“Come, thou long- expected Jesus........” is the opening line of one of Charles Wesley’s most wonderful hymns, which I’m sure we’ll all be singing at some point during the season of Advent. Unlike the people of Israel however we haven’t had to wait for the arrival of the Messiah, but this year time doesn’t seem to have flown by as it usually does between one Christmas and the next, so the “waiting” to celebrate again and afresh the birth of Jesus seems, at least to me, more real. Quite why this should be I’m not really sure – but it has been very good to really get into the Church’s seasons and festivals during the course of the last year, and now to be entering the season of Advent, so full of hope and expectation and promise. And our world is in such need of hope and expectation and the promise of peace – and not only to the people of Ukraine, Israel and Gaza – but to all those who are struggling to make ends meet, struggling with mental health problems, homelessness and addictions and so on...............the list could go on and on. It is our real and profound joy to be able to give thanks for and celebrate again the birth of the Christ Child this Christmas, but it is also our duty and responsibility to remember the circumstances of that birth – a people under occupation, temporary homelessness, danger and exile – and to reflect on this in the light of circumstances in our 21st century and world. We do this of course in different ways – in prayer and worship, in study and in fellowship one with another, in fund and awareness raising – always mindful of the innocence and vulnerability of that baby in the manger over two millennia ago, that “long expected Jesus.” As I write, the General Synod of the Church of England is meeting and is engaged with many issues, including the preparation of pastoral guidance and prayers for the blessing of the marriages of same sex couples and our care of the environment – and I hope and pray that we will be able to engage and help with these, and other pressing issues - all part of our world and our worldview which has, of course, changed so very much over the last two millennia. But what has not changed is God’s love for us, demonstrated so profoundly and joyously in the birth of Jesus, or God’s calling on all of our lives, to love God and our neighbour and to make the best use of our gifts and talents in God’s service. “Joy to the world! The Lord is come......” by Isaac Watts (a distant relative of mine, as it happens!) is the opening line to one of our most loved Christmas Carols, which we certainly will be singing this Christmastide, and, with Handel’s wonderful music, gives full expression to the wonder and joy that is so much a part of our preparations for and celebration of the birth of the Christ Child, in which we all can and should rejoice. On behalf of the Ministry Team may I wish everyone a very happy, peaceful and blessed Christmas, and may the joy of the infant in the manger be with us all this Christmas, and always. Happy Christmas! The Revd Alec Brown.
Dear friends, I am quite a morbid character – it did not help that when I was young and in my formative years my mum and dad were tracing our family tree and we would spend part of our holidays in Scotland looking round graveyards. I find it interesting reading gravestones and seeing how people want to be remembered. There is the famous memorial of James Maurice Butler “Sacred to the memory of Captain Maurice James Butler accidentally shot by his batman on 4th April 1882. Well done thou good and faithful servant” Many gravestones will relate to a person`s occupation. How do we want to be remembered? Will people remember us as Christians demonstrating the fruits and gifts of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. We are all created in the image of God – will people remember us as being Christlike – loving God and others? I want Micah 6 v 8 on mine. What does the Lord require of you, to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Dad wants a verse from Philemon “He warmed the hearts of the Saints.” What I also want is “Well done thou good and faithful servant” Matthew 25.21 Remembering and being remembered is so important. Memory is part of what makes us human. October and November are months filled with remembrance. At the start of October we had our Animal Blessing service – the church this year was filled with dogs. It was a sad time for some as they remembered animals that have previously attended but are no longer around. For those who have never lost an animal, it is hard to understand the depth of loss people can feel. Our cat died in May 2022 We do however still talk about her and keep her memory alive. Then at our All Souls Service of Commemoration, we remembered those who have died. During the service Alec read out the names of those who have died. It is helpful to remember, to speak into the silence the personal name of someone we have loved, and who has died. It helps to keep the memory alive, it helps to remind us - because of course God doesn’t need reminding -, but it helps to remind us of our duty to be the living biography of the people whose lives have intersected and intertwined with ours. This was one of the comments following the death of Queen Elizabeth, that our lives should reflect hers with regard to faith and acts of service being her continued legacy. On the 12h November we have Remembrance Sunday where we remember all those who have died in wars, preserving our freedom. “At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.” The Spanish American writer, George Santayana said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” - that is why it is so important that we remember each year those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. This year we will also not doubt think of the many who have died following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and for the lives lost in the Middle East. In the Bible Moses told the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land to always remember God`s faithfulness. On the cross one of the thieves asked Jesus to remember him. Each time we have communion, “Do this in remembrance of me”, we remember the life, death and resurrection of Christ. No matter how we are feeling at the moment we need to remember that God will never forget us. He has each of our names tattooed on the palms of his hands. A simple Bible text to remember is “God is Love” and we need to repeat that to ourselves so that it is engraved on our hearts. So continue to make memories and keep remembering that you are loved, more than you can ever imagine, by a God who is with you always Love Christina
Dear friends, My Aunty Joyce has recently died. She used to give a talk entitled “My Rebellious Childhood” which really sums her up. One of her earliest memories was waking up to the sound of crying. She had no idea that my grandma was pregnant, so the arrival of my dad was a surprise and not a welcome one. She was told he had been found on the doorstep in a tomato box. She spent the rest of the day trying to find the box so she could leave it on someone else`s doorstep. One day she was feeding the swans with some friends, a girl was bending over the canal and my aunt could not resist putting her foot under the girls bottom and tipping her in. My grandfather dived in to save the girl and was awarded a medal for bravery!! In 1947, Northwich flooded. Aunty Joyce asked if she could go, my grandma said no, so she disobeyed and went anyway. All would have been fine, if her photo had not appeared on the front page of the Northwich Guardian. Aunty Joyce was never a rule follower. We are called to be obedient to God`s commands but like Aunty Joyce, we often don`t follow them – not just the 10 commandments but Jesus` command to love other people. My Aunt had a difficult life, her only child died in infancy, my uncle died shortly after he retired, but in the sadness, she discovered joy. My uncle died in St Luke`s and for many years Aunty Joyce volunteered there on a Saturday morning helping the staff and the patients. She also found joy through travelling abroad on Pilgrimage to the Holy Land and to the churches St Paul visited. Sometimes we are surprised by joy. At the Summer Fair and BBQ, there was so much joy – to see people`s faces as the bears and other cuddly creatures were launched from the tower – for me too, the opportunity of holding a baby hedgehog, feeling its tiny heart beating and stroking the spines was balm to my bruised heart.Sometimes we need to do activities that bring us joy, time with families, the cinema, the outdoors. A group of us had the joy of being at the Cheshire Show and explaining the wonders of Forest Church, the power of the outdoors to remedy our nature deficit disorders and to connect with God through the wonders of creation.Joy is mentioned many times in the Bible and has different words in Greek and Hebrew with different meanings. Martin Lloyd Jones, a theologian and writer defined it as the “response and the reaction of the soul to a knowledge of Jesus” Joy can provide us with an inner peace that is not affected by outward circumstances. It does not mean we will never feel, express or experience pain and loss but we choose joy because of our hope in Christ.Last month on 12th we celebrated Barnabus, he was known as an encourager and we can bring joy by being like him. This month we celebrate one of my favourite Saints, Mary Magdalene, the apostle to the apostles who showed such joy on encountering the risen Christ.On 28th June, we celebrate St Irenaeus, an early church father who said that the “glory of God is a life fully lived” That is the day of my aunt`s funeral. At 89 she had lived fully ,experienced God`s amazing grace and had chosen joyWith love, prayers and blessings Christina
I hope everyone has by now recovered from the Coronation of King Charles 111 and its many and varied celebrations, and from Eurovision as well! It was an incredible time in the life of the country, Commonwealth and wider world, and one which I’m sure we will all remember with happiness and pride – even if we did flag a bit at times! A week or so after the event we held a “mock” coronation during the fortnightly Play and Praise Service, with 19 of the Reception and Nursery schoolchildren, and they thoroughly enjoyed it, and all painted beautiful crowns to take home.Amidst all the coverage of the coronation – the pageantry, pomp and ceremony, the music and the many, many words and images – I found the newly written King’s Prayer to be one of the most profound aspects of it all, with its reference to Scripture and words from a greatly loved hymn (I vow to thee, my country), and with great relevance to each and every one of us in our own lives and journeys of faith. You may remember it, but if not, this is what His Majesty prayed towards the end of the ceremony:“God of compassion and mercy whose Son was sent not to be served but to serve, give grace that I may find in thy service perfect freedom and in that freedom knowledge of thy truth. Grant that I may be a blessing to all thy children, of every faith and conviction, that together we may discover the ways of gentleness and be led into the paths of peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”It’s a beautiful prayer isn’t it, and so appropriate for all of us – King Charles has of course often spoken of his desire to be a “defender of all faiths”, and though he didn’t in the end use those words in the ceremony, the prayer above captures his wish exactly – all children, of every faith and conviction.Towards the end of May we celebrated one of the most important festivals of the Church – Pentecost – with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples gathered in Jerusalem, empowering them in their faith, their witness and their mission and service in the early Church. Twenty one centuries later that same Spirit empowers each and every one of us, and in this month of June we remember all sorts of people in the Church’s calendar who have been empowered to love and to serve God through the centuries, sometimes at great cost to themselves. Saints Peter and Paul are remembered in June, as well as Barnabas, and the memorial of Alban, the first martyr of Britain in about the year 250 A.D., and regarded by many as the true patron saint of England, falls on 22nd June. Hymn writers, deacons, bishops, abbots, social reformers and martyrs are remembered in June, including the Martyrs of Uganda (19th and 20th Centuries) and Bernard Mizeki, who became a catechist in central Africa (in what is now Zimbabwe) and was martyred for his new found faith in 1896, and whose shrine in the granite hills of central Zimbabwe I have had the privilege of visiting.Distant figures they may all be to us living in Britain in 2023 (though some of course – Peter and Paul especially – are much better known than the others) but they would all have understood implicitly the meaning and significance of the King’s Prayer – even if for some of them the paths down which they were led were far from peaceful. I take great comfort, inspiration and encouragement from their lives, and count myself truly blessed to be following in their footsteps, and of course in the footsteps of Christ himself – our true inspiration and guide, “through all the changing scenes of life.”May God bless each one of us in this coming month, in all our work and witness in His service.
