Wednesday was 25th March – the Feast of the Annunciation, which means it is now less than 9 months to Christmas. What will our world be like in nine months’ time?
Of course it was also in Lent and so ‘Feast’ is a misnomer. The Annunciation is often delayed till the day after Easter Day. Then we can celebrate! We have the prospect of no ‘Feast’ on Easter Day itself, let alone the day after. That is a terrible thought. We must get our technology working. Why is the Annunciation so important? Firstly it starts the process whereby God comes into our human existence in a tangible way. Mary conceives by the Holy Spirit. From then on God reveals himself to us in a way He has not done before. It continues the divine plan for the salvation of the world. This is one reason for a ‘Feast’. The birth of Jesus (‘God saves’) becomes a possibility. The second reason for us to rejoice is Mary. It is by the readiness of that simple and young woman, already betrothed to a human man, to say ‘Yes!’ to God in such a decisive way, and of course it involves us in the salvation story. Mary is our representative. She gives us the possibility of saying ‘Yes!’ to God in our daily lives. Our ‘Yes!’ is very much needed at the moment. One of the frustrations of our current situation is to see how we can be of use. It is through our prayers and our daily spiritual routine that we can help others. We are part of God’s plan and we offer ourselves daily to Him. We can pray, we can read, we can help our neighbours, we can use the technology. Perhaps we can even teach John Green to! Our task at the moment is to place ourselves in God’s hands and to trust. May God strengthen you all. John
0 Comments
Canon John writes....
I have just taken Mary’s funeral at Worthing crematorium. The weather was almost as one would wish it to be – bright sun, not too hot, birds singing and building nests. But it was not a normal funeral. We were not allowed a great throng of people, only close family and friends, all spaced out. It was not a funeral as we would have wanted it for such a valued member of our congregation, one who had been with us since David Brown’s days. Of course I learnt things about Mary I hadn’t known before. That is always the way. Her daughters and son-in-law spoke very fulsomely about her life and her unique character. She had a brilliant career as a nurse at Worthing Hospital until her problems with her two brain haemorrhages and the blindness which followed, which she overcame. Her grandchildren loved her, and one, Macy, sang a Leonard Cohen song for her grandmother. Terry was very much part of her life, and her daughters reflected that in what they said. Terry and Mary married quietly not so long ago in New Zealand, having known and loved each other for decades. We started the service with ‘Morning has broken’ by Cat Stephens and finished with Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’. We sang ‘Angel voices ever singing’ and ‘All things bright and beautiful’. I missed Mary’s hand gestures. In fact there are a lot of things that I shall miss now that Mary has gone to a greater light and joy and peace. May she rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen. Forty days of Coronavirus wilderness: a thought for the week from Canon John Green
When Jesus went into the wilderness to spend forty days and forty nights fasting, in prayer and conversation with his heavenly Father, he surely can have had no idea what he was going to do with the time he had on his hands. We don’t know if he had a plan. Matthew records that at the end he was famished. In Mark’s Gospel the whole episode takes up one verse! Clearly for Mark this is less important than starting the ministry of preaching and teaching and healing that Jesus now embarks on after calling his first disciples. Luke has a very similar version to Matthew; John has no mention of it at all. How can it help us at this challenging time for us as individuals, as a church community in West Sussex, as members of a nation in western Europe and as members of the world-wide community? I have a sense that Jesus has been here before and so offers us some encouragement on our journey forward. For him the future stretched out ahead. Forty days means a jolly long time. We don’t know how long we shall have to endure this. Jesus had just such an experience. The hymn “Forty days and forty nights”, that some of us love and some dread, refers to the sun burning down from the sky by day and to the cold at night. We shall surely have such experiences over the coming days (and nights), a sense that this emergency is burning its way through our society and, at times, freezing us with fear. Jesus had such feelings too, but he had two things that we can also have - trust in his heavenly Father and knowledge of the Bible. As the devil comes to tempt him, it is with the power of Scripture that Jesus repels him. Jesus is hungry and is tempted to turn stones into bread. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8.3. He is taken to the pinnacle of the Temple and resists the temptation to float down, supported by angels, with another quote from Deuteronomy (6.16). His final temptation to seek world power by worshipping the evil one is again countered by Deuteronomy 6.13. Defeated the devil leaves him and angels wait on him. Defeated this evil will finally leave us. What joy and relief when that happens. In the meantime let us use this time to deepen our knowledge of the Bible and let us start with this passage from Matthew 4.1-11. We can begin our wilderness experience with prayer and reading. In that way we can increase our faith in God and so make ourselves stronger to face what lies ahead. We can also join with Christians around the world by saying the Lord’s Prayer. John 25th March 2020 Very sadly, we have had to chancel all services due to the Corvid 19 virus. We hope to bring an online version on this website. In the meantime, here is the Mothering Sunday service from the Archbishop of Canterbury. On Sunday 30th June, we had a special service at Bignor to mark the 25th anniversary of Canon John Green's ordination. It was the same year as women were first allowed to become priests, so we marked that anniversary too. Taking the service were Revd Jo Burke, Revd Reji Raj-Singh and Revd Colin Datchler, chaplain of Seaford College. A quiz night and supper will be held at the Sutton Village Hall on Friday 24th November to raise funds for the churches. If you would like to come and can organise a table of 8, please email Catherine Corfield as soon as possible. The cost is £100 per table and includes supper.
Come to the traditional summer fete in stunning Bignor Park and you will be supporting our benefice.
The Bignor Fete will be held on Sunday 28th May from 12.00 to 5.00. The gate opens at 12 noon, parking is free, entrance is £2.00 per person, under 10's are free. For all enquiries regarding the fete, please contact the fete organiser Mrs. Caroline Pontin on 01798 869214 [email protected]. Soup, bread and cheese Lent lunches will take place each Wednesday at 1230 starting on 1st March in different venues. If you would like to attend please contact Canon John.
Study groups are also planned during Lent. Please contact Canon John for information. In the meantime, here is a link to The Bishop of Chichester's Lent course video. Burton & Coates PCC Monday 20th March 10am Vicarage
Burton & Coates APCM Sunday 2nd April 11am at Coates Church For 2016 only, the 10am service on Christmas Day will be at Barlavington instead of Coates
|
AuthorPlease send any news to [email protected] Archives
February 2022
|