O Lord, How Great You Are!

Nearly 50 people gathered at St Paul's on Sunday evening 27 March for our second "Songs of Praise." It was an enjoyable opportunity to worship God, but also to learn why particular Christian Songs and Hymns had become especially memorable to different members of the church during their walk with Christ. Several of the hymns were based on the oldest Christian/Jewish songs, the Psalms. This included the very popular hymn: "O Lord my God! when I in awesome wonder..." For some reason the hymnbook we use, like many others, record this as a Russian hymn. In fact, we discovered that it was written by the Swede Carl Boberg in 1885 after a walk in which he had seen many of the wonders of God manifest in nature – sunshine, storm, lightning, rainbow, birdsong and many others. On his return home, he was reminded of Psalm 8 which begins: "O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens." Boberg's hymn was sung to a traditional Swedish tune and rapidly became popular in Swedish nonconformist churches.

From Swedish, it was translated into German and Russian and then, in the 1920s into English, in a translation which never became popular. The translation we know is by Stuart Hine and dates from 1953. It was used at the Billy Graham Rallies, which made it well known.

Stuart Hine also composed two additional verses, which we sang as well.

O when I see ungrateful man defiling

This bounteous earth, God's gifts so good and great;

In foolish pride, God's holy Name reviling,

And yet, in grace, His wrath and judgment wait.

When burdens press, and seem beyond endurance,

Bowed down with grief, to Him I lift my face;

And then in love He brings me sweet assurance:

'My child! for thee sufficient is my grace'.

Many of the other seven songs and hymns that we sang would also merit discussion in detail, as this is just one example. Sunday evening was a great time, worshipping a Great God.

Brothers and Sisters Under Threat

On Wednesday 2 March, Pakistan's Government Minister for minority religions, Shahbaz Bhatti, was killed by gunmen who shot him on his way to work in Islamabad. That is obviously a tragedy for his family, but why should the death of one man in notoriously unstable Pakistan matter to St Paul's Church in Oadby? I believe that there are at least four reasons.

1. Mr Bhatti, a Christian, was almost certainly killed because of his opposition to the Blasphemy Law in Pakistan. This law, designed to protect the honour of the Prophet Mohammed, has frequently been mischievously used to settle grudges between Muslims and their non-Muslim neighbours. The law is framed in such a way that it is extremely difficult for a non-Muslim to defend themself and the penalty is extreme, even death. As a minister for minority religions it was obviously appropriate that Mr Bhatti should be seeking to amend it. So any Democrat should be concerned at this case where a man was killed in the course of his duty.

2. This is the second such killing of a high level politician who opposed this law (the other being a Provincial Governor, Salman Taseer). It reflects the atmosphere in which all Christians in Pakistan must live – the fear of being denounced under this law and the threat of death itself. As Christians, these are our brothers and sisters and we must seek to make their plight known and hold them before God in prayer.

3. We are privileged to have a Pakistani, Revd Paskal Clement, as an Associate Minister in our parish and St Paul's frequently benefits from his services. These threats to the Christian minority in Pakistan are threats to Paskal's friends and family as well. Our prayers and thoughts are with both Paskal and them.

4. The parish has a link with Jane Gerrard who works with the church in Pakistan. Those threats for Christians are also a threat for Jane and her co-workers.

So, our thoughts and prayers go out to Mr Bhatti's family and to the whole Christian community in Pakistan. Our prayer is that the Blasphemy Law may indeed be amended.

Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther(1809-1891)

In an earlier blog, (We have seen a great light) I reported how on 23 January, 2011, our preacher of the day, Emmanuel Oladipo, talked of the work of the first Black Anglican Bishop, Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther and how his family had been influenced to put their faith in Jesus Christ through Samuel Crowther's work.

Following that, I got an e-mail from our former vicar, Simon Harvey, telling us of the close connections that his new church, St Mary's Islington had with Bishop Crowther, who had attended St Mary's School in Islington and had studied at the CMS (Church Mission Society) College in the parish. Simon Harvey subsequently sent me a copy of a leaflet "Crowther's Journey," produced by the Southwark Centre :Pensioners Black History Group. This leaflet revealed that Samuel Crowther had actually been ordained at St Mary's and had returned there in 1870, to ordain his son, Dandeson.

Members of the group expressed their comments in the leaflet. They were delighted to find such an eminent role model and some, who hailed from Nigeria, were already aware of Crowther's work in evangelism, Bible translation and African literacy. However, others, from Sierra Leone, where Crowther had first been freed when a slave and received his initial Christian and secular education and undertaken much work, were surprised that they had never been told of him. There was pleasure that although taking a "Christian" name at his baptism, he had retained the Yoruba name "Ajayi."

Emmanuel Oladipo has been invited to preach at St Mary's Islington and talk about Bishop Crowther.

Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther -- Timeline

1809 Born in Osogun, Yorubaland, Nigeria

1821 Kidnapped and sold to slave-traders

Rescued by the Royal Navy Anti-Slavery Patrol
and taken to Freetown, Sierra Leone

1825 Baptised and takes the name Samuel Ajayi Crowther

1826 Travels to London to attend Islington Parish School

1827 Attends Fourah Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Marries Susan Asano Thompson at age 18 years

1841 Accompanies an anti-slavery mission up the River Niger

1842 Returns to England to be ordained as a minister

1843 Receives Holy Orders from the Bishop of London

Starts to translate the Bible into Yoruba

1848 Is reunited with his mother Afala, who is christened with his sister

1857 Writes an Ibo language primer

1864 Compiles a Nupe language dictionary and grammar
Awarded a doctorate in Divinity from Oxford University and received by Queen Victoria

Consecrated Bishop of the Niger at Canterbury Cathedral

1870 Personally ordains his son Dandeson in 1870 at St. Mary Islington

1877 Wife Susan dies, survived by two son and three daughters

1891 Dies from a stroke on New Year's Eve

We have a date for Steve’s Licensing Service

Bishop Christopher will conduct the service of licensing of the Revd Steve Bailey on Wednesday 29 June at St Paul’s Church at 7.30pm.

Please continue to pray for Steve, his wife Angie, and son Samuel as they await the birth of their new baby in April and prepare to move to Oadby.

Make your vote count!

Our church is led by our Rector, Michael Rusk, our Team Vicar (soon to be Steve Bailey) and the team of Clergy and Lay Ministers that works with them. But it is also legally governed by the Churchwardens and a committee called the PCC (Parochial Church Council). These act as trustees for the Charity Commission. The PCC meets every month or two, to plan the church's future activities.

Because we have two churches in the parish, each church also has a Deputy Churchwarden and a DCC (District Church Council) which meets most months.

Each year we meet for the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) at which we are able to hear how things have gone in the last year and elect Churchwardens, PCC, DCC and other officers. This year's APCM is at 7:45 PM at St Peter's Centre on Thursday 14 April 2011. For this to be truly representative, we need a good turnout and I hope you can come.

But in order to vote, you have to be a member of the church. You do this by being on the "Electoral Roll." If you are not already on the Electoral Roll, you need to join it by completing the application form which you can find here.

Can you suggest someone with the qualities to be a Churchwarden? If so, use the nomination form here

Do you know someone who would work well on the PCC or DCC (or are you prepared to serve)? Nominations for the PCC are available here, and for the DCC here.

This is an opportunity to say thank you to all those who have served our churches so well in the last year.

Everybody Counts!

Sunday 30 January was Poverty and Homelessness Sunday. Leading the service, Neil Griffiths reminded us that this was also the year of the census. Everybody would be counted. He talked of how every leaf on a tree contributes to the tree's well-being. Preaching from the Prophet Malachi he reminded us how God valued those who were at the bottom of society's heap and called on those who followed him to do the same. The night before, Neil had returned from Derby where he had met with youngsters who were sleeping in the open on a very bitter night to highlight the plight of the homeless. God cares about them too.

He had drawn a tree without leaves and had placed the outline of a leaf on each chair. On it was written: I count because…., and each person was asked to complete the sentence with something relevant to them. The congregation then came forward and placed their leaves all over the bare twigs.

Each of us is loved by God and that is why Christ died for us.

Preparing for Hope Together

Over 70 members from different churches in Oadby joined together on Sunday 23 January for a joint act of worship to celebrate the week of prayer for Christian Unity. The service was led by Colin Chettle a Reader (lay Minister) at St Paul's and remembered the life together of the Early Church. It was good to meet and celebrate all that unites us.

The preacher was Roy Crowne, the executive director of Hope Together. This is an organisation that encourages Christians to show their faith in acts of service to the local community. And Roy's sermon was an encouragement to get out into the community and provide hope as we demonstrate our faith by acts of love.

As occurs every two years Churches Together in Oadby (CTO) will be organising Lent Home Groups in which each Home Group unites members of different churches. They will be studying "Hope for Easter" which is a workbook published by Roy Crowne’s organisation.

How much difference will we be able to make in Oadby? Hopefully, a lot.

We have seen a great light

Among our congregation, we are privileged to have Emmanuel Oladipo, who was previously the International Director for Scripture Union. He was our preacher on Sunday morning, 23 January, and was preaching from the text in Isaiah 9:2, fulfilled in Matthew 4:16: "The people (of Zebulon and Naphtali) who walked in darkness have seen a great light." He reminded us that Jesus himself had said: "I am the light of the world." And, perhaps even more remarkable, Jesus had said of his followers, which includes us, "you are the light of the world."

Emmanuel recorded how Zebulon and Naphtali had been areas of great sin, yet Jesus had chosen that area, by then called Galilee, to be the centre for his ministry and had chosen most of his apostles from its population. As Christ brings his light upon our world, he is able to make enormous changes. Emmanuel spoke of the way that Pope Gregory had seen the child slaves from England in the Roman marketplace and had sent Augustine to bring the Gospel to southern England. He reminded us of the way that Christians had been prominent in the movement to abolish slavery and of one child slave who, in consequence, had been freed by the British Navy, working in the darkness that was West Africa at the time. That slave was the Nigerian, Samuel Crowther (photo) who then came to faith in Christ. He had enormous influence in spreading the news of Christ, the light of the world, in Nigeria and became the first Black Anglican Bishop. It was as a consequence of his ministry that Emmanuel's father ultimately came to know the joy of the light of Christ in his life.

Nowhere and nothing is too evil or too dark to be able to be changed by the light of Christ. It is our challenge to spread that light.

The New Team Vicar

Bishop Tim met with Steve Bailey on Monday January 10th and confirmed that he will licence Steve as team Vicar for St Peter and St Paul’s. We may have a little longer to wait for the family to move into St. Paul’s house, some other small matters such as the birth of Steve and Angie’s second child need to happen first. Their son Samuel is 3 and is really looking forward to a brother or sister. Steve has been doing his curacy in Walton on Thames and the family are pleased to be coming to Leicester which is much nearer Angie’s sister in Lincoln. Steve trained at St John’s Nottingham and worked at Lea Abbey before that. We look forward to having a new minister and pray that the Lord will prosper the family and our parish.

Journeys

Most of us have, at some point in our lives, experienced the ‘nightmare’ journey. The theme of difficult journeys came across very strongly in the recent BBC production of ‘The Nativity’. Scriptwriter Tony Jordan retells the story of Jesus’ birth in a number of stories showing different journeys. There is Mary and Joseph’s physical journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem and Joseph’s journey to faith as he finally accepts Mary’s account of her pregnancy. There is the faith journey of Thomas, a shepherd, and the epic journey of the Magi, or Wise Men, as they make their way to Bethlehem from the East.

The philosopher and theologian Claire Foster-Gilbert talks about the journey of the Magi in these terms, ‘the journey prepares one for this extraordinary moment of light – the Epiphany’. Epiphany is simply a religious way of saying that something has been revealed, made visible, and she makes the point that just as the journey for the Magi was difficult, so for us there are things that have to be worked at - they can take time. As she says, ‘there are dark times in the journey as well but you keep going’. Tony Jordan illustrates this beautifully as we follow the Magi and see, not just the difficulty of their journey but the times of reflection and preparation during it.

And we see the moment when the Magi have their Epiphany, when they kneel before the infant Jesus and understand that all the light, wisdom and power of God are concentrated before them in the tiny vulnerable baby. Claire Foster-Gilbert describes it in these words, ‘We call it Epiphany – the “ah” moment. Suddenly realising something, suddenly understanding something, suddenly seeing something differently......it orients us, shows us the right way to look. It is a profound relooking which sets us in a new direction.’

Perhaps something in the Christmas story this year has spoken to you of a need to relook, to take a new direction in your life? God never promises anyone an easy journey but one of the names of the infant Jesus is ‘Immanuel’, which means ‘God with us’. We do not journey alone, God walks with us. Why not join with us as we journey together into this new year?