St Stephen’s Church – South Dulwich

19 December 2010

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat
Please put a penny in the old man’s hat.
If you haven’t got a penny a ha’penny will do
If you haven’t got a ha’penny God Bless You.

In Victorian times this was known as “The Charitable Nursery Rhyme”.  Adults created a tuneful song to encourage their children to give to charity and goose was the favourite Christmas dinner.  To help children be aware of others perhaps less fortunate than themselves by sharing  and that included the  generous gift of God’s blessing!  Today, with six days to go, we’re doubtless hectic with last minute preparations.  Christmas trees are being decorated and cribs assembled. Shops are busy, churches – like us – are holding carol services. But sadly for some Christmas is a lonely experience. Care centres offer welcoming warmth, hospitality and friendship to those who have no particular place to be during this festive time.  The success of these centres depends on not only the people who give of their time but also the gifts received and shared amongst those who may not receive any others at Christmas. Throughout Advent we are making personal preparation to receive the greatest gift of all time. But it too is a gift that is to be shared. The poet Christina Rossetti has some helpful thoughts for us.

“But what can I give him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb,

If I were a wise man, I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give him?  Give my heart.

Trot Lavelle – Reader

12 December 2010

Advent as a ‘path of waiting’

Waiting, as we see it in the people on the first pages of the Gospel, is waiting with a sense of promise.  ’Zechariah, your wife Elizabeth is to bear you a son.’ ‘Mary, listen! You are to conceive and bear a son’ (Luke 1,13 & 31).  People who wait have received a promise that allows them to wait. They have received something that is at work in them, like a seed that has started to grow.  This is very important.  We can really wait only if what we are waiting for has already begun for us. So waiting is never a movement from nothing to something. It is always a movement from something to something more.

A waiting person is a patient person. The word ‘patience’ means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.  Impatient people are always expecting the real thing to happen somewhere else and therefore want to go elsewhere.  The moment is empty.  But patient people dare to stay where they are.  Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there.  Waiting, then, is not passive.  It involves nurturing the moment, as a mother nurtures the child that is growing in her womb.

Henri Nouwen

5 December 2010

Prayer
In a Christian book shop recently I saw a wristband with the word PUSH written on it. I was told it means ‘Pray Until Something Happens’. It reminded me of a friend I had as a teenager, who kept a prayer diary where she logged prayers and ticked them off as they were answered.
Jesus told the story of a persistent widow who finally got justice from a judge out of sheer dogged persistence, and elsewhere encouraged his listeners to ask and keep on asking, to knock and keep on knocking, to seek and keep on seeking in order to get what they needed from God.   Prayer is a simple mystery. Perhaps the most basic act of our spirituality, a mere breath away, it also reveals the stunning mystery that God who is beyond our reach chooses to place Himself within our grasp. Within our gasp, even. More than words or theology, prayer is a primal cry towards God.  It takes faith to pray, to invite God to actively enter into our lives and trust Him with our deepest needs. We are changed as we pray in different situations and seasons in our lives, recognising the power and ability of God to do what we cannot. As we pray, our perspectives change, we find strength to carry on, or the resolve to bring something to an end. Often it is our last resort. It could be our first. This week, I invite you to PUSH and see what happens.

Andrea Hensher

28 November 2010

Today we are confirming seventeen members of our congregation.  Over the last few weeks we have met to discuss the Creed, the Bible, prayer, the Eucharist and ethics.  Each time that we have met we have heard from differing members of the congregation who have been brave enough to share their own journey of faith.

Over these weeks I have been reminded of my own confirmation on 27th February 1982.  I remember the exact date so easily because it is engraved on a beer tankard that I was given as a confirmation present.  It seemed somewhat incongruous at the time but as it still sits on my desk, it might have been a more perceptive gift than I then realised.
I remember hoping that I would feel utterly different after the service, that my doubts would be silenced and that the trouble I occasionally got myself into in school might lessen.  It turned out, however, to be a much more gradual experience.
The journey of faith is indeed a long one and confirmation is a cairn on that journey.  A marker and celebration of where we have come to and stands as a point that we can look back on in future life.  It is a moment when we pray not for the will power to be good but for the strengthening of God’s Holy Spirit which is the only power required to live the Christian life.
And so this morning we will join with Bishop Christopher as we pray; ‘Defend O Lord, these your servants with your heavenly grace, that they may continue yours for ever, and daily increase in your Holy Spirit more and more until they come to your everlasting kingdom.  Amen.’

Rev Nick Davies – Curate

21 November 2010

Listening to the sound of a simple bell

Today we will not be listening to our wonderful choir, and we won’t even be singing the Gloria ourselves, neither will we be saying the words of the general

confession.  Instead we will be listening to 12 Cellos playing Arvo Pärt’s Missa Brevis at these key moments in the service.  Arvo Pärt was a composer in the modernist vein just like many of his post war contemporaries.  But in the seventies of the last century he fell silent.  And after a period of silence and Christian conversion he pioneered  a completely new musical style which he called ‘Tintinabolism’.  Pärt does not speak much about his music but he did once say this about this new style:   “I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements —with one voice, two voices. I build with primitive materials —with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells and that is why I call i tintinnabulation.”

Attentive listening to what many have not noticed is our vocation as Christians.  God does not force himself on his creation, we can choose to listen out for him and discover how he is ‘king of all creation’.  This act of listening is at the same time something we do and something that happens to us.  Through attentive listening we are transported into hearing the simplicity and complexity of what it means to long for his kingdom to come.

(The two key compositions of the early tintinabolistic style are: ‘Für Alina’ and ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’)

Bernhard Schünemann

14 November 21010

Some years ago I was taken to see a military cemetery near Marigny in France.  I had been to many such cemeteries in France, but this one was quite different, there were not the usual white headstones or neat white crosses, instead there were small granite crosses  - this was a German war cemetery.  I was quitetransfixed and profoundly moved as I surveyed the rows of crosses in little groups of three – each group representing several soldiers.  I did not feel sad because it was an area of complete tranquility and beauty.  I left my name in the visitors’ book and made a contribution towards the future upkeep and resolved to make sure that I would come again and this year I did just that.  I saw this year that something had changed, the trees were larger and the ground cover more abundant and as it was a brilliantly sunny day the long shafts of sunlight cut across the ground and illuminated the small beautiful crosses.  I stood in awe – here was true peace, these brave young men lay in silent and calm peace and all the savagery of war was overcome.  But here was I:  a one time soldier whose duty was to try to destroy these men just as it was their certain duty to destroy me – how utterly stupid it all seems now.  Many of these brave souls were mere boys of 15 & 16! As today is Remembrance Sunday we must remember ALL who died as a result of conflict and sadly those who are still being killed in combat – these brave young men and women are at this very moment still giving their lives to serve their countries and this must include many who lose what is normal life because of wounds received in battle. When I went to leave the cemetery I passed by a beautiful Mosaic in the Chapel; the mosaic portrayed The Blessed Virgin Mary carrying in her arms the lifeless body of her Son Our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Thus we must remember that these soldiers and all who are killed in war were sons and daughters beloved of their parents.  So as we pray today think of friend and foe and ask that these cemeteries be the last.

George Key aged 90 this year, churchwarden emeritus of St Stephen’s

 

7 November 2010

At this time in November we enter the final few Sundays of the church’s year.  Soon it will be a new beginning with Advent Sunday.  A time to review and look back on a long ‘Trinity season’.  One of the joys of the Trinity season is its many beautiful collects, the prayers which change week by week and which we say daily at morning prayer and evensong, as well as at the Sunday Eucharist. Here, full of the memory of summer and autumn, are some of my favourites:

O God, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal. (July)
Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things; Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us inthe same. (August)
Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire, or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. (September)
Lord, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us; and make us continually to be given to all good works. (October)
Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (November)

Bernhard Schünemann

 

31 October 2010

“Remember, remember the fifth of November- gunpowder, treason and plot!” So goes the old nursery rhyme and this Friday our youth club will do just that when we go to Crystal Palace to enjoy the annual fireworks display. Guy Fawkes famously stockpiled gunpowder under the House of Lords as part of a plot to blow up Parliament.
The other week our present government published their National Security Strategy, outlining today’s security threats. Top of that list were attacks on computer networks, closely followed by ‘flu pandemics and terrorism. It all goes to show that threats to our parliamentary democracy are nothing new and that we all have to be vigilant.
That vigilance should not perhaps be limited to security. For our Parliament to work also requires us to be informed and involved, so that we can hold our politicians to account. General elections are a fairly infrequent way of doing that. If, however, you want to have your say in the meantime, you could do worse than attend the regular surgeries for our own MP, Tessa Jowell , held in Kingswood House 13.30-15.00. (next one: 15 November.)
Such vigilance is a natural outworking of the Book of Common Prayer’s intercession;

“We beseech thee also to save and defend all Christian Kings, Princes, and Governors; and specially thy Servant Elizabeth our Queen; that under her we may be godly and quietly governed: And grant unto her whole Council, and to all that are put in authority under her, that they may truly and indifferently administer justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of thy true religion, and virtue. “

Something to consider as you light the blue touch paper and stand well back.

Revd. Nick Davies, Curate

24 October 2010

Now, that the autumn is in full swing and October is fast drawing to its close, we will soon be turning our clocks back and we will be in receipt of that welcome additional hour at the end of October.  This Sunday at the end of October is sometimes also called ‘Bible Sunday’ to remind us of the central importance of Holy Scripture in our lives.  Clearly it is not enough to hear the Bible read in small portions on Sundays in church.  The Bible needs to be a witness to the living word of God.  We need to find time to read in it and live with it in such a way that God’s word becomes the fountain from which our lives are refreshed.

Reading and studying the Bible is a form of communion with God through which we are fed.  St Paul makes the distinction between treating the Bible as a written code, full of wooden and dead words and – on the other hand – letting the words come alive through the Holy Spirit in our lives (2 Corinthians 3,6).  Whether we read the Bible in groups or alone, we must not remain at the dry surface meaning of individual words and sentences but we must enter ourselves into the story and meet God as we do so.  Chiara Lubich, the founder of the ‘Focolari Movement’ and winner of the Templeton prize for fresh approaches to religion, said once that if all Bibles were lost or burnt one day, people ought to be able to re-write it simply by observing the lives of Christians!  This is the ancient prayer for this Sunday as written for the Book of Common Prayer:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever.

Bernhard Schünemann.

17 October 2010

Prayer is learning to breathe in God, simply to experience our own existence in God, and to keep our selves and their meaning in him. In the words of the poet Kabir, “He’s the very breath of our breaths.” Prayer is never initiated by us, nor is it giving God a list of our wishes and demands, expecting him to respond to us. Prayer is always our response to God. He speaks first, and we listen … He breathes first, and we learn to exist in his presence without flight or self-distraction or dependence on our fleeting, transitory egos …  “Breath”, of course, is an analogy of something more transcendent than this ephemeral life can ever provide, but it is a reminder that our existence is a gift and a continuing promise of a potential yet to be realised.

Addison Hodges Hart
The Yoke of Jesus (Eerdmans, 2010)

Prayer, the Church’s banquet, Angels’ 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 …
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well dressed,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church bells beyond the stars heard,
the soul’s blood, The land of spices, something understood.

George Herbert “Prayer”

10 October 2010

A king, a mystic, catholic and protestant martyrs, a missionary, a nurse and prison reformer, what do they have in common?  Nothing much, only that they are all saints, that is their Christian faith inspired them to diverse levels of heroism, and they are all commemorated in the calendar of the Church of England this week.  They represent over a thousand years of Christian believing and witnessing to the Christian faith: It starts on Tuesday with the eighth century missionary Wilfrid, Bishop of Ripon as well as Elisabeth Fry the prison reformer and the First World War nurse Edith Cavell for whom ‘patriotism was not enough’.  On Wednesday we will be remembering Edward, king and confessor, who died in 1066 and whose reputation for saintliness was based on his accessibility to his subjects, his generosity to the poor and his healing touch; there will be much celebration at Westminster Abbey, which he is credited with building, on this day!  On Friday it is the turn of the Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila, who had great visions of God’s healing love.  And on Saturday we remember Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer who were martyrs for their faith during the very capricious times of the reformation when any sticking to your catholic or protestant principles could land you with the painful situation of having to be burnt at the stake.   The Church of England occasionally revises its calendar of commemorations: John Wesley, Dick Shepherd, Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King are among the many which have recently been added or at least considered and at times in this process the General Synod invites suggestions for new saints to be reflected upon for possibly inclusion.  But it can never be a comprehensive list, it can only ever be a representative list, representative of the very wide spectrum of humanity that found it possible to live by their faith and draw extraordinary strength from it.

Bernhard Schünemann

3 October 2010

Harvest thanksgiving was always a very important occasion in my childhood as I grew up amongst a farming community.  It was a true celebration of the good food that we were able to enjoy and give thanks to God that there was always plenty of it.  For the previous weeks there’d been frantic activity both day and night as the corn was cut, the ears chaffed and the hay stored in dry barns.  Would the weather hold?  It must have rained sometimes but I don’t remember it! The sun always shines at the right times in your childhood doesn’t it? Local produce decorated the village church and everyone joined together for a festival supper in the hall the evening before.  Delicious!  Apple bobbing, barn dancing and much laughter as we fell over each other’s feet. But the highlight of the evening was always wrapping the vicar in newspaper!  He was a good sport and I think he enjoyed it as much as we children did. By the following morning he’d managed to unravel himself and we’d gather again.  With rich meaning we’d sing “All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above” reminding us of God’s many gifts that are shown to us through love, generosity and understanding. In this part of the world we don’t suffer the anxieties of famine, drought or flood.  We have supermarkets on our doorsteps, allotments in our parish and fresh water in our taps.  So what can we bring to God this harvest-tide? I would like to suggest “our humble, thankful hearts”.

Trot Lavelle – Reader

 

26 September 2010

A few years ago I visited Ethiopia and was able to witness the wonders of a little known corner of Christendom, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.  It has an art form and liturgy quite different from our western traditions yet witnessing to the same Gospel.
One of their most beautiful Churches is Debre Birhan Selassie.  Its ceiling is covered with wide eyed angels with African faces.  Scores of them are featured wing to wing in vivid reds, blues and oranges overlooking the worshippers below.
We probably do not think much about angels but they feature regularly in the Bible as God’s messengers and as heavenly creatures standing in worship before the throne of God.   As such they are a model for our own worship here on earth.
This week the church celebrates the feast of St. Michael and All Angels and as we stand to sing our hymns this morning you may wish to look up to St Stephen’s angels standing atop our pillars.  In moments when I am particularly moved in worship, I sometimes imagine these angels taking flight and looping through the arches as they give glory to God.  Isaiah famously had a vision of something similar;

“I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Two Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  And one called to another and said:  ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Nick Davies

19 September 2010

Today, on the last day of his visit to the UK, the Pope will ‘beatify’ John Henry Newman.  Beatification is a crucial and final stage before the Roman Catholic Church recognises officially that someone was a saint.  In our Church, the Church of England, Newman has long been in our calendar of saints (11th August).   Newman spent exactly half his life in the Church of England, some of it as an Anglican priest and even as a Vicar until, aged 40, he converted to Roman Catholicism, thus scandalising much of the mid-nineteenth century English establishment.  Newman was a poet (three of his poems are hymns in our hymnbook), a theologian, a romantic, a pamphleteer and campaigner.  For him the search for truth was more important than the attainment of happiness.  For ten years of my life I was his successor as Vicar of Littlemore and I found myself joint custodian, together with some wonderful Roman Catholic sisters, of the Newman shrine there.  Together we thought a lot about conversion and what it may mean for us today.  What my experience of Newman taught me was that ‘conversion’ is not so much a one-off radical step (though it can be that) but it is a daily reality.  We are constantly re-aligning our will with God’s will, we are constantly in need of renewal in our relationship with God.  We are constantly refining and growing deeper in our faith.  With Newman we are reassured that it is in fact God who will lead us in the conversion journey of change and discovery ‘…thy power hath blessed me, sure it still will lead me on… till the night is gone’.

Bernhard Schünemann

12 September 2010

This week, on Tuesday, the Church celebrates Holy Cross Day otherwise known as the ‘Exaltation of the Holy Cross’.  This marks the day when the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was dedicated in 335 and a fragment of the true cross was brought out of the church for people to venerate.

The cross is an incredibly powerful image venerated by Christians around the world.  This is perhaps surprising given that it was an instrument of torture and execution used by a number of the Emperors to make quite clear that they held the power of life and death.  Yet in Christ’s crucifixion the tables are turned.   As the disciples saw Christ breathe his last they may well have feared that the authorities had finally beaten this ‘Galilean prophet’.  But in three days Jesus is raised from the dead, glorified as the risen Christ.  Finally we see that God is the victor above and beyond earthly rulers and despots.  It is he who is the source of life and who through the cross has overcome death.
Maybe you wear a cross around your neck, maybe you see them on Churches as you travel to work, maybe you have one on the wall at home.  If so take a moment on Tuesday and join with others in saying this special prayer for Holy Cross Day;

Almighty God,  who in the passion of your blessed Son made an instrument of painful death to be for us the means of life and peace:  grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ that we may gladly suffer for his sake; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Nick Davies.

5 September 2010

The two arias performed as part of the service this morning come from an unusual collection of nine German Arias by GF Handel (HWV 202-210).  When Handel composed these he had been living in England for 16 years and had mostly composed Italian Operas and he was about to embark on his English language Oratorios.  The words were taken from a collection of poems by the Hamburg Poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes entitled ‘Earthly joy in God’.  In sentiment they stand on the cusp between the height of the Baroque period and the emerging enlightenment, a philosophical way of thinking that has shaped even our own intellectual environment today.  At the beginning of the enlightenment stands the period of ‘Empfindsamkeit’  (age of Sensibility).  God was thought to be at one with nature and we can contemplate the reality of God by observing his traces in the beauty of nature.

Bernhard Schünemann

Meine Seele hört im Sehen, wie, den Schöpfer zu erhöhen, alles jauchztet alles lacht.  Höret nur, des blühenden Frühlings Pracht ist die Sprache er Natur, die sie deutlich durchs Gesicht allenthalben mit uns spricht.
My soul hears, as it sees: everything rejoices, everything laughs, to glorify the Creator.  Listen: the blossoming glory of spring is Nature’s language.  Clearly, and in all things, her countenance speaks to us.

Süße Stille, sanfte Quelle ruhiger Gelassenheit.  Selbst die Seele wird erfreut wenn ich mir nach dieser Zeit arbeitsamer Eitelkeit jene Ruhe vor Augen stelle, die uns ewig ist bereit.
Sweet silence, gentle source of calm serenity.  After this time of industrious vanity, my very soul is gladdened when I see before me that time of rest, which is, always, waiting to receive us.

Translation by Gurdon Wattles

 

29 August 2010

I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’   God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:   I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

This promise, sometimes also known as the rainbow covenant, features in our Bibles right at the beginning in the early chapters of Genesis, just after the account of Noah’s flood.  It must ring terribly, terribly hollow to the people of Pakistan and the people of Niger at this time, suffering from flooding, hunger and long term structural poverty.  What this promise represents is not a god who changed from someone who sends floods as a punishment to someone who desists from ever doing this again.  But this promise is a recognition and deeper discovery of the truth that is in God:  we live in a finely balanced creation, a creation in which wonderful and good things happen but, on the flip-side of this, terrible and bad things can also happen.  Our response must not be to shake our heads and blame God but to reflect on our own human impact on such climatic events and disasters and even more urgently to respond with compassion and generosity, precious gifts that God has bestowed upon us.

Bernhard Schünemann

15 and 22 August 2010

‘My dear friend the Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral, Revd. Giles Fraser, has been on the radio again. This time to suggest that too many weddings are about narcissism and self promotion and can end up as an expensive, overblown vanity project. Well I think this is a bit ‘bah, humbug!’

Here at St Stephen’s, the wedding season is in full swing with seven weddings taking place this month alone. I have to say that I love taking weddings and even find myself getting a bit emotional, as I hear couples taking their vows.

When I think back to the day Helen and I were wed it was a really special day, and yes, we did pushthe boat out and had lots of friends and family around us, but I don’t regret a bit of t. Especially not the keg of Timothy Taylor Landlord Ale which we ordered especially to ensure that out guests were suitably refreshed for the Barn Dance.

Celebrations are important and in a society that is , at times, worryingly insular anything that brings together family and friends, celebrates lifelong commitment and builds up our community has got to be a good thing.

As it says in the opening preface to the wedding ceremony, “Our Lord Jesus C hrist was himself a guest at a wedding in Cana of Galille” and it is worth remembering what he did there. Ours is a God who is in favout of parties.

Revd. Nick Davies. Curate.

1 and 8  August 2010

“I asked God for strength that I might achieve;

I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things;

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men

I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;

I was given life that I might enjoy all thing

I got nothing that I had asked for,

but everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered

I am, among all men, most richly blessed.”

Prayer of an unknown Confederate soldier wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg 1863, so that he would never walk again.

25 July 2010

Before Service in Church.

LET me come into the church of God
to meet the spirit of God:
not to give religion an hour,
but to live in the eternal;
not to maintain a decorous habit,
but to bow in the holy place before the Holy One;
not to judge the words of a preacher,
but to draw life from the Word and Truth everlasting;
not to be moved or soothed by music,
but to sing from the heart divine praises;
not that mine eyes roam over architecture or congregation,
but that my soul look up to the King in his beauty,
and my heart plead the needs of thy children;
not that my thoughts escape out into the world,
but that they be still, and know that thou art God.

Let me go, and go again, into the house of the Lord,
and be glad, and give thanks, and adore
my King and my God.

Eric Milner White (1884 – 1963) (inventor of ‘Nine lessons and Carols’ and distinguished first world war chaplain)å

18 July 2010

This week the Church remembers one of the great theologians of the Orthodox Church, Gregory of Nyssa.
Gregory was a Bishop in what today is part of Turkey .  He was a great orator, philosopher and theologian and, together with his brother Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, he is known as one of the Cappadocian Fathers.
I was able to learn more of Gregory and his theology when visiting Turkey last summer where he is revered as the father of mysticism who taught much about the unknowability of God.  Gregory understood the spiritual life as the journey of the soul towards God.  He taught that the soul of the believer is aware that it is the object of God’s love and that this love marks the soul, draws it towards God and ignites it with love.
As I travelled through Turkey, I learnt not only about Gregory but also about Paul’s missionary journeys and about other saints who were central to the development of early Christian thought.  Along the way, I was reminded that Christianity began as an eastern religion that only slowly spread to the west and our own shores.
This summer you too may be having some time away and you do not have to travel far to discover beautiful new Churches and interesting little known saints.  So, if you are off on travels this summer, I would encourage you to carry with you a Holy curiosity that might well turn your holiday into a holy day and your sightseeing into a pilgrimage.

Revd Nick Davies

11 July 2010

The city of Oxford is widely regarded as one of the great architectural treasures for visitors to enjoy on a summers day.  The only slightly sad thing is that the most beautiful buildings are inaccessible to visitors because the whole town is a working university.  If therefore you wish to see one of its hidden treasures you need to go to the suburb of Iffley to the Southeast of the centre, where there is an attractive lock across the Thames, a pleasant pub on the river only accessible on foot, and the most wonderful and unique Norman parish Church.  Iffley church is unusual because of its purity of style:  it was entirely built in 30 years during the 12th century and nothing has been altered since.  The most remarkable feature of Iffley church is its baptismal font.  It is a large square font, positioned awkwardly blocking the entrance of the church.  Those who wish to enter the church have to squeeze past the font, perhaps at that moment being reminded of their own baptism.  In fact most traditional churches have the font near the door and when there is baptism we all have to turn around to see it.  Holy baptism is a rite of entry.  It is not a reward for believing all the right doctrines of the Christian faith.  Baptism is a gift from God that we will be able to draw on in our developing friendship with God.  Baptism sets us in the context of Christ’s dying and rising, and Jesus addresses us across the water of the font much as he addressed his disciples by the lakeside with riddles and parables as well as with words of healing and comfort.

Bernhard Schünemann

4 July 2010

Today Americans the world over will celebrate Independence Day with fireworks, parades and baseball games.It was on this day in 1776 that the Declaration of Independence was finally approved by Congress.  That Declaration famously stated, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Born out of the grievances of colonists regarding taxation and representation, the declaration has many historical influences.  Some see it as the application of the thought of liberal philosophers and the enlightenment whilst other look further back to the Magna Carta.
Meanwhile, some take an even longer view looking to the Old Testament as the foundation of the declaration and there is certainly something to be said for this.  The Bible teaches that humanity is created in the image of God and in the ten commandments and the wider law we can see that this has implications for the way we should order society.
As the Old Testament prophets warned, however, any nation which claims to have God on it’s side is likely to be on shaky ground- and that applies as much to the divine right of kings as it does to the pursuit of happiness.  In amongst all of these influences, however, we can all join with Americans today as we pray that God might bless America.

Revd. Nick Davies. Curate

27 June 2010

Pilgrimage.

Last week saw the UK release on DVD format of the film ‘The Last Station’ a ‘bio-pic’ of the Russian writer, maverick aristocrat and flawed saint Leo Tolstoy.  One of the many bees in his bonnet was his conviction that the Christian faith should be so conveyed that even the most educationally deprived peasant should understand it and be touched by it.  With this in mind he wrote a number of short stories that he intended to be told like parables, illustrating truths of the gospels and drawing people into a life of faith.  For me these stories are little gems (mostly now available for reading on the web).  The story about the purpose of travelling on a pilgrimage is called ‘The two old men’ (http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2891/).  Two friends set out on a journey to Jerusalem together, one is well organised and focussed on getting there, the other one is badly organised and keeps on getting distracted along the way.  When they come across an area recently devastated by war and famine, they both stop to help for a day or so, but the well organised one splits off in order not to miss the Easter festivities in the Holy City.  The question the story raises (and answers!) is: which one of the two actually arrives?  The one who is distracted and finally runs out of resources through helping the needy along the way, or the one who actually arrives in Jerusalem and attends all the glorious Easter services?  God meets us in our diversions as well as in our well laid plans, sometimes God is most powerfully present when we least expect it and haven’t planned for it!

Bernhard Schünemann

20 June 2010

For some years now our ‘international coffee morning’ (once a month on Wednesdays, please look out for notices about this) has been quietly supporting a project in South Africa which gives special support to grandmothers who care for their grand-children because of the impact of AIDS on their families.  We called it the ‘Fikelela’s Granny project’.  We have recently had this progress report from them:

Dear Ruth, We thought you might like an update on the Gugulethu grannies’ project, that your group has supported.  We had a tea party with this special group of carers on the 25th May and as usual we all enjoyed ourselves.  World Cup soccer fever has hit our country and there are daily celebrations as the teams arrive – flags are flying from houses and cars and the vuvuzelas are blasting. It is always a joy when all South Africans unite with a common goal.  Our past divisions are still raw.  So we would welcome prayer for this big event – may it go peacefully, safely and joyously for all.
The reality for our Grannies is that the schools will be closed for 5 weeks during the soccer tournament and they are anxious that their grandchildren will be caught up in the peripheral stuff that goes with such events – prostitution, drugs, crime etc. We were able to pray about this, sing and worship together and of course enjoy a scrumptious tea.  Each granny left with a parting gift and we presented them with 40 warm tops for the children.  Just in time as Cape Town has turned cold and wet. Please send warm wishes to your group and thank you for your interest and support.

Jenny Masterson – Fikelela Aids Project

13 June 2010

Not so holy stone

The only time I have ever been shot at was in Bethlehem during the time of the first Intefada, when my sister and I inadvertently found ourselves on the side of some stone throwing youths and the army responded with some live shooting.  Later, when I as a curate on a housing estate in Merseyside, my Vicar forbade me to use the wonderful story of David and Goliath in school assemblies, because it encouraged the children of the estate to take up stones and throw them against the church.
Today we hear of stones being thrown in anger at our patron saint St Stephen because he had seen the light and adopted Jesus as his saviour and stones, which were his means of dying, have become his iconographic symbol.  Stones, whether thrown in righteous anger or whether used to destroy harmless human life, are never going to change the world, only steadfast goodness, such as displayed by our glorious patron saint, will do that.

Bernnhard Schünemann

 

6 June 2010

Now that we are settling into the famously long liturgical period of ‘Sundays after Trinity’ we will be having a lot of Gospel readings from the Gospel according to St Luke this year.
As a gospel writer Luke’s ancient symbol is the ox.  Jesus is depicted as the powerful beast of burden, of universal significance in his shouldering the sins of the whole world.

There are two little words that Luke uses more in his gospel than any other gospel writer.  And these two little words will help us to understand more deeply the person and the teaching of Jesus.

The first word is both simple and strange; it’s the word ‘daily’.  Luke remembers it in the saying about the taking up of the cross:  ”If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let them take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9,23)  Or again in the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us each day our ‘daily’ bread” (Luke 11,3).  Luke remembers Jesus’ teaching to be relevant for our every day life; we can live our Christian life on a daily basis.  There are bits we can do every day of our life, as we are drawn closer and closer into the Kingdom of God!

The other small word is ‘prayer’.  Luke’s gospel stories about Jesus invariably begin with the phrase “Jesus was praying with his disciples” or “Jesus got up from his prayers and he…”  Luke remembers Jesus as someone who did everything preceded by prayer.  Jesus’ relationship with God his father was totally alive.  It seems that his whole life was bathed in this special energy.  Do we follow Jesus in the direction of our own lives?

Bernhard Schünemann

 

30 May  2010

Today is Trinity Sunday.  A festival that invites us to consider what images of God we hold dear.  Perhaps it is a Crucifix, or an illustration in a Children’s Bible or perhaps it is a work of art which we have seen in a gallery.
These pictures are often more powerful than we imagine.  They shape our image of God and the way in which we pray and think about him.  Indeed the Old Testament contains many warnings about images of God and the way in which they can never contain him.  Of course, the supreme image of God is Jesus Christ and it is through him that we know who God is.
The image below is called the ‘Laughing Christ’ and is one that I find particularly powerful.  The Bible does not report that Jesus laughed but he did go to weddings, tell stories, play with children, tie his questioners in knots and have to deal with those were surprised by God’s love.  I doubt that he could have done this and kept a straight face.
So as we celebrate God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit today let us also give thanks also for a God who cries, smiles and laughs with us.

Revd. Nick Davies. Curate

23 May 2010

What has God’s Spirit ever done for us?

Jesus breathed on his friends and they received the Holy Spirit, and from then on they were God-gifted, so much so that they had flames flickering over their heads and they managed to be understood by a multicultural assembly of people who had lots of different languages but not – so far – a common one.  How can the Holy Spirit of God change things for us here at St Stephen’s?  Maybe we don’t want any change, because we like things just the way they are.  But simply being alive means changing.  And, being alive to God’s breath must mean letting oneself be changed by his energy.  What about using this Pentecost to reflect on how God’s Holy Spirit has gifted each and everyone in our congregation?  Too often we don’t know the person next to us in the pews, too often we are frightened of someone we may not know well.  But things may change if we begin our thoughts about each other by simply reflecting on what special gifts has God given to this person next to me?  I will start finding this out, even if it means asking for their name!

Bernhard Schünemann

16 May 2010

When I was a student of theology, I spent some time with a Franciscan Community of Friars on the beautiful and – it has to be said – chilly North Sea coast of Northumberland, it was in Alnmouth not far from Holy Island.  One day one of the friars took me to a nearby fishing port and we went on board a small boat together with a group consisting of the captain, another man whom I took to be some sort of navigator and two people, a man and a woman, who, as I learned later, suffered from acute depression.  We travelled out into the open sea and suddenly the engine was turned off, the boat bopped around on the waves for a short while and then our two passengers, now dressed in wet-suits, hurled themselves over the side of the boat.  I will never forget what I saw next: a wild dolphin came and swam and played in the waves with these two unfortunate and suffering human beings. The dolphin was wild, but s/he was sensitive, picked up on desperate human need, and – as it turned out – the depression of our two fellow travellers was lifted.  From that day on I decided to leave open the question of whether animals have souls, they certainly seem to have healing powers, and concentrate instead on promoting, at least in my own life, a sense of harmony between my humanity and the creation around me that I was in danger of ignoring or even sometimes disrupting and destroying.  And I am happy that this afternoon many will bring their pets for a thanksgiving and blessing service to this church.

Bernhard Schünemann

9 May 2010

As we come to terms with our hung parliament many may be feeling a little disappointed.  Over the last few weeks hopes have been raised of democratic renewal and clear government to help the country through difficult economic times.  As I write this in the cold light of Friday morning, it is not yet clear how this might be achieved.
This weekend whilst the politicians will be considering how best to move forward the Church will remember an English saint from the fourteenth century; Julian of Norwich.  Julian famously experienced sixteen visions of the love of God when dangerously ill.  Following her recovery she wrote these down in her book, ‘Revelations of Divine Love’.  This was the fist book written by a woman in the English language and she is now considered one of our greatest mystics.
If you find today’s headlines unsettling then spare a thought for Julian.  She was writing during outbreaks of the plague and the peasants revolt and many in the Church understood these as God’s punishment for our sin.  For Julian, however, it was the love of God that held the world together.  Her confidence in that love led her to proclaim that, despite current trials, in God’s loving mercy all shall be well.

“Though shalt not be overcome, was said full clearly and full mightily, for assuredness and comfort against all tribulations that may come.  God willeth that we take heed of these words, and that we be ever strong in sure trust, in weal and woe.  For he loveth and enjoyeth us, and so willeth he that we love and enjoy him and mightily trust in him; and all shall be well.”

Revd Nick Davies.

2 May 2010

The wonderful month of May
For many of us May is our favourite month.  Not only does it always contain two bank holiday Mondays, these often feel like a reward for having survived a harsh or wet winter and spring, but it is also invariably shot through with flowering trees, plants and shrubs, the smells of early summer and even a hint of love.  Who can forget the first song in Schumann’s song cycle ‘Dichterliebe’ Im wunderschönen Monat Mai: “In beautiful May, when the buds sprang, love sprang up in my heart: in beautiful May, when the birds all sang, I told you my suffering and longing”.  The poet Heine is scoffing at the very possibility of love but Schumann with his music restores our faith in it.  For us as Christians this year the month of May contains the mystery of the greater Easter period: the Ascension (13th May) and finally the Sunday of Pentecost (30th May), the seamless transition between dying, rising, departing and receiving the gift of the spiritual breath of life.

Now the bright morning Star, Day’s harbinger,
Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her
The Flowery May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow Cowslip, and the pale Primrose.
Hail bounteous May that dost inspire
Mirth and youth, and warm desire,
Woods and Groves, are of thy dressing,
Hill and Dale, doth boast thy blessing.
Thus we salute thee with our early Song,
And welcome thee, and wish thee long.

(On May Morning by John Milton)
Bernhard Schünemann

25 April 2010

Catherine of Sienna

One can still visit her hospital today, in the most beautiful of all mediaeval walled cities in the sun parched southern hills of Tuscany.  St Catherine of Sienna who died in 1380 and who is a patron Saint of Europe, (commemoration this Thursday 29 April) was a medieval mystic.  She had visions, she discovered truths about God and at the same time she got deeply involved in pan-European as well as Church politics.  She reconciled warring cities and criticised quarrelling and rival popes for being intransigent and conceited.  Doing just one of those things would have been enough for most of her contemporaries to be most cruelly executed.
In the midst of all this turbulence she managed to develop some pioneering methods in nursing.  She was convinced that through loving care sick people could be helped to recover, this went against the prevailing method of this plague-ridden time which was to leave people to their own devices, and just see whether God wanted to make them better.  Where did she get all this energy from?  Like all mystics, she drew her energy straight from her religious experience.
When she heard Jesus saying to Martha ‘I am the resurrection and the life’ she experienced this directly as changing the quality of her own life, she felt herself to be addressed, loved, challenged and energised.

Bernhard Schünemann

18 April 2010

After this week of manifestos it won’t be the first time that someone has tried to win you over to their way of thinking. Down the centuries Christians have of course taken widely differing political stances.
One of the most developed examples of this is catholic social teaching. This is based on the idea that love is the supreme judge for any social policy. Flowing from this is a commitment to the values of justice, freedom and truth which should guide our decision making. These in turn lead to five principles all of which should promote the ‘common good’ or human flourishing of all.
Of course, how this translates into any of the manifestos before us is slightly more tricky. help however is at hand as Churches Together in Dulwich are hosting an evening to quiz the candidates on Wednesday 28th April at 8pm, at the Methodist Church Hall on Half Moon lane. Near the corner with Beckwith Avenue. The candidates for the four main parties have all confirmed their attendance, so it will be an opportunity for you to put your questions directly to them.
After all that has happened over the last year, it seems important to hold out candidates to account and let them know that the Churches are an active and engaged part of the constituency. I will be chairing it (and doing my best impression of David Dimbleby) so do please come along with others and make your voice heard. Oh, and how to vote? Well you put a cross next to the name of your favoured candidate of course!

Revd. Nick Davies. Curate

11 April 2010

Risen with healing in his wings.

This poetic phrase is taken from the famous Christmas Carol: ‘Hark the herald angels sing’, and it neatly draws to our attention how closely related Christmas and Easter are.  It poses the question of how it is exactly that humanity can be saved through Jesus Christ.  Was it because God humbled himself and heaven touched earth at Christmas the time of the birth of our saviour?  Or was it because this innocent man suffered on the wood of the cross for us, something we commemorated so movingly only a few days ago on Good Friday.  Or was it because God changed everything at Easter and death is turned into joy?  The truth is that all these three, Christmas, Good Friday and Easter belong intimately together as an expression of God’s saving love, and it takes us the best part of half a year to celebrate them fittingly.  It will probably take us more than half a year for these to become the real pulse and rhythm of our lives.  Our lives need to bear witness to the world, that God came in Jesus to this world in order to reconcile the hurts of this world with the infinite love that he has for his creation.  And what better time to re-start this witness than this Eastertide.

Bernhard Schünemann.

4 April 2010

Last week our youth club were decorating eggs for Easter.
This involved gently inserting needles in the eggs, blowing out the contents (which were then made into omelettes) and microwaving the egg before dipping them in food dye.  As you can imagine there were several possibilities for disaster here.  Fortunately, however, no eggs were thrown, no children impaled themselves on the needles and no outbreak of salmonella has been reported!
Eggs have fascinated humanity since antiquity.  They were revered in ancient Egypt, China and in Persia where they were seen as a symbol of the universe.  Meanwhile, in the pagan world the egg was revered as a symbol of springtime and miraculous rebirth.
The Church reinterpreted this, understanding the egg as a symbol of the tomb from which Christ was miraculously resurrected.   Records show that in 1290 Edward I spent eighteen pence to have four hundred and fifty eggs covered in gold leaf to be given as Easter gifts.  The eggs that Fabergé made for the Czar were famously a little more pricey.
So if this Easter morning you have already marvelled at your breakfast egg or failed to stop your children digging into their chocolate one, why not treat it as part of your Easter devotion to the empty tomb from which Christ arose this day.

With best wishes for a happy Easter!

Nick Davies and clergy of St Stephens

28 March 2010

Ride on little donkeys.

This year we follow the precedent established in previous years and we have two donkeys, Tammy (aged 31) and Alice (aged 18) by name, helping us to celebrate Palm Sunday – the beginning of Holy Week.  The mystery that we have two donkeys is reflected in St Matthew’s Gospel, where mention is made of the fact that two donkeys were present at that original Palm Sunday (Matthew 21,2-5).  Tammy and Alice normally live on Surrey Docks Farm, where they are involved in helping people with disabilities and other visitors experience the warmth of a city farm.  Donkeys are beasts of burden, but they also do a lot of healing!
Donkeys, of course, don’t say very much, but perhaps they don’t miss very much either.  The donkey on which Jesus rode into Jerusalem must have wondered what was going on: all the waving of palms and the shouting and singing and the putting down of garments in his way.  Perhaps he knew the donkey that had carried Jesus and his parents into Egypt, when they were first fleeing from the persecution of Herod.  Perhaps he stood on the roadside five days later when the palms were being trodden underfoot and the cross, being carried by that same Jesus, cast its shadow on the road – in the heat of the midday sun.  Tammy and Alice, like many donkeys, have big heads, a kind face and a stubborn nature, as one commentator once observed about Palm Sunday: “And only the donkey and the children noticed that Jesus was crying”.

Bernhard Schünemann

21March 2010

Today is Passion Sunday and as you look around the Church you will see that many of our decorations are now covered.  For in these last two weeks of Lent we enter a deeper stage of our pilgrimage, traditionally known as Passiontide.
Passion as a deep, driving and unsettling expression of love is an evocative word which we can find in the tabloid press as often as in Church news sheets.  Sometimes it is hard to connect these two uses and in many ways it seems safer to keep ‘unruly passions’ a long way from the ‘Passion of our Lord’.  As we approach Easter, however, and the supreme example of God’s love, such neat distinctions can be hard to maintain.  Indeed some of our most profound Christian mystics and poets, such as John Donne, see no distinction at all.

Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town to another due,
Labour to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthral me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Revd. Nick Davies, Curate

14 March 2010

Joseph and his brothers

At weekday Morning Prayer during this first half of Lent we have been reading the extraordinary and wonderful story of Joseph and his brothers (Genesis chapters 37 to 45).  On Mothering Sunday we may like to reflect that had Joseph been Josephine and his brothers really his sisters, much of the prolonged enmity between the brothers may not have entertained us for so long, but as it stands, the story is a brilliant narrative explaining in intimate family detail why the key reality came to be that the people of Israel ended up in Egypt.  The story is full of dreams and interpretations of dreams and Joseph rises from the depth of being sold into servitude to being prime minister of Egypt with the power to save the whole nation of neighbouring Israel, from which he had been so cruelly ejected.  But what is really intriguing about this story is the fact that, despite it being a central narrative of the book of Genesis and arguably the whole of the Old Testament, God is hardly ever mentioned.  God is just presumed to be there, gently and occasionally preventing the worst from happening, but mainly letting humans getting on with making a mess of things and occasionally getting it just right.  This is the same God who – crucially for the history of Israel – inspired Moses to lead the people through the desert into the Promised Land and who – crucially for the history of the whole world – gave his only son to be our Christ, our Saviour.  It is good to remind ourselves within the narrative of our lives who it was that shaped our lives and often stopped the worst from happening to us, in many cases that will  be our mothers and in some cases that will be someone who was like a mother to us.  And it is therefore our mothers (or mother-like persons) that have instilled in us an ability to have faith in God and not just faith but also trust.

Bernhard Schünemann

7 March 2010

In our Lent course (Apostello) we have been looking at how we, as Christians, live our faith as a witness to Christ in the world in which we are placed.  One of the callings is that to be a prophet to our own age, we looked at past prophet figures and their words here are the words of  Sojourner Truth from speech she delivered to the State Women’s Rights  Convention in Akron, Ohio, 28th May, 1851.

‘A’n’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And a’n’t I a woman? I could work as much, and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear de lash as well! And a’n’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and see ’em mos’ all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And a’n’t I a woman?
Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can’t have as much rights as man, ‘cause Christ wan’t a woman. Whar did your Christ come from? Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothin’ to do wid Him.’

Sojourner Truth (c. 1797-1883), a runaway slave and a deeply religious woman, became a famous anti-slavery preacher and campaigner, and one of the founders of modern feminism.

Bernhard Schünemann

28 February 2010

Happy St David’s Day.

When I was much younger I always thought that it was odd that the Welsh should have an Old Testament King for their Patron saint.  It somehow went together with my prejudice – long since abandoned – that the Welsh are rather different people, with their incomprehensible and Old Testament sounding but nevertheless actually very beautiful language.  Little did I know then that St David was actually a sixth century holy monk, who also went by the name of Dewi, and who founded Menevia (now St David’s) monastery and probably more than a dozen other monasteries in Wales.  He is said to have based his Rule for his monasteries on that of the Egyptian desert monks, with a strong emphasis on hard work, abstinence from alcohol and a refraining from unnecessary speech.
He died in about the year 601 and has been regarded as the patron saint of Wales since at least the twelfth century.  Since then Welsh Christianity has contributed much to our understanding of how our faith can in fact be ‘Good News’ for our lives and for our society around us.  Methodism flourished in Wales, with its profound emphasis on the renewal of personal faith and lay leadership in the church.  This kind of Welsh Methodism has much to offer when it finally re-merges with our Anglican tradition in due course.  The Anglican Church in Wales is disestablished, and again, we may want to learn from that experience!  Contemplating the lives of Christian saints helps me to reflect how it can be that we also – in our contemporary context – need to uphold Christ and be prophets and peacemakers in our own homes and neighbourhoods.

Bernhard Schünemann

 

 

21 February 2010

An idea for Lent by Robin Lane

As we prepare for Lent, let us remember the prophecy of Isaiah; “Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”.  As Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, he was beset by temptation. We know only too well that temptation brings with it a powerful urge and resisting it can be difficult.  However, Jesus taught us to resist temptation, but resisting it is only the beginning. We must learn to live without that which has, in the past, tempted us.  Going without something which we like for 40 days is admirable, but giving it up completely should be our goal.  Jesus taught us, `Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God`.  Those who free themselves from temptation shall be free of the burden which holds us back from the path of righteousness.
When Daniel was captured by the Babylonian king, he asked that he and his friends receive only plant-based food, and from God they received both knowledge and wisdom. Lent is a time for renewal, a time to reassess, to make our path straight.  What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with God.

Robin Lane is a member of our congregation and promoter of the ‘Christian Alliance for Love and Fellowship’.  He is also nephew of Joan Stewart.

14 February 2010

The other week I went with the youth club to see the film ‘Avatar’ which looks set to strike gold at the Oscars this year.  At a rumoured cost of $500m it is a spectacular 3D exploration of our relationship to nature.
Set in the future, an inter-galactic mining company is digging up a planet to get at its mineral deposits.  Whilst the company claims to want the best for the local population, its private army and armour plated excavators tell a different story.
The film introduces us to a paradise world in which the local population communicate with their ancestors through the trees and with animals by linking their minds and uniting their wills.  This includes the ability to fly through floating mountains on the backs of pterodactyls and in 3D that is quite a ride!
Meanwhile, the private army cannot breathe the same air and seem able to bond only with machines and terrifying robot soldiers.  It all comes to a head when the richest mineral deposit is found underneath a gigantic tree where one of the tribes has its ancestral home.
Now I won’t tell you any more because you should really go and see it for yourself.  If, however, your recollection of 3D films is of those funny green and red glasses that didn’t really work, then think again.  I found myself gripping the seat to stop myself falling and batting away floating objects that seem to have drifted out of the film and into the cinema.  All in all, this is a film which offers a stimulating perspective and that is quite apart from the special effects.

Nick Davies .Curate.

7 February 2010

The Presentation of Christ in the Temple

The story we celebrate today is quite a simple one.  Mary brings the forty day old infant Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem in order to make the sacrifices she feels are necessary.  Jesus is her first born son and therefore, according to ancient custom, belongs to God.  By making the sacrifices she believes she can keep Jesus with her to bring him up.
But once she arrives at the temple she meets two old people called Simeon and Hannah.  Simeon takes the infant in his arms and recognises in him the saviour and the light of the world.  We learn today that Jesus, though he is the Son of God and our eternal Christ, did live as a real flesh and blood human being subject to the strange rules and regulations of his time.  We learn today that Mary did not flinch from bringing Jesus and presenting him so that he would light up even the darkest corners of this world, hearing that her own heart would be pierced also.
And quite by chance we learn from Hannah today – if we listen to our gospel reading carefully – that women have been prophets right from the beginning of Christian history and before.  Simeon also has a message for us: having experienced the presence of Christ we can contemplate our own departing in peace.   We can learn today that old people are sometimes the ones who have deepest insights.  But above all we celebrate today: we celebrate that Christ lights up our faces because in him can be found truth that is beyond speaking.

Bernhard Schünemann

 

31 January 2010

Today is the last Sunday in the Christmas and Epiphany season, next week we celebrate candlemass; let’s spare a thought for Joseph:

Joseph’s Lullaby

Sleep now, little one,I will watch while you and your mother sleep.
I wish I could do more.
This straw is not good enough for you.
Back in Nazareth I’ll make a proper bed for you
Of seasoned wood, smooth, strong, well-pegged.
A bed fit for a carpenter’s son.

Just wait till we get back to Nazareth.
I’ll teach you everything I know.
You’ll learn to use the cedarwood, eucalyptus and fir.
You’ll learn to use the drawshave, axe, and saw.
Your arms will grow strong, your hands rough-like these.
You will bear the pungent smell of new wood
And wear shavings and sawdust in your hair.

You’ll be a man whose life centres on hammer and nails and wood. But for now, sleep, little Jesus, sleep.

Ron Klug (20th century)

24 January 2010

This Sunday falls in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity; an event which Fr. Ted might have described as, “an ecumenical matter”- a box into which tricky issues could be placed- rather than explained.
The word ecumenical has a Greek root meaning ‘the whole world’ and it has been used to describe the movement which seeks the unity of all Christians.  The idea being  that the unity of the Church should act as a signpost for the wider reconciliation of the whole of humanity.
Now you may feel that the multiplicity of Churches mean that we are not doing a very good job, however, unity and uniformity are not the same thing.  When I attend other churches I am often struck by the particular gift of differing traditions and that is something which might be lost if we all tried to be the same.  Instead we need to realise that when it comes to faith, we only ever possess part of the picture.  Indeed, through learning and sharing with other Christians we often gain a deeper and richer vision of the glory of God.
These ecumenical practices do, I believe, have something to offer to the wider world.  A world in which we need to do more to celebrate our global diversity, exercise humility and be better at giving and receiving from one another.  Indeed, as we are beginning to see in Haiti , these are far from abstract ideas but are in fact powerful forces which can save lives

Nick Davies . Curate

17 January 2010

The meaning of prayer.

During these next five Sundays we will contemplate the meaning of prayer in our lives, we will hear five sermons on prayer from five our regular preachers.   Archbishop Rowan Williams finds John of the Cross (16th century Spain) helpful as a guide:  “With St John of the Cross I think what went deep was precisely an understanding of prayer as more than feelings.  Now you can misunderstand that – you can say that prayer is nothing to do with feelings, it is all a matter of will and practice, but that I think is not what he is saying. Prayer is a habit of being. It is a sinking of your own identity into something deeper which goes on whether or not you think you are consciously praying, which means that how you feel is not unimportant but it doesn’t tell you all you need to know about prayer. You may be feeling terrible and God may be active; you may be feeling nothing in particular, but God may be very active; you may be feeling wonderful, and that may have nothing at all to do with God’s doing.  So a little bit of distance from your feelings, not hostility to them, but a realism about them, and an ability to tell the difference between what God is doing and how you are feeling – that is, I think, fundamental in St John of the Cross…  The two axioms which he wrote throughout his writings – pray as you can and don’t try to pray as you can’t, and the less you pray the worse it gets – does tell you a great deal.”

Bernhard Schünemann

10 January 2010

The words of Christina Rossetti’s hymn, ‘In the bleak mid winter’ were ringing in my ears this week as the snow came down, “snow on snow”.  A development which our  Spaniel, Oscar, greeted with his usual enthusiasm.  Indeed, his limited ability to walk calmly to heel disappeared completely in his rush to plunge muzzle-long into this strange white powder and romp for the sheer joy of it.
Of course, Oscar is not alone in being strangely affected by snow.  This week I guess that most of us had our plans thrown into disarray as meetings were cancelled, cars abandoned and buses slid to a halt.
In the disoriented pause which follows, we are left to wonder at this strange new world of brilliant white, we end up reflecting that perhaps that deadline was not as absolute as we had first imagined and the lure of snowmen and snow ball fights can somehow seem strangely appealing.  Walking more, we end up also chatting more as we share in our unsteadiness on ice and wonder at the scene before us.
Now I realise some may have good reason to curse the snow this week, particularly those who have had a fall or have been stuck indoors.  But I cannot help feeling that the ability of snow to enable us to see the world in a different light is a gift.  One that somehow puts a new perspective on our own aspirations and limitations.   Indeed, I wonder whether this might just be one last Christmas gift from on high?

Nick Davies

3 January 2010

The Epiphany of our Lord, 6th January.

The Epiphany, or the Manifestation of Christ, has been celebrated in the Christian tradition in a variety of ways.  The Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th, completes the ‘twelve days of Christmas’, and it inaugurates a period where the declaration of the arrival and manifestation of our saviour in and to the world becomes increasingly public and universal.
In the Eastern Churches the Epiphany is Christmas, in the Western Church the feast is associated with the arrival of the magi in Bethlehem.  The magi, mentioned in St Matthew’s gospel, are sparingly described and are meant to be wise sages or astrologers from the world beyond the Jewish horizon, underlining the significance of the birth of Jesus for the whole universe.
The three gifts they bring has given them an entirely folkloristic identity as three kings.  In continental Catholicism Epiphany also celebrates the feast of the Baptism of our Lord, with water being blessed and the faithful publicly renewing their baptismal vows, covenanting themselves anew to God, as God has covenanted himself to us anew in the sending of his son.  The plethora of themes for this coming season focusing on the significance of Christ in our lives and in the life of the world should give us enough to contemplate and not forget what happened to us at Christmas.

Bernhard Schünemann