The Priory and Parish Church of St James, Deeping
Scripture readings for Sunday
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November is a month of change. We begin with All Saints, a celebration of salvation and the Communion of Saints, with thoughts of heaven and the hope of eternity, and at the end the beginning of Advent when, as preparation for the celebration of Christmas, our thoughts turn to judgement and our personal unworthiness for eternity. As members of sinful humanity there seems to be nothing we can do to earn a place in heaven, for our goodness is always limited and our motives almost always mixed. Indeed, once we start to consider whether we are going to heaven, in human terms we are already on the way to hell, this being a selfish consideration! The gospel, the good news, of course, is that we do not have to earn that place because God our creator is well aware of what he has wrought in us and has himself provided and paid for the way to heaven. That being so, we need not concern ourselves with whether we are going there or not, but rather should concern ourselves with celebrating that we are, thereby beginning in this life the process whereby we become fit to be there.
The service at 9.30am on All Souls' Day, 2nd November, should not be taken as a pleading to God on behalf of all those who have "not made it" to sainthood, but rather a continuation of the All Saints' celebration to include those who are not officially recognised in the calendar of the Church but who nonetheless are among those for whom our Lord was born and died and who are loved by our heavenly Father.
The key to this process of becoming ready for heaven is God, in the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in us to make us holy ourselves, to make us saints: those we call the saints are those in whom the work of the Holy Spirit is obvious even to us sinners, but all of us who have the Holy Spirit working in us are in the process of becoming saints, becoming what God has made us to be. The beginning of this is symbolised in Holy Baptism and again in the laying-on of hands in confirmation, and our lives in the Spirit are celebrated and renewed week by week in the Holy Communion and day by day in our attitudes to those among whom we live: not for nothing has the adjective "christian" come to mean "good" in everyday English.
In some ways the most important part of the Holy Eucharist is the dismissal: "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord".
1st, All Saints
10am: Ephesians 1: 11-23; Luke 6: 20-31
6pm: Isaiah 65: 17-25; Hebrews 11: 32 - 12: 2
8th, 3rd before Advent
10am: 2 Thessalonians 2: 1-5, 13-17; Luke 20: 27-38
15th, 2nd before Advent:
10am: 2 Thessalonians 3: 6-13; Luke 21: 5-19
22nd, Christ the King
10am: Colossians 1: 11-20; Luke 23: 33-43
29th, 1st of Advent:
(Year A begins)
10am: Isaiah 2: 1-5; Matthew 24: 36-44
6th December, 2nd of Advent
10am: Isaiah 11: 1-10; Matthew 3: 1-12
The reading of the Word of the Lord in the Holy Bible is an important part of the Christian life. For many, hearing the readings in church and some personal study a few times a week may be sufficient (at some stages in life, anyway), but for many others some help may be required, and I would suggest that for all of us help is needed sometimes. Perhaps the sermons you hear meet your needs exactly, but perhaps they do not and leave you with as many questions as answers. Your Vicar and Reader are always happy to answer questions from individuals about what they have heard or read, of course, and there are hundreds of books avaiable in libraries and bookshops to help.
Often studying the Bible in groups can be a great help, when you realise, for example, that a passage you had always taken in one way has been taken in a quite different way by someone else, or that something you had overlooked in a familiar passage stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb to someone else reading it for the first time.
I am proposing to start a Study Group on Friday mornings at the Vicarage, a time which seemed to suit several people in Lent, although I well realise that it will not suit everyone. We shall start this as a sort of Advent project and if it works well it can be continued after Christmas indefinitely, with the odd week out for holidays etc.. It will meet at 10am and the Advent "pilot" study will be the so-called Christmas story, so that we are well-prepared for the great Christmas celebration when it comes. The first session will be on 27th November, and then weekly until and including 18th December.
Anyone will be welcome. Indeed, a mixture of new Bible readers and experienced ones would be a real advantage: newcomers often see things that older hands miss. You don't even need to bring a Bible because, as you might expect in a Vicarage, we do have a few to lend! Advice can be given on which might be the best translation to buy (or request for Christmas!).
I look forward to welcoming you to the Vicarage for this exciting new venture.
Many thanks to those who continue to supply used stamps for missions.
World Outreach report an income of £4,043 from this source during 1997. This was used to assist projects in 27 countries, details are available if required.
Please save the stamps from your Christmas mail and leave a good margin of envelope if possible. the stamp box is at the back of the church, or if more convenient, stamps may be left at 11 Broadgate Lane.
Thank you very much.
By the time you are reading this the Funding Programme will be well under way, with the second social event taking place on All Saints' Day, 1st November. Those who were not able to come to one of the events will receive their information about the new Planned Giving Scheme through the post, and everyone who has been invited will then have an opportunity to respond to what they have heard and read.
Please keep in mind that this is not simply an exercise in keeping the local church afloat (though that in itself is worthwhile!) but also part of what each of us does as an individual to respond to the love of God. Our giving is ultimately a sacrifice of ourselves, as we express in our worship, and our money is simply one symbol of that sacrifice, but it is a very effective symbol, for money expresses our whole lives better than many other possible symbols, looking back to what we have done to receive it and forward to our hopes and aspirations for how we might use it. To give it to God for his work is to give up something of ourselves both in terms of the time and talents which earned it and in terms of opportunities forgone in spending it.
It also requires faith that God will provide for us if we have consciously given up for him some of the material wherewithal to provide for ourselves. Do we firmly believe in a God who will do this? It would be impractical for all Christians to follow St Francis's example of giving away everything, even his clothes, for the way God provides is normally through the generosity of the rest of the Church. A generous sacrifice will enable the Church to be effective in showing the love of God to the people of this parish in the coming years: please pray carefully for yourself and for one another as we all consider our response.
WILL BE HELD ON 5TH DECEMBER IN THE LEISURE CENTRE AT 7PM
featuring and The Combined Choirs of the Deepings Junior Schools
Tickets £9 (concessions £6), available from Deeping Travel and the Leisure Centre
One of the less attractive experiences of life is to listen on the radio to the House of Commons in session. It often comes across as a bear-garden where the purpose seems to be not to deal with the subject matter, however serious or urgent, but to worst one's adversary and boost one's ego. Nor is it entirely implausible to see parallels occasionally within the Church. "I am for Paul, I am for Apollo" - I am progressive, you are conservative; you are into all this trendy spirituality. I am into traditional worship. On television and in public meetings there's a good deal of venom poured out in the name of the God of loving kindness, and all, of course in the pursuit of truth and 'true" religion.
It's not that conflict and controversy are new to the people of God. Even the holiest of saints have fallen out with each other, and felt the need to take a stand on a point from which in conscience they could not be budged. Paul managed to have bitter quarrels with Barnabas John Mark and Peter. Bernard of Clairvaux and Teresa of Avila were embroiled in quarrels for most of their apostolic lives. Sometimes the willingness to take on a fight is a mark of integrity, a gift of the Holy Spirit who brings fortitude along with wisdom. Having no stomach for a fight is not necessarily a sign of holy meekness. Jesus himself did not hesitate to take on his critics. But to the last gasp of death he was willing to look on his adversaries with compassion and understanding, and to accept the least token of openness to faith.
There are plenty of foes worth fighting out there. injustice, abuse, cruelty, hopelessness, not to mention spiritual and moral bankruptcy. We don't need to fabricate enmities among ourselves. The wrangling that goes on in the Church too often smacks of self-indulgence - like the negative campaigning of Westminster. It does nothing to gain respect within the eyes of onlookers and draws energy away from our common need for conversion. People outside the Church may be doctrinally ignorant, but they have as keen a nose for hypocrisy, arrogance and uncharity.
Any refusal to be reconciled makes a mockery of our profession of faith. Remembrancetide, with its stark remember of those who died in the war, and the continuing pain of the victims of oppression should make us reflect on these things and spur us on to better ways. Our call through baptism is to preach in our lives the reconciling presence of Christ in the world. If we fail in this we can win all the points and arguments in existence, but we will not have advanced the kingdom of God. We have been granted unlimited, unconditional grace to combat all the evil in the world. If we are spoiling for a fight, at least let's pick on something the right size.
Those who had been servers at my very first Sunday services here last year looked at me suspiciously when I said afterwards that there had been some drips in the sanctuary, and I had to explain that I had been referring to the leaks in the roof and not to the serving team. Much water has passed under the bridge (and quite a bit through the ceiling, too) since then, and a progress report is probably in order.
The only roof at present leaking is the one over the chancel, that is the lower roof at the east end of the building, little drips in the side aisle having been mended in the summer. Unfortunately, mending the chancel roof is a difficult task. The slates are very badly damaged by strong wind eddying round the end of the side aisle roof, and the roof slope is rather too low for slates to last long in any case. Our architect has suggested that the best course would be to replace the slate covering with a grey-coated stainless steel one which would be unaffected by the conditions which have so badly damaged the slates. The Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches has looked at the roof and has agreed in principle to us proceeding with this work and we are now waiting for our architect to return and look inside the roof to examine the timbers before drawing up a specification which can be used as a basis for contractors' tenders and for a Faculty application. In order to gain access to the roof for this purpose, a small area will be opened up temporarily as soon as a roofer is available to do this.
The cost of this project cannot really be estimated until the conditon of the timbers is known: the leaks over a long period may have led to some considerable deterioration and it would be costly in the long term to put a new covering over timbers which would need attention before the new covering were life-expired. Whatever the cost, grant aid must be sought, and sources for grants are now being investigated. the aim would be to leave as much as possible of our fabric fund untouched, so that there is sufficient money left to do other pressing work to the building.
It is to be hoped that by this time next year I shall be able to report that the roof has been re-covered and that the other tasks are well in hand, perhaps some of them also complete.
Please pray for the PCC as it tries to act wisely in all these matters and to be a good steward both of the building and of the funds committed to its maintenance and improvement, so that we shall have a building which will continue to give glory to God well into the next millennium as well as serving his people in their mission.
The space which had been reserved by Faculty in the churchyard for the interment of ashes has now been filled and stone tablets placed over most of the spaces. The Parochial Church Council has been considering a number of options for future provision. We could reserve more space for the same sort of burials, but it would not be possible to provide much more in this way, for the plots with their stones take up a lot of space. We could provide for burials of ashes without caskets in a garden of remembrance with the names of the departed recorded on some form of memorial or book of remembrance, but there is no space available in the churchyard which immediately lends itself to this use.
Since the parish cemetery is immediately adjacent to the churchyard, it was felt that the best solution would be to discontinue interring ashes in the churchyard itself and to encourage families to have their loved ones cremated remains buried in the cemetery. Families who have been here for some generations can probably inter ashes in the graves of their kinsfolk already in the cemetery. Ashes can also be buried at the crematorium, of course, if preferred.
If you are disposing of any kitchen (or other) cupboards, Bill Flegg would be grateful of first refusal on them. he is attempting to improve the storage in the small room adjacent to the kitchen in the church hall.
to Margaret Flegg: A large, round, flat bottomed basket with handle. This was sold in error with produce at the Harvest Festival Auction. Thank you.
The combined proceeds from the Harvest Lunch and Auction of Produce amounted to a total of £195.30. This sum has now been sent to Christian Aid.
Grateful thanks go to Margaret Flegg for the excellent lunch and to Bill Flegg and Trevor Harwood for conducting the auction.
This year's service of Remembrance will be held on Sunday 8th November at 3 pm.
All are welcome to attend, whether to remember a loved one whose life was given in conflict or simply to give thanks and pray for peace and freedom.
Once again the Vicar and Choir are planning an evening service at 6 pm on Sunday 29th November to mark the start of Advent.
The service will focus our attention on the expected coming of the Messiah. There will be plenty of opportunity for the congregation to participate in the singing of Advent hymns.
We welcome into the Lord's family:
13th
We Congratulate:
5th
12th
19th
This is only an extract from some of our magazine. Residents of Deeping St James can subscribe to the printed version.
Back issues are available on line as follows:
November 1997;
December 1997;
January 1998;
February 1998;
March 1998;
April 1998;
May 1998;
June 1998;
July 1998;
August 1998;
September 1998;
October 1998.