<span style="font-size: 1rem;">Dear All,</span>It is an understatement to say that 2020 has been a difficult, more accurately — a horrible, year. As we start 2021 our situation is still difficult, but we start the year with hope. Immunisations against Covid-19 have begun, though as yet no one has had a second dose of the vaccine. I hope that by the summer we will be in a much better situation, as far as the pandemic is concerned. Another source of hope is that the roof of our church has been replaced, a new disabled entrance constructed and the outside of our church building has been smartened up.As well as a year of hope, 2021 will be a year of challenges. We will leave the European Union as 2021 starts, and whatever our politics, I’m sure that we can agree that there will be challenges. Some difficulties are not new to 2021. One continuing challenge is our church finances — these have been precarious for many years. Another challenge is that our congregation is mainly elderly and some of us travel long distances to come to church. The clean air zone is another threat to us because some of us have vehicles that will be charged to enter the zone.In the church’s calendar, January is the season of Epiphany, beginning on the sixth of January and carrying on until Candlemas of the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on the second of February. The season of Epiphany is all about Jesus becoming known as the Son of God. Epiphany starts with the Wise Men, who travelled from the East tofind and worship Our Lord. The season continues with the baptism of Jesus and the wedding at Cana. Both of these proclaimed Jesus to his own nation. Then we end with Candlemas when Simeon proclaims that Jesus is to be a light to all peoples.In my own mind, I associate Epiphany with “light bulb moments”. I’m thinking of cartoons when a new idea is pictured as a lightbulb appearing by someone’s head. Epiphany is a series of these lightbulb moments, the lightbulb when the Wise saw something in the heavens and realized that a great king had been born. The lightbulb when John saw Jesus and realized he was the Messiah. The lightbulb when the steward at the wedding feast at Cana realised that water had been turned into wine, and that Jesus had done something miraculous. The lightbulb when Anna and Simeon realized that the baby they were waiting for was here in the temple, in their arms.Many people around us don’t know these things, they do not know Jesus and they do not realize who and what he is. It is our task to bring them to that lightbulb moment. We also need to see and understand many things about ourselves and about God: there are lightbulb moments waiting for each of us.As we enter 2021 let us be aware of the threats to our church and our weaknesses, but let us also be aware of our strengths and opportunities.
Renewal work Restarts
Like many others, I have had to do things differently during this lockdown. I am fortunate in being able to work from home and that I live in a large house with a big garden (my family and I are never on top of each other). I look out of the vicarage widow and wonder what I is like for those in flats, especially if they have young children. Let us pray for those who find this lockdown difficult and frightening. I am learning new skills. I continue to learn about video and sound editing as I produce Masses, reflections and other services for YouTube. One of the strangest things I have done so far has been going to Margot’s house to record the Angelus while maintaining social distancing. I remained 2 meters away with the recorder while Margo was singing into microphone in her front garden. Margo had to contend with the wind and passing cars as she was singing (I hope you will all enjoy the results so that Margo and I can consider our time well spent). Arranging a funeral has also been very different from the usual as I can’t visit the bereaved family and we will be limited to a handful of mourners at the crematorium. Other things have been less strange, though in their way just as unusual (such as helping Stanhope hall deliver food parcels on Wednesdays). As we look forward, we hope that we will be able to do more things as restriction are slowly released. However, it is likely that life won’t return to normal for at least another year: even then we may have to find a new normal for our lives. Jesus’ disciples also had to find a new normal after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The old certainties had gone, destroyed by Jesus’ death. Jesus’ resurrection didn’t return the disciples life to normal because Jesus was with then in a new and different way. Jesus used the 40 days between his resurrection and ascension to explain to his disciples that he was going back to the Father and that they would have to find a new normal. Jesus promised that they would get help to find a new way of living. That help came on the day of Pentecost when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. It took a long time for Jesus’ followers to work out what the new normal was for their lives. Indeed 2 millennia later we are still finding new ways to follow Jesus in, and we still need the Holy Spirit to guide us. Let us pray that both in this pandemic and in our lives of faith we will learn to follow God better.
When we cleared the garden at the North side of St Albans in the Autumn, we cut back many plants including some winter flowering Jasmine. I remember the previous year that it hardly had any flowers. The had Jasmine had spread a lot and I had previously dug up a small piece and transplanted in the vicarage garden. I dug a hole, out in some chicken pellet manure and planted the Jasmine. It was a lot of work watering the garden in the summer and that included the small jasmine plant. The summer was very hot, and plants didn’t grow much because of the lack of water. Akole and I were rewarded when the small winter jasmine plant was covered in yellow flowers giving a little colour to our garden in the winter.I am reminded of The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree In the gospel according to St Luke (13:6-9). Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So, he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”’The parable strikes me as both an encouragement and a warning for St Alban’s. The work that we have done for the Heritage Lottery Fund Grant to repair our roof, create better access and develop contacts with the community is a great opportunity. It is metaphorically digging around us and putting manure on us. We need to grasp the opportunity and work together for our church to grow and fruit. This is not the work of any individual or a small group, it is the work of the whole church.We start off with the advantage of a church that is welcoming, and we have seen the fruit of that this year as some new people have joined us. We need to do more though, not only to get visitors to stay but to reach out and encourage others to come to our church.I hope that by giving pruning the jasmine in the church garden, cutting back the trees that shadowed it and using fertilizer the Winter Jasmine round out church will one day brighten the cold months once again.