Archive for the ‘Minister’s Letters’ Category
Dear Friends,
What is Lent for? As I was growing up I always thought that it symbolized and helped us to remember the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted by Satan. That idea of self-denial seemed to fit with the ideas of giving things up for Lent that were all around me. But Lent is much more than that. It is a time of preparation. In first few hundred years of the church, when it was still a fledgling movement, the 40 days before Easter became a time of instruction and preparation for Baptism and acceptance into the church. Each day for at least 3 hours, those wanting to be baptised had to receive teaching on the meanings of the sacraments. Some of them even lived in the church, shutting themselves off from the outside world whilst they drew close to the mystery of the death and resurrection. Let’s perhaps be thankful that that’s not what the church expects nowadays! But, we shouldn’t reject out of hand the idea that Lent is a time for contemplation and for learning.
Lent is not just a time for giving-up things that we like, but also a time to make good any relationships that are going awry in preparedness for the great celebration of Easter. This is traditionally done through prayer (relationship with God), fasting (relationship with self) and through charitable giving (relationship with neighbour). I think it’s a real shame that parts of the church and society in general has forgotten the first and the last of these practices and that Lenten discipline has become focussed on self-denial. The primary purpose of Lent is not to deny ourselves the things we enjoy but to redress the balance of our lives.
So I pray that you will find time this Lent to fix your eyes upon the cross and journey into a deeper relationship with God and the world around you.
Blessings,
Amy
Dear Friends,
The bright colours of the summer have faded to be replaced with the burnt hues of Autumn. The nights are drawing in, the wind becoming chillier and the long, dark months of winter are approaching. We look at the bountiful food provided by our farmers and our fields and we give thanks to God for the seasons which allow the food to grow.
In this season, we also celebrate the feasts of All Saints and All Souls. As Methodists we are not all that good at keeping pace with the festivals of the liturgical year. This is a shame as it gives us opportunity to pause for thought and reflect on the lives of those who have gone before us. All Saints allows us to think about the lives of great Christians and the impact that they have had on the world. Of course, our reflections on the ‘Saints’ do not have to be as narrow as only people with a ‘St’ in front of their name! In some traditions people like John Wesley and Phoebe (a deacon mentioned by St Paul in Romans 16) are remembered. Of course St Paul also refers to whole communities of Christians as ‘saints’. All Souls day gives us a moment to remember all people who have died before us. Maybe they have died recently and maybe a long time ago. It can be a joy to think back and relive the memories of their life, and those happy thoughts can provide us with hope for the future. This is a time for acknowledging the passing of years and lives and to give thanks for both.
Blessings,
Amy
Dear Friends,
Recently we’ve had two visits to Darlington – my last surviving aunt had died at the age of 95 and I was asked if I could lead the service celebrating her life. Afterwards we went to the Blackwell Grange Hotel nearby for refreshments and there would be about 40 of us there. And that was when it got interesting!
I knew Aunt Dorothy’s three sons, though it has been years since I had seen any of them. There was another cousin, Arnold, who at 71 is still farming and coming towards the end of lambing – he has 400 ewes and so has spent a lot of nights lately on the settee and been going out at all hours in the night. I knew him and his wife Jean, and there was Joy and also my sister and her husband. But after that I was scratching my head, or asking somebody I knew ‘Who’s that?’ Yet by the time we came away I had been able to make quite a few more connections.
It was after I’d come away that I began to reflect that though I hadn’t known most of the folk there, we were all connected and most could speak of a family connection. In fact even though I hadn’t seen those I knew for years I still felt part of the family. It was a good feeling!
A few weeks ago I was speaking at a meeting and somebody there that I knew was reflecting that even though he has moved
around the country a lot because of his work, one thing he had found and could count on was that when you went to a new Methodist Church you were among family. He had always found a welcome.
That’s the way it should be. One of the things a reading this morning from the First Letter of Peter was emphasising was the importance as Christians of our communal life together. Afterwards over tea and coffee it felt as if there was a real family feeling. It is one of the things that people say about our church in Tadcaster, that it’s a friendly and welcoming church. The same can’t be said of all churches, sadly, but long may it continue to be so here.
As Joy and I prepare to move on we know you will make Amy feel welcome. We thank you for all your love and friendship over the years and know that just because we move away that will not end. We also pray that when we settle in Beverley we shall feel part of the family there as well.
Wishing you much love,
Your Minister and friend,
Ray
Dear Friends,
A few weeks ago I went walking in the grounds of Ammerdown, a centre for spirituality near Bath. I was there for a weekend conference and the leader had encouraged us to take advantage of the fine weather and the beautiful countryside. ‘You might just want to wander, enjoy the time and give your minds a rest’, he said, ‘or you might see something that strikes you that you wish to bring back with you, as long as it’s not the monument at the top of the hill.’
So I’d set off and followed a path in the grounds that went towards a pool. Close by the pool were a number of beech trees and underneath literally hundreds of beech nut cases. I found myself thinking of a verse from the gospels:
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains that and nothing more; but if it dies it bears a rich harvest.”
We’re in the season of Lent and approaching Easter, and I think of how the speaker of those words, Jesus, gave of himself sacrificially in his ministry with others and ultimately gave his own life, and what a rich harvest has come from that act of self-sacrifice. Many have followed in his steps and given generously of themselves, and that generous love has also borne much fruit. We too are encouraged to give of ourselves and when we do, others and our community and the world benefit.
I went on and came across some leaves from last autumn. A leaf from a Canadian maple tree was particularly attractive and I added that to the beech nut case that I had picked up. A few more weeks and I suspect those leaves will no longer be on the ground. The earth will have swallowed them and been enriched by what seems dead. So as we absorb ourselves in the life of our villages they can become the richer for it – we certainly are encouraged by God to add value to the places where we live.
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I added two pieces of bark that were on the ground to my collection and then went back indoors. There I shared my finds with the others and listened to what had attracted them. The weekend went on as we shared more of the life of Thomas Merton, an American Trappist Monk who died over 40 years ago. He may have taken a vow of silence while in the monastery but he is author of some 60 books that continue long after his death to speak powerfully to many. He may have renounced the world in going into the monastery, but the longer he was there the more he became involved in the great issues that challenged the world in the 50s and 60s. As I move towards retirement later this year I find myself thinking that’s a challenge to us whatever phase of life we are at and whatever the period may be in which we live.
With much love,
Your Minister and friend,
Ray
My Dear Friends,
The service was over and coffee followed. On this day too there was a Church Lunch to look forward to which we knew would be excellent so that by the time we eventually left the building it was after two o’clock. There were tasks still to be done – this letter to write was one of them. But I was tired! Perhaps it was age, or perhaps the accumulation of years of work that at times could be quite draining. Perhaps it was waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to drop off again easily.
I really shouldn’t be surprised because all of us at times feel like that and Jesus did as well. So thank goodness for the resources that he gives, the food for the journey that comes in different ways…
“with these holy gifts [of bread and wine] you have fed and strengthened us”.
My immediate neighbour had talked of bird watching and we had commented on various sites, many of which like Fairburn Ings involved water. Something very therapeutic about water, we agreed. I thought of the 23rd Psalm – “He leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.” It is true….
There some books to be dropped off for someone, but after that a coffee break with the day’s papers. Part-work but also part-renewal. The stopping, the ceasing from being Action Man or Action Woman.
Back home and a bit more of that book I’m reading about Thomas Merton – he knew the value of quiet contemplation. I can certainly learn from him.
Even then, before this letter began to flow from the computer keys, there was time wandering through a labyrinth with sweet music playing. The labyrinth is on the computer on the Methodist website and I’ve visited it before, and it always helps.
So now I’m writing the letter, mentally thanking God for the resources he provides. We don’t all have a computer! Sometimes we may feel we have so much to do that we haven’t the time.
I knew I needed these things and none of us should feel guilty about pausing – we return to the task refreshed hopefully and better able to tackle it.
But the only justification I need is to look at Jesus and say, “If Jesus needed such moments and times, how much more do I.”
Take just a little time, and may God bless you as you journey through the year.
With much love,
Your Minister and friend,
Ray
Dear Friends,
By the time you read this we shall be into Advent, the lead-up to Christmas. I have to say that two events yesterday, (I’m writing this on Sunday, November 21st), really set me up for it.
In the morning, along with some other preachers from our circuit and from round the District, we were in Knaresborough at Gracious Street Methodist Church for their Bible School. Then, after lunch on the run, we were at Ulleskelf’s Christmas Fair, where a good time was had by all, even though there was no Father Christmas.
I enjoyed myself in the afternoon. I didn’t buy any books or any items from the bric-a-brac stall, we are after all preparing to downsize, but cakes and chutneys, prizes from various stalls, not to mention a warming cuppa, were all purchased. There were friends from the village as well as from the churches to chat with and a new baby, Charlotte, who I shall be baptising in January, was seen for the first time. We shall soon be celebrating again the birth of that other baby, our Lord Jesus, and Charlotte was a reminder of him and of the miracle of human life.
Yet much as I enjoyed myself, the morning was perhaps what I needed more. Rev’d Martin Turner, Minister at Westminster Central Hall in London, was leading us in a gallop through Paul’sLetter to the Colossians. In bite-sized chunks, with intervals to allow each course time to settle and be digested, and laced with humour, God through Martin fed us. The Letter was written when Paul was under house arrest to people he’d never met but who he’d heard were in trouble. There was a danger that they would be led down the wrong path and so he was reminding them of what they had been taught when they first heard the good news about Jesus. So he reminded us of the supremacy of Christ and went on to speak about the way in which Jesus, by his teaching and his death on the cross, has led us into new ways and set us free from things that would mar and limit our lives.
In the period of this newsletter, which straddles the turn of the year, we need first to remind ourselves that Christ should have supremacy in our hearts and thinking at this time of year when it is so easy for other things to crowd him out. Let’s not make it yet another year when there’s again ‘no room for him at the inn’. And when the New Year dawns, let’s avail ourselves of the opportunity for a new start which he offers us.
Wishing you every blessing,
Your Minister and friend,
Ray
Dear friends,
As I write this I’m preparing to go to the wedding in Edinburgh of Joy’s god-daughter. After the wedding we shall stay at Berwick on Tweed and on the Sunday drive on down to South Shields to watch our son and daughter take part in the Great North Run.
I was looking forward to seeing them among thousands of others running for charity until I went on the internet to look at the weather forecast. It gives heavy rain as the order of the day! It won’t stop them taking part – they did the London 10Km race a few years back in the wet. But watching won’t be much fun. In fact, if we had just been going for the day to enjoy the atmosphere we would probably have decided to head back home and watch it on TV. But when it’s your children, you do anything for them, even such daft things as standing in the pouring rain for hours!
We’ve all heard of fair-weather friends, those who are there with you when all is well but suddenly disappear into thin air when the going gets tough. There’s more than one occasion in the story of Jesus when people enthusiastically talk of following him, but as soon as he says they’ll often not have a bed indoors every night and paints a realistic picture of what it might be like (not easy at times) following him, their keenness soon cools!
Commitment, loyalty and faithfulness are things that Jesus looks for and which we hope to find too in friends and in people in general. The sort who are always there for us are precious indeed and perhaps also offer a challenge to us. Which are you – a fair-weather friend, or a friend indeed?
Rain or shine, we’ll be there at the Great North Run!
With much love,
Ray
My Dear Friends,
August, traditional holiday month for me for forty years, and then into September, ‘the silly season’ in the eyes of many. That’s because many churches don’t have the usual meetings/gatherings in the first of those months and there are not usually any business meetings either, but come September everything starts up again and the autumn round of business meetings happen and suddenly there isn’t a free night in the diary!
Perhaps your lives also have cycles like that – the calm before the storm. When I was a child August would be when we went away, usually towards the end for holiday at Scarborough with its Cricket Festival. When we returned in September it was to a new class at school or sometimes a new school. When I started work as a teacher, the same applied. When I became a Minister, nothing much changed because the new Methodist year always begins in September.
So that month of August has always been an important time. These days I would say it is time given us to prepare for the new challenges that will arise in the coming months. Some of them I know about already. Some will crop up in the coming months but at present I have no inkling of them.
We all need those quieter times to help us prepare for the busier ones. Jesus certainly had them in his life and as you look at many of the saints, they too had them. They created space for themselves at times it seemed. It is after hearing our new Methodist President speaking about ‘Listening to God’ and reflecting and preaching on that theme that I write this. And in writing thus, I hope I’m encouraging you into healthier ways as well as listening and taking notice of God speaking to me.
With much love,
Your Minister and friend,
Ray
My Dear Friends,
It is Pentecost as I write this letter to you. Pentecost is when the first followers of Jesus received the gift of the Holy Spirit which Jesus had promised them. The Holy Spirit would make them bold and give them the ability or power to do things they did not believe themselves to be capable of doing. The Holy Spirit still helps people today in this and many other ways – when I sometimes find what somebody else thinks to be the right words to express something, I know it is the Holy Spirit who helps me to find the right way of saying it.
One of the things I find challenging is to see where God is at work today in everyday situations, for this is where the Holy Spirit is at work. In particular in recent years I have become more aware of the way in which through music, films, theatre, art and poetry God’s Holy Spirit speaks powerfully to me and others and energises us. Only last Sunday evening I listened to part of the final of the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year, 2010. I arrived home from a long day just as the last finalist was about to perform. Her instrument was the piano, which I also play, but there the similarity ended. She played a delightful and captivating Concerto by a French composer, Saint-Saens. At the end I said to Joy that if the 16 year old girl did not win, then one of the two earlier competitors must have been ‘out of this world’! She did win! Afterwards I reflected that she not only had great technical expertise and must have spent long hours over many years in dedication and practice, she had that something extra – she was truly ‘inspired’. That I believe is the work of the Holy Spirit! Certainly the music and performance spoke vividly to me
and restored my soul!
Just two days ago I watched a DVD of a film called ‘Bright Star’, about the life and love of the poet John Keats, who died at the very young age of 25. It inspired me to go to my bookshelves and read some of Keats’ poetry. I’m not a great lover of poetry, but a new world opened up before me as I read. In the same way we went to a Photographic Exhibition in Bradford last month. It was on one of the social evils of today – the trafficking of young girls for sex. It was moving and powerful, got me worked up about what is wrong. It was the Spirit at work and this is the kind of way in which God continues to work.
Think about where you see God at work today. What stirs you up? Look for signs of the Spirit and act on them.
With much love,
Your Minister and friend,
Ray
My Dear Friends,
I ventured into the garden on Friday morning. It was a lovely day and I gave the lawns their first cut of the year. It did feel good and they did look good, better than I expected because I hadn’t cut them last back-end when I should have done! A bit of pruning and a few more light jobs and I did feel pleased with myself. I went to the composter and took some of the very fertile stuff from the bottom. It had become full to the brim and I hadn’t been able to put any more fruit and vegetable peelings in for a while but by the time I’d finished the rotting material had dropped till it was now only half filling the compost bin. And while I might have neglected the garden at times over the past few months, others had been hard at work. Worms that had been active were wriggling around near the base and in the matter I’d taken out.
As I write this we are only two weeks away from Easter, when there will be more stories about a garden and somebody who had been at work there. We shall hear the story of Mary and others going to the garden to the grave where Jesus’ body had been laid. We shall hear of the empty tomb and of the way Mary, utterly distraught, hangs around in the garden. She meets somebody that she assumes is the gardener and then we shall hear him speak and experience afresh Mary’s joy when she realises it is Jesus. ‘Show me that scene in the garden’ an old children’s hymn says.
I would like to think that when we leave Tadcaster people
will be able to see we’ve made a difference in the garden.
More importantly though, I hope folk will be able to tell we’ve spent time with the gardener of the Easter story and not neglected to spend time with him. I often find that time spent in the garden at work can be quite creative as far as thinking about the work Christ calls us to, but it’s spending time with gardener that makes the real difference.
Wishing you Easter blessings,
With much love,
Your Minister and friend,
Ray