A BLOG FOR ALL SEASONS

The apostle Paul has featured prominently in Morning Prayer this week (9am in StM&AA) as we have covered the closing chapters of the Book of Acts. Paul’s dangerous missionary journeys are symbolic of the chaotic and dramatic nature of faith and action within the early Church environment. Storms, shipwrecks, prison escapes are part of the pattern of what it is to be a follower of Christ. The early Christians were forced to face their own mortality through persecution and natural disaster. They were prepared to risk everything to proclaim the gospel – it meant the world to them! 

Last Sunday, Alyson Peberdy spoke about the gospel of hospitality. She described the time that she was called to the Home Office’s Visa & Immigration centre in South London to be an accompanier for child asylum seekers and refugees, making sure that they had an interpreter and a fair hearing. Alyson focussed on one child out of many, many more who had to overcome appalling violence, persecution and death of family members. This one child had to travel across seas and borders in search of safety and hospitality – but was able to do so under the so-called Dublin Regulation. 
Soon, it will not be possible for any child to seek asylum safely in the UK:

“Every year thousands of unaccompanied child refugees arrive in Europe in search of safety. They find themselves stuck in squalid camps or sleeping rough on city streets unaware of their legal right to travel safely through Europe.”  

(Safe Passage website)

The ‘Mother of all Parliaments’ will this week decide whether to end the safe passage route, after the Brexit transition – under the current Dublin Regulation. This is the only transfer allowing refugees to travel to Britain from the continent. A cross-party group of MPs is putting forward Amendment NC29 in the Immigration Bill. This amendment would prevent more children being forced into dinghies and lorries as well as protecting them from human trafficking and child slavery. The law presently enables a safe way for child refugees to reach their relatives (in the UK) and start rebuilding their lives.

I am appealing to everyone who reads this message (and please do send it to friends and relatives – anyone who can make a difference) to write to their local MP and add their name to Amendment NC29. Those in your contact group who have a Conservative MP are particularly important because the vote will hopefully be called on moral, rather than political party lines. The amendment would also reinstate a requirement on the government to give a legal route to the UK for child refugees who don’t have family here. We are asking for safe passage for children who have suffered storms, shipwrecks, persecution and prison. We must ‘do God’ and we must act now – the vote is on Monday, 19th October. This is the link, please complete it and send it. This is the gospel of justice and hospitality!  https://www.safepassage.org.uk/write-to-your-mp

Gavin

This week we celebrate Harvest. Unfortunately, we are not able to get totally interactive but this Sunday’s all age presentation will hopefully catch your imaginations. We will be collecting ‘harvest’ produce for the Community Emergency Foodbank as well as the Cutteslowe Larder. A table will be situated outside church before and during the 10am Sunday Eucharist. Please leave any non-perishable foods on the table and it will be bagged and delivered for you.

Next week (11th October) all those on the Electoral Roll are invited to attend the church’s Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM). This meeting was deferred from earlier in the year as a result of the lockdown. The purpose of the APCM is to review the past year as well as to elect churchwardens, welcomers and PCC members. Although the meeting is necessarily about governance, procedures and finances, it is also a great opportunity for people to share their thoughts and passions. The APCM provides the forum for new ideas as well as to show gratitude to those who have helped in different areas of church life. This year, for example, we will say thankyou to Doreen Barrett who is retiring as a churchwarden after several years in post. Doreen has been a constant help from counting money and bums on seats to overseeing the reconditioned altar frontals and banners. She has been a great help and support to me (and many others). It was also great to see Clare, our curate being ordained priest in the Church of God and to see her ministry flourish this last year.

We hope that as many of the congregation as possible will remain in position after the service so that we can conduct the APCM – which we are legally required to convene – as efficiently and safely as possible. To help us do this, if you have a question that you would like to raise, please email me in advance. I hope that we will be able in due course to arrange a parish meeting unrestricted by Covid-considerations when we will be able to explore together mission and ministry matters in a more nuanced way.
I have attached the agenda, last year’s minutes as well as the financial report. Please read, mark, learn and inwardly digest this information! The other reports will appear in next week’s blog. In terms of my own report, I would like to share some thoughts about what this last year has revealed to me. 

Covid-19 obviously takes centre stage. This invisible, malevolent virus has caused such heart ache and misery. No one has escaped – it became a pandemic affecting the world’s population and broke our rhythms and structures: our normal. Loved ones had to die alone, funerals were – and still are – limited to a handful of mourners. Weddings were not permitted and then allowed but with prohibitive restrictions. Baptisms were deferred. Sunday worship became a trial of video technology and internet connectivity. Trying to be practical, we created the rainbow cluster network. This was a response to ensure that parishioners would not be isolated, that those shielding would be further protected by another layer of care and concern. Coordinators had the responsibility for the 10-12 people in their cluster. This wasn’t a neighbourhood care scheme, this was simply a way of keeping people in touch with each other and with the church. Sometimes prayers would be offered, an online sermon recommended, or an invitation given to the virtual world of Zoom – in particular, Coffee after Church on Sundays (11.30am). 

All of these offerings are the ingredients to what I describe as pastoral glue. Each parish church is in a privileged position to offer this glue to its friends and neighbours that make up the parish. The Anglican Church thrives within this parish model. As a priest, I serve the parish and not the congregation. There is no sense of ‘in’ or ‘out’ according to your Sunday practice. Every parishioner is the same – a child of God. Some know of this relationship while others might be seeking it and still others oblivious to the possibility. They are all parishioners and all of them share the glue. During the lockdown I became very aware of how people of faith and none grew in relationship with one another. Strangers became known; neighbours became friends; the fit and feisty helped the shielders and the wise tutored the confused.

As a parish priest, I was not in much need – the people were doing it for themselves! Good job too, I was sick with Covid, literally, and needed to take time out myself. My illness passed but the effects of Covid on our parish and across the world remains. We are now suffering in a deep-rooted recession. Job cuts, financial breakdown in households, corporations and nations will surely result. The vulnerable continue to be vulnerable while the guidelines and advice from centralised bodies and brain trusts continues to confuse and confound. 

But questions repeatedly stir within me about your faith, your enquiry into God, your spiritual devotion, your love of life? Does your parish church encourage and empower you in your Christian discipleship? What about the children’s faith – how can that be better nurtured? Have we completely forgotten a generation of people from 18-40? What do we need to do to provide enough glue for a healthy inter-generational community to flourish? 

These are my thoughts as we continue to battle against fatigue and disillusionment. Perhaps our faith can be used as a sword and a shield? We have much to be grateful for but we should be realistic about future uncertainties. A regular deficit of £3000 per month is proving to be a huge concern for our church. We have lost income from hall rentals as well as cash on the Sunday plate. We will not be able to sustain these losses without an uplift in stewardship and giving. I will focus upon this area of concern next week. It will only take a small percentage increase by those who already give or the uptake of new regular givers to halt the decline. What is at stake – a parish church which lies at the heart of community, supporting life events, music and the arts, sports and hobbies, a forum for questioning, for curiosity, a place of sanctuary and care. Without the church we lose the glue of community cohesion. I think it is worth the investment!

Regular stewardship Standing Orders

It costs approaching £450 per day just to keep the building and grounds going and well maintained, and we are very dependent on goodwill offerings and donations.

Here’s how you can help us financially —Transferring directly into our bank account is the most efficient for us and, by using your online banking, this is usually straightforward and leaves you in complete control. No need to give your private bank details to us or any external organisation — just give your bank our bank details. You can change the amount at any time using your online banking, or visiting your local branch. Our bank is CAF Bank:

Account:  St Michaels & All Angels Summertown
Sort Code:  40-52-40
Acc No.:  00011607

Gavin

No doubt, this period of global ill health and the fractures which it leaves have provided us cause for thought. Whatever age we may be, our circumstance has almost dictated the need to reflect on the existential issues of our time. In particular, society is concerned not only with the Covid pandemic but also with racism and equality through the Black Lives Matter campaign, gender justice through the Me Too movement, climate control and bio-diversity issues – the list goes on. It’s not surprising, therefore, that we contemplate our place in this cultural, political and geo-biological mix. ‘What is my life about?’ ‘How might I make a difference?’ ‘What will become of this world?’ ‘What do I believe? ‘What do I know?’

I saw somebody wearing a t-shirt this week which said, ‘You can change the world!’ The statement made me feel a little irritated. It seems that it’s easier to write slogans than to carry them into action. I wanted to say to the owner of the t-shirt, “how are you going to change the world?” I didn’t ask him the question, thankfully. My annoyance was located in the multi-national organisation which had sponsored the t-shirt slogan. I found myself thinking that I found it hard enough to change myself let alone change anyone else. Change has to start with me and not just on the outside of me but deep, deep within. If I want to affect change, if I want to campaign or become an activist, I must first of all seek renewal from within. 

As one who seeks the source of love, I believe that it is not through my own effort and willpower that change is exercised. My faith is quite clear – that I need a huge amount of assistance so that I can at least try to follow the right path. It is through the grace of Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that I am able to be who I am and do what I do (which is not that much in the world’s eyes). So the existential question which I continue to grapple with involves the Church and its place in the world. ‘What is the Church?’ I ask myself when I visit the sick in hospital. ‘What is the Church?’ when I talk to the drunk in the street. ‘What is Church’ when I read the banns of marriage for couples whom I might never see again. ‘What is Church’ as I slip on my clerical collar before another funeral. 

You may well have a well-rehearsed answer when people ask you why you go to church (or why you don’t go to church!) For me, Church lies somewhere in the mystery between heaven and earth. It is located before our birth and after our death and in the ordinariness of our everyday lives. It is in the changing seasons and the surprising life-stages of our vulnerable selves. It is in the hope that we harvest in our family and friends. It is the desolation, the consolation and the triumph of our faith as we confront the realities of the human condition. It is the whole cloud of witnesses who have gone before us and the promise of those to come and travel with us. It is you; it is me. This is Church.  

Congratulations Clare! It may have been a bit different but the calling is the same!

We celebrate Church and especially our little corner of the vineyard this Sunday through our Patronal Festival – St Michael & All Angels. Clare will be celebrating her first Mass after her ordination last weekend. If you are not able to attend, please check out the livestream – https://www.facebook.com/stmichaelssummertown and if that isn’t convenient remember to go to our YouTube Channel where you can play any of our recorded services – https://www.youtube.com/feed/my_videos

We are also preparing for Harvest Festival. This year, I am particularly aware that many people will be facing financial difficulties which are likely to extend well into 2021. The health crisis will increasingly become a wealth crisis. This will be to the detriment of the low-paid, those on, or beneath, the poverty line. As we prepare for Harvest, please pray for those who are fearing the future. We will be glad to support the Community Emergency Foodbank as well as the local Cutteslowe Food Larder. Please do bring appropriate supplies and personal washing items for our Harvest collection.

Gavin

The BUPA advert from the late 1990’s did much to enliven a theology of creation when it sold us the wonder and glory of being human. The ad said this:

“Your heart beats around a 100,000 times a day. Your eyes take in more information than the largest telescope known to man. Your lungs inhale over 2,000,000 litres of air every year. Your hearing is so sensitive it can distinguish between hundreds of thousands of different sounds. Your brain is more complex than the most powerful computer. You’re amazing!”

We have just launched into the newly derived liturgical season named Creationtide. Creationtide draws on deep roots in Scripture and in older Christian traditions around the relationship between God, humanity and the created order. The timing of Creationtide means it is an excellent way of rooting traditional harvest festivals in wider issues and firm theological ground. The Creation Season inspires us to see the natural world with integrity and thankfulness, to explore the beauty of the world and also the beauty of one another, after all, we are amazing!

Creationtide not only emphasises the wonders of creation but also our responsibility as amazing stewards. This season – between 1st September and 4th October – demands a spirit of contrition for all that humanity has done, and is doing, to harm the created order. It therefore asks for forgiveness, reconciliation and healing for the environmental crisis that we face. We are given the opportunity to address our need for sustainability in terms of consumerism as well as farming practices. 

We are not only amazing but our known world is totally amazing and we have a duty to keep it so. At a time when we are unable to embrace one another, we should think about how we might embrace all of creation.

OTHER NEWS

We are beginning to prepare for Clare Leal’s ordination service which will be held at St Michael’s on Sunday 20th September. Although many people will not be able to attend because of the Covid restrictions, it is important that we all keep Clare, Dave and John in our prayers. Pray especially for CLare that she may be given God’s guidance, wisdom and understanding in this deeply perplexing time.

We are hoping to begin to re-assemble a small choir at St Michael’s for the 10am Sunday Eucharist. Again, this will be within the restrictions of health and safety. More about this in the near future.

My thanks to the associated clergy team who have taken on the responsibilities of parish worship and pastoral care during my holiday absence. Thank you also to the church wardens for their work behind the scenes – you are amazing!

Sunday worship is at 8am, 10am and 6.30pm. Morning Prayer is said at 9am on weekdays. Please bring a face mask. Track and trace registers are being kept and social distancing measures are being observed.