Dear friends,

This news update comes with my love and blessings as we journey onwards through Eastertide. I do hope that all is well with you? Please get in touch if there’s anything I can help you with.

With love and kind regards,

Reverend Anthony

Many thanks to everyone that made our Gospel Singing Day with Hannah Brine such a success on Saturday at St Matthew’s in Grosmont. It was such an uplifting day, and it helped to inspire Reverend Anthony’s sermon (see below) for Sunday morning. We plan other similar events, and quite a few people expressed an interest in being part of a new choir through the survey we have done. Watch this space for further information on that! Around forty people came on Saturday from across the county.

We mentioned a few weeks ago that we weren’t actively seeking to appoint any Churchwardens at this year’s annual meetings, but we’re delighted to announce that Ed Mangles and Nigel Parr were elected at Egton on 14th April. They are both very keen to collaborate across the benefice and develop new ways of distributing the Churchwardens’ responsibilities amongst those in our community willing to undertake aspects of the Churchwardens’ role. A similar approach will apply to the administration parts of Reverend Anthony’s Interim Minister’s role, as we continue to build a more straightforward and systematic approach to the day-to-day running of the four parishes and their six church buildings.

We are also using the responses to the recent survey alongside our community forum discussions, and our involvement with John Day and the ‘Revitalise’ team from the Diocese, to begin to re-design our approach to how our parishes are run.

Thanks to everyone currently involved in the many aspects of our church community – all your hard work is very much appreciated!

Please do come along to the last of our four annual meetings if you can. It’s at Midday this coming Sunday, 5th May, at St Mary’s in Goathland.

Tomorrow - 30th April

6:30 - 8:30 Sharing Space in Glaisdale at St Thomas

Something a little different at Sharing Space this week. We want to explore the importance of place in faith. We're meeting at St Thomas' and we'll have some refreshments first. Then we'll spend some time individually, absorbing and exploring the beautiful place, in the building and in the churchyard (if the weather is good). We'll then compare our thoughts and see where the discussion takes us. All are welcome to come along and be part of the group.

Wednesday - 1st May

8:30 Holy Communion Service in Goathland at The Bield, Beckhole Lane, YO22 5NE

Thursday - 2nd May

10:30 - 2:30 Vi's Community Cafe in Grosmont at St Matthew's

1:30 - 2:30 Play Space in Grosmont at St Matthew's

Sunday - 5th May

9:00 Holy Communion in Lealholm at St James

10:45 Holy Communion in Goathland at St Mary's

11:00 - 3:00 Spring Fair in Grosmont at St Matthew's

12:00 Annual Church Meetings at St Mary’s in Goathland

4:00 Fellowship Space - meet at The Hollin's Institute in Grosmont

We’re delighted to be welcoming Jackie Newton on Sunday morning at Lealholm and Goathland. Jackie is a licenced lay minister-in-training and she’ll be spending some time with us over the coming months as she looks forward to being licenced in September. Please come along and meet Jackie - she’s lovely and is full of enthusiasm! She’ll be helping Reverend Anthony lead our two services, and she’ll be coming to the annual meeting in Goathland.

Helen and Chris invite you to Fellowship Space every first Sunday of the month. Topics vary but almost always include music and conversation. This Sunday the meeting starts with a walk in bluebell woods followed by tea and cake at home! Meet at The Hollins Institute, Institute Row, Grosmont YO22 5PQ (parking free on Front street from 4pm or, if available, at the Institute). We will leave for the walk at 4.10 pm. It is likely to be muddy and slippery so please bring appropriate footwear. Walking is at your own risk. In the case of wet weather we will not walk but have a social time. Sorry, but please no dogs!

And last but my no means least, our Spring Fair is coming up on Sunday too, from 11 am at St Matthew’s. Refreshments served. If you would like to have a stall, please contact Hilary on 01947 895722. We always need help with making and serving food for refreshments. Please email us back if you can help with this or either of our community cafes. Thank you.

Please follow this link for the Readings that go with the sermon Reverend Anthony preached on Sunday:

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock, and redeemer. Amen.

We had a wonderful Gospel singing day on Saturday with Hannah Brine at St Matthew’s in Grosmont. We sung,

“I sing because I’m happy;

I sing because I’m free;

His eye is on the sparrow

And I know He watches me.”

That was an amazing experience – who’d have thought that was written back in 1905 by Civilla D Martin. The words we sang conveyed a sense of joy, contentment, and trust in a higher power. As Christians, we know that higher power is God, and the imagery of God’s watchful eyes on a sparrow symbolizes divine care and protection. God is in the detail of our lives. And the repetition of “I’m so happy” emphasizes Civilla D Martin’s deep happiness and faith. Overall, it’s a hopeful and uplifting message.

I wonder what today’s readings can tell us about happiness, and whether they can add anything to our gospel song from yesterday?

In our gospel reading, in verse 8, Jesus says, "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples." I wonder if bearing much fruit is intrinsically what makes us happy? Serving others, if you like? But how good are we at serving others? There are many people in our villages that feel insecure, isolated and vulnerable. Those that feel alienated from the world. Those that feel abandoned. Unloved.

Jesus wants us to be happy, and I’m sure he would have been pleased with our gospel singing yesterday. In our beautiful Gospel passage, Jesus is explaining that we’re a part of him. Jesus is allowing us access to everything the Father gives him: Jesus will love us and value us, respect us and never let us go. In him we find our authenticity, our confidence and our relevance to God and to the rest of our world. A vine is a remarkable plant. As it grows, a vine develops a very thick and winding stem from which the branches emerge. The vines grow so that it can be hard to work out which branches are the original ones, and which branches are the fully grown ones.

At the beginning of our Gospel passage, when Jesus says, "I am," in relation to the vine, we know that he speaks from his divine nature. "I am" is God's own name, given to Moses. And Jesus-as-God is the vine. The vine, and the wine that comes from it, are symbols of love, Jesus’ love in the form of his blood poured out for us and given to us as the sacramental wine we will share at Communion. Jesus is the visible source of love in his ministry on earth, and he invites us to become a part of that vine, a part of that love. But it’s important for us to remember that even though the vine’s branches all look alike, no two branches are exactly the same. They may weave and curl in similar ways, they may produce similar fruit following the same pattern. But each branch is unique. And this symbolises Jesus' call upon each of our lives. Jesus calls to us in our uniqueness to become joined with him in his purposes: spreading the love of God wherever we are. Serving others. We produce the same fruit from our individual branches, and we remain integrated and united with the original stem.

Whether we’re fruitful vines or not depends upon us. And there is a cost to being a fruitful vine, of course, just as Jesus' life had a cost.

The Holy Spirit wants us to be happy. The Wisdom of God which comes to us through the power of the Holy Spirit is God’s special gift: a gift which strengthens and inspires us to hold fast, to remain faithful and fruitful. We’re called to hang on to Jesus when we’re challenged by the world, and challenged through our personal hardships, too.

And we’re called to hang in there even when we’re being "pruned" back a bit. But the wider our experience of God gets, good and bad, the deeper our understanding becomes. And sometimes, paradoxically, the more we suffer, the greater our capacity becomes to appreciate life as a precious gift. We see others more clearly through Jesus' eyes, and we place greater value on others. Our own little branch becomes an active extension of Jesus. And from that little branch grows a greater love for God and one another: the result is an expansion of love throughout our world. And that love is an expression of the joy that Jesus wants to lavish upon us.

To let Jesus’ joy permeate our daily lives, and to express that joy, may, in unexpected and surprising ways, attract others to explore the essence of what it is that brings us that most wonderful cause for joy. Others that we serve then might discover such joy; such happiness.

“I sing because I’m happy;

I sing because I’m free;

His eye is on the sparrow

And I know He watches me.”

Amen

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The Reverend Anthony Bennett

Interim Minister – the Benefice of Middle ESK Moor

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These two books, edited by Jane Williams, are continuing to be very helpful with planning my sermon writing:

Williams, J (2009), Ed., ‘Lost for Words, A Sermon Resource for the Anglican Three Year Cycle,’ Redemptorist Publications, Chawton, UK.

Williams, J (2011), Ed., ‘Lectionary Reflections, Years A, B and C.’ Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, UK.