None of us has known a Christmas like this one. Many of the things that we normally associate with Christmas will be different and that, I’m afraid, includes our church services. Aldeburgh Parish Church is normally at the centre of our community as families come and join together to celebrate the birth of Christ. It breaks our hearts to not be able to hold our usual services (Christingle, Crib Service, Midnight Eucharist) but the pandemic continues to prevent us doing many of the usual things.
With guidance from the Government and the Diocese regarding tier two level services we have created a plan. Safety has to be our priority. We will be holding a Christmas Day Holy Communion Service at 10.30am. This will unfortunately have to have a restricted number in the congregation and I fear that congregational singing will still not be possible. You will need to book in advance and we must stress that if you haven’t been allocated a confirmed place you will not be able to attend. If you would like to enquire about booking a place for this service, please use the contact form and we will try our best to reserve a place.
Benefice Newsletter for Sunday 29th November – Advent Sunday
This week’s service will be streamed live from
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Message from The Rector
Last week I wrote that ‘we still await government guidance about what we can and can’t do after December 2nd. I’m writing this at 3.30 on Friday afternoon (I really can’t keep Claire waiting any longer) and the Church of England website still says, ‘Following the publication of the Government’s Covid-19 Winter Plan, including permission for the resumption of public worship, we are awaiting the publication of detailed guidance after which we will update our advice.’ So, we know that we will be able to resume Sunday services from December 6th, but we don’t know anything about additional restrictions that might be put in place as a result of Suffolk being in ‘Tier 2’ of local restrictions. I think we can assume that congregational singing will still be off limits and that there will be some restrictions about the numbers that we can allow in church – but we cannot yet be certain. It is very frustrating.
Having said that, we do have news of two special online services this week. On Sunday morning at the earlier-than-usual time of 9.45 our Friston Elders, Emma and Martin Steadman, will be leading a special Advent Sunday service on Zoom and this will be our benefice offering for this week. Everyone is welcome to join – all you need is a computer, phone or tablet that has an internet connection, a camera and a microphone. Then, a few minutes before 9.45, if you click on the link that Claire has provided, you will be able to join in. Everyone is very welcome. If you are not able to be there at 9.45, I hope to have a recording of the service available in the usual YouTube place very soon afterwards.
The following day, Monday November 30th, is St Andrew’s Day and Aldringham church would normally hold a Patronal Festival service followed by fish and chips. Given that the lockdown will still be in place on Monday we have an alternative plan. Together with our Pilgrims Together group we have come up with an unusual and, I hope, inspiring online service. In their regular worship the Pilgrims use a good deal of material from the Iona community. Andrew is, of course, the Patron Saint of Scotland and after enquiries were made at the community the suggestion emerged that we might adapt their ‘Ceilidh’ service for our own use. We tend to think of a Ceilidh as a dance but it can be rather more than that – a gathering in people’s homes at which hospitality is shared, stories told and new people welcomed. Our service will hopefully be just that. The stories that we share will be both about St Andrew and St Andrew’s church – some of the group have long memories of the important part that the church has played in their lives. There will be music and prayer and it promises to be a memorable event. All are welcome to join. The service will begin at 6.30 and last about 45 minutes, after which you are welcome to leave the link open and share some chat and food. If you’re not used to Zoom it would be a good idea to check in in good time so that we can make sure that all is well. The Pilgrims have also asked that you don’t share the link on a public platform (social media like Facebook, for example). Their lack of security can cause problems. You are, however, very welcome to share it in emails to friends who you think might enjoy the service – all are welcome!
Elsewhere on this pew sheet there are details of the services that we hope to hold in our churches on December 6th and by next week I very much hope to be able to give you detailed information about our Christmas services. In the meantime, please stay warm and safe.
With love, as ever
Mark
Collect
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal
life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious
majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life
immortal; through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
First Reading
Isaiah 64.1-9
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that
the mountains would quake at your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages
past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name or attempts to take hold
of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us
into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are
the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity
for ever. Now consider, we are all your people.
Second Reading
1 Corinthians 1.3-9
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel Reading
Mark 13.24-end
‘But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in clouds” with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. ‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’
Sermon for 29th November – Advent Sunday
by The Revd Sheila Hart
Advent is a season in which we are asked to watch, wait, be patient and stay awake and alert and, as I reflected on this, I cannot help thinking that the whole of this year has been a time of watching, waiting, being patient and staying alert. And as I continued to reflect, I am very conscious of how difficult it is for people, us, me to watch, wait, be patient and stay alert. It’s fine when we are not told that this is what’s expected of us, but when the expectation is to do all of these things, I don’t know about you, but I find it extremely hard.
There is a sense of desperation, almost anger or frustration with God, in our reading from Isaiah. ‘O that you would open the heavens and come down…..When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.’ There is a sense of the prophet, the writer saying, ‘Come on God, get a move on, we want to experience your real presence among us again.’ And bursting into a chorus of ‘Why are we waiting?’
This is followed by a sense of understanding as to why the people are waiting – they have sinned; they have turned away from God ‘We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth……There is no one who calls on your name or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.’
Having acknowledged the perceived reason why God seems to have deserted His people, the writer changes his tone somewhat and pleads with God – ‘Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity for ever.’
It reminds me of the naughty child who knows he has not met the expectations of his parents and goes to them with his sense of failure and guilt and pleads with them to forgive him and reassure him that they still love him really, despite all he has done to anger and upset them and there is a sense of reconciliation.
But the people of Isaiah’s day had to wait a long time for the experience of being enabled to be fully reconciled to God, for Jesus, the Messiah had not yet been born, let alone lived and then been crucified and been raised from the dead so that God’s people could experience new life in Him.
In that respect we are fortunate in that we no longer have to wait for salvation for it is there for us to grasp if we will, through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
So, what are we waiting for? And why is it so difficult?
Once Jesus had begun to speak openly to his disciples about his impending death and making veiled references to his resurrection, he began to hint that he would, someday, come back and reign on the earth as King. Paul writes about the return of Christ in many of his letters to the young churches in order to give them hope for the future. But they will have to watch and wait and be patient.
In our gospel reading from Mark, we read about the difficult times that are coming for those who believe in Jesus. Prior to the verses we have heard this morning, Jesus foretells the destruction of the temple, persecution of those who believe even from members of their own family and the days of desolating sacrilege. After this comes the promise of Jesus’ return to the faithful BUT we do not know when this will happen – only God knows the day and the hour – so we are told to stay awake – alert.
Waiting, watching and staying alert are all difficult because they require patience. I don’t know about you, but I can wait for a certain length of time and then my patience begins to run out. I also find it much easier to wait when the end is in sight. One of the hardest things about the times we are living in at the moment is that we really are not sure when the end will come – we have no target to work towards. We have little chinks of light on the horizon, but we really don’t know when the vaccines will be available, when we will be able to have them, how safe they are long-term, how effective they are and how many doses, and how regularly we will have to have them to enable life to go back to normal – whenever that is. It is hard to live with uncertainty because most of us like routine and certainty.
And awaiting the return of Christ falls into this category too. There is some certainty in that, if we believe the Bible, He will come again to reign in glory. But there are also a lot of uncertainties about exactly when and even how this will happen. And so we wait and hold the tension between expectancy of an imminent return and our need to wait and watch and stay alert in our unknowing of the fine details.
Are we living in the last times? Many have thought so throughout the generations from the time of Jesus onwards and we are still here, and he hasn’t yet returned as far as we are aware. Meanwhile we trust in Christ’s promises and we continue to watch and wait and stay alert and in that watching and waiting we pray that we will grow in our love and knowledge of him who loves us and gave His life so that we might have life in his name. Amen
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As we can’t hold a Christingle service in Church this year, we thought, perhaps we could still celebrate Jesus Christ as the “Light of the World”. Here are some ideas to create your Christingles. What is the meaning behind each part of the Christingle? Here are some notes to make you own Christingles and also to teach children/grandchildren about the symbolism behind each part of it.
How to make a Christingle
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The Week Ahead – Next Sunday
6th December – 2nd Sunday of Advent
Hopefully will be:
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9.30am |
Morning Prayer |
Knodishall Church |
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9.45am |
Morning Praise |
Friston Church |
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10.30am |
Family Service |
Aldeburgh Church |
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11.00am |
Holy Communion |
Aldringham Church |
NOTICES
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Food Banks at the East of England Co-op |
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Weekly Benefice Newsletter |
Benefice Newsletter for Sunday 22nd November/Sunday next before Advent/Christ the King
Message from The Rector
We have reached the end of the church year and I don’t really need to say what kind of a year it’s been, do I? Suffice to say ‘not what any of us anticipated or would have wanted’. But at least nowadays the church year ends with a bang and not a whimper. The Feast of Christ the King, which we celebrate this week, is comparatively new in the church calendar and began in the Roman Catholic church in 1925, finally and permanently making it into the Church of England lectionary when Common Worship was introduced in 2000. Previously this Sunday was merely ‘The Sunday Next Before Advent’ and was colloquially called ‘Stir-up Sunday’ – the words taken from the Book of Common Prayer’s collect for the day and taken literally by many who ‘stirred-up’ their Christmas puddings this weekend. But it’s good to celebrate something that is rather than something that’s about to be – and The Feast of Christ the King has now firmly taken its place in the calendar. (Though the ‘stir-up’ collect prayer is still with us and will feature in this week’s online service.)
Christmas plans are beginning to form, though we still await government guidance as to what we can and can’t do after December 2nd. All being well, in the week before Christmas, there will be services of words and music in both Friston and Aldringham churches and there will be services of Holy Communion in some or all of our churches on Christmas Day. Sadly, the big occasions – including Christingle, the Crib Service and Midnight Eucharists are off the agenda this year but we will try to supply some online worship to compensate as best we can. It has been really difficult to try and work out what we can realistically do in these strange times – but the most important thing is that we keep safe. Covid-19 seems to be able to find ways of spreading very quickly once we relax and if we are to try to have a reasonably normal 2021, we still need to be very careful. I promise that we will do what we can.
With love, as ever
Mark
Collect
Eternal Father, whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne
of heaven that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of
peace, and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet;
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
First Reading
Ezekiel 34.11-16, 20-24
For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.
Gospel Reading
Matthew 25.31-end
‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’
Reflection for 22nd November – Christ the King,
by The Revd Nichola Winter
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;
rejoice, again I say, rejoice
I had so hoped that in a year in which we have been deprived of celebrating those great festivals of Easter and Pentecost in church we might just manage to mark the final Sunday of the church’s year, Christ the King, with jubilant acts of worship. Singing some of our wonderful hymns that mark the kingship of Christ – ‘O worship the King all glorious above’; ‘Rejoice the Lord is King’; ‘Alleluia, sing to Jesus’. We miss it so much.
But it cannot be. We can only sing in our hearts, join with the online offerings, and work out our faith in our individual ‘lockdown’ ways. Next week sees the beginning of Advent, the start of the church’s new year and – I think we all pray for this – new hope. It’s been hard – I don’t need to list the ways in which our worship has changed and evolved. It is, perhaps, the fellowship that we’ve missed most – those opportunities for sharing joy and sorrow, companionship and laughter, bring-and-share meals – and, of course, frequent ‘cake’ opportunities. Perhaps ‘Cake and King – Let us Sing’ might be the basis for one of our first acts of communal worship once we’re allowed!
Over the altar in Aldeburgh Church is the dramatic window depicting the crucifixion of Christ. But raise your eyes a little higher and we see Christ depicted in all his glory. Kingly, serene and majestic – ‘king eternal, earth thy footstool, heaven thy throne.’ There is scarcely a grander or more widespread image used in the Bible than that of ‘king’. The Hebrew-Aramaic word for king, ‘melek’, is one of the most commonly used words in the Old Testament, occurring approx 2700 times. In the New Testament the Greek word, ‘basileus’, occurs more than 125 times. If you add in associated words such as kingly, kingdom, the verb ‘to reign’, then the motif of kingship weaves its way through the entire fabric of the message of the Bible. Much relates to earthly kings but today we think about our divine king, Jesus Christ, redeemer, saviour, servant, healer, teacher and companion.
There have been many images over the last months of people in positions of power and authority welcoming photo opportunities that demonstrate how they are ‘at one’ with the people. ‘Coronavirus opportunities’ for the great and the good show just how much they try to be ‘on side’ with the rest of us. Commendable as these may be they are nothing compared with the way in which Jesus lived out his life engaging completely with the people – peaceably for the most part but not above criticising when necessary. The king we worship is extraordinary. Wholly human and completely divine. Sent from God to be with God’s creation. Emptying himself of kingship so that he could be as one with, and of, us. God comes to be with his people – to be with you and me, finding us wherever we are, in whatever state we find ourselves. Happy, sad, joyful, despairing, lonely, stressed – he’s right there. At the Clergy Conference last week we were reminded of the importance of allowing ourselves to be still and quiet with God. It’s so easy to get caught up in the hustle and hassle of instant communication via electronic media. We need to guard the space – allow those times of quiet. Ours is a king who rejoices when we are still and attentive.
Paul’s words to the Ephesians come as a timely reminder – and can be a prayer for us all:
‘I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you…’
At this festival of Christ the King, may we find the eyes of our heart enlightened and our souls cheered by the hope to which he has called each one of us.
Deciphering words in the New Testament
(It’s all Greek to me)
METANOIA, or repentance, is a key word for Christianity. I admit I had my own fancy idea of what I could say about it until I actually got down to working on it. Metanoia enters the New Testament via John the Baptist. Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell us that his message was a call for Repentance. Mark (1.4) and Luke (1.3) both use identical words in the Greek: John’s baptism was “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”. Baptisma, a baptism, metanoias, of repentance, eis, for, aphesin, the forgiveness, hamartion, of sins.
Then comes a discovery. Luke (24.28) tells us right at the end of his gospel, that immediately prior to the Ascension, Jesus commissions the disciples to go out and preach to all nations “repentance and forgiveness of sins”, using exactly the same Greek words as are used about John the Baptist’s message, thus linking Jesus and his cousin John, the beginning and end of Christ’s ministry on earth.
Once I was at a clergy school where we were challenged by the speaker to recall what Jesus told his disciples to go out and preach. Not one of us could remember these words from St. Luke. Yet they were clearly very important to the first Christians. “Metanoia eis aphesin hamartion” must have been a well-known formula, even a mantra, for the early church. If we forget this phrase, we are forgetting words at the centre of the first Christian preaching.
So, to METANOIA. Meta, when linked to a following word, means ‘change’. Noia is a variation of ‘nous’ which means ‘mind’. So meta noia means change of mind, or in our case, repentance.
It doesn’t mean grovelling abasement, but rather a new outlook, turning our thinking inside out. Maybe it might come to mean seeing that God loves the other person and not just me. Here is the basis for the best sort of inclusivity. Maybe on this understanding we can all go a bit woke!
Behind that is a basic humility, a realistic self-awareness before something so much greater than ourselves. This is the humility of the tax-collector (the publican) in the Temple praying with the Pharisee (Luke 18.23) – or the Canaanite woman (Matt 15.22) – or the two blind men (Matt 9.27). The great Christian Prayer which expresses this is the Jesus prayer of the Orthodox Christians: “Lord / Jesus Christ / Son of God / have mercy on me”. To be repeated slowly, phrase by phrase, over and over and over again. No gold medals here, no celebrity status, but maybe peace, love, joy. Amen.
John Giles
The Week Ahead – Next Sunday
29th November – 1st Sunday of Advent
NOTICES
Benefice Newsletter for Sunday 15th November/Second Sunday before Advent
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The week ahead online services
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Message from The Rector
There isn’t a huge amount to say that is new this week. We continue with our online services recorded in church – this week’s Sunday morning service of Holy Communion will be recorded in Friston church. We continue to hope and pray that we will be able to return to worshipping in our churches from December 6th, but we wait and see what restrictions there may still be.
In the meantime, there will also be some special services online too. This Monday evening at 6.30pm our Pilgrims Together group has been asked to lead half-an-hour of online prayers as part of a week-long county-wide ecumenical celebration of prayer in its many forms. It’s called ‘The Power of Prayer’ and if you would like to take part you can get the Zoom link by emailing the organisers at thefarmbythewater@gmail.com
If you are unsure of the details of how to access any of these online services, please let me know and I’ll be happy to pass them on to you.
Finally, may I please say an enormous thank-you to all who helped to organise and lead our Remembrance Sunday commemorations last week. I have had lots of very positive feedback. In the middle of all of the current strangeness it was good to stop, pray and remember those who gave their lives for our freedom. We will always remember them.
With love, as ever
Mark
Collect
Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son was revealed to destroy
the works of the devil and to make us the children of God and
heirs of eternal life: grant that we, having this hope, may purify
ourselves even as he is pure; that when he shall appear in power
and great glory we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the
Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
First Reading
Zephaniah 1.7, 12-end
Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is at hand;
the Lord has prepared a sacrifice, he has consecrated his guests.
At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the people who rest complacently on their dregs, those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do harm.’ Their wealth shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste. Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them. The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter, the warrior
cries aloud there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.
Second Reading
1 Thessalonians 5.1-11
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When they say, ‘There is peace and security’, then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labour pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape! But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then, let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.
Gospel Reading
Matthew 25.14-30
‘For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, “Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” But his master replied, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Second Sunday before Advent. Notes on this Sunday’s readings, and thoughts arising by Canon John Giles
Advent Sunday is only a fortnight away. Our lessons today confront us with one of the more sombre themes of Scripture, to which we shall be returning in Advent, that of the Day of the Lord (the prophet Zephaniah); the Second Coming of Christ (Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians); and a rather worrying judgement of ourselves as to whether we have used what gifts we have effectively enough for the Lord (the Parable of the Talents). All in all, we have a general theme of Judgement.
Let’s first get rid of the notion that Covid is a divine judgement. Covid is a natural phenomenon, a pandemic, like Spanish flu, or the Plague. Jesus specifically denied that natural disasters were sent by God to punish particularly wicked people. When the Tower of Siloam collapsed, killing eighteen people, they were, he said, no more wicked than anyone else. (Luke 13.4). That still didn’t stop the need for everyone to heed a deeper moral judgement on their actions. Similarly, with Covid, we must now look to science to help us find out how and where it started, and hopefully how to defeat it.
Our lessons are all concerned with a deeper moral judgement, teaching that doing wrong things, or not doing right things, can lead to big trouble. The prophet Zephaniah foresees a truly 3D day of disaster, darkness and distress. Neither silver nor gold will be able to save the people from the Lord’s wrath. Zephaniah wrote in a time of national apostasy; of falling away from the true faith; and a time of idolatry, in which the worship of pagan religious gods with associated practices, some of which were highly immoral, was widespread. The international scene was full of predatory rival states. A nation, corrupt in its heart, would fall prey to one of them sooner or later. Zephaniah was right. Within fifty years, the Jews would be carried off as captives to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar. Zephaniah’s prophecy of judgement was fulfilled.
Six centuries later Jesus had brought a new message of hope to the world. He had been cruelly put to death. Spiritually he had reappeared to his followers. Physically he was no longer with them, but the belief grew in the church that he would come again and put both the world and the church to rights (see today’s Epistle). This was predicted in the gospels, especially in Mark 13 and Matthew 23 & 24. Hence the expectation of the Second Coming of Christ. The years passed and no Second Coming took place. The church’s understanding of these passages changed. Christians came to see that through the gift of the Holy Spirit the Risen Jesus had always been with the church. We celebrate that in our Communion hymns, and it remains true today: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them” (Matthew 18.20).
So, our gospel for today, the Parable of the Talents, is a passage to challenge the church to be brave and use its gifts both on the level of personal discipleship and in the life of the church. There is indeed also a warning against doing nothing, burying talents in the ground. Maybe we all need to take that on board. The wider challenge remains as we look at the work and the witness to which we are called in the world today. Christ is always around the corner when we need Him. We can be sure of that. He will come again – indeed He has never left us. Hurrah! Amen.
Post Communion
Gracious Lord, in this holy sacrament you give substance to
our hope: bring us at the last to that fullness of life for which
we long; through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Tell us your news!
Remembrance Day in lockdown 2020 by Mary Sidwell
Having learnt soon after I moved to Aldeburgh, about the Dutch Kayakers memorial (near Sizewell beach) that is where I hold the two-minute silence and I place a poppy on Remembrance Day. Today (11th) there were several crosses and poppies placed on it, and the Lest We Forget flag nearby flew well, in the stiff SE wind.
I then drove to Aldringham churchyard to see the Remembrance display. It is a very moving tribute, so well researched and presented, and I’m glad a donation was possible. Thank you to all who had installed this tribute, the young men, and their families would be very proud and humbled by it. I highly recommend a visit.
Mary Sidwell
The Week Ahead – Next Sunday
22nd November – Christ the King
Our new insect and hedgehog hotels are now open for tenants!
Our Churchwarden Ken Smith has made two hedgehog and insect hotels for our Churchyard.
Whilst Ken was making them (along with his best helper) they were already proving popular with local wildlife, with two ladybirds, two spiders and a shield bug.
So definately one to watch.
Benefice Newsletter for Sunday 8th November/Remembrance Sunday
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FOR OUR TOMORROW
THEY GAVE THEIR TODAY
Message from The Rector
A pew-sheet with a difference this week as we mark Remembrance Sunday in the context of the current restrictions. There will be shortened outdoor services in all of our parishes, in the village churchyards and at Aldeburgh’s War Memorial. Each will begin at 10.45 / 10.50, incorporate the two-minutes silence at 11.00 and include the traditional words. And for those who are unable, for whatever reason, to be present there will also be an online service too, in the usual place –
https://www.youtube.com/channel/
UCM3YVzDVIlYmnpVFSdOOTvQ
It will begin with suitable music at 10.45 and also include the Exhortation, Last Post, two-minutes silence at 11.00, Kohima Epitaph and prayers. Even in these most unusual circumstances ‘we will remember them’.
For the duration of the ‘lockdown’ there will be an online service every Sunday at 10.30 and every Wednesday at 10.00. The services remain on our YouTube channel so if you aren’t able to be with us at those times you can worship with us later too. My plan is to record these services in church – more appropriate surroundings, less dining-room curtains! And we are planning for a return to church after the lockdown ends though, of course, we do not yet know what restrictions may still be in force. But, sadly, we know we will miss being able to gather together for the feast of Christ the King (November 22nd) and Advent Sunday (November 29th). We will do our best. By the way, I have written to our member of parliament to ask if she would support a reconsideration of the policy of closing churches, pointing out the care that we have taken to make them Covid-safe. I have not received a reply (or an acknowledgment) at the time of writing this. And for those who rise early on a Sunday there will be a familiar voice on Radio Suffolk at about 6.40am, discussing remembrance and closed churches.
Last week I mentioned the wonderful work that has been going on in Aldeburgh churchyard. There is now a special page on the website, complete with some pictures. Many thanks to Sue Howcutt for the well-chosen words.
https://www.aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk/our-churchyard-revival-2020/
And finally, some really good news from Aldeburgh – we have a churchwarden! After my appeal at this year’s APCM Ken Smith has agreed to be our warden until the next APCM. We have already had an excellent meeting about what is involved. Many will already know Ken and his combination of a gentle presence with a wonderfully practical approach (he has been working hard in the churchyard – and I mean hard!). He has been a loyal member of the PCC for many years and I am so grateful to him for stepping forward. All we have to do now is to make him legal – and I’m working on that!
With love, as ever
Mark
Reflection for Remembrance Sunday by Prebendary Derek Johnson
I can remember quite clearly what I was doing on V.E. Day. One friend of mine from school Bill Burton lived with his widowed mother in her small general store a few doors down in the High Street from my grandmothers pub. Mrs Burton invited some of Bill’s friends for fish and chips in the late afternoon. I am ashamed to say I am unable to remember what I was doing on V.J. Day.
I think one of the reasons the men were called The Forgotten Army was because it did not impinge on us so much. The Japanese had not dropped bomb on us and so it was more remote. There is an element of truth in that.
The Burma campaign was horrific in every sense of the word and more. In the late 1950’s The War Office tried to prevent the film The Bridge Over the River Kwai being made. It was made, as we all know – a box office hit with seven Oscars. Brigadier Sir Phillip Toosey, who had been in the camp and worked on the railway, went to see it and said “It was a good piece of story telling but absolute fiction”. A great many who had been on the railway saw it and were upset and insulted by it. Then, with Sir Phillip, they raised their voices in protest. The idea that with British stiff upper lip they had collaborated with the Japs to show how they could build the bridge was offensive – they were always trying to sabotage it.
The real story of that appalling time is found in Ernest Gordon’s book The Miracle on The River Kwai. One sees the horror of it all, the dreadful conditions in the camp, the “every man for himself attitude” and how it was transformed by two Christian men, one a Methodist the other a Roman Catholic. The way they worked and cared for their fellow – men was an example that others began to follow. A true and wonderful example of faith in action.
Some say it is time to stop and let it all go. I cannot.
I believe we should REMEMBER.
Deciphering words in the New Testament –
(It’s all Greek to me)
In Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer(ch.6.12) “trespasses” in Greek is “opheilemata”, or strictly, debts, i.e. what we owe to God and haven’t paid. Luke (ch. 11.4), almost certainly writing later, seems to correct this to “HAMARTIA”, a word which has a basic meaning not so much of wilful wrongdoing, or owing anything, as of missing the mark, as in arrows missing the target. This might suggest a reduction of personal responsibility for actions that our consciences tell us are wrong. “I did my best, Sir, but I missed it.” There’s a sort of hidden excuse in here which doesn’t fit the broader teaching of Jesus, who without doubt teaches us to take full responsibility for our actions. Yet read right through the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) from end to end and you don’t get the feeling that Jesus is always banging on about sin, any more than saying that driving is all about flat tyres. He has much better things in view.
Note incidentally the crucial difference between “trespass” and “sin”: a trespass is a wrong action; sin involves a denial of God or whatever is your final authority if you happen to be an atheist.
So was Luke’s word, “Hamartia”, closer to the word, presumably Aramaic, used originally by Jesus himself? We don’t know, and I’m afraid I can’t help, for as one Old Testament professor said to me on a famous (only for me) occasion: “But then Mr. Giles, you know no Hebrew; allow me to translate”. And anyway, there is no known Hebrew or Aramaic version of the Lord’s Prayer yet somehow “hamartia” seems to me to soften the element of destructive blame to be dumped on us when we have gone off the rails. As we all do. So, Tyndale’s translation “trespasses”, which he seems to have been the first to use in this context, works well enough for me. The Lord’s Prayer is indeed one of our greatest treasures. We can give a big thank-you that it has come down to us over all these centuries, in whatever translation. Amen.
Next week we will move on to happier ground with the word for repentance, namely “Metanoia”.
John Giles
Next Sunday
15th November – Second Sunday before Advent
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
we will remember them.
We will remember them.
Remembrance ideas for 2020
The Royal British Legion have a comprehensive website with information of all Remembrance Day related points. Do take a look.
https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-involved/remembrance
Here is a snippet of ideas from their website.
As a result of Covid-19 restrictions, it may be necessary for individuals and communities to consider new ways of performing Remembrance activities, whether at Remembrancetide or any other time of the year.
To give you a helping hand, we’ve put together a wide-range of suggested Covid safe activities that are inexpensive to create:
- Hold a small Remembrance service in your garden.
- Create a Remembrance space in your garden by planting plants that have a connection to Remembrance.
- Use Zoom, Facebook or another online meeting resource to host an online Remembrance service or activity.
Aldringham Church
A Field of Remembrance will be open during all of next week.
Chris Burrell-Saward has been busy researching the histories of those brave servicemen who died in the two World Wars and those histories are now displayed outside the church in a Field of Remembrance so even if you are not able to attend the service on Sunday, a visit to the churchyard at some other time will be well worthwhile to read the astonishing stories of those men who gave their lives.
NOTICES
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To all Friston Residents |
Churchyard Updates – See what they have been up to.
We now have a page dedicated to the work that has been carried out in our Churchyard. You will find this under the news header.
Benefice Newsletter for Sunday 1st November/All Saints’ Day
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Message from The Rector
Back in August I wrote about the beginnings of the Aldeburgh Churchyard Project and promised to update you – so here goes. Walking through Aldeburgh churchyard you will notice (as promised back in August) a great deal of progress and activity. Scrub and weeds have been cleared, as well as self-seeded saplings that are small enough not to need extra permissions. That work alone has transformed the space. If you walk from Victoria Road towards the footpath that heads for Northfield Court, you can now see the sea! Without disturbing the resident badgers (which would be illegal) the large spoil heaps caused by their activities have been removed – and the next phase of the project has begun. We have employed an excellent firm of tree experts to examine and tag every tree in the churchyard – and there are over 150. Each now has a recommendation for its future and a timescale for the work. Some need a small amount of reshaping, some need serious coppicing, some need felling. The maintenance of the churchyard is the responsibility of East Suffolk Council, so the next stage is to engage with its tree officer to receive approval for our proposals. The diocese is involved too (I’m going to walk round with Archdeacon Jeanette next week) but we see no reason why we will not be able to start the next phase of work very soon.
This is all very exciting and thanks are due to the energetic and dedicated team who have been overseeing (and in some cases actually doing) the work. Nigel Howcutt is the mastermind, Mike Shepherd the resident historian (who has found all sorts of interesting things as gravestones have been revealed) and Ken Smith, Derek Cook, Adrian Brown and Karen Thackeray have all played important parts. Onward!!
Next week we mark Remembrance Sunday. The big difference this year (because of the Covid restrictions) is that in Aldeburgh there will be no morning service in church – everything will be done at the War Memorial by the Moot Hall. We simply couldn’t manage the usual large congregation in the church building so, if you wish to be with us, please assemble by the War Memorial by 10.45am. There will be a quiet service of Evening Prayer in church at 6pm. In Aldringham, Friston and Knodishall there will be Acts of Remembrance in the churchyards around the 2’ silence at 11.00am. Even in these difficult circumstances ‘we will remember them.’
With love, as ever
Mark
Collect
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion
and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:
grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and
godly living that we may come to those inexpressible joys that you
have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ
your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
First Reading
Revelation 7.9-end
After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, singing, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.’
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?’ I said to him, ‘Sir, you are the one that knows.’ Then he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’
Second Reading
1 John 3.1-3
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Gospel Reading
Matthew 5.1-12
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Deciphering words in the New Testament –
(It’s all Greek to me)
HUPOMONEE – Greek Words cont. . . .
It wasn’t easy to be a Christian in the early years of the Church. Nero came on the scene in 54AD. His savage persecution of the church is the key to that strange Book of Revelation.
Christians in those early years (as today) had to have “patience” – not just waiting for the bus to come along, but “patient or steadfast endurance”, enduring suffering, sharing the suffering of Christ Himself. The word for this in Greek was Hupomonee. It comes again and again in the Epistles.
Christ had already said “Bring forth fruit with patience” in the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8.15). In the last days, he said, “stand firm and you will get through, you will hang on to your own souls” (Luke 21.19). Think Dr. Zhivago while the Russian Revolution raged around him. The letter to the Hebrews (ch. 12.1) urges us: “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us”. We need that hupomonee, that patient endurance, today, and not just because of the pandemic.
PS Can anyone help me find Greek lettering on my computer?
John Giles
Sermon for All Saints’ Day by The Revd James Marston
Today’s service isn’t Book of Common Prayer matins or Holy Communion order it is instead something called Informal Worship – I don’t fully understand what it means.
I’m sure some of you might agree that when one is asked to a social event with the dress code “smart casual your heart sinks” – what does this actually mean – something between white tie and ripped jeans, neither one thing nor another.
Indeed, part of me fears that by the same token the concept of “informal worship” is something of a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron rather like, dare I say it, Sporting Personality or Police Intelligence. But if you look at it another way, with perhaps slightly less flippancy, neither one thing nor the other is also two things rolled into one.
Today we are doing that. Alongside remembering, honouring and praying for the souls of the departed of this parish and those we have known in our lives, we are here also to remember, celebrate, honour and be inspired by the saints – the great cloud of witnesses of the Christian faith.
Often those saints are men, indeed most of the saints we remember in the church are men, and many of those male saints are priests, or Italian or French. I’m not here today to point out the inequalities of the patriarchy or make some point on behalf of Germaine Greer – but in an age increasingly recognising the power and inequality of unconscious bias the saints and, the church, I’m afraid to say, have a part to play.
Nonetheless, that is not to say there aren’t women too have who played their part and are remembered for their holiness and dedication to Christ. Indeed, here in Aldeburgh I think there is a celebration of female sainthood and holiness that we can be proud of.
Donated by a school teacher, and one whom I suspect was probably somewhat ahead of her time. The chapel window has piqued my interest in recent weeks.
You might be able to pick out on the front of the order of service the figure on the left – the angel Gabriel – instructing Mary – the studious young girl with the slightly more spectacular halo and the lily on her desk – that she is to bear a son and call him Emmanuel. At least it could be that, but I wonder if it might be St Anne, the mother of the virgin, teaching her daughter scripture.
Whether Gabriel or Anne the image is supported and surrounded by four saints. In the top left we have St Katherine of Alexandria, complete with Katherine wheel on which she was unsuccessfully tortured and the sword – a symbol of the beheading that killed her. Her hair, which is unbounded and thereby depicting an unmarried woman, and the crown reminds us she was a princess by birth.
Among her extensive list of patronages are students, unmarried women, as well as teachers and, perhaps more unexpectedly hat makers. St Katherine is also interesting as her story suggests she stood up to men by defying the emperor and refusing marriage.
On the top right is St Cecilia. Another who consecrated her virginity to Christ and refused to bow, in this case, to roman authority and jilted her pagan fiancé on the day of her wedding. Again, she was subjected to an unsuccessful and bizarre attempt to kill her – they tried to stifle her to death with steam and heat in her bathroom.
In the end Cecilia was killed by soldier who was sent to behead her. Here in Aldeburgh she is depicted holding a palm – a symbol of martyrdom – in her right hand and a little cherub type figure playing a lute in her left. She is famously the patron saint of musicians because, it was said, she sang of Jesus’s passion in her heart and because music would have been playing to celebrate her wedding.
Just below Cecilia we have St Margaret of Scotland, known for being a good influence on her husband – King Malcolm III – and for bringing up her children well and taking care of orphans. She is depicted here wearing a crown and holding the sceptre of royalty as well as a bible to remind us of her piety and practice of devotional reading. Margaret, a queen, exercised her power by reforming and influencing the church in Scotland. She was, by all accounts, a force to be reckoned with.
And finally St Ursula, in the bottom left. A legendary figure who was shot by an arrow along with 11,000 other virgins at Cologne in Germany. There is also a story about her too avoiding an unwanted marriage. Ursula is depicted here with an arrow and what appears to be a little girl. Ursula is the patron saint of female students.
Martyrs, virgins, queens and princesses, these four women have been carefully chosen as sources of inspiration as they overcame adversity, stood up for, suffered and even died for their faith and battled against injustice and oppression. They are saints because not only are they Holy but because they also made a difference – two characteristics rolled into one person.
They are a reminder that we too are called by God to be saints. Indeed, St Paul, one of the patron saints of this church, describes the Christian community as set apart, as God’s holy ones, with a sacred calling.
As we look at the window of our chapel and as we celebrate All Souls Day and All Saint’s Day we remember those who have played their part in the life of our community and we remember those who have lived out lives of holiness. And we are invited to consider our response to that calling to be counted amongst the saints in our own lives.
I suggest to you today that our faith means we must be seeking to be ordinary every day saints. We are, as Christians, public in our faith and therefore we are to be busy in our community making Christ known.
We are to exercise forgiveness, live out the hope and joy of the Gospel, and demonstrate Christ’s radical message of love.
We are called to be the saints in Aldeburgh, making a difference through faith in Jesus Christ and we do this with the support of one another, the inspiration and prayers of the saints who have gone before, and with the grace of God.
Amen
Post Communion
God, the source of all holiness and giver of all good things: may we
who have shared at this table as strangers and pilgrims here on earth
be welcomed with all your saints to the heavenly feast on the day of
your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Week Ahead – Next Sunday
8th November – Remembrance Sunday
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10.50am |
RD Service |
Knodishall at The War Memorial |
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10.50am |
RD Service |
Friston at The War Memorial |
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10.45am |
RD Service |
Aldeburgh at The War Memorial |
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10.50am |
RD Service |
Aldringham at The War Memorial |
NOTICES
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Aldringham – 11.00am Service This Sunday (1st) being All Saints day, we have a special morning praise at Aldringham Church ‘Remembering Saints (hallows), martyrs and the faithful departed’. All welcome. |
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Food Banks at the East of England Co-op Foodbanks provide a valuable service to those in need in our communities and have an even more vital role to play as we navigate our way through these unprecedented times. The Aldeburgh Co-op and Solar in Leiston are doing a grand job in collecting food donations, which are collected regularly and distributed. |
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Weekly Benefice Newsletter If you would like something added to the weekly newsletter that is relevant to the Benefice, please do let Claire know and we will do our best to include it the following week. Whether it be a story to tell, or tips or recipes or a notice to be added to spread the word. |
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Choral Evensong at Aldeburgh Church We will be joined by Martyn Bagnall and the Jubilate Choir for an Evensong on Sunday 15th November at 6pm |
Benefice Newsletter for Sunday 25th October/Last Sunday after Trinity/Bible Sunday
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Message from The Rector
It is an extraordinary coincidence that last Sunday – when the Gospel reading told of Jesus outfoxing those trying to trap him, telling them to ‘give … to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s’ – the five British Anglican Archbishops (Canterbury, York, Wales, Armagh and the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church), wrote to the Financial Times expressing their unhappiness with the proposed UK Internal Market Bill. This is the controversial bill that, if passed unamended, would break international law, though only in a “specific and limited way”, as the Northern Ireland secretary explained in parliament. This is not the place to discuss the details (unsurprisingly they are rather complicated) but that the Archbishops were so united in their criticism means we should at least take an interest. They wrote that ‘we are taking the rare step of writing together because the decisions implemented in this bill will profoundly affect the future of our countries and the relationships between them’. (If you have a few minutes to spare it is definitely worth a read and can be found on the Financial Times website.)
The predictable reactions followed. The FT printed letters headed ‘Archbishops should stick to their ministries’ and ‘Nobody elected clergy to parliament’. I think, though, that we should read the letter in the light of Jesus’s remark. And remember Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s ever-relevant comment – ‘When people say that the Bible and politics don’t mix, I ask them which Bible they are reading’.
Finally, many thanks to those who have already contacted me with thoughts and ideas about how we might celebrate Christmas in our churches this year. Keep them coming!
With love, as ever
Mark
Collect
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written
for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark,
learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and
the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever
hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us
in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
First Reading
Nehemiah 8.1-4a – 8-12
All the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. The scribe Ezra stood on a wooden platform that had been made for the purpose. So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, ‘This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.’ For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, ‘Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, ‘Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.’ And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
Second Reading
Colossians 3.12-17
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Gospel Reading
Matthew 24.30-35
Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven” with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. ‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that heis near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Deciphering words in the New Testament –
(It’s all Greek to me)
Don’t be afraid: Me Phobou (spoken to a single person) or Me Phobeisthe (to several people).
Our words for today echo earlier words from the Old Testament.
The Lord speaks to Joshua after the death of Moses in (Joshua 1.9): Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Or there is the prophet in (Isaiah 40.9), speaking to those in exile in Babylon: Be not afraid; Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.
This word of reassurance rings out so many times in the New Testament. What were people afraid of in Jesus’ day? Was Mary (Luke 1.30) frightened at the thought of being chosen for an impossible task, and failing? Were the shepherds in their fields abiding (Luke 2.10) terrified by the angel, fearing that some disaster was at hand? Were the disciples out on the lake afraid of a ghost when Jesus came to them over the water saying “Be of good cheer (last week’s word) It is I; be not afraid”. “Tharseite, ego eimi, me phobeisthe”? (Matthew 14.27 and Mark 6.50). Incidentally exactly the same Greek words appear in both gospels. The words are incredibly holy, for we hear the very words that new Christian converts up the coast from Jerusalem and in Asia Minor, Greece and eventually Rome would have heard spoken by Peter or Barnabas or Paul, when giving their accounts of Jesus.
There are too many stories in the New Testament where people are urged not to be afraid, to go through them all today. But the message is just the same for us, for we follow in their steps. Whatever the adversary, Covid, financial hardship, illness, breakdown in relationship, death itself, Christ’s words come through to us loud and clear: “Take heart; it is I; don’t be afraid.”
John Giles
Sermon for the Last Sunday after Trinity/Bible Sunday by The Revd Sheila Hart
I sometimes wonder, when the Bible is read in all our Sunday services and in others during the week, and we are encouraged to read it daily in our private devotions, why we have a particular Sunday in the year designated as Bible Sunday. If we didn’t celebrate it on the last Sunday after Trinity, we would be celebrating it on the Second Sunday of Advent.
When I was a child, worshipping with my parents and grandparents in a small Methodist Church in a village not unlike our villages, but in south Devon about 5 miles from the City of Plymouth, I remember Bible Sunday as being a day when we thought about how the bible developed throughout history from the book or scrolls written in Hebrew or Greek into the book we heard read in our services in English. How missionaries had taken the English Bible – King James version in those days – to spread the Gospel to foreign lands and then there was an appeal for donations towards translating the bible into the mother tongue of these lands, or for overseas missions. We might even have a visiting missionary to preach on that particular Sunday, but generally their sermon was about the people among whom they were working and how they were beginning to become Christians in their birth country. All very interesting to a small child, but not a lot about the Bible and what we were expected to do with it and learn from it.
I was fortunate in that I worshipped with my family and had heard the Bible read to me from a very young age and for me it was much more than the giant sized book that the minister read from on a Sunday morning in Church. But I was one of the few who, even in those days when families regularly attended church, was taught about Jesus life and teaching and heard the wonderful stories from the Old Testament at home. Many of my friends were sent to Sunday School each Sunday so their parents could have an hour of peace and quiet from the children on a Sunday morning or afternoon and came from homes where home was home and church was church and never the twain would meet.
So let’s stop reminiscing and look at the passages set for today – Bible Sunday in the 21st Century.
Paul or one of his early followers is writing to the new converts in Colossae to put them straight about a ‘philosophy’ or ‘tradition’ which had emerged among them with which he was not entirely happy. In the earlier chapters of the letter, the writer stresses the supremacy of Christ and the Fulness of life in Christ. He warns them in chapter 2 about false teachers who might lead them away from the Gospel they had originally heard and in chapter 3 He writes about what New Life in Christ really means. He encourages them to put away their former manner of life and then to begin to cultivate what we know now as the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives which is where we join the script.
Being a Christian is for the writer of this letter, being clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Being willing to forgive the members of the community whom they consider to have wronged them in some way – just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Love, as in the first letter to the Corinthian Church, is stressed as being the most important fruit of the Spirit, because it is love which binds all people together in perfect harmony. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts and be thankful.
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. This is where we start thinking about the importance of the Bible. This instruction in the letter could mean one or indeed both of two things which are paramount to successful or fruitful Christian living.
Firstly, it could mean, let the Holy Scriptures – the Word of God – dwell in you. Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them as our collect for Bible Sunday instructs us. Read the Scriptures regularly; meditate on what you have read; reflect on the passage; allow the written words to dwell in your inner being and permeate the way you conduct your life when you are not in church with other believers; learn, and by implication by heart, verses which touch your heart rather than your head and think about them throughout the ensuing days. Maybe meet up with other members of the community to share and discuss the Sunday readings together to encourage a wider appreciation of their meaning and implications for your spiritual growth and development in the faith.
Secondly, it could mean, let Christ, the living word of God – the word made flesh who dwells among us full of grace and truth – dwell in you richly. Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest His words as recorded in the sermon on the mount and throughout the Gospels, for as Jesus says at the end of our Gospel reading today ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.’ As we allow the living Christ to rule in our hearts through faith by the power of the Holy Spirit, so we will be ‘transformed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another’ (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the Bible remains dead words – just like any other book – once we have read it that’s it and we can leave it on the shelf to gather dust. But if we pray for the Holy Spirit to indwell the written words and bring them to life for us then the Bible becomes a book like no other, because it will have the power to speak to us time and time again with something relevant to the situation in which we find ourselves day by day – good, bad or indifferent and as we allow God to speak to us through the living words and as we meditate on the living words of Christ so we will experience growth in spirituality, in holiness and we will begin to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit and discover that we also have spiritual gifts which we can share and use to the glory of God both in the church and in our daily lives.
Equally as we allow the Word of Christ to dwell in us, so we will want to pray more, to worship Him more, to change our behaviours and our thinking to become more Christlike even when we are not in church mode. It will permeate the whole of our life because everything we do in word or deed we will be doing it all in the name of Christ because we will no longer be able to or, indeed want to separate our life into a church compartment and a world compartment for the whole of our life will be lived for Christ alone as we grow closer to Him and deepen our experience of Him on a daily basis. Amen
Post Communion
God of all grace, your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life and the word of his kingdom:
renew your people with your heavenly grace, and in all our
weakness sustain us by your true and living bread;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
The Week Ahead – Next Sunday
1st November – All Saints’ Day
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9.30am |
Morning Prayer |
Knodishall Church |
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9.45am |
Holy Communion |
Friston Church |
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10.30am |
Informal Service |
Aldeburgh Parish Church |
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11.00am |
Morning Praise |
Aldringham Church |
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3.00pm |
Online service available |
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DAY |
ALDERTON |
ORFORD |
ALDEBURGH |
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Monday |
8.00 to 14.30 |
8.00 to 18.30 |
8.00 to 18.30 |
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Tuesday |
8.00 to 18.30 |
CLOSED |
8.00 to 18.30 |
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Wednesday |
8.00 to 18.30 |
8.00 to 13.00 |
8.00 to 18.30 |
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Thursday |
8.00 to 18.30 |
8.00 to 13.00 |
8.00 to 18.30 |
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Friday |
8.00 to 18.30 |
8.00 to 13.00 |
8.00 to 18.30 |
GP TRAINING CLOSURE DATES
The surgery will be closed on Thursday 12th November at 13.00
for GP training.
Please contact NHS 111 when the Surgery is closed.
Flu Vaccinations
The surgery is hoping to receive more flu vaccinations at the end of November. We will initially administer these to unvaccinated vulnerable patients first. Then we will vaccinate the 50-64 year old category of patients. If you fall into this category and have not received a letter from the surgery, please DO NOT contact the surgery. We will contact you individually when we have the vaccinations available.
Benefice Newsletter for Sunday 18th October/Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity
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Message from The Rector
I have just returned from a shopping trip to Waitrose and while there couldn’t help noticing the Christmas ‘fayre’ already on sale (turkey & stuffing-flavoured tortilla chips anyone?). And as I drove home I was wondering about Christmas and how we might celebrate it this year, given all of the things that we would love to do but can’t. We won’t be able to gather in church in large numbers (and we had more than 400 people in Aldeburgh church for the Crib Service last year). We won’t be able to sing Christmas hymns and carols together in church. We won’t be able to hold our traditional, beautiful, Christingle service as we normally do. So what can we do? We’re a way off being able to make any final decisions but I float just one idea to see how you might react. Christmas Day falls on a Friday this year so in the week leading up it how about, in each Parish, a single, outdoor celebration? We will have to risk the weather (and ‘if wet’ we won’t be able to go indoors) but we are hardy British east-coast folk after all! The services would not all need to be the same and might be anything from a simple service of Christmas music and readings to a Holy Communion service – perhaps on Christmas morning. (On or by the beach?) Whatever we do there will be a lot to think about but I would very much appreciate your thoughts at this stage. There is no perfect solution but with a little imagination we ought, joyfully, to still be able to celebrate our Saviour’s birth together.
I am very aware of the difficulties of keeping in touch with those who do not yet feel able, for whatever reason, to be with us in church. I know that many of you are doing great things for friends and neighbours, but I am also aware that sometimes people would really appreciate a chat with me or one of the clergy team. We have been trying our best but, with the best will in the world, with so many people and so many other things pressing on our time it’s difficult always to get it right. But people are always welcome to contact us. If you would like a chat, please don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and should you get ‘the dreaded machine’ leave a message and you’ll be called back. And if you know of someone else who is in need than please do let me or one of the team know.
There is a recent Church of England initiative that is very much worth knowing about too. It’s called Daily Hope and it’s a phone line that provides all sorts of recorded resources – worship, hymns, talks, even some chair exercises. And if you ring it, the first voice you will hear is that of the Archbishop of Canterbury! The line – which is available 24 hours a day on 0800 804 8044 – has been set up particularly with those unable to join online church services during the period of restrictions in mind. Spread the word!
With love, as ever
Mark
Collect
O God, for as much as without you we are not able to please you;
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and
rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
First Reading
Isaiah 45.1-7
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand
I have grasped to subdue nations before him and strip kings of
their robes, to open doors before him and the gates shall not be closed:
I will go before you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I surname you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I arm you, though you do not know me, so that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things.
Second Reading
1 Thessalonians 1.1-10
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.
We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of people we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place where your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.
Gospel Reading
Matthew 22.15-22
Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
Deciphering words in the New Testament –
(It’s all Greek to me)
Mark writes:
It’s all too easy to forget that the bibles that most of us rely on are translations from another language. Most of the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. Once upon a time many clergy would have been taught New Testament Greek as part of their studies – no longer, sadly. But the real meaning of some words in the New Testament is much more easily understood if we have at least a smattering of knowledge of Greek, and, luckily for us, Canon John Giles does.
Over to him for the first of a little series.
Here are a few words, one at a time, over the weeks, to hold on to as marker-buoys for a closer understanding of Christ and his message.
So please get your bibles out and look up the places where they come.
- THARSEI – BE OF GOOD COMFORT/ CHEER UP/ TAKE HEART/KEEP UP YOUR COURAGE
In dark days we are glad when someone who knows better than us what is going on says “Cheer up”. Jesus said it to the disciples at the end of his farewell talk at the Last Supper (John 16.33). He said it to the disciples exhausted by rowing against a fierce head wind out on Lake Galilee after the Feeding of the 5000 (Mark 6.50). He said it to the paralysed man brought to him on a stretcher in (Matthew 9.2), and again to the woman with an incurable haemorrhage in the same chapter, v.22. Paul, taken into safe custody in the Roman barracks to keep him from an angry crowd in Jerusalem was comforted by the Lord in prayer in the same words (Acts 23.11). Here then is the same Greek word used in several different contexts, with a good message for us today for obvious reasons!
Next time: Me Phobousthe – Don’t be afraid.
Canon John Giles
Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity by our Rector,
The Revd Mark Lowther
Who are the most powerful individuals in the world today? And who do you think are the leaders that we can all look up to in our world today? And can you think of anyone who fits both of those categories – really powerful and who we can really look up to? It’s not easy, is it? But as Christians is it any of our business anyway? Do religion and politics have anything to do with each other? Politicians are very good at using religion when it suits them and ignoring it when it is uncomfortable. Church leaders often get it in the neck when they say things that politicians find uncomfortable. One former Prime Minister, on first arriving on the steps of 10 Downing Street, paraphrased St Francis of Assisi – ‘Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope’. And, whatever you think about that Prime Minister’s policies, for lots of people the governments of the next few years certainly didn’t bring either harmony or hope. And another Prime Minister, of a different political hue, when about to answer a journalist’s question about his religious faith was interrupted by his ‘Director of Strategy and Communication’ before he could answer. ‘We don’t do God’, the journalist was told.
There are certainly plenty of people who would like religion and politics not to have anything to do with each other, but I strongly suspect that someone who might disagree is Jesus. It takes a very special way with words to take the politics out of Jesus’s message. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, “When people say that the Bible and politics don’t mix, I ask them which Bible they are reading”. Just think of something like the beatitudes in which Jesus tells the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the peacemakers and so on that they are specially blessed by God. Or think of Mary’s song of thanksgiving on hearing that she is to be the mother of God, when she recounts what God has done, scattering the proud, bringing down the powerful from their thrones and lifting up the humble.
Now there is, of course, a difference between ‘politics’ – which comes from a Greek word meaning ‘the affairs of the city’ – and ‘party politics’. If you try to work out whether Jesus would have voted Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green or UKIP than I think you’re not trying to answer the right question. (I do, however, believe that he’d have been unlikely to vote for the BNP) What we are called upon to do whenever we have the chance to vote is to see what policies are on offer from the parties standing, remember our Christian faith and what it teaches us, and vote for the party that we think is the closest to what our faith teaches us. And we need to remember, firstly, that we’re not going to find any party that we completely agree with and secondly that among us there will be a variety of opinions. The Church of England was once famously dubbed ‘The Tory party at prayer’ (by a suffragette, by the way) but there are Christian supporters of most political parties – and that’s only right and proper.
Hang on a moment, though. Why all of this political stuff today? There isn’t an election coming up. Well, of course, it’s inspired by today’s Gospel reading in which we hear of an attempt to trap Jesus with a question about paying tax. ‘Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor or not?’ said the wily Pharisees. ‘We’ve got him this time’, they must have thought. If he says ‘yes’ then he’s taking the side of the occupying Romans (who pretty well everyone wanted rid of) so the crowd will lynch him. But if he say’s ‘no’ then we’ll report him to the Roman authorities, and they’ll lynch him. Get out of that one Mr Clever Rabbi. And Jesus responds with characteristic wisdom. Remember who was asking the question in the first place – a group of Pharisees, who were a strand within Judaism who considered themselves set apart (that’s what the name Pharisee means) – set apart because they took a particular approach to the application of Jewish laws in everyday life. This kind of question about taxes really mattered to them. But they were also seen by many at the time to have compromised with the Romans, to have, in some way, sold out to protect their own backs. They were far from universally popular with their fellow countrymen. Now the coin that Jesus had someone produce would have said clearly around its edge ‘Son of God – high priest’ – because that’s who Caesar thought that he was. So these Pharisees who were carrying the Roman coin really were compromised, weren’t they? They were trying to be good Jewish boys and keep Caesar happy too. And that was impossible. And what Jesus was doing was pointing out their hypocrisy to them. ‘Off you go and try and do it’, he was saying. ‘Give Caesar what’s due to him and God what’s due to him – if you can.’ When they heard this, we’re told in the story, they were amazed; and left him and went away. I wonder if they felt just a bit guilty themselves – they certainly should have done.
Perhaps we should too. How do we hold together our political opinions and our faith? How much are we influenced in our political decisions by looking after No.1 first, rather than the greater good. Some words from a rather thoughtful Welsh priest, Tristan Owain Hughes.
‘Sometimes’, he writes, ‘I think that even Christians think that Jesus himself was just a little bit naïve, impractical, or utopian. If Jesus were around now, we might quietly speculate that he’d conclude that things are actually far more complex that he first realised. Things are, in fact, far less complex than we ourselves realise. Jesus knew exactly what human nature was about. On the very night that he was tortured and murdered, he simply said: “my command is this: love each other as I have loved you”.
‘As a Christian’, Hughes continues, ‘as a person of hope, I am quite certain that change will come, that transformation will take place. But this change will not start in Westminster, or in the City, or on Fleet Street. Change starts in our hearts, and then grow outwards. If we live out compassion in our daily lives, the kingdom of God cannot fail to break through into our communities and, as a consequence, that will transform our society – bringing light to places of darkness, bringing love to those who suffer prejudice or disadvantage, bringing hope to those who think they have no future. “My command is this: love each other as I have loved you”.
Amen
Post Communion
Holy and blessed God, you have fed us with the
body and blood of your Son and filled us with your
Holy Spirit: may we honour you, not only with our lips
but in lives dedicated to the service of Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Week Ahead – Next Sunday
25th October – Last Sunday after Trinity
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9.45am |
Morning Prayer |
Friston Church |
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10.30am |
Holy Communion |
Aldeburgh Parish Church |
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11.00am |
Holy Communion |
Aldringham Church |
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3.00pm |
Online service available |
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NOTICES
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Food Banks at the East of England Co-op |
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Weekly Benefice Newsletter |
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Aldeburgh Parish Church APCM |
