The Amazing Vanishing Marshmallow
…. and the Parable
of the Squirrel
Saints and Commemorations in April
Annual Parochial Church Meeting
Would you donate part of yourself?
Spring is just around the corner and ….
Over Holy Week and Easter we
were really privileged at St Mary’s to host a wide variety of services that
have enabled us to reflect on the enormity of God’s love for us as seen in the
death and resurrection of Jesus.
We all worship in different ways
– some of us like lively services, others find God in music or silence and all
of these were available at some point during the week – from the silence of the
Stations of the Cross or the Prayer Vigil, to the glorious music of Greater
Love by John Ireland on Good Friday, or the power of the Exsultet
on Easter Morning.
But I found God in some
surprising places during the week – and I’ll call them the event of the
vanishing marshmallow and the parable of the squirrel.
The first took place during
our children’s worship on Good Friday. About 30 children and the same number of
adults came to church to walk through Holy Week, to remember together the
events that led to the cross and the amazement of the garden. We told the story
in actions and music and also with marshmallows. We each had a marshmallow
representing Jesus and a blob of dough to make a tomb, completely covering
“Jesus”. We then rolled the dough in butter, cinnamon and sugar to represent
the spices that Jesus body was anointed with and popped our creations in the
oven.
Twenty minutes later
something amazing had happened. When we broke into the biscuit the marshmallow
had vanished! There was nothing there! No matter how hard they looked the
children and adults could not find “Jesus” within the dough tomb. It may seem
trite, it may seem childish, but many of the children left telling me the story
of the Resurrection with the help of the biscuit.
And the squirrel
...
At our Easter Vigil service
at 5.30 am we hear the story of God’s saving acts in history, culminating with
the proclamation of the Gospel of the Resurrection. To emphasise that this is
for all creation and not just to those of us sitting in church, we throw open
the doors of the church and read the Gospel to the unsuspecting park. This year, as I began to read, I had before
me an audience of one – a squirrel sitting in the centre of the path, looking
at me attentively and even moving closer as I continued with the amazing news
that the angels brought to Mary Magdalene and the other women. “He is not here!
He is risen!”
While I know that to ascribe
knowledge and understanding to the squirrel is ridiculous, nevertheless there
is a challenge hidden within the sweet image. The people who hear the Gospel,
the people who are called by its power may not be the people we expect, they
may not look the way we expect them to look, they may
not be where we expect them to be.
In the Declaration of Assent
that all clergy and lay workers make before they take up a new post, they are
reminded that the Church is called to proclaim the Gospel afresh in each
generation. The vanishing marshmallow and the squirrel remind us of that
challenge – that we must constantly hold together the tradition of the church
and the richness of its liturgy as well as finding new ways that reach new
people.
Justine
What's on in
April
|
|
||
|
Tue |
1 |
ST JOSEPH Magazine Panel meets at |
9.30 am |
|
Wed |
2 |
St Mary's Guild meets at |
2.30 pm |
|
Thu |
3 |
MU&OG. The speaker
will be Liz Pullen on MU Social Policy. The Centre |
7.30 pm |
|
SUN |
6 |
Easter 3 |
|
|
Tue |
8 |
Time for God |
9.30 am |
|
SUN |
13 |
EASTER 4 |
|
|
Mon |
14 |
Staff meeting at the
Rectory |
9.30 am |
|
Tue |
15 |
St Elphege's Church
Patronal Festival |
8.00 pm |
|
Wed " " |
16 " " |
MU Corporate Eucharist Poetry for Pleasure. The
Centre 'Fingers & Bows'
Recital in church |
10.00 am 2.00 pm 7.30 pm |
|
Sat " |
19 " |
WWDP Coffee Morning at
Holy Trinity, Wallington St Mary's choir sing
Evensong at Rochester Cathedral |
10 am-noon 3.15 pm |
|
SUN |
20 |
EASTER 5 Easter Vestry and Annual
Parochial Church Meeting |
11.00 am |
|
Mon |
21 |
Theological Book Club,
discussing God Outside the Box by
Richard Harries. The Rectory |
7.30 pm |
|
Wed |
23 |
ST GEORGE 'Talking on the Road'
Pilgrimage Presentation |
7.30 pm |
|
Thu |
24 |
'Praise & Play' for
pre-school toddlers Rain, Rain, Rain - Noah
and the Flood. |
10-11.30 am |
|
Fri |
25 |
'Kith, Kin & Kanine'.
The Centre open for Coffee & Cake |
10-11.30 am |
|
Sat " |
26 " |
'Clean for the Dean' Church Spring Clean Day Handbell Ringers Concert at |
from 9.30 am 7.30 pm |
|
SUN |
27 |
EASTER 6 Rogation Sunday The Very Rev'd Colin Slee and Lady Nairne will celebrate the transfer of the Patronage of St
Mary's |
9.30 am |
Tue 1 JOSEPH OF
Wed 9 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran Past,
Martyr 1945
Thu 10 William Law,
Priest, Spiritual Writer, 1761
" " William
of Ockham, Friar, Philosopher, Teacher of the Faith,
1347
Fri 11 George
Augustus Selwyn, first Bishop of New Zealand, 1878
Wed 16 Isabella
Gilmore, Deaconess, 1923
Sat 19 Alphege, Archbishop of
Wed 23 George, Martyr,
Patron of England, c304
Thu 24 Mellitus,
Bishop of London, first Bishop of St Paul's, 624
Fri 25 MARK THE
EVANGELIST
Mon 28 Christina Rossetti, Poet, 1894
"
" Peter Chanel,
Missionary in the South Pacific, Martyr, 1841
Tue 29 Catherine of
Wed 30 Pandita Mary Ramabai, Translator
of the Scriptures, 1922
Sunday, 6 April Easter 3
Acts 2 :
14a, 36-41
1 Peter 1
: 17-23
Luke 24 :
13-35
Sunday, 13 April Easter 4
Acts 2 :
42-end
1 Peter 2
: 19-end
John 10 :
1-10
Sunday, 20 April Easter 5
Acts 7 :
55-end
1 Peter 2
: 2-10
John 14 :
1-14
Sunday, 27 April Easter 6
Acts 17 :
22-31
1 Peter 3
: 13-end
John 14 :
15-21
Every Sunday we pray for
people living and working in two or three roads in the parish.
The roads in April will be:
Sunday, 6 April
Sunday, 13 April
Sunday, 20 April
Paston Close & Bloxworth Close
Sunday, 27 April
17 March Donald James, age 77
20 March Cissie Irene
Maynard, age 95
Congratulations to four of our choirboys, James
and Felix Asare, Aidan Rumbles and Jonathan Stubbings, who performed so well on the stage at the
Epsom Playhouse last month. They were taking part in the
The Poetry for Pleasure group will meet in the Centre at 2.00 pm on
Wednesday, 16 April. They will be looking at the work of the poet Gerard Manley
Hopkins. Newcomers are very welcome.
You are invited to the Women's World Day of Prayer Coffee Morning
at
Sutton WELCARE are collecting at Morrison's in Sutton on
Saturday, 26th April from 10am to 3pm. Can you spare an hour to help? If so,
please contact Roz Gammie
on 020-8669-6462 or at rgammie54@hotmail.co.uk . Funds
raised will help the ongoing work of Welcare's
Contact Centre in Sutton
An opportunity to hear the Handbell Ringers in Concert at
TS Puma
will be holding a Charity Dinner & Dance at their unit on Saturday, 26
April to raise money for their Euro Camp 2008, visiting the battlefields of the
'D' Day Landings and Passchendale. Tickets cost £35
for a champagne reception, three course meal and entertainment. Phone 020 8669
8219 or email suttonseacadets@btconnect.com
The annual GREAT CHURCH SPRING CLEAN will take
place on Saturday, 26 April from 9.30 am. Helpers are welcome - indeed
essential! Last time many spiders were evicted and their webs dismantled
(they're back!), the carpets, floors and curtains cleaned amid much fun for the
'workforce'. Lunch is part of the programme, so the kitchen team would be
grateful to know how many to cater for. There will be a list to sign up, in the
usual place at the back of the church.
Stop press
… Stop press …
Plans are going ahead for
another quacking Duck Day on Sunday,
13… watch out for more details!
The day after the Spring
Clean - renamed just for this year CLEAN FOR THE DEAN - the Dean of Southwark,
the Very Reverend Colin Slee will be at St's to
celebrate the transfer of the Patronage from Lady Nairne
to the Dean and Chapter of Southwark Cathedral. Lady Nairne
is the last member of the Bridges, Bond and Tritton
family to hold the patronage of St Mary's and she has decided that it is time
to pass it on to the Cathedral.
Very few churches now have
'private' patrons and St Mary's has been privileged that our patronage has been
in the hands of one family for well over a century. The names Bridges, Bond and
Tritton have a familiar ring as they are all names of
roads in the parish. In their time all these patrons have been a strong
influence for good in the life of St Mary's, not least because one of their
duties is to take part in the appointment of Rectors. The 9.30 am service on
Sunday, 27, will be the time to say 'thank you' to Penny Nairne
for all she has done for St Mary's and to remember the contribution of so many
members of her family in the past, as well as to look forward to our new
relationship with the Cathedral.
If you are on the Electoral Roll
of St Mary's (Anglican-speak for our official membership list) you will be
eligible to vote during the Annual Meeting itself, which takes place in the
Church at 11 am on Sunday, 20 April.
The minutes of last year's
Annual Meeting, this year's Annual Report and Financial statement from the PCC,
and the Agenda for this year's Meeting, will all be available in good time,
from Sunday, 13th April at the latest.
Among the business of the Meeting is the election of Churchwardens and
the PCC for the coming year, as well as representatives for Deanery Synod. If you are considering standing for election
in any of these capacities, then once again you need to be on the Electoral
Roll, and the relevant nomination forms will be available in plenty of time,
from Sunday, 6th April if not
before. If there have been no
applications for postal votes, the PCC will be declared during the Annual
Meeting and commissioned at the 9.30 am service on Sunday, 4th May.
However, you may want to
take part in this year’s elections but are not able to attend the meeting
itself. In that case you can apply beforehand for a postal vote. Application
forms for these will also be available in plenty of time. Once again the system
will then spring into operation. It works like this:
Return your application form
to Pat Kingsbury or to Pam or
Voting papers will be
counted on Thursday 1st April or Friday 2nd May, by people who have not been
candidates in any of the elections. All
candidates will be notified of the result that same day, and the new PCC will
be announced and commissioned during the 9.30 Eucharist on Sunday, 4th
May.
The first meeting of our new PCC will be on
Tuesday13th May at 8 pm.
Silence…… what does that
mean to you?
Silence is often defined as
"the absence of sound" but is there ever true silence? Where does
your imagination take you when you perhaps long for silence? Where were you
when you think you last experienced silence?
Can there ever be complete
silence? There's always a sound somewhere - the waves on the shore, the wind in
the trees, a distant vehicle or the song of a bird. (There's the continuing
argument that if a tree falls in a forest with no one to hear it, does it make
a sound?) Perhaps what we mean by silence is the absence of noise, a commodity
in great abundance in most of our lives. To be still and quiet, calm and
peaceful, is probably the nearest we get to silence.
Most of us have
"heard" 4 Minutes 33 by John Cage (and may remember the battle
between him and Mike Batt, who included a track
called A Minute's Silence on his 2001 album Classical Graffiti and co-credited it to Cage!) For those
who don't know, Cage's piece was inspired by his visit to an anechoic
(echoless) chamber. Cage expected to hear nothing. Instead, he heard his own
nervous system and his blood circulating round.
We can't ever experience
total silence but we probably need more quiet time in our lives. Or is it that
we are too afraid of silence? Do we fill our lives with sound to blot out
silent thoughts, or as a form of companionship? (If the TV or radio's on, do we feel we're not alone?) Or could we make it
our time for God?
Perhaps we should try
listening to our own hearts in our moments of silence.
We were privileged to host
the local morning service for Women’s World Day of Prayer at St Mary’s on 7
March.
The service this year had
been prepared by the women of
The theme chosen by
The service presented us
with a couple of interesting challenges that appeared a little daunting at
first, such as the singing of an anthem, Sophia, Hokma,
Sapientia, declaring our worship for Jesus and the
wisdom and power of God. Jenifer, our Reader and MU Enrolling Member, grasped
the challenge. She asked Pam Akhurst to help ‘train’ the ‘MU Choir’ and
persuaded members of the MU and a few friends to become the choir for the day.
With just two rehearsals, condensing about three months of teaching into just a
few hours, the ‘choir’ eventually had the courage to stand on the platform to
sing the anthem and also to lead the responses and hymns. The service also
contained the chorus of praise Rejoice in the Lord Always, which it had been
suggested could be sung as a round. Pam said ‘no problem’. She divided the
congregation into four blocks and led us in an unaccompanied rendering. (It
speaks further of Pam's accomplished teaching that the 'choir' was also asked
to repeat the anthem at the following Sunday's 9.30 am Eucharist.)
We were pleased to welcome
the Mayoress, Mrs June Reid, and many friends from
local churches, making a total congregation of over 60 people. You may be
interested to know that £124 (plus Gift Aid on some) was given in the offering
for the work of the Prayer Movement, for Christian Literature Societies and for
Christian Educational Projects.
As preacher, we were
delighted to welcome Rev Steve Taylor, Minister at
It was good that many of the
congregation came into the Centre after the service for coffee and a chat, many
catching up with old friends.
May we express our thanks to
the women in Guyana for such an inspiring service and may I say a big thank you
to our MU members, in particular to Jenifer, and to Pam for making our part in
the Day of Prayer so uplifting, prayerful and enjoyable.
Heather
* female
noun meaning 'wisdom' in Greek, Hebrew and Latin
Where did all the Christian
denominations come from?
Continuing our look at other
Christian churches, it is the turn of :
The
Baptists
Baptist Churches take their
name from the practice that only those confessing saving faith in Christ should
be baptised. So from their very beginnings, Baptists did not baptise infants.
The rite of baptism is
usually by total immersion and most Baptist churches have baptisteries in their
buildings. The Baptist belief that only confessing Christians should be
baptised arose with the 16th century Protestant Reformation, but Baptists
believe that this practice goes back to the New Testament.
The Reformation in
Baptist congregations began
to appear in
Almost from the beginning there
were two distinct groups among English Baptists. The General Baptists believed
that Christ died for all and that all could be saved, while Particular Baptists
believed in particular predestination.
The Baptist church has had a
great influence in the
While Baptists around the
world belong to a number of separate Baptist unions and federations, the total
membership is around 70 million. Baptist worship is non-liturgical and
preaching is central. Baptist churches are organised on the lines of local
autonomy and elders elected from the congregation assist the pastor.
Is it right for Christians
to donate their body parts, either during life or after death? That is a
question considered recently by the Church of England's
The resulting submission
affirmed that Christian faith is a positive motivation for organ donation and a
powerful incentive for many people to donate.
For Christians, acts of
mercy are a part of the self-sacrifice that God requires of us. Giving oneself
and one's possessions voluntarily for the well-being of others, and without
compulsion, is a Christian duty.
However, the body is to be
respected and the continuity between life and death, in the form of what is
done with the body, matters. The body at its burial or cremation should ideally
be recognisably the body of the person who has died. The harvesting of organs
should not be such as to violate this continuity or to cause unnecessary
distress to the mourners.
Whether organ donation
should be arranged through an 'opt-in' or an 'opt-out' system is not a question
on which Christians hold a single set of views. Moral questions like this must
be considered in their wider social and political context, so the undoubted
need for more organs to be donated for the healing of others has to be weighed
against the changed relationship between persons and the State which moving to
an opt-out system might entail.
Selling organs for
commercial gain would never follow from a Christian ethic - it confuses the
notion of an organ as a gift and turns it into a commodity. Altruistic organ
donation from a living donor, however, would flow from a Christian ethic,
provided that there was no coercion, no commercial gain, and no harm to the
living donor.
What is not in doubt is that
Christians have a mandate to heal, motivated by compassion, mercy, knowledge
and ability.
18 April
At the beginning of the
year, I went to a funeral at St Elphege's church in Wallington. At the
"wake", I heard someone ask the family who St Elphege
was. They didn't know. Many of us have attended the Churches Together musical
events at St Elphege's and have no doubt noticed the picture of StMary's church on their banner. Why is it there?
St Mary's church existed
before the Reformation and therefore was part of the "Roman" catholic
faith. It was THE parish church for all Christians in the area and the
congregation of St Elphege's still think of it as the former "mother
church". Indeed, every April, near the time of their patronal
festival, they come and celebrate the mass in St Mary's. (
This year's service is scheduled for Tuesday, April 15.)
But who was St Elphege? He was born in 954 and began his religious life in
a monastery in Deerhurst, Gloucestershire eventually becoming
Abbot of Bath Abbey. In 984 he was made Bishop of Winchester. During this time
he visited Beddington, saying Mass in St Mary's.
In 1006 he became Archbishop
of Canterbury. In 1011, the Danes marched into
After resting 11 years in
On his special day, let us
pray for those working for the establishment of justice and freedom for all
people.
28 April
1830-1894
In the bleak midwinter must
be among the 'top ten' Christmas Carols and one of its author's few well known
poems - which seems hard, for this writer, Christina Rossetti,
was well known and very highly regarded in her own time. She was even seriously
considered to succeed Lord Tennyson as Poet Laureate.
Christina was one of the
four children of Gabriele Rossetti, a political
refugee from
Christina spent most of her
life as companion to her mother. She was twice engaged and twice broke off the
engagement because her fiancés converted to Roman Catholicism. Her loyalties,
like her other emotions were always strong, particularly to the High Church
Anglican tradition in which she had been brought up - and to her family. The Rossetti's were a close family, all intelligent, highly
creative and always mutually supportive.
Christina Rossetti's ill health prevented her from writing a great
deal. Her poems were mostly on fantasy or religious themes and, perhaps because
of the events of her life, there is often an undercurrent of sadness. She
published several collections of poems for children. Honoured for her poetry,
which deserves a wider audience, Christina Rossetti
is also remembered for her religious devotion and her courage and idealism.
Do you remember Bag Books,
the national charity which produces multi-sensory story packs for children,
young people and adults with learning disabilities and/or sensory
impairment? We got to know all about
them back in 2006 when SMYLE chose to support them by their fundraising
activities that year, culminating in the never-to-be-forgotten 'Duck Day'. Pam Akhurst has recently received a letter
from Bag Books thanking us once again for the £1,200 raised as a result of SMYLE's hard work. The letter goes on to say:
'..…... The SMYLE team and
St Mary's Beddington donation enabled us to buy and laminate all the page cards
needed for one hundred complete story-packs. This was a huge help and benefited
over two thousand children because they are shared, and six of them went to
family homes as birthday and Christmas presents.
One of them went to a boy
called Andrew who lives in Lanarkshire and we contacted his Mum because it was
the third story she had ordered for him last year and this is what she told us:
"It's really difficult
to buy a birthday present or a Christmas present for Andrew but he just loves
is [Bag Books] stories. He's thirteen and he's two wee sisters and we do it as a
family. He gets really exited and now he chooses which one he wants to have. My
friend came over and Andrew was desperate to tell her something and we couldn't
think what it was and then I realised that he wanted her to see his new books.
When I brought them out he was beaming, absolutely delighted and really
excited"
….. a
very big thank you to you all.'
Well, Bag Books has once
again been chosen as the charity to benefit, along with Church Funds, from
money raised at our forthcoming Flower Festival. It is good to know that the
charity is able to provide such a tremendous amount of happiness to so many
with the donations they receive.
The hedgehogs are coming! With Spring and
increasing warmth of the sun, hedgehogs around the country are waking up from a
long hibernation this month. They are in need of food and water as soon as they
emerge, as they need to replenish lost fat reserves in time for the breeding
season. If you have hedgehogs in your garden, you can do a lot to help them.
Offer them meat-based pet food and fresh water - and soon they will be repaying
you by snacking on your slugs and snails. Please take care when tidying up the
garden from winter mayhem - many hedgehogs suffer terrible injuries every year
from strimmers, garden forks, etc. For more info on
helping these enchanting, prickly garden visitors, visit the British Hedgehog
Preservation Society at: www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk.
Dawn Chorus The dawn chorus peaks in April and early
May. Our garden birds such as robins, blue-tits and blackbirds are advertising
their territory boundaries and either inviting females to mate for the first
time or returning to previous partners. The male's singing prowess is a signal
to the choosey female.
Badgers Do you like badgers? If so, this is a good
month to enjoy watching the youngsters. Badger cubs usually emerge from their setts for the first time in April, and if you know of a sett locally, arrive about an hour before sunset, settle
ten metres away downwind, and wait to be entertained!
Bluebell time Did you know that 20 per cent of the world's
population of bluebells is found in the
Somewhere on this earth a
woman is giving birth to a child every ten seconds. We must find this woman and
stop her at once. (Sam Levenson)
Did you hear about the
dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac who stayed up all night trying to decide if there
really is a Dog?
April 1988
The magazine for this month
announced the safe removal of the Rector and family into the new Rectory in
Bloxworth Close. Is it really that long ago!
In the previous month's
issue, there had been a plea for more ringers. Our loss had apparently been
Two choirboys had written
about their day spent on a course at the RSCM at
The MU had had some serious
discussions about current advertising on TV regarding the prevention of AIDS.
They were very concerned that the moral side of the issue was not being
addressed. They were also worried by the anomaly in the tax system whereby it
was financially advantageous for a couple to live together rather than get
married. How would such discussions go 20 years on?
There were contributions
from the Guides and Brownies and the Boys' brigade and an article on
covenanting.
On the back page was an odd
little contribution. It had been written by my younger son some years
previously so I have absolutely no idea why it was there. You work it out:
a story with a moral
The
The
Although they were rich and
could afford the best, they lived in a humble grass house, just like all their
people.
On their anniversary one
year, their people gave them a beautiful new throne. It was all hand-carved and
very ornate. The King wanted to sit on it at once but the
That night a fierce storm
arose. The wind howled round the island. The people became very frightened. The
King said he was going out to help them. The
The moral of this story is: People who live in grass houses shouldn't
stow thrones!!
Tue 1 Thanksgiving for all good and caring
fathers
Wed 2 The people of
Thu 3 Our Praise & Play Group for parents
and toddlers
Fri 4 Nursery nurses and all who care for the
under fives
Sat 5 Christians who have limited access to
the Scriptures
Sun 6 All who travel
by road, rail or air
Mon 7 Community workers and local councils
Tue 8 All who lack clean water, fresh food,
and proper housing
Wed 9 The Lutheran Church, its priests and
people
Thu 10 All spiritual
writers
Fri 11 The Church
and people of
Sat 12 The lonely and all who feel rejected
Sun 13 Vocations to
the priesthood and to lay ministries
Mon 14 The leaders of the nations of the world
Tue 15 The handicapped, the deaf, the dumb and the blind
Wed 16 All with special
learning needs and those who care for them
Thu 17 The Archbishop of
Fri 18 All Christian
MPs and MEPs
Sat 19 Our choir travelling to Rochester Cathedral
Sun 20 The Annual Parochial Church Council meeting today
Mon 21 All who do
research into healing
Tue 22 Doctors,
nurses and surgeons
Wed 23 The people of
Thu 24
Fri 25 The Church
Army, and all evangelists
Sat 26 Our church community fellowship, and the parish
Sun 27 Our retiring patron, Penny Nairne
Mon 28 Church in the
South Pacific, its priests and people
Tue 29 All who teach
and preach the Gospel
Wed 30 Our Link
Dioceses in