THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK - From Rachel ReidRemembering and HopingBetween the ghoulish consumer fest of Halloween and the tinsel, festive food orders, and debt-inducing gift-giving of Christmas, there is a brief focus on poppies in our supermarkets and cities, with volunteers from the Royal British Legion sitting at tables by the check outs selling paper poppies, plastic ones for cars and enamel brooches. Knitted poppies adorn walls and cascade from church towers.So far, Remembrance Day has escaped the commercialism of Christmas and Easter. Schools and workplaces observe a 2 minute silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, to remember all those who served in the armed forces and sacrificed their lives for their country. The choice of date and time marks the beginning of the end of the First World War, when the Armistice was signed in a railway carriage in the Compiegne Forest near Paris. Everyone thought such a conflict could never happen again, as Europe lost so many of its young men, dying horrific deaths in the mud and carnage of battle. This was the war to end all wars.We all know what came next. Another World War a mere 21 years later, born out of the smouldering resentment arising from the harsh conditions imposed by the Allies on Germany. And although war has never come to our shores since then, and most of us have never known war, there have been countless conflicts in the past 80 years. Today the dogs of war are busy in many places, in Ukraine, Gaza (despite the ceasefire) and Sudan to name but a few.What is wrong with the human race?Why must we tear each other to pieces, bomb and blow up the innocent, hug hate, fear and cruelty close?You might say that we nice people in the villages outside York don’t do such things. But who can say they have never spoken a spiteful word, never simmered in resentment, never envied anyone, and never rejoiced when someone got their comeuppance? We all have a tendency to sin. As Christians we ask for forgiveness, and we are commanded to forgive others.The night Jesus was born some shepherds heard a host of angels singing in their high, ethereal voices, glorifying God, announcing Jesus’s birth and declaring peace on earth. God’s heart is for peace; peace in our hearts, peace in our churches, peace in our homes and peace between nations. As Christians we have an unbreakable hope that one day, when Jesus returns, wars will cease, death and sorrow will be no more. And we live in the light of that hope, carrying God’s spirit within us, working for his peace in our own lives and in our communities. So as we remember with gratitude those who died defending our country, let’s look forward too, to that day when God himself will wipe the tears from our eyes and we will see him face to face.RachelLet’s give thanks for: Those who sacrificed their lives to defend our country The ceasefire in Gaza Peace on our shores Those who work for peace The hope of Jesus’s returnLet’s pray for: The war in Ukraine, that a just resolution may be found The people of Sudan as they suffer a cruel and merciless civil war Ourselves, that we might be peacemakers Our churches, that they may be places of peace for our communities
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK - From Michael SargentPastoral ThoughtIn my years of writing various thoughts for magazines and newsletters I have never consciously turned my attention to the Church Times as a basis for what I am passing on to my readers. Things are different this week because I was drawn to two articles that I first glanced at and then went back and read them properly.The first was by a former Professor at Exeter University (Nicholas Orme) who said that when he was twenty in 1961 his elder brother suggested they had a drive out to the Forest of Dean and visited the ancient church at Newland and then noticed that a grammar school had been founded in that small village way back in 1446! He described this as his “Damascus Road” encounter, that resulted is spending years studying the ‘history of childhood and what is developed in them that makes them the adults they become!’ He ends this cameo of ‘Holy Places’ with these words, “To go into any ancient church is to be brought into contact with centuries of inspiration and devotion, often changing, and yet rooted in where it began - the Gospel of Jesus. One can come out from even an empty church building a different person from the one that went in (as I did when a 20-year-old in the Forest of Dean). And, for that, we need our churches to survive, including the small and the rural: we cannot do without them, for the Church of England is made by the England of churches.”The second article that took my attention were comments about the fake graffiti in Canterbury Cathedral that was intended to provoke questions about the nature of God and what the church stands for, but the majority of those who have seen it are appalled, describing them as ‘hideous and very obtrusive’. What the author of the article goes on to comment about is that it detracts from the importance of medieval cathedrals in Western Europe. He (Andrew Brown) quotes from the Spectator that concluded, “The Canterbury graffiti ... does not teach, it poses questions which, at best, are the proper province of prayer and debate ... it brings to mind not the beauty of holiness, but a urine-sodden Zone 3 underpass.”A cathedral without gimmicks can point towards an answer but the answer is not to be found from a can of aerosol on a space within or outside a building. It was a spectacle for visitors before it became a spectacle for the whole world. It is a hard road for English cathedrals to follow, no matter how much they want to, because so much of their fund-raising depends on tourism; in the end, if those graffiti draw more visitors to Canterbury, they will have done their work.There was a follow up the day after I started writing this ‘thought’ when various papers quoted, “cultural vandalism is happening under our noses every second, with the quiet decay of parish churches”. The UK has 38,500 churches. An estimated 3,500 have closed in the past 10 years. The Church of Scotland is planning on closing up to 40 per cent of its buildings. In Wales, 25 per cent of historic chapels and churches have closed their doors since 2015.Churches are the crown jewels of our heritage, containing the UK’s largest collection of art, sculpture and stained glass. The Church of England cares for 45 per cent of the nation’s Grade I listed buildings. What’s more – unlike grand galleries, museums or palaces – they are brilliantly accessible, being free to visit, and local to us all. They don’t tell the stories of the rich and famous, but a cross-section of ordinary, local people, and how they have navigated the past 700 years. As visitors to a church, we aren’t passive observers, gazing at objects through glass; when we take a pew, we sit side by side with our ancestors and play an active role in continuing the story.There is much more about the demise of the church buildings, but I leave you with the headlines in the Yorkshire Post on 22nd October – ‘Heritage challenge’ as 32% of churches face uncertain future.’To those who read this and think churches still don’t concern them, imagine a world where they are bulldozed over, the landscape devoid of soaring spires and the distant toll of bells never to be heard again. Let us not be the generation who let churches crumble. Instead, let us commit to save our wonderful churches for the nation, for our future, and for the countless stories yet to be written.Michael Sargent, LLM Acaster Malbis
