poem. Email us at: lessonsinlockdown@gmail.com
Beth Cater, Ordinand, St Augustine’s College of Theology
Seeking light in the lockdown
As we approach Advent – a season of waiting – after what has felt like a year of waiting, for some of us, this time of seeking light in the darkness has never before been so real. The words of the Collect for the first Sunday in Advent are words to be prayed when perhaps we are at a loss for words.
The words of the Collect remind me of Psalm 139 where the psalmist says in verses 11 and 12: “If I say, ‘surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me’, even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”
After what has felt like an Advent year – a year of waiting and wondering – hoping for chinks of light in persistent, uncertain and lonely darkness, may the story of the coming of Emmanuel – God with us – resonate with each of us in a new way, and help us put on the armour of light.
Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever
Through our “Lessons in Lockdown” project we are hoping to record your moments of light, of revelation, during the lockdown. What are your “lessons from lockdown”? What have you learnt about yourself? What gifts have you discovered? What have you learnt that you need to be the person you are meant to be? Please do get in touch to share your thoughts – perhaps a word, sentence, picture, video or poem. Email us at: lessonsinlockdown@gmail.com
Beth Cater, Ordinand, St Augustine’s College of Theology
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Friday 4th December
Prayer God of mercy and love, we gather as a church, may we remember those who are hurting, those in pain, in sorrow and those confused. May we provide a safe space for all to abide and pray. Would you meet us in our darkness, and give us freedom to struggle together as we seek your presence. We ask for strength for today, courage for tomorrow and peace for the past. Amen. Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Thursday 3rd December
Making our way through lockdown
“The Makers” is a wonderful poem by Dorothy Sayers, used as a dedication to her scripts for ‘The Man Born to be King’ - a series of radio plays on the life of Christ, first broadcast by the BBC in December 1941. The poem (which you can read at this link) reveals the interconnectedness of the creative process and reminds us of the ultimate source of our creativity – the Lord, our Maker.
“The Makers” begins with an Architect declaring himself to be the master; appealing to the Craftsman to follow his plans obediently. The Craftsman reminds the Architect that it is he who gives shape to the Architect’s “little inky scrawl” – and that he, therefore, is the master. Then the Stone speaks, reminding the others that he can “bless or damn” their plans simply by using the gifts he has been given to the best of his ability – by being a stone! He encourages the Architect and Craftsman to set aside their pride and focus on sharing their gifts, by doing what each knows best “since none is master of the rest, but all are servants of the work” – the work of God, who is master of all.
Making our way through life isn’t something we can do alone. The pandemic has highlighted our interconnectedness; images of the crystal-clear waters in the canals of Venice reminded us of our close relationship with the environment; empty supermarket shelves and the tireless work of nurses and care-home workers reminded us of our dependence on (often low-paid) workers in the retail, logistics and public sectors.
What connections have you noticed as you have made your way through the lockdown? Have you re-discovered long-forgotten gifts that you have learnt to share? Perhaps you have noticed the absence of something that brings you joy – a gift you would like to receive from others? Please do send us your thoughts; a word, sentence, picture, video or poem to: lessonsinlockdown@gmail.com
O Lord our Maker, grant us the wisdom to discern the gifts you have given us, the confidence to share them and the humility to receive them from others; in fulfilment of your holy will.
Phillip Dawson, Ordinand, St Augustine’s College of Theology
Lessons in Lockdown – Do join us tonight for our ‘drop in’ and share thoughts, feelings and reflections on Lockdown at 7 pm.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88976215551?pwd=RzFaaUFjTllESU90RDVhRGhtaEt3Zz09
Meeting ID: 889 7621 5551 Passcode: k2E7Bh
Making our way through lockdown
“The Makers” is a wonderful poem by Dorothy Sayers, used as a dedication to her scripts for ‘The Man Born to be King’ - a series of radio plays on the life of Christ, first broadcast by the BBC in December 1941. The poem (which you can read at this link) reveals the interconnectedness of the creative process and reminds us of the ultimate source of our creativity – the Lord, our Maker.
“The Makers” begins with an Architect declaring himself to be the master; appealing to the Craftsman to follow his plans obediently. The Craftsman reminds the Architect that it is he who gives shape to the Architect’s “little inky scrawl” – and that he, therefore, is the master. Then the Stone speaks, reminding the others that he can “bless or damn” their plans simply by using the gifts he has been given to the best of his ability – by being a stone! He encourages the Architect and Craftsman to set aside their pride and focus on sharing their gifts, by doing what each knows best “since none is master of the rest, but all are servants of the work” – the work of God, who is master of all.
Making our way through life isn’t something we can do alone. The pandemic has highlighted our interconnectedness; images of the crystal-clear waters in the canals of Venice reminded us of our close relationship with the environment; empty supermarket shelves and the tireless work of nurses and care-home workers reminded us of our dependence on (often low-paid) workers in the retail, logistics and public sectors.
What connections have you noticed as you have made your way through the lockdown? Have you re-discovered long-forgotten gifts that you have learnt to share? Perhaps you have noticed the absence of something that brings you joy – a gift you would like to receive from others? Please do send us your thoughts; a word, sentence, picture, video or poem to: lessonsinlockdown@gmail.com
O Lord our Maker, grant us the wisdom to discern the gifts you have given us, the confidence to share them and the humility to receive them from others; in fulfilment of your holy will.
Phillip Dawson, Ordinand, St Augustine’s College of Theology
Lessons in Lockdown – Do join us tonight for our ‘drop in’ and share thoughts, feelings and reflections on Lockdown at 7 pm.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88976215551?pwd=RzFaaUFjTllESU90RDVhRGhtaEt3Zz09
Meeting ID: 889 7621 5551 Passcode: k2E7Bh
Wednesday 2nd December
In Advent this year, each week we are putting together a short musical meditation video featuring seasonal music played by musicians from and associated with the St Stephen's community as well as, variously, prayers, information about the music, and images, which we hope will support spiritual reflection through the season leading up to Christmas. We plan to upload each video on the Wednesdays of Advent.
This first week of Advent, our Curate Helena and our Director of Music Matthew offer the chorus and first verse of the Advent Prose (at No. 501 in the New English Hymnal, if you want to follow), and a short organ piece based on its plainsong melody, "Rorate caeli" by Jeanne Demessieux. "Rorate caeli", translated as "Drop down, ye heavens, from above" in the New English Hymnal, adapts texts from the book of Isaiah expressing longing for the coming of Christ. At St Stephen's we often sing the Advent Prose gradually through the season, singing in sequence one of the four verses each week of Advent, so in this video for the first week of Advent Helena sings only the first verse in reflection of what was sung on Advent Sunday. Jeanne Demessieux (1921-68) was a 20th-century French organist and composer who, having been a prodigious pupil of Marcel Dupré, rapidly gained international recognition as a brilliant concert organist and was appointed Organiste Titulaire of La Madeleine in Paris in 1962. She wrote a number of organ compositions, many based on liturgical themes; "Rorate caeli", the first of of 12 Chorale Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes, presents a slightly ornamented but recognisable version of the Advent Prose plainsong melody with a simple accompaniment.
Matthew Blaiden
This first week of Advent, our Curate Helena and our Director of Music Matthew offer the chorus and first verse of the Advent Prose (at No. 501 in the New English Hymnal, if you want to follow), and a short organ piece based on its plainsong melody, "Rorate caeli" by Jeanne Demessieux. "Rorate caeli", translated as "Drop down, ye heavens, from above" in the New English Hymnal, adapts texts from the book of Isaiah expressing longing for the coming of Christ. At St Stephen's we often sing the Advent Prose gradually through the season, singing in sequence one of the four verses each week of Advent, so in this video for the first week of Advent Helena sings only the first verse in reflection of what was sung on Advent Sunday. Jeanne Demessieux (1921-68) was a 20th-century French organist and composer who, having been a prodigious pupil of Marcel Dupré, rapidly gained international recognition as a brilliant concert organist and was appointed Organiste Titulaire of La Madeleine in Paris in 1962. She wrote a number of organ compositions, many based on liturgical themes; "Rorate caeli", the first of of 12 Chorale Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes, presents a slightly ornamented but recognisable version of the Advent Prose plainsong melody with a simple accompaniment.
Matthew Blaiden
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Tuesday 1st December
Another gem from Michael Leunig, which came to mind during Helena’s Come and See session last Sunday. Dear God, We pray for another way of being: another way of knowing. Across the difficult terrain of our existence we have attempted to build a highway and in so doing have lost our footpath. God lead us to our footpath: Lead us there where in simplicity we may move at the speed of natural creatures and feel the earth's love beneath our feet. Lead us there where step-by-step we may feel the movement of creation in our hearts. And lead us there where side-by-side we may feel the embrace of the common soul. Nothing can be loved at speed. God lead us to the slow path; to the joyous insights of the pilgrim; another way of knowing: another way of being. Amen. ~ Michael Leunig Revd Lindsay Meader |
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Monday 30 November
Well, as Elizabeth stated yesterday, this is probably the strangest ever Advent we have experienced as a Christian Community. One thing is for certain, the 18th Century Advent Hymn based on the ancient Advent Antiphons - O Come, O Come Emmanuel - shall be sung with the same spiritual gusto as ever, as we herald the Light to come and shine in the darkness of our strange world today. As we shared prayers and art last night with our friends from New York, it was good to have John’s thoughts on this great hymn: |
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Today on this first Monday of Advent I commend that you sing the hymn with Helena, Matthew and myself as part of your Daily Devotion:
O come, O come. Emmanuel! Redeem thy captive Israel, That into exile drear is gone Far from the face of God's dear Son. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, thou Wisdom from on high! Who madest all in earth and sky, Creating man from dust and clay: To us reveal salvation's way. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, O come, Adonai, Who in thy glorious majesty From Sinai's mountain, clothed with awe. Gavest thy folk the ancient law. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, thou Root of Jesse! draw The quarry from the lion's claw; From those dread caverns of the grave, From nether hell, thy people save. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, thou Lord of David's Key! The royal door fling wide and tree; Safeguard for us the heavenward road, And bar the way to death's abode. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel. |
O come, O come, thou Dayspring bright!
Pour on our souls thy healing light; Dispel the long night’s lingering gloom, And pierce the shadows of the tomb. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, Desire of nations! show Thy kingly reign on earth below; Thou Corner-stone, uniting all, Restore the ruin of our fall. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, O come. Emmanuel! Redeem thy captive Israel, That into exile drear is gone Far from the face of God's dear Son. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel. Revd Graham M Buckle |
Friday 27th November
In terms of spirituality and prayer life, Michael Leunig (declared an Australian Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1999) is someone I return to time and time again. A cartoonist, poet and sage, he notably persuaded the Australian National Newspaper, The Sunday Age, to allow him to publish not regular cartoons, but rather drawn prayers. His work is quirky, at times whimsical, but also profound. His simple drawings and observations, with frequently feature a duck, have the power to point us to deeper truths about our lives and relationships, and especially our relationship with our Creator.
I was reminded particularly of the prayer below when giving thanks for our brilliant choir at St Stephen’s, when hearing them sing back in church for the first time in many months. We all pray it won’t be too much longer before we can hear them back in church once more.
We give thanks for singers.
All types of singers.
Popular, concert singers and
tuneless singers in the bath.
Whistlers, hummers and those
who sing while they work.
Singers of lullabies; singers of nonsense
and small scraps of melody.
Singers on branches and rooftops.
Morning yodellers and evening warblers.
Singers in seedy nightclubs, singers in the street;
Singers in cathedrals, school halls, grandstands,
back yards, paddocks, bedrooms, corridors,
stairwells and places of echo and resonance.
We give praise to all those who give some small voice
To the everyday joy of the soul.
Amen.
- Michael Leunig
Revd Lindsay Meader
In terms of spirituality and prayer life, Michael Leunig (declared an Australian Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1999) is someone I return to time and time again. A cartoonist, poet and sage, he notably persuaded the Australian National Newspaper, The Sunday Age, to allow him to publish not regular cartoons, but rather drawn prayers. His work is quirky, at times whimsical, but also profound. His simple drawings and observations, with frequently feature a duck, have the power to point us to deeper truths about our lives and relationships, and especially our relationship with our Creator.
I was reminded particularly of the prayer below when giving thanks for our brilliant choir at St Stephen’s, when hearing them sing back in church for the first time in many months. We all pray it won’t be too much longer before we can hear them back in church once more.
We give thanks for singers.
All types of singers.
Popular, concert singers and
tuneless singers in the bath.
Whistlers, hummers and those
who sing while they work.
Singers of lullabies; singers of nonsense
and small scraps of melody.
Singers on branches and rooftops.
Morning yodellers and evening warblers.
Singers in seedy nightclubs, singers in the street;
Singers in cathedrals, school halls, grandstands,
back yards, paddocks, bedrooms, corridors,
stairwells and places of echo and resonance.
We give praise to all those who give some small voice
To the everyday joy of the soul.
Amen.
- Michael Leunig
Revd Lindsay Meader
Thursday 26th November
Our last two Daily Devotions have spoken of two of the ways in which we try to communicate that which is indescribable: pictures and music. Expressing the inexpressible is one of the great challenges of faith, as God and our experiences of God go beyond words, and often even our capacity to understand. Advent is a great expression of this – time spent in darkness awaiting the revelation of Jesus Christ at his birth at Christmas. Time spent in prayer and penitence before the outpouring of joy at the birth of our Saviour.
George Herbert was one of the great poets for understanding the power and the limits of language. His poem Prayer (I) is a rhapsody of images, attempting to understand what prayer – the coming alongside of God – is, and how it feels. I love to spend time with this poem, thinking about which image speaks to me most at the moment, and why that might be. I encourage you to do the same and, if you wish to hear a fantastic setting of the poem by the composer Judith Weir, I also include a link to the recording on Spotify.
Prayer (I) – George Herbert
Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth
Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices; something understood.
Our last two Daily Devotions have spoken of two of the ways in which we try to communicate that which is indescribable: pictures and music. Expressing the inexpressible is one of the great challenges of faith, as God and our experiences of God go beyond words, and often even our capacity to understand. Advent is a great expression of this – time spent in darkness awaiting the revelation of Jesus Christ at his birth at Christmas. Time spent in prayer and penitence before the outpouring of joy at the birth of our Saviour.
George Herbert was one of the great poets for understanding the power and the limits of language. His poem Prayer (I) is a rhapsody of images, attempting to understand what prayer – the coming alongside of God – is, and how it feels. I love to spend time with this poem, thinking about which image speaks to me most at the moment, and why that might be. I encourage you to do the same and, if you wish to hear a fantastic setting of the poem by the composer Judith Weir, I also include a link to the recording on Spotify.
Prayer (I) – George Herbert
Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth
Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices; something understood.
Revd Helena Bickley-Percival
Wednesday 25th November
Today the church commemorates one of my favourite Saints. She has special significance for me, not because any piety, good works or religious connections, but rather for her extraordinary depiction in art. I can remember that I had a small copy of the icon (see below) of Catherine of Alexandria in my room. Catherine died c. early 4th century, Alexandria, Egypt, and was one of the most popular early Christian martyrs. According to her hagiography, she was both a princess and a noted scholar who became a Christian around the age of 14, converted hundreds of people to Christianity and, according to tradition, martyred around the age of 18 at the hands of the emperor Maxentius. More than 1,100 years after Catherine's death, Joan of Ark identified her as one of the saints who appeared and counselled her. Emperor Maxentius tried to make Catherine refute her faith, tortured her and even tried to win the beautiful and wise princess over by proposing marriage. Little wonder Catherine refused, declaring that her spouse was Jesus Christ, to whom she had consecrated her virginity. The furious emperor condemned Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel (hence the Catherine wheel - and she is often depicted in art holding a wheel) but, at her touch, it shattered. Maxentius ordered her to be beheaded. Catherine herself ordered the execution to commence. A milk-like substance rather than blood flowed from her neck. Quite a story, but it has meant that we have a rich heritage of art depicting this popular mythology of her life. Please use these pictures of Catherine for your daily Devotion today.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today the church commemorates one of my favourite Saints. She has special significance for me, not because any piety, good works or religious connections, but rather for her extraordinary depiction in art. I can remember that I had a small copy of the icon (see below) of Catherine of Alexandria in my room. Catherine died c. early 4th century, Alexandria, Egypt, and was one of the most popular early Christian martyrs. According to her hagiography, she was both a princess and a noted scholar who became a Christian around the age of 14, converted hundreds of people to Christianity and, according to tradition, martyred around the age of 18 at the hands of the emperor Maxentius. More than 1,100 years after Catherine's death, Joan of Ark identified her as one of the saints who appeared and counselled her. Emperor Maxentius tried to make Catherine refute her faith, tortured her and even tried to win the beautiful and wise princess over by proposing marriage. Little wonder Catherine refused, declaring that her spouse was Jesus Christ, to whom she had consecrated her virginity. The furious emperor condemned Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel (hence the Catherine wheel - and she is often depicted in art holding a wheel) but, at her touch, it shattered. Maxentius ordered her to be beheaded. Catherine herself ordered the execution to commence. A milk-like substance rather than blood flowed from her neck. Quite a story, but it has meant that we have a rich heritage of art depicting this popular mythology of her life. Please use these pictures of Catherine for your daily Devotion today.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherin'- triptych by Hans Memling from Wikipedia
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Bernardino Luini – Portrait of Catherine of Alexandria
(National Art Museum of Azerbaijan)
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St Catherine and her wheel from Stephen Morris' website
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Tuesday 24th November
The French composer Olivier Messiaen, it’s said, was brought up in an atmosphere of poetry and fairytales such as develop enormously a child’s imagination. He was attracted to the supernatural and the spiritual – above all, to the Bible and to music. An admirer of Messiaen was fortunate enough to attend an organ recital of his music in a darkened church in New York. I imagine you couldn’t have found a starker contrast between the carnival strains of all that was going on in the city streets outside in the run-up to Thanksgiving Day and the foretaste of a different kind of heaven expressed in Messiaen’s timeless harmonic progressions. Messiaen was a man whose melodic inspiration is uniquely found not only in ancient plainchant but also in the song of the birds, the supreme musicians of God’s creation, whose calls he noticed and collected with passionate enthusiasm. What was so revealing for the admirer, though, was the mixture of old and young people who packed into that still church the afternoon he was there, silent before the recital began, aware only of the rumble of the subway deep below. And then the exotic colours of Messiaen’s music were slowly revealed – ‘the swords of fire, blue and orange lava flows,’ as he described them, ‘sudden stars and rainbow’s clouds’. They captivated all with ears to hear. Messiaen’s music won’t appeal to everyone, of course, but a glimpse of heaven in whatever form is something most of us yearn for.
Whatever today holds, Lord, thank You that You have placed heaven in our hearts. Keep that loveliness alive and help us to trust You to bring us and those for whom we pray to the hope of the eternity You set before us – especially now, during the pandemic and second lockdown.
Mission Project: Lessons in Lockdown
In light of all that has happened this year and if anything in my Reflection chimes with how you are feeling or have felt this year as a result of the pandemic, please may I encourage you to contact one of the students from St. Augustine’s.
Any and all contributions would be gratefully received!
Jon Fox
Ordinand at St Augustine’s
The French composer Olivier Messiaen, it’s said, was brought up in an atmosphere of poetry and fairytales such as develop enormously a child’s imagination. He was attracted to the supernatural and the spiritual – above all, to the Bible and to music. An admirer of Messiaen was fortunate enough to attend an organ recital of his music in a darkened church in New York. I imagine you couldn’t have found a starker contrast between the carnival strains of all that was going on in the city streets outside in the run-up to Thanksgiving Day and the foretaste of a different kind of heaven expressed in Messiaen’s timeless harmonic progressions. Messiaen was a man whose melodic inspiration is uniquely found not only in ancient plainchant but also in the song of the birds, the supreme musicians of God’s creation, whose calls he noticed and collected with passionate enthusiasm. What was so revealing for the admirer, though, was the mixture of old and young people who packed into that still church the afternoon he was there, silent before the recital began, aware only of the rumble of the subway deep below. And then the exotic colours of Messiaen’s music were slowly revealed – ‘the swords of fire, blue and orange lava flows,’ as he described them, ‘sudden stars and rainbow’s clouds’. They captivated all with ears to hear. Messiaen’s music won’t appeal to everyone, of course, but a glimpse of heaven in whatever form is something most of us yearn for.
Whatever today holds, Lord, thank You that You have placed heaven in our hearts. Keep that loveliness alive and help us to trust You to bring us and those for whom we pray to the hope of the eternity You set before us – especially now, during the pandemic and second lockdown.
Mission Project: Lessons in Lockdown
In light of all that has happened this year and if anything in my Reflection chimes with how you are feeling or have felt this year as a result of the pandemic, please may I encourage you to contact one of the students from St. Augustine’s.
Any and all contributions would be gratefully received!
Jon Fox
Ordinand at St Augustine’s
Monday 23rd November
Christmas Charity
2020 has been a very difficult year, with so many losing their jobs, homes and, tragically, their lives. This Christmas more than ever, people in our community are facing uncertainty and hardship, and often it's the children who suffer most.
For those of you lucky enough to be in a position to help, I am putting together a project to supply our local food bank with chocolate selection boxes, to try and bring a little joy to those who really need it.
Graham has kindly offered St Stephen's Church, Rochester Row, as a drop of point for any donations on Mondays 2-5pm and Thursdays 11am-2pm (last drop off 17th December).
Please help all you can.
Thank you in advance.
Rhianon John
Christmas Charity
2020 has been a very difficult year, with so many losing their jobs, homes and, tragically, their lives. This Christmas more than ever, people in our community are facing uncertainty and hardship, and often it's the children who suffer most.
For those of you lucky enough to be in a position to help, I am putting together a project to supply our local food bank with chocolate selection boxes, to try and bring a little joy to those who really need it.
Graham has kindly offered St Stephen's Church, Rochester Row, as a drop of point for any donations on Mondays 2-5pm and Thursdays 11am-2pm (last drop off 17th December).
Please help all you can.
Thank you in advance.
Rhianon John
Friday 20th November
This week the church has commemorated a number of lesser but significant Saints of the church. Among them: Margaret of Scotland (16 Nov), Hugh Bishop of Lincoln (17 Nov), Elizabeth of Hungry (18 Nov), Hilda (19 Nov) and today Edmund King of Anglia...what a treat it has been at morning and evening prayer to hear and learn about these wonderful people, their lives and the part they’ve play in the history and development of the church. They have ranged from 1231 when Elizabeth, who after her husband's death, sent her children away, regained her dowry and used the money to build a hospital where she herself served the sick. She became a symbol of Christian charity after her death at the age of 24: To 689 when Hilda died; John yesterday in his Daily Devotion shared some thoughts about her, as did the other John from across the pond - please do watch his video as part of your devotion: https://vimeo.com/480820554
Today we remember Edmund the Martyr (also known as St Edmund or Edmund of East Anglia, died 20 November 869) was king of East Anglia from about 855 until his death. Not much is known about him, but in the Middle Ages Edmund was regarded as the patron saint of England, which gave rise to the emergence of a popular cult around him. In about 986, a book was written about his life and martyrdom and his shrine at Bury was visited by many kings, including Canute.
So let us pray today’s collect, remembering Edmund who we particularly remember today, but also let us give thanks for all those we’ve this week:
Eternal God,
whose servant Edmund kept faith to the end,
both with you and with his people,
and glorified you by his death:
grant us such steadfastness of faith that,
with the noble army of martyrs,
we may come to enjoy the fullness of the resurrection life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
This week the church has commemorated a number of lesser but significant Saints of the church. Among them: Margaret of Scotland (16 Nov), Hugh Bishop of Lincoln (17 Nov), Elizabeth of Hungry (18 Nov), Hilda (19 Nov) and today Edmund King of Anglia...what a treat it has been at morning and evening prayer to hear and learn about these wonderful people, their lives and the part they’ve play in the history and development of the church. They have ranged from 1231 when Elizabeth, who after her husband's death, sent her children away, regained her dowry and used the money to build a hospital where she herself served the sick. She became a symbol of Christian charity after her death at the age of 24: To 689 when Hilda died; John yesterday in his Daily Devotion shared some thoughts about her, as did the other John from across the pond - please do watch his video as part of your devotion: https://vimeo.com/480820554
Today we remember Edmund the Martyr (also known as St Edmund or Edmund of East Anglia, died 20 November 869) was king of East Anglia from about 855 until his death. Not much is known about him, but in the Middle Ages Edmund was regarded as the patron saint of England, which gave rise to the emergence of a popular cult around him. In about 986, a book was written about his life and martyrdom and his shrine at Bury was visited by many kings, including Canute.
So let us pray today’s collect, remembering Edmund who we particularly remember today, but also let us give thanks for all those we’ve this week:
Eternal God,
whose servant Edmund kept faith to the end,
both with you and with his people,
and glorified you by his death:
grant us such steadfastness of faith that,
with the noble army of martyrs,
we may come to enjoy the fullness of the resurrection life;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
This snake stone, shaped out of a Dactylioceras commune from the early Jurassic period, is held by the Natural History Museum in London, England. Photo by NHM Images
Thursday 19th November
Today the church commemorates Hilda of Whitby. My first experience of visiting Whitby many years ago was of the wonderful fish and chips we ate whilst sitting on the harbour wall. And then the climb up to the ruined remains of the Abbey. For me Hilda is a good example of living life in the secular world, balanced with that of an openness to responding to God’s call – when He calls. She used her secular experiences – organisational and communication skills – to the glory of God in forming new monastic communities, to challenge a ‘male dominated’ church and to nurture others in the faith. This is what we too are called to do – to use all our God-given gifts and experiences to the glory of God both in work, in church and in our communities. As some of you will know, I spent much of my ‘working life’ as a teacher and headteacher and now, in the second half of life, I am focussed on serving the church and God’s people as a parish priest – hopefully, in some small way like Hilda, using all my secular experiences and skills in productive ways. Hilda used the second half of her life to immerse herself in Godly tasks and to spend time in silent prayer and reflection. This is something we do each Thursday evening in our shared Compline/Night Prayer – to spend time in silence with one another and God, reflecting on all that we have done this day. Feel free to join us on Thursdays at 8.30pm
Collect for Today
Eternal God,
who made the abbess Hilda to shine like a jewel in our land
and through her holiness and leadership
blessed your Church with new life and unity:
help us, like her, to yearn for the gospel of Christ
and to reconcile those who are divided;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Revd John Pearson-Hicks
Parish Priest – St Barnabas Pimlico Road (former Self Supporting Minister of St Stephen’s)
Today the church commemorates Hilda of Whitby. My first experience of visiting Whitby many years ago was of the wonderful fish and chips we ate whilst sitting on the harbour wall. And then the climb up to the ruined remains of the Abbey. For me Hilda is a good example of living life in the secular world, balanced with that of an openness to responding to God’s call – when He calls. She used her secular experiences – organisational and communication skills – to the glory of God in forming new monastic communities, to challenge a ‘male dominated’ church and to nurture others in the faith. This is what we too are called to do – to use all our God-given gifts and experiences to the glory of God both in work, in church and in our communities. As some of you will know, I spent much of my ‘working life’ as a teacher and headteacher and now, in the second half of life, I am focussed on serving the church and God’s people as a parish priest – hopefully, in some small way like Hilda, using all my secular experiences and skills in productive ways. Hilda used the second half of her life to immerse herself in Godly tasks and to spend time in silent prayer and reflection. This is something we do each Thursday evening in our shared Compline/Night Prayer – to spend time in silence with one another and God, reflecting on all that we have done this day. Feel free to join us on Thursdays at 8.30pm
Collect for Today
Eternal God,
who made the abbess Hilda to shine like a jewel in our land
and through her holiness and leadership
blessed your Church with new life and unity:
help us, like her, to yearn for the gospel of Christ
and to reconcile those who are divided;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Revd John Pearson-Hicks
Parish Priest – St Barnabas Pimlico Road (former Self Supporting Minister of St Stephen’s)
Photo of Cassini Spacecraft Mission orbiting Saturn from Picture from Eventbrite lecture.
Wednesday 18th November
A couple of weeks ago I attend one of the RAS Bicentenary Free Public Lectures given by Michele Dougherty who was part of the extraordinary Cassini Spacecraft Mission to study Saturn and its moons.
Professor Michele Dougherty explained how this Spacecraft, a joint US - European project (NASA/ESA), was launched in 1997. In September 2017, the NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens spacecraft mission ended its 20 years in space by burning up in Saturn’s atmosphere. The end of mission orbits were designed to better understand the interior of Saturn and its magnetic field.
It was interesting to see how visibly emotional Professor Dougherty became in describing these end of mission results. She also looked into some of the discoveries made during the orbital tour at Saturn, including water vapour plumes at the small moon Enceladus and implications this has for potential habitability. I have to say - it was fascinating, just the length of the mission and it’s abortive ending, made one realise the extraordinary lengths and energy, and the subsequent amazing discoveries that go into such missions, with most of the data still being analysed today. Such is the length of this event that Professor Michele Dougherty has now retired, having started the event as a young scientist.
As Christians we should not only be interested but involved in such discoveries, as ‘space’ is God’s space, and for me personally it makes me marvel even more at the wonder of God’s creative power both here on earth and beyond. If Professor Michele Dougherty’s Lecture might interest you can view it here on YouTube.
A Space-Inspired Prayer
Lord of time and space,
all creation springs from your love;
earth, moon, stars and planets
in their orbit.
You give order to this universe,
bringing life into being.
As we gaze in awe and wonder,
and discover more about the cosmos,
may we live in harmony with it,
be deepened in faith,
and rejoice with thankful hearts;
for nothing separates us from your love,
which reaches beyond every horizon;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Amen
Revd Graham M Buckle
A couple of weeks ago I attend one of the RAS Bicentenary Free Public Lectures given by Michele Dougherty who was part of the extraordinary Cassini Spacecraft Mission to study Saturn and its moons.
Professor Michele Dougherty explained how this Spacecraft, a joint US - European project (NASA/ESA), was launched in 1997. In September 2017, the NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens spacecraft mission ended its 20 years in space by burning up in Saturn’s atmosphere. The end of mission orbits were designed to better understand the interior of Saturn and its magnetic field.
It was interesting to see how visibly emotional Professor Dougherty became in describing these end of mission results. She also looked into some of the discoveries made during the orbital tour at Saturn, including water vapour plumes at the small moon Enceladus and implications this has for potential habitability. I have to say - it was fascinating, just the length of the mission and it’s abortive ending, made one realise the extraordinary lengths and energy, and the subsequent amazing discoveries that go into such missions, with most of the data still being analysed today. Such is the length of this event that Professor Michele Dougherty has now retired, having started the event as a young scientist.
As Christians we should not only be interested but involved in such discoveries, as ‘space’ is God’s space, and for me personally it makes me marvel even more at the wonder of God’s creative power both here on earth and beyond. If Professor Michele Dougherty’s Lecture might interest you can view it here on YouTube.
A Space-Inspired Prayer
Lord of time and space,
all creation springs from your love;
earth, moon, stars and planets
in their orbit.
You give order to this universe,
bringing life into being.
As we gaze in awe and wonder,
and discover more about the cosmos,
may we live in harmony with it,
be deepened in faith,
and rejoice with thankful hearts;
for nothing separates us from your love,
which reaches beyond every horizon;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Amen
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 17th November
I have a Sion College Webinar/Seminar to coordinate tonight so will be missing one of the few TV nights in our household - C4’s ‘Bake Off’. Thank goodness for ‘catch up’ I say! For those who have no idea what I’m talking about - ‘Bake Off’ is a reality TV programme, where home bakers compete against each other in order to prove their baking skills and win the title of Britain's best amateur baker. Each week one baker is awarded ‘the star-baker of week’, whilst another is eliminated. It’s great fun with some great ideas for baking. Of course during the last lockdown, baking took off in such a way that at one point it was difficult to obtain flour from our shops.
I enjoy baking when I get the chance and I am always reminded of my dear mum, Floss, who was a star-baker in my eyes. I especially remember her cakes, particularly lemon drizzle cake. When we were clearing out all her things we found a number of my mum’s recipes, lemon drizzle was among them, together with the recipe for her famous tea-cake or ‘Geordie Brae Bread”. I love it as it is such a simple recipe and a great way of using left over tea. Here it is:
Soak fruit and sugar in cold Tea over night. Then mix all ingredients together and put in a greased loaf tin. Cook at 160 for about 60mins or till looking like this one I cooked this week:
So whether we are watching ‘Bake Off’, or taking time to bake ourselves or eating a delicious cake, or remembering those loved ones who have cooked for us, let us remember and give thanks to our God for all these things:
Divine Culinarian who brought forth the Bread of Life and Cup of Salvation, With gratitude, we celebrate the bakers in our midst. Through the work of their hands, they create edible masterpieces that neighbour can share with neighbour. Their offerings bring peace to the ones looking for comfort food. Their offerings bring joy to the young people celebrating birthdays and the couples joining their lives together in marriage. The bread they bake sits on communion tables as your children are reminded to “take and eat.” The pastries created by them will bring people together in our fellowship halls when worship ends. Bless their hands in the rolling of dough and the ovens as breads rise and bake. Bless the hearts who laugh together in the kitchen as they decorate cookies or finish pies. Through the work of their hands, we partake in fellowship and see the presence of the Christ in our midst. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
I have a Sion College Webinar/Seminar to coordinate tonight so will be missing one of the few TV nights in our household - C4’s ‘Bake Off’. Thank goodness for ‘catch up’ I say! For those who have no idea what I’m talking about - ‘Bake Off’ is a reality TV programme, where home bakers compete against each other in order to prove their baking skills and win the title of Britain's best amateur baker. Each week one baker is awarded ‘the star-baker of week’, whilst another is eliminated. It’s great fun with some great ideas for baking. Of course during the last lockdown, baking took off in such a way that at one point it was difficult to obtain flour from our shops.
I enjoy baking when I get the chance and I am always reminded of my dear mum, Floss, who was a star-baker in my eyes. I especially remember her cakes, particularly lemon drizzle cake. When we were clearing out all her things we found a number of my mum’s recipes, lemon drizzle was among them, together with the recipe for her famous tea-cake or ‘Geordie Brae Bread”. I love it as it is such a simple recipe and a great way of using left over tea. Here it is:
- 12oz (sorry but that what Floss used!) Dried Fruit
- 1 Cup of Dark Brown Sugar
- 1 Cup of Cold Tea
- 2 Cups of SR Flour
- 1 Egg
- 3oz Crushed Walnuts
Soak fruit and sugar in cold Tea over night. Then mix all ingredients together and put in a greased loaf tin. Cook at 160 for about 60mins or till looking like this one I cooked this week:
So whether we are watching ‘Bake Off’, or taking time to bake ourselves or eating a delicious cake, or remembering those loved ones who have cooked for us, let us remember and give thanks to our God for all these things:
Divine Culinarian who brought forth the Bread of Life and Cup of Salvation, With gratitude, we celebrate the bakers in our midst. Through the work of their hands, they create edible masterpieces that neighbour can share with neighbour. Their offerings bring peace to the ones looking for comfort food. Their offerings bring joy to the young people celebrating birthdays and the couples joining their lives together in marriage. The bread they bake sits on communion tables as your children are reminded to “take and eat.” The pastries created by them will bring people together in our fellowship halls when worship ends. Bless their hands in the rolling of dough and the ovens as breads rise and bake. Bless the hearts who laugh together in the kitchen as they decorate cookies or finish pies. Through the work of their hands, we partake in fellowship and see the presence of the Christ in our midst. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
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Monday 16th November
As we move through the round of the church’s year, the colours of the church change. Since All Saints Day on 1st November, we have been in red for the season of All Saints to Advent – also known as the Kingdom Season. It marks the end of the church’s year, with “New Year’s Day” coming on Advent Sunday, as the church year follows the course of Jesus’s life, from birth at Christmas, to death and resurrection at Easter, and then the Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Kingdom Season reminds us of both what is, and what comes next. The Kingdom of God established on Earth in Jesus, but also the fact that the Kingdom of God isn’t here yet, but is something that we work towards and look forward to. At All Saints we celebrate the lives of those in whom we have seen the Kingdom of God at work on earth already. At All Souls and Remembrance Sunday we remember those who are still part of the church, still part of the kingdom, though separated from us now in death. As Charles Wesley said: One family, we dwell in him, One Church, above, beneath; Though now divided by the stream, The narrow stream of death. We will end the season with Christ the King. We begin the Christian year in the hope of the coming Messiah, and end it with the declaration of Christ’s sovereignty over all the earth. Christ is the Lord of earth and heaven, of that Kingdom of which we are a part, and for which we wait with eager longing. We end the church’s year looking forward to what happens next. So why are we in red? Red is the colour of the Holy Spirit, sent by Jesus at Pentecost, and who guides us as we seek to live out the kingdom on earth. Red is also the colour of the blood of the martyrs, who founded the church, and who by their lives and witness remind us of the ultimate sovereignty of God. Red is also the colour of kingship. The kingship of Christ, but also a kingship in which we partake as heirs to Christ and the Kingdom. We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people (1 Peter 2:9), who, at the end of the church’s year, look forward once more to the coming of Jesus at Christmas, but also to the day when he will establish his kingdom on earth. Revd Helena Bickley-Percival |
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Friday 13th November
To reassure the superstitious amongst you, I feel very lucky to be writing the Daily Devotion today This is because I want to communicate some exciting news about a Webinar I attended on Tuesday. I was invited by Theos (theological think tank) to the launch of a new report for the church called “The Grace Report”. Some of you might have seen this on our St Stephen, Westminster Facebook page. The report was a joint project with Theos and The Church Urban Fund.
The main researcher was a young lady called Hannah Rich who joined Theos in 2017. Her area of research is the relationship between church growth, social action and discipleship. She visited, interviewed and traveled the length and breath of the country to look at how social action can lead to congregations growing numerically and spiritually. Some of her recommendations where that the Church of England should be encouraged to see their social action projects as primary sites of invitation and how relationships can grow through it. Also how congregations and church leaders should be equipped to think about social action, discipleship and church growth in an integrated way rather than as three independent concepts. If you are interested in reading this fascinating and important report you can download it here.
But I commend it to you today because our church of St Stephen’s was one of the case studies in Hannah’s research. Perhaps we should invite her to come and preach for us one Sunday. So for our daily devotion today I invite you to pray for our continual outreach and social action, particularly in this difficult time:
Mark 16:15
Almighty God, You gave Your people an assignment to fulfil here on earth. You said to them “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Lord I pray that this is will be the mission of our church. I ask that You keep our hearts and minds open so that we willingly seek to touch those outside the four walls of the church; those who do not know You, Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
To reassure the superstitious amongst you, I feel very lucky to be writing the Daily Devotion today This is because I want to communicate some exciting news about a Webinar I attended on Tuesday. I was invited by Theos (theological think tank) to the launch of a new report for the church called “The Grace Report”. Some of you might have seen this on our St Stephen, Westminster Facebook page. The report was a joint project with Theos and The Church Urban Fund.
The main researcher was a young lady called Hannah Rich who joined Theos in 2017. Her area of research is the relationship between church growth, social action and discipleship. She visited, interviewed and traveled the length and breath of the country to look at how social action can lead to congregations growing numerically and spiritually. Some of her recommendations where that the Church of England should be encouraged to see their social action projects as primary sites of invitation and how relationships can grow through it. Also how congregations and church leaders should be equipped to think about social action, discipleship and church growth in an integrated way rather than as three independent concepts. If you are interested in reading this fascinating and important report you can download it here.
But I commend it to you today because our church of St Stephen’s was one of the case studies in Hannah’s research. Perhaps we should invite her to come and preach for us one Sunday. So for our daily devotion today I invite you to pray for our continual outreach and social action, particularly in this difficult time:
Mark 16:15
Almighty God, You gave Your people an assignment to fulfil here on earth. You said to them “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Lord I pray that this is will be the mission of our church. I ask that You keep our hearts and minds open so that we willingly seek to touch those outside the four walls of the church; those who do not know You, Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Thursday 12th November
I am sure that it hasn’t past your attention that the United States of America has a new President-elect - Democrat Joe Biden, who has made his first speech vowing "not to divide but unify" the country…“Let’s give each other a chance," he said at an event in Delaware, addressing those who did not vote for him.
His running mate, Kamala Harris, who will be first female, first black and first Asian-American vice-president in the country's history, said voters “chose hope, unity, decency”.
Biden's victory was projected early evening Saturday (GMT) by the BBC after he overtook incumbent Donald Trump in the state of Pennsylvania. Joe Biden will become president in January, pending the outcome of any legal challenges.
The rest of the world looked on in amazement as President Trump earlier declared himself the winner before all the results were declared, and as the American media circus crescendoed into heightened excitement as the results were eventually pronounced by various analysts, four days after polling day.
Whatever your political view or persuasion this is an important election for the whole world; with repercussions globally. And of course we remember our friends NYC, especially our link church of the Church of the Holy Trinity. I have been in communication with John and we have been keeping up with all the events through our friends who have joined us virtually for Evening Prayer. Please continue to remember them and the USA in your prayers at this time. Let us pray for peace and stability of that nation and of our world. For our ‘Daily Devotion’ today let us pray for the prayer ‘For peace and safety amid unrest’:
O God, who would fold both heaven and earth in a single peace:
let the design of thy great love
lighten upon the waste of our wraths and sorrows:
and give peace to thy Church,
peace among nations,
peace in our dwellings,
and peace in our hearts:
through thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Celebrations in NYC just around from the Church of the Holy Trinity:
https://youtu.be/-ygU539cgfI
Revd Graham M Buckle
I am sure that it hasn’t past your attention that the United States of America has a new President-elect - Democrat Joe Biden, who has made his first speech vowing "not to divide but unify" the country…“Let’s give each other a chance," he said at an event in Delaware, addressing those who did not vote for him.
His running mate, Kamala Harris, who will be first female, first black and first Asian-American vice-president in the country's history, said voters “chose hope, unity, decency”.
Biden's victory was projected early evening Saturday (GMT) by the BBC after he overtook incumbent Donald Trump in the state of Pennsylvania. Joe Biden will become president in January, pending the outcome of any legal challenges.
The rest of the world looked on in amazement as President Trump earlier declared himself the winner before all the results were declared, and as the American media circus crescendoed into heightened excitement as the results were eventually pronounced by various analysts, four days after polling day.
Whatever your political view or persuasion this is an important election for the whole world; with repercussions globally. And of course we remember our friends NYC, especially our link church of the Church of the Holy Trinity. I have been in communication with John and we have been keeping up with all the events through our friends who have joined us virtually for Evening Prayer. Please continue to remember them and the USA in your prayers at this time. Let us pray for peace and stability of that nation and of our world. For our ‘Daily Devotion’ today let us pray for the prayer ‘For peace and safety amid unrest’:
O God, who would fold both heaven and earth in a single peace:
let the design of thy great love
lighten upon the waste of our wraths and sorrows:
and give peace to thy Church,
peace among nations,
peace in our dwellings,
and peace in our hearts:
through thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Celebrations in NYC just around from the Church of the Holy Trinity:
https://youtu.be/-ygU539cgfI
Revd Graham M Buckle
Wednesday 11th November
Graham preached a very thoughtful sermon last Sunday about war and violence in the twentieth century. It certainly included two World Wars, but whether he was right in saying that it was the most violent century ever, I’m not so sure. We are a violent species. We fight, whether for more territory or against cancer. We fight for advantage, though we have become far more aware of what goes on in the world, and I dare to say that there is more international compassion than there ever was. Now we are fighting another world war against an unseen virus.
Being at war is a very complex psychological state. I was 9 when the Second World War was declared. We were still under the shadow of the First World War. My father had spent all four years in France and had lost an eye at the very end of it. My mother remembered it vividly. Chamberlain announcing “we are now at war with Germany” reduced her to tears and brought an abrupt end to my schooling for about six months while air raid shelters were built and life reorganised. Gas masks and Anderson shelters were distributed free, and rationing of food and clothes introduced in an effort to be fair to the whole population (and actually raised the living standards of many). The Battle of Britain started and very young men, some no older than students, took to the skies to fight to the death. One cousin was shot down over the North Sea, another came on leave, white, jittery, unnaturally cheerful. One brother went into the army, the other into the navy, soon to be on the North Atlantic convoys.
Then came - for us -the Birmingham blitz. In the worst week of all my father died of a heart attack. The night of his funeral, when the centre of Birmingham was in flames, we were turned out of our house at midnight because of an unexploded bomb at the end of our garden. When my brothers went back from compassionate leave, my mother and I were left sleeping under a bed (with a good wire mattress) that had been brought downstairs to the safest corner of the dining room.
But all the while the cohesion in society was extraordinary, and it lasted throughout the war. Of course we were surrounded by posters, “Careless talk costs lives”, “Dig for victory”, and all the rest, but the way the public responded, especially the way that -much later - the D-Day preparations were kept secret (impossible today) was extraordinary. The feeling that we were “all in this together” was so strong, and so was the morale-boosting humour. It is the latter we are missing today.
We did, of course, have a tangible enemy and, unlike the jingoism of the 1914-18 war, largely differentiated between the Nazis and ordinary Germans. Importantly, we also had a Government we trusted. People of my generation have Churchill’s speeches ingrained in our memory. They dealt realistically with our dangers but were there to give us courage, not to scare us. And it was a national coalition Government, not a party one. There were still great hardships. My sister’s fiancé came home on embarkation leave early in 1942, the vicar agreed hastily to marry them on Easter Day, then after a brief honeymoon she did not see him again for nearly four years. I was fatherless, but then so were most of the children in the country, at least temporarily so.
The memories are still vivid, part of our lives. It was the long dragging aftermath of the war that was most difficult, when rationing got worse (one egg a month) and the country was virtually bankrupt. I fear that will be the case after our present war. But hope and faith will win through. Those of us with a faith in God trust him to bring us through and to enable the younger generation to find a normal, if somewhat different way of life, even if some of us don’t live to see it.
Margaret Duggan
Graham preached a very thoughtful sermon last Sunday about war and violence in the twentieth century. It certainly included two World Wars, but whether he was right in saying that it was the most violent century ever, I’m not so sure. We are a violent species. We fight, whether for more territory or against cancer. We fight for advantage, though we have become far more aware of what goes on in the world, and I dare to say that there is more international compassion than there ever was. Now we are fighting another world war against an unseen virus.
Being at war is a very complex psychological state. I was 9 when the Second World War was declared. We were still under the shadow of the First World War. My father had spent all four years in France and had lost an eye at the very end of it. My mother remembered it vividly. Chamberlain announcing “we are now at war with Germany” reduced her to tears and brought an abrupt end to my schooling for about six months while air raid shelters were built and life reorganised. Gas masks and Anderson shelters were distributed free, and rationing of food and clothes introduced in an effort to be fair to the whole population (and actually raised the living standards of many). The Battle of Britain started and very young men, some no older than students, took to the skies to fight to the death. One cousin was shot down over the North Sea, another came on leave, white, jittery, unnaturally cheerful. One brother went into the army, the other into the navy, soon to be on the North Atlantic convoys.
Then came - for us -the Birmingham blitz. In the worst week of all my father died of a heart attack. The night of his funeral, when the centre of Birmingham was in flames, we were turned out of our house at midnight because of an unexploded bomb at the end of our garden. When my brothers went back from compassionate leave, my mother and I were left sleeping under a bed (with a good wire mattress) that had been brought downstairs to the safest corner of the dining room.
But all the while the cohesion in society was extraordinary, and it lasted throughout the war. Of course we were surrounded by posters, “Careless talk costs lives”, “Dig for victory”, and all the rest, but the way the public responded, especially the way that -much later - the D-Day preparations were kept secret (impossible today) was extraordinary. The feeling that we were “all in this together” was so strong, and so was the morale-boosting humour. It is the latter we are missing today.
We did, of course, have a tangible enemy and, unlike the jingoism of the 1914-18 war, largely differentiated between the Nazis and ordinary Germans. Importantly, we also had a Government we trusted. People of my generation have Churchill’s speeches ingrained in our memory. They dealt realistically with our dangers but were there to give us courage, not to scare us. And it was a national coalition Government, not a party one. There were still great hardships. My sister’s fiancé came home on embarkation leave early in 1942, the vicar agreed hastily to marry them on Easter Day, then after a brief honeymoon she did not see him again for nearly four years. I was fatherless, but then so were most of the children in the country, at least temporarily so.
The memories are still vivid, part of our lives. It was the long dragging aftermath of the war that was most difficult, when rationing got worse (one egg a month) and the country was virtually bankrupt. I fear that will be the case after our present war. But hope and faith will win through. Those of us with a faith in God trust him to bring us through and to enable the younger generation to find a normal, if somewhat different way of life, even if some of us don’t live to see it.
Margaret Duggan
Tuesday 10th November
Today is the feast of Leo the Great. He is probably one of the most important popes in the history of the Church and one of only three acclaimed as “great”, mainly for his teaching against heresy and for his famous Tome, which was read at the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451. He had a huge impact on the Church and the world in the fifth century, when the Roman Empire was in the midst of its painful transition from imperial glory toward what would eventually become Christendom. St. Leo the Great was also a great leader in that he faced down Attila the Hun, who was threatening to attack and sack Rome.
One historian described Leo’s character as one of “indomitable energy, magnanimity, consistency, and devotion to duty”. He died on this day - 10th November, 461 and was buried in Saint Peter’s Church in Rome.
When we look back at the history of the church, and particularly the precarious early days of those responsible for theologically working out its direction, we are reminded of the difficult and awesome responsibility placed on those in positions of leadership. As we have had those in civic authority in our minds, let us today remember the leaders of our church: Justin, our Archbishop; Pope Francis; Bartholomew the Ecumenical Patriarch; The President of the Methodist Church - Rev Richard Teal; The Leaders of the URC, Pentecostal and Black Led Churches, and finally Sarah, Bishop of London, as we pray:
O Lord our God, grant that your Church, following the teaching of your servant Leo of Rome, may hold fast the great mystery of our redemption, and adore the one Christ, true God and true Man, neither divided from our human nature nor separate from your divine Being; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today is the feast of Leo the Great. He is probably one of the most important popes in the history of the Church and one of only three acclaimed as “great”, mainly for his teaching against heresy and for his famous Tome, which was read at the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451. He had a huge impact on the Church and the world in the fifth century, when the Roman Empire was in the midst of its painful transition from imperial glory toward what would eventually become Christendom. St. Leo the Great was also a great leader in that he faced down Attila the Hun, who was threatening to attack and sack Rome.
One historian described Leo’s character as one of “indomitable energy, magnanimity, consistency, and devotion to duty”. He died on this day - 10th November, 461 and was buried in Saint Peter’s Church in Rome.
When we look back at the history of the church, and particularly the precarious early days of those responsible for theologically working out its direction, we are reminded of the difficult and awesome responsibility placed on those in positions of leadership. As we have had those in civic authority in our minds, let us today remember the leaders of our church: Justin, our Archbishop; Pope Francis; Bartholomew the Ecumenical Patriarch; The President of the Methodist Church - Rev Richard Teal; The Leaders of the URC, Pentecostal and Black Led Churches, and finally Sarah, Bishop of London, as we pray:
O Lord our God, grant that your Church, following the teaching of your servant Leo of Rome, may hold fast the great mystery of our redemption, and adore the one Christ, true God and true Man, neither divided from our human nature nor separate from your divine Being; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Monday 9th November
The salt of the earth are those who weep;
Tears rolling back towards the clay.
Crying because no words can say
What’s written on their hearts.
Teardrops for new possibilities
Or a future that could have been.
Crying out in agony
Or empathy at painful scenes.
Tears of a last goodbye
Or the first glimpse of new life.
Teardrops at a first step
Or a last throw of the dice.
Tears of shock or of surprise
Or disappointment at yet more lies.
Weeping silently, unseen
Or wailing loudly, with red eyes.
Tears of joy, a pause in time
a ray of hope; a light that shines.
Tears of regret when breaking up
Or of relief when waking up.
Welling up from memories past
Worried that these thoughts won’t last.
Crying at a coming out
Weeping at a welcome back.
Tears rolling for repentance,
and flowing in forgiveness.
Tears at the graveside,
garden
and the cross.
Jesus
wept.
On Monday 9th November the church remembers Margery Kempe, a fourteenth century Christian mystic. Her writings (set down by a series of scribes because she could not read or write herself) were rediscovered in the 1930’s and describe her life and her religious experiences, which included many visions. She was known particularly for her spiritual tears - her crying and wailing were viewed with suspicion by many including those in the church. Questioned by the Archbishop of York who asked “Why do you weep so, woman”, she replied “Sir, you shall wish some day that you had wept as sorely as I.”
(Image : Chris Ofili, No Woman No Cry, 1998)
Phillip Dawson (St Augustine, Student)
The salt of the earth are those who weep;
Tears rolling back towards the clay.
Crying because no words can say
What’s written on their hearts.
Teardrops for new possibilities
Or a future that could have been.
Crying out in agony
Or empathy at painful scenes.
Tears of a last goodbye
Or the first glimpse of new life.
Teardrops at a first step
Or a last throw of the dice.
Tears of shock or of surprise
Or disappointment at yet more lies.
Weeping silently, unseen
Or wailing loudly, with red eyes.
Tears of joy, a pause in time
a ray of hope; a light that shines.
Tears of regret when breaking up
Or of relief when waking up.
Welling up from memories past
Worried that these thoughts won’t last.
Crying at a coming out
Weeping at a welcome back.
Tears rolling for repentance,
and flowing in forgiveness.
Tears at the graveside,
garden
and the cross.
Jesus
wept.
On Monday 9th November the church remembers Margery Kempe, a fourteenth century Christian mystic. Her writings (set down by a series of scribes because she could not read or write herself) were rediscovered in the 1930’s and describe her life and her religious experiences, which included many visions. She was known particularly for her spiritual tears - her crying and wailing were viewed with suspicion by many including those in the church. Questioned by the Archbishop of York who asked “Why do you weep so, woman”, she replied “Sir, you shall wish some day that you had wept as sorely as I.”
(Image : Chris Ofili, No Woman No Cry, 1998)
Phillip Dawson (St Augustine, Student)
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Friday 6th November
George Herbert: Peace Sweet Peace, where dost thou dwell? I humbly crave, Let me once know. I sought thee in a secret cave, And ask'd, if Peace were there, A hollow wind did seem to answer, No: Go seek elsewhere. I did; and going did a rainbow note: Surely, thought I, This is the lace of Peace's coat: I will search out the matter. But while I looked the clouds immediately Did break and scatter. Then went I to a garden and did spy A gallant flower, The crown-imperial: Sure, said I, Peace at the root must dwell. But when I digged, I saw a worm devour What showed so well. At length I met a rev'rend good old man; Whom when for Peace I did demand, he thus began: There was a Prince of old At Salem dwelt, who lived with good increase Of flock and fold. |
He sweetly lived; yet sweetness did not save His life from foes. But after death out of his grave There sprang twelve stalks of wheat; Which many wond'ring at, got some of those To plant and set. It prospered strangely, and did soon disperse Through all the earth: For they that taste it do rehearse That virtue lies therein; A secret virtue, bringing peace and mirth By flight of sin. Take of this grain, which in my garden grows, And grows for you; Make bread of it: and that repose And peace, which ev'ry where With so much earnestness you do pursue, Is only there. |
I read this poem as part of my sermon at our All Souls Eucharist on Monday, which you can still see the recording of on our Facebook page. It spoke to me very profoundly in this extremely restless time, with a new lockdown here, and the American election which (as I write this) seems to becoming more tense by the hour.
Herbert searches for peace in three places: the philosopher’s cave, the rainbow of worldly goods, and in the pomp of the state. All three, however, prove lacking, and it is ultimately only through the reception of the bread of life that Herbert finds peace.
We may not be able to receive directly in this lockdown, but the body of Christ is still with us, present within his church (even remotely) and present in each other. When we feel unstable, bewildered or frantic, peace can be found in the unchanging love of God, and in our relationships with each other. No matter how difficult things get, we cannot stop God loving us, and we can always reach out to each other. May peace be with you as we start this lockdown, and may the peace of God which passes all understanding fill the whole world.
Helena Bickley-Percival
Herbert searches for peace in three places: the philosopher’s cave, the rainbow of worldly goods, and in the pomp of the state. All three, however, prove lacking, and it is ultimately only through the reception of the bread of life that Herbert finds peace.
We may not be able to receive directly in this lockdown, but the body of Christ is still with us, present within his church (even remotely) and present in each other. When we feel unstable, bewildered or frantic, peace can be found in the unchanging love of God, and in our relationships with each other. No matter how difficult things get, we cannot stop God loving us, and we can always reach out to each other. May peace be with you as we start this lockdown, and may the peace of God which passes all understanding fill the whole world.
Helena Bickley-Percival
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Wednesday 4th November
A virtual performance of ‘Pleni sunt caeli’ from Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass This extract from Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass is a virtual performance by a few members of the Civil Service Choir, with each person having recorded the audio individually in their homes. The accompanying video includes brief moments from our performance of the full work in July 2019 in St John’s Smith Square when we were over 100 singers with an orchestra. The footage perhaps makes the piece even more poignant as we have not been able to sing together since March and three concerts planned at St John’s Smith Square have been cancelled owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. It made singing this piece at Monday’s All Souls Eucharist at St Stephen’s all the more special for the fourteen of us who were able to do so. Stephen Hall, Music Director of The Civil Service Choir |
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Monday 2nd November
As you are probably well aware, it has been predicted that Covid-19 deaths could be twice as high over the winter as they were in the first wave of the pandemic. Such is the concern for this prediction, the Prime Minister announced at a Downing Street news conference on Saturday evening that there will be "no alternative" but to plan for a four-week lockdown across England, and this is being brought to Parliament for ratification today.
These strict measures would be imposed across England from Thursday, closing pubs, restaurants, gyms, non-essential shops and of course places of worship. We had an official letter from the Area Dean on Saturday evening and it sadden me to have to announce its content yesterday in church - that St Stephen’s will no longer be open for public worship. We will continue to open our church for private prayer and all our services will continued to be streamed live from church. I shall inform our community by the end of the week the precise details of these.
Please continue to prayer for our church, our diocese and our country at this time. It is vital that we continue to support and pray for each other. I commend the prayers that Church of England brought out at the beginning of the virus,
https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2020-04/Prayer%20Book%20Digital%20Single%20Pages%202%20April_0.pdf for your daily devotion today and in the coming weeks. And particularly today, on this when we commemorate all the souls of our departed loved ones, (All Souls Day), please pray for all those who have died, in these past months, of the Coronavirus:
Eternal God, our maker and redeemer,
grant us, with all the faithful departed,
the sure benefits of your Son’s saving passion
and glorious resurrection
that, in the last day,
when you gather up all things in Christ,
we may with them enjoy the fullness of your promises;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
As you are probably well aware, it has been predicted that Covid-19 deaths could be twice as high over the winter as they were in the first wave of the pandemic. Such is the concern for this prediction, the Prime Minister announced at a Downing Street news conference on Saturday evening that there will be "no alternative" but to plan for a four-week lockdown across England, and this is being brought to Parliament for ratification today.
These strict measures would be imposed across England from Thursday, closing pubs, restaurants, gyms, non-essential shops and of course places of worship. We had an official letter from the Area Dean on Saturday evening and it sadden me to have to announce its content yesterday in church - that St Stephen’s will no longer be open for public worship. We will continue to open our church for private prayer and all our services will continued to be streamed live from church. I shall inform our community by the end of the week the precise details of these.
Please continue to prayer for our church, our diocese and our country at this time. It is vital that we continue to support and pray for each other. I commend the prayers that Church of England brought out at the beginning of the virus,
https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2020-04/Prayer%20Book%20Digital%20Single%20Pages%202%20April_0.pdf for your daily devotion today and in the coming weeks. And particularly today, on this when we commemorate all the souls of our departed loved ones, (All Souls Day), please pray for all those who have died, in these past months, of the Coronavirus:
Eternal God, our maker and redeemer,
grant us, with all the faithful departed,
the sure benefits of your Son’s saving passion
and glorious resurrection
that, in the last day,
when you gather up all things in Christ,
we may with them enjoy the fullness of your promises;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Friday 30th of October
I don’t know how many sermons I’ve heard in the course of my life – almost certainly a number in the many thousands! It’s always interesting, though, which ones have stuck in my mind the longest. About a decade ago, I heard Mthr Sarah Lenton (now an assistant priest at St Matthew’s, Westminster) preach an amazing sermon about the need to have different translations of the Bible. Each translation, she argued, gives us something slightly different – a slightly different way of approaching the Holy text, and therefore of perceiving God in His Word.
The opening passage of John’s Gospel is possible one of the best-known texts of the Bible. I always hear it in my mind in the King James Version, read in the Scottish accent of my first headmistress at secondary school.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Compare that to The Message, a Bible translation written in “modern” English but trying to remain faithful to the original Greek:
The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.
Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!--
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
Or the New Revised Standard Version, which we use in church on Sundays.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Each translation has a different emphasis, a different way of communicating the central fact of the incarnation in a way that we will understand, all whilst trying to remain faithful to the Koine Greek. There is something powerful about the familiar made strange, and I encourage you to seek out some of these different translations and see if they speak to you in a different way of God’s Word.
Helena Bickley-Percival
I don’t know how many sermons I’ve heard in the course of my life – almost certainly a number in the many thousands! It’s always interesting, though, which ones have stuck in my mind the longest. About a decade ago, I heard Mthr Sarah Lenton (now an assistant priest at St Matthew’s, Westminster) preach an amazing sermon about the need to have different translations of the Bible. Each translation, she argued, gives us something slightly different – a slightly different way of approaching the Holy text, and therefore of perceiving God in His Word.
The opening passage of John’s Gospel is possible one of the best-known texts of the Bible. I always hear it in my mind in the King James Version, read in the Scottish accent of my first headmistress at secondary school.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Compare that to The Message, a Bible translation written in “modern” English but trying to remain faithful to the original Greek:
The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.
Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!--
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
Or the New Revised Standard Version, which we use in church on Sundays.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Each translation has a different emphasis, a different way of communicating the central fact of the incarnation in a way that we will understand, all whilst trying to remain faithful to the Koine Greek. There is something powerful about the familiar made strange, and I encourage you to seek out some of these different translations and see if they speak to you in a different way of God’s Word.
Helena Bickley-Percival
Wednesday 28th October
The National Gallery, in London has an interesting exhibition on ‘Sin’, which runs until 3 January 2021. You have to book but it’s free, which is always a good thing, in my opinion. It has had mixed reviews with some critics not liking the mixture of the contemporary with the old masters, feeling that the curation on one level has been far too polite. Whilst others feel that the art is most memorable, “a small though surprisingly “substantial” exhibition”. Well I shall leave it to your judgement, if like me, you decide to go. I have really enjoyed their webinars on the exhibition, which certainly highlights the fact that ‘Sin’ has been providing artists with inspiration for millennia. Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine what the history of art would look like without it: during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, depicting sexual vice in the context of cautionary and biblical scenes allowed painters to provide pictorial sinfulness for their powerful patrons. In recent centuries, meanwhile, artists have “explored transgression as a means of personal confession or societal critique”. I expect one could organise a huge exhibition around the theme, yet the National Gallery has opted to explore it using just 14 works dating from the Middle Ages to the present day to examine the ways in which sin has been articulated in pictorial form – both as a “religious concept” and a “fundamental” facet of humanity.
One fact for sure, is that art and the church are intrinsically bound, and I for one, am grateful that we have my friend Marc Woodhead, from the National Gallery, to help and guide us occasionally through these wonderful pieces of art we have to gaze upon. In fact we are to have a session with Marc on Advent Sunday at Evensong, which we hope to do with our friends from the Church of the Holy Trinity, NYC, which promises to be a very interesting evening indeed. So do come and join us on Sunday 29th November at 6pm and also why not book a free ticket to see the fascinating exhibition on “Sin” at the National Gallery? Finally, let us gives thanks for the way art and artists have influenced and shaped our theological understanding of our faith:
From Prayers of Our Heart by Vienna Cobb Andersen
Prayer for Artists
Bless the creators, O God of creation,
who by their gifts make the world
a more joyful and beautiful realm.
Through their labours
they teach us to see more clearly
the truth around us.
In their inspiration
they call forth wonder and awe
in our own living.
In their hope and vision
they remind us
that life is holy.
Bless all who create in your image,
O God of creation.
Pour your Spirit upon them
that their hearts may sing
and their works be fulfilling. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
The National Gallery, in London has an interesting exhibition on ‘Sin’, which runs until 3 January 2021. You have to book but it’s free, which is always a good thing, in my opinion. It has had mixed reviews with some critics not liking the mixture of the contemporary with the old masters, feeling that the curation on one level has been far too polite. Whilst others feel that the art is most memorable, “a small though surprisingly “substantial” exhibition”. Well I shall leave it to your judgement, if like me, you decide to go. I have really enjoyed their webinars on the exhibition, which certainly highlights the fact that ‘Sin’ has been providing artists with inspiration for millennia. Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine what the history of art would look like without it: during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, depicting sexual vice in the context of cautionary and biblical scenes allowed painters to provide pictorial sinfulness for their powerful patrons. In recent centuries, meanwhile, artists have “explored transgression as a means of personal confession or societal critique”. I expect one could organise a huge exhibition around the theme, yet the National Gallery has opted to explore it using just 14 works dating from the Middle Ages to the present day to examine the ways in which sin has been articulated in pictorial form – both as a “religious concept” and a “fundamental” facet of humanity.
One fact for sure, is that art and the church are intrinsically bound, and I for one, am grateful that we have my friend Marc Woodhead, from the National Gallery, to help and guide us occasionally through these wonderful pieces of art we have to gaze upon. In fact we are to have a session with Marc on Advent Sunday at Evensong, which we hope to do with our friends from the Church of the Holy Trinity, NYC, which promises to be a very interesting evening indeed. So do come and join us on Sunday 29th November at 6pm and also why not book a free ticket to see the fascinating exhibition on “Sin” at the National Gallery? Finally, let us gives thanks for the way art and artists have influenced and shaped our theological understanding of our faith:
From Prayers of Our Heart by Vienna Cobb Andersen
Prayer for Artists
Bless the creators, O God of creation,
who by their gifts make the world
a more joyful and beautiful realm.
Through their labours
they teach us to see more clearly
the truth around us.
In their inspiration
they call forth wonder and awe
in our own living.
In their hope and vision
they remind us
that life is holy.
Bless all who create in your image,
O God of creation.
Pour your Spirit upon them
that their hearts may sing
and their works be fulfilling. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
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Monday 26th October
Today’s Daily Devotion comes from the students from St Augustine’s College who are doing a project in our parish as part of their formation. Please do take time to watch it and respond to their request. "Almighty God, you have entrusted to your Church a share in the ministry of your Son our great high priest: inspire by your Holy Spirit the hearts of many to offer themselves for the ministry of your Church, that, strengthened by his power, they may work for the increase of your kingdom and set forward the eternal praise of your name; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, Amen.“ Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Friday 23rd October
I had the fortune this week of visiting Pallant House Gallery to see a most memorable exhibition of “Barnett Freeman: Designs for modern Britain”. Now it’s possible, like me, that you’ve never heard of Barnett Freeman (1901-1958). Yet in the 1930s and 40s he was probably “Britain’s most visible artist“. His illustrations appeared on everything from Shell petrol adverts to book covers, and he was seen right across Britain displayed in train stations, on buses and on the underground. He designed logos for Ealing Studios and works as an official war artist and created posters for Lions teahouses. He even designed the stamp to mark George 5th Silver Jubilee in 1935. He was obviously a hugely talented artist and this comes across in this amazing exhibition, the first of its kind for over 60 years. |
Barnett was born from Jewish immigrants in East London, and was a very proud cockney fired by a belief that people were inherently good. He was quick witted and his love for London is evident in some of his works. It has been said that his wartime work, deserves a show of its own, and the little there was in this exhibition really captures the mood and characters of that time. I feel that this is a really fascinating show and perhaps sheds light on an overlooked and thoroughly endearing artist, somebody who I knew very little about myself. I’m pleased I took the time to go to this exhibition - we all need to have our eyes opened to new things. Do take time while we still have the opportunity to go and visit an exhibition or event, you never know it might just be God given!
God of Light and Wisdom,
thank you for giving us minds that can know
and hearts that can love.
Help us to keep learning every day of our lives –
no matter what the subject may be.
Let us be convinced that all knowledge leads to you
and let us know how to find you and love you
in all the things you have made.
Grant us grace to put knowledge to use
in building the kingdom of God on earth
so that we may enter the kingdom of God in heaven.
Amen
Revd Graham M Buckle
God of Light and Wisdom,
thank you for giving us minds that can know
and hearts that can love.
Help us to keep learning every day of our lives –
no matter what the subject may be.
Let us be convinced that all knowledge leads to you
and let us know how to find you and love you
in all the things you have made.
Grant us grace to put knowledge to use
in building the kingdom of God on earth
so that we may enter the kingdom of God in heaven.
Amen
Revd Graham M Buckle
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Wednesday 21st October
On Monday you may have seen on the Stephen’s Facebook page (https://m.facebook.com/St-Stephens-Westminster-2268655163457259/?tsid=0.09346530096073402&source=result) that we celebrated St Luke the Apostle at the return of our 17:35 Eucharist. Of course we do not just confine the attributes of this saint to one day...certainly in celebrating him we are reminded of the healing ministry of the church. Tamara spoke movingly on Sunday evening at Evensong of the ministry of healing at St Stephen’s and how we all miss the laying on of hands, but that Jesus’s healing isn’t confined just to touch alone. And, Luke the Saint, also gives us insights in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ in his gospel. This was something our friend John Beddingfield explored in his Monday video, which I would like to share with you for our daily devotion today. Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Monday 19th October
One of my spiritual role models is a little-known early 20th century preacher called Agnes Maude Royden. Royden, who died in 1956 at the age of 79, was famous in her time for being one of the greatest speakers for the women’s suffrage movement, for pacifism, and she subsequently became a tireless campaigner for the ordination of women and for the care of the most vulnerable in society. Royden was a deeply learned woman, becoming the first female Doctor of Divinity in 1931, but also considered it vital to live out one’s convictions, adopting an orphaned Austrian boy after World War One who had significant health problems following the conflict. For me, Royden is an inspiration in her tireless advocacy for those she felt were being overlooked by the church and by society, and also in her active work to help them directly. Despite all the prejudice and pushback that she suffered, she never let go of what she felt was her calling – to preach the word of God and to faithfully live out that word. I leave you with a passage from her book Prayer as a Force, and if you would like to know more about Royden, or borrow any of her writings, please do let me know.
We may worship God as power, or as beauty, or as wisdom, or as might,
but I believe that the history of human progress lies in those moments
when humanity suddenly perceives some glory in the nature of God,
and worships it with so disinterested and perfect a love that the desire to exploit
or make use of Him disappears, and at least for an hour man desires nothing
but to see the glory of God.
Helena Bickley-Percival
One of my spiritual role models is a little-known early 20th century preacher called Agnes Maude Royden. Royden, who died in 1956 at the age of 79, was famous in her time for being one of the greatest speakers for the women’s suffrage movement, for pacifism, and she subsequently became a tireless campaigner for the ordination of women and for the care of the most vulnerable in society. Royden was a deeply learned woman, becoming the first female Doctor of Divinity in 1931, but also considered it vital to live out one’s convictions, adopting an orphaned Austrian boy after World War One who had significant health problems following the conflict. For me, Royden is an inspiration in her tireless advocacy for those she felt were being overlooked by the church and by society, and also in her active work to help them directly. Despite all the prejudice and pushback that she suffered, she never let go of what she felt was her calling – to preach the word of God and to faithfully live out that word. I leave you with a passage from her book Prayer as a Force, and if you would like to know more about Royden, or borrow any of her writings, please do let me know.
We may worship God as power, or as beauty, or as wisdom, or as might,
but I believe that the history of human progress lies in those moments
when humanity suddenly perceives some glory in the nature of God,
and worships it with so disinterested and perfect a love that the desire to exploit
or make use of Him disappears, and at least for an hour man desires nothing
but to see the glory of God.
Helena Bickley-Percival
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Friday 16th October
Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing make you afraid. All things are passing. God alone never changes. Patience gains all things. If you have God you will want for nothing. God alone suffices. These words of wisdom from St Theresa of Avila may feel particularly needed in this time of great change, where our ability to do the most basic things seems to alter on an almost weekly basis. The unchanging nature of God can seem an unhelpful thing, as it may make us wonder how we can have a relationship with a God who never changes, or how we can relate when all about us is in flux. The unchanging nature of God is a great gift, however, because that unchanging nature is love. Theresa of Avila knew this well. During the course of her life, her love of God and her sureness of God’s love for her sustained her through periods of severe illness, the mockery of others, and the foundation of a new monastic order for women. She described contemplative prayer as “none other than a close sharing between friends. It means frequently taking time to be alone with Him whom we know loves us.” No matter how chaotic or difficult the world, or our hearts, or our minds are at the moment, the one true unchanging fact of our existence is God’s love for us. It is not chaotic or difficult, but our stronghold and our refuge in the storm. If you haven’t spent time in silence, recently, I would recommend it. Whether during our silent hour in church, or just sat on the sofa at home, being still can open up the ears of our hearts to hear God’s word of love and begin that close sharing between friends. Merciful God, who by your Spirit raised up your servant Teresa of Avila to reveal to your Church the way of perfection: grant that her teaching may awaken in us a longing for holiness, until we attain to the perfect union of love in Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Helena Bickley-Percival |
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Wednesday 14th October
Monday 12th October
I sought some astral-viewing advice from the church’s resident astronomer, Kevin, after failing to see the much talked about Draconid meteor shower. Last week was set to be a bumper month for spotting shooting stars in the night sky. It was estimated that around five shooting stars were to be visible overhead every hour; and this event was visible from our skies. But alas my patience and excitement was dashed.
Kevin suggested that they are best viewed from ones peripheral vision. Isn’t interesting what we often miss when we attempt to look at something? Do you remember that clever TV advertisement for the Guardian with seemingly a skinhead pushing an old lady over...”but viewed from another angle...you get to see the whole picture”...and when you did you realise that a piece of scaffold was about to fall on her, and the young man was indeed pushing her to safety. As Christians it is so important that we can see and view the whole picture. The Bible is full of quotes for people to “open their eyes.”- Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?” (Matt 8:18) - of course that might not necessarily be at what we may be directly looking at...! But we should fully, directly and indirectly look...even at the peripheral in order to see!
All is not lost! Kevin assured me that a more prolific shower is due in November. I shall ensure I shall look closely, even in my peripheral vision, for the Leonid meteor shower which will peak on 17- 18 November 2020 between midnight and dawn.
Revd Graham M Buckle
I sought some astral-viewing advice from the church’s resident astronomer, Kevin, after failing to see the much talked about Draconid meteor shower. Last week was set to be a bumper month for spotting shooting stars in the night sky. It was estimated that around five shooting stars were to be visible overhead every hour; and this event was visible from our skies. But alas my patience and excitement was dashed.
Kevin suggested that they are best viewed from ones peripheral vision. Isn’t interesting what we often miss when we attempt to look at something? Do you remember that clever TV advertisement for the Guardian with seemingly a skinhead pushing an old lady over...”but viewed from another angle...you get to see the whole picture”...and when you did you realise that a piece of scaffold was about to fall on her, and the young man was indeed pushing her to safety. As Christians it is so important that we can see and view the whole picture. The Bible is full of quotes for people to “open their eyes.”- Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?” (Matt 8:18) - of course that might not necessarily be at what we may be directly looking at...! But we should fully, directly and indirectly look...even at the peripheral in order to see!
All is not lost! Kevin assured me that a more prolific shower is due in November. I shall ensure I shall look closely, even in my peripheral vision, for the Leonid meteor shower which will peak on 17- 18 November 2020 between midnight and dawn.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Friday 9th October
During morning prayer, Mark Siddal reminded us that it is the commemoration of the little known Robert Grosseteste (meaning ‘large-head’). Robert was born at Stradbroke in Suffolk in about 1175. He studied at Oxford and Paris and held various posts until, after a grave illness, he returned to Oxford, where he taught at the Franciscan house of studies. He became Bishop of Lincoln in 1235, then the largest English diocese, which received from him a thorough visitation soon after his arrival. He met opposition in his attempts at vigorous reforms in the shape of his dean and chapter in the cathedral at Lincoln, who saw themselves as beyond his jurisdiction. The affair was settled in 1245 when the pope issued a bill giving the bishop full power over the Chapter. Robert attended the Council of Lyons that year and also travelled to Rome a few years later. His wide-ranging interests included mathematics, optics and many of the science, and he not only translated large numbers of theological works from Greek but also wrote his own theological commentaries and philosophical works. He died on this day in the year 1253.
Thinking about this interesting man, I was reminded of an article I was reading by the medieval historian, Seb Falk, who was examining how the medieval era is often dismissed as a ‘dark age’ before the Renaissance. Seb argues, using extracts from his new book on the history of medieval science, that in fact this time should rather be seen as an age of wonder. “One thing we can learn from medieval medicine” he said, “is the idea of the body as a whole - for example, the interaction between mental and physical health”. Mark agreed with this idea and said some of the excellent scientific insights were used in the renaissance. One of things Seb stated was, “Disparaging medieval science makes us feel good. People have always defined themselves against people in the past who they thought stupid”. This is so true of so many things and ages, including that of the church. It is so easy, with hindsight, to look back and criticize and most of us do. So as we prepare for our Annual Parochial Church Meeting this coming Sunday, let us return and look back, joyously and prayerfully, so as to enhance our today.
“O God in heaven, I stand before You today in Your omnipotent presence
to ask that You grant me strength.
I want You to give me the strength to power through all of the tasks today -
whether little or big. It is by Your will that I live oh Lord.
And I know it is also by Your will I will not go weak today. Amen”
Revd Graham M Buckle
During morning prayer, Mark Siddal reminded us that it is the commemoration of the little known Robert Grosseteste (meaning ‘large-head’). Robert was born at Stradbroke in Suffolk in about 1175. He studied at Oxford and Paris and held various posts until, after a grave illness, he returned to Oxford, where he taught at the Franciscan house of studies. He became Bishop of Lincoln in 1235, then the largest English diocese, which received from him a thorough visitation soon after his arrival. He met opposition in his attempts at vigorous reforms in the shape of his dean and chapter in the cathedral at Lincoln, who saw themselves as beyond his jurisdiction. The affair was settled in 1245 when the pope issued a bill giving the bishop full power over the Chapter. Robert attended the Council of Lyons that year and also travelled to Rome a few years later. His wide-ranging interests included mathematics, optics and many of the science, and he not only translated large numbers of theological works from Greek but also wrote his own theological commentaries and philosophical works. He died on this day in the year 1253.
Thinking about this interesting man, I was reminded of an article I was reading by the medieval historian, Seb Falk, who was examining how the medieval era is often dismissed as a ‘dark age’ before the Renaissance. Seb argues, using extracts from his new book on the history of medieval science, that in fact this time should rather be seen as an age of wonder. “One thing we can learn from medieval medicine” he said, “is the idea of the body as a whole - for example, the interaction between mental and physical health”. Mark agreed with this idea and said some of the excellent scientific insights were used in the renaissance. One of things Seb stated was, “Disparaging medieval science makes us feel good. People have always defined themselves against people in the past who they thought stupid”. This is so true of so many things and ages, including that of the church. It is so easy, with hindsight, to look back and criticize and most of us do. So as we prepare for our Annual Parochial Church Meeting this coming Sunday, let us return and look back, joyously and prayerfully, so as to enhance our today.
“O God in heaven, I stand before You today in Your omnipotent presence
to ask that You grant me strength.
I want You to give me the strength to power through all of the tasks today -
whether little or big. It is by Your will that I live oh Lord.
And I know it is also by Your will I will not go weak today. Amen”
Revd Graham M Buckle
Wednesday 7th October
Today is our annual St Francis-tide Animal Blessing Service. It is an important and popular ministry to our parish, and one which we share with our friends in New York, who had their service last Sunday. There are some wonderful pictures on Holy Trinity’s website and social media page.
I do hope you are able to come in some way, to pray for the many blessings that our animals bring to our lives. If you are unable to come in person, please do join us on Facebook Live which you can find on our St Stephen’s Westminster Facebook page, which encourage to Like and Share amongst your family and friends...The use of technology in bringing our community and liturgy to those unable physically to be with us has been such a blessing to us. It means that we stay connected as a church. John Beddingfield shared a very good video about this very subject on Monday, which I hope you might be able to watch as part of your/our daily devotion. And as you do so, please pray for our communities, for the gift of technology and for the animals with which we share this planet...
The prayer of St Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy
O Divine Master, grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console
To be understood, as to understand
To be loved, as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
And it's in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it's in dying that we are born to Eternal Life
Amen”
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today is our annual St Francis-tide Animal Blessing Service. It is an important and popular ministry to our parish, and one which we share with our friends in New York, who had their service last Sunday. There are some wonderful pictures on Holy Trinity’s website and social media page.
I do hope you are able to come in some way, to pray for the many blessings that our animals bring to our lives. If you are unable to come in person, please do join us on Facebook Live which you can find on our St Stephen’s Westminster Facebook page, which encourage to Like and Share amongst your family and friends...The use of technology in bringing our community and liturgy to those unable physically to be with us has been such a blessing to us. It means that we stay connected as a church. John Beddingfield shared a very good video about this very subject on Monday, which I hope you might be able to watch as part of your/our daily devotion. And as you do so, please pray for our communities, for the gift of technology and for the animals with which we share this planet...
The prayer of St Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy
O Divine Master, grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console
To be understood, as to understand
To be loved, as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
And it's in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it's in dying that we are born to Eternal Life
Amen”
Revd Graham M Buckle
Monday 5th October
One of the first things I do whenever I go into a second-hand bookshop is to go and see whether they have any worship books in their religion section. There is something endlessly fascinating to me about the stories that these books often contain, whether they’ve been given to someone as a prize at school decades ago, were baptism or confirmation presents, or even have notes or underlining in them as testimony to someone’s engagement with their faith. I am blessed to own my grandfather’s interlinear Greek-English New Testament for example, with some of his notes within it, and one of my own copies of the prayerbook contains ember cards of friends who have asked me to pray for them, as well as prayer cards people have given me to show that they have prayed for me. One of the silver linings about not being able to give out the Prayerbook at Evensong at this time is that people are bringing their own copies, sometimes given to them at Baptism, and so carried with them throughout their lives. Although there are phone apps now that allow us to say the Daily Office wherever we are, there is something wonderful about these books as testaments of faith, grubby with frequent handling, with spines bent and ribbons frayed as they have been used over and over again in order to worship God and come into his presence. The memories embedded within them help to connect us with that great cloud of witnesses with whom we pray, even if we pray sitting in a room on our own. Next time you are in a second-hand bookshop, I encourage you to have a hunt for yourself for these stories, and if you have a book at home that you maybe haven’t looked at in a while, maybe sit with it and consider its memories, and how its word and witness has been with you.
BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy
Scriptures to be written for our learning;
Grant that we may in such wise hear them,
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that by patience and comfort of thy holy
Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast,
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Helena Bickley-Percival
One of the first things I do whenever I go into a second-hand bookshop is to go and see whether they have any worship books in their religion section. There is something endlessly fascinating to me about the stories that these books often contain, whether they’ve been given to someone as a prize at school decades ago, were baptism or confirmation presents, or even have notes or underlining in them as testimony to someone’s engagement with their faith. I am blessed to own my grandfather’s interlinear Greek-English New Testament for example, with some of his notes within it, and one of my own copies of the prayerbook contains ember cards of friends who have asked me to pray for them, as well as prayer cards people have given me to show that they have prayed for me. One of the silver linings about not being able to give out the Prayerbook at Evensong at this time is that people are bringing their own copies, sometimes given to them at Baptism, and so carried with them throughout their lives. Although there are phone apps now that allow us to say the Daily Office wherever we are, there is something wonderful about these books as testaments of faith, grubby with frequent handling, with spines bent and ribbons frayed as they have been used over and over again in order to worship God and come into his presence. The memories embedded within them help to connect us with that great cloud of witnesses with whom we pray, even if we pray sitting in a room on our own. Next time you are in a second-hand bookshop, I encourage you to have a hunt for yourself for these stories, and if you have a book at home that you maybe haven’t looked at in a while, maybe sit with it and consider its memories, and how its word and witness has been with you.
BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy
Scriptures to be written for our learning;
Grant that we may in such wise hear them,
read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that by patience and comfort of thy holy
Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast,
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Helena Bickley-Percival
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Friday 2nd October
We have had two wonderful rites of passage to celebrate as a community this last week. The first one being the long awaited and deeply moving ordination of Helena. The second of which was the equally long anticipated licensing of Lindsay to officiate her Theatre Chaplaincy ministry. Both are a timely reminders of the importance of both ritual and the authority of the church. We should never underestimate the relevance in our own daily lives of ritual, whether it is in our daily living or in our religious observance. And the hallmark of this is personified when the church licenses and ordains people. The presence of the Bishop is required but it also necessitates people to witness and pray. How lovely, then, to be able to be a part of both celebrations, even if we could not physically be there. And it’s not too late either, for you can see both services on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=fKcWIggNLys&fbclid=IwAR0iblH72M9CbVFPh_m5M6s7lP5Uob76KCxhVM-p02FvUBq6ecX8T_obEeg&app=desktop https://youtu.be/DNc05Huc1lc Please continue to remember both Helena and Lindsay in your prayers, and our church community of St Stephen’s: Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified: hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people, that in their vocation and ministry they may serve you in holiness and truth to the glory of your name; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Thursday 1st October
I’m willing to bet that we all have a favourite hymn. It may be one with a tune we particularly like, one that has associations with a feast day or a happy time in our lives, or just a hymn that pops into our heads regularly like an old friend. Hymns are often underestimated as a source of theology and an opportunity to think about our faith. Many contain doctrinal concepts that we may struggle to remember after a complicated sermon, but set to a tune and sung regularly enter into our minds in a different way. This Michaelmas, I was struck by this when singing the hymn “Christ, the fair glory of the holy angels” at evensong. The verse about St Michael goes like this:
Send thy archangel, Michael, to our succour;
Peacemaker blessed, may he banish from us
Striving and hatred, so that for the peaceful
All things may prosper.
I’m used to thinking of St Michael as an angel in armour with a sword, leading the forces of heaven to victory. Considering him as a peacemaker was new, although I was familiar with Michael as an angel of justice, often depicted holding a set of scales to weigh souls at the day of judgment. In this hymn, however, St Michael is an angel that removes all those things that lead to war – striving and hatred – so that the peace of God can reign on earth. His battle in heaven was doing just that, removing the striving and hatred of the devil and casting it out so that peace could reign. May St Michael the Archangel banish the negative thoughts of our hearts, and bring us peace, so that we may know the peace of God which passeth all understanding.
Helena Bickley-Percival
I’m willing to bet that we all have a favourite hymn. It may be one with a tune we particularly like, one that has associations with a feast day or a happy time in our lives, or just a hymn that pops into our heads regularly like an old friend. Hymns are often underestimated as a source of theology and an opportunity to think about our faith. Many contain doctrinal concepts that we may struggle to remember after a complicated sermon, but set to a tune and sung regularly enter into our minds in a different way. This Michaelmas, I was struck by this when singing the hymn “Christ, the fair glory of the holy angels” at evensong. The verse about St Michael goes like this:
Send thy archangel, Michael, to our succour;
Peacemaker blessed, may he banish from us
Striving and hatred, so that for the peaceful
All things may prosper.
I’m used to thinking of St Michael as an angel in armour with a sword, leading the forces of heaven to victory. Considering him as a peacemaker was new, although I was familiar with Michael as an angel of justice, often depicted holding a set of scales to weigh souls at the day of judgment. In this hymn, however, St Michael is an angel that removes all those things that lead to war – striving and hatred – so that the peace of God can reign on earth. His battle in heaven was doing just that, removing the striving and hatred of the devil and casting it out so that peace could reign. May St Michael the Archangel banish the negative thoughts of our hearts, and bring us peace, so that we may know the peace of God which passeth all understanding.
Helena Bickley-Percival
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Wednesday 30th September
We are delighted that our friend Lindsay Meader is to be licensed as Lead Theatre Chaplain this evening at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden. Lindsay's ministry has been a blessing to us over the last months, and we are excited to see her confirmed in her role with London's theatres. We pray for Lindsay today, as well as for all those involved in the performing arts. Sadly, we cannot be there in person to celebrate, but the service will be livestreamed from 6.15 here. Bless the creators, O God of creation, who by their gifts make the world a more joyful and beautiful realm. Through their labours they teach us to see more clearly the truth around us. In their inspiration they call forth wonder and awe in our own living. In their hope and vision they remind us that life is holy. Bless all who create in your image, O God of creation. Pour your Spirit upon them that their hearts may sing and their works be fulfilling. Amen. |
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Tuesday 29th September
Monday 28th September
Last Friday I attended a very interesting free Zoom public lecture as part of the Royal Astronomical Society's bicentenary celebrations.
Professor Tim Wright of Satellite Geodesy at the University of Leeds and Director of COMET, spoke about Monitoring our hazardous planet from space. In 2018 he co-founded a spinout company, Satsense Ltd, which is monitoring ground movement in the UK at high resolution. Tim has received several awards for this work.
He looked at how in the last twenty years, earthquakes have caused the deaths of nearly 1 million people and volcanic activity has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being evacuated from their homes. These events also cause major economic disruption, with aftereffects ranging from the destruction of buildings and infrastructure to airspace closures. He argued that scientists in COMET* are at the forefront of international efforts to monitor our hazardous planet using satellites. COMET scientists are now providing critical information to decision makers around the world so that they can prepare for and quickly respond to earthquakes and eruptions. In his lecture, TIM showed how satellites are used to monitor tiny ground movements with extraordinary accuracy and explain how understanding these movements can help us forecast where future earthquakes will occur and when volcanoes might erupt.
Now he, and these European satellites are not playing God here, but they are in the forefront of our management of the earth and our lives. May God bless and direct all scientists in their explorations.
Image: rate of tectonic shear (warping) in Turkey.
Red areas show the warping of the crust around the major faults
Revd Graham M Buckle
Last Friday I attended a very interesting free Zoom public lecture as part of the Royal Astronomical Society's bicentenary celebrations.
Professor Tim Wright of Satellite Geodesy at the University of Leeds and Director of COMET, spoke about Monitoring our hazardous planet from space. In 2018 he co-founded a spinout company, Satsense Ltd, which is monitoring ground movement in the UK at high resolution. Tim has received several awards for this work.
He looked at how in the last twenty years, earthquakes have caused the deaths of nearly 1 million people and volcanic activity has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being evacuated from their homes. These events also cause major economic disruption, with aftereffects ranging from the destruction of buildings and infrastructure to airspace closures. He argued that scientists in COMET* are at the forefront of international efforts to monitor our hazardous planet using satellites. COMET scientists are now providing critical information to decision makers around the world so that they can prepare for and quickly respond to earthquakes and eruptions. In his lecture, TIM showed how satellites are used to monitor tiny ground movements with extraordinary accuracy and explain how understanding these movements can help us forecast where future earthquakes will occur and when volcanoes might erupt.
Now he, and these European satellites are not playing God here, but they are in the forefront of our management of the earth and our lives. May God bless and direct all scientists in their explorations.
Image: rate of tectonic shear (warping) in Turkey.
Red areas show the warping of the crust around the major faults
Revd Graham M Buckle
Friday 25th September
The Bird that moves the earth
I was reading an interesting article about the Australian Lyrebird. They are known for their incredible mimicking abilities; Not only copying other songs of birds, but camera clicking, dogs barking, phones bleeping and machinery whirling can be part of this bird’s vocal repertoire. But it’s not the only talent this bird has...for they are ground movers. The Lyrebird in searching for food rake the earth with their powerful claws. In a recent scientific study of these birds, it is estimated that they shift approximately “155 tonnes per hectare, per year. Enough to fill 11 dumper trucks”. This study acknowledges that they are “ecosystem engineers” who have a major impact on the environment. Their clawing aerate the earth, so that seeds might germinate. They also scatter dry leaves, which can help prevent fires. It was said, that “without the Lyrebird, Australia’s forests would be vastly different places” said leading researcher Alex Maisey. Isn’t God’s created order an incredible? Thank you for the Lyrebird and all those creatures that help our living and planet.
Dear God,
We give thanks for all types of birds.
Domestic fowl, migratory birds and birds of prey,
hooting birds, whistling birds, shrikes,
coloured parrots and dark darting wrens.
Birds too numerous to mention.
We pray for them all.
We mourn the loss of certain species
and pray for the deliverance of endangered ones.
We pray, too, for farm birds,
that they may be released from cruelty and suffering.
We give thanks for eggs and feathers,
for brave, cheerful songs in the morning
and the wonderful haunting, night prayers of owls,
mopokes, frogmouths and all nocturnal fowl.
We praise the character of birds, their constancy,
their desire for freedom, their flair for music and talent for flying.
Especially we praise their disregard for human hierarchy
and the ease with which they leave their droppings
on the heads of commoners or kings regardless.
Grant them fair weather, fresh food and abundant materials
for building their nests in spring.
Provide them too with perches and roosts with pleasant aspects.
Dear God, guide our thoughts to the joy and beauty of birds.
Feathered angels.
May they always be above us.
Amen
Revd Graham M Buckle
The Bird that moves the earth
I was reading an interesting article about the Australian Lyrebird. They are known for their incredible mimicking abilities; Not only copying other songs of birds, but camera clicking, dogs barking, phones bleeping and machinery whirling can be part of this bird’s vocal repertoire. But it’s not the only talent this bird has...for they are ground movers. The Lyrebird in searching for food rake the earth with their powerful claws. In a recent scientific study of these birds, it is estimated that they shift approximately “155 tonnes per hectare, per year. Enough to fill 11 dumper trucks”. This study acknowledges that they are “ecosystem engineers” who have a major impact on the environment. Their clawing aerate the earth, so that seeds might germinate. They also scatter dry leaves, which can help prevent fires. It was said, that “without the Lyrebird, Australia’s forests would be vastly different places” said leading researcher Alex Maisey. Isn’t God’s created order an incredible? Thank you for the Lyrebird and all those creatures that help our living and planet.
Dear God,
We give thanks for all types of birds.
Domestic fowl, migratory birds and birds of prey,
hooting birds, whistling birds, shrikes,
coloured parrots and dark darting wrens.
Birds too numerous to mention.
We pray for them all.
We mourn the loss of certain species
and pray for the deliverance of endangered ones.
We pray, too, for farm birds,
that they may be released from cruelty and suffering.
We give thanks for eggs and feathers,
for brave, cheerful songs in the morning
and the wonderful haunting, night prayers of owls,
mopokes, frogmouths and all nocturnal fowl.
We praise the character of birds, their constancy,
their desire for freedom, their flair for music and talent for flying.
Especially we praise their disregard for human hierarchy
and the ease with which they leave their droppings
on the heads of commoners or kings regardless.
Grant them fair weather, fresh food and abundant materials
for building their nests in spring.
Provide them too with perches and roosts with pleasant aspects.
Dear God, guide our thoughts to the joy and beauty of birds.
Feathered angels.
May they always be above us.
Amen
Revd Graham M Buckle
Thursday 24th September
As you read this, I will be on retreat at the Royal Foundation of St Katherine before my ordination to the diaconate on Saturday. The retreat before ordination is an opportunity to spend time reflecting and praying about the momentous change that ordination brings, but it also serves as a time to meet your fellow curates, worship together, and take the necessary vows and promises before ordination.
Retreats are an odd time. They are periods of seclusion and prayer and often of silence, in which the ordinary cycle of our days is suspended in favour of time spent with God. An ordination retreat is even more particular, in that it’s directed to a very particular end. When I leave St Katherine’s on Saturday, it will be to go straight to St Paul’s Cathedral and to the ordination service itself.
Reading and reflection are an important part of any retreat, and for this retreat I will be spending time reading and praying through the ordination service itself. For me, this section perhaps encapsulates best all that is going on in the service.
God calls his people to follow Christ, and forms us into a royal priesthood, holy nation, to declare the wonderful deeds of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.
The Church is the Body of Christ, the people of God and the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. In baptism the whole Church is summoned to witness to God’s love and to work for the coming of his kingdom.
To serve this royal priesthood, God has given a variety of ministries. Deacons are ordained so that the people of God may be better equipped to make Christ known. Theirs is a life of visible self-giving. Christ is the pattern of their calling and their commission; as he washed the feet of his disciples, so they must wash the feet of others.
As I read it, I will be thinking of you all as I approach my diaconal ministry at St Stephen’s. Please hold me and Percy in your prayers, and be assured that I will be praying for you.
Helena Bickley-Percival
As you read this, I will be on retreat at the Royal Foundation of St Katherine before my ordination to the diaconate on Saturday. The retreat before ordination is an opportunity to spend time reflecting and praying about the momentous change that ordination brings, but it also serves as a time to meet your fellow curates, worship together, and take the necessary vows and promises before ordination.
Retreats are an odd time. They are periods of seclusion and prayer and often of silence, in which the ordinary cycle of our days is suspended in favour of time spent with God. An ordination retreat is even more particular, in that it’s directed to a very particular end. When I leave St Katherine’s on Saturday, it will be to go straight to St Paul’s Cathedral and to the ordination service itself.
Reading and reflection are an important part of any retreat, and for this retreat I will be spending time reading and praying through the ordination service itself. For me, this section perhaps encapsulates best all that is going on in the service.
God calls his people to follow Christ, and forms us into a royal priesthood, holy nation, to declare the wonderful deeds of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light.
The Church is the Body of Christ, the people of God and the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. In baptism the whole Church is summoned to witness to God’s love and to work for the coming of his kingdom.
To serve this royal priesthood, God has given a variety of ministries. Deacons are ordained so that the people of God may be better equipped to make Christ known. Theirs is a life of visible self-giving. Christ is the pattern of their calling and their commission; as he washed the feet of his disciples, so they must wash the feet of others.
As I read it, I will be thinking of you all as I approach my diaconal ministry at St Stephen’s. Please hold me and Percy in your prayers, and be assured that I will be praying for you.
Helena Bickley-Percival
Wednesday 23rd September
Marks of the True Christian - Romans 12. 9-13
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;
love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Romans Chapter 12 is one of my favourite passages in the Bible. It really espouses the virtues of what it is to be a Christian. But how do we put that and especially this passage into practise during these unprecedented times? It has been a particularly difficult time for us all. We have had to cope with isolation, with our fears, with new technologies, with what it means to be “church”. As we began to reopen our churches, one of the ways that a small band of volunteers helped us with is ensuring that we could open St Stephen’s church to the public. This is a small but momentous act, which has enabled the people of our parish and church to come and sit and pray. It is our way of showing our Christian hospitality at a time that people really need to “be” in a spiritual place like a church building. We can only do this with your help. So if you feel you could give a little of your time to sit with someone else to ensure our church can be open on a Monday and Thursday afternoon, please contact either me or Helena. And may I take this opportunity to thank our small band of volunteers who have help our church.
For Those Who Volunteer in Churches
Everlasting God,
strengthen and sustain all those who volunteer in our churches;
that with patience and understanding they may love and care for your people;
and grant that together they may follow Jesus Christ,
offering to you their gifts and talents;
through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Marks of the True Christian - Romans 12. 9-13
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;
love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Romans Chapter 12 is one of my favourite passages in the Bible. It really espouses the virtues of what it is to be a Christian. But how do we put that and especially this passage into practise during these unprecedented times? It has been a particularly difficult time for us all. We have had to cope with isolation, with our fears, with new technologies, with what it means to be “church”. As we began to reopen our churches, one of the ways that a small band of volunteers helped us with is ensuring that we could open St Stephen’s church to the public. This is a small but momentous act, which has enabled the people of our parish and church to come and sit and pray. It is our way of showing our Christian hospitality at a time that people really need to “be” in a spiritual place like a church building. We can only do this with your help. So if you feel you could give a little of your time to sit with someone else to ensure our church can be open on a Monday and Thursday afternoon, please contact either me or Helena. And may I take this opportunity to thank our small band of volunteers who have help our church.
For Those Who Volunteer in Churches
Everlasting God,
strengthen and sustain all those who volunteer in our churches;
that with patience and understanding they may love and care for your people;
and grant that together they may follow Jesus Christ,
offering to you their gifts and talents;
through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 22nd September
I was brought up in the generation of school children that laughed at the nerds working with large computers taking up two classrooms, who insisted that this was the future. Now I understand that they were the true visionaries. I, along with many others I expect, am one of those self-taught computer people, who know, realise and understand the importance these machines play in our lives and culture. So it was with interest that I read this week about the race by the likes of IBM, Microsoft, Google etc. to create reliable ‘quantum computers’. This basically will take computing to a different, almost unimaginable level. They promise to help us understand complex systems, from meteorological conditions to financial markets. Pharmaceutical companies are already using them to create new drug compounds and they could rapidly accelerate the use of self-driving cars and artificial intelligence. I don’t want to bamboozle with what a quantum computer is and how it works, I’m still trying to fathom that out myself, but it will change the power base of computing to something more powerful than we’ve ever seen or experienced, with the exception, possibly, of what we may have seen in the SciFi world of ‘Star Trek’.
I shall never forget my dear Dad, saying that the thought of this new thing called “email” that I was showing him, was making him depressed. As Christians, however, we should and must embrace change, ensuring that we are a part of it, and help to make whatever change will happen, to be good and wholesome. We must and should inform ourselves, and not be like those that laughed at the new, only to regret that we should have taken it more seriously. I have been amazed at how well our community of St Stephen’s has embraced new technologies during this difficult time. Let us continue to do so as the ever changing technology advances us to new levels, so that it will not be out of our reach or understanding:
Lord, I am so often overtaken by machines, trapped by technology. My older skills are dying: I telephone instead of writing letters, I put on the CD instead of opening the lid of the piano, I drive to the shops in a sealed box well out of reach of my neighbours. And sometimes I feel controlled by what I should be controlling. Help me to find my life again, enhanced and not eroded by these technical aids. Help me to take control, at least in my heart, and put them in their place. I do know that it is really a useful, impressive place: a place worthy of products of the highest human ingenuity. But I know too that it is a place where they are subordinate to human needs and human cares. Help me, Lord, to rejoice at the machines, and to be hopeful about the future benefits they can bring. May technology serve us Lord, so that we may better serve one another, and you.
Amen
Revd Graham M Buckle
I was brought up in the generation of school children that laughed at the nerds working with large computers taking up two classrooms, who insisted that this was the future. Now I understand that they were the true visionaries. I, along with many others I expect, am one of those self-taught computer people, who know, realise and understand the importance these machines play in our lives and culture. So it was with interest that I read this week about the race by the likes of IBM, Microsoft, Google etc. to create reliable ‘quantum computers’. This basically will take computing to a different, almost unimaginable level. They promise to help us understand complex systems, from meteorological conditions to financial markets. Pharmaceutical companies are already using them to create new drug compounds and they could rapidly accelerate the use of self-driving cars and artificial intelligence. I don’t want to bamboozle with what a quantum computer is and how it works, I’m still trying to fathom that out myself, but it will change the power base of computing to something more powerful than we’ve ever seen or experienced, with the exception, possibly, of what we may have seen in the SciFi world of ‘Star Trek’.
I shall never forget my dear Dad, saying that the thought of this new thing called “email” that I was showing him, was making him depressed. As Christians, however, we should and must embrace change, ensuring that we are a part of it, and help to make whatever change will happen, to be good and wholesome. We must and should inform ourselves, and not be like those that laughed at the new, only to regret that we should have taken it more seriously. I have been amazed at how well our community of St Stephen’s has embraced new technologies during this difficult time. Let us continue to do so as the ever changing technology advances us to new levels, so that it will not be out of our reach or understanding:
Lord, I am so often overtaken by machines, trapped by technology. My older skills are dying: I telephone instead of writing letters, I put on the CD instead of opening the lid of the piano, I drive to the shops in a sealed box well out of reach of my neighbours. And sometimes I feel controlled by what I should be controlling. Help me to find my life again, enhanced and not eroded by these technical aids. Help me to take control, at least in my heart, and put them in their place. I do know that it is really a useful, impressive place: a place worthy of products of the highest human ingenuity. But I know too that it is a place where they are subordinate to human needs and human cares. Help me, Lord, to rejoice at the machines, and to be hopeful about the future benefits they can bring. May technology serve us Lord, so that we may better serve one another, and you.
Amen
Revd Graham M Buckle
Monday 21st September
Friday 18th September
Have you noticed the amount of discarded face marks on our streets recently? Interestingly a charity that organises clean-ups of Britain’s beaches and rivers have recently observed that it has seen an “explosion” in levels of plastic waste over the past few months. Surfers Against Sewage says it has witnessed a “new wave” of plastic in the form of single-use masks and gloves. Charlotte England, who organises mass clean-ups in urban areas, stated “you see the masks everywhere...This is a big problem, because before lockdown these items weren’t ever really in circulation among the general public: they were limited to the medical industry”. As an open water swimmer I have noticed an upsurge in the amount of waste in our rivers and lakes. It is all our responsibility to ensure that we recycle and clear up our waste properly. It is something we could take a lead in as Christians, and show great care and protection for the planet that God has given/created for us to manage and steward...let us do it properly...
Let us pray for an end to the
Waste and desecration of God's creation
For access to the fruits of creation
To be shared equally among all people
And for communities and nations to find sustenance
In the fruits of the earth and the water God has given us.
Almighty God, you created the world and gave it
Into our care so that, in obedience to you,
We might serve all people:
Inspire us to use the riches of creation with wisdom,
and to ensure that their blessings are shared by all;
That, trusting in your bounty, all people may be
Empowered to seek freedom from poverty, famine, and oppression. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Have you noticed the amount of discarded face marks on our streets recently? Interestingly a charity that organises clean-ups of Britain’s beaches and rivers have recently observed that it has seen an “explosion” in levels of plastic waste over the past few months. Surfers Against Sewage says it has witnessed a “new wave” of plastic in the form of single-use masks and gloves. Charlotte England, who organises mass clean-ups in urban areas, stated “you see the masks everywhere...This is a big problem, because before lockdown these items weren’t ever really in circulation among the general public: they were limited to the medical industry”. As an open water swimmer I have noticed an upsurge in the amount of waste in our rivers and lakes. It is all our responsibility to ensure that we recycle and clear up our waste properly. It is something we could take a lead in as Christians, and show great care and protection for the planet that God has given/created for us to manage and steward...let us do it properly...
Let us pray for an end to the
Waste and desecration of God's creation
For access to the fruits of creation
To be shared equally among all people
And for communities and nations to find sustenance
In the fruits of the earth and the water God has given us.
Almighty God, you created the world and gave it
Into our care so that, in obedience to you,
We might serve all people:
Inspire us to use the riches of creation with wisdom,
and to ensure that their blessings are shared by all;
That, trusting in your bounty, all people may be
Empowered to seek freedom from poverty, famine, and oppression. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Thursday 17th September
Today we commemorate Saint Hildegard of Bingen, a remarkable woman, who was an abbess, artist, author, composer, mystic, pharmacist, poet, playwright, preacher, a theologian, and whom, until recently, few knew about.
Hildegard was born into a noble family and was instructed for ten years by the holy woman - Jutta. When Hildegard was 18, she became a Benedictine nun at the Monastery of Saint Disibodenberg. Here she began to write down the visions that she had received. Pope Eugene III read it, and in 1147, encouraged her to continue writing. Her Book of the Merits of Life and Book of Divine Works followed. She wrote over 300 letters to people who sought her advice; and also composed short works on medicine and physiology, and sought advice from contemporaries such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
Like all mystics, Hildegard saw the harmony of God’s creation and the place of women and men within that context. This unity was not apparent to many of her contemporaries at the time.
Hildegard was no stranger to controversy. The monks near her original foundation protested vigorously when she moved her monastery to Bingen, overlooking the Rhine River. She confronted Emperor Barbarossa for supporting antipopes, and challenged the Cathars, who rejected the Catholic Church.
Between 1152 and 1162, Hildegard often preached in the Rhineland. Her monastery was placed under interdict because she had permitted the burial of a young man who had been excommunicated. She insisted that he had reconciled with the Church and received its sacraments before dying. Hildegard protested bitterly when the local bishop forbade the celebration of or reception of the Eucharist at the Bingen monastery, a sanction that was lifted only a few months before her death.
It was not until 2012, that Hildegard was canonized and named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI. Do take time to listen to her wonderfully haunting, but mystical music.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today we commemorate Saint Hildegard of Bingen, a remarkable woman, who was an abbess, artist, author, composer, mystic, pharmacist, poet, playwright, preacher, a theologian, and whom, until recently, few knew about.
Hildegard was born into a noble family and was instructed for ten years by the holy woman - Jutta. When Hildegard was 18, she became a Benedictine nun at the Monastery of Saint Disibodenberg. Here she began to write down the visions that she had received. Pope Eugene III read it, and in 1147, encouraged her to continue writing. Her Book of the Merits of Life and Book of Divine Works followed. She wrote over 300 letters to people who sought her advice; and also composed short works on medicine and physiology, and sought advice from contemporaries such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
Like all mystics, Hildegard saw the harmony of God’s creation and the place of women and men within that context. This unity was not apparent to many of her contemporaries at the time.
Hildegard was no stranger to controversy. The monks near her original foundation protested vigorously when she moved her monastery to Bingen, overlooking the Rhine River. She confronted Emperor Barbarossa for supporting antipopes, and challenged the Cathars, who rejected the Catholic Church.
Between 1152 and 1162, Hildegard often preached in the Rhineland. Her monastery was placed under interdict because she had permitted the burial of a young man who had been excommunicated. She insisted that he had reconciled with the Church and received its sacraments before dying. Hildegard protested bitterly when the local bishop forbade the celebration of or reception of the Eucharist at the Bingen monastery, a sanction that was lifted only a few months before her death.
It was not until 2012, that Hildegard was canonized and named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI. Do take time to listen to her wonderfully haunting, but mystical music.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Wednesday 16th September
I saw the holy city coming down out of heaven from God.
1 I saw a new heaven and a new earth, ♦
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away
and the sea was no more.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, ♦
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice from the throne saying, ♦
‘Behold, the dwelling of God is among mortals.
4 ‘He will dwell with them and they shall be his peoples, ♦
and God himself will be with them.
5 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes, ♦
and death shall be no more.
6 ‘Neither shall there be mourning,
nor crying, nor pain any more, ♦
for the former things have passed away.’
7 And the One who sat upon the throne said, ♦
‘Behold, I make all things new.’
Revelation 21.1-5a
All To the One who sits on the throne and to the Lamb ♦
be blessing and honour and glory and might,
for ever and ever. Amen.
All I saw the holy city
coming down out of heaven from God.
© The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, 2000-2005
Official Common Worship apps, books and eBooks are available from Church House Publishing.
Every Tuesday, at Evening Prayer we say this canticle together between the Old Testament and New Testament readings, and every Tuesday I immediately get this piece by Edgar Bainton stuck in my head!
This text always speaks to me profoundly of the promise of God’s renewal of all things. A year ago, I took part in an Extinction Rebellion event with the churches of Bristol to do a live reading of the whole of the Book of Revelation, and was privileged enough to have this passage as one of the texts that I read. It speaks not only of God as creator, but also of God as one who continues creating. Of the Kingdom of Heaven as something that is already present with us (for God in Jesus Christ has already come at the incarnation to dwell among us), but also something that is to come, with the promise of no more mourning, nor crying, nor death any more. That tension of “already” but “not yet” is something we continually live within the Christian faith, as the Kingdom of Heaven has already come, and yet we await its coming. This text, then, is a challenge to us. How can we make our earth like the Kingdom of Heaven described in this passage? And yet, when we look around at suffering and feel overwhelmed or full of despair, we have the promise that, one day, the Kingdom will come. And, until that day, we have each other, our worship, and beauty such as the beauty of this piece by Bainton, to give us glimpses of what that Kingdom will be like.
Helena Bickley-Percival
I saw the holy city coming down out of heaven from God.
1 I saw a new heaven and a new earth, ♦
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away
and the sea was no more.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, ♦
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice from the throne saying, ♦
‘Behold, the dwelling of God is among mortals.
4 ‘He will dwell with them and they shall be his peoples, ♦
and God himself will be with them.
5 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes, ♦
and death shall be no more.
6 ‘Neither shall there be mourning,
nor crying, nor pain any more, ♦
for the former things have passed away.’
7 And the One who sat upon the throne said, ♦
‘Behold, I make all things new.’
Revelation 21.1-5a
All To the One who sits on the throne and to the Lamb ♦
be blessing and honour and glory and might,
for ever and ever. Amen.
All I saw the holy city
coming down out of heaven from God.
© The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, 2000-2005
Official Common Worship apps, books and eBooks are available from Church House Publishing.
Every Tuesday, at Evening Prayer we say this canticle together between the Old Testament and New Testament readings, and every Tuesday I immediately get this piece by Edgar Bainton stuck in my head!
This text always speaks to me profoundly of the promise of God’s renewal of all things. A year ago, I took part in an Extinction Rebellion event with the churches of Bristol to do a live reading of the whole of the Book of Revelation, and was privileged enough to have this passage as one of the texts that I read. It speaks not only of God as creator, but also of God as one who continues creating. Of the Kingdom of Heaven as something that is already present with us (for God in Jesus Christ has already come at the incarnation to dwell among us), but also something that is to come, with the promise of no more mourning, nor crying, nor death any more. That tension of “already” but “not yet” is something we continually live within the Christian faith, as the Kingdom of Heaven has already come, and yet we await its coming. This text, then, is a challenge to us. How can we make our earth like the Kingdom of Heaven described in this passage? And yet, when we look around at suffering and feel overwhelmed or full of despair, we have the promise that, one day, the Kingdom will come. And, until that day, we have each other, our worship, and beauty such as the beauty of this piece by Bainton, to give us glimpses of what that Kingdom will be like.
Helena Bickley-Percival
Tuesday 15th September
Today we celebrate St Cyprian, who was bishop of Carthage and a notable Early Christian writer. He was born around the beginning of the 3rd century in North Africa, perhaps at Carthage, where he received a classical education. Soon after converting to Christianity, he became a bishop in 249.
A controversial figure during his lifetime, someone who was cited as having strong pastoral skills, firm conduct during the Novatianist heresy and outbreak of the Plague of Cyprian (named after him due to his description), he was eventually martyred. His skilful Latin rhetoric led to his being considered the pre-eminent Latin writer of Western Christianity until Jerome and Augustine.
So let us give thanks for Cyprian, and all those who have him as their patron, particularly St Cyprian's, Clarence Gate, a church within our Archdeaconary:
Almighty God,
who gave to your servant Cyprian boldness
to confess the Name of our Saviour Jesus Christ
before the rulers of this world,
and courage to die for this faith:
Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason
for the hope that is in us,
and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today we celebrate St Cyprian, who was bishop of Carthage and a notable Early Christian writer. He was born around the beginning of the 3rd century in North Africa, perhaps at Carthage, where he received a classical education. Soon after converting to Christianity, he became a bishop in 249.
A controversial figure during his lifetime, someone who was cited as having strong pastoral skills, firm conduct during the Novatianist heresy and outbreak of the Plague of Cyprian (named after him due to his description), he was eventually martyred. His skilful Latin rhetoric led to his being considered the pre-eminent Latin writer of Western Christianity until Jerome and Augustine.
So let us give thanks for Cyprian, and all those who have him as their patron, particularly St Cyprian's, Clarence Gate, a church within our Archdeaconary:
Almighty God,
who gave to your servant Cyprian boldness
to confess the Name of our Saviour Jesus Christ
before the rulers of this world,
and courage to die for this faith:
Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason
for the hope that is in us,
and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Monday 14th September
Friday 11th September
For many children, today marks the end of their first full week back at school after a long lockdown and summer. Some may still be shielding and at home, some may be anxious to be going back into school after a long period of social isolation and some may be utterly delighted to be back to their seemingly normal routine after so much disruption.
I offer you two prayers as we keep all the children, whether learning from home or at school in our prayers.
A prayer for children
Loving God,
your Son told his disciples
to become like little children.
Lead us to work for the welfare
and protection of all young people.
May we respect their dignity
that they may flourish in life,
following the example of the same
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
A prayer to say with children to remember is with us
Lord God, you are always with me.
You are with me in the day and in the night.
You are with me when I’m happy and when I’m sad.
You are with me when I’m healthy and when I am ill.
You are with me when I am peaceful and when I am worried.
Today I am feeling (name how you are feeling) because (reasons you are feeling this way).
Help me to remember that you love me and are with me in everything today.
Amen.
For many children, today marks the end of their first full week back at school after a long lockdown and summer. Some may still be shielding and at home, some may be anxious to be going back into school after a long period of social isolation and some may be utterly delighted to be back to their seemingly normal routine after so much disruption.
I offer you two prayers as we keep all the children, whether learning from home or at school in our prayers.
A prayer for children
Loving God,
your Son told his disciples
to become like little children.
Lead us to work for the welfare
and protection of all young people.
May we respect their dignity
that they may flourish in life,
following the example of the same
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
A prayer to say with children to remember is with us
Lord God, you are always with me.
You are with me in the day and in the night.
You are with me when I’m happy and when I’m sad.
You are with me when I’m healthy and when I am ill.
You are with me when I am peaceful and when I am worried.
Today I am feeling (name how you are feeling) because (reasons you are feeling this way).
Help me to remember that you love me and are with me in everything today.
Amen.
Thursday 10th September
Wednesday 9th September
It’s certainly been a strange and unusual start for our ‘curate-to-be’, Helena. Her ordination was temporarily postponed due to the Covid lockdown restrictions, and so she joined us at the end of June as a parish lay assistant. Given the extraordinary circumstances, she has settled in admirably, and I for one, am very pleased she is part of our team and community her at St. Stephen’s.
The time for her ordination approaches, and I ask that you remember her, Percy, her family and our church, as Helena prepares for 26th September.
Almighty God,
the giver of all good gifts,
by your Holy Spirit you have appointed
various orders of ministry in the Church:
look with mercy on Helena
now called to be a deacons within your church;
maintain her in truth and renew her in holiness,
that by word and good example she may faithfully serve you
to the glory of your name and the benefit of St Stephen’s
and your whole Church;
through the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 8th September
Today's Daily Devotion is from our friend John Beddingfield: https://vimeo.com/455511325
Today's Daily Devotion is from our friend John Beddingfield: https://vimeo.com/455511325
Monday 7th September
Love (III) – George Herbert
Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked any thing.
A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
This may be one of the most famous devotional poems in the English language, and possibly my favourite. Herbert’s words repay time spent sat with them, pondering how we would respond if we found ourselves in the presence of our Lord, with him insisting on serving us rather than the other way around. The poem also reminds us of one of the aspects of God’s love that we can forget – it’s tenderness. There is nothing harsh in Love’s words, the harshness all comes from the guest’s lack of self-worth. Love “sweetly questions,” takes our hand and smiles on us, as Love reminds us of who made us and who loves us and who saved us. It may seem odd that the guest calls love “my dear,” but it is that tender familiarity that we are all called to have with God, and which can bear us through our own times of self-loathing and self-doubt.
This poem rings best read and heard aloud, and I encourage you to read it aloud to yourself, perhaps as a prayer. Click here for a video of Ralph Feinnes speaking it beautifully, and do look on YouTube for others reading it. Each time I hear it, it speaks to me in a new way.
Helena Bickley-Percival
Love (III) – George Herbert
Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked any thing.
A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
This may be one of the most famous devotional poems in the English language, and possibly my favourite. Herbert’s words repay time spent sat with them, pondering how we would respond if we found ourselves in the presence of our Lord, with him insisting on serving us rather than the other way around. The poem also reminds us of one of the aspects of God’s love that we can forget – it’s tenderness. There is nothing harsh in Love’s words, the harshness all comes from the guest’s lack of self-worth. Love “sweetly questions,” takes our hand and smiles on us, as Love reminds us of who made us and who loves us and who saved us. It may seem odd that the guest calls love “my dear,” but it is that tender familiarity that we are all called to have with God, and which can bear us through our own times of self-loathing and self-doubt.
This poem rings best read and heard aloud, and I encourage you to read it aloud to yourself, perhaps as a prayer. Click here for a video of Ralph Feinnes speaking it beautifully, and do look on YouTube for others reading it. Each time I hear it, it speaks to me in a new way.
Helena Bickley-Percival
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Friday 4th September
Today the church remembers the life and witness of another somewhat obscure Anglo-Saxon saint – Saint Birinus. Birinus came to England in about 630, with the intention of evangelising ‘the most inland and remote regions of the English,’ according to Bede. Birinus had only got as far as the tribe of the Gewisse who lived in the upper regions of the Thames, however, before discovering that they were ‘completely heathen,’ and so settled there to evangelise, ultimately baptising King Cynegils and founding the abbey at Dorchester-upon-Thames. Unlike his more famous counterpart, St Swithun, Birinus doesn’t have many miracles or stories associated with him. A much later chronicler recounts a miracle when Birinus was travelling to Britain, in which Birinus had forgotten some of the kit that he needed in order to properly celebrate the Eucharist. Rather than asking the sailors to turn back, he stepped out of the boat and ran back to the shore, collected his forgotten items, and once more ran back across the sea to join the boat ‘brushing aside by the power of his faith the crests of the waves and the thousand ways to death he encountered.’ It would be nice to take from this miraculous story the idea that we would be able to walk across water to obtain things that we had forgotten! What inspires me in the life and mission of St Birinus, however, is that fact that he did the job that was put in front of him, and he did it well. Birinus is not a “showy” saint, but rather one who arrived in a new and uncertain place, recognised that task that God was placing before him, and set about to do that work for the rest of his life. 1400 years later, the abbey at Dorchester-upon-Thames still stands, with the remnants of Birinus’s tomb within it – testifying to the foundational missional work that Birinus undertook in Oxfordshire. Even his miracle of walking upon the sea points to a devotion to his mission, which he would have considered incomplete if he could not celebrate the Eucharist with those to whom he was testifying. May we also be able to recognise that task that God places before us, and work to further God’s kingdom in our time, and in our place. For more of the history of Saint Birinus, including some photographs of Dorchester Abbey, click here. With thanks to Clerk of Oxford for the historical references. Helena Bickley-Percival |
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Thursday 3rd September
How wonderful to hear the glorious sound of church bells filling our streets and ringing out across our rooftops once again. Social distancing has meant that only in special cases has it been possible for full rings to be rung (by a large family of ringers still living at the same address, for instance…) but even hearing four of those of St Stephen’s has sent a chill down the spine. Church bells always have that affect: a bright, uplifting and optimistic soundscape, the very essence of hope. Our own set, refurbished and rehung five years ago, bear names based on words from Revelation:
Blessing, Glory, Wisdom, Thanksgiving, Honour, Power, Might and Hallelujah!
We look forward eagerly to hearing them all together, soon.
John Betjeman loved church bells and here’s a poem of his, Wantage Bells, which captures how they sing of inspirational beauty.
You can listen to a recording of him reciting it here: https://youtu.be/zE8YFI2BH58
Now with the bells through the apple bloom
Sunday-ly sounding
And the prayers of the nuns in their chapel gloom
Us all surrounding,
Where the brook flows
Brick walls of rose
Send on the motionless meadow the bell notes rebounding.
Wall flowers are bright in their beds
And their scent all pervading,
Withered are primroses heads
And the hyacinth fading
But flowers by the score
Multitudes more
Weed flowers and seed flowers and mead flowers our paths are invading.
Where are the words to express
Such a reckless bestowing?
The voices of birds utter less
Than the thanks we are owing,
Bell notes alone
Ring praise of their own
As clear as the weed-waving brook and as evenly flowing.
Kevin Walsh
How wonderful to hear the glorious sound of church bells filling our streets and ringing out across our rooftops once again. Social distancing has meant that only in special cases has it been possible for full rings to be rung (by a large family of ringers still living at the same address, for instance…) but even hearing four of those of St Stephen’s has sent a chill down the spine. Church bells always have that affect: a bright, uplifting and optimistic soundscape, the very essence of hope. Our own set, refurbished and rehung five years ago, bear names based on words from Revelation:
Blessing, Glory, Wisdom, Thanksgiving, Honour, Power, Might and Hallelujah!
We look forward eagerly to hearing them all together, soon.
John Betjeman loved church bells and here’s a poem of his, Wantage Bells, which captures how they sing of inspirational beauty.
You can listen to a recording of him reciting it here: https://youtu.be/zE8YFI2BH58
Now with the bells through the apple bloom
Sunday-ly sounding
And the prayers of the nuns in their chapel gloom
Us all surrounding,
Where the brook flows
Brick walls of rose
Send on the motionless meadow the bell notes rebounding.
Wall flowers are bright in their beds
And their scent all pervading,
Withered are primroses heads
And the hyacinth fading
But flowers by the score
Multitudes more
Weed flowers and seed flowers and mead flowers our paths are invading.
Where are the words to express
Such a reckless bestowing?
The voices of birds utter less
Than the thanks we are owing,
Bell notes alone
Ring praise of their own
As clear as the weed-waving brook and as evenly flowing.
Kevin Walsh
Wednesday 2nd September
My friend Marc Woodhead has made an interesting video Ian Rudge for Bravo 22 Live - entitled “Drawing From A Masterpiece”. Please do watch it, and whilst doing so, perhaps you might like to offer a prayer to all those who use their gifts of creativity to your greater glory.
My friend Marc Woodhead has made an interesting video Ian Rudge for Bravo 22 Live - entitled “Drawing From A Masterpiece”. Please do watch it, and whilst doing so, perhaps you might like to offer a prayer to all those who use their gifts of creativity to your greater glory.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 1st September
One of the things I will not forget from this season of lockdown, is the silence of London. To sit in my home and not hear any traffic sound. To walk past the front of Buckingham Palace in the summer without having to weave through crowds. To sit in the park and hear birds and small creatures over any other sound.
I sat outside of All-Bar-One on Victoria Street about a month ago with a friend. An ambulance went past with its lights and siren on, everyone sitting outside turned around and looked. After the ambulance had passed there was a very un-London moment where strangers spoke to each other and said how loud the sirens were.
In Richard Carter's book, The City is My Monastery, he recalls his first visit to the Taizé Community in France:
Brother Roger got up to speak and came slowly towards the microphone to deliver his message. 'I have nothing to say,' he said, 'let us keep silence, for God will speak in the silence much better than me.'
Jen Adam
One of the things I will not forget from this season of lockdown, is the silence of London. To sit in my home and not hear any traffic sound. To walk past the front of Buckingham Palace in the summer without having to weave through crowds. To sit in the park and hear birds and small creatures over any other sound.
I sat outside of All-Bar-One on Victoria Street about a month ago with a friend. An ambulance went past with its lights and siren on, everyone sitting outside turned around and looked. After the ambulance had passed there was a very un-London moment where strangers spoke to each other and said how loud the sirens were.
In Richard Carter's book, The City is My Monastery, he recalls his first visit to the Taizé Community in France:
Brother Roger got up to speak and came slowly towards the microphone to deliver his message. 'I have nothing to say,' he said, 'let us keep silence, for God will speak in the silence much better than me.'
Jen Adam
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Monday 31st August
Today, the church remembers Saint Aiden, a “gentle saint” who evangelised the north of England and founded the monastery of Lindisfarne. Lindisfarne is possibly best known for the Lindisfarne Gospels, an extraordinary illuminated manuscript of the scriptures produced around 700 AD. In about 970 AD, a priest named Aldred added some biographical information about those who had produced the book, as well as an Old English gloss to the text – the first surviving rendering of the Gospels into English. The Lindisfarne Gospels are an extraordinary artistic achievement, testifying to the skill and the sheer number of hours of work given by the monks at Lindisfarne. They also remind us of the beauty of God’s word. It may be that there is a phrase in the Gospels that has always caught our ear, or words that fill us with joy or peace whenever we hear them. Today, maybe pick one of those phrases or passages of scripture and sit with it for a while, reading it, and maybe writing it out yourself. The beauty of the text is one of the ways in which we come to know God, as we worship Him in the beauty of holiness. For more information about the Lindisfarne Gospels, as well as some glorious images, please click here. Helena Bickley-Percival |
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Friday 28th August
In a recent article in his weekly notes, John Beddingfield, wrote an interesting piece entitled, “How to Pray when Someone Dies - Especially when we have no words, our tradition helps us to pray”
He highlighted how customs around death had begun to change. How funeral, memorials, or remembrances sometimes happen long after, or not at all. In this Covid restricted world, opportunities to grieve and give thanks for a life are private, online, delayed, or not at all. But, as John right points out “this doesn't mean that as individuals or families, we are left without words or ways to bring our grief, pain, or confusion into the hands of God”.
As Anglican we are all blessed with a Book of Common Prayer. In this prayer book, we have prayers that can be said when someone is sick, when we fear someone is close to death, when we hear that someone has died, or even on the anniversary of a loved one's death.
One can find these online:
https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/death-and-dying
I would reiterate John’s sentiments in whilst reminding everyone that our tradition has beautiful prayers to offer at the time of death or grief, it is also “good stewardship and good living to make basic plans for yourself”. If you need any help in this regard please do talk to one of the clergy.
John ended his article with a prayer, which I would like us to use as part of our Daily Devotion today:
O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our beloved ones who have died. We thank you for giving them to us, their family and friends, to know and to love as companions on our earthly pilgrimage. In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn. Give us faith to see in death the gate of eternal life, so that in quiet confidence we may continue our course on earth, until, by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
In a recent article in his weekly notes, John Beddingfield, wrote an interesting piece entitled, “How to Pray when Someone Dies - Especially when we have no words, our tradition helps us to pray”
He highlighted how customs around death had begun to change. How funeral, memorials, or remembrances sometimes happen long after, or not at all. In this Covid restricted world, opportunities to grieve and give thanks for a life are private, online, delayed, or not at all. But, as John right points out “this doesn't mean that as individuals or families, we are left without words or ways to bring our grief, pain, or confusion into the hands of God”.
As Anglican we are all blessed with a Book of Common Prayer. In this prayer book, we have prayers that can be said when someone is sick, when we fear someone is close to death, when we hear that someone has died, or even on the anniversary of a loved one's death.
One can find these online:
https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/death-and-dying
I would reiterate John’s sentiments in whilst reminding everyone that our tradition has beautiful prayers to offer at the time of death or grief, it is also “good stewardship and good living to make basic plans for yourself”. If you need any help in this regard please do talk to one of the clergy.
John ended his article with a prayer, which I would like us to use as part of our Daily Devotion today:
O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our beloved ones who have died. We thank you for giving them to us, their family and friends, to know and to love as companions on our earthly pilgrimage. In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn. Give us faith to see in death the gate of eternal life, so that in quiet confidence we may continue our course on earth, until, by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Thursday 27th August
In Christianity, we often talk a great deal about epiphany and revelation, the idea of deeper truths being revealed or uncovered, of seeing things as they really are. In this context I’ve often used the example of the artisan who carved a beautiful elephant from a piece of wood. When asked how she’d done it, she replied, “I simply chipped away all the wood that wasn’t elephant.”
I was reminded of this when I came across this picture (sadly, source unknown) on social media. Not an elephant, but a horse. It is both a sermon and meditation, so I hope you will benefit from spending time with it.
In Christianity, we often talk a great deal about epiphany and revelation, the idea of deeper truths being revealed or uncovered, of seeing things as they really are. In this context I’ve often used the example of the artisan who carved a beautiful elephant from a piece of wood. When asked how she’d done it, she replied, “I simply chipped away all the wood that wasn’t elephant.”
I was reminded of this when I came across this picture (sadly, source unknown) on social media. Not an elephant, but a horse. It is both a sermon and meditation, so I hope you will benefit from spending time with it.
Revd Linsday Meader
Wednesday 26th August
T.S. Eliot, Emmaus, Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition
T.S. Eliot was an adult convert to the Church of England: baptised and confirmed in 1927 and thereafter an exemplary adherent to Anglo-Catholicism, scrupulously observing the church’s devotions and rituals. The poetry inspired by his faith (in particular Four Quartets) is some of the finest mystical writing of the Christian tradition. But a tentative recognition of spiritual presence is movingly evoked in lines towards the end of The Waste Land, the iconic poem of post-First-World-War devastation – a world seemingly without God.
Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
Eliot is recalling the bewilderment and grief of the two disciples, described towards the end of Luke’s gospel, as they leave Jerusalem and walk to Emmaus. Traumatised by the horror of Christ’s death, confused by the women’s story of the empty tomb, they fail to recognise the identity of the traveller who joins them on the road. Eliot fuses the biblical narrative with a remembered anecdote from Shackleton’s account of a harrowing trek across the Antarctic, that, at the ‘extremity of their strength’, an unknown presence could be discerned:
I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three.
His two companions also confided afterwards that they had perceived ‘another person with us’. Eliot, moved by this elusive vision, connects it with the Emmaus story – Shackleton’s journey of immense physical struggle; the disciples on the dusty road lost in spiritual despair. But Eliot, hesitantly moving towards faith, knows the conclusion of the disciples’ story:
[He] took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they knew him … (Luke 24: 30-31)
The unrecognised companion was Christ; and for Eliot, both encounters signalled the possibility of the eternal and divine intersecting with the fallible and mortal world.
Pamela Bickley
Wednesday 26th August
T.S. Eliot, Emmaus, Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition
T.S. Eliot was an adult convert to the Church of England: baptised and confirmed in 1927 and thereafter an exemplary adherent to Anglo-Catholicism, scrupulously observing the church’s devotions and rituals. The poetry inspired by his faith (in particular Four Quartets) is some of the finest mystical writing of the Christian tradition. But a tentative recognition of spiritual presence is movingly evoked in lines towards the end of The Waste Land, the iconic poem of post-First-World-War devastation – a world seemingly without God.
Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
Eliot is recalling the bewilderment and grief of the two disciples, described towards the end of Luke’s gospel, as they leave Jerusalem and walk to Emmaus. Traumatised by the horror of Christ’s death, confused by the women’s story of the empty tomb, they fail to recognise the identity of the traveller who joins them on the road. Eliot fuses the biblical narrative with a remembered anecdote from Shackleton’s account of a harrowing trek across the Antarctic, that, at the ‘extremity of their strength’, an unknown presence could be discerned:
I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three.
His two companions also confided afterwards that they had perceived ‘another person with us’. Eliot, moved by this elusive vision, connects it with the Emmaus story – Shackleton’s journey of immense physical struggle; the disciples on the dusty road lost in spiritual despair. But Eliot, hesitantly moving towards faith, knows the conclusion of the disciples’ story:
[He] took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they knew him … (Luke 24: 30-31)
The unrecognised companion was Christ; and for Eliot, both encounters signalled the possibility of the eternal and divine intersecting with the fallible and mortal world.
Pamela Bickley
Tuesday 25th August
One of the outcomes of Covid 19 is that global emissions have fallen by six percent. This is due to things like the dramatic decrease in flights taken, as well as the lowered purchasing power, which has impacted employment, which is both good and bad. However, we are told that emissions have to fall by over seven percent each year in order to avoid dangerous global heating, something that affects poorer countries more than us. According to experts and groups such as Operation Noah, and the Christian Climate Change organisation, this seven percent yearly reduction should be upheld whilst keeping employment levels and improving equity and health.
The Church of England has set a very ambitious target of 2030 for net zero emissions, which is only ten years away. This means that for us at St Stephens, that as well as grappling with the challenges associated with easing of lockdown, we will soon have to grapple with how we might participate in reaching this target.
An eternal perspective on this could be that in the garden in Genesis, God gave humankind the opportunity to share in looking after creation with tilling and tending the garden. Now there is an urgent need to till and tend creation around us, so as to stop global heating, not just by the church but also by everyone everywhere.
This might seem too much to take on or even contemplate in the midst of this pandemic when we still don’t yet have a vaccine for Covid 19. However, the pandemic may have paved the way for us to get our heads around dealing with global heating. All of us have had to change and give things up on a personal level while countries and governments have had to cooperate on a global level, albeit imperfectly. The result has changed perspectives and the realisation that we can change. This is exactly what we need to deal with global heating.
Ten years is not a long time to achieve net zero emissions but the good thing is that we are doing it in our own small part of creation and there are many, many tools already out there for churches to work practically toward zero emissions. Let’s see if we can start with St Stephens and work with God in His creation.
Jeremy Cavanagh
One of the outcomes of Covid 19 is that global emissions have fallen by six percent. This is due to things like the dramatic decrease in flights taken, as well as the lowered purchasing power, which has impacted employment, which is both good and bad. However, we are told that emissions have to fall by over seven percent each year in order to avoid dangerous global heating, something that affects poorer countries more than us. According to experts and groups such as Operation Noah, and the Christian Climate Change organisation, this seven percent yearly reduction should be upheld whilst keeping employment levels and improving equity and health.
The Church of England has set a very ambitious target of 2030 for net zero emissions, which is only ten years away. This means that for us at St Stephens, that as well as grappling with the challenges associated with easing of lockdown, we will soon have to grapple with how we might participate in reaching this target.
An eternal perspective on this could be that in the garden in Genesis, God gave humankind the opportunity to share in looking after creation with tilling and tending the garden. Now there is an urgent need to till and tend creation around us, so as to stop global heating, not just by the church but also by everyone everywhere.
This might seem too much to take on or even contemplate in the midst of this pandemic when we still don’t yet have a vaccine for Covid 19. However, the pandemic may have paved the way for us to get our heads around dealing with global heating. All of us have had to change and give things up on a personal level while countries and governments have had to cooperate on a global level, albeit imperfectly. The result has changed perspectives and the realisation that we can change. This is exactly what we need to deal with global heating.
Ten years is not a long time to achieve net zero emissions but the good thing is that we are doing it in our own small part of creation and there are many, many tools already out there for churches to work practically toward zero emissions. Let’s see if we can start with St Stephens and work with God in His creation.
Jeremy Cavanagh
Monday 24th August
Friday 21st August
In her column for the Guardian newspaper Rachel Roddy had this wonderful anecdote "In his 2007 book, The Last Food of England, Marwood Yeatman tells a story of a vicar in Landkey, Devon, who noticed the scarlet mouths of his congregation when they sang hymns in high summer. The stain came from mazzards, the West Country name for Prunus avium, the wild or sweet cherries native to the British isles that have been eaten since prehistoric times. The vicar’s memories are of a time when north Devon – particularly the area around Landkey and nearby Barnstaple and Goodleigh – was famous for its mazzards, when trees bearing fruit occupied hedges, closes, village greens and gardens; when handfuls could be pulled from branches and eaten on the way to school or church, to be revealed during O Jesus I Have Promised. Imagining an entire congregation with scarlet mouths, tongues and streaky teeth, fingertips and nail cuticles too, is the most wonderful picture."
This led me to wonder about what other rituals people might have on their way to church. In my case there is a beautifully fragrant lavender bush en route and I always rub my hands on the leaves. The scent lasts for ages and occasional bursts of it add an incense-like quality to the service.
Ann Mills Duggan
In her column for the Guardian newspaper Rachel Roddy had this wonderful anecdote "In his 2007 book, The Last Food of England, Marwood Yeatman tells a story of a vicar in Landkey, Devon, who noticed the scarlet mouths of his congregation when they sang hymns in high summer. The stain came from mazzards, the West Country name for Prunus avium, the wild or sweet cherries native to the British isles that have been eaten since prehistoric times. The vicar’s memories are of a time when north Devon – particularly the area around Landkey and nearby Barnstaple and Goodleigh – was famous for its mazzards, when trees bearing fruit occupied hedges, closes, village greens and gardens; when handfuls could be pulled from branches and eaten on the way to school or church, to be revealed during O Jesus I Have Promised. Imagining an entire congregation with scarlet mouths, tongues and streaky teeth, fingertips and nail cuticles too, is the most wonderful picture."
This led me to wonder about what other rituals people might have on their way to church. In my case there is a beautifully fragrant lavender bush en route and I always rub my hands on the leaves. The scent lasts for ages and occasional bursts of it add an incense-like quality to the service.
Ann Mills Duggan
Thursday 20th August
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret – it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. (Psalm 37:7-9)
“At my wits’ end”
“At the end of my tether”
“This is the last straw”
Is your personal favourite expression of exasperation amongst these familiar phrases? To have our patience tested is part of being human. But are we becoming less patient? A study in 2019 (performed in the UK on behalf of the stationery company BIC), suggested that humans do indeed become irritable more quickly than they have done in the past. And that was last year: surely our irritability must be greater now and our patience much reduced after what has been an incredibly challenging time, emotionally and spiritually? Interestingly, the finger of suspicion from that BIC study identified the cause as the rise of Technology. Yes, computers were blamed. Hang on, though: isn’t it computers that have kept the world turning in the past four months? We have all heard, many times, about how difficult things would have been during a pandemic fifteen years ago (or even more recently than that). So, what to think? Do we vow never to come within an antiseptic-wipe’s thickness of a keyboard ever again? Or do we sign up to undying loyalty to our silicon saints? Whatever our approach to the modern world, our patience will always be tested, by humans and machines alike. We will always need to employ tactics like counting to ten (in Welsh), walking away, humming a tune, shouting into a cushion – and reading Scripture.
Kevin Walsh
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret – it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. (Psalm 37:7-9)
“At my wits’ end”
“At the end of my tether”
“This is the last straw”
Is your personal favourite expression of exasperation amongst these familiar phrases? To have our patience tested is part of being human. But are we becoming less patient? A study in 2019 (performed in the UK on behalf of the stationery company BIC), suggested that humans do indeed become irritable more quickly than they have done in the past. And that was last year: surely our irritability must be greater now and our patience much reduced after what has been an incredibly challenging time, emotionally and spiritually? Interestingly, the finger of suspicion from that BIC study identified the cause as the rise of Technology. Yes, computers were blamed. Hang on, though: isn’t it computers that have kept the world turning in the past four months? We have all heard, many times, about how difficult things would have been during a pandemic fifteen years ago (or even more recently than that). So, what to think? Do we vow never to come within an antiseptic-wipe’s thickness of a keyboard ever again? Or do we sign up to undying loyalty to our silicon saints? Whatever our approach to the modern world, our patience will always be tested, by humans and machines alike. We will always need to employ tactics like counting to ten (in Welsh), walking away, humming a tune, shouting into a cushion – and reading Scripture.
Kevin Walsh
Wednesday 19th August
Sr Theresa Pountney is a Church Army sister who lives in our parish in Dean Abbotts House. She is a regular member of our weekday community and is someone whom I have known for over 20 years. I can say have the honour working with her for the majority of that time. Sr Theresa was awarded an MBE for her work with vulnerable women in the Marylebone area, and is someone who has dedicated most of her life in mission and evangelism. It is at this time of year that I fondly remember a particular project we worked together delivering in the Marylebone community. It was titled - “Holiday @ Home”. Sand, deckchairs, beach games and balls were brought into our church centre. A novel idea of Theresa’s of literally bringing holiday home to the people of our parish. For many, this was the only time and occasion that they experienced a beach holiday…all in the confines of our church. A wonderful time was had by all. A missional project that reminds me that not all people are able to get away to enjoy the wonders of the seaside or have a holiday, particularly true during this time. Please remember those who do not have the privilege of experiencing a holiday or the seaside this summer. And let us pray this summer blessing together:
May you walk with GodThis summer
In whatever you do
Wherever you go
Walking with God means...
Walking with honesty
And with courage,
Walking with love
And respect
And concern for the feelings of others
May you talk to God
This summer
And every day and
In every situation
Talking with God means...
Praying words of praise
For the beauty of creation
Saying prayers of thanks
For friends and good times,
Asking God's help
In all your decisions
Expressing sorrow
When you have failed
May you talk with God
Every day. Amen.
- Author unknown
Revd Graham M Buckle
Sr Theresa Pountney is a Church Army sister who lives in our parish in Dean Abbotts House. She is a regular member of our weekday community and is someone whom I have known for over 20 years. I can say have the honour working with her for the majority of that time. Sr Theresa was awarded an MBE for her work with vulnerable women in the Marylebone area, and is someone who has dedicated most of her life in mission and evangelism. It is at this time of year that I fondly remember a particular project we worked together delivering in the Marylebone community. It was titled - “Holiday @ Home”. Sand, deckchairs, beach games and balls were brought into our church centre. A novel idea of Theresa’s of literally bringing holiday home to the people of our parish. For many, this was the only time and occasion that they experienced a beach holiday…all in the confines of our church. A wonderful time was had by all. A missional project that reminds me that not all people are able to get away to enjoy the wonders of the seaside or have a holiday, particularly true during this time. Please remember those who do not have the privilege of experiencing a holiday or the seaside this summer. And let us pray this summer blessing together:
May you walk with GodThis summer
In whatever you do
Wherever you go
Walking with God means...
Walking with honesty
And with courage,
Walking with love
And respect
And concern for the feelings of others
May you talk to God
This summer
And every day and
In every situation
Talking with God means...
Praying words of praise
For the beauty of creation
Saying prayers of thanks
For friends and good times,
Asking God's help
In all your decisions
Expressing sorrow
When you have failed
May you talk with God
Every day. Amen.
- Author unknown
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 18th August
Yesterday I went to the beach.
No matter how busy the rest of the world appears to be, this beach is always quiet and a good place to think. It’s a pebble beach but when the tide goes out, especially on a spring tide when low tide is particularly low, there are what feels like miles and miles of sand. During lockdown I have been able to join in with Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer on Zoom with others from the St Stephen’s (and global!) community. I have felt really carried by God through the online prayer community during these times. Walking along the sand yesterday made me think of the poem ‘Footsteps in the Sand’.
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”
Mary Stevenson, 1936
Jen Adam
Yesterday I went to the beach.
No matter how busy the rest of the world appears to be, this beach is always quiet and a good place to think. It’s a pebble beach but when the tide goes out, especially on a spring tide when low tide is particularly low, there are what feels like miles and miles of sand. During lockdown I have been able to join in with Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer on Zoom with others from the St Stephen’s (and global!) community. I have felt really carried by God through the online prayer community during these times. Walking along the sand yesterday made me think of the poem ‘Footsteps in the Sand’.
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”
Mary Stevenson, 1936
Jen Adam
Monday 17th August
Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the death of Brother Roger of Taizé. Born Roger Schutz in Switzerland in 1915, he was the youngest child in a large family. He studied Reformed Theology whilst serving as a leader of the Swiss Student Christian Movement, and having come through tuberculosis felt called to form a Christian community.
In 1940, at the start of the WW2, Roger rode by bicycle from Geneva to Taizé, a small French town not far from the line of demarcation of the zone occupied by German troops. Thanks to a modest loan, he bought a house where with his sister Genevieve, they hid Christian, Jewish and agnostic refugees, until they had to return to Switzerland on learning the Gestapo had got wind of their activities. In Geneva he began a common life with his first brothers. He returned to Taizé with them in 1944, and with the help of Genevieve, they took in children orphaned by the war. On Sundays they welcomed German prisoners of war interned in a nearby camp.
Gradually other young Christian men of all denominations came to join them and during the winter of 1952-53 Brother Roger wrote the rule of life for the community he had founded, expressing for his brothers, “the essential that makes the common life possible”.
Brother Roger devoted his life to reconciliation among Christians. For him, the primary vocation of the Taizé community was to be a “parable of community”, a small but visible sign of reconciliation. He was particularly keen to make this possible for young people and so over the years Taizé grew into a place where each summer, thousands of young people from all over the world would travel to the hill top community in Burgundy, to sleep under canvas and share in the brothers’ simple way of life, and make friends with those they might otherwise never encounter. To this day, three times a day, the bells ring, and everyone stops what they are doing, to head to the huge monastery church to pray together. It was during my first visit to Taizé in the summer of 1998, that after 3 years of wondering, I felt my own called to ordained ministry strongly confirmed.
Tragically, on 16 August 2005, Brother Roger was murdered, aged 90. During evening prayer in the church at Taizé , a mentally disturbed woman came forward and stabbed him several times. No one would wish such a violent death on such a gentle and genuinely holy man, and it’s hard to imagine the distress of those present, but despite the horror, over time I have found a strange comfort in knowing his life ended in prayer surrounded by the young people he had welcomed throughout his life.
In a reflection titled ‘Why Brother Roger died’, Brother François described him as “an innocent . . . His innocence gave him a force of conviction that was quite special, a kind of gentleness that never admitted defeat. Until the very end, he saw Christian unity as a question of reconciliation . . . For someone who carries irresolvable conflicts within themselves, that innocence must have become intolerable. And in that case it was not enough to insult that innocence. It had to be eliminated . . . His death set a mysterious seal on what he always was. He was not killed for a cause that he was defending. He was killed because of what he was.”
Where would we be today if certain women, men, young people and also children had not arisen at moments when the human family seemed destined for the worst? They did not say: ‘Let things run their course!” Beyond the confrontations between persons, peoples and spiritual families, they prepared a way of trusting. Their lives bear witness to the fact that human beings have not been created for hopelessness.
Brother Roger of Taizé
Revd Lindsay Meader
Yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the death of Brother Roger of Taizé. Born Roger Schutz in Switzerland in 1915, he was the youngest child in a large family. He studied Reformed Theology whilst serving as a leader of the Swiss Student Christian Movement, and having come through tuberculosis felt called to form a Christian community.
In 1940, at the start of the WW2, Roger rode by bicycle from Geneva to Taizé, a small French town not far from the line of demarcation of the zone occupied by German troops. Thanks to a modest loan, he bought a house where with his sister Genevieve, they hid Christian, Jewish and agnostic refugees, until they had to return to Switzerland on learning the Gestapo had got wind of their activities. In Geneva he began a common life with his first brothers. He returned to Taizé with them in 1944, and with the help of Genevieve, they took in children orphaned by the war. On Sundays they welcomed German prisoners of war interned in a nearby camp.
Gradually other young Christian men of all denominations came to join them and during the winter of 1952-53 Brother Roger wrote the rule of life for the community he had founded, expressing for his brothers, “the essential that makes the common life possible”.
Brother Roger devoted his life to reconciliation among Christians. For him, the primary vocation of the Taizé community was to be a “parable of community”, a small but visible sign of reconciliation. He was particularly keen to make this possible for young people and so over the years Taizé grew into a place where each summer, thousands of young people from all over the world would travel to the hill top community in Burgundy, to sleep under canvas and share in the brothers’ simple way of life, and make friends with those they might otherwise never encounter. To this day, three times a day, the bells ring, and everyone stops what they are doing, to head to the huge monastery church to pray together. It was during my first visit to Taizé in the summer of 1998, that after 3 years of wondering, I felt my own called to ordained ministry strongly confirmed.
Tragically, on 16 August 2005, Brother Roger was murdered, aged 90. During evening prayer in the church at Taizé , a mentally disturbed woman came forward and stabbed him several times. No one would wish such a violent death on such a gentle and genuinely holy man, and it’s hard to imagine the distress of those present, but despite the horror, over time I have found a strange comfort in knowing his life ended in prayer surrounded by the young people he had welcomed throughout his life.
In a reflection titled ‘Why Brother Roger died’, Brother François described him as “an innocent . . . His innocence gave him a force of conviction that was quite special, a kind of gentleness that never admitted defeat. Until the very end, he saw Christian unity as a question of reconciliation . . . For someone who carries irresolvable conflicts within themselves, that innocence must have become intolerable. And in that case it was not enough to insult that innocence. It had to be eliminated . . . His death set a mysterious seal on what he always was. He was not killed for a cause that he was defending. He was killed because of what he was.”
Where would we be today if certain women, men, young people and also children had not arisen at moments when the human family seemed destined for the worst? They did not say: ‘Let things run their course!” Beyond the confrontations between persons, peoples and spiritual families, they prepared a way of trusting. Their lives bear witness to the fact that human beings have not been created for hopelessness.
Brother Roger of Taizé
Revd Lindsay Meader
Friday 14th August
Lord, teach us to pray.
Luke 11:1
The disciples were not alone in wondering how to pray. Down the millennia, Christians have explored different ways of coming into communion with God, giving thanks to Him, and asking for His help. There is vast treasury in the Christian tradition of aids to prayer, and ways of praying, and over the next couple of Daily Devotions I’d like to share with you some of the things that have helped me to pray.
One of the greatest difficulties I have in silent prayer is stopping my mind wandering off in totally different directions. I’ve found that having something to hold, or something to focus on can stop me wondering what I want to have for dinner, or worrying about an email I have to write, or any of the myriad other things my brain decides to throw up in the silence. Having a holding cross such as this one on the left can ground me, and remind me that I can, literally, put all my worries, all my concerns in God’s hands. Praying with an icon is an Orthodox practise which has become increasingly common across denominations. Icons are profoundly symbolic, with each detail representing something about the figures depicted, and spending time considering those details can help God to speak to us about Himself. For a wonderful talk about praying with icons, do click here. Praying with a candle is another ancient tradition, and one most people are familiar with. Gazing into the flicker of the flame can be very meditative, and help one reflect on Christ as the light of the world, as well as all the symbolism of the flame at Pentecost. Candles engage all the senses, as we can hear their crackle, feel their warmth, and even smell them. As well as being peaceful, candles remind us that we can come to know God with all our senses.
Prayer is a discipline that we continue to develop all our lives. In times when silent prayer is hard, and God seems far away, some of these ways of praying help me to still get a sense of God’s presence and his love.
Helena Bickley-Percival
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Thursday August 13th
When, as a young boy, I first heard of Octavia Hill, I naturally envisaged a bucolic area of raised land, probably in Kent or Sussex. Then, of course, I encountered the National Trust and Ms Hill's association with it. She passed away on 13 August 1912 and, in the church's calendar on that date every year, we commemorate her extraordinary life as a social reformer, the same day as we remember Florence Nightingale. Like Florence and our very own Angela Burdett-Coutts, Octavia was a woman with a deep social conscience and had a particular concern for making open spaces and places of historical interest available and accessible for the general public. This remarkable legacy has been preserved by the National Trust (which she co-founded in 1895) to this day and our collective appreciation of places of beauty and heritage - and our ability to visit them and spend time there - has maybe never been deeper. Psalm 90 is perhaps most famous for being attributed to Moses, which would make it the first psalm to be written. A wide-ranging text, it finishes with words that remind us of God's creation and our human responsibilities within it. A few years ago, the writer and theologian Carla A Grosch-Miller visited St Stephen's and spoke about the beauty and messages of the psalms; some of you may remember that occasion. Her book, Psalms Redux, is a prayerful re-packaging of a selection of psalms, including number 90, which she concludes as follows - fitting words with which to remember Octavia Hill and those like her, from whose dedication and foresight we are fortunate enough to benefit all these years later, thank God: Bless, O Lord, our immense fragility Kiss our bowed heads And take our shaking hands in Yours. Lift our eyes towards Your beauty And make us to stand As those who know their own. Kevin Walsh Wednesday August 12th
Gosh hasn’t it been warm these last few days? However, as we bask in the delights of the hot sun shine, the BBC reported that climate change, driven by industrial society, is having an increasing impact on the UK’s weather. In its annual UK report, the Met Office confirmed that 2019 was the 12th warmest year in a series from 1884. There was also a severe swing in weather from the soaking winter to the sunny spring. Some examples of temperature extremes experienced in 2019 include:
I suppose this shows that UK temperatures in 2019 were above the long-term average. Dr Mark McCarthy, from the Met Office, suggested that it was also a particularly wet year across parts of central and northern England. He said Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Cheshire received between a quarter to one third more rainfall than normal. For northern England this was the ninth wettest year in a series from 1862. Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, cited as examples; summer flash floods caused by extreme downpours, extensive autumn and winter river floods caused by persistent heavy rain and storms, and a backdrop of continued sea-level rises heightening the risk of coastal floods. Professor Ilan Kelman, from University College London, said heat would become an increasing problem and the norm. "These UK records show that if we do nothing about stopping climate change we are on track for summer heat and humidity which would be highly dangerous for us to be outdoors - and to be indoors without continual cooling.” We often feel that things are out of our control, but this is not the case. Everything little action we take has a monumental effect on our planet and environment. From recycling to ensuring that we reduce our own consumption of the energy, we use can all help. And as Christians, we can pray. So as we read of these things happening in our world and the changing weather patterns, let us pray together: Eternal God, whose Spirit moved over the face of the deep bringing forth light and life; by that same Spirit, renew your creation, and restore your image in your people. Turn us from careless tenants to faithful stewards, that your threefold blessing of clean air, pure water and rich earth may be the inheritance of everything that has the breath of life and one generation may proclaim to another the wonder of your works; through Jesus Christ, your living Word, in whom the fullness of your glory is revealed. Amen. Rt Revd Libby Lane, Bishop of Stockport For those interested in more prayers for the environment, they can be found at the following link: https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/topical-prayers/prayers-world-environment-day Revd Graham M Buckle 
Tuesday August 11th
Today the church remembers the life of St Clare of Assisi. Clare was one of the first followers of St Francis of Assisi, and ultimately founded the religious order of the “Poor Clares” – a convent order dedicated to holiness and to poverty in line with Francis’s teachings. Although (like many female saints) Clare is often referred to in relation to St Francis, she was an extraordinary woman in her own right. The Rule of the order which she founded was the first to be written by a woman, and emphasises living in poverty as Christ did, and almost constant silence, fasting, and prayer. The Clares wore no shoes and slept on the ground – an almost inconceivable idea at the time since Clare herself was from a wealthy and noble household, as were many of the sisters who joined her. Furthermore, Clare consistently fought off attempts by Popes to grant her order money, to alleviate her vow of poverty, or to impose a rule that brought the order more closely under their jurisdiction. Instead of following the worldly loves of money and power, Clare chose to imitate as far as possible the life of the apostles as sent out by Jesus with no money in their belts, no bag for the journey, nor any extra clothes (Matthew 10). Clare and her fellow sisters sought, throughout their lives, to become more like Christ by imitating his poverty as he spread the Good News through his ministry. We may not be called to vows of poverty today (although there is an Anglican community of St Clare!) but her life inspires us to think about what it is that we love, and how that love changes us. May our love for our Lord Jesus Christ, and his inexhaustible love for us, ever transform us in his likeness, from glory to glory. Helena Bickley-Percival |
Monday August 10th
During lockdown I would exercise by walking around my local park each evening. For the first week or so this was a good distraction from all the restrictions of lockdown and the uncertainty of the pandemic. However, after a while the novelty wore off and I found myself starting to count off the kilometers as a way of distracting myself.
After a few more weeks I noticed a change, I was starting to notice things I hadn’t discerned before. Such as the noisy Parakeets massing in the park’s trees or the house with a six-foot high model windmill in its front garden or the same families and individuals each night at dusk also escaping lockdown. I also started to see the park in terms of God’s infinite creation where you would look first at the trees and then see the infinite number of leaves with infinite shapes and so on.
It took a while after being jolted out of my daily life by lockdown for this discernment to emerge. It’s also like this for me in trying to discern what God might be doing in my own life or what I could be doing for God. I find I have to set aside the daily noise of my own life and concentrate on prayer that waits and seeks space so I can hear what the Holy Spirit might be trying to say. This takes time and what happens often catches me unawares; I’m not one of those people who can turn around and go, “ahh, that’s what’s God’s doing”.
Reopening St Stephen’s also requires discernment, not just with reopening safely and how to include everyone, but also what ‘church’ might look like in the community post pandemic. This might take a while to discern what God’s spirit might be saying to us as we reopen. However hard this pandemic has been for each one of us and those we know and love, reopening may present us with new opportunities to discern what the Almighty does and is doing.
1 Kings 3: 7b ‘although I am only a little child: I do not know how to go out or come in’.
Jeremy Cavanagh
During lockdown I would exercise by walking around my local park each evening. For the first week or so this was a good distraction from all the restrictions of lockdown and the uncertainty of the pandemic. However, after a while the novelty wore off and I found myself starting to count off the kilometers as a way of distracting myself.
After a few more weeks I noticed a change, I was starting to notice things I hadn’t discerned before. Such as the noisy Parakeets massing in the park’s trees or the house with a six-foot high model windmill in its front garden or the same families and individuals each night at dusk also escaping lockdown. I also started to see the park in terms of God’s infinite creation where you would look first at the trees and then see the infinite number of leaves with infinite shapes and so on.
It took a while after being jolted out of my daily life by lockdown for this discernment to emerge. It’s also like this for me in trying to discern what God might be doing in my own life or what I could be doing for God. I find I have to set aside the daily noise of my own life and concentrate on prayer that waits and seeks space so I can hear what the Holy Spirit might be trying to say. This takes time and what happens often catches me unawares; I’m not one of those people who can turn around and go, “ahh, that’s what’s God’s doing”.
Reopening St Stephen’s also requires discernment, not just with reopening safely and how to include everyone, but also what ‘church’ might look like in the community post pandemic. This might take a while to discern what God’s spirit might be saying to us as we reopen. However hard this pandemic has been for each one of us and those we know and love, reopening may present us with new opportunities to discern what the Almighty does and is doing.
1 Kings 3: 7b ‘although I am only a little child: I do not know how to go out or come in’.
Jeremy Cavanagh
Friday August 7th
Through various ‘accidents’ that my children have had, we hadn’t had a TV for about 4 years. When lockdown looked real and imminent, we asked them if there was anything that would be fun to have at home if we had to stay at home for a bit (who knew ‘a bit’ would turn out to be so long!). For some reason, we have loads of children’s DVDs and they asked if we could get a screen to watch them on. Not quite what we thought they’d ask for, but it seemed a reasonable request, so home came a TV/DVD player. Among the eclectic DVDs we own are movies such as 1984, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and The Hitchiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. In Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, the story centres around a couple of key characters including Ford Prefect (who, when arriving on earth had assumed that the dominant life form here was the car), and Arthur Dent (pictured below) an earthman. Ford is a researcher for the guidebook, which has the words DON’T PANIC printed in large, friendly letters on its cover. As the story progresses, we discover that the earth is actually a giant supercomputer designed to find the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. Unfortunately, the experiment was cut short when the Vogons destroyed the planet to make way for an hyper-spatial express route. Earth Mark II was commissioned by Mice and built by the Magratheans. At the end of the movie, we see Arthur standing outside of his house on Earth Mark II. He is given the choice - does he want anything to be changed? His answer is that this new planet could do without him. He chooses to not exist in a ‘perfect’ world that has been returned to what he thought was real, but to live in the crazy world that now appears to the actual reality.
As well as enjoying the random and weird film (it brings many soundbites into my life many of you may well have been exposed to…), it makes me think. Would I prefer to live in a seemingly perfect world that I knew to be fake, or to live the wild ride that the truth of reality presents?
Arthur Dent had been eating breakfast when the council arrived to drive a bypass through his house - “it’s a bypass, you’ve got to build bypasses”. He is holding his towel; a hitchhiker always knows where his towel is. I, on the other hand, do not know the original source of this picture.
Jen Adam
Through various ‘accidents’ that my children have had, we hadn’t had a TV for about 4 years. When lockdown looked real and imminent, we asked them if there was anything that would be fun to have at home if we had to stay at home for a bit (who knew ‘a bit’ would turn out to be so long!). For some reason, we have loads of children’s DVDs and they asked if we could get a screen to watch them on. Not quite what we thought they’d ask for, but it seemed a reasonable request, so home came a TV/DVD player. Among the eclectic DVDs we own are movies such as 1984, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and The Hitchiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. In Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, the story centres around a couple of key characters including Ford Prefect (who, when arriving on earth had assumed that the dominant life form here was the car), and Arthur Dent (pictured below) an earthman. Ford is a researcher for the guidebook, which has the words DON’T PANIC printed in large, friendly letters on its cover. As the story progresses, we discover that the earth is actually a giant supercomputer designed to find the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. Unfortunately, the experiment was cut short when the Vogons destroyed the planet to make way for an hyper-spatial express route. Earth Mark II was commissioned by Mice and built by the Magratheans. At the end of the movie, we see Arthur standing outside of his house on Earth Mark II. He is given the choice - does he want anything to be changed? His answer is that this new planet could do without him. He chooses to not exist in a ‘perfect’ world that has been returned to what he thought was real, but to live in the crazy world that now appears to the actual reality.
As well as enjoying the random and weird film (it brings many soundbites into my life many of you may well have been exposed to…), it makes me think. Would I prefer to live in a seemingly perfect world that I knew to be fake, or to live the wild ride that the truth of reality presents?
Arthur Dent had been eating breakfast when the council arrived to drive a bypass through his house - “it’s a bypass, you’ve got to build bypasses”. He is holding his towel; a hitchhiker always knows where his towel is. I, on the other hand, do not know the original source of this picture.
Jen Adam
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Thursday August 6th
Today is the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, a story found in three of the four Gospels, and unique in that it is the only miracle that happened to Jesus himself. It is a story weighted with symbolism, such as the appearance of Moses and Elijah to show Jesus’s continuity with the Jewish faith found in these two great prophets. The fact that it takes place up a mountain and Jesus’s face is transformed further links him with Moses who came down the mountain from meeting with God with his face shining so brightly he had to cover it up (Exodus 34:30). Despite being a story redolent with imagery, the Transfiguration presents problems for any artist wishing to depict it. How does one paint a whiteness beyond that which a bleacher on earth could attain (Mark 9:3)? When the author says that Jesus’s face had “changed,” what does that mean (Luke 9:29)? What exactly is a “bright cloud” (Matthew 17:5)? When depicting the Transfiguration, many artists have resorted to symbolism themselves to try to show this miracle, and its revelation of Jesus’s nature as both God and man. In the Orthodox icon-writing tradition, Jesus at the transfiguration is often depicted with a large halo around him, called a Mandorla. As you can see in this example, these Mandorlas often get darker and darker as they get closer to the figure of Jesus in order to make a deep symbolic point about how we “see” Jesus. Although God became incarnate as a man in Jesus Christ, we still don’t know what God “looks like.” Even the revelation of Jesus’s divinity at the Transfiguration caused the disciples to fall on their faces and be terrified. We cannot ever fully perceive God, because he is beyond all our earthly knowledge and understanding. There is always a deep mystery for us in the heart of our knowledge of God. The icon writers made the Mandorla get darker towards the middle as a way of expressing that mystery at the heart of our perception. |
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There are many beautiful depictions of Jesus in art, but the Transfiguration reminds us that there is always something unknown in our perception of God, down to the Gospel writers’ struggle to explain what was seen. The Icon writers understood this limitation, even as they produced moving and profound images of Christ. For now, we see in a glass, darkly, but one day we will see the risen Lord in all his glory, face to face.
O God,
who on the mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thine only-begotten Son
wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening:
Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may be permitted to
behold the King in his beauty,
who with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost,
liveth and reigneth one God, world without end.
Amen
Helena Bickley-Percival
O God,
who on the mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thine only-begotten Son
wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening:
Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may be permitted to
behold the King in his beauty,
who with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost,
liveth and reigneth one God, world without end.
Amen
Helena Bickley-Percival
Wednesday August 5th
He made the moon for the seasons (Psalm 104:19)
Last Monday (3 August) it was a Full Moon. Different Full Moons throughout the year are given different names across the world. In North American folklore, the one at this time of year is called the Sturgeon Moon - no current political affiliations implied. At this point, some of you may already be considering not reading on, with the prospect of yet another astronomically-inspired piece of writing from me. (Certain stimuli have this affect on people. I know some who have a very powerful yawn reflex at the mention of the word “football”, for example. Yes, difficult to believe, isn’t it?). However, please carry on.
The Full Moon is a glorious sight and one that is often taken for granted. Of course, we have had many reminders recently of things we have been careless enough to have taken for granted. Thanks to what have now become routine early morning walks for me, the Thames has become very much an intimate part of my daily life. Seeing how the height varies dramatically throughout the day and throughout the month has been very striking. The twice daily tidal rise and fall of the Earth’s water is caused by the combined gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun and the tides are particularly high when the Moon is Full (called a Spring Tide, though not related to the season). On Monday (itself a day named after the Moon), I thought of the opening lines to Matthew Arnold’s most famous poem Dover Beach:
The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full,
the moon lies fair.
It is a poem about religious faith and, perhaps, how it ebbs and flows in cycles and phases, like the sea. It seems natural for our faith to grow and shrink with time - just like the Moon itself (an analogy frequently used in poetry - see R S Thomas’s The Moon in Lleyn, for example).
If you’ve never looked at the Moon through binoculars then do try to do so as soon as possible: you will be amazed. And if you missed Monday’s Full Moon, don’t worry - there will be another one next month. Have faith.
Kevin Walsh
He made the moon for the seasons (Psalm 104:19)
Last Monday (3 August) it was a Full Moon. Different Full Moons throughout the year are given different names across the world. In North American folklore, the one at this time of year is called the Sturgeon Moon - no current political affiliations implied. At this point, some of you may already be considering not reading on, with the prospect of yet another astronomically-inspired piece of writing from me. (Certain stimuli have this affect on people. I know some who have a very powerful yawn reflex at the mention of the word “football”, for example. Yes, difficult to believe, isn’t it?). However, please carry on.
The Full Moon is a glorious sight and one that is often taken for granted. Of course, we have had many reminders recently of things we have been careless enough to have taken for granted. Thanks to what have now become routine early morning walks for me, the Thames has become very much an intimate part of my daily life. Seeing how the height varies dramatically throughout the day and throughout the month has been very striking. The twice daily tidal rise and fall of the Earth’s water is caused by the combined gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun and the tides are particularly high when the Moon is Full (called a Spring Tide, though not related to the season). On Monday (itself a day named after the Moon), I thought of the opening lines to Matthew Arnold’s most famous poem Dover Beach:
The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full,
the moon lies fair.
It is a poem about religious faith and, perhaps, how it ebbs and flows in cycles and phases, like the sea. It seems natural for our faith to grow and shrink with time - just like the Moon itself (an analogy frequently used in poetry - see R S Thomas’s The Moon in Lleyn, for example).
If you’ve never looked at the Moon through binoculars then do try to do so as soon as possible: you will be amazed. And if you missed Monday’s Full Moon, don’t worry - there will be another one next month. Have faith.
Kevin Walsh
Tuesday August 4th
We have a new archdeacon in our deaconry. His name is Adam Atkinson, and shall be working alongside and together with Luke Miller. Ordinarily we would have invited Adam, to either preach or come to see our community. However, in these strange times this is not possible. Adam did post on the diocesan weekly virtual news feed an interesting Vimeo video about the Song of Songs, which I offer to you as our Daily Devotion, together with a little insight into our new Archdeacon. Please do hold him, his family and our Archdeaconary in your prayers: https://vimeo.com/442996228gu
We have a new archdeacon in our deaconry. His name is Adam Atkinson, and shall be working alongside and together with Luke Miller. Ordinarily we would have invited Adam, to either preach or come to see our community. However, in these strange times this is not possible. Adam did post on the diocesan weekly virtual news feed an interesting Vimeo video about the Song of Songs, which I offer to you as our Daily Devotion, together with a little insight into our new Archdeacon. Please do hold him, his family and our Archdeaconary in your prayers: https://vimeo.com/442996228gu
Monday August 3rd
With churches in the UK still experiencing lockdown, the Rev Dr Carrie Pemberton Ford launched One Boat Chaplaincy, offering reflections on fresh lessons to be learnt about how we 'do church' during this time. Enforced online communication is revealing a potentially deeper experience of being part of a universal, holy, catholic church, she says, redefining a kingdom message and relocating who has authorship of both content and framing of what it is to be ‘church’. Since those first tentative broadcasts, One Boat has grown to a membership just short of 1000 and over 70,000 virtual visitors to it daily services of meditation over the first five weeks.
If you are interested do look at their excellent website: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/29646
Again our friend Yvonne O’Neill was asked to upload a video for the One Boat Chaplaincy, please use her insights and thoughts for your Daily Devotion today:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=919019655231294&id=112032117113041&_rdr
Revd Graham M Buckle
With churches in the UK still experiencing lockdown, the Rev Dr Carrie Pemberton Ford launched One Boat Chaplaincy, offering reflections on fresh lessons to be learnt about how we 'do church' during this time. Enforced online communication is revealing a potentially deeper experience of being part of a universal, holy, catholic church, she says, redefining a kingdom message and relocating who has authorship of both content and framing of what it is to be ‘church’. Since those first tentative broadcasts, One Boat has grown to a membership just short of 1000 and over 70,000 virtual visitors to it daily services of meditation over the first five weeks.
If you are interested do look at their excellent website: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/29646
Again our friend Yvonne O’Neill was asked to upload a video for the One Boat Chaplaincy, please use her insights and thoughts for your Daily Devotion today:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=919019655231294&id=112032117113041&_rdr
Revd Graham M Buckle
Friday 31st July
On Wednesday we celebrated three great friends of Jesus, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Our friend John shared some thoughts on the two sisters with some moving images I commend to you:
https://vimeo.com/442555635?ref=em-share
Let us pray together:
Creator God,
whose Son enjoyed the love of his friends,
Mary, Martha and Lazarus,
In learning, argument and hospitality:
may we so rejoice in your love
that the world may come to know
the depths of your wisdom, the wonder of your compassion,
and your power to bring life out of death;
through the merits of Jesus Christ,
our friend and brother,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
On Wednesday we celebrated three great friends of Jesus, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Our friend John shared some thoughts on the two sisters with some moving images I commend to you:
https://vimeo.com/442555635?ref=em-share
Let us pray together:
Creator God,
whose Son enjoyed the love of his friends,
Mary, Martha and Lazarus,
In learning, argument and hospitality:
may we so rejoice in your love
that the world may come to know
the depths of your wisdom, the wonder of your compassion,
and your power to bring life out of death;
through the merits of Jesus Christ,
our friend and brother,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Thursday 30th July
Today the church commemorates William Wilberforce, a man was convinced of the importance of religion, morality and education. He championed causes and campaigns such as the Society for the Suppression of Vice, British missionary work in India, the creation of a free colony in Sierra Leone, the foundation of the Church Mission Society, to name but a few. He has been criticised for ignoring injustices at home by supporting controversial politically and socially legislation, while campaigning for the enslaved abroad.
But he is most remembered for his work in later years, in supporting the campaign for the complete abolition of slavery, and continued his involvement after 1826, when he resigned from Parliament because of his failing health. That campaign led to the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which abolished slavery in most of the British Empire. Wilberforce died just three days after hearing that the passage of the Act through Parliament was assured. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Let us use a prayer which has been attributed to him as part of our Daily Devotion:
O Lord, reassure me with Your quickening Spirit;
without You I can do nothing.
Mortify in me all ambition, vanity, vainglory,
worldliness, pride, selfishness,
and resistance from God,
and fill me with love, peace
and all the fruits of the Spirit.
O Lord, I know not what I am,
but to You I flee for refuge.
I would surrender myself to You,
trusting Your precious promises
and against hope believing in hope. Amen
– William Wilberforce, 1759-1833
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today the church commemorates William Wilberforce, a man was convinced of the importance of religion, morality and education. He championed causes and campaigns such as the Society for the Suppression of Vice, British missionary work in India, the creation of a free colony in Sierra Leone, the foundation of the Church Mission Society, to name but a few. He has been criticised for ignoring injustices at home by supporting controversial politically and socially legislation, while campaigning for the enslaved abroad.
But he is most remembered for his work in later years, in supporting the campaign for the complete abolition of slavery, and continued his involvement after 1826, when he resigned from Parliament because of his failing health. That campaign led to the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which abolished slavery in most of the British Empire. Wilberforce died just three days after hearing that the passage of the Act through Parliament was assured. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Let us use a prayer which has been attributed to him as part of our Daily Devotion:
O Lord, reassure me with Your quickening Spirit;
without You I can do nothing.
Mortify in me all ambition, vanity, vainglory,
worldliness, pride, selfishness,
and resistance from God,
and fill me with love, peace
and all the fruits of the Spirit.
O Lord, I know not what I am,
but to You I flee for refuge.
I would surrender myself to You,
trusting Your precious promises
and against hope believing in hope. Amen
– William Wilberforce, 1759-1833
Revd Graham M Buckle
Wednesday 29th July
The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. (Psalm 19: 1)
This photo is of Comet NEOWISE, currently visible in our skies, but fading fast. It was taken by a friend of mine (Jeff Tomasi) who is spending the summer with his family in New York State. The name NEOWISE comes from the satellite with which it was discovered on 27 March. Comets are intriguing objects. They are believed to be very ancient, comprising some of the debris from the formation of the Solar System. They tend to have very elongated orbits and as they approach the Sun, the characteristic tails start to form (there are always two). Whilst some have small, predictable orbits and will return to Earth’s part of the inner Solar System within a typical human lifetime, most are unexpected and will probably not return for thousands of years, if at all. Their mysterious origin and spectacular appearance has meant that throughout history they have been regarded as portents of major events. The most well-known is Comet Halley which appears on, among many other things, the Bayeux Tapestry and as the Star of Bethlehem in Giotto’s painting The Adoration of the Magi.
The universe is forever unveiling new secrets and presenting us with unannounced guests, from the cosmic-sized to the sub-microscopic, some of which may be as unwelcome as they are unexpected. Everything, though, is a part of the greater glory of the cosmos and though we may struggle to comprehend such deep mysteries, the awe and majesty of creation is never in doubt.
Dr K A P Walsh
The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. (Psalm 19: 1)
This photo is of Comet NEOWISE, currently visible in our skies, but fading fast. It was taken by a friend of mine (Jeff Tomasi) who is spending the summer with his family in New York State. The name NEOWISE comes from the satellite with which it was discovered on 27 March. Comets are intriguing objects. They are believed to be very ancient, comprising some of the debris from the formation of the Solar System. They tend to have very elongated orbits and as they approach the Sun, the characteristic tails start to form (there are always two). Whilst some have small, predictable orbits and will return to Earth’s part of the inner Solar System within a typical human lifetime, most are unexpected and will probably not return for thousands of years, if at all. Their mysterious origin and spectacular appearance has meant that throughout history they have been regarded as portents of major events. The most well-known is Comet Halley which appears on, among many other things, the Bayeux Tapestry and as the Star of Bethlehem in Giotto’s painting The Adoration of the Magi.
The universe is forever unveiling new secrets and presenting us with unannounced guests, from the cosmic-sized to the sub-microscopic, some of which may be as unwelcome as they are unexpected. Everything, though, is a part of the greater glory of the cosmos and though we may struggle to comprehend such deep mysteries, the awe and majesty of creation is never in doubt.
Dr K A P Walsh
Tuesday 28th July
This drawing, entitled Praying Hands, is probably the most famous piece of work by the German artist Albrecht Dürer. There is a story attached to the image, in which Albrecht and his brother Albert both realised that there was not enough money for them both to study and become artists as they dreamed. Albert suggested that he work in the local mines in order to earn money to support Albrecht, and once Albrecht was successful, he would support Albert’s studies in return. Once Albrecht has started the achieve success as an artist, he returned to his family home in order to fulfil that promise, and to support Albert in his dream to also become an artist. The long years in the mines, however, had crippled Albert’s hands such that he could barely hold a brush or a pen anymore. He had sacrificed his dream in order to support his younger brother. Albrecht drew the hands of his brother, possibly as a study for the hands on an Apostle in an altarpiece, in recognition of his sacrifice.
There is no telling if the story is true, or if it is just a nice tale attached to a famous picture. It reminds me, however, of the love that hands can express, and the stories they can hold. One of the difficulties in lockdown has been the inability to hug a loved one, lay a hand on a shoulder in comfort, or even share the peace during the Eucharist. We have become more aware of our hands, in part because of restrictions on what we can and cannot touch. The Gospels are full of stories in which hands are important as well. Jesus often healed through touch, Pilate washed his hands in an attempt to symbolise his lack of guilt in Jesus’s death, and Jesus told Thomas to place his hand in the wound in Jesus’s side in order to alleviate his doubt. Our hands are important when we pray, whether we put them together as in this drawing, hold them open to show our openness to God, or raise them in praise. We have an embodied faith, and whether our hands are un-calloused and young, or work-worn as in the picture, they are full of stories and love, and help us to express our love for each other and for God as we pray. In the words of the hymn, may the Lord strengthen for service our hands, and may all the work that we do with them be to his glory, in love.
Helena Bickley-Percival
This drawing, entitled Praying Hands, is probably the most famous piece of work by the German artist Albrecht Dürer. There is a story attached to the image, in which Albrecht and his brother Albert both realised that there was not enough money for them both to study and become artists as they dreamed. Albert suggested that he work in the local mines in order to earn money to support Albrecht, and once Albrecht was successful, he would support Albert’s studies in return. Once Albrecht has started the achieve success as an artist, he returned to his family home in order to fulfil that promise, and to support Albert in his dream to also become an artist. The long years in the mines, however, had crippled Albert’s hands such that he could barely hold a brush or a pen anymore. He had sacrificed his dream in order to support his younger brother. Albrecht drew the hands of his brother, possibly as a study for the hands on an Apostle in an altarpiece, in recognition of his sacrifice.
There is no telling if the story is true, or if it is just a nice tale attached to a famous picture. It reminds me, however, of the love that hands can express, and the stories they can hold. One of the difficulties in lockdown has been the inability to hug a loved one, lay a hand on a shoulder in comfort, or even share the peace during the Eucharist. We have become more aware of our hands, in part because of restrictions on what we can and cannot touch. The Gospels are full of stories in which hands are important as well. Jesus often healed through touch, Pilate washed his hands in an attempt to symbolise his lack of guilt in Jesus’s death, and Jesus told Thomas to place his hand in the wound in Jesus’s side in order to alleviate his doubt. Our hands are important when we pray, whether we put them together as in this drawing, hold them open to show our openness to God, or raise them in praise. We have an embodied faith, and whether our hands are un-calloused and young, or work-worn as in the picture, they are full of stories and love, and help us to express our love for each other and for God as we pray. In the words of the hymn, may the Lord strengthen for service our hands, and may all the work that we do with them be to his glory, in love.
Helena Bickley-Percival
Monday 27th July
Saturday 25th July
I was distressed to read this week that almost all lemurs and now threatened with extinction, largely as a result of the rapid deforestation and hunting in their native Madagascar. Numbers are also being depleted by a relatively new trade in lemurs as pets, would you believe. Of the 107 species that survive on the island of the east coast of Africa, 103 are now listed as endangered, and 33 as critically endangered – the last staging post before becoming extinct in the wild, according to the International Union of Conservation of Nature. More than 40% of the impoverished nation’s original forest cover was lost between 1950s and the 2000s – much of it to land burn clearing for agriculture. Among those now classified as critically endangered, is the Madame Berthe’s Mouse Lemur, the smallest primate in the world (cf picture insert). Appallingly, when googling this particular lemur, I found that there are sites advertising the selling of them!
I’m so saddened that we as human beings are destroying and eradicating some of the most beautiful and important species who inhabit and share this planet with us. During the time of Covid, there was much talk about how we could hear and appreciate nature so much more. We must take this into our futures. It is absolutely vital that we as Christians work together to save some of our endangered species, to protect them not just for the future but for the ‘here and now’. Let us pray together and pledge together as a church community, our commitment to highlight and support our neighbour creatures who are near extinction. Perhaps by supporting those agencies which help and work for their conservation:
God of all creation, you created animals to roam the earth and fish to fill the seas.
We pray for creatures on the verge of extinction, specifically that those responsible for poaching and polluting will be held responsible.
Help us to live in a way that does not endanger life, but cherishes and nourishes the life in and around us.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
I was distressed to read this week that almost all lemurs and now threatened with extinction, largely as a result of the rapid deforestation and hunting in their native Madagascar. Numbers are also being depleted by a relatively new trade in lemurs as pets, would you believe. Of the 107 species that survive on the island of the east coast of Africa, 103 are now listed as endangered, and 33 as critically endangered – the last staging post before becoming extinct in the wild, according to the International Union of Conservation of Nature. More than 40% of the impoverished nation’s original forest cover was lost between 1950s and the 2000s – much of it to land burn clearing for agriculture. Among those now classified as critically endangered, is the Madame Berthe’s Mouse Lemur, the smallest primate in the world (cf picture insert). Appallingly, when googling this particular lemur, I found that there are sites advertising the selling of them!
I’m so saddened that we as human beings are destroying and eradicating some of the most beautiful and important species who inhabit and share this planet with us. During the time of Covid, there was much talk about how we could hear and appreciate nature so much more. We must take this into our futures. It is absolutely vital that we as Christians work together to save some of our endangered species, to protect them not just for the future but for the ‘here and now’. Let us pray together and pledge together as a church community, our commitment to highlight and support our neighbour creatures who are near extinction. Perhaps by supporting those agencies which help and work for their conservation:
God of all creation, you created animals to roam the earth and fish to fill the seas.
We pray for creatures on the verge of extinction, specifically that those responsible for poaching and polluting will be held responsible.
Help us to live in a way that does not endanger life, but cherishes and nourishes the life in and around us.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Friday 24th July
Annie Power had a beautiful idea of sharing, with members of the parish, some of her geraniums she grew. Some of the young people from Westminster School helped us to deliver some. One recipient, Liz Witts, sent two photos of her given plant from this St. Stephen’s cutting. The first she, and Annie, thought to be titled “The First Flower”, and the second (11 days later), “The First Flower with Friends”. She asks that we might share this iconic duo as a Beacon of Hope for our daily devotion...
Annie Power had a beautiful idea of sharing, with members of the parish, some of her geraniums she grew. Some of the young people from Westminster School helped us to deliver some. One recipient, Liz Witts, sent two photos of her given plant from this St. Stephen’s cutting. The first she, and Annie, thought to be titled “The First Flower”, and the second (11 days later), “The First Flower with Friends”. She asks that we might share this iconic duo as a Beacon of Hope for our daily devotion...
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Thursday 23rd July
Carrying on yesterday’s saint - Mary Magdalena: our friend John gives a good cameo of her on his weekly Vimeo, which I commend to you for today’s Daily Devotion:
https://vimeo.com/440449550?ref=em-share
Carrying on yesterday’s saint - Mary Magdalena: our friend John gives a good cameo of her on his weekly Vimeo, which I commend to you for today’s Daily Devotion:
https://vimeo.com/440449550?ref=em-share
Wednesday 22nd July
This is one of my favourite stained-glass windows, found in the church of Mary Magdalen in Oxford. In it, we see some of the stories surrounding Jesus’s birth in Luke’s Gospel, including the Angel appearing to Zechariah, the birth of John the Baptist, the angel appearing to Mary, and the angel appearing to the shepherds. The events surrounding Jesus’s birth may not feel very seasonal at the moment, but this window has always spoken to me of the different ways in which God calls us, and the different ways in which we might respond. Zechariah appears in two of the panels, showing both his encounter with the angel telling him that his wife will have a son, and the moment at which he writes the name of that son after his birth. Zechariah at first did not believe God’s call upon him to be the father of a son who would be ‘great in the sight of the Lord’ (Luke 1:15), causing him to become mute until the moment when he writes the name instructed by the angel. Zechariah didn’t believe his call, but it still happened.
We may be afraid or disbelieving, but God’s call for us often finds a way of working out in our lives. Zechariah’s disbelief caused him to become mute, unable to praise God, but in the moment that the muteness was lifted, he sang a great hymn of praise that became the Benedictus that is said at morning prayer. Mary’s call was different. She assented to God’s call on her, giving her consent to the working out of God’s plan, but she did ask questions and think before she gave that consent. Sometimes, working out God’s call for us takes time in prayer and discernment before we can move forward. That time of questioning may seem long and difficult, but it allows us to follow God’s call with a full and undivided heart, as May became the mother of Jesus. Finally, the shepherds are seen being called to come and see the child that had just been born. Shepherds in first-century Palestine were considered some of the poorest and lowliest of the community, living outside the city. They were called, however, to come and be the first to see the Christ-child, and to spread the good news to others. Like Zechariah and Mary, they were told not to be afraid, but to follow their calling, ultimately leading them to praise God. No matter who we are, no matter how scared we might be, or how many questions we might have, God has a call for each one of us. Following that call may lead to times of difficulty, as with Zechariah, require questioning and careful thought as with Mary, or seem totally unexpected due to where we are in life, but following that call allows us to see the face of Jesus, and ultimately to say, with Mary:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.
(Luke 1:46)
Helena Bickley-Percival
Tuesday 21st July
As we were praying for Jen Adams this morning as she attends her BAP (Bishop’s Advisory Panel), I was reminded how I, as a DDO (Diocesan Director of Ordinands) used to prepare people for such a day. In fact, I prepared hundreds of potential ordinands, including Jenny Hogan and John Hicks, which gives you an idea how long ago it was! My interest in training has not stopped and we are so fortunate as a community to be regarded as a training parish, as it highlights our own ministries. To have had Cath, Helena, Mark, Jeremy, Andrew (India), Katy, Jen, to name but a few, amongst us enhances our community. We are all ministers of Christ with various gifts and ministries.
As St Paul states, “we all have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.” (Rom 12.6-8)
So as we remember those going through the discernment process, those in training, those ordained, let us remember ourselves and give thanks for our wonderful Christian community and for our gifts that we have to offer:
Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
As we were praying for Jen Adams this morning as she attends her BAP (Bishop’s Advisory Panel), I was reminded how I, as a DDO (Diocesan Director of Ordinands) used to prepare people for such a day. In fact, I prepared hundreds of potential ordinands, including Jenny Hogan and John Hicks, which gives you an idea how long ago it was! My interest in training has not stopped and we are so fortunate as a community to be regarded as a training parish, as it highlights our own ministries. To have had Cath, Helena, Mark, Jeremy, Andrew (India), Katy, Jen, to name but a few, amongst us enhances our community. We are all ministers of Christ with various gifts and ministries.
As St Paul states, “we all have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.” (Rom 12.6-8)
So as we remember those going through the discernment process, those in training, those ordained, let us remember ourselves and give thanks for our wonderful Christian community and for our gifts that we have to offer:
Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Monday 20th July
Saturday 18th July
RIP Fran Eppy
Recently I came across a tweet from Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton, that aroused my curiosity. A fan was reminiscing about eating pizza in a pizzeria just across from the Richard Rogers Theatre, the Broadway home of Hamilton. Miranda’s tweet recalled how they gave him free coffee. “Every day I’d get two, one for me and one for Fran the usher. RIP Fran Eppy!”
I love seeing when those on the stage take the time to get to know the front of house team and the theatre staff. So immediately, I was curious. I wanted to know more; more about Fran Eppy, the usher. I discovered an interview with British actor Orlando Bloom, speaking warmly of Fran who had been working at the theatre for 28 years when he made his Broadway debut there in 2013. I came across a review by a Jewish critic who was surprised hear Yiddish being spoken in the theatre foyer by “the feisty petite, blonde senior veteran usher” (Fran).
I then came across an earlier tweet from Miranda from 8th June this year:
“My friend Fran Eppy died peacefully in her sleep this weekend … She was an usher at the Rodgers. & she was my surrogate abuela [Spanish for grandmother] at the theater after my abuelas passed.
No matter what was going on, I could escape backstage to talk to Fran (“Lin are you eating? I worry...”) She made me laugh so hard & treated me like family from the day we met in 2008. I love her and I’m gonna miss her a lot. RIP Fran Eppy.”
And straightaway, from that brief tribute I was forming a picture of an older, wise woman,
the kind who looks out for and cares for those around her, and who shuns any kind of attention. And who isn’t in any way starstruck when it comes to the famous actors and performers she meets each day, and moreover, doesn’t hesitate to offer wise counsel, sage advice and occasional tough love. And I would venture to suggest, an older woman who treats everyone equally – from star to cloakroom attendant to cleaner.
The responses to Miranda’s tweet served to reinforce this. Most were from audience members and fans of Hamilton. Here’s three:
Kathleen: I saw Hamilton in 2016 & had a scary moment at intermission when I realized I would be walking around NYC solo to the train station after show. Fran saw my worry/asked what was wrong; she wrote down detailed directions & told me to "walk with purpose." Will never forget that.
Kersti: You had tweeted about her so I introduced myself when we saw Hamilton again. I told her I felt like I was meeting a celebrity & she waved her hand at me like that was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. She seemed lovely.
Dawn: I tripped running up the stairs after a quick bathroom break at intermission. She told me "the second act is worth the bruise" and made me laugh through a very embarrassing moment. She was a sweet woman.
Many say that there is a great deal of superstition in the theatre, but much of that takes the form of small everyday rituals. Rituals are a sign of deep commitment and engagement; and usually a sign of something we care deeply about. Rituals often go to make up an experience that gives meaning and a sense of belonging. Such rituals don’t usually happen in isolation. Just like churches, theatres are places where we go hoping to be welcomed, to find a place where we can feel we belong, and where we can find challenge, humour, inspiration and renewal.
Churches and theatres are both places of recreation, or rather re-creation, places where, in the sharing of a meaningful experience with others, we can be renewed, transformed and enriched. They are also places that bring together people who otherwise might never meet each other, but who can become friends. Friends like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Fran Eppy. They are places where one of the daily rituals of the world-famous star of the show is to fetch two coffees, one for himself and one for the usher. Rest in peace, Fran Eppy.
Revd Lindsay Meader
RIP Fran Eppy
Recently I came across a tweet from Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton, that aroused my curiosity. A fan was reminiscing about eating pizza in a pizzeria just across from the Richard Rogers Theatre, the Broadway home of Hamilton. Miranda’s tweet recalled how they gave him free coffee. “Every day I’d get two, one for me and one for Fran the usher. RIP Fran Eppy!”
I love seeing when those on the stage take the time to get to know the front of house team and the theatre staff. So immediately, I was curious. I wanted to know more; more about Fran Eppy, the usher. I discovered an interview with British actor Orlando Bloom, speaking warmly of Fran who had been working at the theatre for 28 years when he made his Broadway debut there in 2013. I came across a review by a Jewish critic who was surprised hear Yiddish being spoken in the theatre foyer by “the feisty petite, blonde senior veteran usher” (Fran).
I then came across an earlier tweet from Miranda from 8th June this year:
“My friend Fran Eppy died peacefully in her sleep this weekend … She was an usher at the Rodgers. & she was my surrogate abuela [Spanish for grandmother] at the theater after my abuelas passed.
No matter what was going on, I could escape backstage to talk to Fran (“Lin are you eating? I worry...”) She made me laugh so hard & treated me like family from the day we met in 2008. I love her and I’m gonna miss her a lot. RIP Fran Eppy.”
And straightaway, from that brief tribute I was forming a picture of an older, wise woman,
the kind who looks out for and cares for those around her, and who shuns any kind of attention. And who isn’t in any way starstruck when it comes to the famous actors and performers she meets each day, and moreover, doesn’t hesitate to offer wise counsel, sage advice and occasional tough love. And I would venture to suggest, an older woman who treats everyone equally – from star to cloakroom attendant to cleaner.
The responses to Miranda’s tweet served to reinforce this. Most were from audience members and fans of Hamilton. Here’s three:
Kathleen: I saw Hamilton in 2016 & had a scary moment at intermission when I realized I would be walking around NYC solo to the train station after show. Fran saw my worry/asked what was wrong; she wrote down detailed directions & told me to "walk with purpose." Will never forget that.
Kersti: You had tweeted about her so I introduced myself when we saw Hamilton again. I told her I felt like I was meeting a celebrity & she waved her hand at me like that was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. She seemed lovely.
Dawn: I tripped running up the stairs after a quick bathroom break at intermission. She told me "the second act is worth the bruise" and made me laugh through a very embarrassing moment. She was a sweet woman.
Many say that there is a great deal of superstition in the theatre, but much of that takes the form of small everyday rituals. Rituals are a sign of deep commitment and engagement; and usually a sign of something we care deeply about. Rituals often go to make up an experience that gives meaning and a sense of belonging. Such rituals don’t usually happen in isolation. Just like churches, theatres are places where we go hoping to be welcomed, to find a place where we can feel we belong, and where we can find challenge, humour, inspiration and renewal.
Churches and theatres are both places of recreation, or rather re-creation, places where, in the sharing of a meaningful experience with others, we can be renewed, transformed and enriched. They are also places that bring together people who otherwise might never meet each other, but who can become friends. Friends like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Fran Eppy. They are places where one of the daily rituals of the world-famous star of the show is to fetch two coffees, one for himself and one for the usher. Rest in peace, Fran Eppy.
Revd Lindsay Meader
Friday 17th July
At the beginning of the lockdown the Church of England distributed a small booklet of prayers to use during the pandemic. I don’t know how many people received one, mine came with my Church Times. I am not usually attracted to prayer collections, but this is so small and appropriate that I have kept it under my pillow to use last thing at night.
There is one prayer - from the Church of South India - that has become very special to me and I always use last thing before going to sleep. It starts: “God our Father, by whose mercy the world turns safely into darkness and returns again to light:” words that immediately make me think of the preciousness of our planet in the Universe, green and wonderful, not very large, teeming with life among the apparently dead, frozen and violent companion planets that circle the Sun. We were able to see them again in the repeat of Brian Cox’s magnificent Planets on TV a couple of months ago. The Earth is so precious, and we are putting it so at risk with our carelessness, greed and stupidity, humans quarrelling with each other when we need to join together to protect and value it. We all need to pray endlessly for it.
The prayer goes on: “we place in your hands our unfinished tasks, our unsolved problems, and our unfulfilled hopes,” - could there be more appropriate words at the end of a day? It is only the end of that sentence I find slightly jarring - “knowing that only what you bless will prosper.”
Then the final words: “To your love and protection we commit each other and all those we love, knowing that you alone are our sure defender, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
With that I go to sleep.
Margaret Duggan
At the beginning of the lockdown the Church of England distributed a small booklet of prayers to use during the pandemic. I don’t know how many people received one, mine came with my Church Times. I am not usually attracted to prayer collections, but this is so small and appropriate that I have kept it under my pillow to use last thing at night.
There is one prayer - from the Church of South India - that has become very special to me and I always use last thing before going to sleep. It starts: “God our Father, by whose mercy the world turns safely into darkness and returns again to light:” words that immediately make me think of the preciousness of our planet in the Universe, green and wonderful, not very large, teeming with life among the apparently dead, frozen and violent companion planets that circle the Sun. We were able to see them again in the repeat of Brian Cox’s magnificent Planets on TV a couple of months ago. The Earth is so precious, and we are putting it so at risk with our carelessness, greed and stupidity, humans quarrelling with each other when we need to join together to protect and value it. We all need to pray endlessly for it.
The prayer goes on: “we place in your hands our unfinished tasks, our unsolved problems, and our unfulfilled hopes,” - could there be more appropriate words at the end of a day? It is only the end of that sentence I find slightly jarring - “knowing that only what you bless will prosper.”
Then the final words: “To your love and protection we commit each other and all those we love, knowing that you alone are our sure defender, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
With that I go to sleep.
Margaret Duggan
Thursday 16th July
Today the Church remembers St Osmund – a Bishop who arrived with William the Conqueror in 1066, and was to have a profound effect on both the ecclesiastical and civil life of the country for centuries after his death. Researching a little bit about Osmund had me musing on the way in which some things can radically change, and yet a holy life can resound down the centuries, such that we still remember a saint like Osmund today, 921 years after his death. Osmund was one of the Chief Commissioners of the Domesday Book, the mammoth tome that set out to record all the settlements in William the Conqueror’s new kingdom. In 1086, Westminster had a population of 62 households, had 11 ploughlands, and a wood that could hold 100 pigs. Although this was a relatively large population at the time, it is a far cry from the current estimated total population of 261,317! It would be safe to say that Osmund would recognise little or nothing of Westminster as it is today. Although there was an Abbey there at the time, the current building began construction in 1245. The Domesday Book was not the only major project Osmund was involved in, however. Osmund was also the driving force in the creation of a new liturgy for his Cathedral at Old Sarum, which came to spread throughout the British Isles, and this Sarum Rite was the predominant liturgy used in Britain until the time of the Reformation. Osmund’s Sarum Rite heavily influenced the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, and so his work and prayer still live with us today in our worship.
Osmund lived, and helped to shape, a time of profound change following the Norman invasion. Our times are immeasurably different from his, with no wood of 100 pigs left in Westminster, let alone the technological advances of the last 921 years. In our worship and our witness, however, Osmund is not so far removed as we may have thought. His influence lives on in our worship, and his example can still speak to us. In a time of upheaval, Osmund managed to live a holy life, remaining a man of virtue during the grabbing of land and power following the Conquest. He remained dedicated to learning and to scripture (even binding his own books!), and was hailed as one who had atoned for faults incurred through working “in the world” by patient witness until his death. May St Osmund pray for us, and may he be an example to us of a holy life in our own time of change.
Helena Bickley-Percival
Today the Church remembers St Osmund – a Bishop who arrived with William the Conqueror in 1066, and was to have a profound effect on both the ecclesiastical and civil life of the country for centuries after his death. Researching a little bit about Osmund had me musing on the way in which some things can radically change, and yet a holy life can resound down the centuries, such that we still remember a saint like Osmund today, 921 years after his death. Osmund was one of the Chief Commissioners of the Domesday Book, the mammoth tome that set out to record all the settlements in William the Conqueror’s new kingdom. In 1086, Westminster had a population of 62 households, had 11 ploughlands, and a wood that could hold 100 pigs. Although this was a relatively large population at the time, it is a far cry from the current estimated total population of 261,317! It would be safe to say that Osmund would recognise little or nothing of Westminster as it is today. Although there was an Abbey there at the time, the current building began construction in 1245. The Domesday Book was not the only major project Osmund was involved in, however. Osmund was also the driving force in the creation of a new liturgy for his Cathedral at Old Sarum, which came to spread throughout the British Isles, and this Sarum Rite was the predominant liturgy used in Britain until the time of the Reformation. Osmund’s Sarum Rite heavily influenced the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, and so his work and prayer still live with us today in our worship.
Osmund lived, and helped to shape, a time of profound change following the Norman invasion. Our times are immeasurably different from his, with no wood of 100 pigs left in Westminster, let alone the technological advances of the last 921 years. In our worship and our witness, however, Osmund is not so far removed as we may have thought. His influence lives on in our worship, and his example can still speak to us. In a time of upheaval, Osmund managed to live a holy life, remaining a man of virtue during the grabbing of land and power following the Conquest. He remained dedicated to learning and to scripture (even binding his own books!), and was hailed as one who had atoned for faults incurred through working “in the world” by patient witness until his death. May St Osmund pray for us, and may he be an example to us of a holy life in our own time of change.
Helena Bickley-Percival
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Wednesday 15th July
As we begin the process of slowly returning back to church, I would like to remind everyone that Said Evensong on a Sunday at 6 pm and BCP Holy Communion on a Wednesday at 12:30pm will be opened to the public and will continued to be Live-Streamed via Zoom. All our other services will continue on Zoom and full details can be found on this website. I thought it might be useful, as part of todays Daily Devotion, to show this helpful video, which may help us smile a little as we consider adopting their excellent health and safety strategies. Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Tuesday 14th July
Introduction to One Boat
I was honoured to be invited to give the 7th July reflection at One Boat: Chaplaincy for Covid Times, an organisation on Facebook founded by the Revd Dr Carrie Pemberton Ford. The page “is set up to connect those of formal and less formalised faith who wish to respond to Pope Francis’ call to acknowledge…we are members of one fragile boat, the boat of humanity, and pray.” My reflection centres around bread. I hope you will be fed by it. https://www.facebook.com/oneboatchaplaincy/videos/4591241317568339/?sfnsn=mo&d=n&vh=e
Yvonne O’Neal NYC
Introduction to One Boat
I was honoured to be invited to give the 7th July reflection at One Boat: Chaplaincy for Covid Times, an organisation on Facebook founded by the Revd Dr Carrie Pemberton Ford. The page “is set up to connect those of formal and less formalised faith who wish to respond to Pope Francis’ call to acknowledge…we are members of one fragile boat, the boat of humanity, and pray.” My reflection centres around bread. I hope you will be fed by it. https://www.facebook.com/oneboatchaplaincy/videos/4591241317568339/?sfnsn=mo&d=n&vh=e
Yvonne O’Neal NYC
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Monday 13th July
Today's Daily Devotion comes from a prayer written by a member of our Junior Church at her school. The prayer was shared with me and she kindly offered to read it out to be shared. Thank you Amelia. |
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Saturday 11th July
Today the church celebrates St Benedict. St Benedict of Nursia wrote a series of instructions for his monastery at Monte Cassino, outlining instructions for a life of work and prayer in the monastic community. This was known as the ‘Benedictine Rule’, and became the norm for monastic living throughout medieval Europe. It is still used as the basis for monastic life in many orders today. As a result, St Benedict is considered the father of Western monasticism. Our friend John Beddingfield did a wonderful video on Wednesday about Benedict, and I commend it to you as part of our daily devotion on his feast day: https://vimeo.com/436557693?ref=em-share
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today the church celebrates St Benedict. St Benedict of Nursia wrote a series of instructions for his monastery at Monte Cassino, outlining instructions for a life of work and prayer in the monastic community. This was known as the ‘Benedictine Rule’, and became the norm for monastic living throughout medieval Europe. It is still used as the basis for monastic life in many orders today. As a result, St Benedict is considered the father of Western monasticism. Our friend John Beddingfield did a wonderful video on Wednesday about Benedict, and I commend it to you as part of our daily devotion on his feast day: https://vimeo.com/436557693?ref=em-share
Revd Graham M Buckle
Friday 10th July
One of the sorrows of moving back to London during lockdown has been the inability to visit and revisit some of my favourite places in London. The silver lining, however, has been the wealth of material that various institutions have placed online. Theatres, music venues, museums and art galleries have all made new resources available to explore. One resource that has eaten quite a lot of my time is the “Discover” page on the British Library website. On it, they have different articles covering some of the most interesting books and artifacts that they hold, including a treasure trove of sacred texts from around the world. This article, about the history of the Bible, is a fascinating look at the Bible over the millennia, with amazing pictures of some of the earliest texts. As we hear God’s Word in worship, or read scripture in our own homes, it is a joy to contemplate the strength, wisdom and faith that the Word has inspired in Christians down the centuries. It is easy to be so used to hearing some Biblical stories that they become hackneyed, and lose some of their wonder. For me, seeing the reverence and wonder with which Christians have approached the Word in the past helps me to retreieve that wonder now. I encourage you to explore, and leave you with some words from the book of Proverbs.
https://www.bl.uk/sacred-texts/articles/the-christian-bible
Wisdom 8: 22-31
Wisdom speaks and says:
“The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works,[c][d]
before his deeds of old;
I was formed long ages ago,
at the very beginning, when the world came to be.
When there were no watery depths, I was given birth,
when there were no springs overflowing with water;
before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was given birth,
before he made the world or its fields
or any of the dust of the earth.
I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when he gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
Then I was constantly[e] at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,
rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in mankind.
Helena Bickley-Percival
One of the sorrows of moving back to London during lockdown has been the inability to visit and revisit some of my favourite places in London. The silver lining, however, has been the wealth of material that various institutions have placed online. Theatres, music venues, museums and art galleries have all made new resources available to explore. One resource that has eaten quite a lot of my time is the “Discover” page on the British Library website. On it, they have different articles covering some of the most interesting books and artifacts that they hold, including a treasure trove of sacred texts from around the world. This article, about the history of the Bible, is a fascinating look at the Bible over the millennia, with amazing pictures of some of the earliest texts. As we hear God’s Word in worship, or read scripture in our own homes, it is a joy to contemplate the strength, wisdom and faith that the Word has inspired in Christians down the centuries. It is easy to be so used to hearing some Biblical stories that they become hackneyed, and lose some of their wonder. For me, seeing the reverence and wonder with which Christians have approached the Word in the past helps me to retreieve that wonder now. I encourage you to explore, and leave you with some words from the book of Proverbs.
https://www.bl.uk/sacred-texts/articles/the-christian-bible
Wisdom 8: 22-31
Wisdom speaks and says:
“The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works,[c][d]
before his deeds of old;
I was formed long ages ago,
at the very beginning, when the world came to be.
When there were no watery depths, I was given birth,
when there were no springs overflowing with water;
before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was given birth,
before he made the world or its fields
or any of the dust of the earth.
I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when he gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep his command,
and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.
Then I was constantly[e] at his side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in his presence,
rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in mankind.
Helena Bickley-Percival
Thursday 9th July
Slow art last Sunday evening was fantastic, and I’m sure those who came along would agree. But don’t be disheartened, for if you were able to to make it, you can see the whole thing on our website: http://www.sswsj.org/videos.html
Please do take a look, it’s a very good upload. Of course our thanks and appreciation go out to Marc for his usual interesting and insightful guidance in open up of this interesting panel. He was keen for us to watch The Met film on Birth of St John the Baptist by Giovanni da Paolo which we didn’t have time for on Sunday, but For those interested here it is:
https://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/collections/ep/gothic-visions
And finally there is to be a free public talk at the National Gallery which Marc is contributing today at 4pm (9 July):
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/on-the-contrary-the-assassination-of-saint-peter-martyr-09-07-2020
Let us pray today for all artists:
Bless the creators, O God of creation, who by their gifts make the world a more joyful and beautiful realm.
Through their labours they teach us to see more clearly the truth around us.
In their inspiration they call forth wonder and awe in our own living.
In their hope and vision they remind us that life is holy.
Bless all who create in your image,
O God of creation.
Pour your Spirit upon them that their hearts may sing and their works be fulfilling. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Slow art last Sunday evening was fantastic, and I’m sure those who came along would agree. But don’t be disheartened, for if you were able to to make it, you can see the whole thing on our website: http://www.sswsj.org/videos.html
Please do take a look, it’s a very good upload. Of course our thanks and appreciation go out to Marc for his usual interesting and insightful guidance in open up of this interesting panel. He was keen for us to watch The Met film on Birth of St John the Baptist by Giovanni da Paolo which we didn’t have time for on Sunday, but For those interested here it is:
https://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/collections/ep/gothic-visions
And finally there is to be a free public talk at the National Gallery which Marc is contributing today at 4pm (9 July):
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/on-the-contrary-the-assassination-of-saint-peter-martyr-09-07-2020
Let us pray today for all artists:
Bless the creators, O God of creation, who by their gifts make the world a more joyful and beautiful realm.
Through their labours they teach us to see more clearly the truth around us.
In their inspiration they call forth wonder and awe in our own living.
In their hope and vision they remind us that life is holy.
Bless all who create in your image,
O God of creation.
Pour your Spirit upon them that their hearts may sing and their works be fulfilling. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Wednesday 8th July
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending”. This is a quote often, wrongly, attributed to C S Lewis. Nonetheless, it is a good saying, and may be one way into dealing with feelings of guilt and regret in relation to the issues of racism that dominate the headlines these days. Speaking as a priest and a lawyer, as well as a person of mixed racial background, my friend Rosamond McDowell considers an appropriate response to questions posed recently to her firm as to its historical connections to the slave trade. Does our Christian faith give us a chance for repentance, or metanoia, where regret is not enough?
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0b28e0aivbLnOWzTmSg1zk?si=k6pLmRfbTMiqGm67zUxjfA
Revd Graham M Buckle
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending”. This is a quote often, wrongly, attributed to C S Lewis. Nonetheless, it is a good saying, and may be one way into dealing with feelings of guilt and regret in relation to the issues of racism that dominate the headlines these days. Speaking as a priest and a lawyer, as well as a person of mixed racial background, my friend Rosamond McDowell considers an appropriate response to questions posed recently to her firm as to its historical connections to the slave trade. Does our Christian faith give us a chance for repentance, or metanoia, where regret is not enough?
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0b28e0aivbLnOWzTmSg1zk?si=k6pLmRfbTMiqGm67zUxjfA
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 7th July
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
~ R S Thomas (1913-2000)
This poem is one of my favourite poems to sit with when feeling frenetic or anxious. The image of a ray of sunlight lighting up something that seems little, or inconsequential, or transitory, only for that light to have been a gift in itself in an encouragement to see the beauty in the unexpected. To find God in the smallest things, or in fleeting moments. As we face the uncertainties and challenges of the easing of lockdown, it is all the more important to sit with those moments of grace, or of unexpected light. Those moments that point to an eternity of love and of grace beyond the hurrying to a receding future or hankering after an imagined past. It is all too easy to ignore or hurry past such moments in pursuit of the next meeting, the next worry, the next call upon our attention, but I encourage you to stop the next time you have a moment of unexpected pleasure. To spend a little moment within it, savouring it, remembering that God is there in it, and I hope that it will spark a little light within you as you continue to move through your day.
Helena Bickley-Percival
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
~ R S Thomas (1913-2000)
This poem is one of my favourite poems to sit with when feeling frenetic or anxious. The image of a ray of sunlight lighting up something that seems little, or inconsequential, or transitory, only for that light to have been a gift in itself in an encouragement to see the beauty in the unexpected. To find God in the smallest things, or in fleeting moments. As we face the uncertainties and challenges of the easing of lockdown, it is all the more important to sit with those moments of grace, or of unexpected light. Those moments that point to an eternity of love and of grace beyond the hurrying to a receding future or hankering after an imagined past. It is all too easy to ignore or hurry past such moments in pursuit of the next meeting, the next worry, the next call upon our attention, but I encourage you to stop the next time you have a moment of unexpected pleasure. To spend a little moment within it, savouring it, remembering that God is there in it, and I hope that it will spark a little light within you as you continue to move through your day.
Helena Bickley-Percival
Monday 6th July
The church commemorates a couple of interesting people today, interesting because they indirectly opposed the idea of our Anglican roots. John Fisher (c. 19 October 1469 – 22 June 1535), was an English Catholic Bishop, Cardinal, and theologian. An able academic, who served as chancellor of Cambridge University.
Fisher was executed by order of Henry VIII for refusing to accept him as the supreme Head of the Church of England and for upholding the doctrine of papal supremacy and he was made a cardinal shortly before his death.
The church commemorates a couple of interesting people today, interesting because they indirectly opposed the idea of our Anglican roots. John Fisher (c. 19 October 1469 – 22 June 1535), was an English Catholic Bishop, Cardinal, and theologian. An able academic, who served as chancellor of Cambridge University.
Fisher was executed by order of Henry VIII for refusing to accept him as the supreme Head of the Church of England and for upholding the doctrine of papal supremacy and he was made a cardinal shortly before his death.
He shares his day with Thomas More, who opposed the Protestant Reformation, and particularly opposed Henry VIII's separation from the Roman Catholic Church, like Fisher, refusing to acknowledge Henry as the supreme head and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He was convicted of treason and executed for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. He was canonised in 1935 as a martyr. interestingly, early twentieth century, the Soviet Union honoured him for the purportedly communist attitude toward property rights in Utopia.
So let us give thanks today for all those who stand up for what they feel to right and true. And particularly remember those who are persecuted for their beliefs, thanking God for the work of amnesty international.
Revd Graham M Buckle
So let us give thanks today for all those who stand up for what they feel to right and true. And particularly remember those who are persecuted for their beliefs, thanking God for the work of amnesty international.
Revd Graham M Buckle
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Saturday 4th July
My friend, Marc Woodhead, who works for the National Gallery, is leading our “Slow Art” session on Sunday evening during our evensong at 6pm, where we will be looking at Giovanni Di Paolo’s The Birth of St John the Baptist: Predella Panel He contacted me saying that he wanted to share a Thought for the Day 10 minute YouTube film from a colleague, Rev Evelyn Lee-Barber, who was giving her reflections on her experiences during the lockdown through art. Marc is right in suggesting that Evelyn has some “insightful comments...”. So I was delighted that she kindly gave her permission for me to share it with you as part of our Daily Devotion. Thank you Marc and Evelyn... Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Friday 3rd July
It was so lovely to celebrate 30 years of priestly ministry on Wednesday at St Stephen’s. The fact that we were restricted to what we could do, made it all the more poignant and meaningful. The celebration of Holy Communion via Zoom with old colleagues and the wonderful dialogue with our friend Revd John Beddingfield would not have taken place in such a way...Both were moving and very special. And to all those who sent cards, prayers and well wishes, they were/are gratefully received and appreciated. We also received John’s weekly video on Vimeo about our churches and special relationship, which I would like to share with you as part of our Daily Devotion:
https://vimeo.com/434195917?ref=em-share
Revd Graham M Buckle
It was so lovely to celebrate 30 years of priestly ministry on Wednesday at St Stephen’s. The fact that we were restricted to what we could do, made it all the more poignant and meaningful. The celebration of Holy Communion via Zoom with old colleagues and the wonderful dialogue with our friend Revd John Beddingfield would not have taken place in such a way...Both were moving and very special. And to all those who sent cards, prayers and well wishes, they were/are gratefully received and appreciated. We also received John’s weekly video on Vimeo about our churches and special relationship, which I would like to share with you as part of our Daily Devotion:
https://vimeo.com/434195917?ref=em-share
Revd Graham M Buckle
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Thursday 2nd July
On Tuesday I, together with thousands of others, joined via YouTube, the live screening of the parliamentary prayer Breakfast. I didn’t know what to expect, and to be honest, was a little sceptical. However, I was pleasantly surprised and encouraged by the mutual sharing and prayers that were said. Bishop Graham Tomlin, Bishop of Kensington, gave the short address, challenging Christians involved in politics to learn and live differently through the three pandemics of our time: Covid-19, Racism and Climate Change. I encourage you to watch and/or listen to his address, which you’ll find on YouTube. The prayer breakfast ended with a most moving rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’, sung and performed by MPs and those who work in Parliament. I offer you this as our Daily Devotion today. Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Wednesday 1st July
Today is the anniversary of my ordination - 31 years ago I was ordained deacon in St Paul’s Cathedral; A year later, on this same day: 1 July, 30 years ago, I was ordained priest in my title church - St James’s Sussex Gardens. What is interesting and slightly unusual is I have served my entire priestly ministry in the same Archdeaconry. Of course, there is much to rejoice and also be sorrowful for during this time; Some stories of great success, but equally, some I would rather forget. But what is clear, is that my priesthood during these 30 years, has been enhanced by those wonderful colleagues, friends and parishioners who have ministered, guided and travelled with me - thank you.
As I reflect, reminisce and recall, I would like to invite you to join me in praying for those churches and institutions where I served and those people, living and departed, from those places, who have, often unknowingly, influence my priestly journey:
As we give thanks for these places and people, we pray:
Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today is the anniversary of my ordination - 31 years ago I was ordained deacon in St Paul’s Cathedral; A year later, on this same day: 1 July, 30 years ago, I was ordained priest in my title church - St James’s Sussex Gardens. What is interesting and slightly unusual is I have served my entire priestly ministry in the same Archdeaconry. Of course, there is much to rejoice and also be sorrowful for during this time; Some stories of great success, but equally, some I would rather forget. But what is clear, is that my priesthood during these 30 years, has been enhanced by those wonderful colleagues, friends and parishioners who have ministered, guided and travelled with me - thank you.
As I reflect, reminisce and recall, I would like to invite you to join me in praying for those churches and institutions where I served and those people, living and departed, from those places, who have, often unknowingly, influence my priestly journey:
- St Philip the Apostle, Sydenham
- St Christopher’s Hospice
- Salisbury and Wells Theological College
- The Corrymeela Community
- St James’s Sussex Gardens
- St Peter’s Elgin Ave
- St Paul’s Rossmore Road
- St Stephen’s Rochester Row
- The Church of the Holy Trinity NYC
As we give thanks for these places and people, we pray:
Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
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Tuesday 30th June
As I mentioned last week, we ordinarily would have had some music from the Westminster Under School performing during our St Stephen’s Week. We were fortunate last Thursday during our service to have Pink Panthers, performing Somewhere Over The Rainbow (1939, sung by Julie Garland in the Wizard of Oz, music by Harold Arlen). I am delighted to be able to share this piece with you as our Daily Devotion today, with the kind permission of the school. As you know the rainbow 🌈 has been the symbol of hope for our wonderful NUS and key workers during this pandemic; and the change of colour mid way through today’s video represents the nation coming out of dark times towards the light at the end. I hope you enjoy and pray with it. Thank you Westminster Under School. Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Monday 29th June
How are you feeling now that many of the restrictions are lifted and the government is letting us have more freedom?
Some of us might not feel comfortable to go out so soon, although we would like to worship together in our familiar space. Although it might not be a perfect comparison, I would like to have a quick look at "Hikikomori."
"Hikikomori" is a Japanese word which means a home-bound recluse. A person is called "Hikikomori" when one doesn't go out from their home or room and doesn't socialise for more than half-a-year, besides buying food or essentials. It can be seen a rough label of so-called mental illness and is a huge social concern in Japan. In the government census of 2018, it claims that more than 610,000 people in the age of 40 to 64 were Hikikomori in Japan, and half of them reported that they had been in that state for more than 7 years. I see Hikikomori as a vulnerable attempt to choose their neighbours. They are so broken that they cannot see any one other than themselves or close relatives who bring them the essentials. Somehow I feel more understanding of them of late. It is difficult to be a neighbour to others around. It triggers fear of contamination when someone knocks on the door, when someone within 2 metres distance, or when someone coughs and sneezes. Soon after the SARS pandemic, I read a prophetic phrase in a poetry magazine which cited: "Flu and terror is the slogan by which you recognize your neighbor." ("September Elegie 2" by Durs Grünbein).
This Taize chant is my favourite one sung in Japanese. The text is taken from Psalm 133.1 "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" I am looking forward to a time when we can all come together and worship again.
Yoji Shibata
How are you feeling now that many of the restrictions are lifted and the government is letting us have more freedom?
Some of us might not feel comfortable to go out so soon, although we would like to worship together in our familiar space. Although it might not be a perfect comparison, I would like to have a quick look at "Hikikomori."
"Hikikomori" is a Japanese word which means a home-bound recluse. A person is called "Hikikomori" when one doesn't go out from their home or room and doesn't socialise for more than half-a-year, besides buying food or essentials. It can be seen a rough label of so-called mental illness and is a huge social concern in Japan. In the government census of 2018, it claims that more than 610,000 people in the age of 40 to 64 were Hikikomori in Japan, and half of them reported that they had been in that state for more than 7 years. I see Hikikomori as a vulnerable attempt to choose their neighbours. They are so broken that they cannot see any one other than themselves or close relatives who bring them the essentials. Somehow I feel more understanding of them of late. It is difficult to be a neighbour to others around. It triggers fear of contamination when someone knocks on the door, when someone within 2 metres distance, or when someone coughs and sneezes. Soon after the SARS pandemic, I read a prophetic phrase in a poetry magazine which cited: "Flu and terror is the slogan by which you recognize your neighbor." ("September Elegie 2" by Durs Grünbein).
This Taize chant is my favourite one sung in Japanese. The text is taken from Psalm 133.1 "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" I am looking forward to a time when we can all come together and worship again.
Yoji Shibata
Saturday 27th June
It is interesting to note that today is the anniversary of the death of Sophie Laws. What a wonderful member of our church she was, and, I for one, certainly miss her encouragement and much valued support. During this Stephen’s Week we not only give thanks for our church today, but also for those who have gone before us, like Sophie, who have made us the vibrant Christian community we are; and so we remember and give thanks for them as we sing on Sunday night at evensong:
In our day of thanksgiving
One psalm let us offer
For the saints who before us
Have found their reward;
When the shadow of death
Fell upon them, we sorrowed,
But now we rejoice
That they rest in the Lord.
It is interesting to note that today is the anniversary of the death of Sophie Laws. What a wonderful member of our church she was, and, I for one, certainly miss her encouragement and much valued support. During this Stephen’s Week we not only give thanks for our church today, but also for those who have gone before us, like Sophie, who have made us the vibrant Christian community we are; and so we remember and give thanks for them as we sing on Sunday night at evensong:
In our day of thanksgiving
One psalm let us offer
For the saints who before us
Have found their reward;
When the shadow of death
Fell upon them, we sorrowed,
But now we rejoice
That they rest in the Lord.
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In the morning of life,
And at noon, and at even, He called them away From our worship below; But not till His love, At the font and the altar, Had girt them with grace For the way they should go. These stones that have echoed Their praises are holy, And dear is the ground Where their feet have once trod; Yet here they confessed They were strangers and pilgrims, And still they were seeking The city of God. Sing praise, then, for all who Here sought and here found Him, Whose journey is ended, Whose perils are past; They believed in the Light; And its glory is round them, Where the clouds of earth’s sorrows Are lifted at last. Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Friday 26th June
On Sunday Heather is going to guide us through in hand movement for our Lord’s Prayer during the Eucharist. Please use it today, not just as a practice for Sunday, but also as part of your daily devotion.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven
Open hands to sides and raise slightly, look up.
Hallowed be thy name.
Fold hands together as in prayer.
Thy kingdom come,
Circle hands inward to touch chest.
Thy will be done on earth
Reach down with palms towards the ground.
As it is in heaven.
Turn palms up, look up.
Give us this day our daily bread,
Place right hand over left, palms up.
Forgive us our trespasses
Cross arms over chest, bow head.
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Open hands to people around.
Lead us not into temptation,
Cross forearms, with arms stretched out in front, palms facing forwards.
But deliver us from evil
Clasp raised hands.
For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
Lower arms to sides then slowly sweep out and up, as widely as possible.
For ever and ever, Amen.
Hold arms outstretched for a few moments.
Video by Heather Williams
On Sunday Heather is going to guide us through in hand movement for our Lord’s Prayer during the Eucharist. Please use it today, not just as a practice for Sunday, but also as part of your daily devotion.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven
Open hands to sides and raise slightly, look up.
Hallowed be thy name.
Fold hands together as in prayer.
Thy kingdom come,
Circle hands inward to touch chest.
Thy will be done on earth
Reach down with palms towards the ground.
As it is in heaven.
Turn palms up, look up.
Give us this day our daily bread,
Place right hand over left, palms up.
Forgive us our trespasses
Cross arms over chest, bow head.
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Open hands to people around.
Lead us not into temptation,
Cross forearms, with arms stretched out in front, palms facing forwards.
But deliver us from evil
Clasp raised hands.
For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
Lower arms to sides then slowly sweep out and up, as widely as possible.
For ever and ever, Amen.
Hold arms outstretched for a few moments.
Video by Heather Williams
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Thursday 25th June As mentioned on Monday’s Daily Devotion, we thought it would be good to share Mr Matthew’s talk to the Westminster Under School boys at their service last Thursday on ‘the importance of patience’. It was based on a verse from Ecclesiastes 7:8: "Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit." I hope it gives you a little insight into the hard, dedicated and engaging work of our teachers today. Please use the video to reflect on our own patience with the Lord... Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Wednesday 24th June
Today is the feast of the birth of John the Baptist, and I hope you’ll be able to join us for our lunchtime discussion with St Barnabas Church tomorrow as we look at “the birth of John the Baptist and lockdown” at 12:30pm. Why do we Celebrate the Birth of John the Baptist? Saint Caesarius of Arles, a 6th century monk, archbishop and preacher, stated in one of his sermons:
“The birthday of our Lord and that of Blessed John are celebrated and honoured throughout the world. [While] Elisabeth bore her son by knowing a husband, Mary believed the angel and conceived hers. Elisabeth conceived a man, and so did Mary; but Elisabeth conceived only a man, while Mary conceived both God and man….
Yet the birth of our Lord is considered along with that of John, so that our Lord may not seem to be outside of the reality of human nature. If John is compared with men, that man surpasses all men; none but the God-Man excels him. John was sent ahead, before God. So great was the excellence in him, so great his grace, that he was considered as the Christ. What, then, did he say concerning Christ? Of his fullness we have all had a share. What does this mean, “we all”? The prophets, the patriarchs, the apostles, as many holy people as were sent ahead before the Incarnation or were sent after it, we all have shared in his fullness. We are the vessels, he is the fountain….
Man should be humbled, but God should be exalted, according to what John himself said concerning our Lord: He must increase, while I must decrease. In order that man might be humbled, John was born on the same day that the days begin to grow shorter; in order that God might be exalted, Christ was born on the very day when the days begin to grow longer. It is a great mystery, dearly beloved, and for this reason we celebrate the birthday of John like that of Christ, because birth itself is full of mystery. Of what mystery but that of our lowliness, just as the birth of Christ is full of the mystery of our greatness? Let us become smaller [in ourselves] in order that we may grow in God; let us be humbled in ourselves, in order that we may be exalted in him”.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today is the feast of the birth of John the Baptist, and I hope you’ll be able to join us for our lunchtime discussion with St Barnabas Church tomorrow as we look at “the birth of John the Baptist and lockdown” at 12:30pm. Why do we Celebrate the Birth of John the Baptist? Saint Caesarius of Arles, a 6th century monk, archbishop and preacher, stated in one of his sermons:
“The birthday of our Lord and that of Blessed John are celebrated and honoured throughout the world. [While] Elisabeth bore her son by knowing a husband, Mary believed the angel and conceived hers. Elisabeth conceived a man, and so did Mary; but Elisabeth conceived only a man, while Mary conceived both God and man….
Yet the birth of our Lord is considered along with that of John, so that our Lord may not seem to be outside of the reality of human nature. If John is compared with men, that man surpasses all men; none but the God-Man excels him. John was sent ahead, before God. So great was the excellence in him, so great his grace, that he was considered as the Christ. What, then, did he say concerning Christ? Of his fullness we have all had a share. What does this mean, “we all”? The prophets, the patriarchs, the apostles, as many holy people as were sent ahead before the Incarnation or were sent after it, we all have shared in his fullness. We are the vessels, he is the fountain….
Man should be humbled, but God should be exalted, according to what John himself said concerning our Lord: He must increase, while I must decrease. In order that man might be humbled, John was born on the same day that the days begin to grow shorter; in order that God might be exalted, Christ was born on the very day when the days begin to grow longer. It is a great mystery, dearly beloved, and for this reason we celebrate the birthday of John like that of Christ, because birth itself is full of mystery. Of what mystery but that of our lowliness, just as the birth of Christ is full of the mystery of our greatness? Let us become smaller [in ourselves] in order that we may grow in God; let us be humbled in ourselves, in order that we may be exalted in him”.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 23rd June
A favourite past time whilst walking with friends is to name what our last day’s food might be - we conjure up all sorts of culinary delights to create menus for breakfast, lunch and supper. I was reminded of this when reading last week, of the amazing discovery of a fossilised dinosaur’s last supper. Scientists found an armour-plated dinosaur, that lived 110 million years ago, who enjoyed a last meal of leaves and twigs – plus a side-helping of charcoal – before it died. The fossilised remains were discovered in an oil mine in Canada in 2011. Inside its skeleton, researchers found a football-sized mass that they identified as its intact stomach. The article stated that only two other dinosaur stomachs have ever been discovered and neither of them were in good condition. One of the researchers stated, “the leaf fragments and other plant fossils were preserved down to the cells,”. Analysis of the stomach contents suggests that this creature was a remarkably picky eater: feasting only on certain types of fern rather than other local indigenous leaves. The scientists didn’t think charcoal found was part of its diet: “more likely it inadvertently consumed charcoal while grazing on the low-growing plants”. I wonder what you would choose to eat, or might inadvertently consume on your final day? Perhaps all this serves as a timely reminder to pray and give thanks for those who produce our food, those work in our shops, those who have ensured that we had enough to eat during the recent lockdown, and let us particularly pray for all those who are hungry.
Revd Graham M Buckle
A favourite past time whilst walking with friends is to name what our last day’s food might be - we conjure up all sorts of culinary delights to create menus for breakfast, lunch and supper. I was reminded of this when reading last week, of the amazing discovery of a fossilised dinosaur’s last supper. Scientists found an armour-plated dinosaur, that lived 110 million years ago, who enjoyed a last meal of leaves and twigs – plus a side-helping of charcoal – before it died. The fossilised remains were discovered in an oil mine in Canada in 2011. Inside its skeleton, researchers found a football-sized mass that they identified as its intact stomach. The article stated that only two other dinosaur stomachs have ever been discovered and neither of them were in good condition. One of the researchers stated, “the leaf fragments and other plant fossils were preserved down to the cells,”. Analysis of the stomach contents suggests that this creature was a remarkably picky eater: feasting only on certain types of fern rather than other local indigenous leaves. The scientists didn’t think charcoal found was part of its diet: “more likely it inadvertently consumed charcoal while grazing on the low-growing plants”. I wonder what you would choose to eat, or might inadvertently consume on your final day? Perhaps all this serves as a timely reminder to pray and give thanks for those who produce our food, those work in our shops, those who have ensured that we had enough to eat during the recent lockdown, and let us particularly pray for all those who are hungry.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Monday 22nd June
At St Stephen’s we are so fortunate to have a variety of groups and institutions use our church. We are certainly blessed by the presence of Westminster Under School, who have their weekly service at our church every Thursday morning. This has continued to take place via the delights of Zoom, with over 700 participants each week! Their choir would have given a concert during our ‘St Stephens Week’ this week, and so I am delighted to say, that with kind permission of the school, we have a video performance and prayer from the WUS choir for our daily devotion today - enjoy!
The Anthem, sung by Westminster Boys Choir
https://vimeo.com/430263021
Prayer
Lord, we thank you for the power of education, and the magic of learning.
We pray for patience & curiosity.
Give us open minds and hearts
Help us to persevere, resisting the urge to throw the towel in
Nudge us to take moments of calm reflection in our day
Ultimately, we ask you to let us see what You see.
May this become true for others and ourselves.
In Christ’s name we pray, Amen
Look out for Mr Matthews talk for our daily devotion later this week
Revd Graham M Buckle
At St Stephen’s we are so fortunate to have a variety of groups and institutions use our church. We are certainly blessed by the presence of Westminster Under School, who have their weekly service at our church every Thursday morning. This has continued to take place via the delights of Zoom, with over 700 participants each week! Their choir would have given a concert during our ‘St Stephens Week’ this week, and so I am delighted to say, that with kind permission of the school, we have a video performance and prayer from the WUS choir for our daily devotion today - enjoy!
The Anthem, sung by Westminster Boys Choir
https://vimeo.com/430263021
Prayer
Lord, we thank you for the power of education, and the magic of learning.
We pray for patience & curiosity.
Give us open minds and hearts
Help us to persevere, resisting the urge to throw the towel in
Nudge us to take moments of calm reflection in our day
Ultimately, we ask you to let us see what You see.
May this become true for others and ourselves.
In Christ’s name we pray, Amen
Look out for Mr Matthews talk for our daily devotion later this week
Revd Graham M Buckle
Saturday 20th June
Please use the poster for your Daily Devotion today and pray for our church, ministers, staff and people of St Stephen's Church.
Please use the poster for your Daily Devotion today and pray for our church, ministers, staff and people of St Stephen's Church.
Friday 19th June
Thursday 18th June
Our friend from Holy Trinity, NYC, Yvonne was telling us after evening prayer, when we were discussing the length of sermons with Comfort, that she recently sat through a 43-minute sermon...!!!! She said how much she enjoyed it and how it didn’t feel that long and, “...everyone agrees with me that it is quite powerful”. Well she has kindly sent me the YouTube link...so I thought I’d share it with you for today’s Daily Devotion, just in case you have a spare hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eviTAayTGT4.
Shalom,
Yvonne O’Neal, NYC
Our friend from Holy Trinity, NYC, Yvonne was telling us after evening prayer, when we were discussing the length of sermons with Comfort, that she recently sat through a 43-minute sermon...!!!! She said how much she enjoyed it and how it didn’t feel that long and, “...everyone agrees with me that it is quite powerful”. Well she has kindly sent me the YouTube link...so I thought I’d share it with you for today’s Daily Devotion, just in case you have a spare hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eviTAayTGT4.
Shalom,
Yvonne O’Neal, NYC
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Wednesday 17th June
Black Lives Matter Where does this movement, which has mobilised some of the largest global uprisings in modern history, originate? Well, I was interested to know reading ‘The Week’ on Saturday, that ‘Black Lives Matter’ emerged in the aftermath of the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old African-American boy who was shot dead by George Zimmerman, a white self-appointed neighbourhood watchman, in Florida in 2012. The case prompted widespread outrage but, the following year, Zimmerman, in a closely watched trial, was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter. The verdict was met with anguish by many in the black community, including Alicia Garza (insert picture), a community organiser, who published a Facebook post entitled “A Love Note to Black People” after the trial. “I continue to be surprised at how little Black lives matter,” she wrote, ending the post, “Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.” The post was read by Patrisse Cullors, a friend of Garza, who shared it online with the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. And so the birth of the movement began. Some have argued that the phrase “Black lives matter” is problematic: “A lot of people feel that it is inherently racist,” stated Donald Trump, “It’s a very divisive term, because all lives matter.” This has angered supporters of the movement, feeling it ill-considered, even malicious. President Obama put it, the reason the founders used the slogan “was not because they were suggesting that no one else’s lives matter... rather what they were suggesting was there is a specific problem that is happening in the African-American community that’s not happening in other communities”. Something which is not confined to USA. Of course all lives matter, but, as the young girl’s placard suggests, we all need to stand up for those in danger, who’s lives have sadly appeared not to mattered, so that ALL might be able to breathe. And that unquestionably is the message from our bible: “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice...” (Isaiah 1:17). Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Tuesday 16th June
I don’t know about you but I have missed music in church very much. We are so lucky to have Matthew (& Rosemary) to guide and share their gifts with us at St Stephen’s. Matthew has kindly put this piece together for our daily devotion. Thank you Matthew.
https://m.soundcloud.com/user-721885390/le-dieu-cache
I don’t know about you but I have missed music in church very much. We are so lucky to have Matthew (& Rosemary) to guide and share their gifts with us at St Stephen’s. Matthew has kindly put this piece together for our daily devotion. Thank you Matthew.
https://m.soundcloud.com/user-721885390/le-dieu-cache
Monday 15th June
Yesterday, we had our final session studying Laudato Si’, and Barbara began with the prayer from the end of the book, which I’d like to offer as our Daily Devotion today:
A prayer for our earth
All-powerful God,
you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned
and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty,
not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature
as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day
Encourage us, we pray,
in our struggle for justice, love and peace.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Yesterday, we had our final session studying Laudato Si’, and Barbara began with the prayer from the end of the book, which I’d like to offer as our Daily Devotion today:
A prayer for our earth
All-powerful God,
you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned
and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty,
not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature
as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day
Encourage us, we pray,
in our struggle for justice, love and peace.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Saturday 13th June
What Jesus didn’t say
In these strange and uncertain times of self-isolation, shielding, quarantine and lockdown, even those whose mental health is usually on a pretty even keel, can find themselves experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions. Over 11 weeks in, sometimes this new reality seems completely surreal, especially for those who were first advised to stay at home until July, and have recently - and suddenly - been told that now the lockdown is easing and there’s more people about, it’s okay to go outside once a day, maintains strict social distancing. For that first split second when you wake in the morning, reality is suspended as you fire up your mind to recognise what day it is and what you have planned, or if the day has no existing demands, what you might do, where you might go, and then in a heartbeat, reality returns and you remember you won’t be going anywhere. And you recognise, yet again, that this is not some weird dream.
For many of us, lockdown doesn’t deprive us of our usual creature comforts; most of our material needs in terms of food and essentials can be delivered by friends and volunteers or ordered online. Most of us are fortunate to have access to the internet, and social media, food in our cupboards, a variety of books we’ve always meant to read but never found time for, and an ever increasing list of programs or films to catch up on on Netflix or Amazon or our preferred platform. And of course, there’s an ongoing wealth of theatre, opera and musical performances available online.
It’s encouraging to see guidelines stressing the importance of looking after not just physical but mental health during lockdown. Because right now it can feels as if our current situation is one of a seething mass of paradoxes and contradictions. When our surroundings, the physical space we inhabit becomes so limited, we need our imagination more than ever to expand our world and our perspective. It can seem as if time is playing games, as one day morphs into another. We’re not sure what the future looks like and the past can feel like a distant dream. We wonder how we ever could have taken such riches for granted – saying a quiet prayer in church, hopping on a bus, meeting a friend for lunch, a handshake, a hug, a haircut.
In both Matthew and Mark’s Gospel (Mt 22.37-39; Mk 12.29-31), Jesus tells his follower that the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbours as ourselves. There’s a danger with the Bible passages we’ve heard many times before that we become so familiar with them that we take them at face value and ignore context or subtext. This is one of those texts.
Jesus said: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. What Jesus didn’t say was you shall love your neighbour more than yourself. Nor did he say you shall love your neighbour less than yourself. Love your neighbour as yourself.
So if you’re struggling, if you’re having one of those days when simply getting out of bed is a huge hurdle, or if you’re feeling inadequate because you feel you’ve nothing to show for lockdown, don’t beat yourself up. Be kind to yourself. Be gentle with yourself. Simply do the best you can. And if you’re really struggling, then please seek help. In these lockdown days, it can be very easy for the unhelpful thoughts and mantras to get stuck on a loop in our heads. If that’s happening for you, then try to reach out to someone to help you not only stop that but to help you replace it with a new one, one that affirms and encourages you, even on the really tough days. Or, if you do have access to the internet, then why not join us for Morning and or Evening Prayer on Zoom. Since lockdown began, it’s become a very important part of my day, a kind of anchor, as we literally check in with God and one another. You can find us on Zoom at 9.15am and 6pm Monday – Friday (and on 10am on Saturday with our friends at St Barnabas).
Revd Lindsay Meader
Theatre Chaplain
What Jesus didn’t say
In these strange and uncertain times of self-isolation, shielding, quarantine and lockdown, even those whose mental health is usually on a pretty even keel, can find themselves experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions. Over 11 weeks in, sometimes this new reality seems completely surreal, especially for those who were first advised to stay at home until July, and have recently - and suddenly - been told that now the lockdown is easing and there’s more people about, it’s okay to go outside once a day, maintains strict social distancing. For that first split second when you wake in the morning, reality is suspended as you fire up your mind to recognise what day it is and what you have planned, or if the day has no existing demands, what you might do, where you might go, and then in a heartbeat, reality returns and you remember you won’t be going anywhere. And you recognise, yet again, that this is not some weird dream.
For many of us, lockdown doesn’t deprive us of our usual creature comforts; most of our material needs in terms of food and essentials can be delivered by friends and volunteers or ordered online. Most of us are fortunate to have access to the internet, and social media, food in our cupboards, a variety of books we’ve always meant to read but never found time for, and an ever increasing list of programs or films to catch up on on Netflix or Amazon or our preferred platform. And of course, there’s an ongoing wealth of theatre, opera and musical performances available online.
It’s encouraging to see guidelines stressing the importance of looking after not just physical but mental health during lockdown. Because right now it can feels as if our current situation is one of a seething mass of paradoxes and contradictions. When our surroundings, the physical space we inhabit becomes so limited, we need our imagination more than ever to expand our world and our perspective. It can seem as if time is playing games, as one day morphs into another. We’re not sure what the future looks like and the past can feel like a distant dream. We wonder how we ever could have taken such riches for granted – saying a quiet prayer in church, hopping on a bus, meeting a friend for lunch, a handshake, a hug, a haircut.
In both Matthew and Mark’s Gospel (Mt 22.37-39; Mk 12.29-31), Jesus tells his follower that the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbours as ourselves. There’s a danger with the Bible passages we’ve heard many times before that we become so familiar with them that we take them at face value and ignore context or subtext. This is one of those texts.
Jesus said: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. What Jesus didn’t say was you shall love your neighbour more than yourself. Nor did he say you shall love your neighbour less than yourself. Love your neighbour as yourself.
So if you’re struggling, if you’re having one of those days when simply getting out of bed is a huge hurdle, or if you’re feeling inadequate because you feel you’ve nothing to show for lockdown, don’t beat yourself up. Be kind to yourself. Be gentle with yourself. Simply do the best you can. And if you’re really struggling, then please seek help. In these lockdown days, it can be very easy for the unhelpful thoughts and mantras to get stuck on a loop in our heads. If that’s happening for you, then try to reach out to someone to help you not only stop that but to help you replace it with a new one, one that affirms and encourages you, even on the really tough days. Or, if you do have access to the internet, then why not join us for Morning and or Evening Prayer on Zoom. Since lockdown began, it’s become a very important part of my day, a kind of anchor, as we literally check in with God and one another. You can find us on Zoom at 9.15am and 6pm Monday – Friday (and on 10am on Saturday with our friends at St Barnabas).
Revd Lindsay Meader
Theatre Chaplain
Friday 12th June
The last paragraph of Catherine Fox’s diary in the Church Times struck me as really helpful, an answer to “how to pray for public figures we loathe and despise”, and one can think of one or two of those. “That’s a stumper,” she says. “Here’s what I’ve come up with. I adapt an old worship song: ‘All the riches of your grace, All the fullness of your blessing, All the sweetness of your love, You give to me - please give to X.’ You might find yourself thinking if a particular X who doesn’t deserve any of that, I agree. But then, nor do I.”
Margaret Duggan
The last paragraph of Catherine Fox’s diary in the Church Times struck me as really helpful, an answer to “how to pray for public figures we loathe and despise”, and one can think of one or two of those. “That’s a stumper,” she says. “Here’s what I’ve come up with. I adapt an old worship song: ‘All the riches of your grace, All the fullness of your blessing, All the sweetness of your love, You give to me - please give to X.’ You might find yourself thinking if a particular X who doesn’t deserve any of that, I agree. But then, nor do I.”
Margaret Duggan
Thursday 11th June
Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi; "Day of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ the Lord". A Christian celebration of the presence of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus as expressed liturgically in the Eucharist. Some churches used to use the occasion for missional purposes, processing the sacrament around the community for all to see and be blessed by its presence, as Carl Emil Doepler’s painting below tried to capture. In some respects it’s a most peculiar feast to commemorate at a time when our Eucharist community is unable to actualise it; as we still await our churches to be opened for public worship so we might receive the body and blood of Christ; and truly be that body we long to be again. However, it might be the Eucharist, as we knew it, will never be the same again. But whatever the future, like many things in our lives, uncertainty and disappointment can often give way to new opportunities. We do not know what they will be or indeed what they will look like. But let us pray, as a body of Christ, we, together as a church, will face them with courage, faith and love.
Corpus Christi procession. Oil on canvas by Carl Emil Doepler
Revd Graham M Buckle
Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi; "Day of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ the Lord". A Christian celebration of the presence of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus as expressed liturgically in the Eucharist. Some churches used to use the occasion for missional purposes, processing the sacrament around the community for all to see and be blessed by its presence, as Carl Emil Doepler’s painting below tried to capture. In some respects it’s a most peculiar feast to commemorate at a time when our Eucharist community is unable to actualise it; as we still await our churches to be opened for public worship so we might receive the body and blood of Christ; and truly be that body we long to be again. However, it might be the Eucharist, as we knew it, will never be the same again. But whatever the future, like many things in our lives, uncertainty and disappointment can often give way to new opportunities. We do not know what they will be or indeed what they will look like. But let us pray, as a body of Christ, we, together as a church, will face them with courage, faith and love.
Corpus Christi procession. Oil on canvas by Carl Emil Doepler
Revd Graham M Buckle
Wednesday 10th June
During the Church of Holy Trinity NYC discussions about the environment, which, whilst looking at the publication of “Laudato Si”, our friend Yvonne reminded everyone that the most successful environmental responses to Covid-19 are countries run by women and/or non-dictatorial leaders. She began Sunday’s session with one of the Church of England’s prayers for ‘environmental day’, which we offer for today’s Daily Devotion:
God of life,
we praise you for the beauty of creation,
its richness and variety;
yet, through greed and ignorance,
we scar your world with plastic waste
and throw so much away.
Make us more like Jesus,
treading gently on our common home,
and breathe your Spirit on us,
that we may care more deeply for your Earth.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Rt Revd Graham Usher, Bishop of Dudley
Thank you Yvonne
During the Church of Holy Trinity NYC discussions about the environment, which, whilst looking at the publication of “Laudato Si”, our friend Yvonne reminded everyone that the most successful environmental responses to Covid-19 are countries run by women and/or non-dictatorial leaders. She began Sunday’s session with one of the Church of England’s prayers for ‘environmental day’, which we offer for today’s Daily Devotion:
God of life,
we praise you for the beauty of creation,
its richness and variety;
yet, through greed and ignorance,
we scar your world with plastic waste
and throw so much away.
Make us more like Jesus,
treading gently on our common home,
and breathe your Spirit on us,
that we may care more deeply for your Earth.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Rt Revd Graham Usher, Bishop of Dudley
Thank you Yvonne
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Tuesday 9th June
Liz Szewczyk, our Churchwarden, received this video from a friend and thought it might be lovely to share with our congregation and use it as our daily devotion. Thank you Liz. |
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Monday 8th June
There’s an old story. It refers directly to the experience of the Jewish nation, whose history has been nourished by years of persecution. A rabbi was asked, ‘What would you do if you knew the world would end tomorrow’? His reply was to plant a tree. It is a story about hope in the face of adversity. For you, there have been some difficult times and the pandemic has fallen unfairly upon your childhood. The anxiety of lockdown and the thought of missing out, must really frustrate some of you. It’s like attempting to catch up with a conversation of which you have not been a part; that feeling of being left-behind and wanting to catch up; not even knowing what it is you need to do to achieve that! It’s that left behind feeling. Maybe, for instance, when you get locked out of a Zoom lesson and Mr O’Donnell hasn’t noticed?
In a more private way, you might be waiting to find out what Year 4 will be like; what will the demands of the pre-test be; how big is the jump into Year 7; will I be able to sit a scholarship in Year 8? What about the celebration so richly deserved by our Year 8s: the last words that must and should accompany their rich contribution to our lives and the celebration that is their rite of passage. We are all poised waiting to find out what comes next. You, your parents, your teachers; me.
The question of what comes next is not just the preserve of Christians, but it is the question of Pentecost which is this time of the year in the Christian calendar; it is the story of everyone’s desire to have a genuine dialogue with God about the things that matter to them. Conversations about what is really going on in our heads, the private stuff, the issues that are for many too bold, too risky, too difficult and realistic for us to feel easy enough to talk about it. A genuine daring dialogue about what really matters to you, no matter what anyone else thinks. It is a time that encourages you to imagine. It is a condition of humanity that we seek to find what is not just beneficial but a deeper, spiritual truth that will enable us to have the strength to deal with whatever comes next. It is a yearning in all of us to have hope, particularly in times when we feel life could be much, much better.
Hope for some, historically, has been a difficult concept to embrace. When we see the images of George Floyd struggling for breath under the kneeling face of the law, the facts make it very easy for us to feel cynical about God’s caring hand; hard in such circumstances for us to work around the idea of hope. Events like that, make us reel in wonder that we revisit the sins of past generations so often. We have to ask in our prayers whether or not we are investing in an idea that can never be? My advice today is to look into this question, if you are interested, by finding and watching a series made in 2004, called ‘This Far by Faith’, 3 centuries of African American religious experiences. It follows the life of Sojourner Truth, a slave from New York who wanted her son back and was the first black woman to win a case against a white man in a court in 1828. It is a story of adversity, of a people freed from slavery who made their way south to north of their country in search of a truth they had been promised and with hope to overcome the hypocrisy of a white Christian majority to legally own another person.
The Pentecost message today is to look beyond the corrupt acts of people who purport to act in the name of a faith, as an excuse to enact a moral evil on another person. If you do look at the story of Sojourner it will help you to look beyond the person and towards the message as an illustration that God’s hand is most at work, not when things are easy, but mostly in times of adversity, when his name is least used and ignored. It is then as it is now for you a time to understand the strength of hope is God’s message of salvation as a power in your lives.
Mark O’Donnell
Head Master of Westminster Under School - Introduction to last week’s school assembly
There’s an old story. It refers directly to the experience of the Jewish nation, whose history has been nourished by years of persecution. A rabbi was asked, ‘What would you do if you knew the world would end tomorrow’? His reply was to plant a tree. It is a story about hope in the face of adversity. For you, there have been some difficult times and the pandemic has fallen unfairly upon your childhood. The anxiety of lockdown and the thought of missing out, must really frustrate some of you. It’s like attempting to catch up with a conversation of which you have not been a part; that feeling of being left-behind and wanting to catch up; not even knowing what it is you need to do to achieve that! It’s that left behind feeling. Maybe, for instance, when you get locked out of a Zoom lesson and Mr O’Donnell hasn’t noticed?
In a more private way, you might be waiting to find out what Year 4 will be like; what will the demands of the pre-test be; how big is the jump into Year 7; will I be able to sit a scholarship in Year 8? What about the celebration so richly deserved by our Year 8s: the last words that must and should accompany their rich contribution to our lives and the celebration that is their rite of passage. We are all poised waiting to find out what comes next. You, your parents, your teachers; me.
The question of what comes next is not just the preserve of Christians, but it is the question of Pentecost which is this time of the year in the Christian calendar; it is the story of everyone’s desire to have a genuine dialogue with God about the things that matter to them. Conversations about what is really going on in our heads, the private stuff, the issues that are for many too bold, too risky, too difficult and realistic for us to feel easy enough to talk about it. A genuine daring dialogue about what really matters to you, no matter what anyone else thinks. It is a time that encourages you to imagine. It is a condition of humanity that we seek to find what is not just beneficial but a deeper, spiritual truth that will enable us to have the strength to deal with whatever comes next. It is a yearning in all of us to have hope, particularly in times when we feel life could be much, much better.
Hope for some, historically, has been a difficult concept to embrace. When we see the images of George Floyd struggling for breath under the kneeling face of the law, the facts make it very easy for us to feel cynical about God’s caring hand; hard in such circumstances for us to work around the idea of hope. Events like that, make us reel in wonder that we revisit the sins of past generations so often. We have to ask in our prayers whether or not we are investing in an idea that can never be? My advice today is to look into this question, if you are interested, by finding and watching a series made in 2004, called ‘This Far by Faith’, 3 centuries of African American religious experiences. It follows the life of Sojourner Truth, a slave from New York who wanted her son back and was the first black woman to win a case against a white man in a court in 1828. It is a story of adversity, of a people freed from slavery who made their way south to north of their country in search of a truth they had been promised and with hope to overcome the hypocrisy of a white Christian majority to legally own another person.
The Pentecost message today is to look beyond the corrupt acts of people who purport to act in the name of a faith, as an excuse to enact a moral evil on another person. If you do look at the story of Sojourner it will help you to look beyond the person and towards the message as an illustration that God’s hand is most at work, not when things are easy, but mostly in times of adversity, when his name is least used and ignored. It is then as it is now for you a time to understand the strength of hope is God’s message of salvation as a power in your lives.
Mark O’Donnell
Head Master of Westminster Under School - Introduction to last week’s school assembly
Saturday 6th June
Today the church commemorates Ini Kopuria, the founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood in Solomon Islands. Born in 1900 on the island of Guadalcanal, he was baptised as a child,and grew up in the Anglican tradition. After leaving school he joined the native police force, but recuperating from a knee injury in hospital, he had a vision of Christ which made him question the work he was doing and led him to a life of missionary service. In 1925 he founded the Melanesian Brotherhood with a rule of life based on the promises of poverty, chastity and obedience. Ini Kopuria believed that the gospel should be preached by Melanesians for Melanesians, so he sent brothers two by two on mission to the remotest islands and villages. Ini felt that the standard of life of his brothers should never rise above the standard of life of the people they served, so they lived in the villages - preaching, leading worship and Bible study, and farming, building and working alongside the local people.
Today the Melanesian Brotherhood has grown into one of the largest Anglican religious orders in the world, with strong communities in Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. The Community of the Sisters of Melanesia was established in 1980, giving young women the opportunity to serve Christ in the church and communities in which they live. In 2015 Catherine Duce and I had the opportunity to spend 10 weeks living and worshipping with the brothers and sisters in Guadalcanal. Cath and I received the most incredible hospitality from these brothers and sisters, whose non-judgmental love and acceptance crosses boundaries and draws others in. These brothers and sisters have so few material possessions and live in difficult conditions, dealing with the ongoing effects of climate change, rain and cyclones which destroy their vital crops and gardens, yet it was their joy, energy and prayerfulness which made such an impression on us. This is a community of love, acceptance and new life. It’s five years since I was in Solomon Islands and I’m still blessed by messages and emails from the brothers and sisters I met out there. I am inspired by their self-sacrifice and their prayerful commitment to living out the gospel in small working households across the region. I give thanks that Ini Kopuria’s radical vision has born such fruit among the young people of these communities.
O Jesus,
Be the canoe that holds me up in the sea of life;
Be the rudder that keeps me in the straight road;
Be the outrigger that supports me in times of temptation
Let your Spirit be my sail that carries me through each day.
Keep my body strong so I can paddle steadfastly in the voyage of life.
Amen.
Short film about the Melanesian Brotherhood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYOkCQwr_6E&feature=youtu.be
Sarah Crompton
Former-parish administrator at St Stephen’s
Today the church commemorates Ini Kopuria, the founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood in Solomon Islands. Born in 1900 on the island of Guadalcanal, he was baptised as a child,and grew up in the Anglican tradition. After leaving school he joined the native police force, but recuperating from a knee injury in hospital, he had a vision of Christ which made him question the work he was doing and led him to a life of missionary service. In 1925 he founded the Melanesian Brotherhood with a rule of life based on the promises of poverty, chastity and obedience. Ini Kopuria believed that the gospel should be preached by Melanesians for Melanesians, so he sent brothers two by two on mission to the remotest islands and villages. Ini felt that the standard of life of his brothers should never rise above the standard of life of the people they served, so they lived in the villages - preaching, leading worship and Bible study, and farming, building and working alongside the local people.
Today the Melanesian Brotherhood has grown into one of the largest Anglican religious orders in the world, with strong communities in Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. The Community of the Sisters of Melanesia was established in 1980, giving young women the opportunity to serve Christ in the church and communities in which they live. In 2015 Catherine Duce and I had the opportunity to spend 10 weeks living and worshipping with the brothers and sisters in Guadalcanal. Cath and I received the most incredible hospitality from these brothers and sisters, whose non-judgmental love and acceptance crosses boundaries and draws others in. These brothers and sisters have so few material possessions and live in difficult conditions, dealing with the ongoing effects of climate change, rain and cyclones which destroy their vital crops and gardens, yet it was their joy, energy and prayerfulness which made such an impression on us. This is a community of love, acceptance and new life. It’s five years since I was in Solomon Islands and I’m still blessed by messages and emails from the brothers and sisters I met out there. I am inspired by their self-sacrifice and their prayerful commitment to living out the gospel in small working households across the region. I give thanks that Ini Kopuria’s radical vision has born such fruit among the young people of these communities.
O Jesus,
Be the canoe that holds me up in the sea of life;
Be the rudder that keeps me in the straight road;
Be the outrigger that supports me in times of temptation
Let your Spirit be my sail that carries me through each day.
Keep my body strong so I can paddle steadfastly in the voyage of life.
Amen.
Short film about the Melanesian Brotherhood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYOkCQwr_6E&feature=youtu.be
Sarah Crompton
Former-parish administrator at St Stephen’s
Friday 5th June
This week (1–7 June) is Volunteers’ Week. As a Church and organisation we are so dependent on our volunteers, not just the team of women who have taken it upon themselves to clean and work on the outside of the church during this time, but also those who for months have helped with T@3 on a Monday and those who do so after church every Sunday. The people that volunteer with the clubs, who who help open the church, those who come and say prayers, and particularly all those who have helped with the streaming of our services during this period of lockdown. Those who manage our Social Media, who serve on the PCC and various other committees. Those who clean the church, who help Junior Church, who welcome visitors, to name but a few.
I think we should use this daily devotion to give thanks to and for all our many volunteers that make it possible for our church happen. I am acutely aware that a week is not long enough for the thanks needed, but to mark, acknowledge and taking the opportunity to celebrate their work and what they do for us, might just go some way in acknowledging the huge and vital contribution they make to the life of our church and community. Some members of our Christian community have said:
“Over the years, volunteering has provided me with the opportunity to build and develop my skills as well as discover skills I never knew I had!”
“It’s allowed me meet new people and use other skills I might not always have chance to use”.
“It’s provided me with opportunities to experience and share God in new ways”.
“I can honestly say that being a volunteer has given to me as much as I’ve given out”
Thank you volunteers, you know who you are...
For Those Who Volunteer in Churches
Everlasting God, strengthen and sustain all those who volunteer in our churches;
that with patience and understanding they may love and care for your people;
and grant that together they may follow Jesus Christ,
offering to you their gifts and talents;
through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(Adapted by Sharon Ely Pearson from the Collect at a New Ministry,
Episcopal Book of Common Prayer)
Revd Graham M Buckle
This week (1–7 June) is Volunteers’ Week. As a Church and organisation we are so dependent on our volunteers, not just the team of women who have taken it upon themselves to clean and work on the outside of the church during this time, but also those who for months have helped with T@3 on a Monday and those who do so after church every Sunday. The people that volunteer with the clubs, who who help open the church, those who come and say prayers, and particularly all those who have helped with the streaming of our services during this period of lockdown. Those who manage our Social Media, who serve on the PCC and various other committees. Those who clean the church, who help Junior Church, who welcome visitors, to name but a few.
I think we should use this daily devotion to give thanks to and for all our many volunteers that make it possible for our church happen. I am acutely aware that a week is not long enough for the thanks needed, but to mark, acknowledge and taking the opportunity to celebrate their work and what they do for us, might just go some way in acknowledging the huge and vital contribution they make to the life of our church and community. Some members of our Christian community have said:
“Over the years, volunteering has provided me with the opportunity to build and develop my skills as well as discover skills I never knew I had!”
“It’s allowed me meet new people and use other skills I might not always have chance to use”.
“It’s provided me with opportunities to experience and share God in new ways”.
“I can honestly say that being a volunteer has given to me as much as I’ve given out”
Thank you volunteers, you know who you are...
For Those Who Volunteer in Churches
Everlasting God, strengthen and sustain all those who volunteer in our churches;
that with patience and understanding they may love and care for your people;
and grant that together they may follow Jesus Christ,
offering to you their gifts and talents;
through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(Adapted by Sharon Ely Pearson from the Collect at a New Ministry,
Episcopal Book of Common Prayer)
Revd Graham M Buckle
Thursday 4th of June
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?
‘Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?’ is a lyric from the ground-breaking musical Hamilton, described by its creator Lin-Manuel Miranda as “the story of America then, told by America now.” It features a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and Broadway, and has taken the story of American founding father Alexander Hamilton and created a revolutionary moment in theatre. The lead roles and historical figures are played by Black, Latino and Asian actors. Miranda explains "Our cast looks like America looks now, and that's certainly intentional . . . We're telling the story of old, dead white men but we're using actors of color, and that makes the story more immediate and more accessible to a contemporary audience."
America now looks like a scary place to be, but of course that has been the lived experience of black Americans for generations. There can be few people who haven’t seen at least some of the horrific footage of a white man in uniform pinning an unarmed black man on the ground and kneeling on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. George Floyd’s repeated plea, “I can’t breathe” became his final words and tragically he has joined the terrible litany of black Americans who have died at the hands of white Americans. It was the footage filmed on mobile phones being shared so quickly that allowed this story to be told so widely.
One of the most recent known members of that litany is Ahmaud Arbery. On 23 February in Georgia while jogging on his usual route through his neighbourhood, he was followed by two armed white men in a truck who shot and killed him. But it was only when a 36-second video of the killing was leaked on 5 May, generating nationwide outrage, that the culprits were finally charged with his murder.
In these disturbing days, the global pandemic has been overshadowed by the global outcry as anger at years of systemic anti-black racism spills over. The same technology which allows us to stay connected with loved ones and friends and to stay connected our faith communities is the same technology that is allowing the truth of the uglier side of humanity to be brought to light and these stories to be told.
On Sunday, the church celebrated the feast of Pentecost, when the disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit, an energy which fell upon them like tongues of fire. One of the very first ways in which this gift was manifest, was that many of them suddenly found themselves speaking fluently in languages hitherto unknown to them. The Holy Spirit is an uncontainable energy and force that is deliberately disruptive, that seeks to open our eyes and hearts to the experience of others, and compels us to live differently, that emboldens us to speak our truth and in this age to speak truth to power.
The worldwide protests and especially the unrest in the US makes it feel like we could, just maybe, be at a turning point in history, when there just might be the possibility of systemic change. White supremacy is being named and called out. Each day more and more stories of racism and oppression are being shared on social media. There is also a very real fear that things might get worse before they get better. If change is to happen, we all have our part to play. It’s not enough to speak out, we have to act. As has been made clear repeatedly over the last few days, it’s not enough to to say Black Lives Matter, or to add the hashtag BLM to our tweets, if we then carry on as before, thinking we’ve done our bit. Silence is complicity. Empty words are also complicity. I’m very painfully aware that white privilege has been my lived experience, which is also complicity, and that’s something that demands my repentance. The word repentance means to turn around, to acknowledge that you’re going the wrong way, and to turn around, to live differently.
Below is a link to an article in The Independent, giving a variety of ways in which we can take action, while we pray for justice, where justice has been denied for many years, and as we pray for the Holy Spirit, that disturbing energy of grace and truth to be at work in our world, for we need it now more than ever.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/how-to-support-anti-racist-charities-uk-black-lives-matter-a9545986.html
Revd Lindsay Meader
London Theatre Chaplain
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?
‘Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?’ is a lyric from the ground-breaking musical Hamilton, described by its creator Lin-Manuel Miranda as “the story of America then, told by America now.” It features a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and Broadway, and has taken the story of American founding father Alexander Hamilton and created a revolutionary moment in theatre. The lead roles and historical figures are played by Black, Latino and Asian actors. Miranda explains "Our cast looks like America looks now, and that's certainly intentional . . . We're telling the story of old, dead white men but we're using actors of color, and that makes the story more immediate and more accessible to a contemporary audience."
America now looks like a scary place to be, but of course that has been the lived experience of black Americans for generations. There can be few people who haven’t seen at least some of the horrific footage of a white man in uniform pinning an unarmed black man on the ground and kneeling on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. George Floyd’s repeated plea, “I can’t breathe” became his final words and tragically he has joined the terrible litany of black Americans who have died at the hands of white Americans. It was the footage filmed on mobile phones being shared so quickly that allowed this story to be told so widely.
One of the most recent known members of that litany is Ahmaud Arbery. On 23 February in Georgia while jogging on his usual route through his neighbourhood, he was followed by two armed white men in a truck who shot and killed him. But it was only when a 36-second video of the killing was leaked on 5 May, generating nationwide outrage, that the culprits were finally charged with his murder.
In these disturbing days, the global pandemic has been overshadowed by the global outcry as anger at years of systemic anti-black racism spills over. The same technology which allows us to stay connected with loved ones and friends and to stay connected our faith communities is the same technology that is allowing the truth of the uglier side of humanity to be brought to light and these stories to be told.
On Sunday, the church celebrated the feast of Pentecost, when the disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit, an energy which fell upon them like tongues of fire. One of the very first ways in which this gift was manifest, was that many of them suddenly found themselves speaking fluently in languages hitherto unknown to them. The Holy Spirit is an uncontainable energy and force that is deliberately disruptive, that seeks to open our eyes and hearts to the experience of others, and compels us to live differently, that emboldens us to speak our truth and in this age to speak truth to power.
The worldwide protests and especially the unrest in the US makes it feel like we could, just maybe, be at a turning point in history, when there just might be the possibility of systemic change. White supremacy is being named and called out. Each day more and more stories of racism and oppression are being shared on social media. There is also a very real fear that things might get worse before they get better. If change is to happen, we all have our part to play. It’s not enough to speak out, we have to act. As has been made clear repeatedly over the last few days, it’s not enough to to say Black Lives Matter, or to add the hashtag BLM to our tweets, if we then carry on as before, thinking we’ve done our bit. Silence is complicity. Empty words are also complicity. I’m very painfully aware that white privilege has been my lived experience, which is also complicity, and that’s something that demands my repentance. The word repentance means to turn around, to acknowledge that you’re going the wrong way, and to turn around, to live differently.
Below is a link to an article in The Independent, giving a variety of ways in which we can take action, while we pray for justice, where justice has been denied for many years, and as we pray for the Holy Spirit, that disturbing energy of grace and truth to be at work in our world, for we need it now more than ever.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/how-to-support-anti-racist-charities-uk-black-lives-matter-a9545986.html
Revd Lindsay Meader
London Theatre Chaplain
Wednesday 3rd June
It may have even past you by, but the feast of “The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth” was transferred from last Sunday to Monday. Perhaps our minds were diverted by the events in North America. As we continue to pray for the United States, particularly our friends in NYC, I hope you might pause to contemplate this beautiful statue of “The Visitation” attributed to Master Heinrich of Constance I saw when I visited the MET museum in January. The Revd. John F Beddingfield uses the sculpture in his latest video, and I commend it to you for our daily devotion: https://vimeo.com/424821824
Revd Graham M Buckle
It may have even past you by, but the feast of “The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth” was transferred from last Sunday to Monday. Perhaps our minds were diverted by the events in North America. As we continue to pray for the United States, particularly our friends in NYC, I hope you might pause to contemplate this beautiful statue of “The Visitation” attributed to Master Heinrich of Constance I saw when I visited the MET museum in January. The Revd. John F Beddingfield uses the sculpture in his latest video, and I commend it to you for our daily devotion: https://vimeo.com/424821824
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 2nd June
I am sure that the recent events in the United States of America could not have escaped your attention. Not only have we seen the first private rocket SpaceX, send two Nasa astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, into orbit, with amazing live courage of the whole spectacle, but also the growing civil unrest over the horrid death of George Floyd in police custody. As protests escalate, President Donald Trump has threatened to send in the military. Obviously our prayers go out to our friends in New York, as some of the disturbances are very close to the Church of the Holy Trinity. I am sure that God weeps bitterly at a world which has the technological wisdom to send people into outer space, whilst earth chocks with pollution, wars rage, racism abides, people impoverished and virus’s continue. Perhaps we should all take time to pray for us and our planet at this sad and poignant time:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
Revd Graham M Buckle
I am sure that the recent events in the United States of America could not have escaped your attention. Not only have we seen the first private rocket SpaceX, send two Nasa astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, into orbit, with amazing live courage of the whole spectacle, but also the growing civil unrest over the horrid death of George Floyd in police custody. As protests escalate, President Donald Trump has threatened to send in the military. Obviously our prayers go out to our friends in New York, as some of the disturbances are very close to the Church of the Holy Trinity. I am sure that God weeps bitterly at a world which has the technological wisdom to send people into outer space, whilst earth chocks with pollution, wars rage, racism abides, people impoverished and virus’s continue. Perhaps we should all take time to pray for us and our planet at this sad and poignant time:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
Revd Graham M Buckle
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Monday 1st June
The thing is, we often disagree, particularly with those we love and admire most. None more so in the realm of art, where someone’s vision is another’s nightmare. As a serpentine swimmer, I was aware that “The Mastaba” deeply divided opinion and swimmer alike, not only for its relevance and beauty, but also that it impinged it’s presence right into the heart of the water we were trying to swim in. But, that was the point and whatever one’s opinion, it was unquestionably a landmark in 2018 in the Serpentine Lake. It’s creator, Christo, the Bulgarian-born artist, known for his monumental projects, has sadly died in his home in New York. May he Rest In Peace. Whatever we think about others, their creations, their culture, may we be open to the wondering fact that diversity is God-given, and that not every thing is what we see or feel...“Judge not, that you be not judged” (Mt 7:1) Christo: Bulgarian-born artist who famously wrapped landmarks dies at 84 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52872186 Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Saturday 30th May
Kevin’s offering for our Daily Devotion, is also inspired by some of the post-service chat on Sunday.
Pisces by R S Thomas
Who said to the trout
You shall die on Good Friday
To be food for a man
And his pretty lady?
It was I, said God
Who formed the roses
In the delicate flesh
And the tooth that bruises.
I was discussing the structure of the universe with a few students in a lesson recently, and we dwelt on the discovery by the astronomer Vera Rubin some years ago that it seems that most of the material of which galaxies are made is invisible to us. This has become known as Dark Matter and we now believe that about a quarter of the universe is made of it. Even more astonishing is the evidence that something else, confusingly called Dark Energy, probably makes up even more of the universe – about 70% of it, in fact. This leaves only about 5% of the universe that is made of the sort of material that we see every day: wood, metal, air, water, glass - you name it. We live in a world where beliefs are fashioned by statistical uncertainties and we are urged to “follow the science”, but it is easy to forget that faith transcends such statistical analysis. Such faith is shaken in times like this as we struggle to see the compassion of God in a crisis such as a pandemic. Yet everything – good and bad – has emerged from the same creation, as R S Thomas reminds us in his poem, Pisces, above.
The current difficult circumstances have made us all, everywhere, reassess and reconsider what we think of as important in our lives. Though a stark and brutal reminder of how cruel and uncompromising a world this can be, it has been a good time to appreciate and increase our love for those things that are not always obvious or even visible to us. Such things enrich our lives without us even realising it and we now find ourselves yearning for them, unexpectedly and rightly so. Here is my own little reflection on this realisation, with apologies for the playful pun in the last line.
Separated by measures of the lockdown rules
With unpeopled pubs and child-free schools
Societal norms virtually supplanted
How much we seem to have taken for granted
Amid known unknowns and incessant fake news
We long for the comfort of the unforgiving pews
The real voices and faces and smells of others
Our fellow believers, our sisters and brothers
Mindful before You when at the altar we kneel
Humbly, yet boldly, our soles we reveal
Kevin Walsh
Kevin’s offering for our Daily Devotion, is also inspired by some of the post-service chat on Sunday.
Pisces by R S Thomas
Who said to the trout
You shall die on Good Friday
To be food for a man
And his pretty lady?
It was I, said God
Who formed the roses
In the delicate flesh
And the tooth that bruises.
I was discussing the structure of the universe with a few students in a lesson recently, and we dwelt on the discovery by the astronomer Vera Rubin some years ago that it seems that most of the material of which galaxies are made is invisible to us. This has become known as Dark Matter and we now believe that about a quarter of the universe is made of it. Even more astonishing is the evidence that something else, confusingly called Dark Energy, probably makes up even more of the universe – about 70% of it, in fact. This leaves only about 5% of the universe that is made of the sort of material that we see every day: wood, metal, air, water, glass - you name it. We live in a world where beliefs are fashioned by statistical uncertainties and we are urged to “follow the science”, but it is easy to forget that faith transcends such statistical analysis. Such faith is shaken in times like this as we struggle to see the compassion of God in a crisis such as a pandemic. Yet everything – good and bad – has emerged from the same creation, as R S Thomas reminds us in his poem, Pisces, above.
The current difficult circumstances have made us all, everywhere, reassess and reconsider what we think of as important in our lives. Though a stark and brutal reminder of how cruel and uncompromising a world this can be, it has been a good time to appreciate and increase our love for those things that are not always obvious or even visible to us. Such things enrich our lives without us even realising it and we now find ourselves yearning for them, unexpectedly and rightly so. Here is my own little reflection on this realisation, with apologies for the playful pun in the last line.
Separated by measures of the lockdown rules
With unpeopled pubs and child-free schools
Societal norms virtually supplanted
How much we seem to have taken for granted
Amid known unknowns and incessant fake news
We long for the comfort of the unforgiving pews
The real voices and faces and smells of others
Our fellow believers, our sisters and brothers
Mindful before You when at the altar we kneel
Humbly, yet boldly, our soles we reveal
Kevin Walsh
Friday 29th May 2020
Lizzie was inspired by the discussion after the Zoomed Eucharist at St. Stephen's on Sunday 24 May 2020 to offer the following as a contribution to our daily devotion:
Where is God?
God is in our heads, and in our understanding,
God is in our eyes, and in our looking,
God is in our mouths, and in our speaking,
God is in our hearts, and in our thinking,
God is at our end, and at our departing.
Sarum Primer 1558 (slightly amended)
Liz Witts
Lizzie was inspired by the discussion after the Zoomed Eucharist at St. Stephen's on Sunday 24 May 2020 to offer the following as a contribution to our daily devotion:
Where is God?
God is in our heads, and in our understanding,
God is in our eyes, and in our looking,
God is in our mouths, and in our speaking,
God is in our hearts, and in our thinking,
God is at our end, and at our departing.
Sarum Primer 1558 (slightly amended)
Liz Witts
Thursday 28th May 2020
Wednesday 27th May 2020
Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday present would be guidance based on her daily Bible reading and devout prayer. She would tell us to ask God every day of our lives what He wants us to do -- to listen carefully, discern His instruction, ask for the energy of the Holy Spirit, and then get on with it. It sounds simple, but she would warn us that it isn’t. Far from it. She would assure us that the union of prayer and action is the bedrock of Christian life. And she would urge us to follow God’s direction wherever it leads us, no matter how challenging and how costly, just as she did so heroically.
Ann Barker
Also cf https://www.london.anglican.org/articles/florence-nightingale-anniversary/
Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday present would be guidance based on her daily Bible reading and devout prayer. She would tell us to ask God every day of our lives what He wants us to do -- to listen carefully, discern His instruction, ask for the energy of the Holy Spirit, and then get on with it. It sounds simple, but she would warn us that it isn’t. Far from it. She would assure us that the union of prayer and action is the bedrock of Christian life. And she would urge us to follow God’s direction wherever it leads us, no matter how challenging and how costly, just as she did so heroically.
Ann Barker
Also cf https://www.london.anglican.org/articles/florence-nightingale-anniversary/
Tuesday 26th May 2020
When half of Europe suffered a partial Zoom breakdown a week ago on Sunday, and we watched Graham silently celebrate the Eucharist, after a while I asked Barnaby to bring me my New Testament. Turning the pages I finished up reading the final paragraphs of all Paul’s epistles, those where he sent greetings to the many growing groups of Christians around the Mediterranean. More than anything it brought him alive as a real person, passionate about his mission, trying to keep the many disparate groups together. But it also reminded me how many of those groups, either then or in the near future were going to live in their own lock down, torn between the need to express their faith and the dangers or persecution.
Since then I have been thinking of all those who throughout history have had to lock down and hide themselves from terror of many kinds, from plagues to enemy occupation, and when there was little kindness. I have just spent an afternoon reading Pepys’ account of the Great Plague of 1665 when whole families died within hours, when dead bodies lay in the streets. Pepys rewrote his will a couple of times and moved his wife and some of his goods out of London, yet merrily went on his way, working extremely hard and flirting - and much more - with every woman in sight. Even when friends and family died, his regret was fleeting and soon forgotten in a merry supper. There was little compassion. But the worst sorts of terror must have been when you did not know whom you could trust, who might betray you, the unthinkable fears of Anne Frank and others like her living in hiding, seem the worst.
Now our present plague is rich with kindness, thousands of people putting themselves at risk to help others. As a human race we really do seem to have moved on quite a bit, and thank God for it.
Margaret Duggan
When half of Europe suffered a partial Zoom breakdown a week ago on Sunday, and we watched Graham silently celebrate the Eucharist, after a while I asked Barnaby to bring me my New Testament. Turning the pages I finished up reading the final paragraphs of all Paul’s epistles, those where he sent greetings to the many growing groups of Christians around the Mediterranean. More than anything it brought him alive as a real person, passionate about his mission, trying to keep the many disparate groups together. But it also reminded me how many of those groups, either then or in the near future were going to live in their own lock down, torn between the need to express their faith and the dangers or persecution.
Since then I have been thinking of all those who throughout history have had to lock down and hide themselves from terror of many kinds, from plagues to enemy occupation, and when there was little kindness. I have just spent an afternoon reading Pepys’ account of the Great Plague of 1665 when whole families died within hours, when dead bodies lay in the streets. Pepys rewrote his will a couple of times and moved his wife and some of his goods out of London, yet merrily went on his way, working extremely hard and flirting - and much more - with every woman in sight. Even when friends and family died, his regret was fleeting and soon forgotten in a merry supper. There was little compassion. But the worst sorts of terror must have been when you did not know whom you could trust, who might betray you, the unthinkable fears of Anne Frank and others like her living in hiding, seem the worst.
Now our present plague is rich with kindness, thousands of people putting themselves at risk to help others. As a human race we really do seem to have moved on quite a bit, and thank God for it.
Margaret Duggan
Monday 25th May 2020
Saturday 23rd May 2020
A reflection on. Luke Chapter 3 verse 1
There is much talk in the press and elsewhere that this present crisis will produce change. The theory goes that we will not return to “normal” as it was understood before the pandemic. No doubt we will change by force of circumstance. It will, surely, take time for air travel to return to being as popular as before. It may be that restaurants and pubs will find it difficult to attract customers. People who have become used to working at home will find that they prefer to continue doing so.
These are consequential changes. There may be others which result from political decision springing from different perspectives gained because of the emergency. The fate of globalisation, of “just in time” supply chains, and of accustomed ways of working my well change. It is too early to know what will happen. There are clear lessons to learn. We need to adjust the way in which we value the caring professions. We need to develop a new appreciation and valuing of the local, and to appreciate that the need to travel is not as urgent as we might have thought. We need to value the environment more.
Crises are terrible. They bring suffering, they bring disruption and they are to be avoided. They do, also, bring opportunity, opportunity in that change and disruption mean that things have to change, and there may be advantage in the change, or advantage for some and disadvantage for others. It is up to governments to order and regulate change, so that there is protection for the disadvantaged. Opportunity, too, in that fresh insights give the option to choose to adapt, to be in control of change, rather than just have change, unmanaged, forced upon us.
Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 3 describes a call to respond to a perceived impending crisis. A decisive intervention in history was expected, not a natural disaster, or a pandemic, but the coming of a special, long looked for person, who would demand change. The expectation was, that this would be a change in the government of Israel, that God’s Messiah would come and would lead Israel against the Roman occupying power, and to a new re-born status. Of course, we know that the Messiah who came, was not what was expected, and that the change for which He called was a change of heart.
St John the Baptist, was called to “prepare the way of the Lord”. His message was that Israel, was to prepare for change and to change their expectation of what was coming, and of what God was calling them to be.
The way in which we are called to change may not be quite the same as the way in which Israel was called to change. But in the change which will follow this pandemic there will be an opportunity for Christians to influence, and to seek to make the things of faith more known in our world, or to put it in Biblical language, it will be an opportunity for us to prepare the way of the Lord.
It may be that John the Baptist could be looked upon as the “midwife” of Christianity. He was there at the birth. To what are we to be the midwives? The Church may be called to change. There may be a continuation of on line services. There must be a will to preserve what we are as Church and to build on what we have learned in the pandemic. It is, however, not good enough simply to think of ways in which the Church might adapt for the sake of its own future and organisational preservation.
I do not know how many people will have been shown to have accessed on line services during this crisis. Maybe the figures are difficult to assess because they include a brief look. However, there may be considerably more accessing on line worship than we would normally see attending Church.
Here may be evidence that many will turn to faith when they are feeling vulnerable. It is not evidence of an opportunity to exploit vulnerability as a sort of marketing opportunity, but evidence of an opportunity for service. There is much to be worked out theologically about the nature of worship which is “on line”, and we must develop ways of worshipping which are authentic developments with roots in scripture, tradition and reason. There are theological issues around the nature of “presence” and the necessity of ministry being personal. In essence, worship must always be physical and actual, our understanding of ministry is that it is personal and incarnational. However, we must embrace the new with courage and work on the theology ecumenically.
Here, in this process of seeking to serve, the Church will surely find opportunities to “prepare the way of the Lord”, to influence society, and societal attitudes in a new way and to be “midwives” to a new society, or a society newly influenced by Christ.
Prayer and theological reflection, must be the springboards of action, not the substitutes for action. God calls us from within the circumstances of life. Our vocation is incarnated in the circumstances of life. It is here, in the opportunity of the present reality that our vocation must find its outworking.
Revd David Hobden
A reflection on. Luke Chapter 3 verse 1
There is much talk in the press and elsewhere that this present crisis will produce change. The theory goes that we will not return to “normal” as it was understood before the pandemic. No doubt we will change by force of circumstance. It will, surely, take time for air travel to return to being as popular as before. It may be that restaurants and pubs will find it difficult to attract customers. People who have become used to working at home will find that they prefer to continue doing so.
These are consequential changes. There may be others which result from political decision springing from different perspectives gained because of the emergency. The fate of globalisation, of “just in time” supply chains, and of accustomed ways of working my well change. It is too early to know what will happen. There are clear lessons to learn. We need to adjust the way in which we value the caring professions. We need to develop a new appreciation and valuing of the local, and to appreciate that the need to travel is not as urgent as we might have thought. We need to value the environment more.
Crises are terrible. They bring suffering, they bring disruption and they are to be avoided. They do, also, bring opportunity, opportunity in that change and disruption mean that things have to change, and there may be advantage in the change, or advantage for some and disadvantage for others. It is up to governments to order and regulate change, so that there is protection for the disadvantaged. Opportunity, too, in that fresh insights give the option to choose to adapt, to be in control of change, rather than just have change, unmanaged, forced upon us.
Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 3 describes a call to respond to a perceived impending crisis. A decisive intervention in history was expected, not a natural disaster, or a pandemic, but the coming of a special, long looked for person, who would demand change. The expectation was, that this would be a change in the government of Israel, that God’s Messiah would come and would lead Israel against the Roman occupying power, and to a new re-born status. Of course, we know that the Messiah who came, was not what was expected, and that the change for which He called was a change of heart.
St John the Baptist, was called to “prepare the way of the Lord”. His message was that Israel, was to prepare for change and to change their expectation of what was coming, and of what God was calling them to be.
The way in which we are called to change may not be quite the same as the way in which Israel was called to change. But in the change which will follow this pandemic there will be an opportunity for Christians to influence, and to seek to make the things of faith more known in our world, or to put it in Biblical language, it will be an opportunity for us to prepare the way of the Lord.
It may be that John the Baptist could be looked upon as the “midwife” of Christianity. He was there at the birth. To what are we to be the midwives? The Church may be called to change. There may be a continuation of on line services. There must be a will to preserve what we are as Church and to build on what we have learned in the pandemic. It is, however, not good enough simply to think of ways in which the Church might adapt for the sake of its own future and organisational preservation.
I do not know how many people will have been shown to have accessed on line services during this crisis. Maybe the figures are difficult to assess because they include a brief look. However, there may be considerably more accessing on line worship than we would normally see attending Church.
Here may be evidence that many will turn to faith when they are feeling vulnerable. It is not evidence of an opportunity to exploit vulnerability as a sort of marketing opportunity, but evidence of an opportunity for service. There is much to be worked out theologically about the nature of worship which is “on line”, and we must develop ways of worshipping which are authentic developments with roots in scripture, tradition and reason. There are theological issues around the nature of “presence” and the necessity of ministry being personal. In essence, worship must always be physical and actual, our understanding of ministry is that it is personal and incarnational. However, we must embrace the new with courage and work on the theology ecumenically.
Here, in this process of seeking to serve, the Church will surely find opportunities to “prepare the way of the Lord”, to influence society, and societal attitudes in a new way and to be “midwives” to a new society, or a society newly influenced by Christ.
Prayer and theological reflection, must be the springboards of action, not the substitutes for action. God calls us from within the circumstances of life. Our vocation is incarnated in the circumstances of life. It is here, in the opportunity of the present reality that our vocation must find its outworking.
Revd David Hobden
Friday 22nd May 2020
We have really enjoyed our friend, Yvonne O’Neil from NYC, joining us on Zoom for our Evening Prayers during the week. On Sunday at Church of the Holy Trinity’s study group, Yvonne movingly began the session by praying a Native American Prayer. I asked if she would mind if we used it for one of our daily devotions. And here it is, thank you Yvonne, and we look forward to seeing you again soon...!
A NATIVE AMERICAN PRAYER
O Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds and whose breath gives life to all
the world: hear me. I am one of your many children. I am small and weak. I
need your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever to
behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have
made, my ears sharp to hear your voice. Make me wise, so that I may know the
things you have taught my people, the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and
rock. I seek strength, O Great Spirit, not to be superior to others but to be able to
fight my greatest enemy, myself. Make me ever ready to come to you with clean
hands and straight eyes so that when life fades as the fading sunset, my spirit may
come to you without shame.
Amen.
Tom White Cloud, a prayer written on a roadside marker, erected by the Akwesasne Mohawk Counselor Organization, St. Regis Reservation, Hogansburg, New York
We have really enjoyed our friend, Yvonne O’Neil from NYC, joining us on Zoom for our Evening Prayers during the week. On Sunday at Church of the Holy Trinity’s study group, Yvonne movingly began the session by praying a Native American Prayer. I asked if she would mind if we used it for one of our daily devotions. And here it is, thank you Yvonne, and we look forward to seeing you again soon...!
A NATIVE AMERICAN PRAYER
O Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds and whose breath gives life to all
the world: hear me. I am one of your many children. I am small and weak. I
need your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever to
behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have
made, my ears sharp to hear your voice. Make me wise, so that I may know the
things you have taught my people, the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and
rock. I seek strength, O Great Spirit, not to be superior to others but to be able to
fight my greatest enemy, myself. Make me ever ready to come to you with clean
hands and straight eyes so that when life fades as the fading sunset, my spirit may
come to you without shame.
Amen.
Tom White Cloud, a prayer written on a roadside marker, erected by the Akwesasne Mohawk Counselor Organization, St. Regis Reservation, Hogansburg, New York
Thursday 21st May 2020
I invite you to listen to one or two of the cornerstones of 20th-century sacred music for Ascension Day: Gerald Finzi's majestic anthem God is gone up, and Olivier Messiaen's suite of meditations L'Ascension.
Born in 1901, Finzi studied with Edward Bairstow at York Minster and became friends with Edmund Rubbra, Gustav Holst, and Ralph Vaughan Williams in London fairly early in his career, before moving to Wiltshire with his wife, the artist Joyce Black; he died in 1956. Particularly interested in English folk and 18th-century music, he is probably best known as a composer of choral music, song, as well as of concertos for clarinet and cello. Composed in 1951, God is gone up is one of Finzi's best loved anthems for choir and organ, along with the stunning Lo, the full, final sacrifice composed 5 years earlier. God is gone up sets a text by the later 17th-century poet, pastor, and physician Edward Taylor, who was born in England but emigrated to colonial America:
God is gone up with a triumphant shout:
The Lord with sounding trumpets’ melodies:
Sing praise, sing praise, sing praise, sing praises out,
Unto our King sing praise seraphic-wise!
Lift up your heads, ye lasting doors, they sing,
And let the King of Glory enter in.
Methinks I see Heaven’s sparkling courtiers fly
In flakes of glory down, him to attend,
And hear heart-cramping notes of melody
Surround his chariot as it did ascend:
Mixing their music, making ev'ry string
More to enravish, as they this tune sing.
The music is broadly in three sections: firstly majestic opening fanfares and sweeping rhapsody, followed by a lighter middle section with piquant organ accompaniment, before the opening material returns for a triumphant conclusion. The performance linked on YouTube is by the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, directed by Andrew Nethsingha. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI4YQJRcUS0
Born in 1908 and Organist of La Trinité in Paris from 1931 until his death in 1992, Messiaen was a unique voice in 20th-century music. As well as drawing on a love of a range of music such as that of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Edvard Grieg, and 'traditional' elements such as Gregorian chant and techniques like counterpoint, he devised new modes (scales) for melody and harmony; he drew on rhythmic, melodic, and formal aspects of music well beyond the Western classical tradition, such as from Japan and Indonesia; and he was frequently inspired by nature in his music, perhaps above all birdsong - and the combination of all of this was inflected by his experience of synaesthesia, a phenomenon by which he saw musical chords as colours. He studied organ and composition at the Paris Conservatoire with Marcel Dupré, Charles-Marie Widor, and Paul Dukas, and later had an enormous influence as a teacher himself. L'Ascension is a four-movement suite of pieces inspired by four pieces of scripture included in the score. It was composed initially for orchestra, but Messiaen immediately arranged it for organ and wrote a completely new third movement for the organ version, which was first performed in 1935 a few weeks before the orchestral version. The suite is probably best listened to as programmatic music or musical paintings of the scriptural passages. The four movements and their appended scriptural passages are:
I. Majesté du Christ demandant sa gloire à son Père (Majesty of Christ praying that His Father should glorify them)
"Father, the hour is come: glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee" (John 17:1)
II. Alléluias sereins d'une âme qui désire le ciel (Serene Alleluias from a soul longing for Heaven)
"We beseech Thee, Almighty God, they we may in mind dwell in Heaven" (Collect for Ascension Day)
III. Transports de joie d'une âme devant la gloire du Christ qui est la sienne (Outburst of joy from a soul before the Glory of Christ which is its own glory)
"Giving thanks unto The Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light.... has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Colossians 1:2; Ephesians 2:6)
IV. Prière du Christ montant vers son Père (Prayer from Christ ascending towards His Father)
"And now, o Father, I have manifested Thy name unto men.... and now, I am no more in the world, but these are in the world and I come to Thee." (John 17:6, 11)
The link to the YouTube below is to an older and historic recording, a performance by Simon Preston recorded in 1962 at King's College, Cambridge. Preston had been a chorister and later an organ scholar at King's, and in 1962 had just been appointed Sub-Organist of our near neighbours Westminster Abbey; during his time as Sub-Organist at the Abbey, Preston composed a Messiaen-influenced organ piece Alleluyas (which I played in my inaugural recital at St Stephen's), and Preston would go on to direct the music first at Christ Church, Oxford, and then at the Abbey, before focusing on his career as one of the foremost concert organists in the world. Preston was one of the first British organists to perform and record Messiaen's music, and this 1962 recording of L'Ascension was Preston's first and, indeed, among the earliest recordings of Messiaen's music by any British organist.
Matthew Blaiden
Director of Music
I invite you to listen to one or two of the cornerstones of 20th-century sacred music for Ascension Day: Gerald Finzi's majestic anthem God is gone up, and Olivier Messiaen's suite of meditations L'Ascension.
Born in 1901, Finzi studied with Edward Bairstow at York Minster and became friends with Edmund Rubbra, Gustav Holst, and Ralph Vaughan Williams in London fairly early in his career, before moving to Wiltshire with his wife, the artist Joyce Black; he died in 1956. Particularly interested in English folk and 18th-century music, he is probably best known as a composer of choral music, song, as well as of concertos for clarinet and cello. Composed in 1951, God is gone up is one of Finzi's best loved anthems for choir and organ, along with the stunning Lo, the full, final sacrifice composed 5 years earlier. God is gone up sets a text by the later 17th-century poet, pastor, and physician Edward Taylor, who was born in England but emigrated to colonial America:
God is gone up with a triumphant shout:
The Lord with sounding trumpets’ melodies:
Sing praise, sing praise, sing praise, sing praises out,
Unto our King sing praise seraphic-wise!
Lift up your heads, ye lasting doors, they sing,
And let the King of Glory enter in.
Methinks I see Heaven’s sparkling courtiers fly
In flakes of glory down, him to attend,
And hear heart-cramping notes of melody
Surround his chariot as it did ascend:
Mixing their music, making ev'ry string
More to enravish, as they this tune sing.
The music is broadly in three sections: firstly majestic opening fanfares and sweeping rhapsody, followed by a lighter middle section with piquant organ accompaniment, before the opening material returns for a triumphant conclusion. The performance linked on YouTube is by the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, directed by Andrew Nethsingha. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI4YQJRcUS0
Born in 1908 and Organist of La Trinité in Paris from 1931 until his death in 1992, Messiaen was a unique voice in 20th-century music. As well as drawing on a love of a range of music such as that of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Edvard Grieg, and 'traditional' elements such as Gregorian chant and techniques like counterpoint, he devised new modes (scales) for melody and harmony; he drew on rhythmic, melodic, and formal aspects of music well beyond the Western classical tradition, such as from Japan and Indonesia; and he was frequently inspired by nature in his music, perhaps above all birdsong - and the combination of all of this was inflected by his experience of synaesthesia, a phenomenon by which he saw musical chords as colours. He studied organ and composition at the Paris Conservatoire with Marcel Dupré, Charles-Marie Widor, and Paul Dukas, and later had an enormous influence as a teacher himself. L'Ascension is a four-movement suite of pieces inspired by four pieces of scripture included in the score. It was composed initially for orchestra, but Messiaen immediately arranged it for organ and wrote a completely new third movement for the organ version, which was first performed in 1935 a few weeks before the orchestral version. The suite is probably best listened to as programmatic music or musical paintings of the scriptural passages. The four movements and their appended scriptural passages are:
I. Majesté du Christ demandant sa gloire à son Père (Majesty of Christ praying that His Father should glorify them)
"Father, the hour is come: glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee" (John 17:1)
II. Alléluias sereins d'une âme qui désire le ciel (Serene Alleluias from a soul longing for Heaven)
"We beseech Thee, Almighty God, they we may in mind dwell in Heaven" (Collect for Ascension Day)
III. Transports de joie d'une âme devant la gloire du Christ qui est la sienne (Outburst of joy from a soul before the Glory of Christ which is its own glory)
"Giving thanks unto The Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light.... has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Colossians 1:2; Ephesians 2:6)
IV. Prière du Christ montant vers son Père (Prayer from Christ ascending towards His Father)
"And now, o Father, I have manifested Thy name unto men.... and now, I am no more in the world, but these are in the world and I come to Thee." (John 17:6, 11)
The link to the YouTube below is to an older and historic recording, a performance by Simon Preston recorded in 1962 at King's College, Cambridge. Preston had been a chorister and later an organ scholar at King's, and in 1962 had just been appointed Sub-Organist of our near neighbours Westminster Abbey; during his time as Sub-Organist at the Abbey, Preston composed a Messiaen-influenced organ piece Alleluyas (which I played in my inaugural recital at St Stephen's), and Preston would go on to direct the music first at Christ Church, Oxford, and then at the Abbey, before focusing on his career as one of the foremost concert organists in the world. Preston was one of the first British organists to perform and record Messiaen's music, and this 1962 recording of L'Ascension was Preston's first and, indeed, among the earliest recordings of Messiaen's music by any British organist.
Matthew Blaiden
Director of Music
Wednesday 20th May 2020
Instinctively I feel that it is important to maintain creatures and areas that we have wrestled from nature and become inexplicably anxious when I see that work has to be done. I was therefore very happy when Graham gave me permission to pull up the weeds in the Church garden!
I have lived in the area for nearly 50 years and can remember the concrete slabs being laid and the planting of those carefully selected small trees and shrubs. How lucky I am to see them now.
Sue Wates and Kyle ap Simon joined me in the cleaning and clearing of the garden area.
(I must admit that I might have given up the task had I continued to work alone). Now our Wednesday mornings, during this ‘weird’ time of lock-down, have become the highlight of my week. We communicate, at a distance, breathe fresh air and have exercise. More importantly our Church now appears, as it is, the vibrant centre of our community.
I would like to think that we have formed a little garden group that will continue even after lockdown.
Sally Ricketts
Instinctively I feel that it is important to maintain creatures and areas that we have wrestled from nature and become inexplicably anxious when I see that work has to be done. I was therefore very happy when Graham gave me permission to pull up the weeds in the Church garden!
I have lived in the area for nearly 50 years and can remember the concrete slabs being laid and the planting of those carefully selected small trees and shrubs. How lucky I am to see them now.
Sue Wates and Kyle ap Simon joined me in the cleaning and clearing of the garden area.
(I must admit that I might have given up the task had I continued to work alone). Now our Wednesday mornings, during this ‘weird’ time of lock-down, have become the highlight of my week. We communicate, at a distance, breathe fresh air and have exercise. More importantly our Church now appears, as it is, the vibrant centre of our community.
I would like to think that we have formed a little garden group that will continue even after lockdown.
Sally Ricketts
Tuesday 19th May 2020
Prayer found and offered for our Daily Devotion by Revd Lindsay Meader
Monday 18th of May
Another week, another lock down. I hope that you are all keeping well and looking after yourselves. This is so important, not just physically and emotionally but spiritually as well. That is why we have continued every day since our church was closed, to publish this ‘daily devotion’, in order to create in some way an opportunity to pause, think, reflect and pray for a short while with a thought each day. I am grateful for all those who have contributed their thoughts, prayers and poems. I hope you will continue to send them to us.
Last Saturday I went for my first swim in the Serpentine, as the Royal Parks opened up to members for the very first time in over eight weeks. It was wonderful to be able to swim again, but with it came the realisation that certain physical activities often have a spiritual dimension too. In swimming in the Serpentine or other beautiful places, I am acutely aware of how close one is to God’s created order. This can give rise to all sorts of enlightened understanding, like, for example, the importance of our stewardship of this creation we are apart and share. Perhaps this time has given us the opportunity to see things a little differently. I wonder what you are able to see in a new light?
Revd Graham M Buckle
Another week, another lock down. I hope that you are all keeping well and looking after yourselves. This is so important, not just physically and emotionally but spiritually as well. That is why we have continued every day since our church was closed, to publish this ‘daily devotion’, in order to create in some way an opportunity to pause, think, reflect and pray for a short while with a thought each day. I am grateful for all those who have contributed their thoughts, prayers and poems. I hope you will continue to send them to us.
Last Saturday I went for my first swim in the Serpentine, as the Royal Parks opened up to members for the very first time in over eight weeks. It was wonderful to be able to swim again, but with it came the realisation that certain physical activities often have a spiritual dimension too. In swimming in the Serpentine or other beautiful places, I am acutely aware of how close one is to God’s created order. This can give rise to all sorts of enlightened understanding, like, for example, the importance of our stewardship of this creation we are apart and share. Perhaps this time has given us the opportunity to see things a little differently. I wonder what you are able to see in a new light?
Revd Graham M Buckle
Saturday 16th May
We used the Beatitudes for a Global Pandemic (words by Jayne Manfredi, illustrations by Dave Walker), using Matthew 5.1-11 as a starting point for our prayers during Evening Prayer this week. I found this really helpful and used it as part of a service in my theatre chaplaincy work. I really can’t draw, but was prompted to write some Beatitudes for the Theatre Industry: Beatitudes for the Theatre Industry Blessed are the theatre owners for they are the guardians of the jewels in the West End and up and down the land. Blessed are the producers for they have the courage to take risks. |
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Blessed are the playwrights, the composers and the choreographers for they labour to share the fruits of their imagination.
Blessed are the directors and musical directors for theirs is the vision that nurtures and draws out the best in the performers.
Blessed are the stage managers for they remain unflappable in the face of many challenges.
Blessed are the designers for they create other worlds before our eyes.
Blessed are those who work in wardrobe, wigs, hair and make up for theirs is the craft that makes illusion real.
Blessed are those who work in lighting and sound for they give us fresh eyes to see and ears to hear.
Blessed are the performers for they embrace their vulnerability every time they step on stage.
Blessed are all who work in box office and ticketing for they are working hard and remaining courteous in the face of their own and others’ disappointment.
Blessed are the theatre managers and the front of house teams for theirs are the faces that welcome us into sacred spaces and keep us safe within.
Blessed are the stage door keepers for they guard the threshold of the world backstage with diligence and discretion.
Blessed are the agents and casting directors for they pave the way in matching people and parts.
Blessed are the critics for they have watched more performances than most of the rest of us put together.
Blessed are the audiences for they come with open hearts and minds and leave enriched.
Blessed are all those desperately missing live theatre and lamenting the lockdown, both theatre makers and partakers, for when the doors can finally safely open and the curtains rise once more, we will know ourselves to be truly blessed.
Lindsay Meader
Blessed are the directors and musical directors for theirs is the vision that nurtures and draws out the best in the performers.
Blessed are the stage managers for they remain unflappable in the face of many challenges.
Blessed are the designers for they create other worlds before our eyes.
Blessed are those who work in wardrobe, wigs, hair and make up for theirs is the craft that makes illusion real.
Blessed are those who work in lighting and sound for they give us fresh eyes to see and ears to hear.
Blessed are the performers for they embrace their vulnerability every time they step on stage.
Blessed are all who work in box office and ticketing for they are working hard and remaining courteous in the face of their own and others’ disappointment.
Blessed are the theatre managers and the front of house teams for theirs are the faces that welcome us into sacred spaces and keep us safe within.
Blessed are the stage door keepers for they guard the threshold of the world backstage with diligence and discretion.
Blessed are the agents and casting directors for they pave the way in matching people and parts.
Blessed are the critics for they have watched more performances than most of the rest of us put together.
Blessed are the audiences for they come with open hearts and minds and leave enriched.
Blessed are all those desperately missing live theatre and lamenting the lockdown, both theatre makers and partakers, for when the doors can finally safely open and the curtains rise once more, we will know ourselves to be truly blessed.
Lindsay Meader
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Friday 15th May
While the Civil Service Choir, which has a strong association with St Stephen’s and St John’s Smith Square, might not be together for many months to come, we have created this performance of the White Cliffs of Dover as our first attempt at performing together virtually. It doesn’t make up for the three concerts we have lost, but it has given us hope that we can find ways to continue. We dedicate the performance to all those who fought or served during World War II and to those helping get us through the Coronavirus pandemic now. Stephen Hall Music Director |
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Thursday 14th May
Today believers of all religions around the world are invited to join spiritually in a day of prayer, fasting or performing acts of charity, to pray for God’s help in bringing about an end to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Please do watch Pope Francis’ message of invitation on https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2020-05/covid-19-faithful-respond-to-popes-invitation-to-pray-may-14.html
A prayer for all those affected by coronavirus
Keep us, good Lord,
under the shadow of your mercy.
Sustain and support the anxious,
be with those who care for the sick,
and lift up all who are brought low;
that we may find comfort
knowing that nothing can separate us from your love
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
Today believers of all religions around the world are invited to join spiritually in a day of prayer, fasting or performing acts of charity, to pray for God’s help in bringing about an end to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Please do watch Pope Francis’ message of invitation on https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2020-05/covid-19-faithful-respond-to-popes-invitation-to-pray-may-14.html
A prayer for all those affected by coronavirus
Keep us, good Lord,
under the shadow of your mercy.
Sustain and support the anxious,
be with those who care for the sick,
and lift up all who are brought low;
that we may find comfort
knowing that nothing can separate us from your love
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
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Wednesday 13th May
1 Corinthians 3:7, "So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” Although still working full time I have managed to keep a few craft activities going and recently finished this embroidery specifically for lockdown. Some of the stitching was done meditatively while listening to the church service on Zoom and so it is now also a reminder that I am not alone: the church and our community are there to help me and others “bloom inside”. Ann Mills-Duggan |
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Tuesday 12th May
It is so nice that Veronica and William Morris, long standing members of our community, are able to join us virtually on Zoom for our worship during this time. Veronica was “inspired by a quote that her vicar in Cornwall emailed her and would like to share it with us and was offered for our daily devotion today.
"Satan: 'I will cause anxiety, fear, and panic. I will shut down business, schools, places of worship and sports events. I will cause economic turmoil.'
Jesus: 'I will bring together neighbors, restore the family unit. I will bring dinner back to the kitchen table. I will help people slow down their lives and appreciate what really matters. I will teach my children to rely on me and not the world. I will teach my children to TRUST me and not their money and material resources.'"
Inspiring Quote: Source Unknown
It is so nice that Veronica and William Morris, long standing members of our community, are able to join us virtually on Zoom for our worship during this time. Veronica was “inspired by a quote that her vicar in Cornwall emailed her and would like to share it with us and was offered for our daily devotion today.
"Satan: 'I will cause anxiety, fear, and panic. I will shut down business, schools, places of worship and sports events. I will cause economic turmoil.'
Jesus: 'I will bring together neighbors, restore the family unit. I will bring dinner back to the kitchen table. I will help people slow down their lives and appreciate what really matters. I will teach my children to rely on me and not the world. I will teach my children to TRUST me and not their money and material resources.'"
Inspiring Quote: Source Unknown
Monday 11th May
It was suggested to me that our Daily Devotion provides a good platform to share new ideas of things which have made us think, or which we have been enjoying during this time of lockdown. Well, one of the things I have enjoyed is reconnecting with ‘The Podcast’. For those who don’t know, a podcast is an audio programme, similar to the radio, that you can stream or download to your smartphone or computer and listen to whenever you like. So a podcast can be a series of spoken words, audio episodes, all focused on a particular topic or theme, like cycling, history, news, religion https://youtu.be/9dXKGJ7jLsk. One accessible provider is BBC Sounds, which has a number of excellent programmes. I have been especially gripped by a brilliant but disturbing BBC programme recommended by The Week, called ‘Hope High’. Annabel Deas (the producer and presenter) investigates teens, knives and county lines, which “makes for a gripping listen” says Miranda Sayer from the Observer. Annabel spent an incredibly moving year in West Yorkshire talking “to children who carry knives and those who care for them” - parents, schools and social services. The results are “direct” and “visceral”, giving deep insights into the cultural world that some of our young people inhabit. One thing that saddened me listening to it was the lack of church or religious engagement in the lives of these young people. The programme has made me think what we could do as a community? This is a good thing: so, thank you Annabel. Perhaps you too could find something to listen to, either to distract, entertain or perhaps even inspire you.
Revd Graham M Buckle
It was suggested to me that our Daily Devotion provides a good platform to share new ideas of things which have made us think, or which we have been enjoying during this time of lockdown. Well, one of the things I have enjoyed is reconnecting with ‘The Podcast’. For those who don’t know, a podcast is an audio programme, similar to the radio, that you can stream or download to your smartphone or computer and listen to whenever you like. So a podcast can be a series of spoken words, audio episodes, all focused on a particular topic or theme, like cycling, history, news, religion https://youtu.be/9dXKGJ7jLsk. One accessible provider is BBC Sounds, which has a number of excellent programmes. I have been especially gripped by a brilliant but disturbing BBC programme recommended by The Week, called ‘Hope High’. Annabel Deas (the producer and presenter) investigates teens, knives and county lines, which “makes for a gripping listen” says Miranda Sayer from the Observer. Annabel spent an incredibly moving year in West Yorkshire talking “to children who carry knives and those who care for them” - parents, schools and social services. The results are “direct” and “visceral”, giving deep insights into the cultural world that some of our young people inhabit. One thing that saddened me listening to it was the lack of church or religious engagement in the lives of these young people. The programme has made me think what we could do as a community? This is a good thing: so, thank you Annabel. Perhaps you too could find something to listen to, either to distract, entertain or perhaps even inspire you.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Saturday 9th May
God the Parent
What have you done? Said God to old Adam,
Who hid in the garden and slithered from view.
What have you done? Said Pilate to Jesus,
Dragged in to answer as Adam-made-new.
What have you done? Said mother to son,
(Seeing the drugs and the bedroom all trashed.)
What have you done? Said the wife to her man,
(Reading a text when their marriage had crashed.)
What have you done? Said the Lord to that lady,
Has no-one condemned you? Then neither do I;
(She was caught in the act with some bloke rather shady)
But this is the moment: change now, you know why.
What have we done? With our VE-years’ peace
We have sleepwalked to loneliness, selfishness, sin;
In crashed Covid and woke us. Yet we must decrease
And He must increase, if we’re ever to win.
Be still, said the Lord, and know that I’m God.
One day, I’ll return; and the wrong things will flee,
My work will be done; and you’ll join me, I hope,
In our heaven. Meanwhile; Be still, eat your tea.
Anon.
God the Parent
What have you done? Said God to old Adam,
Who hid in the garden and slithered from view.
What have you done? Said Pilate to Jesus,
Dragged in to answer as Adam-made-new.
What have you done? Said mother to son,
(Seeing the drugs and the bedroom all trashed.)
What have you done? Said the wife to her man,
(Reading a text when their marriage had crashed.)
What have you done? Said the Lord to that lady,
Has no-one condemned you? Then neither do I;
(She was caught in the act with some bloke rather shady)
But this is the moment: change now, you know why.
What have we done? With our VE-years’ peace
We have sleepwalked to loneliness, selfishness, sin;
In crashed Covid and woke us. Yet we must decrease
And He must increase, if we’re ever to win.
Be still, said the Lord, and know that I’m God.
One day, I’ll return; and the wrong things will flee,
My work will be done; and you’ll join me, I hope,
In our heaven. Meanwhile; Be still, eat your tea.
Anon.
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Friday 8th May
Today the church commemorates Julian of Norwich, 14th century English mystic and anchoress. We probably know most about her through her book, The Revelations of Divine Love, which is widely acknowledged as one of the great classics of the spiritual life. She is thought to have been the first woman to write a book in English which has survived. We do not know Julian's actual name but it is taken from St. Julian's Church in Norwich where she lived in seclusion for most of her adult life. It is also known, through the medieval literary work, The Book of Margery Kempe, that Julian was a renowned spiritual counsellor. Many people sought Julian’s counsel in her cell in Norwich. Julian saw them at a time when they were also suffering from the plague, as well as famine and great poverty, so she must have counselled a lot of people who were in great pain. Her writings are full hope and a longing for us to trust in God's goodness. If you are interested to read more about Julian cf. http://juliancentre.org/about/about-julian-of-norwich.html Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Thursday 7th May
Wednesday 6th May
During this time I find it so difficult to keep up with what day it is, let alone the month or date! So it is helpful for one’s mind to keep abreast with the rhythms and patterns of the year marked by special days and dates, to help counter-balance this temporary ‘diary-amnesia’. For example, on Monday we celebrated ‘Star Wars day’: “May 4th be with you...!” The Disney Channel marked this day with uploading the most recent Star Wars film: “The Rise of Skywalker”. Then, I am informatively told, the following day keeps to this theme with “The Revenge of the 5th...” Now I realise that all this will fall upon deaf ears to those who, unlike my family, haven’t seen or have no interested in George Lucus’s epic films. Of course the church is not averse to marking the calendar-year with festivals and special days. As I’m sure you are aware, some of these fall on specific dates, whilst others are determined by the moon or cycle of the earth. We are entering a very significant time in the church’s calendar, with some wonderful festivals and feast days: Ascension Day, Whit Sunday, Corpus Christi, to name but a few. Wherever we find ourselves on those great occasions, may we take time to mark, observe, remember and pray together on those days, so that we may be “a force” to contend with.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 5th May
I cannot believe it’s been a week since we uploaded Liz Witts’ latest poems. Another poet within our community is John Turpin, whose poem I commend to you today for you to reflect on and use as part of your daily devotion. And please do send us any of your contributions, thoughts or prayers.
Marking time
Listen.
On balconies and patios
across the quiet city
a comforting
percussive counterpoint
to birdsong
is heard:
the meditative chopping
of fresh veg
in nearby kitchens.
John Turpin April 20
I cannot believe it’s been a week since we uploaded Liz Witts’ latest poems. Another poet within our community is John Turpin, whose poem I commend to you today for you to reflect on and use as part of your daily devotion. And please do send us any of your contributions, thoughts or prayers.
Marking time
Listen.
On balconies and patios
across the quiet city
a comforting
percussive counterpoint
to birdsong
is heard:
the meditative chopping
of fresh veg
in nearby kitchens.
John Turpin April 20
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Monday 4th May
One of the positive things during lockdown is having a little time and space to read and study some of the ‘Everest’ of things we’ve been meaning to. This month (May 2020) marks the fifth anniversary of the publication of “Laudato Si” (Italian for “Praise be to you!”), Pope Francis’s environmental encyclical that has resonated deeply with faith communities of all traditions. (You can download a copy HERE) In it, Francis offers a compelling vision of Earth as our common home, urging us to “hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” It has been a publication I have been meaning to read for sometime. So when our friends from the Church of the Holy Trinity NYC started a seven-session group reading and discussion of the encyclical, led by Steve Knight, Holy Trinity’s GreenFaith Fellow, I was delighted. I have really enjoyed and gained a great deal from attending the first two sessions, which happen before their main Sunday service (3pm GMT). It has also provided me with a discipline framework in which to read ‘Laudato Si’. The publication is certainly a sobering analysis of the ecological imbalance we as humans have created and the huge task and responsibility that lies ahead for us as Christians. |
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It is not too late to join if you wish, you are certain to receive a warm welcome on Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/8753617165 (To prevent the mischief-makers and spammers, the secret word is the numerical version of eighteen ninety-nine two thousand nineteen) - chapter 2 next Sunday. If you’re interested in delving more deeply into Laudato Si and prefer a video format (“better for you than Netflix” as John says!) try the series on Youtube by Franciscan Brother Dan Horan, which begins HERE.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Revd Graham M Buckle
Saturday 2nd May
The 4th Sunday of Easter is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. What with our Burne Jones window and one thing and another, I thought it would be good to explore this theme a bit right now. When I visited Rome a few Aprils ago, the first surprise was that the Good Shepherd was the prevailing theme (not the Cross, not the fish) in the oldest mosaics. This view that with the defender and leader of the flock to hand, nothing can be lacking, is of course the Psalm 23 thinking revisited to account for martyrdom, an occupational hazard for early Christians.
It has something to say to us now: there is a fate worse than death, and it’s this: to get separated from the shepherd. The word-picture of silly sheep unable to look after themselves is not flattering, so modern people are not that eager to be perceived as the flock of Christ. But in fact, since people will flock after any celebrity, or intellectual, or icon, there is truth in that picture yet. And I cannot help noticing that in a crisis we swiftly allocate all the roles in the panto (hero, anti-hero, stooge, etc) to current personages, and woe betide anyone who demurs. Sheep, again. For the Christian, there is no place in our hearts for any of that. We have to hang onto the risen Christ and not expect Him to sort out the messes of the world by intervention and then wander away when he doesn’t. In fact, should it blow itself off to outer space we have his promise that his word will not pass away; and his word includes the thing I personally hold onto through everything: “if it were not so, I would have told you” - about the Father’s house and its capacity, that is. The physical is not all there is, and death is therefore not the end of all that is. This is not to sail glibly past the suffering, the mental agony of separation during the deaths themselves, the wrench of bereavements and the impossible decisions facing the medics, or the fact that famine and poverty may well ensue. We could even have war once a scapegoat has been appointed….. because blame and revenge are natural responses to loss, once it sinks in properly. It’s to state that in Christ there is, there really is, a new creation. Nothing can ever be the same again and that whilst we all die physically, we don’t reckon that this is the end of us, our anima, our soul. I’ve seen both my parents dead. They were not just dead, they were absent as strongly as they’d always been present even when asleep or unconscious. Visiting a comatose, ventilated 52-yr old recently (Cardiac not Covid) I was acutely aware of that difference. Not a flicker; but still “there”. (Recovered entirely by the way, and playing the organ in the hospital chapel within a week!)
So here is Lennox Berkley’s version of Psalm 23, with the surface water burbling around serenely and a high treble faking utter calm. Underneath, the valley of the shadow of death threatens; but doesn’t actually win. Towards the end there is a ray of golden light as the main melody takes off, recognisable still, but in a new and higher key before returning to the normal range. It shows us a glimpse of what else there is. I think we should freeze that frame. Alleluia, Christ is risen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RecPtd72lkA
Rosemary Field
RSCM Head of Organ Studies
Organist Emeritus
The 4th Sunday of Easter is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. What with our Burne Jones window and one thing and another, I thought it would be good to explore this theme a bit right now. When I visited Rome a few Aprils ago, the first surprise was that the Good Shepherd was the prevailing theme (not the Cross, not the fish) in the oldest mosaics. This view that with the defender and leader of the flock to hand, nothing can be lacking, is of course the Psalm 23 thinking revisited to account for martyrdom, an occupational hazard for early Christians.
It has something to say to us now: there is a fate worse than death, and it’s this: to get separated from the shepherd. The word-picture of silly sheep unable to look after themselves is not flattering, so modern people are not that eager to be perceived as the flock of Christ. But in fact, since people will flock after any celebrity, or intellectual, or icon, there is truth in that picture yet. And I cannot help noticing that in a crisis we swiftly allocate all the roles in the panto (hero, anti-hero, stooge, etc) to current personages, and woe betide anyone who demurs. Sheep, again. For the Christian, there is no place in our hearts for any of that. We have to hang onto the risen Christ and not expect Him to sort out the messes of the world by intervention and then wander away when he doesn’t. In fact, should it blow itself off to outer space we have his promise that his word will not pass away; and his word includes the thing I personally hold onto through everything: “if it were not so, I would have told you” - about the Father’s house and its capacity, that is. The physical is not all there is, and death is therefore not the end of all that is. This is not to sail glibly past the suffering, the mental agony of separation during the deaths themselves, the wrench of bereavements and the impossible decisions facing the medics, or the fact that famine and poverty may well ensue. We could even have war once a scapegoat has been appointed….. because blame and revenge are natural responses to loss, once it sinks in properly. It’s to state that in Christ there is, there really is, a new creation. Nothing can ever be the same again and that whilst we all die physically, we don’t reckon that this is the end of us, our anima, our soul. I’ve seen both my parents dead. They were not just dead, they were absent as strongly as they’d always been present even when asleep or unconscious. Visiting a comatose, ventilated 52-yr old recently (Cardiac not Covid) I was acutely aware of that difference. Not a flicker; but still “there”. (Recovered entirely by the way, and playing the organ in the hospital chapel within a week!)
So here is Lennox Berkley’s version of Psalm 23, with the surface water burbling around serenely and a high treble faking utter calm. Underneath, the valley of the shadow of death threatens; but doesn’t actually win. Towards the end there is a ray of golden light as the main melody takes off, recognisable still, but in a new and higher key before returning to the normal range. It shows us a glimpse of what else there is. I think we should freeze that frame. Alleluia, Christ is risen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RecPtd72lkA
Rosemary Field
RSCM Head of Organ Studies
Organist Emeritus
Friday 1st May
Thursday 30th April
I was at a quandary about what to write for today’s Daily Devotion, particularly as we have had some wonderful contributions from members of our congregation this week, (please do keep them coming and feel free to send us your thoughts, poems, songs or thoughts that have meant something to you). So what was I to write and explore with you? As I was staring at my computer screen, as if almost sent by the angels themselves, I received the circular email from our sister church of the Holy Trinity NYC with Revd John F Beddingfield’s latest video. Again, I commend it to you; John exams the very topical notion of veils, both in the here and now, and within our religious and biblical transition. Amongst others he quotes Archbishop Rowan Williams, “Stop and sit still; let the living Word of God tear the fabric of our expectations and our anxieties alike, tear through the embroidered pictures on the curtain.” - Ponder These Things (2002, Canterbury Press). So as our country and politicians debate whether we should be wearing the facial veils when we go out, like New York City, let us pounder and reflect on John’s words in his wonderful little video - https://vimeo.com/413204544
Revd Graham M Buckle
Wednesday 29th April
I was running through St James’s Park with the dogs on Saturday, when I stumbled across my friend, the associate vicar of St Martins-in-the-field - Revd Richard Carter, who was seated on one of the park benches. He had just finishing filming his weekly mediation he was about to stream for his church. He kindly sent me the link and I thought it so good that I would like to share it with you all. It is a wonderful meditative walk through the lovely St James’s Park...enjoy!
Revd Graham M Buckle
I was running through St James’s Park with the dogs on Saturday, when I stumbled across my friend, the associate vicar of St Martins-in-the-field - Revd Richard Carter, who was seated on one of the park benches. He had just finishing filming his weekly mediation he was about to stream for his church. He kindly sent me the link and I thought it so good that I would like to share it with you all. It is a wonderful meditative walk through the lovely St James’s Park...enjoy!
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 28th April
On Sunday I asked if any would like to contribute to our “Daily Devotions” and Elizabeth Witts duly obliged with two of her most recent compositions. Liz stated that she is “lucky I have the solitude in which to write them”. How lucky we are to have such gifted people in our Christian Community...! Thank you Liz.
On Sunday I asked if any would like to contribute to our “Daily Devotions” and Elizabeth Witts duly obliged with two of her most recent compositions. Liz stated that she is “lucky I have the solitude in which to write them”. How lucky we are to have such gifted people in our Christian Community...! Thank you Liz.
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Vincent Square
Here locals take their daily exercise - twice round the square is just about a mile. The Horticultural Hall is firmly closed, but in the gardens happily there grows a blaze of red camelias, graceful bluebells, white cyclamen and sudden scarlet tulips. St. Stephen’s spire looks down and no bells ring, it’s Easter Week and still no choirs sing, but then the Vicar from his own front room gathers his flock by courtesy of Zoom. The Social Distancing keeps friends apart but love is growing in the human heart. Elizabeth Witts 9 April 2020 |
Signs of the Times
When the fig tree’s in leaf summer’s coming by and it’s easy to read this sign of the times. But when Covid Nineteen began taking lives it was hard to foresee this Lockdown world-wide. Elizabeth Witts 26 April 2020 |
Monday 27th April
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When I joined my first virtual St Stephen’s Zoom church a few weeks ago, I was completely unprepared for the emotional impact of seeing everyone in this new context. It is now a highlight of my week. As I have come to expect at St Stephen’s, it’s a warm, welcoming, open, inclusive, tolerant and forgiving community online, as much as it was so in our physical church building. We don’t have to be perfect, tech savvy, clever or interesting. We can just be. Pitch up in our pyjamas if we want. We are all learning. When we ‘gather’ for our virtual coffee afterwards, I can picture all of us standing in a big circle in church, taking our turns to talk and listen, and all so appreciating our wonderful community. As Rosemary said, “we must continue”.
Alison Seedat |
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Saturday 25th April
Friday 24th April
Last night I watch the brilliant National Theatre screening on YouTube of “Twelfth Night” - poignantly on Shakespeare’s birthday! It was a great, colourful and humorous production; and the creative staging and extravagant scenery, designed by Soutra Gilmour, takes the form of a great pyramid that revolves to become the prow of a ship, a courtyard full of box trees, a chapel, a cell. It very cleverly links the different scenes perfectly, which were not lost on the television screen.
As I am sure you’re aware it’s play of abandonment: A ship is wrecked on the rocks: Viola is washed ashore but her twin brother Sebastian is lost. Determined to survive on her own, she steps out to explore a new land.
Simon Godwin directs what I believe to be a great production. As a director he’s great at big comedy set-pieces and so it proves here. As Malvolia – Tamsin Greig joins the list of women playing major Shakespearean roles: and I feel it’s a performance of great comic skill. The rest of our characters slip on different costumes, different gender identities, they let loose, where music is the food of love, and nobody is quite what they seem, anything proves possible.
One of the stand-out scenes for me, sees the characters visit a nightclub in which a high-heeled drag queen sings a Hamlet soliloquy - a potent hysterical image.
I’m pleased to say that it’s still available for another six days on YouTube. So why not make a date with Shakespeare's whirlwind comedy of mistaken identity and see for yourselves: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/nt-at-home-twelfth-night
Enjoy!
Revd Graham M Buckle
Thursday 23rd April
The Church of England has published a very useful little book of prayers as a resource for our own prayer life, during this challenging times we all face. Sometimes it is very difficult when we are struggling, to find the right or appropriate words to express how we feel or what we want to say to God. It is hoped that this small collection of prayers will help Christians to pray in solidarity with one another even when it is not possible to gather together in church.
It is essential at all times – and especially during times of anxiety and fear – that we continue to form our own habits of prayer. A simple form of prayer to say each morning and evening is included here. It can be shared with all who are at home and unable to worship together, especially those who are unable to access online resources. Of course you can join us on Zoom as we continue pray together as a church and community each day at 9:15am and 6:00pm https://zoom.us/j/3593039474
This booklet can be downloaded in various formats from the Church of England website or please click the image below to download the PDF version of the prayer book.
We have also uploaded some prayers for children here.
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Let us pray:
Keep us, good Lord, under the shadow of your mercy in this time of uncertainty and distress. Sustain and support the anxious and fearful, and lift up all who are brought low; that we may rejoice in your comfort knowing that nothing can separate us from your love in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Revd Graham M Buckle |
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Wednesday 22nd April
There have been many videos and uploads to feast our eyes and ears during this time. I would today just like to draw your attention to two which have captured my imagination. First is on our own website, of Bishop Sarah’s poignant Easter Message given at the beginning of our Zoom Easter Service on Easter Day.
The second one is from our friend Revd John F Beddingfield, and his wonderful Monday videos he has been sharing...I was particularly struck by this one as he talks about the solid structure of the church building and the wonderful Psalm 136...please do take a little time watch them both. Keep well and safe, and God bless.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 21st April
I have been contemplating a pastoral faux-pas I made last week, of suggesting to someone that I understood how they felt. Of course, whilst still having empathy, none of us can begin to understand how each of us really feels. If there is anyone remotely equipped to understand our plight at this present time, it is surely Terry Waite. Kidnapped and imprisoned whilst he was in Lebanon on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury 30 years ago, he was held hostage for 1763 days. All but the last few weeks were spent in complete solitude.
I’ve been reading his book, Solitude: Memories, people, places, an exploration of what that means to different people. In it, he attempts to find out whether others had learnt from their solitude, as he has done; a topic he’s been mulling over for many years.
“Having experienced solitude for myself, and having tried to make what could have been a negative experience into a positive experience, I went through a whole process,” he says. “From isolation and seeming emptiness, where I felt I was learning nothing, slowly, slowly, slowly I was able to convert that experience into something creative.”
Finding that creativity for himself took an act of will. “When you are in solitary confinement for a long time, you naturally become concerned that you might lose your mind...I had no books, and no one to speak to...You wonder if you will deteriorate mentally — or spiritually, too; you have to find a way to keep the mind and spirit alive.”
It’s certainly a good read for our present times, but I wonder what creative positives we are going to take with us, not just as a worshiping community, but individually. Perhaps that’s something we could all reflect upon and pray about.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Monday 20th April
I spent a little time last week reading and listening to a podcast about something that captured my imagination many years ago as a child - the race to save Apollo 13. Precisely fifty years ago last Monday an exploding oxygen tank pitched Apollo 13 – Nasa’s third planned lunar landing – into a frenetic scramble for survival. It all started when the rookie astronaut, Swigert, routinely switched one of the switches, which short circuited, igniting the Teflon insulation, shouting, “Hey, we’ve got a problem here!”. The spacecraft shook and shuddered. Exchanging frightened glances with his crew, Lovell noticed that one of the craft’s two main power distribution panels was offline, prompting his iconic phrase: “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” However, what interested me more than the primitive solutions and outdated technology, was the fascinating group dynamics of the crew, particularly in such a confined space. How they survived as a team and came out of it the other side, literally, really showed their strength of characters and our survival instincts as human beings! I am sure that as we enter our 5 week of Lockdown to contain Covid-19 some of those self-same dynamics come into play. I was acutely aware when celebrating our wonderful Easter Eucharist with over 200 of you from the delights of the vicarage garden, that many of you are in confined spaces and environments that must be very difficult in these times. And that is true whether we are alone or in a family or group. Let us pray for one another, knowing that God is ever present, wherever we may find ourselves. And please do call if you need someone to talk to.
Revd Graham M Buckle
I spent a little time last week reading and listening to a podcast about something that captured my imagination many years ago as a child - the race to save Apollo 13. Precisely fifty years ago last Monday an exploding oxygen tank pitched Apollo 13 – Nasa’s third planned lunar landing – into a frenetic scramble for survival. It all started when the rookie astronaut, Swigert, routinely switched one of the switches, which short circuited, igniting the Teflon insulation, shouting, “Hey, we’ve got a problem here!”. The spacecraft shook and shuddered. Exchanging frightened glances with his crew, Lovell noticed that one of the craft’s two main power distribution panels was offline, prompting his iconic phrase: “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” However, what interested me more than the primitive solutions and outdated technology, was the fascinating group dynamics of the crew, particularly in such a confined space. How they survived as a team and came out of it the other side, literally, really showed their strength of characters and our survival instincts as human beings! I am sure that as we enter our 5 week of Lockdown to contain Covid-19 some of those self-same dynamics come into play. I was acutely aware when celebrating our wonderful Easter Eucharist with over 200 of you from the delights of the vicarage garden, that many of you are in confined spaces and environments that must be very difficult in these times. And that is true whether we are alone or in a family or group. Let us pray for one another, knowing that God is ever present, wherever we may find ourselves. And please do call if you need someone to talk to.
Revd Graham M Buckle
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Saturday 18th April
Our final piece in the series is The Raising of Lazarus by Sebastiano del Piombo incorporating designs by Michelangelo. Wednesday 15th April
Today we focus on The Resurrection: Upper Tier Panel by Jacopo di Cione and Workshop Monday 13th April - Easter Monday This Easter week, as part of our daily devotions I would like us to look, pray with us and explore some of the great Easter and resurrection paintings from the National Gallery...do use the links provided to look in closer detail at the painting. I can’t wait to go and see them in person when the gallery reopens for us to visit again...Alleluia, Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed, Alleluia...! Our first picture is Andrea Mantegna's The Maries at the Sepulchre. Please click on Picture to access the link or click here. |
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Saturday 11th April
Easter dawn
He blessed every love that weeps and grieves
And now he blesses hers who stood and wept
And would not be consoled, or leave her love’s
Last touching place, but watched as low light crept
Up from the east. A sound behind her stirs
A scattered of bright birdsong through the air.
She turns, but cannot focus through her tears,
Or recognize the Gardener standing there.
She hardly hears his gentle question, ‘Why,
Why are you weeping, or sees the play of lights
That brightens as she chokes out her reply,
‘They took my love away, my day is night.’
And then she hears her name, she hears Love say
The Word that turns her night, and ours, to Day.
Friday 10th April - Good Friday
Jesus dies on the cross
The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black,
We watch him as he labours to draw breath.
He takes our breath away to give it back,
Return it to its birth through his slow death.
We hear him struggle, breathing through the pain,
Who once breathed out his Spirit on the deep,
Who formed us when he mixed the dust with rain
And drew us into consciousness from sleep.
His Spirit and his life he breathes in all,
Mantles his world in his one atmosphere,
And now he comes to breathe beneath the pall
Of the pollutions, drawer are injured air
To cleanse it and renew, His final breath
Breathes and bears us through the gates of death.
Thursday 9th April - Maundy Thursday
Here is the source of every sacrament,
The all-transforming presence of the Lord,
Replenishing our every element,
Remaking us in his creative word.
For here the earth herself gives bread and wine,
The air delights to bear his Spirit’s speech,
The fire delights where the candles shine,
The waters cleanse us with his gentle touch.
And here he shows the full extent of love
To us whose love is always incomplete,
In vain we search the heavens high above,
The God of Love is kneeling at our feet.
Though we betrayed him, though it is the night,
He meets us here and loves us into light.
Wednesday 8th April
These few days of Holy Week I would like, as part of our Daily Devotions, share with you a poem from our friend Malcolm Guite’s excellent book Sounding the Seasons (Cant. Press 2012)
The Anointing at Bethany
Come close with Mary, Martha, Lazarus,
So close the candles flare with their soft breath,
And kindle heart and soul to flame within us,
Lit by these mysteries of life and death.
For beauty now begins the final movement,
In quietness and intimate encounter,
The alabaster jar of precious ornament
Is broken open for the world’s true lover.
The whole room richly fills to feast the senses
With all the yearning such a fragrance brings,
The heart is mourning but the spirit dances,
Here at the very centre of all things,
Here at the meeting place of love and loss
We all foresee and see beyond the cross.
Tuesday 7th April
These few days of Holy Week I would like, as part of our Daily Devotions, share with you a poem from our friend Malcolm Guite’s excellent book Sounding the Seasons (Cant. Press 2012)
Jesus Weeps
Jesus comes near and he behold the city
And looks on us with tears in his eyes,
And wells of mercy, streams of love and pity
Flow from the fountain whence all things arise.
He loved us into life and longs to gather
And meet with his beloved face-to-face.
How often has he called, a careful mother,
And wept for our refusals of his grace,
Wept for a world that, weary with its weeping,
Benumbed and stumbling, turns the other way;
Fatigue comparison is already sleeping
Whilst her worst nightmare stalk the light of day.
But we might weaken yet, and face those fears,
If we could see ourselves through Jesus’ tears
Monday 6th April
Easter dawn
He blessed every love that weeps and grieves
And now he blesses hers who stood and wept
And would not be consoled, or leave her love’s
Last touching place, but watched as low light crept
Up from the east. A sound behind her stirs
A scattered of bright birdsong through the air.
She turns, but cannot focus through her tears,
Or recognize the Gardener standing there.
She hardly hears his gentle question, ‘Why,
Why are you weeping, or sees the play of lights
That brightens as she chokes out her reply,
‘They took my love away, my day is night.’
And then she hears her name, she hears Love say
The Word that turns her night, and ours, to Day.
Friday 10th April - Good Friday
Jesus dies on the cross
The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black,
We watch him as he labours to draw breath.
He takes our breath away to give it back,
Return it to its birth through his slow death.
We hear him struggle, breathing through the pain,
Who once breathed out his Spirit on the deep,
Who formed us when he mixed the dust with rain
And drew us into consciousness from sleep.
His Spirit and his life he breathes in all,
Mantles his world in his one atmosphere,
And now he comes to breathe beneath the pall
Of the pollutions, drawer are injured air
To cleanse it and renew, His final breath
Breathes and bears us through the gates of death.
Thursday 9th April - Maundy Thursday
Here is the source of every sacrament,
The all-transforming presence of the Lord,
Replenishing our every element,
Remaking us in his creative word.
For here the earth herself gives bread and wine,
The air delights to bear his Spirit’s speech,
The fire delights where the candles shine,
The waters cleanse us with his gentle touch.
And here he shows the full extent of love
To us whose love is always incomplete,
In vain we search the heavens high above,
The God of Love is kneeling at our feet.
Though we betrayed him, though it is the night,
He meets us here and loves us into light.
Wednesday 8th April
These few days of Holy Week I would like, as part of our Daily Devotions, share with you a poem from our friend Malcolm Guite’s excellent book Sounding the Seasons (Cant. Press 2012)
The Anointing at Bethany
Come close with Mary, Martha, Lazarus,
So close the candles flare with their soft breath,
And kindle heart and soul to flame within us,
Lit by these mysteries of life and death.
For beauty now begins the final movement,
In quietness and intimate encounter,
The alabaster jar of precious ornament
Is broken open for the world’s true lover.
The whole room richly fills to feast the senses
With all the yearning such a fragrance brings,
The heart is mourning but the spirit dances,
Here at the very centre of all things,
Here at the meeting place of love and loss
We all foresee and see beyond the cross.
Tuesday 7th April
These few days of Holy Week I would like, as part of our Daily Devotions, share with you a poem from our friend Malcolm Guite’s excellent book Sounding the Seasons (Cant. Press 2012)
Jesus Weeps
Jesus comes near and he behold the city
And looks on us with tears in his eyes,
And wells of mercy, streams of love and pity
Flow from the fountain whence all things arise.
He loved us into life and longs to gather
And meet with his beloved face-to-face.
How often has he called, a careful mother,
And wept for our refusals of his grace,
Wept for a world that, weary with its weeping,
Benumbed and stumbling, turns the other way;
Fatigue comparison is already sleeping
Whilst her worst nightmare stalk the light of day.
But we might weaken yet, and face those fears,
If we could see ourselves through Jesus’ tears
Monday 6th April
Sunday 5th April
Please note that Zoom now requires a password. To access the Eucharist and Evensong on Zoom please use the following Password: 979721
Please note that Zoom now requires a password. To access the Eucharist and Evensong on Zoom please use the following Password: 979721
Saturday 4th April
Friday 3rd April
Someone close to me suggested that this period of isolation and the denial of many things that we feel are so important, like travel and luxuries items, is a little like an extended Lent...this is so true. When we give up or deny things, we learn a little more about ourselves, the things we rely on, negative and positive habits, those things which are destructive to “self”, and discover the things and people who matter, who are important both in and to our lives...
Let us pray the Fast Life Prayer:
Fast from judging others;
Feast on Christ dwelling in them.
Fast from fear of illness;
Feast on the healing power of God.
Fast from words that pollute;
Feast on speech that purifies.
Fast from discontent;
Feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger;
Feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism;
Feast on hope.
Fast from negatives;
Feast on encouragement.
Fast from bitterness;
Feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern;
Feast on compassion.
Fast from suspicion;
Feast on truth.
Fast from gossip;
Feast on purposeful silence.
Fast from problems that overwhelm;
Feast on prayer that sustains.
Fast from anxiety;
Feast on faith.
Amen.
-Author Unknown
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 2nd April
Please enjoy this short video from our friend, Revd John F Beddingfield: https://vimeo.com/403015133
Someone close to me suggested that this period of isolation and the denial of many things that we feel are so important, like travel and luxuries items, is a little like an extended Lent...this is so true. When we give up or deny things, we learn a little more about ourselves, the things we rely on, negative and positive habits, those things which are destructive to “self”, and discover the things and people who matter, who are important both in and to our lives...
Let us pray the Fast Life Prayer:
Fast from judging others;
Feast on Christ dwelling in them.
Fast from fear of illness;
Feast on the healing power of God.
Fast from words that pollute;
Feast on speech that purifies.
Fast from discontent;
Feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger;
Feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism;
Feast on hope.
Fast from negatives;
Feast on encouragement.
Fast from bitterness;
Feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern;
Feast on compassion.
Fast from suspicion;
Feast on truth.
Fast from gossip;
Feast on purposeful silence.
Fast from problems that overwhelm;
Feast on prayer that sustains.
Fast from anxiety;
Feast on faith.
Amen.
-Author Unknown
Revd Graham M Buckle
Tuesday 2nd April
Please enjoy this short video from our friend, Revd John F Beddingfield: https://vimeo.com/403015133
Wednesday 1st April
Tuesday 31st March
One of the most popular prayers today is known as the Serenity Prayer. It was written by the great philosopher and theologian Reinhold Neibuhr (1892-1971), the prayer was widely used in sermons and Sunday school groups and studies. In the early 40s, the group Alcoholics Anonymous began to use a shortened version of the Serenity Prayer in their twelve step program. I feel it is something to use and pray today:
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
If I surrender to His Will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with Him
Forever and ever in the next.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Monday 30th March
I don’t know about you, but I feel slightly inundated with the amount of information which commands our attention at this time. It’s almost overwhelming, but one feels that if you don’t read or keep abreast, you are somehow missing out on some important information one needs to know or adhere to... despite that, I am trying not so much add to your mountain of information but hope to serve as moment of inspiration and sharing as we all learn how to adjust in how we communicate with one another.
We are all learning a new culture - changing the way we hear and receive our news and information and the church is no exception. We need to change our habits, and so I do encourage you to look at our website and communicate that information with those who don’t have that access, perhaps by telephoning or posting to them - this is one way we can really help each other as a community.
Looking at my own inbox, I have found two pieces which may be of interest to our community. Firstly is from our own diocese of London, which has produced an interesting newsletter I recommend: Virtual Parish Newsletter
The second is a prayer that I received from our friend John F Beddingfield. It was written by the Rev. Dr. Kate Sonderegger, professor at Virginia Theological Seminary, and I encourage you to pray and use it:
"This hour we turn to you, O Lord, in full knowledge of our frailty, our vulnerability, and our great need as your mortal creatures. We cry to you, as one human family, unsure of the path ahead, unequal to the unseen forces around us, frightened by the sickness and death that seem all too real to us now. Stir up your strength and visit us, O Lord; be our shield and rock and hiding place! Guide our leaders, our scientists, our nurses and doctors. Give them wisdom and fill their hearts with courage and determination. Make even this hour, O Lord, a season of blessing for us, that in fear we find you mighty to save, and in illness or death, we find the cross to be none other than the way of life. All this we ask in the name of the One who bore all our infirmities, even Jesus Christ our Risen and Victorious Lord. Amen."
Revd Graham M Buckle
One of the most popular prayers today is known as the Serenity Prayer. It was written by the great philosopher and theologian Reinhold Neibuhr (1892-1971), the prayer was widely used in sermons and Sunday school groups and studies. In the early 40s, the group Alcoholics Anonymous began to use a shortened version of the Serenity Prayer in their twelve step program. I feel it is something to use and pray today:
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
If I surrender to His Will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with Him
Forever and ever in the next.
Amen.
Revd Graham M Buckle
Monday 30th March
I don’t know about you, but I feel slightly inundated with the amount of information which commands our attention at this time. It’s almost overwhelming, but one feels that if you don’t read or keep abreast, you are somehow missing out on some important information one needs to know or adhere to... despite that, I am trying not so much add to your mountain of information but hope to serve as moment of inspiration and sharing as we all learn how to adjust in how we communicate with one another.
We are all learning a new culture - changing the way we hear and receive our news and information and the church is no exception. We need to change our habits, and so I do encourage you to look at our website and communicate that information with those who don’t have that access, perhaps by telephoning or posting to them - this is one way we can really help each other as a community.
Looking at my own inbox, I have found two pieces which may be of interest to our community. Firstly is from our own diocese of London, which has produced an interesting newsletter I recommend: Virtual Parish Newsletter
The second is a prayer that I received from our friend John F Beddingfield. It was written by the Rev. Dr. Kate Sonderegger, professor at Virginia Theological Seminary, and I encourage you to pray and use it:
"This hour we turn to you, O Lord, in full knowledge of our frailty, our vulnerability, and our great need as your mortal creatures. We cry to you, as one human family, unsure of the path ahead, unequal to the unseen forces around us, frightened by the sickness and death that seem all too real to us now. Stir up your strength and visit us, O Lord; be our shield and rock and hiding place! Guide our leaders, our scientists, our nurses and doctors. Give them wisdom and fill their hearts with courage and determination. Make even this hour, O Lord, a season of blessing for us, that in fear we find you mighty to save, and in illness or death, we find the cross to be none other than the way of life. All this we ask in the name of the One who bore all our infirmities, even Jesus Christ our Risen and Victorious Lord. Amen."
Revd Graham M Buckle
LOML License Reference: LE0020290