Monthly Magazine and Events for September 2009

Dear Friends

Welcome to September!  Are you refreshed after the summer months?  Have you had a good time away - with friends and/or family, in a new or beloved place?  Or has your time at home been all too quiet? Either way, I hope you are keen to enjoy what God offers us this month, whether in the life of St Thomas’, or outside it.  What God offers me is keyhole surgery to remove my gall bladder and so I shall be out of action on 14th - 27^th inclusive!  I would appreciate your prayers, including that I be patient!

Andrew

September dates:

12^th - Saturday morning, St Thomas building open as part of English 

          Heritage Open Weekend, with national publicity an opportunity to 

          Welcome visitors from far and near. If you can help, contact Ken

          Pleasant (652 1610).

13^th -  Sunday

           10.30, officiant and preacher, Mrs May Towler.  Andrew Dawson

            presiding and preaching at St Paul’s.

20^th - Sunday

           8 am, Revd James Read presiding and preaching;

           10.30 am, Revd Alan Pugmire presiding and preaching.

27^th -  Sunday

           8am, Revd Paul Monk presiding and preaching;

           10.30 am, Dorothy Haynes officiating and preaching.

Our Harvest Thanksgiving this year will be on Sunday, 11 October.

Is medically assisted suicide right? 

We are all familiar with the recent judgment in the case of Debbie Purdy.  She claimed the right to know whether or not her husband would be prosecuted were he to accompany her abroad if there came a time when she wanted to end her life.  The Lords have now ordered the Director of Public Prosecutions to spell out when prosecutions would or would not be pursued.

Much has been written about this but I invite you to focus by thinking of people you know.  Julia is an very old lady who suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease.  She cannot make sense of the written word, she cannot follow a TV programme, she can’t make conversation though sometimes she at least appears to respond to a greeting - so what is the value of her life and why shouldn’t her son arrange to end it?

The 6^th commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill’, is absolute but it will be helpful to think through its meaning in this case. Julia’s son, Bill, points out that his mum can see, appears to notice people in the care home, birds and cars through the window outside. She enjoys her food. She attempts to talk. She is not only receiving from Bill and other people -she is still giving to them. In all Bill still knows her as his mum.  The commandment is based on the belief that God has made humans in his own image, able to love, able to respond to him both directly and in other creatures.

Bill has thought about what he would do if his mum’s situation changed - in particular if she suffered a life-threatening illness, e.g. an inability to swallow.

For some time it has been established in law that someone with capacity has the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment.  And doctors must respect valid advance directives (living wills) about refusing such treatment. What if no living will has been made?  It is then that Bill and his family, with advice from the doctor and with prayer (which is honesty before God), has the hard decision to make - is he striving officiously to keep mum alive, or does mum still lead a life with some pleasures, with some ability to please others?

You may find the article from the Church Times of 7 August 2009, reprinted in our September magazine, gives further food for thought and prayer. 

Christian Funeral

‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life … nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ - St Paul to the Christians in Rome chapter 8, verses 38 - 39

  31 July                                 Margaret Lees                          83 years