FROM THE MINISTRY TEAM 5th March this year is Ash Wednesday, so called because it is the day starting Lent when, from the Middle Ages, it became a custom to be marked in ash with the sign of the cross. (There will be opportunities for that at the services that day.) Lent is the period when we are reminded of Jesus’s 40 days in the wilderness prior to the commencement of his ministry. Mark’s gospel simply records, after Jesus’s baptism, ‘At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals and angels attended him.’ But Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels have fuller accounts of the ways in which the devil tried to tempt Jesus, and Jesus’s responses. When the devil said to the starving Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread”, Jesus answered “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” When the devil suggested that Jesus should throw himself down from the highest point of the temple, on the basis that if he was the Son of God, he would be kept safe, Jesus replied, “It is written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” And when the devil stated that he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus bowed down and worshipped him, Jesus responded, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ” Oscar Wilde famously quipped, ‘I can resist everything except temptation’ but Jesus was very different and resisted all the devil’s wiles, in each case citing words from the Jewish scriptures, our Old Testament. How well can we remember words from the Bible? Traditionally Lent is a time, according to my Common Worship: Times and Seasons book, of ‘self-examination, penitence, self-denial, study and preparation for Easter’. May we find time this Lent to reflect, to study God’s word in our Bibles and to draw closer to him. Henry Stanford -Reader
FROM THE MINISTRY TEAM February 2025 Thoughts Hanging the washing out I noticed a sign of life in the garden, green shoots, obviously planted, because they were in rows. I am not the gardener in our family, Peter does that, I just potter, but with enjoyment, when new shoots appear through last year’s growth which has protected the plant in the frost and snow. I believe in the protection of the new growth so in my patch I don’t clear away the old until the new shoots appear. I am a lazy gardener as well. Those shoots in the rows are broad beans which Peter had planted before the winter. He tells me they produce better pods by planting the seeds early because they can stand the wintry weather and it prevents black fly, and they make strong root systems. Why am I waffling about our garden you might ask? By the way, waffle means talk and not necessarily nonsense. Well, I think our garden and what goes on there is like our churches.There are those who are committed to keeping the furniture in a structured, more formal approach; pews in straight lines, the seeds who position themselves on those straight lines hopefully grow, some having strong roots. There are those that grow from the fellowship; casually chatting and sharing their lives with others at coffee mornings and soup lunches, probably pottering, encouraging seeds to grow where they will.There are those who visit to experience the wild yet nurtured church garden, then venturing inside, taking note of the changing photos portraying the long historic sustainability in the life and the growth of our church communities.Then there are those who visit our garden and eat the produce gladly given away. There is always a surplus.Our garden and our churches, because of all the time, nurturing and care that is lovingly given to preserve them benefit from the fellowship of frequent visits in the presence of The One who continually feeds and gives. His generosity never ends, and His promise of New Life is visible each year so all power to those who help to nurture the places where He can be found.Judy Hailes, Reader
From the Ministry Team I have always thought January a rather disappointing month. We have the greeting of the new year then we collapse into what is usually the worst of the winter weather, cold and depressing. Yet it needs not to be so, for we have just had the joy of Christmas and the Epiphany is upon us with Scholars from the East paying homage to the Christ child showing us how God intended his gift of salvation to reach out all across the world that each of us might find salvation if we have the faith and courage to grasp it. Salvation does not lie in this in this world, and it is folly to look for it here. Salvation lies in the next world, with the forgiveness only God can give. A total forgiveness which like the love of God is far greater than any worldly love. As we enter a new year we must have hope for the future, but above all we must have faith, for faith is the key to salvation. Minnie Louise Haskins wrote ‘I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year ~ Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown - and he replied “ Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way”’ Therefore, let us reach out to the world beyond our own beautiful countryside seeking a new beginning both in our thoughts and prayers. Rev Bill Rootes, Deacon
