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News, Updates, Thoughts

One of my lecturers when I first started studying theology wrote a book called “Reading the Bible with the dammed”. In his book he described his experience of reading the bible with some of the toughest criminals in jails in Mexico and America. What he found was that the experiences of those in jail gave him a fresh and different insights to the Bible than those he had gained from his standard American upbringing. I particularly remember him saying that prisoners weren’t surprised when they were reading the Bible story about Paul and Silas breaking out of the Philippian jail. They thought the security was obviously very lax, but they were also amazed that after breaking out they just stood around talking to the jailor.

His main point was that if we always study the Bible with people from a similar backgrounds or traditions our understanding will be poorer than it could be. For the same reason the diocese gives people training for ministry the opportunity to visit and learn from the church in Rwanda.

This Sunday we are fortunate that we have two preachers who come from outside our normal tradition. At St Marys, Roger Standing who has been the Principal of Spurgeon’s Baptist Bible college is joining us. At St Barnabas we are being joined by Pastor Leonard and the rest of the congregation from Triumphant Global Ministries (TGM), the Ghanian church that meets in St Barnabas on a Sunday afternoon.

I hope you can make it to one or the other services.

God Bless,

Faith

P.S - There is more background information about Triumphant Global Ministries on the Winchester Diocese website:

https://winchester.anglican.org/celebrating-ecumenical-partnerships-in-our-diocese-for-week-of-christian-unity/?utm_source=https%3A%2F%2Fcomms.winchester.anglican.org%2Fdioceseofwinchesterlz%2F&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Mailer%20-%2016%20January%202025&utm_term=Weekly%20Newsletter%2016%20January%202025&utm_content=10517&gator_td=3cz2nwrKgn9YbhAswiQN19vyp9a21hasQjBCqD%2FXpAPO0cnJLLZHDA5bT7KXKMwD62r2xcvzS6ZPuwJLfXBcmA80EE%2FK2B1u7OD2HgWh6sC5XEE%2FGCPFFUVa1I3GBg8rvb0TlAcxCOUwq39Re3zW2rBlk938vt1lJES0UqTo9B4%3D

Dear friends,

Graham and I are enjoying being back among our friends across the benefice and in our communities, seeing what things have been completed across the fabric improvements to both churches, and exploring what everyone is looking forward to in the coming year. 

This Saturday 18th January at St. Mary's is one of the very practical days that helps to keep the Grade 1 listed church, and it's churchyard, well maintained. Some of us will be clearing, cutting, cleaning and sharing in hot drinks from 10am-1pm on Saturday. If, like me, you are currently struggling a little for mobility in some respects, there will still be things that you can help with, even if it's only for an hour, so do join us if you can. 

Next weekend (Sunday 23rd January) we have visiting speakers at both 10am services, details of which can be found further down this newsletter. Do come, welcome and listen to fresh voices as they share the Gospel with us from different non-Anglican contexts.

Clergy are not immune from going through tough times. I am returning to my curacy parish a couple of times in the coming month to cover for a bereaved colleague who was ordained at the same time as Lerys and I, and is also well known to Faith.

Please do hold in prayer all in our Benefice and in the wider Deanery and Diocese, especially those who are struggling to come to terms with difficult personal circumstances at this time.

Go well and God bless,

Rachel

Dear friends

I was rather late to the party at being confirmed (when, in the church of England, you take the promises that others made on our behalf when we were baptised as infants)  and needed to be ‘done’ before I could be ordained. The only service available in the time frame was a Pentecost service at the cathedral, and after lining up to be confirmed there was this surprising moment when the Bishop strode along the huge nave dipping an enormous sprig of Rosemary into a bowl  and spraying the congregation with water whilst calling out ‘Remember your baptism’. It felt a bit embarrassing at the time but remembering our baptism is a good thing to do.

This Sunday, we will be thinking about the baptism of Christ.  Coincidentally I was talking with a group of people about having a ‘celebration of baptism’ service later in the year so that we could invite all of the people who have had their children baptised recently back to church. Somebody pointed out that it isn’t just the newly baptised that should celebrate their baptism but that it is something that most of us in church can and should revel in.

Our baptism marks the beginning of  our commitment to  follow Christ and making him Lord in our lives. This week, as we think about the significance of Jesus’s baptism, let’s not just remember our own baptisms as a past event but spend some time considering how our commitment to turn to Christ has shaped our lives  and how we can more fully follow and love him, which is, after all,  what  we promised to do when we were baptised.

Faith

The lectionary and all the Bible Reading apps that I draw on regularly all share the same reading for new years day. It comes from Numbers 6 and it is the blessing that God asks Moses to share with the Israelites.

I love the words of that blessing and I often use it when people have come for  prayer rather than bread and wine at the communion table.

'The Lord bless and keep you: the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you: the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.'

At the beginning of the year, there is space and opportunity to reflect on the past and to consider the future, this is my prayer for each of us. That as individuals, as churches  and as a benefice, we, and all whom we love and are called to serve, will know to an ever increasing extent, God's blessing, God's protection, God's grace, God's peace, God's presence and pleasure over the next twelve months.

Faith

Stuart and I would like to wish you a very Happy Christmas. I do hope that you all have a really blessed time over the festive period.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what our invitation cards at St Mary’s say ‘unpack Christmas and discover Christ’. The image in my head is of a pass the parcel, taking off layer after layer, each one needing to be got through before we get to the big present at the centre.

I have been thinking particularly about the things that we place in the way of that, the festivities and the busyness, the cleaning and getting all the last minute jobs done.

But today, it occurred to me that there are other layers which need unwrapping before we recognise God’s  great gift to us. Things like sickness, disappointment, loneliness and loss.

The danger is, that we stop unwrapping the present, so to speak, and don’t actually get to Christ, who is the reason we celebrate and the one who promises to meet with us whatever our circumstances.

The Bishop  of Winchester wrote to ministers today saying:

‘I am convinced that our calling as a Church above all else is to incarnate (show) in who we are, by God’s Spirit, the presence of Jesus in our midst, in all his humility, service, and compassion: humility, service and compassion that led him both to the manger and to the cross. There is no better way we can love the world to which the Lord sends us than that.’

And so as Christmas approaches, let us remember our calling and be glad in it, and pray that we will all know something anew of the love God showed  that first Christmas and that He continues to show us today.

God Bless,

Faith

Dear Friends.

We had our first carol service in the benefice last Sunday when people crammed into Bramshill Mission Chapel. Built over a 100 years ago the small wooden building sits within woodland just off Bramshill Road. There is no direct road or paved walkway access and  you have to walk through woodland to get to the building. Bur the walk was really worth it. The chapel is the only public meeting place in Bramshill and over 30 people filled the building to sing carols, be reminded of the Christmas story and to pray. As one person put it “Amazing service thankyou - Christmas for me started in that tiny place”

Our next carol service is at St Barnabas this Sunday at 6pm.For the first time for a few years we have our own scratch choir who will be leading us in the singing.

Our Christmas celebrations are not all happening in church. This Friday at St Mary’s  we are hosting the very popular Fireside Carols and next Tuesday we have been invited by the White Hart pub to lead carols for their customers.

Our advent teaching series continues this Sunday morning when we will focus on the subject of humility. A number of people have asked if its possible to get a copy of the book that we have based our sermon series in advent on. Its called ”Advent for Everyone: A journey with the Apostles". 

Gold bless

Stuart

Dear friends

The Christmas busyness has well and truly started. If you read all the events listed in this newsletter you may be impressed at how much the churches are doing or you may feel daunted that there is so much to do. The important thing to remember though is that this season is meant to be a time of preparation for Christmas.

We had a great opportunity to do that last Saturday with our superb Advent Quiet Day where we were guided to think of Advent as a time of Waiting in Hope. What struck me most was that Advent is a time of joyful anticipation. It prompted me to realign my thoughts away from counting and listing what needs doing to remembering that Christmas, the birth of Christ, is the ultimate cause for celebration. If we lose sight of that then how can we share the true meaning of Christmas with others?

I was reminded of ‘joyful anticipation’ again this week. We have had four school visits in the last 5 days at St Barnabas and it seems to me that the children really have got it right. The teachers are desperately trying to keep their excitement within acceptable limits but for the youngsters, waiting for Christmas is almost painful as it seems to take so long to arrive.

Our advent teaching series this year considers advent as a time for thanksgiving, a time for patience, a time for humility and a time for blessing. One of the quotations I came across last week from theologian N.T. Wright was that ‘when we thank God we grow into our proper selves.’ Giving thanks turns us towards Christ and all he has done, and continues to do, for us.

My challenge to Charles Kingsley School, who had joined us last Sunday at St Marys, was to make time for thanksgiving each day, when we go to bed, when we eat and when we open our advent calendar. It's not just the school who need to remember to thank God but all of us. As we wait with joyful expectation for Christmas day, let's practice being thankful to God, so that we can all begin to grow into our proper selves.

God bless

Faith

Dear friends

After the news this week, this is a really hard letter to write. As somebody asked me, how can we keep banging on about God’s love and then ignoring abuse? The answer is we can’t.

What has happened is awful.

Our thoughts and prayers must be with the survivors of abuse who will have all painful feelings and memories triggered by this weeks news. Their needs and their voices must be our overriding concern.

I have been thinking about what to do and say if I am challenged about what has happened, and I think the only thing is to be honest and say it is unacceptable, the institution of the church is culpable. I don’t think that we have seen the last of the fallout from this, and in a way I hope not. The Makin report names many people who are still high up in the church who should have done more and maybe, if we see them resigning as well, we will know that the national church is beginning to lament its lack of action and beginning to take its responsibilities to protect and listen to survivors of abuse seriously.

We want our two churches to be safe, friendly, loving and welcoming. The scriptures reveal God's heart for the hurting, the vulnerable, and the abused. We are called as followers of Jesus to stand alongside anyone who has suffered. For that reason, safeguarding is something we all need to take seriously.

I am personally so grateful to Amanda for all that she has done and is doing to put the safeguarding processes in place so that our churches are as safe an environment as possible. If I’m honest, sometimes the paperwork is burdensome and seems over the top, but what churches are being asked to do now would have stopped the abuse of John Smyth from continuing for as long as it did and prevented enormous suffering.

Remember though, that the good news of Jesus is still good news for a broken world. That doesn’t stop just because some people distort it and misrepresent it for their own ends. When I was training, I was told, if it isn’t good news, then it isn’t the gospel. Abuse is never good news, and we, as followers of Jesus, should have no truck with it.

God Bless

Faith 

Today is Ascension Day, when we remember the day Jesus ascended to heaven. You can read about it in Acts 1:1-11. After Jesus had been killed, defeated death, came back to life, spent time with his friends again, and appeared to over 500 people, he was finally taken back up to heaven in a cloud. His friends must have been so full of emotion. Joy at knowing that Jesus was alive, confusion about all the incredible things that were happening, sadness at Jesus leaving them again, excitement and anxiety about the future.

One of the last things Jesus said to his friends before he went back to heaven was that he would always be with them:

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:20

This is a promise that is repeated throughout the Bible. We know that God will never leave us or forsake us, he will not fail us or forget us, he will not reject us or abandon us. God is with us, he is for us, and he will help us.

But, having met Jesus, God in the flesh, the first disciples must have been very confused about how exactly he was going to continue to help them, as they watched him disappear into the sky.

He had promised to send a helper, even before his death:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.” John 14:16-17

And yet how could they understand what this would mean to them, until they had experienced it?

In some of his last conversations with his friends before he went back to heaven, Jesus had told them what their mission was. They were to love one another. They were to tell people the amazing story about how God had raised Jesus to life! To tell them the good news that if they were sorry, God would forgive them. And that everyone, regardless of nationality or religion or background, was welcome in the Kingdom of God.

So Jesus had told them what they must do, and he had promised them he would be with them and he would help them. They may not have understood exactly how this would all work. But one thing we do know: we know that they prayed:

“They all joined together constantly in prayer.” Acts 1:14

In the week and a half from the day Jesus ascended into heaven until the day of Pentecost, the only thing we know about Jesus’ friends (apart from the fact that they added a new apostle to replace Judas) is that they prayed.

In the lead up to Pentecost, let us follow the example of those first apostles, and pray. This year’s Prayer Journals are full of ideas about different ways to pray.

Like the first disciples, we don’t understand how exactly God is going to work in our lives and in our communities. But we can hold fast to his promises that he will be with us and he will help us. We are not in this on our own! Let’s dedicate the next 11 days to seeking God, to listening to him more, to getting closer to him. And then let’s be brave and trust God’s Spirit to help us do the work he’s asked us to do.  

Thy Kingdom Come is an international prayer movement which encourages Christians around the world to pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Although we may pray for this all-year round, this global wave of prayer particularly focuses on the days between Ascension Day (Thursday 9th May) and Pentecost (Sunday 19th May). These dates are significant because at Pentecost we remember how the early Christian community received the Holy Spirit. In the lead up to Pentecost, we are praying for God’s Spirit to transform and renew our lives and our communities. We are specifically invited to pray for God's Kingdom to come on Earth, and, more personally, for five of our friends to know the transforming love of Jesus in their lives.

Praying for God’s Kingdom

Praying for God’s Kingdom to come on Earth is a pretty big prayer! It’s what Jesus encourages us to pray, as part of the prayer he teaches his disciples (Matthew 6):

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven… 

But what does ‘praying for God’s Kingdom to come’ mean for this world that we live in ? , What does it mean for our communities, our families, our own lives?

This is something that I am thinking about this week as I prepare for Thy Kingdom Come, which starts next Thursday. I am thinking about what God’s Kingdom would look like as I listen to the news, when I am at work, when I go out for a walk or when I am meeting friends,  I am thinking about the ways in which I long to see the Spirit of God transform and renew those places. I really want to see God’s Kingdom because it will be a place of love and comfort and peace: 

“God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  Revelation 21:3-4

I am asking God how I can be a part of that, and how and what to pray.

Praying for our friends

During Thy Kingdom Come, we are also encouraged to pray for five of our friends to know the transforming love of Jesus in their lives. Before thinking about which friends, I wanted to pray for, I did an interesting exercise that you might find helpful too. I wrote down on a piece of paper some of the ways in which knowing Jesus has helped me. For example, I wrote, “I know that God loves me. This helps me to learn to value myself and be kind to myself.” I wrote lots of other things down too, I won’t bore you with all of them! It’s true that I sometimes think I still have so far to go before I fully understand the love and peace that Jesus wants to give me. But knowing that God loves us and forgives us and is always with us makes our lives immeasurably better. Not always easier, but better, more whole, more real. As Jesus said:

“I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” John 10:10

Writing down some of the many reasons why I’m grateful to have Jesus in my life helped me to see why, how and who I might want to pray for. Which of our friends would be most grateful to experience Jesus’ unconditional love and his promised fullness of life?  

So, what is planned for Thy Kingdom Come at St Mary’s and St Barnabas?

This year we are inviting everyone to pray using the Thy Kingdom Come prayer diaries, which will be available (free!) from the churches. The prayer diaries will help us to explore different ways to pray each day and will link with prayer videos which we will be sharing on the church social media pages. So please look out for them.

We have a Quiet Day planned for Saturday 11th May at St Mary's, it will be a really special way to spend time thinking and praying in such a beautiful setting, and also enjoying lunch with friends. If you are free that day, I would really recommend it.

On Saturday 18th May from 9am-12 noon, we are going to be holding a Prayer  Morning at St Barnabas. This is open to all ages, and you can drop in when you like and stay as long as you like. We will have a quiet space for reflection in the church, with a few prayer activities, and there will be coffee and tea and pastries available in the cafe. Please do come along to that and encourage your friends to come too. If you want to pray about anything, even if it's just to light a candle and remember a loved one, this is a great opportunity to do that. If you just want to come along and enjoy a free breakfast and a chat, we’d love to see you! 

We’re really excited about all the prayer that’s going to be happening, both individually and collectively, leading up to Pentecost. We know that God answers our prayers! We know this from our own experiences, and even when we find it hard to see God working in our lives, we can remember the promises in the Bible:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Luke 11:9

“The Lord is near to all who call on him.” Psalm 145:18

Thank you for praying. Whether your prayers during Thy Kingdom Come are building on years of prayer and devotion, or whether you are new and hesitant in your prayers, thank you. 

I for one can’t wait to see what God’s going to do next!