Vicar

Writing from the Rectory
February

A Canterbury Pilgrim

I travelled down to Canterbury Cathedral.  My rendezvous was with Robin, BBC radio producer, to complete a documentary on Simon of Sudbury due to be released in the summer of 2025.  The chief surveyor explained Simon’s considerable contribution t o the construction of the Gothic nave and showed us a stone arch decoration of his face complete with fetching hairstyle! Moving to the Romanesque architecture, we stood looking over Simon’s tomb directly at the high altar, the epicentre of Anglicanism, and site of Thomas Becket’s martyrdom.  Such proximity denotes the esteem with which the then custodians of Simon’s body chose to position his final resting place.  The tomb was robbed of the full-sized stone effigy of his lying in state, as were so many, during the puritanical raids of the Cromwellians. However, set into the sarcophagus, are archways just large enough for the prayerful to utter discreet supplications.
A stained-glass window in the chapter house depicts the coat of arms of the Talbot hound.
In the Victorian library the smell of oak cabinets and ancient leather books was enchanting. Here is housed an original parchment complete with Simon’s seal which ironically depicts the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170.

A leather-bound volume held minutes of a meeting chaired by the monks and nuns in charge of running the cathedral during the vacancy. The main item on the agenda was the last will and testament dictated to a scribe by Simon in the Tower of London facing his imminent and inevitable demise. It describes his desire to have his body appropriately buried at Canterbury. However, he also bequeathed his vestments and various artefacts to the college of priests here in Sudbury – the question is, what happened to them?
Simon’s considerable faith in God and building of the college of priests in Sudbury gained recognition by the then pope and for which he was elevated to be archbishop of Canterbury in 1375.  How contemporary this fascinating tale [the Peasants' Revolt 1381] unravelling a story of knife crime, a sense of tax injustice in rural communities and a vacancy at the top job in the church!
Until 1981 roses were placed on Simon’s tomb by the mayor on Christmas day in recognition of his contribution to the repair of much of the city walls. It does seem that the townsfolk of Sudbury could do more to acknowledge the contribution of the Theobald lad made good.

Who knows, perhaps some annual act of recognition might just raise the profile of the town and thereby give a welcome boost to its economy too.

More information see https://monumentoffame.org/2020/08/21/archbishop-simon-sudbury/

All you need is love

February is the month for love, traditionally anyway; I hope you have known love in your life and continue to know it.

However, we know that it cannot be relied upon to last forever in the sense of a personal, human relationship; at some point either we or our loved ones will depart this earthly life. There is, however, a love that is guaranteed and permanent, not conditional, not keeping any record of wrongs, forgiving all things. The most popular choice of bible reading for weddings is 1 Cor 13. It speaks of spiritual gifts such as knowledge, prophecy, discernment. If we possess these abilities as they have been given us by God but do not ‘have love’, our actions are empty and lack integrity. I suspect all the questions we’ve stored up over the years to ask Him will fade away as we have revealed to us in plain sight His overwhelming love, compassion and mercy in their fullest form. When we dwell in the house of the Lord forever, there won’t be any need for faith or hope, we shall only need love. There will be no need to hope that all will be well, no need to walk by faith not sight as we will see plainly all that makes sense of life. It’s as though we see through a mirror that is partly frosted, the bible tells us, but one day we shall have 20/20 vision of all that God has been planning for our sakes, for love. In the words of Augustine of Hippo, “Let us entrust the past to His mercy, the future to His providence and the present to His love.”

Andrew

December
The earth-shaking consequences of Christmas from ‘Seen And Unseen’
by Barnabus Aspray (abridged, part 1)

The radical uniqueness of the Christmas story can be easily lost in a culture over-familiar with carols, nativity scenes, and Christmas cards.The birth of Jesus is not, for Christians, merely the birth of the founder of their religion, comparable to Muhammad, the Buddha, Guru Nanak, or Moses. The heart of the Christian claim is that in the Incarnation, the Almighty Creator of all things has irrevocably identified himself with the human race,standing in solidarity with every person who ever existed and ever will exist. Imagine Tolkien being born as a hobbit in the Shire, or J.K. Rowling going to school at Hogwarts. The mind-bending notion of the author entering his or her own creation is far closer to the Christian idea of Jesus than any comparison between him and other great figures of history. For Christians, he was not  just a moral teacher, not just an inspiring example – not even an object of adoration and love without further qualification. He was and isall these things of course. But all those things are put in the shade by something else, totally unique and unrepeatable: Immanuel, God-among-us.The implications of this are staggering. Dorothy Sayers puts it this way (quote slightly adapted):For whatever reason God chose to make human beings as we are –limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death – he had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from us that he has not exacted from himself. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhileNovember
Get together for a meal

Jesus understood the value of gathering and eating together. One suggestion as to the power of food is that when we eat together, we lower our otherwise neatly-trimmed spiritual hedge and get beyond the‘I’m fine’ response to ‘How are you?’.Surely, we all have in common the need to eat? Following the success of the vision day where we each brought either soup or crumble, we are adopting this same menu for the shared benefice lunch after the joint service at All Saints’ on Sunday January 26. At Newton Green Claire was instrumental in locating heated containers to warm up the soup from various places. I am confident we can do this again. Recipes were swapped and a lovely of variety within the ‘menu’ was achieved. This approach reaches out to an every-member ministry in which we are all journeying together as disciples rather than being in receipt of a service done by others to us as if we were customers. There will be sign up sheets for everyone at the back of church and there remains a third option for those who are culinarily-challenged in the form of a donation or accoutrements, (I believe), such as cream, bread, etc.Looking forward to sharing deeper fellowship with you after the service,Andrew

August
Is Christianity harmful?  The earth-shaking consequences of Christmas from ‘Seen And Unseen’
by Barnabus Aspray (abridged, part 1)

That question is apparently being asked by Generation ALPHA, (those born between 2010 and the mid 2020s). Its origin derives from the age-old misuse of the bible to dominate and manipulate others. In so doing, powerful people have grossly misrepresented the key message of the Christian faith : to love God and our neighbours.
Jesus Christ brought freedom to people instead of the control so often associated with those in authority.
I recently learnt that the African slaves, made to toil in the cotton fields of North America, were given a version of the bible that excluded the books of Exodus and Psalms. Why? Because Exodus is the story of God’s rescue and liberation of the Israelite's from slavery in Egypt and the Psalms are often an invitation to lament, not just to feel sorry for the state of things but to protest to God against injustice, e.g. ‘Why do the wicked prosper’. What gets missed is, that rather than rejecting the bible as harmful, many of those slaves had a profound faith in the Hebrew scriptures and loved their author, the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact you might say that faith is all they possessed. They had that joy which passes all understanding and sang so beautifully and with deep spiritual conviction about the real Jesus of the bible, who came to begin restoring all of creation to freedom from oppression and justice for the downtrodden. It’s time we heard the testimony of those slaves whose voices have largely gone unheard as they vigorously protested their abusive owners.
In ‘Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Boston. 1845’, we read, the man, who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week, fills the pulpit on Sunday and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. The man, who robs me of my earnings at the end of each week, meets me as a class-leader on Sunday morning to show me the way of life and path of salvation’.  Surely in light of this it's safer to stay away from organised Christianity and pursue our own spiritual enlightenment and remain pure and true to our inner conviction? Unfortunately, the bible teaches that the heart is deceitful above all else.  A better approach is to seek out the company of others, at a local church, who have trodden the path to freedom in Christ. Perhaps you might try the cartoon version of Pilgrim’s Progress 2019 available in full for free on YouTube or the Lectio365 app.Rev'd Andrew

April
Have you ever wondered whether life would be so much better if more people were like you? It’s a tempting idea but when I consider my own shortcomings the appeal quickly wears off! We are all made fearfully and wonderfully unique: different abilities, interests and perspectives. All of these enrich life and enable society to function. You’ll remember that tricky question – if you only had six people to send into space to save the human race whom would you choose? So difficult when we are all uniquely made.

Many of us would accept that we are all of equal value, despite our wide and obvious contrasts. How then do we measure value? During an assembly once, I asked the children whether they thought some people are worth more than others. Surprisingly a year six boy raised his hand and answered “Yes”. Intrigued, I pressed him further and he cited Elon Musk. Ah, I realised he understood the question to mean financial worth.

The value of a human life could be measured in all sorts of ways but only one gives us the result we demand – namely this, we are all of equal worth because we are children of the same living God. Knowing this gives us a permanent identity with status, purpose and meaning whatever else happens in our lives. Noone can alter the fact that we are children of God despite everything that happens to us: neither success nor failure, health nor sickness, happiness nor sadness. Knowing we are loved and forgiven by the creator of the universe can give us the motivation to press on each and every day.

In the West, there is a growing confidence to embrace mystery and to accept that the fact we cannot explain everything in life is okay. However, there are some big questions that arise once we accept that we are children of God such as: Why does a loving heavenly father allow so much suffering in the world? What happens after death? Who was Jesus? Did Jesus really rise from the dead? These are just some of the topics several local churches will be covering on the ‘ALPHA’ course (www.alpha.org).

When: Starting 24th April 2024 and the sessions begin with food at 6:45pm

Where: Eden’s Youth Centre, 45 Gainsborough Street, Sudbury, CO10 2EU

For more information: email parishsecretary@stgregspcc.uk

Curious about faith? Why not join a series of group conversations that explore the Christian faith in an open, friendly environment.

Blessings

Rev'd Andrew

Writing from the Rectory – March 2024
‘How is the date of Mothering Sunday determined?’
This was one of the questions at our recent All Saints’ Church Quiz Night. It was interesting to note that half the room were unclear on the origins and why the date moves every year. In fact, it is linked to Easter and so moves with the lunar calendar.
Easter is considered the most important ‘moveable feast’ in the Christian calendar. Whilst Christmas is exciting and we anticipate the birth of Christ, Easter was always the purpose for His coming to earth. Whilst we grieve all the havoc that humanity can wreak on Good Friday, on Easter Sunday we celebrate the ultimate gift of release from this and a relationship with our creator God through Jesus rising again.
Historically, that first Easter took place around the time of the Jewish Passover – the first full moon following the vernal equinox. The Christian calendar therefore follows this pattern and so Easter Day is always celebrated on the first Sunday following the Pascal full moon, or the first full moon after the spring equinox (March 21).
But what does this all have to do with Mothering Sunday?
Mothering Sunday is placed as the fourth Sunday after the start of Lent and falls this year on March 10th. While it can be a day of many different emotions - positive, sorrowful, full of hurt or perhaps anticipation – it dates back to a time when servants were permitted this Sunday off to return to their mother’s church. They would often collect flowers from hedgerows on the way to take as gifts and we are permitted to relax any rules around Lent fasting for the day. There is also a connection with Galatians 4:26, which reminds us that as Christians we are liberated and have a spiritual home with God. Perhaps this Mothering Sunday we can reclaim those origins and return to a church or attend as usual, remembering this freedom we now have offered to us in Christ.
If you would like to know more about the reason for Christmas, Easter and more – do consider joining our Alpha course which will be starting up after Easter on a Wednesday evening at Eden’s Project on Gainsborough Street. There will be more details in the next issue!
And if you would like to form a team for the next All Saints’ Quiz Night, it is on March 23rd at 6:15pm. Please contact Dave on 372352 for more details.

Writing from the Rectory – February 2024
My daughter watches a great number of Disney classics, and it strikes me that in storytelling it’s remarkable how often the plot relies on finding a hero prepared to sacrifice themselves to save the day.  At the beginning of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ the master of the mansion refuses to help an old lady, who then casts a spell on him that can only be broken by love. He is given a rose as a timer – when it dies, he will remain forever as a beast. As the man-turned-beast behaves increasingly inhumanely, so the servants-turned-furniture become less alive. By contrast the heroine, Belle, sees beyond appearances and comes to love the inner person.
Just before the last rose petal falls and condemns the beast forever, so a further selfless act saves the heroine’s father from the wolves. Everyone lives happily ever after except for the narcissistic Gaston, whose bullying and manipulative behaviour become his downfall. He embodies evil and suffering.
We have permission to recover the joy and satisfaction of happy endings brought about by love because that is the hope in the bible, our shared story of God’s rescue plan for the world. Even the simplest fable or children’s story can be recast as an allegory of the greatest love story ever told, the creator and his created, God and humanity reunited through love.
February is the month of St Valentine, when romantic love is diarised and expected. Yet the word ‘love’ in English is used to describe many different concepts. We might say we love Easter eggs and yet also say we love our grandparents or football. The kind of love that Belle shows is by taking the place of her imprisoned father. The kind of love we are called to embrace is that which loves mercy, does justice and walks humbly with God.
The servants Lumiere and Cogsworth long to be human again and delight in the chance to serve, offering a spectacular banquet to Belle. Their fate however lies in the realisation of the romantic love of Valentine’s Day. Crucially it is only made possible by another kind of love; the love which serves others and not self. God one day promises us a banquet, a feast, as we are fully reunited with Him.
You may not be blessed with romantic love this Valentine’s but by loving others you will, yourself, find your own heart strangely warmed too.
Lenten Blessings
Rev’d Andrew