Dear Friends

As I write this the rain is streaming down and I can hear the sound of water pouring from a blocked gutter!  I have just made myself a second cup of tea in order to keep warm. To make things worse, I have just received a photograph from a friend living in southern France showing herself and her husband on their terrace in the sunshine, enjoying a glass of the local wine.

When Mick and I first moved here to Chard we couldn’t believe how much it seemed to rain.  We had lived for over thirty years in East Anglia, most of the time in Cambridge, which is apparently the driest city in England. 

But rain, even in the summer, is essential to our lives, and believe it or not, I have come to like the rain!  And of course, quite rightly, those living in drought hit areas of the world our moaning about the rain would seem to come from a place of privilege. 

In the Bible, rain is a sign of God’s abundance, “You sent abundant rain upon your land, O God” (Psalm 68:9)

In the story of Elijah rain plays an important part in his journey with God: “and it came to pass, after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, ‘Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send the rain upon the earth”.  Then Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of the abundance of rain’.  (1Kings 18: 18 and 41).

When Elijah speaks these words to Ahab there has not been a sign of rain, in fact he sees drought, famine and barrenness.  Yet Elijah chooses to believe God’s promise.  He chooses to believe what he heard with his spirit in spite of what he sees with his eyes.

We have all lived, in many different ways, through a period of drought and barrenness in the last year and at times it has been hard to see how it will come to an end.  However, come to an end it will, and we have to believe in our hearts, as Elijah did, that our time of drought will be turned by God into a time of abundance of rain.  Rain that brings new growth, blossoming and flourishing.

In our gospel reading this week, Jesus experiences a moment of barrenness and drought as he is rejected by the people of his own town.  He is mocked as being ‘a carpenter, and the son of Mary’.  No mention of a father, and this might have been deliberate.  Because of this Mark tells us Jesus ‘could do no deed of power there’.  Even Jesus sometimes needed a response of faith from those around him, an affirmation from others.

So we too, need to be affirmed and listened to.  It has been hard over the past year to be together in ways which offer comfort and support to one another.  But as things return to normal we can begin to come together again, meeting over coffee after church, meeting in our groups and social events.  It is a time to look forward to and, although we can’t quite yet imagine it, it will come because we have God’s promise that he will always bring an ‘abundance of rain’ into the dry and barren places of our lives, so that we can begin to flourish and grow in faith together again.

Every blessing

Ann

Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday is a special time in the church year when we remember who God is, Father Son and Holy Spirit, The Holy Trinity. This is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian and yet it is very difficult to believe that God can be one and three. Of course, it is beyond human understanding, God is a mystery to us and it would be a remarkable thing if we were able to capture God within the measure of our human mind. Our Christian teaching about the Trinity is not meant to be an explanation of God, rather it is a way of describing what we know about God, even though we know that humanly speaking it is beyond our reason.

The Doctrine we follow is:

God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Each person is fully God.

There is one God.

Confusing? The Bible never uses the word Trinity, it is something that we have invented to explain the way in which we think of God.

So Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit who comes to Him from God? How can God be God the Father, and Jesus God the Son, and also God the Holy Spirit? The doctrine of the Trinity is one of those subjects which leaves everybody feeling confused but we use it simply to describe how awesome and amazing God is. God is so big, so wonderful that he is so far beyond our imaginations that to our minds he really doesn’t seem to make sense! So if somebody comes up to you and says, ‘go on then you’re a Christian, explain the Trinity’ – then you’re response could be simply to say ‘The Trinity is a way of us saying as Christians that God is much bigger and more complicated than we will ever know…. you can’t put him in your pocket’ That sounds a lot easier doesn’t it.

On Sunday’s we make during our worship a Declaration of Faith of which the Nicene Creed is a detailed summary telling us of what the whole Church believes about the great doctrines of the Christian faith. It begins with the statement: ‘We believe …’ The Nicene Creed uses the same threefold structure as the Apostles’ Creed but goes into more depth and detail. It was first adopted at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 by a gathering of bishops.

Despite the divisions within the Church that have happened over the centuries, all the major Christian traditions continue to acknowledge the words of the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed in their worship and teaching.

Every time we come to say the creeds it is vital to reflect and remember how it is that we come to believe them. It is by the grace and mercy of God that we have come to faith and are able to say and explore these words. It is not through human cleverness or ingenuity. God has revealed himself through the Scriptures. God has revealed himself most clearly through the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. God makes himself known personally to each believer through the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Apostles’ Creed a summary of what the Church teaches, and of what Christians together believe, rather than a detailed statement of individual and personal belief. Saying the Creed binds Christians together as a believing community, across different traditions and practices.

As we say the Creed, we join Christian’s past and present, and from all over the world, in proclaiming our common faith.

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

I hope that you are all keeping well in this time of transition as always please ask if you need any help with anything.

Rev Georgina Vye

Hi everyone,

As I sit in my study at varied times one of my neighbours takes his dog out, I say takes his dog out advisedly. She wears a body harness and is a fairly stocky girl, if the weather is good she trails along behind just a little, if it is raining it gives more of an impression of being dragged along, not cruelly I hasten to add, she is a dog who unlike the “normal” picture of man and dog, gives the distinct impression she would rather not bother and stay at home! Some of you will appreciate that thought. If we as neighbours happen to meet outside, she almost drags him over so she can have a stroke and a chat. So there is something for her about the beginning and ending of a walk, I can’t say about the middle never having meet her out and about.

In our readings this week we are focusing on joy. Jesus says: “But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves….So that they may have the full measure of my joy within them”. Joy is a balance in our lives it is part of the whole, underpinning our faith and way of being.

Our faith, Christianity is about good news, that is what the word Gospel literally means. Some may think that Christians are against life being good and want to stop the fun, but actually quite the opposite is true. Jesus told his followers that he came so that we could have life and have it abundantly. The Christian story is one of how we can all get more out life. As Christians we are all called by God to let others know that the path to fulfilment and real purpose in life, is found in Jesus. Jesus was accused of being too joyful at times, when he went to peoples homes and ate, and laughed with them, those who had nothing to lose and recognised God’s love for them in their

The good news is that the future city of God will be a place of Joy. When we sing hymns and songs which speak of Joy, often the words are taken from Scripture. Think of ‘You shall go out with Joy and be led forth in peace and the mountains the hills shall break forth before you.’ These words are taken from Isaiah 55:12

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Oh, how we long to sing it again. Jesus encouraged us to think of the future as a time of Joy, so that it sustains us now when times are difficult. When we can be overcome with sadness and pain.

“Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, the forecast is filled with rain, there are many who will be rejoicing this week, not the dog though.

I have just realised that the good intention of putting a bug house on the side of the garage has not quite had the outcome I imagined. It is situated not too far away from a nesting box where the Blue Tit mum and dad are busy feeding as much as they can to hungry babies. I have just seen one of them go to the bug house and take a poor bug out then take it to the nest. Probably plenty of joy for the birds, poor old bugs.

Be Blessed Rev Georgina

Meditation

Joy may be expressed in laughter, yet it draws from a deep spring that keeps flowing long after transient laughter has died. Joy survives the fleeting happiness of this world, and overcomes the tears of our too short lives, because it trusts in the promise of the world to come. Joy enables us to be cheerful even when the world has become tired and grey with grief and worry.

St Mary’s church community is working on becoming more eco friendly and part of this is ‘wilding the churchyard’.  Parts of the church yard will be left to wildlife and the grass left to grow.  Bird houses, bug boxes and a hedgehog home will be created to help us develop as an eco church. 

Thanks go to Patrick Meighan and Gill Brearley who created the hedgehog house 

Dear Friends

In today’s reading from Acts we see Peter as a completely changed man. 

The disciple who so often seemed to misunderstand Jesus and who denied him three times and who had been hiding with the other disciples after Jesus’ death, is now transformed by the Holy Spirit.  He has become a witness to the saving power of the risen Christ, a true Apostle.

After celebrating the resurrection at Easter, we now look forward to Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit.  Perhaps this mirrors where we are in the lives of our churches.  We returned to church on Easter Sunday to proclaim the resurrection, and after a two week break, we return to weekly services this Sunday.  It feels as if we too have been holding our breath, waiting for the joy of Easter, and now waiting for the Spirit to fill us again with the joy of fellowship in being together in person.

However, as we return to church, we must be mindful that there are those who will not be coming back so soon, or perhaps not at all.  We will continue to provide these letters and sheets for them as well as live-streaming services from Chard and Combe.

We also need to look to the future.  We will have decisions to make about the sustainability of our churches, both the congregations and the buildings.

We need to find a way of both honouring our current traditions and all that sustains us now and also making the changes that are needed for the future.  I am convinced that one way this will happen is us, as the body of Christ, reaching out to our communities and working for them and alongside them.

We can’t really afford to do nothing.  Just as Peter was transformed by the Holy Spirit and became a great witness to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, so we must pray for that same Spirit to fill us and lead us into the future, as fellow witnesses.

Below is my Rector’s Report presented for St Mary’s APCM this Sunday.  It follows the same theme:

“When I wrote my last report in September last year, we did not know that we would soon be back in lockdown for November, and then again from January.  We had no idea that our next APCM would be held under lockdown conditions, again.

However, here we are and the last year has been difficult, challenging, but also remarkable  at the same time.

Usually a Rector’s report for the APCM would be looking back over the past year, but things are not ‘usual’ and we need to look to the future as well as back at the past.

During the past year both Georgina and I have travelled a steep learning curve in developing our technical skills(!), many of us have become Zoom regulars and we have kept in touch by phone and email.  Thanks go to all of you who have kept in touch with others by phone or email and also provided practical help through shopping, collecting prescriptions and other forms of support.

We have also, kept in touch with some of you through paper deliveries to your door.  I calculated that in the past year we have put 1756 envelopes through your doors.  Many thanks go to those who have week by week, delivered these.  Ken, John Rollings, Chris and Robin Williams, Sue Milne, Ruth and Georgina, thanks to you all.

However, happily we are now coming out of lockdown and able to be together to worship.  It is wonderful to be in fellowship with you again and we hope to be back to a full rota of services by the end of June. 

Last year saw the cancellation of all weddings at St Mary’s, all of which have now been re booked for the coming year.

We conducted  only one adult and one child baptism over the past year, and we pray that as we come out of lockdown we will begin to hold others.

We have held a number of funerals, with restricted numbers, including those of Diane Packham, Pamela Dix and Harry Govier.  It has been a difficult time for bereaved families, who have been dealing with their grief as well as organising funerals under Covid restrictions. Some families were unable to be with their loved one at the time of death and this was a cause of further grief.

Many of you will be pleased to return to ‘normal’ and to be back in the familiar surroundings of our lovely buildings and our services.  But things will have changed, one thing that lockdown has reminded us of is the importance of fellowship and community, but what kind of community or fellowship will that be?

We want to be back together, but we must now also be mindful of the future and how we are going to maintain our current communities of faith while looking at how we can make them sustainable for the next five, ten, fifteen years and beyond.

We have now installed a live-streaming camera in the church.  We realised that over last year, the number of people watching our online services grew and often surpassed 100.  There are those who have faith, or who are seekers after faith, who will not come to church, but are happy to connect online.  It is really important, therefore, that we continue to provide something for them.

Over the Christmas period, although physical attendance at our services was down, the number of people watching our livestreams grew and was often over 50.  Let us rejoice that we now have the means to reach out to people in this way even though they won’t or can’t be with us in church.

Lockdown has also made us more aware of how we need connection and fellowship, and we hope to meet up as soon as we can to share and enjoy one another’s company. When circumstances allow we will be going back to our monthly Saturday breakfast, we will begin a weekly coffee morning after the 9.45 service and find other ways to get together socially.

We propose to have more Benefice services in the future and also have a Benefice social event on fifth Sundays. 

We have recently been successful in applying for a Heritage Lottery Grant, thanks to the patience and huge efforts of Robin Bailey, with support from Anne Perez.

Part of that money will pay for the installation of a screen and projector in the church which will enable us to provide clear and accessible materials for our services, but also make the church more attractive and usable for community groups. We need to make our building capable of generating some income for us and inviting for our community.

Our church building has changed and changed again over the centuries as it has been made fit for purpose for each age.  What we are doing now is continuing that tradition. 

As with churches up and down the country, St Mary’s is at a crucial point. We can choose to do nothing, change nothing, and decline financially and in numbers, or we can be bold and have faith that God has a plan for our future, and take some risks.

Tom Tame, our Youth Pioneer is doing just that. He has been in post since last August, and despite all the restrictions of two lockdowns he has been making excellent progress in making connections in the town, meeting our young people and planning for the next year.

He has been working with other youth workers in outreach in Henson Park, working at Chard Youth Centre and in Holyrood school.  He has set up a group who will be doing prayer walking around the town and begin working as Street Pastors, focusing on young people.

We live in confusing and fast moving times.  Most of our young people have grown up with no connection or experience of church and consider it to be irrelevant to their lives.  Because of social media, technology, social, economic, and educational pressures their lives are completely different to our own lives when we were younger, or even our own children’s lives.

We cannot expect young people to simply walk through our doors.  What Tom is doing is meeting them where they are, getting to know what matters to them and bringing them the good news of Christ’s love for them in new and relevant ways.  Let us continue to pray for him and the work he is doing.

Our calling as Christians is to be the light of Christ in our community.  We need, therefore, to care for one another and also to care for others.  We need to recognise that if we are to keep that light shining for the future, that some change is required.  Standing still is not an option.  Let us trust in our calling and move forward with confidence and hope.

Reminder of our services:

At St Mary’s, Chard we will be back in church for a service this Sunday, followed by our APCM. From then on we will be holding a weekly 10.00 am service in church.

At Combe St Nicholas, weekly 10.30 am services will also commence again this Sunday. The APCM will follow the service on Sunday 16^th May.

Services at St Mary’s, Wambrook will recommence with 9.15 am BCP Holy Communion on Sunday 2^nd May. 

Services at St Andrew’s, Whitestaunton will recommence with 6.00 pm Evensong on Sunday 9^th May.  The APCM will be held at 7.00 pm on Wednesday 12^th May.