Summer into Autumn

Summer has passed and we are now moving into Autumn. The tradition of celebrating Harvest Festival in churches as we know it today began in 1843, when the Reverend Robert Hawker invited parishioners to a special thanksgiving service for the harvest at his church at Morwenstow in Cornwall. Victorian hymns such as “We plough the fields and scatter”, “Come ye thankful people, come” and “All things bright and beautiful” helped popularise his idea of harvest festival and spread the annual custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce for the Harvest Festival service.
It is a time we give thanks for the autumn harvest and for all the good things God provides for us, however, in more recent years Harvest Festival has also become about sharing with those less fortunate than ourselves.
It is also to a time when we can reflect on Stewardship and I so I am it is my intention to focus on Stewardship for the first three Sundays of October.  
At St Mary’s Church we serve many people in many ways: giving the opportunity for worship to those attending our regular services; sharing the joy of a couple coming to be married or a family bringing their child for baptism; comforting the bereaved. To all these and many more we seek to be a channel of God’s love to those looking to our church for help and encouragement.
Our impact is also felt well beyond the church building itself, sometimes to those who may not normally look to the church for help. Through our outreach into the community, often in partnership with others, we are constantly seeking to meet the needs of the marginalised and vulnerable in our society, aiming to be the salt and light in our communities that Jesus challenges us to be.  
All this is possible because of the dedicated commitment of time, skills and energy which people bring to our church and also the financial support given week by week.
 Any reflection on giving must start with God. God gives to us abundantly and graciously in creation and redemption, and in sustaining life, day by day. Scripture shows that Godʼs giving is characterised by extravagance, both for nations and for individuals.
Many of Jesusʼ parables and, indeed, his own actions involve celebrations, meals, parties and a sharing of food, financial resources and time, especially with those who might least expect to be included. We might think of the wedding at Cana in Galilee when Jesus turns more water to wine than could possibly be consumed by the wedding guests (John 2.1-11). We might ponder the significance of the provision made for an injured stranger of a different nationality in Jesusʼ story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10.25-37 ) or the reason why Zacchaeus is inspired by his encounter with Jesus to make fourfold reparation to any he has cheated, bringing this response from Jesus ʻToday, salvation has come to this house!ʼ (Luke 19.8).
It is striking that the writers of the Gospels record Jesus reserving his sternest warnings for those who see the need of others and refuse to respond; the parables of the Rich Mans & Lazarus and the sheep & goats demonstrate how strongly Jesus rejects the meanness of spirit that allows some to suffer while others are cared for and well fed.
The incarnation, the cross and resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit reveal to us the astonishing depths of Godʼs generosity toward humankind. It is the earthly life and parables of Jesus that show what this generosity looks like translated into human behaviour. In the life and stories of Jesus lies the potential for a way of life that can make real Godʼs intention of wholeness for all. The challenge for the disciple of Jesus is to be prepared to do whatever is needed to align him or herself with ways of living and giving that release rather than obstruct the flow of Godʼs generosity. Doing so helps to create a social order that not only provides for the needs of all, but also redefines abundant living from the accumulation of consumerism to the fulfilment found in Christ-centred lives.
Our giving of both money and time resources the mission of God in the world, both locally and further afield.
Our primary reason for giving to support the Church should never be that the heating bill wonʼt be paid unless we give, or even that the Parish Share has gone up. The principal motivation for giving should be that we are helping to resource mission and ministry.
It is said that, when the British abroad are faced with another language, we shout louder rather than try to speak the language! When it comes to money, churches often make a similar mistake. We treat everyone the same: saying the same things, writing the same letters, asking for the same amount of money. The reality is very different. Some folk are starting out in faith, others have a long-standing commitment; some can give a great deal, others struggle to manage; some understand church finances and give to meet its needs while others give in obedience to the Bible.
During this Stewardship campaign, and in the future, we will become more proficient at explaining where your charitable giving is being spent and what difference it makes in the lives of others.
In prayer, give thanks to God for the sacrifices that he has made for us, and let us contemplate our own charitable giving to church of both money and time.
Revd. Sharon.

One Year On

I have been Vicar of St Mary’s for one year. In many ways it is such a short period of time and yet at the same time it seems like I have been here forever. We celebrated (or commiserated) in the Church Hall with a 3 course meal kindly cooked by Chef Tom Reid and his able Sous Chef, Lizzy Wilkinson.

It was an evening of fellowship and grateful thanks to God for all the blessings that have poured down upon this Church and Community within the past year.

The really important messages I wanted to leave people with are as follows:

a) Hospitality and fellowship are really important in the fostering and building up of good relationships. It was often the way Jesus taught and challenged the societal norms of His time. There is no doubt I have been blessed with good support and friendships that have been nurtured and that have grown during this year.

b) That nothing comes for free except for God’s unconditional love(which we all need). Yes we had a great time, yes we had a free meal – but in that moment how could we show our love for others, for those who do not have what we have. How will people know we are Christians unless we show love to our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate than ourselves? And so we paused to give thanks for what we shared whilst at the same time remembering those less fortunate than ourselves and so we raised £112.27 for the local food bank.

c) That we can do nothing on our own and in our own strength. We are dependent on God’s grace and His providence in all that we do and give thanks for it.

This celebratory night was so much more than just giving thanks for anew vicar (hopefully now just vicar). It was much more about how great and awesome our God is. We rightly gave all the glory and the thanks to Him.

Revd. Sharon

Reflection on the recent events in Manchester

No-one could have failed to see the media coverage showing the events in Manchester last week when one person decided to take his own life along with the lives of many others by becoming a suicide bomber all in the name of his faith.

We live in a multi-cultural and multi-faith world and our local communities are no different. We as onlookers see what we want to see and have little understanding of the similarities or differences between ourselves and our neighbours.

Media coverage often highlights the differences but rarely highlights the similarities between Christianity and Islam. Those who are extremist, who kill and maim, are just as abhorrent to the Muslim faith as they are to the Christian faith. We find good and bad in all walks of life.

Many lives will have been affected and changed forever by this act of violence, too many men, women and children either died or were seriously injured and my heart and my prayers go out to their families.

Hatred is a terrible thing, as is fear and suspicion and these are exactly the outcomes that those who take such actions want to achieve. United we stand, divided we fall -is a phrase that was first used in Aesop’s fables – but it can be applied to the situation we find ourselves in today.

All of us have to work for a greater understanding, a greater openness, and a greater trust within our differing cultural and faith communities. We may never agree on several basic tenets of faith, but we can and should agree that this act of violence is not in accordance with the Bible or the Qua’ran.

In my opinion, these attacks are designed to instil fear, prejudice and divisiveness in our society and we simply cannot let that happen.

In the June Parish News, there are two articles, one outlining the similarities and differences between Christianity, Islam and Judaism, (see P34) the other an article from the Guardian which discusses radicalisation and our failure to comprehend what this is (see P11). I urge you to take the time to read them.

A huge thank you goes to all those who responded to the events in Manchester, the police, the ambulance service, the doctors and nurses, the people who opened their homes, the taxi drivers who offered their services. Many will have been Christian, many will have been Muslims, many will have no faith – but all are the very best of humanity – who recognised that United we stand and Divided we fall.

Revd. Sharon

Vicar’s Report

This is my first ever Vicar’s report so here goes.

I have now been at St Mary’s for 8 months and the very first thing I would like to do us to pay tribute to all those who shouldered the burden and workload during the Interregnum. The Wardens, Pastoral Minister and PCC should be congratulated on their hard work and excellent efforts and this was clearly evident both at my interview and at my Induction Service in June last year where I was warmly welcomed along with my family and members of my previous congregation. The Spirit of Hospitality was clearly evident and thanks to all of you who made it possible.

Personally I would like to thank everybody here for the warm welcome that has been given to me and for the support you have given whilst settling into a new Parish especially as I am hindered by being a Lancashire lass.

Upon the arrival of a new Vicar, there are always challenges, both for the Vicar and the Congregation, there is always a period of settling in, and I did in fact have a whole five days before the Garden Party was upon us. So in a blind whirlwind the gardens were taken over, the kitchen was taken over and I was busy saying hello and thank you to people who were strangers and who have been contributing to this event for years! It all felt quite bizarre. However, it was a success and we raised much needed funds. So again I say thank you to all concerned.

Strangers have now turned into friends and I believe we have built relationships together that are based on mutual trust and respect. As you know my leadership style is one of openness and consensus where possible and this can only be achieved if those relationships are based on trust. We have a faithful congregation and a hardworking PCC and it is up to all of us to work together, to seek God’s will and to draw people to God. Each and every one of you has a role to play and you will note I am deliberately not singling any one person or group out. We are first and foremost all Christians, called by our Baptisms to action, with the authority of Jesus given to each of us. We are all important to God, we are all unique, and we all have our differing gifts and talents, but the call remains the same, to serve our community and each other, to go and tell the good news, and to have an active faith.

I place great value on everyone who volunteers for a role and it is my place to encourage and equip, to support and to nourish, to protect and to love each of you in this place.

So where are we up too?

In PCC we have reviewed existing policies, procedures and practices of the Parish eg safeguarding, health and safety, and a more stringent financial policy to protect those who handle the cash. Financially, St Mary’s is struggling although we have paid our Parish Share for the last two years but our accounts hold now a minimum amount of cash in the sum of £20,000. Bishop Paul has been informed that we will not be able to pay our parish share this year, as we need time, time to sow seeds and to grow. Our Treasurer has produced a budget for this year, the first time ever, and whilst there is still insufficient money coming in on a weekly basis – it is more now than it was last year – so

we estimate that we will in fact be able to pay one third of our Parish Share instead of nothing. My thanks goes to the Treasurer for all her hard work.

Numbers at church on Sunday mornings have increased slightly and the re-imagining of All Age Worship has helped to encourage families in particular to feel more at ease as the service is both shorter and meets the needs of both children and adults. In the future the aim will be to have more family events as numbers of families increase.

There have been a number of special services that have taken place which have been well supported and received. Some have been challenging for many people. Services over Christmas were well attended and appreciated by many.

We have established a Christian presence in both Hill Top Primary Academy and Westerton Primary Academy and I am hopeful after visiting Year 6’s in Blackgates Primary that next year we will have a monthly or twice monthly worship there too. There is still work to be done to reach Woodkirk Academy.

We have a new Reader, who has been put to good use developing her skills in leading, preaching and teaching.

Our Pastoral Minister, offers Holy Communion to those who are no longer able to attend church and has helped me with end of life care and support, and also offers a funeral ministry to those who have lost loved ones.

Our Baptism Team, visit families to book their Baptism and to explain its significance, support them on their journey and follow up by participating in the Baptism Service itself. Baptisms are now done individually with a more modern style liturgy with the focus being on making this Service more welcoming to those who have no experience of church therefore it is family and child friendly and participative. This has resulted in more baptisms and a greater amount of donations being given. Baptism families are invited back to the next all age worship service to receive their Baptism Certificate and Bibles. Greater work needs to be put into how we can maintain contact with these families – apart from the six monthly invite to a party to celebrate their baptism.

We give thanks to our Organist and her Deputy when he is needed for all their hard work and creativity in choosing hymns, serving our wedding couples and funeral families and not forgetting their entertainment on Christmas Day.

We also offer thanks to our Flower Lady who each week expertly puts together beautiful arrangements of flowers which she does prayerfully and which beautify our church for worship.

The development and restoration of the graveyard has probably been the single most talked about and mission based opportunity in the past six months. Our gardening team may be small but they have worked tirelessly along with the Community Payback Team to whom I offer our grateful thanks for all that they have done and are continuing to do.

There are many unsung heroes who tirelessly give of their time – St Mary’s Guild who are responsible for cleaning the brasses and altar linen, the Cleaning Team who keep our church so clean and

presentable, the Sidespeople who offer welcome and the Tea Persons who offer hospitality, to the readers and intercessors on our rotas – thank you for serving God and this church.

We have an active Mothers’ Union where I recently spoke at one of their meetings, and have had the pleasure of leading two or three of their services this past year. Thank you all for your concern for families in this church and in our community.

Links have been made with Uniformed Organisations, and relationships have begun to grow and because of this one of the achievements of the Christmas period was the Nativity Service where for the first time in many years, the Nativity was spoken by the children themselves.

Throughout all of this the PCC have been working in the background to ensure the smooth running of the church. Our church wardens are fully invested in what they do and work hard in their respective areas of expertise, for those who hold the extra burdens of PCC Secretary and Deanery Synod Reps thank you to all of you.

As we look to the future we will experience very shortly our first Easter together. It has been very pleasing to see many of you be involved in the Lent Groups and to “do theology” together. It’s a risky business sharing our feelings but if we are to grow in faith then we have to have a safe space to talk and I think we have achieved that. If we can’t speak to each other then how are we to share our faith with others?

Four groups have now been set up to look at various aspects of church life.

The IT group are busy developing a new web site for St Mary’s, and responsibility for the web site, St Mary’s Face book page, Twitter account and the new Friends of Woodkirk Cemetery Face book page have been shared among the group – this has worked well as we now have much more interaction with those who make comments or ask questions. This work will be ongoing.

The Mission Group is busy taking an overview of the possibilities for mission in this Parish, and challenging our understanding of mission. This will be an ongoing long term project seeking God’s will and praying. The delivery of prayer cards to the streets in our Parish has begun and many of you have helped by delivering those cards so thank you.

The Social Group is being challenged to understand social as not just social events but as social action and are looking to create events that are more community minded and our focus will be initially on this year’s Garden Party which is being reimagined – so watch this space.

The Gardening Group oversees the work in the churchyard and in future will think about developing a long term strategic plan to manage the churchyard and to develop it further.

All these groups are in their infancy and as yet I would say to some extent experiential as they seek to wrestle with the challenges that our faith demands of us.

What the future holds for us as a church is unknown but as I am a cup half full sort of person and believe passionately in God’s providence I believe we are held safe in God’s hands whilst we seek a future that honours him and seeks to do his will. The one thing I would ask is that we all take time to pray each day for this church, for our community and for each other.

While I said I am not going to name or single anyone in this Report – be assured I do know you by name and I am honoured and privileged to be your Vicar.

The Easter Story

Everywhere I look there are signs of spring emerging from the ground. The daffodils and snowdrops are lovely in the graveyard. The sun has appeared on a couple of days and it has even been warm (or warmer!). Now not to get too carried away, we are still in the midst of lent, a more sombre period of the church calendar where we reflect on our own relationships both with each other and with God.

During Holy Week there will be services in church on Monday, Tuesday and Maundy Thursday at 7.30pm, Good Friday at 2.00pm, Easter Saturday at 8.00pm and of course Easter Sunday at 10.30am. What will we do with all that time, I hear you ask? Won’t it be boring!!

Well, we will remember and reflect on what Jesus did for us, for you and for me. We tell the old, old, stories harkening back to the oral tradition that kept those stories alive. We reflect on Jesus’ actions, his journey, his anguish and his pain. We shed tears, He shed blood…….

We experience the desolation of Good Friday, the pain of separation on Easter Saturday and the joy of Easter Sunday when He defeats his arch enemy and triumphs as the Tomb is opened.

This one week contains the most dramatic script for a movie you will ever find. It does everything a good movie should do. It has intrigue, mystery, betrayal, even a “loose woman”! It draws you in, it makes you hold your breath, it pierces your heart so that you feel every emotion, and I mean every emotion – shock, horror, failure, confusion, misunderstanding, tenderness, heartbreak, loss, hurt, pain, love and hope and I could go on. It has the most unbelievable ending and is the most incredible story you will ever hear and what’s more it is a story for US – for YOU and for ME.

So I invite you, to think about experiencing this story for yourself, if not every night, then choose wisely and the best three episodes are Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

See you there.

Revd. Sharon

Light Through the Darkness

As we approach Easter, Christians, are preparing to make a journey to Jerusalem with Jesus. This period of time is called Lent. It is a time we’ll hear hard truths about the nature of faith commitment and self-sacrifice and sometimes we find this too much to bear. But God wants us to persist, hang in there, and above all, in Lent, to “listen to him” – for Jesus will speak to us afresh of our lives, of our faith and of our service.

Lent should not be the same movie rerun every year, which we watch grudgingly with tired, cynical eyes. Each Lent is new and different. We are a year older; we’ve experienced more; our faith has grown, wavered or diminished; there have been births, illnesses and deaths, marriages, divorces, successes and failures. We are not the people we were this time last year or the people we will be twelve months from now – but it is to the people we are today that Jesus speaks. Many people today think faith is irrelevant, that it has no meaning or purpose, and would question why the need to come to church, let alone take a period of time to review their life and their relationships. Yet I want to say that here at St Mary’s we welcome all, the faithful, the faithless, and those who are somewhere in the middle. Why? because following Jesus is a hard road to take. If we look at the lives of the Disciples they misunderstood more than they understood. It takes time to explore what a Christian is and what a Christian is called to do and to be. One of the Disciples, Peter did not initially emerge with great credit. At the Last Supper he refuses to allow Jesus to wash his feet, in the garden of Gethsemane he falls asleep, and in the high priest’s courtyard he denies knowing Jesus. Peter may have heard Jesus but he clearly hasn’t listened, for the lesson is a hard one and takes a long time to learn.

Belonging to a church gives a sense of community, builds friendships and allows time for us to listen to God. There are no expectations from other people – the only expectation is that there is an opportunity to experience God for yourself – and for your understanding to grow.

The words of Jesus will not be comfortable, but they will contain hope. Through the darkness of Lent there is a glimmer of light, the light of the resurrection. For no matter how dark and hopeless things may seem, God can bring light, life and hope to our lives. It is that assurance that allows us to dare to go to Jerusalem again, that allows us to relive the events of Holy Week and to “listen to him”.

Revd Sharon