I am writing to say Thank You to everyone who supports the work of our five churches across our benefice. As a grassroots organisation, the local church completely depends upon volunteers' goodwill in enabling worship and ministry to function effectively across our village communities. A big Thank You to all who give of their energy and time in whatever capacity in helping our churches fulfil their mission in being there for everyone. A big Thank You too to all who give so generously financially. Like lots of small charities, the local church is no different in being dependent upon the kindness of those who give their money to meet the day-to-day running costs and maintenance of our ancient buildings and to fund the post of a full-time vicar. Thank You. Each year the Diocese of St Albans sets a figure for Parish Share. This is the amount that each parish is asked to raise to contribute to the overall Diocesan budget. The total budget amounts to around £14 million per annum with parishes asked to find approximately £10 million – most of this coming from regular members of congregations. The balance, £4 million is income generated from Diocesan investments, including income from glebe land and properties. This year the breakdown for our benefice is as follows: Ardeley - £17 706, Benington - £18 632, Cottered - £11 760 and Walkern - £27 427, these figures include an amount that each church gives to support our church at Throcking, which is unable to pay any Parish Share. Thank You to everyone for helping us meet this challenge. For four months (July – October) last year, I was on a period of Extended Study Leave. Usually, after a period of continuous service of eleven years, clergy are encouraged to take a sabbatical. I had served sixteen years since my last sabbatical and was grateful to the Diocese for the opportunity to spend some time away from the coalface and concentrate on a research project that I have been working on for several years. I am now writing up a paper on the life of Revd Ulric Zwinglius Rule (1884 -1924) Vicar, Missionary to Newfoundland and Old Testament Scholar. My being away on leave meant several people across the parishes pulling together to cover a series of gaps. I am all too aware that at times that brought challenges. Thank You to all of our Churchwardens, PCC Secretaries and visiting clergy for all that they did during this leave of absence. It is good to be back! Congratulations to Tom Nutley, who has stepped forward to join our Ministry Team. Tom recently completed his training to become a Lay Leader of Worship (LLW). He is based at St Mary’s, Walkern, but over time, he will lead Services across all of our churches. If anyone is interested in considering becoming an LLW, please speak to me. This involves a six-session training programme run by the Diocese, which is not too onerous but does require a regular commitment to leading Services across the benefice. A number of folks have also agreed to volunteer to read lessons at our Services and become part of a regular rota. This is a big help and is an opportunity to contribute to worship in a meaningful but not too demanding a role. Thank You to Hetta Amiri (Benington), Theresa Brew (Walkern), Christopher Evans (Ardeley) and Ellie Heard (Cottered). If you would like to have a go at doing this but feel a bit daunted about standing up in public, have a word with me or a Churchwarden. You can always have a practice privately and see how you feel thereafter! Our Foodbank, based at St Mary’s, Walkern continues to be an important source of support and help for those for whom life presents real challenges in difficult times. Alongside offering food we also offer an opportunity to ‘belong’ at the Wednesday Coffee Morning – a time to chat and touch base with others. There is also an opportunity to join our Prayer Group. This follows on from Coffee and is an important part of our response to spiritual need. If you know of anyone who you think would benefit from accessing our Foodbank, please let me know. The Foodbank is there for anyone who lives in any of our villages and surrounding hamlets. We now have a new Coffee Morning that meets once a month in Ardeley Village Hall. This meets on the second Tuesday of the month (10 am – 11.30 am) and is already proving to be very popular. Thank You to Rachel Hurst, Sue Jones and the Team for making this happen. Works to the Mortuary Chapel at St Peter’s have been on hold for quite some time as a result of our architect, Francesca Weal being taken very poorly with cancer. It is good to be able to report that Francesca has made a good recovery and is now back to helping us progress with the repurposing of the Chapel space. Plans are being drawn up that will see a series of oak cabinets being introduced along the west wall of the Chapel that will hide all of the new electric works that have been completed and give useful additional storage space. This project is being funded by a legacy left by Brenda Harris, in whose memory the cabinets will be dedicated. It is hoped that the Chapel will become a more flexible space as a vestry as well as being available for small groups and exhibitions. All of our churches and churchyards are blessed with being the final resting place of a number of notable people who have made a significant contribution to national life. St Peter’s, Benington is home to the grave of PC Benjamin Snow, the first modern-day policeman to be shot whilst on duty – 10th January 1871. He subsequently died of his injury. Henry Chauncy wrote his History of Hertfordshire, published in 1700, the first of the genre of what we now term ‘travel guides’. He is laid to rest in St Lawrence’s, Ardeley. St Mary’s, Walkern holds within it the tomb of the Templar Knight, William de Lanvalei. He played a key role in challenging King John, resulting in the relinquishing of certain monarchical powers (1215) and the writing of Magna Carter, a foundational document along the road to democracy. St John the Baptist at Cottered has perhaps the most significant link with more recent history in the grave of Dr James Cantlie, friend and saviour of Sun Yat Sen. Cantlie rescued Sen from certain death when Sen was abducted and held prisoner in the Chinese Embassy in London. It was Cantlie who organised a campaign that secured Sen’s release. Sun Yat Sen would go on to become the first President of China in 1912. 2025 is the centenary of Sun Yat Sen’s death. We welcome Chinese pilgrims wishing to visit Cantlie’s grave as part of this year’s celebrations – as we welcome pilgrims and visitors who visit all of our churches to be inspired and uplifted in remembering those whose lives have impacted the course of history. And by no means finally, my Thank You to Heather Ferguson, our Benefice Administrator, who has an eye for detail and keeps me on track! If you think the Church can be of any help to you, don’t hesitate to get in touch! God Bless Mark mdbailey066@gmail.com (Photograph of our Sister Church of St Mary The Virgin, Walkern, Christmas 2024 by Paul Warner) Follow our Churches on Facebook for the latest news and details of events!
The Revd Writes… The 12th of March is the centenary of the death of Sun Yat-sen, undoubtedly one of the great figures on the world stage during the 20th century. He is revered by the global Chinese community both in the People’s Republic of China, where he is known as the Forerunner of the Revolution, and in Taiwan, where he is acknowledged as the Father of the Nation. Sun Yat-sen was at the forefront of confronting the despotic regime of the Qing Dynasty. Following the success of the 1911 Revolution, in 1912 he became the Provisional President of the Republic of China. A primary influence on Sun Yat-sen was Dr James Cantlie. Cantlie taught medicine at the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese where Sun Yat-sen became a student. The two developed a lifelong friendship, a relationship that was to be critical in saving Sun Yat-sen from certain death when he was kidnapped by the Chinese Embassy whilst in exile in London in 1896. Incarcerated in the Embassy, Sun Yat-sen found himself facing the prospect of being smuggled out of the country to China to be executed. It fell to Cantlie to instigate a campaign that eventually secured Sun Yat-sen’s release. It is fair to say that without Cantlie’s help, the course of modern-day Chinese history would have taken a very different path. Sun Yat-sen was a Christian and it was his Christian faith that sustained him in his darkest hour, locked up in a room in the Embassy, to all intents and purposes, ‘disappeared’. He wrote in the account of his kidnapping, written with Cantlie’s help, published in 1897, “My despair was complete, and only by prayer to God could I gain any comfort. Still the dreary days and still more dreary nights wore on, and but for the comfort afforded me by prayer I believe I should have gone mad. After my release I related to Mr. Cantlie how prayer was my one hope, and told him how I should never forget the feeling that seemed to take possession of me as I rose from my knees on the morning of Friday 16th October – a feeling of calmness, hopefulness and confidence, that assured me my prayer was heard, and filled me with hope that all would yet be well.” Sun Yat-sen often visited the Cantlie family home at Cottered. He was all too familiar with the house of prayer that is Cottered Church and doubtless worshipped within its walls. Cantlie’s grave and those of his sons keep vigil to the right of the church door. It is a site of pilgrimage for Chinese visitors from the world over. As we remember the centenary of Sun Yat-sen’s death, acknowledging his contribution to world history, we welcome such visitors into our midst. May he rest in peace God Bless Mark
A new year and a new start! January speaks from the depths of cold and the words that form must break through the ice, sitting mist-like in the air, to be held between the wool-warmth of mittens and gloves and drawn to the heart to be heard. Words of good intentions – each letter carefully formed, perfectly chiselled, neatly inscribed, held with conviction, indelibly believed. Now is the time to start afresh. The old of the year past must be allowed to die – failed resolutions that came to nought, temptations and habits that started small but then, inevitably, took on a life of their own. To all things life inhibiting, in the words of Lady Macbeth, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” Bring on the new. From the hardness of winter, the soft plea of conscience for goodness and mercy and kindness. The starting point must be the self. Where else can one begin but at the beginning which is me. I am the single starfish on the beach. Let me first crawl myself back into the sea. Then I can turn and face the multitude without blemish. Then I will speak the words I have newly learnt inside of myself. The new words that I now know and with integrity can share. Resolution adopted. This I will surely manage – at least until spring. “There is a time and a season for everything and for every activity under heaven.” Words that I have only recently come to understand as being important for who I am, I will bring to the surface. In the early light of the frosty morning and in the early twilight of the darkening day, I will hold fast to the words that speak of the new me. Now is the old gone. Now is the New upon me. Resolution affirmed. Unfamiliar language will turn heads. So, I am different. The consequence of change is noticed. Uncomfortable though that may be, so be it. New words. New me. Whoever thought that what was thought and said could change so much – about me. And the world around me. January, from the depths of the cold, I will start with words. And the words will form. And the language will change. And I will be changed. Resolution complete. And I will know. And the world will know. “The tongue has the power of life and death.” Proverbs 18:21 God Bless & Happy New Year. Mark
Every ten years, since 1801, a national census has taken place. For centuries, governments around the world have used a census to obtain information from individuals that can be used as a reference point to gauge shifts and trends within a population. This information is a necessary tool, for both national and local governments, in helping to plan future services and facilities and to develop strategic policies that will benefit citizens. It is, for example, important to have a sense of the overall size of a population when it comes to questions of taxation and needs for housing. The census in 2021 showed a rise in population over the past decade for England and Wales of 6.3% with a population of 11.1 million over 65 and 10.4 million under the age of 15. The shift in demographics has implications for government, as we are all aware, in providing for ageing communities and the provision of more social care etc.In recent times the questions asked in a census have become more contentious, not least when asking about gender identity and religious affiliation. Where questions would in the past have been answered straightforwardly, the option ‘prefer not to answer’ is now a given. Suspicion about how data is used, and increasingly abused by some, and the need to protect personal information, a right now enshrined in law under GDPR, make for devising census questions a more sensitive business than ever before. What questions will be asked in 2031? How do you feel about filling in a government questionnaire knowing that it is a criminal offence not to do so?This act of compulsion is part of the Christmas story, even if historically factually incorrect. Mary and Joseph are forced to be counted. They must travel to Bethlehem because the Roman Emperor, Augustus, wants to maximise who needs to pay taxes. In this regard, Mary and Joseph are simply a number – a common experience when it comes to paying taxes. The problem with being reduced to being a number is the dehumanising effect this has on the soul. The prospect is dispiriting – left to being nothing more than being there to be utilised for someone else’s gain.Fortunately, this is only the beginning of the journey for the Holy Family and not the end. Gathered together in the stable, made warm by the generosity of a publican, surrounded by the transforming love of the birth of a baby – let all Heaven sing - Mary and Joseph know that, despite all their trials and tribulations, they matter to God. For God loved the world so much that he made Mary and Joseph know that they counted – so much more than a number.I pray that this Christmastide You too will know that you matter – know that You too are so much more than a number!God BlessMark
