February 2024 Pastoral Message Dear Friends, This year Ash Wednesday and Lent follows hard on the heels of Christmas and Epiphany – we have just two Sundays between the 2 seasons. Often this can make us feel a little bit rushed. No sooner have we celebrated the birth and manifestations of Christ during Christmas and Epiphany (and put our decorations away), then we are focusing on a season of self-denial and discipline, prayer and study, culminating in Christ’s death on Good Friday and resurrection at Easter. I remember being asked this very profound question from a child in one of our schools- "did they take Jesus straight out of the crib and put him on the Cross?” We could be forgiven for thinking the same. And although the nearness of Lent and Easter to Christmas can be unsettling, perhaps the proximity of these seasons and festivals this year can be to our advantage. Maybe for an unchurched society they make no connection – but there is a really important connection. Maybe we need to find ways to recognise that it is the same person, God incarnate, who is lying in the manger, and who has his arms outstretched upon the cross. Perhaps we can remember, like this: Perhaps we will remember more clearly that the child of Bethlehem whom angels, shepherds, and wise men adore is the same person who is crowned with thorns and whom the crowd of Jerusalem disown and condemn to die. Perhaps the depth of God’s love will be revealed more fully to us as we connect together the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ to new life as a promise and gift of God to all his children. Perhaps there is real symbolism in keeping your Christmas tree, rather than taking it to the dump for recycling and fashion it into a Cross. We often do that at Madresfield church. It is good when we make such connections in our Faith: when we remember as individual Christians, or as our churches, and take these messages to heart. Let’s use the coming of Lent to get ready - get ready to dedicate ourselves to prayer, read the Scriptures, ‘giving things up’ (aka fasting) for God and supporting those in need. Are our Lenten observances a bit faded or stale? Perhaps our Lenten observances need re-thinking and re-imagining each year. How many of you remembered to keep out a Christmas ornament on show – and plan to keep it out, despite the temptation to put it away? Will you do the same with your palm cross later in Passiontide, I wonder? Who will have a palm cross available at Ascensiontide? I often meet people who give up the same thing, and do the same thing, during Lent, year after year. Why not try something different: a Lent course, study the Scriptures with a commentary, come along to Lenten prayers or use my Lent Prayer book. Maybe, give up something different and costly and give the money you would have spent to the church or to charity. Of course, for some these dots between Christmas and Lent and onwards to Easter have already been joined. For some others, none of these things I have written about in this letter may speak to you, but as we enter into Lent I hope and pray that this season may be a time of spiritual refreshment and growth for each and every-one of us. Every Blessing, Rev Gary
Christmas 2023 Pastoral Letter Dear Friends, The events of the first Christmas were strange and wonderful. That was the experience of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and the wise men. For them, the first coming of Jesus was disturbing and awesome. But too many of us have lost the awe. We tend to receive the account of the first Christmas with familiarity. For some of us, the Christmas Message of Hope is well and truly lost on us. We prefer to be lost in a myriad of TV adverts, the annual return of Christmas specials or I’m a Celebrity , cheesy celebrity soundbites, secular Christmas concerts , family rows or disagreements about where Uncle Percy will stay this year (“is it our turn again?”) or a good works night out. Are you in need of more awe this Christmas? The claim of Jesus, the gospel writers and letter writers of the New Testament, is that the creator of the universe was born in Bethlehem that night. Is that not awesome? The “heavenly risk assessment” for Jesus’ first months must have run into several pages. Born of an inexperienced young mother on a long journey to an overcrowded town. With powerful enemies soon intent on killing him: dangerous journeys across the desert as a refugee family. Do you not wonder at the rollercoaster ride that was Jesus’ arrival on this earth? It is rather awesome. Jesus was born into an unfashionable, ordinary, family with what we could describe as “marital issues”. Circumstances caused his birth to be in a cattle shed because they were most certainly not from The Inn Crowd. Jesus’ visitors, came (eventually) to worship him: from the roughest of locals to the smoothest of foreigners all guided by a celestial light show. They were all filled with awe. Most people missed it, even though it was the working out of a plan that had been conceived at the time of the first humans and revealed over many centuries. There are not many places in our community to find a suitable expression of this joyful awesomeness but the Church is one. There are not many places that allow you to enjoy this kind of awe at Christmastime. But your churches in Powick, Callow End, Madresfield and Newland are indeed such a place. Why don’t you come? Please see our website (www.oldhillsmalvern.co.uk) or our Facebook and X posts for more details. We are all going on a Walk of Wonder around Madresfield on Sunday 10th December (with carols and readings – meet at the church at 10.30am) and carols with the Chase Brass Band at Penny Close in Guarlford (you can’t miss it – just follow the lights!). We are having a display of nativity scenes at Guarlford too (like a few other local churches). Instead of Nine Lessons this year, we are having a service with a gospel edge led by VoxRox from Upton on Sunday 17th December at Powick at 6pm. We have crib services at Callow End and Madresfield on Christmas Eve, followed by The First Communion of Christmas services at Powick and Guarlford too. You could even delay the Turkey or Nut roast or the new cracker game (the hunt for the missing Gift receipt) by coming to church on Christmas day, too (11am – Powick or Madresfield). The first Christmas was awesome. This time round too, let’s encourage ‘more awe’. With Festive greetings this Advent and onwards to Christmas Rev Gary
Dear Friends,November is a month to remember. And we remember not to take things for granted. Not taking things for granted helps us have better focus, and promotes better priorities in our life.On Remembrance Sunday 12th November 2023 at 10.50am, for the first time in the time I have been your Priest, church services at Guarlford, Madresfield & Powick worship together at the same time for the national silence at 11am (I hope with the clock changes, everyone remembers!).Remembrance Sunday is a good opportunity to express publicly the much-needed intention not to take peace for granted. Next year, we commemorate 80 years since D-Day and in 2025, the ending of the Second World War. Psychologically, many of the younger generations might well be thinking such war will never visit us. We can all too easily take peace for granted.The Gaza/Israeli conflict and resultant humanitarian crisis, and the war resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, remind us not to take peace for granted. Devastating war is closer than we think: in the case of the current conflicts - less than four hours’ flying time separate our peace from armed conflict and humanitarian strife. Remembrance Sunday helps us remember.Jesus taught very clearly that this age, in which we live, will see wars. He was not the sort of humanist who believes that humankind is getting better in all ways, and such bad things are going away. Not at all. Jesus said ‘there will be wars and rumours of wars’ right up to the time of his second coming. He warned us so that we can be ready to face up to the challenges of our times, and to work for peace, and to be ready for war. Many of the Ukrainians are Christians and this has helped them to be resilient in the face of terrible warmongering. We need to remember the civilian casualties in Gaza and Israel too and the aid agencies trying to help in hard circumstances. We want to be resilient. Being resilient is helped by good remembering.On Sunday 29th October 2023, we had our annual Parish Memorial Services. The services on that afternoon brought back to church many family members that your village churches have supported over the past two years with funeral ministry. We gathered together to remember loved ones who are no longer with us and to give thanks. I hope that this annual gathering was indeed helpful, as we all come to terms with our own loss, and it also helps us to value our close friends and family. A shared experience of expressing our family grief reminds us how much we value our loved one’s memory, and helps us not to take our remaining family and friends for granted. Remembering helps us value people and cherish people.Whilst we remember or hold deep routed remembrances, we need to give thanks too. We remember that all we have comes from God’s generosity. As we approach the end of the Church’s year at the end of the November, we do need to anticipate and look forward to God’s plan for us as a group of churches, moving forward. We mustn’t dwell, too much, on the Diocese’s Transformation and Change agenda, in the purely organisational and church bureaucracy way, but look for the signs for how Gods is transforming us. Being thankful for our parishes’ presence, prayer and persistence to help others in spite of the challenges we face is important. Offering thanksgiving is a marvellous antidote to taking things for granted.November is a month to help us remember and give thanks for all have achieved. Come and remember and so be ready and focussed on the things that really matter.Every blessing Rev Gary
Vicar’s Blog August 2023 Be still, Be Present, turn off the Gmail (don’t forget the Speedo’s) I remember, when I was a child, the school summer holidays seemed incredibly endless – amazingly, the days seemed to stretch out and to go on and on – a time of lazing around and enjoying not having particularly much to do. Now, as an adult, father and Vicar, with the schools closed for the summer after the fun and farewells associated with the end of the school year, the six week stretch will seem to just fly by and will be almost over as soon as it’s begun. Thankfully the Deanery and Diocese slow down too over the summer. Perhaps they are enjoying a break too! However, I am fortunate in that I will be having some time off with my family and the chance to go on holiday and to get away from it all. These opportunities are really important – to be able to spend quality moments with Alison, Jessica and Issy (Harriet might come along too): for us all to be able to relax away from all the pressures of work and of school; and to be able to enjoy one another’s company without the demands of work and study hanging over all the time. The weather may not be great but it’s still a change of scene and routine. That said, we need to be back for A level results day…… Whether we go away on holiday or simply enjoy time relaxing at home, it is important for our mental and physical health to have times of rest and relaxation. It is also, I believe, important for our spiritual health as well. On a recent Deanery walk around Guarlford, we have talked a lot about the important of making time to be still and to reflect, and of making space for God and listening for God’s voice. In the busyness of our daily lives, the still, small voice of God can often be drowned out; and it is often when we are on holiday or just enjoying a break from our daily routine, that God is finally able to get a word in edgeways and we can benefit from more time to pray and read the Bible and to focus on God’s love and desire for us to experience life in all its fullness. During his earthly ministry, Jesus made it a priority to escape the demands of the crowds – even the demands of his own disciples – and sought out places of quiet where he could pray and be alone with God. The Gospels are full of verses describing Jesus doing this; and if he, the Son of God, needed opportunities for prayer and rest, how much more do we! So, whatever you are doing this Summer – whether you are going away or enjoying time at home or even giving thanks for the lack of emails from me; let us pray that each one of us will be able to find moments to be still, to be peaceful and to listen to God’s voice of love speaking to us and surrounding us with kindness, mercy and grace. Every blessing - Gary
