Monthly Magazine, February 2010Current priorities of St Thomas’- as agreed by Church Council, September 2004 1. Evangelism/Church Growth out of love for people and because we need new members. 2. Worship, including Sunday School, Healing, Prayer and Music. 3. Witness to Asians through individual friendships and through shared work with the community. 4. Presence, that is letting people know that C of E Christians live and/or worship on the Coppice. 5. Working with St Paul’s, as we have been requested by the Diocese.
Dear Friends We have started the New Year with great news: the new priest appointed to St Paul’s is the Revd Nick Andrewes, at present priest-in-charge of Lower Crumpsall and St Mark’s, Cheetham. He will be Licensed towards the end of May. When I retire in approx 4 years’ time, barring the unforeseen, Nick will also be Licensed as p-in-c of St Thomas’. Our churchwardens have played a full part in the appointment process. Nick and I have had conversations and are confident that we can work with each other.
Events ahead Wednesday, 10th February, 7.30 pm, Penitential Worship for Lent. Saturday, 13th February, 10.30 am, in school, Pancakes’ Social. Sunday, 14th February, 4 – 7pm, St Martin’s, Castleton, Rochdale, ‘Re Lent’ – other venues and times available from me. Re: Lentis a creative worship event, led by Bishop Mark and others, for young and old to explore together Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan together and think about the role of forgiveness and reconciliation. Each event has been times to enable children to attend aswell as young people and adults. Each session will include bible study and interactive creative activities. Please bring food for a bring and share tea, and the organisers will provide cake and drinks. Saturday, 6th March, 9.30 am – 1 pm, at All Saints and Martyrs Church, Langley: Rochdale Archdeaconry Healing Day – speaker, Bishop Chris of Bolton. £5 – book on clipboard at St Thomas’ by 28th February. Saturday, 6th March, 1.30 – 4 pm, at Oldham Bethel Church: Word of Life Annual Open Meeting.
‘A Passion for Life’ is the title of our Lent focus this year. After our look at Islam in 2009, Bangladeshi Christians in 2008 and Christian Healing in a previous year, it has seemed right to me that it would strengthen us to think and contemplate again on the suffering and death of Jesus which is at the centre of our relationship with God. We will do this in a slightly different way than usual – on each Sunday, I shall introduce some thoughts on the subjects and passages as listed below. Then during week in two home groups, we can together take those thoughts and prayers further. Everyone who takes part will be given a free booklet with suggestions for thought and prayer.
Ash Wednesday, 17th February, 10.30 am Holy Communion in the Vestry 7.30 pm Holy Communion with hymns False arrest, Mark 14, 43 – 52. Sunday, 20th February: Who is God’s chosen, Mark 14, 53 – 65 Sunday, 28th February: Questions! Questions! Mark 14, 66 – 15,5. Sunday,7th March: The Official response, Mark 15, 6 – 20. Sunday, 14th March: Mothering Sunday. Sunday, 21st March: Despised and rejected, Mark 15, 21 – 32. Palm Sunday, 28th March: End and Beginning, Mark 15, 33 – 47.
In his introduction, Richard Kidd, the author of the study course, writes, ‘ “How do you want to be remembered?” is the classic TV interview question. Some want to be remembered for their record-breaking achievements, some for their outlandish behaviour, some for their wealth, others for their power. ‘In the earliest years of the Church, the apostles were determined that Jesus should be remembered for the way he died, and they were convinced that Jesus himself wanted it that way. In 1 Corinthians 11, 23 – 26, Paul describes how Christians can remind themselves about Jesus’ death by celebrating the Lord’s Supper. WE are reminded by the symbolism of the bread and the wine, and also by the telling of the gospel story. ‘Many New Testament scholars think that it was just this repeated telling of the story, especially at gatherings for the Lord’s Supper, which helped the early Christians remember the final days before Jesus’ death. When they came to write it down it became, in each of the gospels, the section we now like to call the passion narrative. ‘ “Passion” is a tricky word because it suggests different things to different people. Some think of romantic stories; others may think of a preacher with a passion for the gospel. When we talk about the passion of Jesus, Jesus’ passion is his suffering, and the passion narrative is the story which tells of his pain. ‘Not just any suffering, though, for the apostles make another connection: one which took them back to the old days, the days when they had celebrated the Jewish festivals with Jesus in Jerusalem. ‘The gospels tell us when Jesus first spoke about a link between his death and the breaking of bread. It was at the time of the Passover, when paschal lambs were slaughtered and everyone remembered the sufferings of their ancestors in the days of Moses. In the passion narrative we hear the way in which Jesus, the new paschal lamb, is prepared for a new passover sacrifice at the cross, and we begin to appreciate why Christians longed for a new king of celebration based on the story of his dying. ‘All this was so important to the gospel writers that each devoted a large part of their work to it. It also looks as if there was so much agreement about it that Matthew, Mark and Luke were all content to tell it in much the same way. ‘In this book we can follow only one gospel, Mark, and we must set limits between the time of Jesus’ arrest and the point at which he is carefully secured in the tomb. You may want to make cross-checks to the other gospels, for each has a special way of making its meaning plain. ‘Some readers may be disappointed that these studies stop short of the resurrection, but that need not be the case. Christians are often too quick to rush to the empty tomb before they have wrestled with the real impact of Jesus’ suffering and dying. Say with the hard stories of the passion a little longer, and it is likely that the accounts of the resurrection will, like the tomb, open up as never before. After all, it is not until the seed is buried in the ground that a story of new life begins to be told.’
I do hope that you will join me during this important Lent period when through history Christians have always made extra time to allow the Spirit to deepen our relationship with God.
Yours sincerely
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 8, 38 – 39. 29 December Carol Beasley 8 January Robert Earnshaw 88 years
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