This year Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) is on March 4th so, depending on when you get your copy of the Parish Magazine, you may or may not have celebrated it. If you have, I hope you had fun. If you haven’t, you might be inspired by the ways other countries celebrate this day.In Denmark, sweet buns with their middles hollowed out and filled with jam and cream are eaten.In France, Shrove Tuesday is called Mardi Gras.In Poland, competitions are held to find the most delicious doughnut.In Finland, pea soup and blinis are often eaten.In the Christian calendar, Shrove Tuesday is seen as a time to use up all the good food in the house before entering the season of Lent. This period is the time before Easter during which Christians reflect on the coming events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and how they relate to their lives today. Sometimes such reflection leads one to feel a desire to deepen one’s relationship with God, hence why it is called Shrove Tuesday, with ‘shrove’ derived from ‘shrive’ meaning ‘to confess’.We all have the need for renewal in our lives. The movement towards Spring is a time for feeling more connected to life as nature unfurls. Perhaps this stirs thoughts of a divine presence for you. For the writer Nick Hornby, it is music that prompts such thoughts. He wrote about this in his book, 31 Songs: “I try not to believe in God, of course, but sometimes things happen in music, in songs that bring me up short, make me do a double-take … All I can say is that I can hear things that aren’t there, see and feel things I can’t normally see and feel, and start to realise that, yes, there is such a thing as an immortal soul, or at the very least, a unifying human consciousness, that our lives are short but have meaning”.Hornby continues, “Beyond that, I’m not sure it changes very much really. I’m not going to listen to stuff like this too often, though, just in case”. Worth pondering as we welcome new life this Spring and Lenten season.Very best,Corin RedsellAssociate Minister at St Peter’s Church, Barton
Dear FriendsThat great British talking point of the weather is on most folks’ lips at the beginning of 2025 and, unless everything changes, our small part of the country seems to be less affected than most. Our village pubs didn’t have to entertain customers for four days because the roads were impassable, nor did they quietly host an unexpected Royal guest caught in a blizzard*. Exciting for a few days, and we read that people have forged friendships they expect to last a lifetime.There are many well-known friendships that go down in history but let’s start with Wallace and Gromit, or Han Solo and Chewbacca who have a friendly bond that spans galaxies**. Then there is Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gaugin whose bond went beyond mere friendship; they collaborated and shared artistic exploration that has impacted the world of art for generations.We make friends as we go through life, some who come and go, but some remain as an important part of our life long after they have departed. A friend made on our first day at school or at work, or a friend met when sitting beside each other on the bus. A lifelong friend can come into our life at an older age but remain one until the end. It can take months to realise that a friendship is forming, or it can be an immediate mutual liking. A friend listens to you, is honest with you, is by your side when you need them most, accepts you just as you are and always wants the best for you. “When other friendships have been forgot, ours will still be hot” wrote Cole Porter, and that’s what we all hope for.Of course, as a Christian, I can say all that is true of Jesus Christ who fulfils all the criteria of friendship but with an extra: for he did lay down his life for us. Friendships are to be made in our community whenever we come together for social events, or when you might meet someone who you might see often, but to whom you have never said more than “Hello”. That’s when you can invest some time, get to know someone and the more you know, the more a friendship may grow.Reading of Jesus in the New Testament of the Bible we can get to know Him better and that may give us a whole new friendship for life.Bye for now.Ruth Bond (Licensed Lay Minister)*Queen Elizabeth II, 1981 in Gloucestershire. ** Star Wars pilot and first mate
Dear Friends,J.R.R Tolkien wrote a verse in The Lord of the Rings that I was reminded of recently:The old that is strong does not wither,Deep roots are not reached by the frost.From the ashes a fire shall be woken.A light from the shadows shall spring …These words came to mind when I was talking to someone about putting my garden to bed for the winter. They remarked that while it might seem like plants and trees are inanimate in the cold and wet months, this is when they are doing some of their best work. They will be sinking their roots deeper into the soil, building a strong foundation for the growth that is to come when spring and summer arrive, which they will. Deep roots are not reached by the frost. As this work begins, the leaves of deciduous trees are changing colour as they die, falling naturally, or with the help of autumn wind and rain. As they decompose, they provide a mulch for the trees. And, if we look closely, we will see that there are buds, even now, waiting to burst forth when the time is right. Evergreen trees remind us that even in winter, there is life: catkins, holly berries, pine cones. A light from the shadows shall spring.We create our own light too in these seasons: candles, open fires, bonfires, fireworks. Roots and light remind us that there is life and growth even in dark seasons. For Christians, the movement through dark days to Advent serves as a reminder of the good soil of their faith and how it too can nourish and provide stability. Wherever we find the good deep soil to sink our roots into this autumn and winter, let’s remember that there is and will be life in that.God bless,Corin Redsell(Associate Minister)
