Vicars Letter
Vicar's Letter August 2010
Between 11th and 19th September St.John's - like many other places of worship across Calderdale - is taking part in the "Treasures Revealed in Calderdale Festival". It is an initiative by the Churches Regional Commission to encourage people to visit and appreciate places of worship. It is an opportunity to go to churches and chapels and mosques (unfortunately there are no Sikh Gurdwaras, Hindu Mandirs or Jewish Synagogues in Calderdale) and to see how buildings enhance our appreciation of the divine.
St.John's is a beautiful building - at least on the inside. Visitors are nearly always amazed to step inside and see how bright and airy and warm and inviting it is. It aids our worship. It is a living and lived-in building. It has changed with the times over the decades, as all lived-in buildings do. Does your house reflect the way people cooked and washed in 1915 (the year St.John's was built)? Of course it doesn't. And neither should the church reflect the way people worshipped God in 1915. It will continue to aid us in our worship so long as it continues to adapt.
Of course, God is not kept within four stone walls. Wherever we are, and whatever we are doing, God is present. He is ready to challenge and inspire us. He invites us to identify him, name him and join in with him wherever he is active bringing about justice and compassion.
God leads us into all truth and helps us to approach the big questions and eternal mysteries of life with wisdom and insight. There is going to be an opportunity to explore these questions and the Christian perspective on them in way that is advertised as being "cringe free, totally relevant, cynic friendly". It is going to be on neutral territory outside the four stone walls of the church.
The Y-Course is being run on 8 consecutive Tuesdays in the Globe pub on Rastrick Common. The sessions begin at 8.00 pm on Tuesday 28 September. Come along. Come with some friends. Tackle the questions that matter, over a pint.
Matthew Pollard.
Funerals
1 July - Maurice James
5 July - Stanley Womersley
12 July - Barbara Warhurst
16 July - Rosemary Grundy
16 July - William (Bill) MacKenzie
26 July - Fred Waterfield
the Y Course
cringe free. totally relevant. cynic friendly
eight weeks that tackle the questions that really matter, including
Is there more to life than this?
If there's a God what could he be like?
If Jesus was so good why was he executed?
Why suffering?
What happens when we die?
What is 'saving faith'?
Eight weeks
Starts 28 September
Two venues
9.30 amin St.Matthew's Parish Centre
8.00 pm in the Globe pub, Rastrick Common
It's now six months since St.John's completed its Transformational Plan. We did it along side all the other parishes in the diocese of Wakefield who opted into the scheme. The idea is that we have a five-year action plan of mission initiatives, to be reviewed every year and renewed at the end of the five years.
A summary of the Transformational plan was published in a previous edition of this magazine and also put up in the church. The process of writing the Plan was, in itself, really valuable and it is proving a useful tool. The church's Core Group again has an unambiguous purpose and agenda and people involved in leading worship are now better coordinated in a new group for that purpose.
Certain things have happened or have been planned because of the Plan. I've already written in a previous edition of the wonderful party in celebration of Baptisms that we had up at St.Matthew's at the end of January. We're now starting a nine-week course to help us reflect on how the Christian faith engages with real life issues.
The course is called the Beta Course. You don't need to go to all nine sessions: each session stands alone, so it's perfectly possible just to go on the weeks when you can make it. You can go on either a Wednesday of Thursday. To find out more or to arrange to attend, please ring Dianne Bates on 719088.
In the autumn St.John's is going to put on a course addressing the basics of the Christian faith for those who would like to find out more. That is to be a joint venture with our sister church at St.Matthew's. It will be called the Y-Course. Watch this space to find out more.
Just because we have a Transformational Plan, of course, does not mean that everything is set in stone and there is no longer any room for discerning where God is inviting us to join in with his mission. That process of discernment is one for which all church members are responsible and which is particularly focused through the work of the Core Group. Please do continue to pray for God's inspiration for the life of St.John's, feel free to talk to any of the members of the Core Group (whose details are in the Who's Who list in this magazine) or indeed consider whether you might be being called to join that group.
Matthew.
Congratulations from the Bishop of Wakefield to the parishioners of St.John's
More than three fifths of what it costs to keep St.John's on the road is money that has to be raised by the church's congregation each year and passed on to the Diocese of Wakefield to provide ministry* in this parish and elsewhere across the diocese. This money goes into the Common Fund (which used to be called Parish Share). Last year, we paid more than £38 000 into that fund.
The Bishop of Wakefield has written to us thanking and congratulating us on paying what was asked of us in full. In these hard times, many parishes struggled to do that. St.John's only did manage because of the commitment, hard work and sacrificial giving of its congregation's members.
The bishop recognises that and has particularly asked that the thanks he has sent be shared with as many people as possible.
* Of course, not all ministry is paid for. As vicar I am assisted by our Honorary Associate Priest, the Revd Stephen Hannam, who gives of his time for free, and by retired colleagues. Perhaps more importantly, I am supported by ministering collaboratively by all the many gifted people within the church.
Matthew.
Vicar's letter March 2010
For the whole of March we're in the season of Lent. I wonder whether you've given anything up for Lent. Is it chocolate, biscuits, crisps, alcohol? And if you have given something up, I wonder why you've done it. Is it an end in itself or is to prompt you to do something additionally?
Christians go through these annual antics of giving up sugar in our tea (or whatever) so that every time we take a bitter slug we're prompted to remember that we're doing it for Lent. Every time we decline a biscuit we're prompted to reflect on the spiritual journey we're going through with Jesus - the journey through betrayal, to trial, to crucifixion, to what lies beyond it. Every time we have an orange juice instead of a pint we're prompted to pray; and through prayer to align ourselves that bit more closely with what Jesus goes through for us.
It doesn't actually matter whether you give anything up or not. Many people give up nothing. But it does matter if you don't do those things that giving something up would prompt you to do.
We're getting ready for Easter. That's what Lent is for. We're getting ready to receive the life of the resurrected Jesus into our lives. We won't be ready unless we're spiritually prepared. And we won't be spiritually prepared - on Easter Day or on any other day - unless we have subjected ourselves to spiritual discipline.
If, for you, that means giving something up for Lent, may God steel your resolve to stick to it.
Matthew.