We always make New Resolutions in the New Year. However, September and October are also useful times to reflect on the next months ahead and changes we might make. September/October marks a new school term, new university term and, for most, a return to normal work after, hopefully, some time for relaxation over the Summer. Of course, this year, has been a very different start to the academic year. As I write, COVID-19 outbreaks are still rising and we may face more serious lockdown as the weeks progress. For me, October marks, God willing, my priesting in Chester Cathedral on 3rd October. This will be a very curtailed ceremony as the cohort will be divided into three groups, with only two visitors per candidate allowed in the cathedral. There will be a live screening in the refectory for three additional visitors only. However, one shouldn’t complain. It is the culmination of several years of discernment and a rollercoaster of a journey shared with friends and family members. It is not about personal validation or supremacy. The role of the priest is a humble role; it is one in which we are servants of Christ and would do well not to forget that. This is a ministry of servanthood and, as Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, writes in his new book “On Priesthood”, the stoles we wear around our necks are ”towels of service.” Paul also writes to the Philippians “ Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” So, my priesting will be a small ceremony but that is fine. <span style="font-size: 1rem;">My greatest sadness is that this Autumn is my first birthday without any parents to spend it with, and also no parent to share my priesting with. I am what is now defined as an “adult orphan.” Without the protective illusion of a parent’s timeless presence, the future suddenly seems more urgent. There are precious memories which contain the roots of life, but parents are the last connection to that unless we have siblings too, which share in those moments, and I am an only child.</span>So, life is brief, we must all use our time wisely and as Stephen Cottrell also writes ”Find enough time to sleep, enough time to pray, then do what you can.”Please keep me in your prayers as I begin life as a priest and I pray that all our ministries would bring the message of Christ to others.Blessings to you all,Jenny
Dear Friends,You will no doubt be aware that there are parts of the Church of England thatdo not accept the right of women to enter the priesthood or to hold the postof Bishop. That is their theology and the Anglican Church is a broad churchwhich seeks to embrace all views. It was only in 1994 that women wereadmitted to the priesthood and Libby Lane was the first woman to beconsecrated as a Bishop in 2015.People outside the church find this concept of women being excluded fromleadership roles difficult in an age where you cannot legally face discriminationdue to sex.Women matter to God. Unfortunately throughout the history of the churchthat has not been evident.On 22nd July it was the feast day of Mary Magdalene, healed by Jesus, she wasone of his most loyal followers, remaining at the foot of the cross and meetingJesus in the garden following his resurrection. It was Mary who told the otherdisciples about the resurrection earning the title “the apostle to the apostles”.She was however branded as a prostitute by Pope Gregory in the 6 th Centurywith no Biblical support. St Paul is often quoted in the arguments againstwomen in ministry yet he valued them, for example he entrusted his Letter tothe Romans to Phoebe- a woman.Women matter to God. We all matter to God.I think a huge problem is when the world views people as less. Everyonematters to God. He created each person on earth in his image. Everyone hasvalue and God can work by grace through all of us.God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone whobelieves in him should not perish but have eternal life. Everyone. Not a select <span style="font-size: 1rem;">few.</span>Everyone matters to God. Everyone should matter to us. Not just the peoplewe like but everyone, irrespective of age or gender or views.God places a high value on individuals.Never feel that you don`t matter, because you matter to God and to us.If anyone tries to put you down – look them in the eye and say “I am a child ofGod and I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”You matter.Christina
As everyone will know by now, we will be back in Church for regular services from thebeginning of this month, and this will be a great joy! So many people have spoken to meabout this, and to one another and others, over these last four months, and this is not at allsurprising for we are, essentially, relational beings – one to another and, of course, inrelation to God.A lot has been written about the return to public worship lately, and there has been a greatdeal of discussion within the Church at local, Deanery, Diocesan and national levels aboutjust what we have learned about “being church” during this period of lockdown, and howthis might be incorporated/adapted into the church going forward. Suffice it to say that thenext few months are going to be very interesting indeed!As I have written, in prose and in poetry, these last four months have not been easy, and formany people have been desperately hard and sad, and there certainly isn’t going to be aquick or easy route back to “normality” and “business as usual”. In this respect we will allhave to be getting ready and prepared for the “new normal” – whatever that eventuallylooks like.In the meantime I look forward greatly to welcoming you back (whenever you feel ready) toworship in our beautiful Church – which has missed you all! Not since the beginning of the13 th Century and King John’s dispute with the Pope in Rome have the parish churches of thiscountry been closed for public worship – so we aren’t the first worshippers in GreatBudworth Parish to be locked out of church, but I sincerely hope we’ll be the last ones!Some verses which have sustained and encouraged me over these last few months (as wellas some of the Psalms of course) are those from that very well known exhortation of Paul inhis letter to those earliest Christians in Rome, who were themselves going through verydifficult times: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, orpersecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...........No, in all these things we aremore than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death,nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, norheight, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the loveof God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”Amen to that!May God bless each one of us, and all those whom we love, in this coming month.The Revd Alec Brown.
Summer Days by Rev Dr Jenny McKay Well, we are now at the height of the summer and by the time you read this we will be past the Summer Solstice and the Longest Day. As I write, my husband, Dave, and I are determined to get up at sunrise this year on 21st June, and stay up for the full length of the day. We want to celebrate the light from sunrise to sunset in what has been an extraordinary year. It seems right to seek out this light in a year which has had months of emotional darkness, to remember that as the sun rises and sets, so are lives cycle too between raw sadness and uplifting happiness. Light and shade sit with each other, the one defining and celebrating the other. It has always been since God divided the light from the dark and we had morning and evening, the first day. And in the present moment, those early light waves are speeding an original goodness to us from back in the beginning, to illuminate any one particular, precious, present, moment. In his book, Anam Cara, John O’Donohue writes “There is such an intimate connection between the way we look at things and what we actually discover. If you can learn to look at your life in a gentle, creative and adventurous way, you will be eternally surprised at what you find”. Imagine if we could bring this wakefulness to the ordinary, mundane days of which our lives are mostly made up. What difference might it make, remembering every morning, every evening, that we gather, as humanity, within this towering cathedral of the Earth; our passing lives, the act of worship? As lockdown restrictions ease and we enter into a “noisier” world let us not forget that peace and beauty which these few dark months offered us, a re-connection with the created world around us, and God’s ever present love. I hope that we manage our long day experience and maybe you will have succeeded too. To see if we did, do check out Facebook page Rev Jenny the Vet. Also on Twitter and Instagram.Blessings,Jenny
