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
From the VicarRecording the morning service in Church, on Mothering Sunday 22nd March, immediatelybefore the lockdown, little did any of us know just what was ahead of us – and what a threemonths it’s been! There is still of course uncertainty, anxiety and no doubt plenty ofobstacles to be overcome as we emerge, gradually and cautiously, from lockdown, but onething is crystal clear – the spirit of people across the country remains strong and signs ofhope are everywhere to be found.It’s difficult really to think of a short period of time during which so many momentousevents and happenings have occurred – from worldwide lockdowns, emergency hospitalsbeing built, Thursday demonstrations of respect and gratitude for NHS and key workers withthe associated rainbow pictures and drawings, the whole Black Lives Matter movement (andthe toppling of statues) to the incredible efforts of groups and individuals to help others inthese unprecedented times – exemplified best perhaps by Captain Tom and MarcusRashford, among many others of course, notably the late Dame Vera Lynn.What a time to have lived through and, sadly for over 42,000 people now, what a time tohave died in. None of us has been unaffected by what we’ve all been going through overthese last three months and, coming out of it, none of us will be unchanged.At a very deep and personal level, and as a Christian, I think that what we’ve all been doing,in different ways of course is, to coin a phrase from the 1980s, “going back to basics” –discovering afresh perhaps what our real “treasure” is and “losing our lives for Christ’s sakein order to find them” as St Matthew records Jesus’s words in the Gospels. Simple phrasesbut, as we’ve discovered over these last three months, incredibly powerful and meaningfulas well as being hard to do.In Antrobus and here in Great Budworth both churches are now open for individual privateprayer, and funerals (public worship and weddings will follow, in due course and afterfurther discussion and planning and preparation, as per the government’s announcementson 23 rd June) following extensive preparation, planning and consultation. As Canon AngelaTilby made clear in one of her recent Radio 4 “Thoughts for the day” the phrase “individualprivate prayer” is slightly misleading, as no prayer, whether made in the privacy of one’shome, where so many people have of course been praying during lockdown (and before,and will continue to do so afterwards), or in an “empty church” is ever really “private”. Godis with us always of course, wherever we are, and we are also surrounded by that “greatcloud of witnesses” according to the writer of the Book of Hebrews, by the saints andmartyrs of the church and all those who look to Christ, yesterday and today – hardly privateprayer even if we happen to be on our own! Like Canon Tilby, and yourselves I’m sure, I amalways conscious and appreciative of these countless prayer companions, as it were, and amalways lifted up in church into “the communion of saints”.I have looked forward greatly to being able to re-open the doors of our churches, as I knowmany, if not all, of you have (and I’m sorry that it has taken a little while longer to do thisbut our main concern has been the safety of all who visit our churches) and to being able toworship again with at least some people present, different as it undoubtedly will be to beginwith. I am also clear however that what we have learned and gained from theseunprecedented times must not be lost, but must be built on for the continuing growth ofGod’s kingdom here on earth.So, thinking about this next stage of our collective journey through the Covid-19 crisis, andall those who will be visiting our churches and other places of worship, let me finish withpart of TS Eliot’s “Little Gidding” from The Four Quartets:“If you came this way, taking any route, starting from anywhere,at any time or at any season, it would always be the same: you would have to put offsense and notion. You are not here to verify, instruct yourself, or inform curiosityor carry report. You are here to kneelwhere prayer has been valid. And prayer is more than an order of words,the conscious occupation of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying.And what the dead had no speech for, when living,they can tell you, being dead: the communication of the dead is tongued with firebeyond the language of the living.Here, the intersection of the timeless momentis England and nowhere. Never and always.”I couldn’t have put it better myself!May God’s richest blessing be with us all in this coming month. The Revd Alec Brown.
