Fr Simon Marsh writes ...

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Fr Simon writes ...

pastoral letters and occasional addresses

November 2008

Re-membering in 2008

NO GOD ... ?

Newspapers have it that Professor Richard Dawkins is to support a British Humanist Association advertising campaign on London buses with the slogan ‘There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life’.

In many ways, the 18th century was like our own. Joseph Butler wrote, in the 'Advertisement' to the first edition of his famous Analogy in 1736,

"It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted by many persons that Christianity is not so much a subject for inquiry, but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all people of discernment and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were by way of reprisals for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the world." ¹

William Law (1686-1761) was an Anglican priest whose importance as a master of the spiritual life was acknowledged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by persons as diverse as John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, Samuel Johnson, the renowned lexicographer, and John Henry Newman, the leader of the Oxford Movement, subsequently a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

William Law and the present Vicar of Bramhall share a sense of not being entirely surprised that some actively choose to reject profession of faith! There are many in early 21st century England who share Professor Dawkins’ stated belief that ‘thinking is anathema to religion’.

WRATHFUL GOD ... ?

I believe that one of the real sticking points for many within and without the religious life of the nations is the too frequently rehearsed notion of a wrathful God whose angry purpose is to bring the whole of humanity into line with a Divine Will not always very clearly articulated. Many cannot believe that a Creator of heaven and earth could entertain such a long-term disapproval for some of his creatures. Many more observe that (any) religious attempts to squeeze a huge and complex humanity into just one “narrow way” are surely non-starters if any are to speak with conviction of a God of love, mercy, compassion, grace and forgiveness.

World history books are littered with accounts of destructiveness directly brought about by, or in the name of, religion. And it is a good and marvellous thing that today’s increasingly educated and thinking people are aware of it. Your present parish priest can, at the very least, understand a desire for the suggestion that ‘There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life’. Bad religion has been at the heart of many a worrying or nervous disposition down the centuries.

WRATHFUL HUMANITY ... ?

But the “angry” view of God isn’t the only sustainable one in contemporary society, any more than in history. William Law wrote of a

union with God who is love and not a wrathful Father who must be appeased. The wrath which separates us from God is not in God but in us. Redemption consists in the removal of this wrath and thus in reconciliation with God. ²

WHO AM I? O GOD, I AM THINE

Law refuted the legalistic view of atonement, calling it "the grossest of all fictions," clearly contrary to the Word of God. Surrender to God's will is not simply (and harshly) a necessary duty. It is the irresistible human response to God's love. Law’s literary dialogue device Theogenes (a Greek name meaning “one born of God”) put it well: "the God of patience, meekness and love is the one God of my heart.” In the 20th century, whilst held as a prisoner of war, the German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!” And the Trappist monk Thomas Merton called humankind to contemplation, to a “response to a call: a call from Him Who has no voice, and yet Who speaks in everything that is, and Who, most of all speaks in the depths of our own being.”

Now to leap forward once more to the 21st century. Today, in 2008, the British Methodist Church has welcomed the Humanist Association’s aforementioned advertising campaign as a potential encouragement to people to think about “the deepest questions of life.” As Christians, the Methodist Church’s spokesperson says, “we respond to Jesus’ call to love God with our minds as well as our hearts, souls and strength. Christianity is for people who aren’t afraid to think about life and meaning.”

I want to say in this month of Remembering, when we bring to mind some of the great tragedies wrought by humankind’s “certainties”, let’s RE-member our society … with generosity and with compassionate love. Let’s include and never exclude. For there “probably” is a God who wants us to stop worrying and enjoy life.

Click below for

Keith Ward’s Why There Almost Certainly Is a God: Lion Hudson, 2008. £5.99

^{1 & 2} William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life ed.

Paul G. Stanwood, New York: Paulist Press, 1978 pp 4 & 11

Simon Marsh

Vicar

October 2008

Soul Food

A series of 3 studies called SOUL FOOD - Bible, Eucharist & Church, with Fr Simon & the Reverend Esther, will be offered at St Michael's on Tuesdays 30th September (Bible) & 7th (Eucharist) and 21st October (Church) at 8pm. These sessions will be repeated on Wednesday mornings 1st (Bible) & 8th (Eucharist) and 22nd October (Church), after the 10.30am celebration of the Eucharist, from 11am-12noon.

ALL WARMLY WELCOMED

It’s hard work being a food provider. Everybody’s tastes are so different. Whether it’s the harassed parent biting their tongue at the umpteenth “I don’t like that” or the rushed-off-his-feet chef in the popular restaurant ... providing food is hard work.

And the work doesn’t just start in the kitchen, of course. Jilly and I have been watching Cumbrian farmers, patiently, nervously, driving combine-harvesters and tractors in darkened fields illuminated only by the light of their own machines. They’ve to get the harvest in or bust!

Pretty much wherever you look, with the provision of food and sustenance there’s almost always an element of willing sacrifice and hard work involved in the giving. Patient parents teaching children that there’s more to living the good life than the tried and tested hamburgers and chips; patient and caring animal farmers, up early in the morning and out late at night; patient sowers and reapers in fertile plains, and on rocky and arid mountains, in well paying parts of the world, and in others where just scratching a living or gaining a foothold is like wringing blood from a stone.

Who provides food for the souls of such people? Who’s the provider of care for the carers? Who understands the sheer hard work and sacrifice involved in sustaining provision? “Where are we to find food to feed so many?”

God knows. And God provides. And so at harvest we bless Him.

Simon Marsh

Vicar

God’s Holy Word, prayerfully heard, humbly deferred to, gently proclaimed; pre-Heaven provisional, blueprint for love, for compassion and healing. Whispered Word, wistful. Soul Food.

God’s Holy Eucharist, bread and wine: sacred. The presence of Jesus, real now as was ever. Imbued with God’s Spirit, Divine human union. Blessed Communion. Soul Food.

God’s Holy Church, gently cradles His glory. Present in people, in love, in our time. Made and defended, here redeemed and befriended; happily provided for: Soul Food. SRM

August & September 2008

Lions shall lie down with lambs ...

It was lovely to have Patches Chabala preach a farewell sermon for us on the last Sunday in July. Many of us will continue to hold him in our prayers as he returns to Zambia. By the time you read this he’ll probably know whether he’s to return to the UK in the Autumn to begin training for the priesthood.

Patches spoke to us of God’s faithfulness. In a world of false promises, “quick fixes”, and plain lies, it’s hardly surprising, Patches suggested, that some have begun to doubt the faithfulness of God. Abraham, he remembered, had held fast to God’s promise that he would become “the father of many nations” - even into his old age, long after his wife Sarai was past child-bearing age. By rather unorthodox means Abraham did indeed become a father, notwithstanding the fact that we’re told “Sarai laughed”. (see Genesis 16). If God has promised something, Patches assured his listeners, “it’ll come to fruition”. Meanwhile the Archbishop of Canterbury was preaching on a similar theme in St Dunstan’s Church in Canterbury, recalling

people who suddenly find themselves helpless and threatened. Jesus' friends on board ship are at risk of drowning as an unexpected storm hits them. The woman “caught in adultery” dragged before Jesus is not only at risk of being lynched, her shame and guilt are exposed in front of everyone – and this in a society like many that still exist today where 'social death' is almost as frightening as literal death for women who lose their honour. And Mary and Martha are left stranded and disoriented by bereavement – probably for most of us the experience that is most likely to knock us sideways and leave us, like Mary and Martha, lost for words, tempted to look around for someone to blame, maybe none too sure about what we believe.

And in all these stories of threats and insecurities, Jesus doesn't instantly solve all the problems as if with a magic wand. First he simply tells people that he's there, and the fact that he's there begins to make the difference. Even before he opens the grave and brings Lazarus back to life, he tells Martha, 'Where I am, there is always new life'. When the sinful woman is brought to him, he initially says nothing; when the woman is left alone with him, she only has to look and listen, and she knows that there is hope for her: the hostile, merciless shouts have fallen silent, and in that silence her heart can expand and her soul come back to life. And for the disciples in the storm-tossed boat, the first thing they hear is, 'It is I': I am here, and as long as I am here there is something greater and deeper than your fear of danger …

Jesus is here with us too, saying, 'Where I am there is life. I don't condemn you. Don't be afraid. I am here.'

I am here. It is I. I am. Peace. I have prepared a place for you. Welcome home. Let us have a feast. He who was lost is found! I am with you always. Do not be afraid. I have redeemed you. Come out! Say: Abba! Father.

Think of your own list of affirmations from God. Think on his redeeming love for you. We’ve all wandered from home, some of us many times. We’ve all squandered the family treasures. But the same God who allows us to be the Prodigal forever welcomes us home. And when we’re as generous, when we’re as faith-filled as Abraham was, as Patches is ...

… lions shall lie down with lambs ...

Simon Marsh

Vicar

July 2008

Centenary Celebration

Church building update

We have been making the most of our church building for worship for almost 100 years: we celebrate the centenary of the building in 2010. During that time there have been many changes, adapting to a growing congregation and to a widening understanding of the nature of corporate worship. In the context of the coming Centenary the PCC has been addressing a variety of developments that will further enhance the appearance of the church and the scope it offers for worship. Last summer we entered an experimental period of re-ordering, for which we have an Archdeacon’s Licence until 26 September 2008. We relocated the bookstands from the Chancel to the Tower for singers; repositioned the communion rails below the Chancel step; removed the up-stands for books from the choir stalls; and sited an oak table in the Chancel for use as an altar.

Sacred Space

In consultation with the church architect the PCC developed plans to open up the Chancel and Sanctuary a little more and to undertake some refurbishment and restoration. The intention is to create a sense of sacred space; to remove unnecessary barriers to sight-lines and movement; and, where appropriate, to enable the congregation to gather as the Body of Christ around the altar to receive Christ’s Body in Word and in Sacrament. We believe that these changes will significantly benefit our worship, without unduly restricting the scope for later generations to make their own changes. The PCC presented the plans to the congregation on 8 June, and voted on 11 June to seek a Faculty to make the temporary re-ordering permanent and to make further changes to consolidate it. The proposal was passed unanimously by the 25 members present. The plans and an explanatory leaflet are on display in the Foyer of the Church Hall.

What happens now?

Proposals and plans have been sent by the Vicar and Wardens to the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) in Chester. After the DAC has investigated the proposals they pass them on to the Diocesan Chancellor for further enquiries. When all authorities are satisfied a Faculty is granted to allow the work to proceed. After advice from the architect on increasing the liturgical space in the Chancel around the altar, we plan to retain the present front row of Clergy and Choir Stalls, with their attractive carving, but to move them back to replace the rear row of stalls, which we would remove. The bench seat let into the front panelling will be removed and converted into free-standing seating for occasional use. This physical opening up will be complemented visually by shortening the Chancel wall, while retaining the consecration cross and inscription from 1909.

In the Chancel and Sanctuary an experiment with up-lighting has been welcomed. We shall now complete it on both sides, with softer bulbs and more attractive fittings. We shall also replace the old spotlights with modern ones that are more effective and more economical to operate. On the architect’s advice we shall treat the ceiling with “Archdeacon’s mixture” to nourish the wood and provide a soft natural lustre to enhance the effect of the up-lighting, and we are looking at possibly tinting and gilding roof bosses and angels.

In the Servers’ Vestry, we shall supply hot and cold water to improve ablutions and permit beverages to be prepared to make the space more useful for small meetings. In the adjacent Sacristy we shall put in a new vestment cupboard. After some furniture rearrangement these changes will reduce the crush of people in the Sacristy immediately before services.

Anything else?

The appearance of the Tower is generally thought to be unattractive, and the architect says that it can be greatly improved by cleaning and partial decorating. However, we shall need to give attention to cracks in the plaster and to the state of the windows. This will be a major project that will need careful scoping, but we intend to apply for a Faculty in time to complete the work before our Centenary celebrations. We are also thinking about the possibility of commissioning a new Nave Altar, Font and President’s Chair. The PCC has also started some serious thinking and planning about improving our Hall facilities, which we have already enhanced significantly over the last ten years, and we hope to develop plans in time for the Centenary. These are likely to include replacing the flat roofs, now nearing the end of their useful life, and providing a quiet interview room and a further good-sized large meeting room, along with a larger office.

How shall we pay for this?

The PCC plans to undertake these improvements with the understanding that the Trustees of the Parish Hall Trust (who are responsible for the funds received from the sale of the land where the original Mission Church stood) will be able to fund them within the terms of the Trust relating to capital works.

Tricia Munn and Georgina Foot

Churchwardens

Simon Marsh

Vicar

June 2008

"Ordinary Time"

PENTECOST SUNDAY is followed in the Church’s liturgical Calendar by a long series of “Sundays after Trinity” and what is called Ordinary Time. The name corresponds to the Latin term Tempus per annum (literally "time through the year") and Ordinary Time comprises two periods — one following Epiphany, the other following Pentecost — which do not fall under the "strong seasons" of Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter.

Ordinary in this context does not mean common or plain, but is derived from the term ordinal or "numbered." The weeks in Ordinary Time are numbered, (Trinity 1, Trinity 2 etc) although several Sundays are named for the feast they commemorate, such as Trinity Sunday and the Feast of Christ the King (the Last Sunday in Ordinary Time).

The Life that God holds out to us is hardly ever “ordinary” in that other, common or plain, sense of the word is it? God calls his people (that is to say, God calls ALL people) to glad acknowledgement of, and a delighted rejoicing in, a life that to human hearts and minds is decidedly extra—or out-of-the-ordinary. As we’re more and more mindful during the summer months of “the beauty of the earth”, and of “brother sister, parent child”, and of “friends on earth, and friends above, pleasures pure and undefiled” … we realise that we’re being caught up into something quite extra-ordinary.

As we come to know ourselves more and more deeply so too we come to know God more and more deeply. And so through Ordinary Time we’re transformed, until the glad day when we shall see him face to face.

Simon Marsh

May 2008

New every morning ...

audio | New Every Morning - right click on this link and choose 'Open Link in New Tab'

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth’ Jn 16.12

These words are at the very heart of what I mean when I speak of the Good News of our Christian faith. Long ago God revealed himself to his people. But that’s not the end of the story. “New every morning is the Love; our waking and uprising prove”.

God continues to reveal himself to his people. Each succeeding generation of men, women and children upon earth learns more and more of God’s eternal will and loving purpose — the drawing of every thing and every one he has created into everlasting, peaceful relationship with himself.

Again and again we’re being “changed from glory into glory”. But something of the work of glory (a word which means radiant presence) requires, whilst we’re here upon earth, a response from his followers, to whom Jesus said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them’. God has placed so much trust in the hands and hearts of humankind. And he has set us the only real example we’ll ever need. Those whom we forgive will be forgiven.

Imagine what life would be like in a world where everyone knew themselves loved and forgiven; loved by God and loved by us. Redeemed. And then imagine a world in which YOU knew, with never a doubt in your heart, through endless ages, that you, too, were loved and forgiven. Loved by God and loved by all around us.

There now. This is the daily work of prayer. There’s the vision of common language, there’s the vision of the common understanding, that came upon the Church at Pentecost, and comes upon us now. Nothing that could or ever will happen upon the face of the earth can take that from us. Jesus meant what he said: “Peace be with you”. That’s God’s eternal intention. Let that news spread like wildfire!

Simon Marsh

May 2008

Wind and Fire

audio | Wind and Fire - right click on this link and choose 'Open Link in New Tab'

WIND AND FIRE. Thus came the Spirit of God upon the followers of Jesus, 50 days after Easter. Those ancient symbols of the Shekinah, the presence of God in the world, went to work again upon humanity in a new and explosive way.

50 days after the Passover the Jewish Festival of Pentecost celebrated the ‘new life’ implicit in spring harvest, and in the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. And now the new Pentecost (this year on the 11th May) celebrates new life too, and also the giving again of God’s Wisdom to his people.

Jewish tradition, Professor Marcus Borg reminds us, tells of the Mosaic Law having being offered to non-Jewish nations as well, but of Israel alone having accepted it. Towards the end of the first century AD the author of Luke’s Gospel gives account, in the Acts of the Apostles, of the long promised coming of the Spirit after the Resurrection of Jesus. The Spirit brings cleansing “fire” and the “wind” or “spirit” of God that had long ago brought earth’s “chaos” to order and beauty. Genesis 1.2

The early Christian movement began. And its task was to proclaim again the universality of Israel’s God, and of his restoration of relationship between himself and every nation and every person he has created. The wind of the Spirit brings life: Genesis 1.2, and the fire of the Spirit burns but does not consume: Exodus 3.1-6. Life and hope are given afresh to the whole of creation. The source of the gifts is the God of Love.

Filled now with the Holy Spirit, who had come upon their heads (that part of a person that may engage in intelligent thinking) in wind and flame, the disciples of Jesus began to speak in "other tongues." The effect was immediate and astounding. Jews who were visiting Jerusalem from the many different countries and language groups to which they’d been scattered in the diaspora understood what the followers of Jesus were saying. They were astounded. "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?"

The author of Luke and Acts is bringing to mind the ancient story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.1-9, according to which the people of the earth once spoke a common language, but were then scattered into different linguistic groups because of their self-interested attempt to build a tower with its top in the heavens.

Babel is the story of the breaking up of humankind into separate and often warring groups who do not understand each other, and who compete with each other to get their own heads into the heavens before, and maybe instead of, anyone else! This self-interest has resulted in more distress and territorial warfare upon earth than any other cause.

And so the new Pentecost is thus about the reversal of human fragmentation. The coming of Jesus and his abiding presence in the power of the Spirit began a new age in which humanity was to be re-united with itself and God. "Dividing wall of separation" (how many times have we seen walls like this) are to be torn down and the creation of "one new humanity" begun again and again. Ephesians 2.14-15.

Christians must therefore take care as they read Holy Scripture and seek to live after the pattern of Christ … for new forms of exclusivity and separation, however well intended, go absolutely against the grain of both the biblical and the Pentecostal intention. The new Way, in the light of Easter and in the power of God’s Spirit, is to be the gathering way, the way of restoration, reconciliation, resurrection and peace.

The New Way is to be the inclusive way of God's wisdom, not ours.

Simon Marsh

Further reading: see Marcus J Borg: Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally, Harper One, 2001

April 2008

A Resurrection People

audio | A Resurrection People - right click on this link and choose 'Open Link in New Tab'

Easter’s come and gone already! This year seems to be flying along even faster than the usual alarming rate, and the effect is magnified by the fact that Easter was extraordinarily early this year. Could it get any earlier?

And yet it’s only partly true that Easter’s come and gone, for there’s that wonderfully rich sense, of course, in which we live in the light of Easter in our every waking moment.

We’re a Resurrection people!

By the extraordinary grace and goodness of God we are “the blessed ones” … the “happy ones” … charged with the most glorious message of joy and of life for all humankind.

We are to live without fear! We’re to be holy and blessed in the eyes of God all the days of our life. Death has no more dominion over us and by the Resurrection from the dead of Our Lord Jesus Christ God has revealed his gracious will for us: that there’s nothing on earth or in heaven that he won’t do to ensure that we will “enter into the fullness of the joy of the Lord”, and live with him in that joy forever.

And when the sting of fear and of death was withdrawn from the warring factions of humanity on that first Resurrection day there were some who began to see life and love in a new light. Not all, but some: enough to ensure that the Church lives, and keeps on growing, to proclaim God’s good news. Jesus calls YOU and ME out from the “tomb” to live with him in his own marvellous light.

Alleluia! Happy Easter-tide.

Simon Marsh

March 2008

A Cheerful Lent?

NO MATTER HOW DARK THE DAY

“No matter how dark the day Tutu remained resolutely cheerful, resolutely hopeful, resolutely prayerful - knowing instinctively that we looked to him for a lead” … said a former Chaplain and friend of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, reflecting upon the trials and tribulations that faced the great “Rabble Rouser For Peace” as he struggled alongside his people to bring an end to apartheid in South Africa. And John Allen, a distinguished journalist and long-time associate of Tutu, wrote: “we are witnesses to courage, stirring oratory, and a demonstration of the power of faith to transform the seemingly intransigent.”

Come, let us join our cheerful songs with angels round the throne; ten thousand thousand are their tongues, but all their joys are one.

A CHEERFUL LENT?

Tutu remained resolutely cheerful. Oh how these words struck me again after someone asked me recently: “Is it OK to have a cheerful Lent?” - and I had answered, thinking of some of Tutu’s mirthful homilies and his wonderful chuckle, “YES! it’s OK!” Lent’s about getting stuck into doing something good and transforming. Lent’s about affirming the Wisdom that’s constantly offered to us by the Spirit of God, “the Comforter”. Lent’s about learning to live cheerfully and gracefully alongside people who are, according to our limited horizons, different. Greyness, dullness, cheerlessness and lack of charity in Christian people does the body of Christ no service. Lent’s not about 6 week’s worth of indulgent breast-beating. Lent’s a wake-up call, a place and a time for inspiration — a being in-spirited by God. As for Jesus, so for us, Lent is to be preparation for world-transforming Resurrection or transformed Life ministry.

AN EASTER PEOPLE

And “ministry”, it was suggested by the late and great Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, himself major inspiration and encouragement behind Archbishop Desmond’s priestly vocation, is first and foremost “a living of life in all its fullness, and a being inspired thereby to ensure that others be allowed similar opportunity.” The Jesus who died and has risen, along with the archbishops and people of his Church in all the world, were and are about transforming society. We must not stand down. We must keep a resolutely cheerful Lent and resolutely cheerful lives. For we are an Easter people — called to live and to tell the good news of the New Life ...

Arise! Christ has set you free. Don’t let yourselves become slaves again Galatians 5.1

Grace & peace to you ...

Simon Marsh

February 2008

Wilderness & Thanksgiving

audio | Wilderness & Thanksgiving - right click on this link and choose 'Open Link in New Tab'

SELF-AWARENESS, VOCATION, AND HOW?

How did Jesus prepare for leadership without the “help” of mission statements, or identifying key people, or setting targets? How did Jesus survive a wilderness environment that reduced him, body and soul, to barest essentials, leaving his character and instincts starkly exposed, whipped by the razor-sharp winds of the desert? How did he survive, with no apparent external assistance, to shore him up or sustain him? My dictionary speaks of wilderness as an uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region. Tough training indeed. Even yomping SAS commandos have a bit more moral support around them than was available to Jesus.

APPEARING NOW TO LEAP FROM ONE SUBJECT TO ANOTHER

It’s Thanksgiving Sunday at St Michael & All Angels’ next week - when it’s the Vicar’s task to encourage one and all to think and pray about what we might contribute to the work of God’s Church in terms of time, talents and money. And we’re all encouraged to think and to pray precisely because no-one else is equipped to tell us what we can or cannot afford to give or to do. Only we can know. Only we ourselves can square up to exactly what our relationship with God and the gifts he’s given us is. Only we, as individuals, can really know whether we’ve anything in our lives to be thankful for, or not.

“WILDERNESS” & THANKSGIVING ARE LINKED!

What kind of training and help do I need in order to arrive at a good decision about what I may or may not offer back to God? Is there anyone whose example I might follow? Is there man, woman or child who has risen above the grubby business of self-interest and temptation; anyone I can look up to, be inspired by, want to emulate? Where could I engage such a person in conversation? Where could I learn what inspired and motivated him or her? How can I learn not to feel pain when I give something away, but rather to revel in the laughter and joy of God’s creation itself? How do I learn to be a cheerful giver? Who am I? What am I called to be and do? And how?

THERE’S AN “ESSENTIALS” CLUE IN THE “WILDERNESS” …

I learn how to give when I’ve been to a place, in person or in spirit, where I’ve been brought face to face with reality; where I’ve been shown who and what I am; where I’ve come to know without shadow of a doubt that I am loved by my Creator, who is ALMIGHTY GOD, forever and ever, and that “I shall lack nothing”. I learn how to give when I’m even slightly more interested in even occasional quiet spaces alone with God than I am in my social life or in what I possess, or might some day possess. I learn how to give, and I learn how to love, and I learn how to “live life in all its fullness” on the very day, and in the very hour, and in the very moment, when I allow all of MY character and all of my instincts to be starkly exposed … to the inexpressible beauty, and the unimaginable generosity, and the surpassing glory and assurance, of GOD—who loves me, FOREVER.

Simon Marsh

Letters index

February 2008

Seats for everyone

Some of our Active Angels are really “finding their feet” in Church on Sundays and I so want to say “well done!” to the good parents who bring their little ones along — even though it can be positively hard work getting a young family up and about in time to get to Church, let alone shepherding them through all that goes on when they get there!

Encountering Jesus in the special way he established and encouraged, on the very night before he died, is one of the most important things Christians do in life. “Drawing near with faith” provides us with a spiritual food and sustenance that is second to none. But sometimes it takes a while for us to understand why it’s so very important to gather as the Lord’s family (old & young without distinction) around the Lord’s Table, on the Lord’s Day. This takes time and practice … like getting used to having 5 portions of fruit & veg every day!

SO 2008 BRINGS 2 NEW Opportunities to help us — the first is an “All-Age Eucharist” … literally intended for ALL ages … so the usual weekly Young Church join with the “Older Church” on the first-Sunday-of-every-month, at 9am, when it’s hoped that brevity and simplicity in both content and style will further help many “find their feet” in worship. The second involves a 3rd-Sunday-in-the month informal celebration of the Eucharist in the Hall — alongside the usual 9am Service in Church. Specially tailored for young learners it may be the case that some parents of the very young would want to start by joining in this service in the hall with their little ones.

AND FINALLY — in a bid to facilitate a greater sense of togetherness and involvement for ALL in Worship — we’re dropping the idea of reserved seats in the body of the Church. All are free, at all services, to sit in the main body of the Church — and I’d particularly like to encourage a moving inwards from the side aisles and towards the front at all Sunday services (whilst not wanting to discourage continued use of “quick getaway” seats for parents of the very young). Young Church will continue to join us towards the close of 9am services but will sit wherever seats are vacant — thereby “freeing up” the ranks of front seats that have often only been used for the last 5 or 10 minutes of a service — and will remain in Church (in order to be) like everyone else until the final prayers have been offered. These minor changes will further enhance our life and worship together, I believe, and I commend them to you with love and encouragement:

Simon Marsh

Letters index

December / January 2007

The Absence of Clamour

There will probably have been times in your life when you’ve been able to say with the priest and poet, R S Thomas, that God comes

As I had always known

he would come, unannounced,

remarkable merely for the absence

of clamour. 1

That’s so often how it is with the coming of God. Unannounced simplicity. No immediate expectation that we should behave in a particular way. No expectation that we should speak in an out-of-the-ordinary or convoluted theological language. No expectation that the “saving of souls” will make clearly defined or absolutist demands of human-kind, save for the Divine expectation of the God newly arrived in the back-streets of Bethlehem, that some one might pick up a Christ-child and hold Him close to their heart for to keep the little Chap warm.

This little Jesus teaches you and me how we are to be bridge-builders. This little Jesus is Pontifex — the bridge-maker, Emmanuel, God amongst us, the great High Priest, the Son of the Most High, the sacrifice or Christmas present of Almighty God Himself to His beloved world. This little Jesus is God come among us. We are to be little like Him. We are to be loved and we are to love. We are to be remarkable, at Christmas-time and through all time, for the absence of clamour; knowing that Christ leads His children on to the place where He has now gone. Home.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS ...

Simon Marsh

1 Suddenly - R S Thomas, COLLECTED POEMS 1945-1990

Letters index

November 2007

Beginnings & Endings

Life is full of them! Jesus taught us that beginnings and endings are precisely what life in this world is all about. We have to learn to change, for we change constantly. Beginnings and endings involve growth and learning, and work and play, and all that lies in between. We learn where we’ve come from and where we’re headed. We learn we’re not alone. In November we remember endings, one way or another, and in December, beginning as it does with Advent (a coming), we become involved in new beginnings.

Advent, says Dr Maggi Dawn, is all about beginnings. It’s the beginning of the Church year, and its themes include the beginning of creation, the beginning of Christianity, and the beginnings of the new heavens and the new earth. Most of these beginnings are born out of the ending of something else — an old era giving way to a new one. These beginnings and endings are on a cosmic scale, but most of what happens in life happens ‘in between’. Our everyday lives are full of small-scale beginnings and endings—births, deaths, marriages, careers, house moves and so on. How do the grand-scale beginnings and endings of Advent help to guide us as we seek to follow Jesus in the 21st century?

You’re warmly invited to a meeting in the Church Lounge at 5.30pm on Sunday 11 November if you would like to look into the possibility of being Confirmed—one such new beginning in faith-life.

You’re warmly invited, too, to a series of meetings in late November and early December (please see details on page 23) when we’ll be using Dr Maggi Dawn’s Beginnings & Endings to guide us through a fresh look at i) beginnings; ii) at the ‘Advent wreath themes’ - the patriarchs, the prophets, John the Baptist, and Mary the mother of Jesus; iii) at angels and announcements; and iv) at what the holy family themselves teach us about the meeting of heaven and earth.

May God richly bless us all.

With my love and encouragement:

Simon Marsh

Letters index

October 2007

Going for Growth

Harvest Thanksgiving is as much about all that God brings to fruition WITHIN us as it is about thankfulness for his wonderful provision of food and drink. It’s concerned with growth; our growth and the growth of the entire created order around us. God’s Harvest is intimately bound up with the growth of his Church. And all growth is intimately bound up with the capacity of all created things to change. Our Victorian forbears were very keen on Harvest Thanksgiving … and on change, too. Next to the Romans the Victorians were perhaps the most passionately excited by change, and the foundations we stand on today owe much to their willingness to keep “pushing the boat out” … and to keep coming back to review whether their innovations were working or not. The Victorians witnessed many a blessed Harvest.

So I was really delighted when our Archdeacons invited leadership representatives from the larger churches in our Diocese to a day conference entitled “Going for Growth”. It was a great day, and we bought enough copies of a book of the same name for every member of our Church Council. At £3.99 you might want to order a copy for yourself from a local bookshop, from Amazon, — or have a word with Janet K or John Hanlon in the parish office. The day — and the book — face us with the same reality that all our forbears have faced:

“In a survey of several hundred churches … it was crystal clear that churches that had not made changes were shrinking and churches that had made at least one of the listed changes were growing”.

But neither the day nor the book were terrifying! Both presented a host of exciting challenge and opportunity. We came away encouraged—having recognised that St Michael’s is ALREADY seriously engaging with what it takes to grow for God.

Going for Growth. That’s what the Church is about today, as for the Victorians. And if we stretch our minds back to the Church of the first disciples … well: they’d have to be called the original growth geniuses, wouldn’t they? Yes: we’re a growing, changing, pilgrim people, singing songs of the harvest. ALLELUIA!

With my love, as ever:

Simon Marsh

Letters index

August / September 2007

Wells (and lakes) of Salvation

THANK YOU so much to the excellent collectors and givers who, through the Christian Aid collection in Bramhall this year, brought together gifts amounting to £12,387.85 for vital work. Civilised societies need the good offices of Christian Aid, CAFOD, Tear Fund, OXFAM and similar caring agencies, religious and secular, to ensure a continued focus on facets of life beyond our limited horizons. Their work – and often their discoveries – can lead to new thankfulness and appreciation. They help us maintain proper perspective.

One of the root causes of the tragic human conflict in the Sudan is drought and desertification in North Darfur. In June 2007 the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) reported that deserts had increased by an average of 100 km in the last 40 years, while almost 12% of forest cover had been lost in 15 years. The BBC reports this month that scientists from Boston University have discovered a huge underground la