Dear friends,
This news update comes with my love and blessings as we journey onwards through Eastertide. I do hope that all is well with you? Please email [email protected] if there’s anything I can help you with.
With love and kind regards,
Reverend Anthony
Easter Thanks
Many thanks again to everyone that has made this Easter such a special time by decorating all our churches. This week’s header picture is of the wonderful Easter Garden in Goathland (special thanks to Michael and Mary Trimble), and our font at Egton is shown in the two attached photos. The font was decorated yesterday by a couple of young people that enjoyed our ‘Dotty the Donkey Trail’ at St Hilda’s. Our Easter crafts and activities there have proved to be quite popular with various visitors popping in over the Easter break.
Please do come along to one of our APCMs if you can. There will be opportunities to become elected to one of our PCCs or to help one or more of our PCCs to develop our work across Middle ESK Moor. The meetings will take place straight after our Sunday morning 10:45 services (but allowing time for refreshments of course) as follows:
Midday (this coming) Sunday 14th April, St Thomas, Glaisdale and Lealholm
Midday Sunday 21st April, St Hilda, Egton
Midday Sunday 28th April, St Matthew, Grosmont
Midday Sunday 5th May, St Mary, Goathland
Please click on this link for further information.
Thanks to everyone currently involved in the many aspects of running our church community – all your work is very much appreciated!
The Week Ahead
9:00 - Holy Communion Service in Goathland.
Thursday - 11th April
10:30 - 2:30 Vi's Community Cafe in Grosmont at St Matthew's
1:30 - 2:30 Play Space in Grosmont at St Matthew's
Sunday - 14th April
9:00 Holy Communion at St James' Lealholm
10:45 Holy Communion at St Thomas Glaisdale
Tuesday - 16th April
10:00 - 12:00 Cafe in Goathland at the Village Hall
6:30 Sharing Space in Eskdaleside
Please follow this link for the Readings that go with the sermon Reverend Anthony preached on Sunday morning:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock, and redeemer. Amen.
Have you ever thought about the abundance of energy and life in the people and in the world around us?
I’ve mentioned before to you that I used to work in the environment industry, designing water treatment systems and writing about climate change and renewable energy. For years ecologists, scientists and engineers like me have tried to lobby governments to invest in renewable energy sources, conscious of the finite nature of earth's fossil fuel resources. And this is all the more important at the moment with the rising cost of energy, and the rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere resulting in the climate emergency we’re experiencing. But projects have been built harnessing the energy of the tides, using it to power generators, producing electricity for heat and light. And there’s wind farms that utilise each gust of wind to turn giant rotors, echoing the action of windmills that were widely used by previous generations for a variety of tasks.
The sun creates wind by heating the ground and the air, and the sun is already the principal source of energy for our planet: scientists are constantly devising new ways of using its energy in factories, communities and in our homes. The Church of England too is seriously looking at ways of using renewable energy. As part of that here in Middle ESK Moor we’ll be starting to look at each of our church buildings becoming an ‘Eco-Church’ like St Margaret’s in Aislaby. There’ll be more info on that in the coming months.
Energy is all around us, energy sustains us, energy changes us - energy is life. But energy is difficult to see isn’t it? In years gone by people would hold a mirror to the mouth of a dying person. If there was breath, it would form a mist on the mirror and would show that the person was still alive. The shortage of earth's resources has made us more conscious of what saves and sustains life. And the best example of energy indicating life is in the breath of each living person.
We have a bit of a tendency to wait until Pentecost until we think too much about the Holy Spirit, don’t we? The Holy Spirit that hovered over the water at the beginning of creation. And we can overlook the fact, as written in today’s Gospel reading, that one of the first actions the risen Jesus did after leaving Mary Magdalene in the garden by the tomb in the morning, was to appear to the disciples and to breathe on them that very same day, in the evening: this was a powerful sign that Jesus was sharing his life, his energy, with them. As he breathed on them, he said: "Receive the Holy Spirit." The very energy and life of God was being confirmed on them; but no one can receive the Holy Spirit of God and remain unchanged.
The disciples go on to discover that they were able to speak in foreign languages. They found a courage they had never known before in preaching the Good News. They lived in a unity that only weeks before would have seemed like a dream. With the energy of God flowing through them, they revealed new life and growth to people around them. And this new life of the Holy Spirit had come to them when they were at their lowest ebb: shut away in a room, paralysed by fear, confused and disillusioned.
The breath of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God, was indeed new life, energy and growth. But its gift didn’t simply grant new life to the disciples: it confirmed them as already an integral part of the life of Jesus Christ, just as we are today. In a new way Jesus had come close to his disciples, calling them together in communion, sending them far and wide on his mission. With God’s Holy Spirit living in them the disciples became, in a new way, his people, his messengers, his Church. Wherever they were, he would be there too. And this gift of the Holy Spirit is with his disciples in every age.
So, have you ever thought about the abundance of energy and life in the people and in the world around us?
Everything we encounter is infused with life, a life so wonderful and mysterious and complex that it defies scientific definition.
The movement of the earth around the sun, the spinning of our planet: which brings us night and day,
the breath of the wind across the face of the earth,
the warmth of fire,
the radiance of light,
growing plants and flowing streams.
All these amazing things are signs that point towards an energy which gives and sustains life. And I think that our awareness of this energy and life all around us is in fact an awareness of the Holy Spirit of God: the One who moves around freely, giving life and growth to the world and the potential for peace, forgiveness and love among all its people.
By becoming aware of the Holy Spirit, we become tuned into it, sensing its presence, opening ourselves to its power: we’re enabled to live in accordance with its force for good. We start to live in that same energy which caused the heavens and earth to be made. And we, like the disciples, become energised for the work of God. Our lives tell the dynamic message of the Good News. The Christian messenger doesn’t simply bring Jesus Christ to others: it’s much deeper than that: we identify the presence of God already in existence. We demonstrate that where there is love, it is Jesus’ love; where there is healing and forgiveness, it is Jesus’ healing and forgiveness. We show people where Jesus is already active in their lives and in this way, in close collaboration with the Holy Spirit, we build up the body of Christ; the Church.
What tremendous energy was released when Jesus rose from the dead and the risen Jesus breathed on the disciples 2050 years ago! And what tremendous energy is still released into the Church by the Holy Spirit today! Continuously!
We, today's disciples, are enabled by the Holy Spirit to work in communion with each other, doing nothing less than renewing the face of the earth!
Amen
---
The Reverend Anthony Bennett
Interim Minister – the Benefice of Middle ESK Moor
---
These two books, edited by Jane Williams, are continuing to be very helpful with planning my sermon writing:
Williams, J (2009), Ed., ‘Lost for Words, A Sermon Resource for the Anglican Three Year Cycle,’ Redemptorist Publications, Chawton, UK.
Williams, J (2011), Ed., ‘Lectionary Reflections, Years A, B and C.’ Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, UK.