NEWS
The Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich has announced that ‘The Revd Josh Bailey, currently Priest in Charge of the benefice of Bungay, is now Rector of the benefice. He is to be instituted and inducted as Rector by the Archdeacon of Suffolk on Sunday 16th June’. Congratulations Josh!
We are delighted that Fr Desmond Banister now has Permission to Officiate at Barsham and after Easter we will be welcoming him as celebrant on the third Sunday of the month. Due to his commitment to an earlier service elsewhere, the Sunday service on 21st April, 19thMay and 16th June will start at 11.15am.
Congratulations to David Ulph on his Baptism and Confirmation on Sunday 17thMarch. David was one of three confirmands from the benefice. The service of Baptism and Confirmation was the final service celebrated at Barsham by the Right Revd Norman Banks, Bishop of Richborough before his retirement at Easter. We are most appreciative of the support he has given Holy Trinity Barsham, and we wish him a long and fulfilling retirement.
On Mothering Sunday, 10th March, a beautiful display of polyanthus primroses was blessed during the processional hymn by The Revd Canon John Fellows, whose sermon included an explanation of the origins of Mothering Sunday. The flowers were later distributed to all members of the congregation in honour of the mothers present, and indeed all of our mothers.
The APCM (Annual Parochial Church Meeting) and Annual Meeting of Parishioners will take place in the church at 2pm on Thursday 18th April. Anybody can attend and those entered on the Church Electoral Roll for this parish and those entered on the register of local government electors for this parish may vote at the election of parochial representatives of the laity (ie churchwardens, members of the PCC etc). If you cannot attend and would like copies of the audited financial statements, please contact Dominique ([email protected]).
Holy Trinity Barsham has recently joined the Prayer Book Society, an organisation that seeks to defend and promote the use of the Book of Common Prayer. The Society holds a variety of branch and national events every year, including an annual conference, and publishes two regular high-quality magazines, The Prayer Book Today and the more scholarly Faith & Worship. These will be made available at the back of the church. You can find more detail at www.pbs.org.uk.
Cheryl will be leading a walk around Barsham on Sunday 28th April with the Hempnall Walking Group, and she welcomes participation from members of the Barsham congregation. The walk will start at the church at 2pm and be roughly four miles in length, finishing back at the church for tea at 4pm.
Dominique is currently investigating the possibility of installing swift boxes in the church belfry. Swifts are in decline, in part due to a lack of nesting sites. If anyone would like to learn more about the project or to offer funding, do talk to Dominique. One kind sponsor has already offered some funds, but more is needed.
Thanks to David Miller of Grange Farm, Barsham for work he has done to clear the ditches across the Rectory paddock, the ditch below the east end of the churchyard and the culvert under the church drive. The greater frequency and intensity of rain lately had begun to cause flooding.
The charity Christians Against Poverty is looking for people to train as ‘debt befrienders’ who can work alongside skilled ‘debt coaches’ to support people in debt. Anyone interested in helping should see Josh for further information.
The sales table organised by Margaret raised a useful £100.00.
Thank you for the 180 items donated to the Food Bank in February. We have been asked for now to focus our donations on toiletries and tinned food.
The Passion of Christ is depicted in the eastern-most stained glass window of the side chapel at Barsham (front page picture), showing (left to right) Christ crowned with thorns, His crucifixion, and His resurrection.
An Easter message from The Revd Josh
“For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now also we may live new lives.” (Romans 6:4)
Beautiful and broken. We’re surrounded by constant reminders of this stubborn fact of our existence. Our bodies don’t keep. Our work is frustrating as often as fulfilling. Our relationships can be heavenly and hellish. Even the greatest joys we experience are tinged with sadness.
And Jesus enters into ALL of it. But even in his weak, decaying existence from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, He gives us whispers of another world. His connection with the creation as a sinless, blessed human is the stuff of our dreams. When he speaks to the wind, it listens. When he wants food for people, the creation just delivers it up
at his request. When he’s stuck on the wrong side of a lake in a storm, he just walks to where he wants to go - and invites Peter to share in treading the waves. When confronted with dysfunction in human bodies and souls that has endured for decades, He calmly tells it to get lost - and it’s gone. Cells restructured. Minds made whole. Souls at peace and given joy where there was only darkness.
All the time He’s pointing us to something our minds can barely grasp: defeat of the shadow that hangs over us. The spectre of meaninglessness cast over everything by death. The removal of the curse that has dogged the very ground we walk on.
When Easter finally comes after that long Saturday, all our assumptions about our existence can be torn up and thrown away. There’s no more shrugging at suffering. The life that Jesus reveals in his physical, immortal body is unlike anything the universe has ever known before. A life made perfect BY death, rather than the half-life we know; always on the verge of being swallowed up by death. Jesus has faced down the monster that spoils everything and destroyed its power. Almost anything wonderful that we can imagine can happen now. And one day it will, because His tomb is empty.
The life we rejoice in at Easter is our life. New. Immortal. Full of possibility. Giving suffering a purpose. Giving hope to anyone who knows they need it. Totally real! Almost too real for Jesus’ bewildered mourners to comprehend.
I love Easter because I love the new life of Jesus. When pessimism and despair lurk in my mind, Jesus declares a different future. If Christ has been raised from the dead — AND HE HAS — my wildest hopes and longings are only the warm-up act for all the new creation will bring. And the chocolate’s nice too.
APRIL DIARY
Sunday 7th April – Second Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 14th April – Third Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.
Sunday 21st April – Fourth Sunday of Easter. 11.15am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister.
Sunday 28th April – Fifth Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey.
Wednesdays at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham, but no Matins on 24th April.
Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, [email protected]