Dear Friends,Throughout this Lent I have been aware that the last time we were in Lectionary Year A was the year we were experiencing the first lockdown. My sermons through Holy Week that year were helping us reflect on how to mark these holy days at home. I was looking forward to something much closer to a normal pattern this year - so many more of us now able to come together to experience the story in community.As it turns out, with spectacularly bad timing, I have tested positive for Covid this morning, so my journey through these days will again be in solidarity with all those in our world who are not free or able to gather with others in worship.I am working with colleagues to make sure that as many of the planned services can go ahead.Currently I can confirm that the following will definitely take place: Maundy Thursday (today) 7pm LyntonGood Friday 2pm LyntonEaster Vigil (Saturday) 8pm LyntonEaster Day 11am Lynton and 11am MartinhoeI hope that I can find clergy to lead those planned for Countisbury, Parracombe and Trentishoe on Easter Day too and will keep you informed as soon as I can.Holding you all in my prayers, I have copied the words of a hymn below which remind me of what lies at the heart of the mystery of these remarkable days.God blessSamantha Love is His word, love is His way, feasting with men, fasting alone, living and dying, rising again, love, only love, is His way. Love is His way, love is His mark, sharing His last Passover feast, Christ at His table, Host to the Twelve, love, only love, is His mark. Love is His mark, love is His sign, bread for our strength, wine for our joy, 'This is My body, this is My blood,' love, only love, is His sign. Love is His sign, love is His news, 'Do this, 'He said, 'lest you forget all My deep sorrow, all My dear blood,' love, only love, is His news. Love is His news, love is His name, we are His own, chosen and called, family, brethern, cousins and kin. Love, only love, is His name. Love is His name, love is His law. Hear His command, all who are His: 'Love one another, I have loved you.' Love, only love, is His law. Love is His law, love is His word: love of the Lord, Father and Word, love of the Spirit, God ever One, love, only love, is His word.
Dear Friends,At services today I have given the following announcement:“It is announced today that the Reverend Prebendary Samantha Stayte has been appointed Priest-in-Charge of Cockington and Chelston in the deanery of Torbay. Samantha is presently Rector of the Lyn Valley parishes, based in Lynton on the North Devon coast.The move will be a return home for Samantha, who grew up in Torquay and received her secondary education at the Torquay Girls’ Grammar School. She earned her undergraduate degree and MPhil in Theology from the University of Oxford and prepared for ordained ministry at Westcott House, Cambridge.Following university, Samantha taught Religious Studies at schools in Canterbury and Oxford and ministered as a lay school chaplain before responding to a call to priesthood. She served her training curacy in Oxford and moved to her present North Devon benefice in 2017. Last year, Samantha was appointed additionally as Dean of Women in Ministry for the Diocese of Exeter and as an honorary Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral.Subject to the completion of all legal formalities, the Bishop of Plymouth will license Samantha to her new ministry on a date in July to be announced in due course, during a service at which all will be welcome.Your prayers are asked for the people of the Lyn Valley parishes, for the parish of Cockington and Chelston and the Torquay West Mission Community, and for Samantha as she prepares for this new stage in her life and work as a priest.”The notice of a new appointment has to be kept confidential until it is given out in this way in both benefices so I have not been able to talk about it until today. As many of you will know, I have family in Torquay and this is an opportunity I had to take to be closer to them and I am delighted, for that reason, to be able to make this move.It will, however, be a wrench to leave and I recognise that this will be a shock to many of you, and my leaving will create the anxiety of a vacancy. I want to assure you that before I go I will work with you to get things into the most stable position to go forward with confidence. Once a date is agreed for my licensing there will be a clearer picture for the next three months.In the meantime, I will value more than ever walking through Holy Week to Easter with you this week with gratitude for all we have shared throughout my ministry hereGod blessSamantha
Dear Friends,We have come to the final week of our walk with Jesus towards his crucifixion and resurrection as we reach Palm Sunday - on which traditionally the full account of the Passion is read before we mark the particular events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday later in the week.This term the children of our primary schools have been focusing on the story of Jesus washing his disciples feet as they deepen habits that help them live out one of their core values: "respect". As I spoke at their Easter services I was struck by the way the last week of Jesus' life offers us contrasting ways of being: the tenderness of care of the upper room where Jesus shows his friends what love feels like and the rough scorn and jeering cynicism which turns into violence as he is taken to the cross. Which kind of power do we want to trust I wonder? As we travel through Holy Week, each in our own way, perhaps we can pray for the grace to be so fully caught up in the love for which Jesus stands, and dies and rises that we can be its agents in a world that can so easily lapse the other way.God blessSamanthaServices:Palm Sunday 9am Parracombe, 11am Lynton, 5pm BarbrookMaundy Thursday 7pm LyntonGood Friday 2pm LyntonHoly Saturday 8pm LyntonEaster Sunday 6am Countisbury, 9am Parracombe, 11am Lynton and Martinhoe, 3pm TrentishoeLooking beyond Holy Week, I would encourage you to look at the resources that are being provided by the Church of England in preparation for the Coronation of King Charles III. We are being encouraged to pray during the 28 days from Easter Day to the Coronation on May 6th, reflecting on a calling to serve in love. The resources can be found here: https://www.churchofengland.org/coronation/reflections
Dear Friends,This week's readings emphasise the power of God to bring new life to desolate places and people. In the gospel, in particular, we see that this restoration of life, this transformation is not a magical immunity from suffering, but a sign of God's steadfast presence right in the midst of loss and grief. Jesus enters into the fullness of his friends' pain, and draws forth the resurrected Lazarus from the depths of death, foreshadowing his own death and resurrection to come.May these readings give us the courage to bring to God, in prayer, the desolate places and suffering people in our world, seeking for them the restoration and wholeness that is according to his will.God blessSamantha
