Back from Holidays

The West’s New Year starts on 1 January. Officially, the Church Year starts on Advent Sunday, in November. But as people return from their holidays, refreshed and renewed, like the schools, our year often seems to feel as if it starts in September. Coming up are the Church Fete on Hamble Green, our Harvest Thanksgiving, Persecuted Church Sunday, Bible Sunday and Remembrance Sunday. Annual giving renewal is also coming. Each of them gives us the opportunity to pause, to stop and think -- and pray -- about different aspects of our Christian life.
In our Services, will be spending some time studying Paul's letters to the young church leader, Timothy, and trying to learn from the advice given to him -- and all that is coming up even before we start the run-up towards Christmas!
I am looking forward to learning, worshipping and praying together with all the community at St Paul's in this new season.

Daddy, please!

One thing that I suspect that most Christians agree on is that prayer is very important, but also that prayer is very difficult. This Sunday, 25 July we have been studying what Jesus had to say when the disciples said to him: "Lord, teach us to pray."

We saw that in Luke's Gospel the prayer began with the single word "Father." That probably represented Jesus' much loved term for his Father, in the local Aramaic language: "Abba" - equivalent to the English term "Daddy."

The week before, I had been to Drayton Manor Park with my grandchildren. All around were small children playing. Their absolute trust in their parents - and their parents' love for them, were so much in evidence. That combination of love and trust should be the relationship at the centre as we pray to our Father .

As we pray for God's honour, for the coming of his kingdom, for our daily needs, for forgiveness, and for protection, may we do it with that same trust and confidence in our father's love that the small child has.

In the evening service, we discussed this further and shared our own and others' experiences of prayer.

Simon is the new Vicar of Islington

http://www.london.anglican.org/NewsShow_13567

Imagine everyone's suprise when the coach from Oadby parish was met outside St Mary's Islington by the Bishop of London in full regalia carrying his crozier. The coach had been delayed in traffic and at Bishop Richard's insistence the service was held up until the people from St Peter's and St Paul's arrived. What a dramatic scene as people passed by and saw that something special was about to take place. Simon was received by the Archdeacon and introduced to the church. He had a good pull on the rope which rang the bells and was clapped as he re-entered the nave. The congregation sang lustily and were blessed by the Bishop's words. In fact the service was an excellent introduction for Simon. Thanks to the people of St Mary's who provided light refreshments after the service and for the lovely welcome. The link provided will take you to the report of events for the London Dioscese.

Who is my neighbour?

Last week saw the fifth anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in London and the release of the film 'London River', a film which tells the story of two very different parents who are both searching for their children in the aftermath of the bombings. Elisabeth (Brenda Blethyn) is from Guernsey and Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyate) comes from West Africa. The films shows Elisabeth's journey from initially refusing Ousmane's help (refusing even to shake his hand), until both she and Ousmane overcome the barriers between them and find common ground - a shared humanity.

And this acceptance of help offered by a person from a very different background of culture, religion and language emphasised one aspect of our thinking at last Sunday's 'All Together Church' service. Jesus' response to the question, "And just how would you define 'neighbour'?" was to tell one of the most familiar stories ever recorded - the parable of the Good Samaritan. The response of the Samaritan to the injured Jewish man illustrated Jesus' understanding of 'neighbour' - our neighbour is anyone in need and God's love for his world is to be reflected in our love and care for everyone. It's not so much, 'who is my neighbour?' but, rather, 'do I behave as a neighbour?'

However, being a neighbour also means accepting help, even if the help comes, as the parable shows, from an unwanted or even disliked source. Allowing our prejudices, pride and self-sufficiency to be challenged by others will cause us to grow and mature so that help can be accepted from even the most unlikely of sources.

Our retelling of the parable was brought to life by the Brownies carrying out some very impressive first aid on Doug, our hapless 'victim'. A very big thank you to all involved.

Saying thank you.

It is an important part of our community’s life when we say thank you to members who have worked long and hard for the good of all. David and Neil have worked consistently, with loving hearts to help our young people find their way to the Lord. Their teaching in our pathfinder’s group came to an end this Sunday. During the service we prayed for them and presented them each with a gift to remind them of all the long hours they worked with our teens.

Is there a chance that the Lord is calling you to be part of a teaching team? We are trying to organise for John Fryer who works as a children’s coordinator for the diocese to come and lead some training. Please pray and if you feel called; you can discuss it with Anita, Derek or Paul.

What a way to celebrate!

Two of our congregation, Sheridan and Gilda Roberts celebrate their ruby wedding anniversary today. At a time when marriage often seems under threat, it's good to celebrate God's provision of marriage for mankind. He saw that it would not be good for people to be alone and so he provided mutual friendship and the joy of family life and children.

For most of us a ruby wedding anniversary would be an opportunity for a meal with friends and family or a special holiday. Sheridan and Gilda decided to be different. They held a barbecue for 170 people at their home to raise money for the work of Christian Aid in the Kibera slum of Nairobi in Kenya. It was a great time of fun for all and has already raised over £1200. Everyone benefits from their generosity. Thank you Sheridan and Gilda!

Do It Yourself -- Sign of Good Leadership!

It's a mark of good leadership that a leader enables those they have led to take responsibility in that leader's absence. That's as true for Christian leadership as for any other -- in fact possibly more true as Christians believe in the "priesthood of all believers."

So it was encouraging that the first Sunday morning service after Simon Harvey had left us, was taken by the members of one of the eight home groups -- the Dove Rise group. It was entitled "Looking forward, not back." Teri, our Churchwarden's wife led the service. Another member of the home group, Derek, preached the sermon, while other members read the lessons, led the prayers and took part in an enacted Bible reading of the prophet Elijah feeling bereft.

We explored the subject in greater detail in the small-group evening service.

Marking the Change

That final Sunday of Simon's ministry (20 June) has now come and gone (see previous post). While Simon and Jennifer look forward to their ministry at St Mary's Islington, we look forward to continuing to see what God will do here in Oadby.

Simon led us in our morning service, preached and presided at Communion -- we were getting as much value as possible from him on this his last day! For his sermon Simon preached from 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and particularly emphasised verse seven: "But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us."

Simon's sermons do not usually have "three points." But this one did:
1. God is good
2. We are not
3. It will be all right in the end -- not by chance but because of God's undeserved love to us. He has plans for us -- for good.

At the end of the service, Paul Webster, the churchwarden, on behalf of the congregation, presented Simon and Jennifer with gifts from the congregation -- a painting of St Paul's church and a cheque. Paul expressed how much Simon's ministry had meant to the congregation and wished him and Jennifer well in Islington.

After coffee, people regathered in the church building where tables had been set out and a magnificent meal had been prepared. We all lingered over the meal as people were reluctant to bring to a close this fitting mark of the end of an exciting era.

CONFIRMATION

“Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles hands” Acts 8:18
I didn’t see the point of confirmation at first. The wonderful life of following Jesus seemed complete without this ceremony. I knew the Holy Spirit, I shared in the body and blood of Christ regularly and I had already been baptised. When the opportunity arose to be confirmed I thought about it and prayed about it but I was still unsure. In the end I was resigned to the fact that with some aspects of Christianity you only see the purpose after the event. So I asked to be confirmed. The service took place at St Thomas the Apostle in Wigston on Tuesday the 8th 2010 and was more elaborate to what I was used to, being in the high church tradition. We reaffirmed the vows made on our behalf at baptism and then were prayed for by the Bishop. This was a highly individual prayer, where the bishop placed both his hands on your head as he prayed. This combined with the prayers and support of a small army of friends that had trooped down from St Pauls made the moment touchingly significant. Then I realised the point of confirmation. Those that follow Christ are called into the service of loving one another and helping each other grow in our relationship with God. This was the fulfilment of that calling and by being confirmed I was allowing the symbolic and very real sharing of the Holy Spirit. I wasn’t just entering into a family of the Church as a formality; I was being welcomed home and a party was being thrown on my behalf. It was a welcome, it was a sharing, and it was a confirmation that the Holy Spirit is active and sets to work as soon as we invite him into our lives. DR DAVID BOYCE

Moving on

It's been quite a while since my appointment to the Parish of St Mary, Islington, was announced. Long good-byes are never easy and while it's been good to talk with lots of people in recent months about our big move to London, it's something of a relief to be almost there.

My last Sunday service will be on 20 June at St Paul's. It will be a special and somewhat sad occasion for me. I am hugely grateful for these seven happy years and there are many people to thank, much to recall, and lots to appreciate. We've seen our church congregation grow in numbers by about a quarter, so that our average weekly attendance over a full year is now one hundred adults, plus children. There's been plenty of growth in other ways and I recognise how I've grown in these last seven years. I shall never forget the lessons that I've learned from the examples of a congregation that is faithful, generous, prayerful and willing.

In the wider community, many people have asked me who my successor will be and were a little surprised to learn that the Church doesn't make arrangements for continuity in the same way as businesses and other organisations. Instead of a simple handover to a new vicar, there is likely to be a long vacancy. This will undoubtedly stretch the ministry team but I am very confident that things will go forward in the care of wise and gifted colleagues.

In the old way of looking at parish ministry, the awful notion of "interregnum" described a difficult period when everything went on hold, pending the arrival of a new vicar. I hope this outdated and inaccurate word won't be used in the coming months. Today, we understand how responsibility for ministry is shared by the whole church community. The job of a full-time ordained minister is to serve, stretch and animate the local church in its mission for God. A vacancy can be a time of growth and I'm looking forward to learning how the gaps created by my departure allow an even greater flourishing of the church.

It's clear to me that we need to embrace more wholeheartedly the patterns of ministry that can be traced in the New Testament. The early Church was under pressure and stretched, without the protection and comfort that the wealth of Christendom brought about in later centuries. In some ways, it's a picture we recognise in the UK today. In this exciting but vulnerable period, the Church learned that ministry is essentially corporate, that the initiative is always with God's Spirit, and that the partnership between itinerant apostles and indigenous church leaders is precious. Vicars today are more likely to be called to the kind of task that those travelling apostles undertook - teaching, equipping, encouraging - and then moving on, entrusting the church to local leaders who find ways of living out the gospel in their context and culture. In this pattern, vicars will come and go, but the continuity of worship, service, prayer and growth in mission belongs to the whole people of God.

Whoever the next Team Vicar will be, I pray that he or she will receive the same loving encouragement and generous forgiveness that you have shown me. Thank you! Simon