tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21232339622984722122024-03-20T22:05:00.477+00:00St Chad's BlogSt Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, ShropshireUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-33976669993397230782017-11-14T10:23:00.001+00:002017-11-14T10:26:37.791+00:00Prayer is an act of daring<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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an act of daring”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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I am beginning with the premise that my hearers have already spent years of their life practicing and progressing in prayer, having realised that it is the breath of the curious existence we call the spiritual life.<br /><br />I propose, therefore, to omit speaking about the foundation and basic assumptions of this activity; the subject is already vast, so vast that at the end of many years of study and practice one can only say that one has stood on the shore of a great ocean and has waded a little way into its waves. At this stage we should be able to agree with Meister Eckhart ‘that we ought to be too much at one with God in will to worry very much about ways and works.’<br /><br />Instead I would like to offer a few thoughts and comments which I hope may encourage you to take another look at your prayer life and consider whether it may be improved, whether you could try a new method, go down a new avenue or a side path, see it from an new angle, or even learn something from another religious tradition. This might lead to a feeling of freshness, of renewal. It is so easy, little by little, as the years pass, to lose the spontaneity, the variety which delights us when talking to our friends and which we should find also in the various meetings which we call prayer.<br /><br />Why delight? Why interest? Because, as has been said</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i> ‘One who is intimate with God has received four gifts: an honour which need be known to none, a knowledge without study, a richness without money, a joyful company without companion.’</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>(Yafi’i, Rawdh,53)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />These are highly valued by most people who would conceive them in a material way, but the person who would never be introduced, let alone become intimate with, say, a member of the Royal family, here rises to the acquaintance with the King of Kings; a person privileged becomes as learned (in a way) as any lecturer in a university, wealthy without the responsibilities and anxieties which accompany great wealth, and has joyful company without the uncertainties and changes in affection which may occur.<br /><br />The question may be asked <br /><br />‘How can I believe all this? And that I may become intimate with God?’ <br /><br />One way has been pointed out. When you come to speak to Him, you meet someone who is more humble than yourself. In church at the various services we spend a lot of time in praise, exaltation, wondering at the greatness and the glory and so on. There is as much to be wondered at here. And it puts you in your place. Yes, He is humbler than we are. <br /><br />It is one of the interruptions which occur now and then in our journey. For even after many years of struggle and striving to live the spiritual life things may not go well and doubts and questions can arise in the mind. Sometimes you may feel that you have made no progress at all and that you are back at the beginning:<br /><br />A patient in a big mental hospital was asked how he came to believe he was Jesus Christ. He answered that every time he prayed to Jesus, he found he was talking to himself!<br /><br />You may not get into his state of mind, but the thought that one may be talking to oneself occurs to many people at some time, and it can be very distressing. There is no reply, no feedback. IS there really anyone there? <br /><br />A Jewish boy asked his father if he believed in God. He answered “How do we know there’s a God? Because he keeps disappearing.”<br /><br />This again may be a source of anxiety to the one who prays. Perhaps God has drawn away because of some fault or sin in the one who seeks him. This may be so.<br /><br />There is a Muslim account of a man who brought up the subject with a saint of that faith:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i> “I have committed many sins” he said “If I turn in penitence towards God, with He turn in mercy towards me?” “Nay” she replied “But if He shall turn towards thee, thou wilt turn towards Him.” </i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />This is one of the great truths of the spiritual life, whatever the religion. We were reminded of it only a week or two ago when the Collect for the day began “Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray…” <br /><br />God initiates; we respond, or don’t.<br /><br />A useful suggestion if one is unready to pray while God waits, is to begin praying as if one had never done so before. To imagine that it is a completely new experience and one has no idea of what is going to happen during the prayer, or afterwards. And it is also a good idea to wait afterwards for a while in silence, remembering the truism “The quieter you are, the more you can hear.”</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">‘Prayer is an act of daring (I have read) otherwise it is impossible to stand in prayer before God. When man imagines the greatness of the Creator how else could he stand before Him? Prayer is a mystery, directed in its essence towards changing the order of the world… man wants to change the order of nature, he asks for miracles. Hence, at the moment of prayer man must lay aside his capacity for shame. If men had shame, they would, God forbid, lose the faith that prayer is answered.’</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">R Nahman</span></i></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Make sure of prayer</b></span><div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b><i>Art thou still young, and dost thou glance along</i></span><div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Life’s opening pathway with a timid dread?<br />Make sure of prayer, thence be thy courage fed,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>And in the midst of strife thou shalt be strong.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Or do the cares of middle lifetime throng</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>In all-absorbing force round heart and head?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Make sure of prayer! Our Master erstwhile said:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“One thing sufficeth’ over-care is wrong.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>”Or hast thou reached old age’s twilight drear?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Make sure of prayer. The die is not yet cast,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>In sight of port sank many a vessel fair.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>If thou dost hope – and hope supposeth fear</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i> –If thou dost hope for God and heaven at last,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>In life, in death, make sure, make sure of prayer!</i></span></div>
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<i>Sister Mary Stanislaus MacCarthy (1849–1897)</i></div>
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Fr Leonard Parry Jones October 2017</div>
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Sermon preached as part of the Confirming Faith series at St Chad’s, Shrewsbury</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-16149661622053635672017-10-19T12:32:00.004+01:002017-10-19T12:35:48.099+01:00The one who sows ...<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">"The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the
one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully"</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8oVQLiP9umHZhAwJk3u2MhoqG12EZ_fseU8bWSJtWS9zgFbwhNuOM2VXuDri0FbBtq_Dz-EokyYke64f39RM6Dm2ISfG3m5nkB9u4CtLGw0Cl_pqGylUG9Tb0HrpiQIKr80uUUHZcbn4/s1600/harvest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="826" data-original-width="1050" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8oVQLiP9umHZhAwJk3u2MhoqG12EZ_fseU8bWSJtWS9zgFbwhNuOM2VXuDri0FbBtq_Dz-EokyYke64f39RM6Dm2ISfG3m5nkB9u4CtLGw0Cl_pqGylUG9Tb0HrpiQIKr80uUUHZcbn4/s400/harvest.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
I grew up in a country where water is treated with great
respect. Australians know what it is like to live in a country
that suffers from drought. They know the value of water. They know what it’s like to have restrictions
on water. So, when the rain comes, people give thanks for they can see the
power rain has. Rain will transform the
landscape in ways that are breathtaking.</span><br />
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is place called the <b>wheat belt</b>, it’s found about 70
miles east of Perth. You can drive for
hundreds of miles through land that has been transformed into fields of gold
wheat. The challenge for farmers in
Australia is they must decide when the rain will come?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or whether the rain will come at all.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They must make a very big decision on whether to sow
sparingly, for fear of rain not coming.
Or to sow bountifully, hoping the rain will come and the harvest will be
bountiful. The farmer faces a difficult
decision that could affect him quite badly economically if he gets it wrong.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For those who work on the land, harvest is a time of looking
back and maybe asking questions:</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Did I plant at the right time?</span></span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span></i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Did the rains come when I expected?</span></span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span></i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Was there enough sunlight?</span></span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All those questions are answered for them at harvest. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We should pray for those all famers across the globe who
work the land and take such a great risks. Give thanks for those who have
received a bountiful harvest;</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and pray for those who found the harvest has not been as
rewarding as they would have hoped.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(We should also support those that bring aid to those
countries where the harvest has failed) </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For us, we can so easily take all of this for granted. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The challenges faced by many to bring wheat in the form of
bread to our tables can be forgotten by countless.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What about our harvest?</span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What have we harvested this year?</span></span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span></i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In our lives and in our actions to others?</span></span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the opening reading we are reminded by Paul that</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and
the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully”</span></span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Like the farmer, we too had to take risks this year.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Was the effort that we made this year sufficient for us to
say is been a good year? That we have
had a good harvest?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I believe that this reference:</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and
the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully”</span></span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is not only for the farmers, <b>but for us here</b> and <b>now.</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Did we give to those communities where we live, work and
serve as much as we could? </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Did we support them as best we could?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">OR</span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Did we hedge our bets?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And only give sparingly?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are many the reason for acting sparingly, one is out
of fear. It is fear that holds us
back. We become fearful of failure and
so we don’t act. Without knowing it we
set the bar to high.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In some cases, we may need to simply replace the word <b>should</b>
with <b>could</b>.*</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When we use the word should we put extra pressure on
ourselves. <b>“I should have won the race”</b>
puts pressure on us. If we fail.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whereas the word ‘could,’ gives us space.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>“I could have won the race”</b> gives us room to look at the
situation, to reflect and try better next time with more preparation. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So as we reflect on our year, on our harvest, let remember
what we <b>could</b> have done for the rugby club, tennis club the Ark or the Church.
What was our mission during the year and our aims for outreach. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whatever it was we all need a moment to reflect on what we
could have given or done.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More importantly; harvest is a time to give thanks for what
we have received from the bounty of the land, and from others.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whether you’re a farmer or a city dweller. Harvest is a good time to simply pray and
reflect:</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Did I sow sparingly Lord this year? or did I sow
bountifully?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fr Mark
Chadwick</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sermon preached at Harvest 2017</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span></i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">*The idea of the difference between should and could is more
fully explored in The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management Programme to Help You
Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness by Prof Steve Peters</span></span></i></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This sermon is one of a series given as part of our <a href="https://stchadschurchshrewsbury.blogspot.co.uk/p/confirmation-2017.html" target="_blank">Faith Confirmed</a> programme. A series of talks,
classes, sermons and groups for Harvest, Advent and Christmas 2017-18</span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-50005851044307589342017-10-13T14:34:00.001+01:002017-10-13T14:34:22.857+01:00"The first time I heard the phrase 'Hail Mary' was on the rugby pitch."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYYhsk2vJhA_M9FBcWwf5qTUryDToz5p6WtrHwi-hyJhsUMW225HUZ7tGnsoHd-sYMn0QyPYIvLxE-E1L636J8yMF7ASKG_QcHhw04OBYZ0Tu6HLI-v1Kk7upze0Lm1adqgHNJQt5VZAfi/s1600/mary+sermon+picture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="841" data-original-width="675" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYYhsk2vJhA_M9FBcWwf5qTUryDToz5p6WtrHwi-hyJhsUMW225HUZ7tGnsoHd-sYMn0QyPYIvLxE-E1L636J8yMF7ASKG_QcHhw04OBYZ0Tu6HLI-v1Kk7upze0Lm1adqgHNJQt5VZAfi/s400/mary+sermon+picture.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first time I heard the phrase ‘Hail Mary’ was on the rugby pitch. A Hail Mary is a rugby pass that is so high that the person receiving the ball could not watch out for oncoming players, they therefore would have time to pray that they did not get clobbered in the oncoming tackle.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By the time I was a teenager I had learned that Hail Mary was an important prayer. <br /><br /><b><i>Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.</i></b></span></span><br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.</span></span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners,</span></span></i></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>Now and at the hour of our death. Amen </i></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />What I’ve always found so touching about this prayer is that I’m asking Mary to pray for me. But who was this woman who I am asking to pray for me? Within the great tradition of the Orthodox Church, Mary is known as the Theotokos, mother of God, but to understand what that means we must reflect on the biblical texts. <br /><br />Within the biblical traditions we are told that Mary grew up in Nazareth, a small village in Galilee. It was there in that out of the way part of the Roman Empire that the Angel of the Lord, Gabriel, appeared to this astonishing young woman. In that moment; that amazingly brave young woman said: <br /><br /><i><b>Here I am, the servant of the Lord: let it be with me according to your word.</b></i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In this moment alone we see two of Mary’s great qualities: humility and courage. This is the kind of person that I have asked to pray for me. <br /><br /> Rowan Williams writes <br /><br /><i>“What we call holy in the world - a person, a place, a set of words or pictures – is so because the completely foreign is brought together with the familiar and the everyday.” </i><br /><br />No one embodies this more than Mary, who literally makes a home for the Creator of all things in her own body and in her own house - the strangest reality we can conceive. <br /><br /><b>In her own body and in her own house. </b><br /><br />Mary is the one that bore Jesus and the one that nurtured him through those early years of his life. The church believes that Jesus is both fully divine and human; therefore He must have taken after Mary, in her looks, her actions. Both would have spoken Aramaic with the same local accent. Jesus, we know had many gifts, but maybe the gifts of love, integrity and courage were influenced by his mother Mary? <br /><br />And then there are two stories where we see how close mother and son were. In John’s Gospel, at the wedding feast of Cana there is the story of water being turned into wine; it is Mary, who tells the servants to listen to Jesus and it is Mary who gently pushes her son into beginning his ministry. <br /><br />Then at the darkest moment of Jesus ministry, in the shadow of the cross, Mary is to be found. At the foot of the cross when others have run away Mary is still holding on and believing. <br /><br />On this important day in the church’s calendar and in this most beautiful church dedicated to Mary, let us not forget her important role in the Christian story. And as we make our pilgrimage through life, let us be humble enough to ask others to pray for us and I would say do not be afraid to ask our Lord’s mother Mary to pray for you too. <br /><br /><i>Sermon preached on the Festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary at St Mary’s Church, Shrewsbury.</i></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Fr Mark Chadwick</i></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-40999253566261808572017-10-11T22:51:00.003+01:002017-10-11T22:56:26.820+01:00How do we know God?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizthaOj3lVSL6_mZ-5EFQpm_NKw4Qdyct4sOS99WkeW6_4QP9MarmpMwHwI9dE2AsK8E-vAdyScZ1XjVErV9a43zbj6Y-73ZbJNyHAZ_aE6qm6SL5GgjW66UkibyJftuJ_VPx8dfduYuHX/s1600/icon+for+confirmation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1143" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizthaOj3lVSL6_mZ-5EFQpm_NKw4Qdyct4sOS99WkeW6_4QP9MarmpMwHwI9dE2AsK8E-vAdyScZ1XjVErV9a43zbj6Y-73ZbJNyHAZ_aE6qm6SL5GgjW66UkibyJftuJ_VPx8dfduYuHX/s320/icon+for+confirmation.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">If you are following this blog then there is a chance that you already believe in God. Our belief in God can grow in many ways. Maybe you have been bought up in a family of faith that attends Church; or perhaps in school assemblies God is talked about in ways that you can respect and be inspired by. Sometimes we meet people or have friends whose Christian lives are witness to a God that we can no longer just ignore. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When we talk about believing in something, we talk about that 'something'
being true and real. It exists and we know it exists. Believing in God is like that; but it is also so much more. When we believe in God, we know he exists but we also put our trust in him. We trust him and have faith that he will enter into a loving relationship with each of us, care for us and guide us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">God can reveal himself to us in a number of ways:</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Bible. </span></b><span style="font-size: large;">The bible is a collection of books written over a long period of time by many authors. They all had been inspired by God to record the history of God's relationship with mankind; how he has revealed himself to the world over many generations. The Bible also tells us about the life and teaching of Jesus and how he came into the world to save us. The Bible is a living text, as we read it we grow into relationship with God, the creator of all things.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Creation. </b>God is often powerfully present in the world he has created. When we stand in awe and wonder looking at a beautiful sunset, or the stunning view from an </span><span style="font-size: large;">aeroplane</span><span style="font-size: large;"> or </span><span style="font-size: large;">mountain top. When we notice the amazing dexterity of animals and birds; the beauty of flowers and insects. When the storms are raging or the history of time is revealed in the rocks; when we gaze at the night sky of stars and planets. All of these moments can have a lasting impression on us and can make the presence of God more real.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Life Experiences. </b>Our relationship with God can grow through our experiences and our conscience. As we gain experiences in life our conscience will respond. We will know what is right and wrong, which course of action to take or which things we should avoid. Through reading the Bible and engaging with the teachings of the Church we can come to know where god might be leading us; where God is present in our lives. Our conscience may sometimes try to explain some of life's events and timings as coincidences; but it may be that God is guiding and speaking to us through them. Over time God changes us and we become more aware of his presence around us.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Prayer</b> is spending time with God, speaking and listening. Christians put their trust in a God of relationship, a God that loves them and cares for them. Prayer helps us draw closer to God, we want to love God; the source of our greatest happiness. When we pray we can use words or just sit quietly. Making ourselves available to God is time that cannot be wasted, it is God's time and therefore eternal.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Christians believe in a God of relationship, a God that we can come to know and who wants to know us and care for us. Our desire for God is part of being human, it is natural. So look around, see God in the world around you and in the experiences of your life. Pick up a Bible and read Mark's Gospel (the shortest one!) and spend some time each day with God in prayer.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Heavenly Father,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I offer you this day.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The work I do, the people I meet,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the pleasures and the problems.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That in everything, I may know</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the love of our Lord Jesus Christ</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and be truly thankful.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="font-size: x-large;">Amen</b></div>
<b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Click <a href="https://stchadschurchshrewsbury.blogspot.co.uk/p/confirmation-2017.html" target="_blank">here </a>for information on our season of 'Faith Confirmed'.</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-77335865538075097422017-10-03T14:54:00.000+01:002017-10-03T14:59:31.497+01:00Are you envious because I am generous?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<![endif]--><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />Are you envious because I am generous?<br /> So the last will be first and the first will be last.” <br /><br />Matthew 20:16</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is always a sad moment when we fail to see a gift being offered. It’s almost as if we believe it’s too good to be true as in that old expression, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” <br /><br />One of the greatest gifts of all is the gift of gentleness known sometimes as kindness, tenderness or softness of action. Sadly this gift can be seen by some as weakness, they fail to see the value in this beautiful gift. <br /><br />C. JoyBell C. writes <br /><span style="color: purple;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: purple;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>“Predators prey on gentleness, peace, calmness, sweetness and any positivity that they sniff out as weakness.” </i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />In a world where power and authority are highly prized I suppose it is not surprising that a gift like gentleness can be overlooked. And therefore it can be very difficult to understand God as gentle as loving. Somehow, the God of wrath, the God of anger, the kind of God that acts like a regimental sergeant major of a bygone era, person who shouts, screams and puts us down, is the image of God that people cling to. <br /><br />But in the gospel today Matthew challenges our understanding of God. He reminds us of our inability to see a gift of love so freely given. Matthew does not hold back: <br /><br /><span style="color: purple;"><i>“Are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first and the first will be last.” </i></span><br /><br />He reminds us that God’s generosity, gentleness, and love is so great that we find it hard to conceive. <br /><br />The rules that we live under in this world are not the same as God’s kingdom. Here in today’s reading I am reminded that maybe I am not the first? Maybe I have not worked the hardest? Maybe I am not the most important? Yet God sees through all of that, and is able to show love, gentleness and kindness; ways that my world fails to understand. <br /><br />Charles Gore, Bishop of Oxford and founding father of the Community of the Resurrection, said: <br /><br /><span style="color: purple;"><i>“The gospel is a radical text. The problem is we have heard it so often we have watered it down.” </i></span><br /><br />Bearing this in mind, one of the aims for the seasons of Harvest, Kingdom and Advent is to look at ways to confirm our faith. <br /><br />To re-examine, to open our eyes to see, to investigate what it is we believe: <br /><br />What is your faith based on? The Ten Commandments, scripture, the creeds? <br /><br />What do you value about your faith? <br /><br />Why do you go to church? <br /><br />We need time to reflect on our faith to ask ourselves what is the cornerstone of our belief. <br /><br />Why is my faith so important to me? How does this faith help me on my journey of life? How does it aid me in this complex world. <br /><br />To help reflect on these questions we are running a course confirming faith. It is there to help those who wish to be confirmed, although is also a course that all of us here can engage with. It has been designed so that people of all ages and time schedules can take part: online, or day/ evening meetings. <br /><br />Even if you simply order the book and read it at your own leisure I believe it will be worth it. <br /><br />Please do reflect and pray about this journey. I ask you to pray for people to come forward to be confirmed. <br /><br />And I pray that you will all take up this challenge and in doing so, come to a new understanding of what your faith means to you. Thus we can really embrace the seasons of Harvest, Kingdom and Advent, that we may shine out God’s love for us and rediscover the joy of all these seasons and, eventually, Christmas.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Fr Mark Chadwick<br /> September 2017 </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /> <br />This sermon is one of a series given as part of our <a href="https://stchadschurchshrewsbury.blogspot.co.uk/p/confirmation-2017.html" target="_blank">Faith Confirmed</a> programme. A series of talks, classes, sermons and groups for Harvest, Advent and Christmas 2017-18</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For details on the <a href="https://stchadschurchshrewsbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/faith-confirmed-preparing-for.html" target="_blank">Faith Confirmed</a> book written by Peter Jackson and Chris Wright, click the link.</span></span>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-68377946669413999192017-10-03T14:05:00.002+01:002017-10-03T14:22:51.891+01:00Faith Confirmed - Preparing for Confirmation<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Our Faith Confirmed season at St Chad's will run upto the Confirmation service, to be held on Sunday 17th December, and beyond into the New Year. During this time we will be using a wonderful book written by Peter Jackson and Chris Wright, 'Faith Confirmed - Preparing for Confirmation'. </span></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia5KPY1cQlbkHdLDc0DKWMjIj9c0zzUkPNHxW3IAxWu3JUKDmvZhyphenhyphenhApO8L_2JXlCEhvpoFMY5ad9mkp6AqZXGINmhrzgO-k2WGqPF3nKBXJGyriQCvPbrWLMIA11rqDuNKtstU6t9Exeg/s1600/Front+cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Copies of the book will be available to those who are attending the Confirmation Classes. It will also be useful to get a copy if you would like to revisit elements of the Christian Faith that you are unsure about, or feel you would like to spend time reflecting on.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Introduction from ‘Faith Confirmed’ by Peter Jackson and Chris Wright <br /><i><br /></i></span></span><i> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">'When
we confirm something we say yes. At confirmation we say yes to Jesus’
call to follow him on our journey through life. We confirm our faith in
him. Parents and godparents will usually have said yes for us when we
were babies and unable to speak for ourselves at baptism, but
confirmation give us the chance to say yes. <br /><br />We have all had the
experience of betting lost. This can happen because we have either no
map or an inadequate one, or because our direction finder isn’t working
properly. Confirming our faith in Jesus is like deciding to travel
through life with a really accurate map or effective direction finder.
This book aims to help you become familiar with the main feature of the
‘Christian map’. <br /><br />On the contents page you will find its
landmarks. Some of these will be familiar to you and others new.
Although it will make sense if you read the book on your own, we hope
you will share it with others. Just as planning a journey is more fun
when you discuss it with others, so Christianity makes more sense when
it’s experience and lived with other people. We hope also that you will
refer back to this guide after your confirmation. On long journeys, we
have to keep on checking our directions. To carry the ‘journey’ picture
a bit further: why not see confirmation as a time to take stock of
where you have come from and seek God’s help in preparing for what lies
ahead?'</span></span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you would like a copy to read at home the details are: </span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Paperback:</b> 144 pages</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Publisher:</b> SPCK Publishing; 2 edition (1 Jan. 2013)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Language:</b> English</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><b>ISBN-10:</b> 0281064237</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><b>ISBN-13:</b> 978-0281064236 </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The book is available as a paperback from the <a href="http://spckpublishing.co.uk/product/faith-confirmed" target="_blank">publisher </a>and also in digital format and costs £9.99. <a href="http://www.illuminatebooks.org.uk/" target="_blank">Illuminate</a> Bookshop in Shrewsbury will also be able to order you a copy.</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizthaOj3lVSL6_mZ-5EFQpm_NKw4Qdyct4sOS99WkeW6_4QP9MarmpMwHwI9dE2AsK8E-vAdyScZ1XjVErV9a43zbj6Y-73ZbJNyHAZ_aE6qm6SL5GgjW66UkibyJftuJ_VPx8dfduYuHX/s1600/icon+for+confirmation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1143" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizthaOj3lVSL6_mZ-5EFQpm_NKw4Qdyct4sOS99WkeW6_4QP9MarmpMwHwI9dE2AsK8E-vAdyScZ1XjVErV9a43zbj6Y-73ZbJNyHAZ_aE6qm6SL5GgjW66UkibyJftuJ_VPx8dfduYuHX/s320/icon+for+confirmation.jpg" width="228" /></a></span></span></i></div>
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">Come! Follow Christ in the footsteps of St Chad</span></b></span> </span></span></span></span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">For details on our 'Faith Confirmed' series of
talks, classes, sermons and groups for Harvest, Advent and Christmas 2017-18 click <a href="https://stchadschurchshrewsbury.blogspot.co.uk/p/confirmation-2017.html" target="_blank">here.</a></span></span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-80978257729835637362017-09-30T15:06:00.000+01:002017-10-03T15:07:22.521+01:00Faith Confirmed<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">A series of
talks, classes, sermons and groups for Harvest, Advent and Christmas 2017-18</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOsINuigG1Ytad5MMPkje_91wUz4ss3v0UVjeXnVMDgnyFVeXGgUY4X2pcoAHqn1fPJM00Oz3-E2EhiqD2q3G8UEARtaSk2TptsL_O3CkusCSgOnaF6dDYOdL8U2lDNjP_ebe64OrQkYyz/s1600/icon+for+confirmation.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1143" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOsINuigG1Ytad5MMPkje_91wUz4ss3v0UVjeXnVMDgnyFVeXGgUY4X2pcoAHqn1fPJM00Oz3-E2EhiqD2q3G8UEARtaSk2TptsL_O3CkusCSgOnaF6dDYOdL8U2lDNjP_ebe64OrQkYyz/s400/icon+for+confirmation.jpg" width="282" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">Come! Follow Christ in the footsteps of St Chad</span></b> </span></span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">You are invited
to join us on a pilgrimage of spiritual discovery. Faith Confirmed is open to <b>all</b> and
can be accessed by <b>all</b> to meet the
needs of people of all ages living in a busy and demanding world. Therefore, the parishes of St Chad and St
Alkmund will offer everyone the opportunity to engage by: online resources,
evening meetings, morning gatherings, classes, and printed material.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">Come! Confirm your faith</span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">Fr Mark Chadwick</span></b></span></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">Special
Sermons at Evensong - 6pm Sundays</span></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 118%;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 118%;">1 October Fr Mark
Chadwick Reflecting on our</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 118%;"> Faith</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 118%;">22 October Fr
Leonard Parry-Jones Prayer</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 118%;">5 November Fr Alan
Fell Sacraments</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 106%;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 106%;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 106%;">19 November Fr David Crowhurst Music in Worship</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%; margin-bottom: 8pt; text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%; margin-bottom: 8pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 106%;">Each service will be followed by a time for a
reflection with the preacher and Fr Mark.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">Morning
Gatherings</span></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">after
10.30am Eucharist at St Alkmund’s, Thursdays</span></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">12 October</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">9 November</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">23 November</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">30 November</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">7 December</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">Spiritual
Direction</span></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Every Friday after the Eucharist, 9am –
10am</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">An opportunity to talk confidentially
about your faith and prayer life.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">Evening Sessions</span></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">3 Fishes, Fish Street (opposite St
Alkmund’s) 8.30pm Thursdays</span></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">5 October</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">19 October</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">2 November –
after the All Souls service</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">16 November</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">7 December</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">After school classes – time tbc to
suit those attending</span></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Tuesday 3
October –</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Tuesday 17
October </span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Tuesday 7
November </span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Tuesday 21
November </span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Wednesday 6
December</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">Confirmation
candidates are required to attend the following</span></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Requiem Mass 12
November 6pm</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Eucharist
for Christ the King 26
November 10am</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Advent Carol
Service 3 December
7pm</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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Workshop Tuesday
12 December 6pm-8pm</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Christingle
workshop Saturday
16 December</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">Confirmation Service Sunday 17 December 10am</span></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">
(Bishop Mark of Shrewsbury)</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">Online
Resources</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.stchadschurchshrewsbury.com/confirmation"><span style="line-height: 118%;">www.stchadschurchshrewsbury.com/confirmation</span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Sermons will be recorded and/or
transcribed and available on our website.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Articles will be added to our blog (access
via the webpage above), with opportunity to comment and question.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 118%;">Printed
Resources</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Faith Confirmed, Preparing for
Confirmation. Peter Jackson and Chris
Wright. SPCK 2013. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Items added to the blog will also be
printed for those without internet access.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">Fr Mark will be available after the Sunday
10am services at St Chad’s and St Alkmund’s for private conversations and also
by email:</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 118%;">vicar@stchadschurchshrewsbury.com</span></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-6650800856258133182017-06-29T19:04:00.004+01:002017-06-29T19:04:35.024+01:00The Feast of St Peter and St Paul<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhs9jMFFziVMmSHtehdbVVjK8tMeyhxZ4IUUbv1CPalpRf_K9YdJupx8YjRIg-C1p8wYr3e0SWstx_GfBBYePAkW6Z0g4lqnRrrqt4mqtOBhFywqoi30OdtJ5pmPHh8EYHxsgD72Wjf2sV/s1600/Ancient_icon_of_sts_peter_%2526_paul.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="991" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhs9jMFFziVMmSHtehdbVVjK8tMeyhxZ4IUUbv1CPalpRf_K9YdJupx8YjRIg-C1p8wYr3e0SWstx_GfBBYePAkW6Z0g4lqnRrrqt4mqtOBhFywqoi30OdtJ5pmPHh8EYHxsgD72Wjf2sV/s400/Ancient_icon_of_sts_peter_%2526_paul.jpg" width="247" /></a></div>
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On June 29th we celebrate the Feast Day of St Peter and St Paul. Both were instrumental in growing and sustaining the early Church. At the time an unlikely pair for our Lord to choose; one an uneducated fisherman and the other a murderous fanatic of the law. </div>
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Simon son of Jonah, called by God to become Peter, the rock on which the Church was to be built and the keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven. </div>
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Saul of Tarsus, a persecutor of the early Church, converted by Christ on the road to Damascus and later baptised into the Christian community as Paul. He was to travel on great journeys of faith across the Mediterranean world proclaiming the Gospel to the gentiles. </div>
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Both died as Martyrs in Rome, paying the ultimate price of their faith. </div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><i>Almighty God,</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul</span><br style="font-size: x-large;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">glorified you in their death as in their life:</span><br style="font-size: x-large;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">grant that your Church,</span><br style="font-size: x-large;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">inspired by their teaching and example,</span><br style="font-size: x-large;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">and made one by your Spirit,</span><br style="font-size: x-large;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">may ever stand firm upon the one foundation,</span><br style="font-size: x-large;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,</span><br style="font-size: x-large;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">who is alive and reigns with you,</span><br style="font-size: x-large;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">in the unity of the Holy Spirit,</span><br style="font-size: x-large;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">one God, now and for ever. </span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><i>Amen.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Common Worship Collect</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-30804989410004586292017-04-05T14:54:00.001+01:002017-04-05T16:13:04.839+01:00Study Group - Week Six<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Brexiteer’s Paradise</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">It’s a strange thing about islands; they are often seem a challenge to visit, but throughout history their dividing waters have tempted travellers, their separation from a greater land-mass clearly intimating that something especially precious and rare is to be found after the journey has been made to reach them.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh11cehA7H3Mc6Nu9IW41rrTAlT_xPTryNiaGM8Uo23GgLWPaARGmQSNN_NdV_3jP0jm3dbl7xzmq6zqDrRfRddMtAdjfGwcsEPKi7x3qZWbHWtwHe3gXMgegGEjmUn76KegLTe99gf1HSM/s1600/cliffs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh11cehA7H3Mc6Nu9IW41rrTAlT_xPTryNiaGM8Uo23GgLWPaARGmQSNN_NdV_3jP0jm3dbl7xzmq6zqDrRfRddMtAdjfGwcsEPKi7x3qZWbHWtwHe3gXMgegGEjmUn76KegLTe99gf1HSM/s320/cliffs.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">At the end of the last Ice Age, human beings began to venture northwards as the ice receded. About nine-and-a-half thousand B.C., what is now the North Sea was continuous land, joining our land-mass with that of Northern Europe. Groups came first to explore and hunt. Then they went back for their families and settled here. In the time that followed we became detached from the mainland and our island existence began.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Yet the seas when they arrived were not a major barrier. Celts came, Romans came, Saxons came, and Normans. We know that from an early date there was significant trade with the Mediterranean world and beyond. The monastery of Jarrow-Wearmouth, the home of the Venerable Bede, had collected from around the then known world the largest group of early manuscripts outside the Vatican, many in Greek. We might have become an island, but we were by no means isolated.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ERrVMgCyHNH10PTItLRySOyd5Fj2GdbTr5Yz7xICAan_Yz2OrjLTap3h1s7TBjaS4anSulJSxA6-OeWU6as7Z939kwWJP_8rxdC2J-ud3NpwgBNB6SrAYkbacvp8ilwfKIxIYp868hBl/s1600/mast-on-british-ship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ERrVMgCyHNH10PTItLRySOyd5Fj2GdbTr5Yz7xICAan_Yz2OrjLTap3h1s7TBjaS4anSulJSxA6-OeWU6as7Z939kwWJP_8rxdC2J-ud3NpwgBNB6SrAYkbacvp8ilwfKIxIYp868hBl/s200/mast-on-british-ship.jpg" width="149" /></a><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Trade and travel were strong in the Middle Ages and by then we had a small but significant Jewish population, migrant through eastern Europe. The widening of our ethnic range and our cultural contacts accelerated, though, as we became an increasingly-seafaring nation, with trade across the world, colonies and the naval strength to protect and extend such ventures.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">By the nineteenth-century London had received many new arrivals. Huguenots from France had come long before, following the St.Barthlomew’s Day Massacre, bringing silk-weaving skills and the silk worms and mulberry trees necessary to sustain their trade. One such original tree still stands in Bethnal Green.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Near to London Docks it would have been impossible to miss the Chinese small traders and the distinctively-dressed Lascars. Spitalfields became the sanctuary for several waves of Jews taking refuge from the pogroms of Russia and Eastern Europe long before Hitler was born. Almost as a cosmopolitan symbol, a shop selling foreign wild animals was opened in the East End by a German named Jamrach. You could buy a tiger there, or a gigantic snake.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS7lbl4IOFzU9mis9H7xjKgc9SSNDGydV02A2UmIJWKfLBdCjhmNvG3iMeRvEoT38lovEty7ZCBWmswCpz99do8-rOyzDeezdbhI6Aruw9vTM5dfxlY3d-GnriLyyCOhHdn4RRVOTfoQ6i/s1600/uk+border.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS7lbl4IOFzU9mis9H7xjKgc9SSNDGydV02A2UmIJWKfLBdCjhmNvG3iMeRvEoT38lovEty7ZCBWmswCpz99do8-rOyzDeezdbhI6Aruw9vTM5dfxlY3d-GnriLyyCOhHdn4RRVOTfoQ6i/s400/uk+border.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">If we move forward to our own times, the great influx after WWII was from the West Indies, followed then by large numbers of emigrants from the Indian sub-continent. It was then with our membership of the EU, utilising its rule of free movement, that Europeans began to come here in large numbers, drawn by a higher standard of living, better security, and the knowledge that the British working population had become very discriminating about the kind of work it wished to do.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Then, last year, a referendum took place, the result of which is set to change a great deal. It appears that we shall once more have borders, our own national regulations governed by British law, and the capacity to legislate for taxation and duties independently of any other nation.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">It seems clear that few believed the vote would reveal such a widespread desire to leave the EU. In the days following the voting sociologists, politicians, economists and journalists attempted to research the pattern of what had happened. The task proved difficult, but most enquirers believed that the desire to re-establish sovereignty and the controlling of immigration were very high on the list of Brexiteers’ hopes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Although there are calls from opposition parties for constant accountability during the present process of negotiation, in reality those outside Westminster and Whitehall are unlikely to play a large part in what happens. Most people see the future outcome in respect of trade, and in connection with our relationship with the EU and the nations of the EU, as a matter for pragmatic assessment as long as essential matters of sovereignty are upheld.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPnamvoKGYCit2F-M22Y0f8mNd9EHg54pImkPMBPNB-XHkvFJEFphLxu2jMbGS8qTbL5jJYOYvGZCgny9YEyL60bv7DGrohZf5IVWqqbqQZBrYLkY0MCYtLtiOquixnK8mPGUvZ-pm-51q/s1600/well.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPnamvoKGYCit2F-M22Y0f8mNd9EHg54pImkPMBPNB-XHkvFJEFphLxu2jMbGS8qTbL5jJYOYvGZCgny9YEyL60bv7DGrohZf5IVWqqbqQZBrYLkY0MCYtLtiOquixnK8mPGUvZ-pm-51q/s320/well.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">What, though, about our view of ‘the stranger’, the immigrant, the migrant worker? Our Lord talked willingly to the Samaritan woman at the well and told the story of the Good Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans normally did not speak to each other. St Paul sees division between people as the result of sin and inner separation from God and his truth. Thus unity, including a new kind of unity for those who have previously been either Jew or Gentile, is a priority in his thought.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Yet what the New Testament has to say about ‘the other’ is always expressed in terms of faith and a moral perspective born of faith. There is very little hint that ‘the stranger’ can be integrated on a purely secular basis. Yet it is also axiomatic that Christian people should always act in love and in hope and in the knowledge that fresh blood and diversity has in many respects through the centuries served us well in these islands.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">If we look at history with broad vision, it becomes clear that, in various ways, grouping gives way to separation and then to new grouping again. We are now at a moment in Europe and North America when withdrawal from the greater unit, reversion to our own rules and a concern with identity and self-protection are all in the ascendant. Isolation is not a high human ideal; xenophobia, racial discrimination, persecution and ethnic cleansing much less so. We only have to observe what has been happening in some parts of Africa or the Middle East to see what horrors come with rejection of ‘the other’.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">As we proceed we clearly need to have a share in the generosity of God; yet Jerusalem cannot be built with nothing but worldly stones. Perhaps, rather than tormenting our minds and consciences this is one of those relatively unusual situations where our primary duty to pray as against act becomes a particularly powerful priority.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Fr Alan</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-63124410446363793322017-03-28T11:50:00.004+01:002017-03-28T11:50:51.608+01:00Study Group - Week Five<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The Corner Shop</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv4QW1DcEXq_zMcY8ho_TKJEOUMG88AUo2w72GC6urDXWJpm1dsC-oB3ItQ8MXm_yEHiqjRrdFXSThi5iefSkS0-WOcXJ5xbgBnA4Pq1LeP1EA-jawUYTrFPclx0qdixZx-GffTaWUJ2N4/s1600/anonymous_boarded_up_shop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv4QW1DcEXq_zMcY8ho_TKJEOUMG88AUo2w72GC6urDXWJpm1dsC-oB3ItQ8MXm_yEHiqjRrdFXSThi5iefSkS0-WOcXJ5xbgBnA4Pq1LeP1EA-jawUYTrFPclx0qdixZx-GffTaWUJ2N4/s640/anonymous_boarded_up_shop.jpg" width="640" /> </a> </div>
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">I grew up in a shop on
one of the busiest thoroughfares in North Manchester. My father was a newsagent
and tobacconist. Though we ourselves were literally on a corner, there were
rows of shops on Moston Lane covering the sale of almost every kind of goods
then available. We had two tailors, three butchers, three sweetshops, two
grocers, two chemist’s shops, a cobblers and a tripe-shop within a hundred
yards, Ironmongery, patisserie, greengrocery, television hire and much more
were within a five-minute walk. Local people went on the bus into Manchester
city to go to the department stores perhaps one Saturday a month. </span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglgXwKQ4YBE5A3vMuGKTyMnF6CSmDU2VUjW6VzQEBIkR6mCVmH-AiCTS-dJ8y7KIYJP8MDxLG4ZsSmtVM2pNV4_aeyt16RaofEz8L0ROgpqV2UKTgV6aK80mUMfnyS95I14bFZ4qspJGF-/s1600/warehouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglgXwKQ4YBE5A3vMuGKTyMnF6CSmDU2VUjW6VzQEBIkR6mCVmH-AiCTS-dJ8y7KIYJP8MDxLG4ZsSmtVM2pNV4_aeyt16RaofEz8L0ROgpqV2UKTgV6aK80mUMfnyS95I14bFZ4qspJGF-/s320/warehouse.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Whilst I was at
secondary school a small supermarket was built a few yards from our premises by
putting together two shops. Then Ted Heath abolished Retail Price Maintenance.
The Big Boys were in favour and the small shops gradually diminished and
failed. We now live in a country where even the supermarkets are in financial
trouble and enormous quantities of goods are bought unseen from suppliers who
exist only as warehouses operating via the internet. It is precisely these
newer operators who are employing cheap labour and offering the workforce poor
terms of work. We have travelled far and in several respects have left civilisation
only to find ourselves in a desert.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Those mid-twentieth
century urban communities not only had shops, they had a good deal of local
employment, with factories and workshops intermingled with housing. They had
churches and chapels, libraries and many different sorts of clubs and
institutes. Billiard halls were still to be found and the Baden Powell
organisations had no shortage of members.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFG6PzcYFA3AyuYJsbApc5ZvS3Aye32izGpXPR8_Auva-jzy9gdbgjOyvY-sG_YBpvPTMU912s_XowyeixpPElxjaeTNHpSYb1KAhcB7ZVp-_q0ogMcvyWrQqbJojWs5mZnrSlqe7gz8pk/s1600/old-english-village.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFG6PzcYFA3AyuYJsbApc5ZvS3Aye32izGpXPR8_Auva-jzy9gdbgjOyvY-sG_YBpvPTMU912s_XowyeixpPElxjaeTNHpSYb1KAhcB7ZVp-_q0ogMcvyWrQqbJojWs5mZnrSlqe7gz8pk/s320/old-english-village.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">If this was the urban
picture, the rural one was not dissimilar. Each parish had its own priest; pubs
and shops did good business. It would be local people who maintained farm
machinery and who cared for hedges and ditches. Plenty of farming was diverse
and it was quite possible to profit from keeping a small herd of dairy cattle.
Farmers would still regularly be out on foot.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">What this pattern of
living was much human contact and conversation was guaranteed. An overwhelming
proportion of people did most of their business with people they knew, creating
a natural foundation of trust. They freely discussed matters of the day as
these affected their own lives. There were people around in plenty who could
help a neighbour or look after children in an emergency. It was easy to lend
and borrow equipment when necessary. Everybody would know many people with
trade skills and long experience. There were always some ‘wide boys’ to be
found, but everybody knew exactly who they were. Otherwise there was a broad
foundation for trust. Security was not a major issue.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">If we contrast the
picture above with our present-day experience, we see that life has become very
different indeed. Electronic communication reigns, especially with the young,
much of it descending into ever-greater triviality. Indeed trivial and constant
communication has become an addiction for many, at the cost of work and action.
Nearly all buying and selling is anonymous and conversations in a queue are
rare. Virtually all associative activity has declined and even families rarely
eat together at a table. Individuals so often grasp at radical independence of
choice and action rather than submit themselves to common family values and
activities. Security has become an obsession.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Many aspects of
modernity have little in common with the mind of the New Testament. Paul never
tires of urging all those virtues which tend towards peace, harmony, trust and
collaboration. He talks about the complementarity of gifts and their equality.
Early Christians committed themselves to a life together, even sharing their
property. The life of Our Lord was largely lived amongst others and for their
good. It entirely lacked what we would think of as personal objectives -
success, wealth, property, hobbies or interests.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Whilst religious
communities attempted to model that perfect Christian life through their rule
and customs, ordinary lay people throughout the Middle Ages and into more
modern times sought to establish Christian virtues and standards in family and
daily life together. They may often have failed, but they tried. It seems to
me, that until the post WWII ‘cultural revolution’ British society took quite
seriously those values we identify as Christian, whether explicitly or not, and
built them into the way we lived. That era has gone.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Some readers may now be
thinking that they are listening to a Luddite or another grumpy old man. There
is much enthusiasm in many quarters for our new ways of living and without any
doubt many good things have emerged and are still emerging from this new era.
For some forward-looking Christians, virtual churches are the origin and
strength of their faith. The new educational programme at St Chad’s will be
located on electronic sources available to visitors via their mobile phones.
Some modern churches have parted company with traditional hymns and
instrumentation completely. Vestments have been replaced by t-shirts and jeans.
Regular weekday groups there sustain a developing and changing Church.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Yet little that the
Church has done has offered a serious rational and moral critique of modern
living, nor has it offered or tried to establish alternatives. The new world is
substantially shaped by media, corporations and the demands of shareholders. We
can hope to have little direct impact on those. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBWWDocpaFvBDmDD6gXDgIE3w2zTVVfJORhaM01VrPOro7wveypB6E8kkpNY9OZs8wdc8Q_EL-uB0hKMwNZv7_R6M9MiMGDTsXlgmCn3L3hNzL7YF9AKPwQ74q71U95QzMLIzDThMAJ5a1/s1600/rublev.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBWWDocpaFvBDmDD6gXDgIE3w2zTVVfJORhaM01VrPOro7wveypB6E8kkpNY9OZs8wdc8Q_EL-uB0hKMwNZv7_R6M9MiMGDTsXlgmCn3L3hNzL7YF9AKPwQ74q71U95QzMLIzDThMAJ5a1/s320/rublev.jpg" width="256" /></a><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Perhaps a large part of
our current vocation is to live what we believe more consistently, happily and
confidently. Early pagans had to concede how much those who were Christian
loved each other. Is that obvious about us? Do we offer to the world enough
occasions to share our life as a Church, and with sufficient effort and
enthusiasm? I have been much heartened by the recent seasonal parties at the
Vicarage organised by Fr. Mark and Emma, bringing together those who have had
some brief encounter with the Church into deeper contact. If we cannot
influence the Big Boys perhaps we still have the power to be personal, direct,
understanding, principled and generous. Who can know what the Holy Spirit may
in time accomplish through conversation and friendships?</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Perhaps we might also
try to influence thinking at an intermediate social level. For instance, most
planning permission for new developments is given for the building of new small
pockets of suburbia. In Oswestry the Civic Society has been pressing planners
for the creation of communities much more like the old urban ones and the most
up-to-date developments in mainland Europe, where a wide range of facilities
are built into new programmes, making them in every sense more sustainable and
enjoyable to live in, rather than places to reach out from.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">To conclude; there’s
life in the old homo sapiens yet, and our task is to enrich by all means that
life in the direction of the Kingdom of God.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Fr. Alan<span> </span></span></span></span></span><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-70165260525192997062017-03-21T16:31:00.004+00:002017-03-21T16:31:52.637+00:00Study Group - Week Four<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Sex, Drugs And Rock N’Roll</span></span></span></span></b></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8MvDJIu6bj5iOW7kitp4TzwgdlXE8xE0IDj1O49wlSHxVfo4lXDbIJjM49bnzEr-0_LxNwAOQd3o91cWHDE29LM8Nqw_Sm1TXtBCzend9LSSyoHf6Epj5ZksHtQOAwY2rKxurEYHs-hop/s1600/R%2526R.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8MvDJIu6bj5iOW7kitp4TzwgdlXE8xE0IDj1O49wlSHxVfo4lXDbIJjM49bnzEr-0_LxNwAOQd3o91cWHDE29LM8Nqw_Sm1TXtBCzend9LSSyoHf6Epj5ZksHtQOAwY2rKxurEYHs-hop/s1600/R%2526R.jpg" /></a><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">I entered the Sixth Form in the autumn of 1962
and a month after term started the Beatles released their first single, Love Me
Do. An enterprising lad, Steve Whitaker, who later worked as a lawyer for the
London firm who handled Mick Jagger’s legal affairs, arranged a group in the
form room to render this new song at lunchtimes. </span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">We had mastered this and the subsequent Beatles
singles, Love Me Do and Please Please Me, when in June of 1963 the Rolling
Stones issued their first single Come On, a version of the Chuck Berry song
released two years before. Although there had been syncopated popular music in
the U.S.A. for some considerable time and this had been heard on the British
radio channels, along with the music of Lonnie Donegan and Tommy Steele, now
for the first time fully-fledged rock music was flourishing on our own soil and
on a grand scale. A revolution was under way.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">I went to university in the autumn of 1965. By
now rock music was a flourishing business. A fellow member of a college poetry
group happened to be friend of Eric Clapton, who was coming to play in the
newly-formed group Cream at a college ball. Eric asked him to find him some pot
for when he arrived. He did.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjguxBKkYLNVrs_DQzIBcys-kz5IwCxsvaZtX7vagmymF8cYf4RVbUKmUUhB0Lw0iTrxo2nAzYsre9uxDMO91sgVa1bLCzcnyymAkxjW1TSvEY98uN1v2405WV5evnH1DALPfU4BTJs39I7/s1600/tie-dye-background.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjguxBKkYLNVrs_DQzIBcys-kz5IwCxsvaZtX7vagmymF8cYf4RVbUKmUUhB0Lw0iTrxo2nAzYsre9uxDMO91sgVa1bLCzcnyymAkxjW1TSvEY98uN1v2405WV5evnH1DALPfU4BTJs39I7/s320/tie-dye-background.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">By then my closest friend Pete Everett, later to
be a Radio Three producer, sometimes smoked cannabis and I knew people who had
taken L.S.D., but it was all part of a small, rather experimental phenomenon.
Nobody I knew was, or became, an addict. It was a stylish diversion for those
by no means short of cash.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">I was at university with fifteen of my school
contemporaries. We talked openly about most things. By the time we were twenty,
only a small minority had had any significant sexual experience. I wondered
then if we were a rarity, but years later I was talking to a very attractive
vivacious woman who had been a nurse on a cruise liner in the late fifties and
early sixties. She said that not once, to her knowledge, was any female member
of the staff the subject of sexual propositioning or the offer of a ‘cruise
affair’. </span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">To think of all unmarried young people then as
celibate would be absurd, but very many had little or no sexual contact with
others and the social structure almost guaranteed that state of affairs for
most. Regular sexual activity began with marriage, or not very long before. By
the end of the sixties sex, drugs and rock n’rock had made enormous strides. We
now live in a world, in this country at least, where most young people feel
free to enjoy at will all three, and more, without inhibition of any kind.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Several powerful forces were at work until the
‘sixties, limiting the range of activity of young people in many respects. Most
lived at home; most respected their parents, accepted social standards and
obeyed the law. The great influence behind society, parents and the law was the
Church. Though many rarely went to an act of worship, most viewed the standards
and teaching of the Christian Church as a kind of gold standard, an indicator
of how a virtuous person should act. In other language, most wished to be, and
to be seen as, wholly respectable.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpyyAXYMLjv-O-nJU8dUKy8tvatQ70Ft1_4nc6RlvdPaJip9vL5KDDIn-b6hdpvO1Uq_4aDeQIKU39GSXEhGcplbA6re86FIkEIonzcc_2tOpbv-9AebzzHYDS3X495m-z1uQHUN51vlg1/s1600/Jesus_Christ_Icon_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpyyAXYMLjv-O-nJU8dUKy8tvatQ70Ft1_4nc6RlvdPaJip9vL5KDDIn-b6hdpvO1Uq_4aDeQIKU39GSXEhGcplbA6re86FIkEIonzcc_2tOpbv-9AebzzHYDS3X495m-z1uQHUN51vlg1/s1600/Jesus_Christ_Icon_001.jpg" /></a><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The origin of the Church’s teaching was the life
and the sayings of Jesus Christ. His own celibate life was mirrored in the life
and teaching of St Paul, who, like his Master, allowed marriage only as a
concession to weakness in a faith inseparable from a vision of the approaching
end-time. More than this, the New Testament appears to treat pleasure and
personal gratification as profoundly undesirable things, largely to be rejected
as sources of temptation and the substance of sin. This characteristic, indeed,
separates early Christianity from Judaism, which sees all good things enjoyed
in a context compatible with the Law as gifts from God.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">It is apparent that much of British society no
longer holds the classic teaching of the Church as binding or even wise or
helpful. Theism is itself diminishing and the idea of an authority external to
self is widely rejected. Indeed, close to the heart of the later
twentieth-century social and ethical revolution is the notion that one’s mind
and body belong entirely to oneself, with no other being having claims upon
them.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">What characterises this era of sex, drugs and
rock n’roll, therefore, is the idea that all sources of pleasure are to be seen
simply as recreational tools, there to be taken without inhibition or any sense
of guilt as the fortunate source of, in principle, limitless personal
gratification. We are, therefore, talking here about hedonism, the placing of
personal pleasure above all other considerations.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The problem with such a world-view is, however,
that quite different forces are also at work in human life. There is a great
need for predictability, loyalty and stability. Many people feel powerful
allegiances to others, whether as friends or partners. Children are born and
require care and nurture. The elderly and dependent do not just look after
themselves. Many people find themselves performing selfless acts without even
thinking.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Thus the underlying issue in all matters of
personal moral choice is that of the relationship between self and others. The
enduring Christian argument must be, that all forms of true hedonism are
inherently anti-social because radical considerations of self inevitably drive
out every appropriate concern for others.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKZ4f0c_Jd4Sw7W5xxeIGAtdpgve_IIB8g5WDDDj26buWmW8tZfUc3F1eFlfPeZaWfFynA1u55NViw7ysxsTzMjb7j6yyHsEzCor3DPTfQSILo3WL3auz8RrtSWhyELpHCmvBFb2-Qh70y/s1600/sexuality.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKZ4f0c_Jd4Sw7W5xxeIGAtdpgve_IIB8g5WDDDj26buWmW8tZfUc3F1eFlfPeZaWfFynA1u55NViw7ysxsTzMjb7j6yyHsEzCor3DPTfQSILo3WL3auz8RrtSWhyELpHCmvBFb2-Qh70y/s320/sexuality.jpg" width="318" /></a></div>
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">It seems, therefore, that a Christian view of
human motivation and behaviour accounts for much more of human experience, need
and expectation than many today would like to admit. Does that mean that the
‘old’ inherited Christian attitude was wholly correct?</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">We encounter today many outworkings of the
social and moral revolution. All around us are people taking drugs for
recreational purposes. Dancing, music film and theatre can be erotic or deal
explicitly with sexual themes, People have sexual encounters and live together
without marrying. Divorce is very common. Gay relationships are widely accepted
as part of society and formally recognised. It goes without saying that most of
us will have family members whose lives are part of this new world. </span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">It is almost certainly the case that we will
have been disturbed by the behaviour of someone close to us, but equally
probable that we will not have openly condemned or rejected them. The Christian
face has become more one of understanding and compassion than revulsion and
condemnation. Yet we still desperately lack an adequate contemporary rationale
of moral assessment.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nGyjNU6P6XbEQ0GNr6QcAhHY5Kf5vuvdaMdcyrBJIdNUsvoUGBwN4Jii7SzSz22NOqIJ4styRT8IZBErytPMkO5FOwy1EhvtW-jwYlLr5ml43wXOsKlxherShZminVeUDxBx03ePtYbH/s1600/no_swimming_flag1077.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nGyjNU6P6XbEQ0GNr6QcAhHY5Kf5vuvdaMdcyrBJIdNUsvoUGBwN4Jii7SzSz22NOqIJ4styRT8IZBErytPMkO5FOwy1EhvtW-jwYlLr5ml43wXOsKlxherShZminVeUDxBx03ePtYbH/s320/no_swimming_flag1077.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The New Testament marks highly dangerous
territory with a big red flag. At the same time it emphasises our obligations
towards God and neighbour. There is, though, no corresponding word about human
life as inevitably somewhat exploratory or as a legitimate source of pleasure;
no sufficient word about what could form part of good working human
relationships. If we compare the Christian faith with, say, Hinduism, it is
utterly lacking in any positive account of human sexuality. It seems that we
must be engaged in a work still in progress. With our own minds let us play a
constructive part in that work.</span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Fr Alan </span></span></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-89723167939770488702017-03-20T19:40:00.001+00:002017-03-20T19:40:03.696+00:00Confession<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">We are now embarking upon the third week of Lent. During
this season of preparation for the celebrations of Easter, we have the opportunity as individuals and as a
community to grow closer to God. To become more aware of our
relationship with Him and his active presence in our lives. Lent is an opportunity, a time of prayer, fasting, charity and repentance.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpVM__U_p4P2dmztnk3os1BbwnJYZHyQxRGXynl9wvMG-24Nxd46Fjc9ZBqgyJbgKqBuac87vLENcYUmLP6z8HFE_lAhl8vOJ4Vaal4rKqxffBCyctQUhYppg7vIu43TZ9RIsa1CRtWLB_/s1600/Sacrament_of_Penance_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpVM__U_p4P2dmztnk3os1BbwnJYZHyQxRGXynl9wvMG-24Nxd46Fjc9ZBqgyJbgKqBuac87vLENcYUmLP6z8HFE_lAhl8vOJ4Vaal4rKqxffBCyctQUhYppg7vIu43TZ9RIsa1CRtWLB_/s400/Sacrament_of_Penance_001.jpg" width="177" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">But what exactly is repentance? It can have quite a broad meaning. A feeling of deep regret and sorrow for the things we have done wrong, it may also include a resolve not to continue in that wrongdoing. The Greek word for repentance is <i>'metanoia' </i>which translates as conversion of life, a change of heart and a turning around to face God. A spiritual as well as moral conversion.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As well as apologising to God for our sins, we can also ask for his forgiveness and to be reconciled back to Him. The Sacrament of Confession contains all of these elements. </span><span style="font-size: large;">In the Anglican church the attitude to Confession is that 'all may, some should, none must'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">With this in mind, Fr Leonard will be available to hear Confessions on Fridays 31st March and 5th April, between 9am and 10am in St Aidan's Chapel. If this time is not suitable, please leave your details with the Church Office and alternative arrangements will be made.</span><br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-36303277379308033272017-03-20T13:43:00.000+00:002017-03-20T19:42:29.541+00:00Book Group - What we have we hold<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: large;">In the first two chapters we reflected on the false values which Mammon offers us and hopefully, with the examples given to us by Christ, we can grow to replace them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: large;">The third chapt<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">e</span>r examines an underlying attitude towards money that is encourage<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">d by <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mammon</span></span>. The scarcity of a resource, in this case money, compels us to hold tightly to what we have. What we have we hold - what we hold we control. Jesus challe<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">nges us to replace this lie with the truth of God - which is about extravagance and abundance<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">!</span></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigDo2cOlMOswikA9Dxv03VHadZjcvGP63ducZ0s1yFffSKUED-WBuGYcYZ7YwodVo_KgrtG-anzKF7t-hiMUgRAyAUarvrE-hVDGsRX0p27NOoX2yUQoR3lqwWGjn1PWXC_aWJ7w3OgmoW/s1600/nard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #666666;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigDo2cOlMOswikA9Dxv03VHadZjcvGP63ducZ0s1yFffSKUED-WBuGYcYZ7YwodVo_KgrtG-anzKF7t-hiMUgRAyAUarvrE-hVDGsRX0p27NOoX2yUQoR3lqwWGjn1PWXC_aWJ7w3OgmoW/s1600/nard.jpg" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Archbishop uses the example of <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">M</span>ary washing Christ<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">'s feet with the expensive Nard. (Worth £25,000 in toda<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">y's money). many in the <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Book Group initially s<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hared the response of Jud<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a</span>s - how c<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ould something of such value <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">be used to wash feet,</span> when <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">it could have been used to feed the poor and hungry? Jud<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a</span>s was vocalising the inner thoughts of many.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We are reminded that this was an act of love, worship and devotion to Christ.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>'You will always have the poor </i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>among you, but you <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">will</span> not always have me'</i> <span style="font-size: small;">(John 12:8)</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;">Jesus shows us that <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the action of Mary</span> is in accord with what will soon happen <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">on the cross and beyond, something that will have cosmic significance. Such an act of worship puts God at the centre and in its effect obliterates the deceptions of Mammon.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jud<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">sees in material terms, cash values, scarcity and fear. <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">M</span>ary represents the economy of <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">God, <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of 'man<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">na'<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, generosity and abundance. In the world that God has created there is enough to go around.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span> </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-69477373082765605852017-03-14T16:14:00.003+00:002017-03-14T16:16:07.739+00:00Book Group - Week Three<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>What We Have We Hold</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_L2bzelQjuOxvuJWIMuP-DDRDiMySOYd9t9QA_34nXpoA7bKWHxiDEs8eX34tf1_qD2sIAAXeuDrh8ND8tMIVGGztIt5D7NlPOu9w2mIFPaqZfgSvykuG7zuZr2voUajdGKQ7EoO4GiT3/s1600/abacus.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The
Book Group meets again in the Chapel at St Chad's after the Wednesday
10.30am Eucharist. We will discussing Chapter three of the lent book. For
details of the book click <a href="http://stchadschurchshrewsbury.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-book-group.html" target="_blank">here.</a></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaqvA4HoV0RIRmMcOZZlG39KjWk9Z1iqJsNqb6rBLoU9_LD4oY5ajO7octxq8YT_BexsEgMml9v-EK074GdzUDW0SDSyFh-M_DVKUR-s25WKGxBkPv05LmUCD2jffyspxoAr5BqfHcn4v/s1600/Pearl_of_Great_Price_-_Domenico_Fetti_014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaqvA4HoV0RIRmMcOZZlG39KjWk9Z1iqJsNqb6rBLoU9_LD4oY5ajO7octxq8YT_BexsEgMml9v-EK074GdzUDW0SDSyFh-M_DVKUR-s25WKGxBkPv05LmUCD2jffyspxoAr5BqfHcn4v/s400/Pearl_of_Great_Price_-_Domenico_Fetti_014.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Wealth can sometimes be a difficult subject to talk about. This is especially so when the discussion involves other people questioning who <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">our</span> wealth really belongs to. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In this chapter we are challenged to look at what we have. Do we really own it for ourselves? Can we dispose of our wealth as we choose? What does it mean to allow God into the picture and how would this change the deceiving effects of Mammon?</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The pearl merchant had to lose all that he already had in order to
acquire the pearl. Holding on to what he had would have prevented him
from acquiring what was infinitely better.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some questions to think about:</span></span></span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">What is your most valuable possession?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Are there any circumstances under which you can imagine giving it away?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">On what things might God be calling you to loosen your grip?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">How might we overcome a tendency to hold on?</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This will hopefully be a valuable discussion. <span style="color: purple;">If you can't make it to the group and you are reading the book at home, please feel free to add a comment on this blog.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-24023659584241895842017-03-14T15:38:00.000+00:002017-03-14T15:40:08.948+00:00Study group - Week Three<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<h2 class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Not Short
Of A Pound</span></span></h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyOYqDgAjq7hWKcvwBQuA6Cc6PAppfizaICIaawKhb0cH-16cE5lzeGoNQl3Boxvr8rPX9ZrK28CNwwl6DeUZ_Z_IZ7H4ulBr7AaOwvCfwBsOTu9-m7hpBShjuLE1_Al3gAT1no1RgsX5u/s1600/oldancoats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyOYqDgAjq7hWKcvwBQuA6Cc6PAppfizaICIaawKhb0cH-16cE5lzeGoNQl3Boxvr8rPX9ZrK28CNwwl6DeUZ_Z_IZ7H4ulBr7AaOwvCfwBsOTu9-m7hpBShjuLE1_Al3gAT1no1RgsX5u/s320/oldancoats.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">My
maternal grandmother, born in 1882, grew up by the River Medlock in Ancoats,
Manchester, one of the city’s earliest industrial areas. Local housing
consisted almost entirely of small terraced properties. People worked very hard
for long hours and were paid low wages. Employment was precarious in this
polluted district and ‘getting the sack’ was something everyone feared. As a
child Grandma only ever had the simplest of Christmas presents; an apple and an
orange in one of her ordinary stockings. Even in later life, when her
circumstances were generously secure, she never expected nor sought any kind of
luxury.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">We now no
longer live in that world. In the West everybody aspires to an income which
allows the purchase of luxury items and a freedom of choice through spending
power which their forebears would have associated with the upper classes,
really quite small groups of the wealthy, elite and fortunate.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin-DWYLdHICVkz73pTZA7g-184AIS1bgWeBdPmCFzI3CubU_YZqbOueoENhKoeumn-e4MpIxqhhKxpmjUVemTIFmMWkptmwxLV5IbI1HSOOFlAXHVdKexX2foNLGxNWU7nGeZo_6GfJqlv/s1600/graph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin-DWYLdHICVkz73pTZA7g-184AIS1bgWeBdPmCFzI3CubU_YZqbOueoENhKoeumn-e4MpIxqhhKxpmjUVemTIFmMWkptmwxLV5IbI1HSOOFlAXHVdKexX2foNLGxNWU7nGeZo_6GfJqlv/s1600/graph.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">With these
changes we have developed a consumer economy, one that plans for a great deal
of retail purchasing activity and encourages the provision of goods and
services to meet such an extensive public demand. We live in a world extremely
well supplied with cars, white goods, clothes, electronic equipment and games,
sports kit and an ever-expanding range of children’s toys. For all this, much
money is required and where money is lacking, credit serves instead. Indeed
this nation is notorious for its levels of borrowing. If once we were a nation
of shopkeepers, we are now a nation of customers and credit-card owners.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Meeting
this demand, and, indeed, constantly creating this demand, is a wide range of
designers and manufacturers. The really powerful bodies these days, it seems,
are not governments or public authorities, but corporations and billionaire
business people. It appears that money rules everywhere we look.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-nP3VoZEZj4NZ3KCaWfP2f48JCX8w7bqJZHAf2nmP_mhg-TZ1DkfvknyDD55_mgXFDulVGN7sapVr-ev7gqZyQf1pyeVm2AVkE-d_pGZplgV0wm6O8NZ7xJevYE2-ea9egnS9LQaEl5kN/s1600/archbishop-of-canterbury-justin-welby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-nP3VoZEZj4NZ3KCaWfP2f48JCX8w7bqJZHAf2nmP_mhg-TZ1DkfvknyDD55_mgXFDulVGN7sapVr-ev7gqZyQf1pyeVm2AVkE-d_pGZplgV0wm6O8NZ7xJevYE2-ea9egnS9LQaEl5kN/s320/archbishop-of-canterbury-justin-welby.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">It is
against this background that the Archbishop of Canterbury has written his
recent book, Dethroning Mammon. He argues very successfully that the process of
acquisition and ownership, the business of manufacturing items to sell and
advertising to accelerate their sales has filled our culture and led to the
marginalisation of moral and genuinely creative concerns; most significantly,
it has eclipsed the spiritual. Without realising, we have become worshippers of
Mammon, mere slaves of objects; worldliness and greed reign everywhere around
us. As we rush to buy, God is left outside the store.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">There are
individual Christian people who have not been drawn into this new world of
wealth, but they are not the norm. Those who enter a religious order or
volunteer for long periods of service caring for the world’s poor do not
predominate. Most of us fit only too naturally into the comforts of the First
World. How far does this put us from the vision of the Kingdom of God revealed
in Holy Scripture?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Jesus of
Nazareth owned nothing but what he stood up in and even that was taken from him
without resistance. He expected his followers to abandon everything - and
everybody - to be with him in his public work. Even natural and good affection
was to count for nothing beside loyalty to God’s work. The background to this
hard standard was his teaching that time was very short. The end would come
soon, with the fulfilment of all things consequent upon his return in glory.
For this short and intense period, all secondary things, all ordinary
considerations, must yield absolutely to personal loyalty to himself as the
incarnation of God’s will.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Many
followed obediently and Acts describes the foundation of a form of communalism amongst Christians
which ruled out personal ownership and secular aspiration. St.Paul appears to have
come across this phenomenon in at least some of his churches and he begins by
concurring with this ‘mind of urgency and single concern’. He recommends
celibacy and utter commitment as the ideal, himself rejecting marriage and
family bonds.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">His later letters,
however, are less clear on this subject and by the end of the first century
Christians, whilst still revering the early single-minded ideal, were making
provision for family life and faith together, were not normally living
communally and were beginning to be more open about the use of the resources
they had. The Second Coming had not occurred and daily life had be lived on
sustainable and consistent principles which took into full account the whole
range of developing Christian moral perceptions.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">It became
accepted that resources could be privately owned by a Christian, but that with
ownership must come a deep duty of care towards others. The question turned
from that of divesting oneself of property to making responsible decisions
about how a significant part of it could be used for others in need. Whilst
devout family life and personal ownership were certainly growing, there also
came a move to the desert and a new asceticism; a discipline which lived and
celebrated simplicity and single-purpose.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFasAAfhyphenhypheneHiCUKMScuUUHBvGTIABUIZUPALBIT3iUnjrX1HzrzmwN0Vi0-iP7FqprtjFsXxsBZEnyCvM16iSJAebm-xEUxYIm-kTxD8amMUq8R7lWicPb3UaNNxFGG_edDDVo93yRU4cz/s1600/amish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFasAAfhyphenhypheneHiCUKMScuUUHBvGTIABUIZUPALBIT3iUnjrX1HzrzmwN0Vi0-iP7FqprtjFsXxsBZEnyCvM16iSJAebm-xEUxYIm-kTxD8amMUq8R7lWicPb3UaNNxFGG_edDDVo93yRU4cz/s1600/amish.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">So a
‘harder’ and an ‘easier’ form of Christian living developed and these persisted
through the Middle Ages in parallel. The Reformation brought a new and
considerable range of responses to the question of money and possessions. One
result was the founding of lay communities in the United States like the Amish,
who re-established something of the original lay communalism. In the United
States also, a movement has developed which links worldly success very closely
with God’s favour. The relationship between possessions and faith seems to have
the character of a shifting kaleidoscope image, where the same components spin
and turn into new configurations.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Where,
then, ought we to stand? There can be no doubt that the general observations of
Archbishop Welby are correct. We have bowed down to Mammon far too often. Yet
it is not evident that we should abandon the modern achievements in health and
welfare, for instance, which are difficult to detach from the economic activity
of ‘developed’ countries. At the same time, the policies of these same
countries may well be a factor in diminishing the well-being of other peoples.
Are we at all able to make meaningful moral choices here?Would we be better off
without electronics or sophisticated transport? What would the world’s now
enormous population do if it did not work, produce and consume? Could we and
should we try to influence the economy of the world or our country politically?
What happens if we withdraw form exercising such influence, even in our vote?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">What is
certain is that we are called to love God and love our neighbour. Whatever
resources we have should be used generously for these priorities. As to the
larger picture, intention and outcome are often quite remote from each other.
Could there ever be a Christian economic policy? What would a fully Christian
view of money, possessions and power look like? Perhaps those in the group who
know more about economics might be able to help us? Or should we ask those who
have little?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="Body" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">Fr. Alan</span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-19081157096628728962017-03-11T12:14:00.000+00:002017-03-11T12:14:30.173+00:00Book Group - What We Measure We Value<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In this chapter we are asked to pay attention to what we consider to be valuable and how this may be tied to those things we can see and measure,
particularly in financial terms.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdbRfjkfAsBXaEs6A3uf3m7xjcmR8cjBT5LkB4jIhUioQUzIyniHjvskc6a6RAOm2H0juA6NERHXiGQvMN0eFyHiQ2MyCit5WXxkHGbq2gFVTQ6_RXkPFl5TBUBGf57ZimSluT5mdaSDy0/s1600/golden-coins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdbRfjkfAsBXaEs6A3uf3m7xjcmR8cjBT5LkB4jIhUioQUzIyniHjvskc6a6RAOm2H0juA6NERHXiGQvMN0eFyHiQ2MyCit5WXxkHGbq2gFVTQ6_RXkPFl5TBUBGf57ZimSluT5mdaSDy0/s400/golden-coins.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">We have just received the budget for the
coming year, and can see how the value of the country is judged by it's GDP (Gross Domestic Product),
our financial prospects and how each of
us contributes directly to the economy of this country. All this can be measured, but what value do we put to things we
can’t measure? Those who give voluntary service are estimated to save the
country billions each year, but are not valued on any measurable scale. The Archbishop
states the ignoring of the non-remunerated or voluntary sector has enormous and
disastrous consequences, in the devaluing of individuals, breakdown of
communities and on love and creative lives. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The problem with materialism.....this prioritising of
the tangible and measurable is not that it exists, but that it dominates and
controls. It shouts so loudly that it overrides other things of greater value. This
is deeply embedded in all life.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What examples come to mind where the noise of mammon
drowns out the things that really matter?
E.g. relationships, community, perhaps also in the church. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Looking at your life, what things give you most joy and happiness, and
which are tangible and which are immeasurable?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Justin challenges us to take seriously the power
mammon has over our lives, and our responsibility of making god’s dream of a
transformed world just a little more possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Some personal observations.......what kind of country
do we want to present to the world........what do I want to be remembered
for.............what are the most important things in my life..........how do I respond to outsiders who seem to endanger what I value..........refugees, a
burden or opportunity? Nationalism or internationalism? How can we as the
church place more value on immeasurable things?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">How do we begin this task?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What might god be calling me to value more?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What might god be calling me to value less?</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Rev Chris</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-85648133449594323482017-03-07T21:55:00.002+00:002017-03-07T21:55:41.711+00:00Study Group - Week Two<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 1.28571em; max-width: 752px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Me And You</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQDdQ7UQGwqMuGFWkqb2SPUasOqOLFUq5T9KiQgsBphAHJ9AhaH0gaB73BzXTQS_CaU5XJY9_orrru_G4S30KxJNXRTuXVKjpOWj-ErMM5J9bXzSL3LlxwuxbKmKgqaGFvwwTjNm_bGFA2/s1600/mememe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQDdQ7UQGwqMuGFWkqb2SPUasOqOLFUq5T9KiQgsBphAHJ9AhaH0gaB73BzXTQS_CaU5XJY9_orrru_G4S30KxJNXRTuXVKjpOWj-ErMM5J9bXzSL3LlxwuxbKmKgqaGFvwwTjNm_bGFA2/s320/mememe.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The first impression you will have had of this session is that its title is unfortunate. How many times were you corrected by adults and teachers when young for putting yourself first? We begin this way today because the discourteous reversed order of the title represents the truth about much human behaviour; we do very often put ourselves first.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Whilst society and schools were still suffused with Christian spiritual and moral teaching, even those not convinced by Christian standards were obliged to accept their general authority and would break this code certain that they would meet much opposition. Sunday School teachers instilled the principle of JOY: Jesus, Others, Yourself. Few dared argue.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In a society now quite distant from the mind of the New Testament, no such constraint operates. Asking secondary school students questions about the desirability of selfless behaviour, I have often had the reply, ‘Why should I. What’s in it for me?’. It would appear that for many, personal advantage reigns as the supreme good.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1JH5_zxB0ecWWGlg3RpkJdknFi5-h_pzuGFF86dXrp1xle71bVRB8kDu0aucV4KSjL2G0r87aA92rLMJ5j96u3jzISKniu_yL04E5zqb11JB1a7rWcqB9bQm8LL5-84_KwnXUiqgIYjYC/s1600/speedo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1JH5_zxB0ecWWGlg3RpkJdknFi5-h_pzuGFF86dXrp1xle71bVRB8kDu0aucV4KSjL2G0r87aA92rLMJ5j96u3jzISKniu_yL04E5zqb11JB1a7rWcqB9bQm8LL5-84_KwnXUiqgIYjYC/s200/speedo.jpg" width="193" /></a><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I drive into Shrewsbury along the A5. The single-carriageway section is limited to 60 mph. The last time I came in before this morning I was overtaken at a dangerous point by a car travelling at no less than 80 mph. Was the driver a doctor on the way to an accident? Almost certainly it was a selfish and thoughtless individual whose trivial desire to go fast was very likely to cause such an an accident. Taken in its true, full, social context, such behaviour is deeply dangerous to others and therefore unambiguously immoral. Not many speeding drivers see a problem in what they are doing, except in the matter of avoiding apprehension. They are, nevertheless, by any serious standard, immoral in their actions.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcpogzeQUFu3cfr5D36MoR31iUykJJ1r50-iV9_Yt8Wkwd7TRa44gVtXGUtrPm0vyW3CUYl7MzR7oAnrxitezewn1JyY-Y0adVI7EQQLD-g7UlRNW1-MouveloabPaaScPBG_UDgm_vUUM/s1600/Old-Couple-Walking-Silhouette.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcpogzeQUFu3cfr5D36MoR31iUykJJ1r50-iV9_Yt8Wkwd7TRa44gVtXGUtrPm0vyW3CUYl7MzR7oAnrxitezewn1JyY-Y0adVI7EQQLD-g7UlRNW1-MouveloabPaaScPBG_UDgm_vUUM/s200/Old-Couple-Walking-Silhouette.png" width="182" /></a><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To move to a more sensitive and disputed issue, we might compare the number of elderly people consigned against their true wishes to residential care where two or three generations ago relatives would automatically have looked after them at home. Now many younger relatives insist on ‘having their own lives’. Being legitimately and respectably selfish is also quite a strong modern theme.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A well-known television advertisement from a firm operating here in this county showed a mother seated in a car outside a school eating her child’s lunch because she simply felt like doing so. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In all these cases we are distant from the standards the Gospel and we can multiply examples of similar behaviour only too easily.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I imagine that we have all felt anger, frustration and despair in the face of this new fashionable immorality. Sometimes we persist in fury; sometimes we wonder if we should ‘move with the times’ and not be so observant, rigid or judgemental. Are we just hopelessly out of date and out of touch with where human life now is?</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6zvH0T9XoEoWE23NSCyY990lnJIlJ4M6jatxj-39gtVrRAnp1iZ5GVSxYNINHE8sZYSIE9zGzPNvncV9UF4jslRVMrQMth5Qn8C_IlkbDpNUFbptwBds53Drj8HPaFA38rAtgbPhxbrA/s1600/cross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6zvH0T9XoEoWE23NSCyY990lnJIlJ4M6jatxj-39gtVrRAnp1iZ5GVSxYNINHE8sZYSIE9zGzPNvncV9UF4jslRVMrQMth5Qn8C_IlkbDpNUFbptwBds53Drj8HPaFA38rAtgbPhxbrA/s400/cross.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yet the unease will not go away quite so simply. In our innermost selves we know that the life of Our Lord was directed towards the fulfilling the will of his Father and ours. He was always ‘The Man For Others’ He was the agent and spokesman for the Kingdom of God, whose standards are those of transcendent virtue, not practical compromise nor easy capitulation. He paid for all this with his blood, at the hands of people who, by comparison, had decidedly low standards.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Where, then, might we begin to find our way in this new world where many seem to think life consists simply of everyone looking after themselves?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One way of describing the world of self-care is to call it natural. Indeed, it is natural. When a baby cries because it is hungry it is making a bid for survival. When a tribe in a remote part of the world drives a neighbouring tribe away with weapons from its crops or pasture it is simply securing the survival of its own people. Human beings have within them a powerful and only partly-conscious drive towards survival; much of what they are naturally moved to do throughout their lives is connected with survival. To be sure of success, we naturally read survival not just as sufficiency, but as supremacy. There is a great urge to win, which shows in a controlled way in sport and in a barbaric way in spitefulness, exclusion, theft or brawling.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">From the point of view of nature alone, such a pattern of behaviour is not remarkable, nor is it entirely reprehensible. Without an element of such drive all of us would be dead from starvation just hours after birth. What Christians would say, is that such an urge, especially in its uncreative excess, is not the summit of human life, but the power of destruction. It undermines and paralyses the best intentions of God in creation. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is something much better in store for us, which we call selflessness, service, care and love. This Divine Way goes beyond the natural and takes us quite simply into the realm of the supernatural - above nature and into the world of grace. Nature, or a modicum of it, is absolutely necessary, but it can never be an ideal or an end.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is, however, rare just to stumble into the world of grace by accident. Given by God himself to human beings, women and men touched by his gracious standard not only live by it but hand it on to family, friends, neighbours and fellow workers - often unconsciously.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">God is at work extending his Kingdom by all good means, but the power of nature’s independence is great and often temporarily overwhelms his gracious influence. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This conflict has been described as a battle with the devil or a struggle between good and evil. Words are less significant than reality; whether we think in terms of this language or not, we nevertheless observe the existence of child abuse, ISIL murders, industries steadily destroying the very fabric of the world and good people passed over in employment as the result of carefully-implanted lies by those who wish to be promoted. Effective evil arises from nature without bounds and the only answer to evil is the continuous grace of God.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It seems to me that we are especially called in today’s world, a world in many ways similar to that which conservatives during the English Civil War called ‘These Troublous Times’, to live by the Gospel, not by the world. It will cost us dearly.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOPhpaYGw42NrkQyP0Vm_keL-KCOXfj1tekCtoCaXet9UAD_9gNv5HBve1gLv6vt_q7f1vvLzd9Ev3s83YCZaccSS1fv_uAe6NuPmHLhxc_TJDzXztDW1iyK2blKEMy4T0MzEgSWG4BjWB/s1600/337px-St_Paul_009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOPhpaYGw42NrkQyP0Vm_keL-KCOXfj1tekCtoCaXet9UAD_9gNv5HBve1gLv6vt_q7f1vvLzd9Ev3s83YCZaccSS1fv_uAe6NuPmHLhxc_TJDzXztDW1iyK2blKEMy4T0MzEgSWG4BjWB/s320/337px-St_Paul_009.jpg" width="179" /></a><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If anyone is inclined to doubt the analysis above, then it is worth reading verses 42 to 58 of the First Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians. Ordered by Cranmer to be read at every funeral service, it tells us just as much about life as it does about death and resurrection. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let us not grow weary and let us never fall into censoriousness and condemnation rather than be bearers of God’s grace!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Fr Alan</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-65286800039919727802017-03-07T20:08:00.005+00:002017-03-07T20:12:19.558+00:00Book Group - Week Two<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>What We Measure Controls Us</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Book Group meets again in the Chapel at St Chad's after the Wednesday 10.30am Eucharist. We will discussing Chapter two of the lent book. For details of the book click <a href="http://stchadschurchshrewsbury.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-book-group.html" target="_blank">here.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The things that we consider to be valuable are often the things we can measure. If something is not measurable we may dismiss it, when in fact it could be valuable beyond all measure. It is easy to measure household budgets, our time, salary or the things that we own. It is far harder to measure the state of our relationships, the happiness of our children or the condition of a marriage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This will hopefully be a valuable discussion. <span style="color: purple;">If you can't make it to the group and you are reading the book at home, please feel free to add a comment on this blog.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: large;">To watch a video introducing the second chapter of the book on the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DL9hzjiMXU&index=3&list=PLNRZczY-7_UPHkTeCgNy8IVjPHkIwGOJM" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">Lichfield Anglican Website</a>.</span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-21531887746682886942017-03-02T23:01:00.002+00:002017-03-02T23:03:19.365+00:00Study Group - Once A Week<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNr11zpXZCchnl2IJjsXFBP6nIexxpH2Sbj7fdBJTm4symImpS0DvJPmEPmHTscqby_jxhbGEu3uy9kgmpP1kH_j6Lh69ibP_NucRNuYf_6kTJjpbxqbHzXHhCAoEZuiy2gTVHzXasXf9m/s1600/Angelsatmamre-trinity-rublev-1410.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNr11zpXZCchnl2IJjsXFBP6nIexxpH2Sbj7fdBJTm4symImpS0DvJPmEPmHTscqby_jxhbGEu3uy9kgmpP1kH_j6Lh69ibP_NucRNuYf_6kTJjpbxqbHzXHhCAoEZuiy2gTVHzXasXf9m/s320/Angelsatmamre-trinity-rublev-1410.jpg" width="257" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">We met together in the Vestry at St Alkmund's after the morning Eucharist. Fr Alan started the discussion by introducing the topic of Prayer. (Please see <a href="http://stchadschurchshrewsbury.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/study-group-week-one.html" target="_blank">here</a> for details). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I have listed here some of the points raised to give a flavour of the session:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">What difference does prayer make?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Why do we ask for anything other than just guidance for our lives.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Should we pray expectantly? Just once or keep asking?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Praying for those who are suffering. We are not trying to convince God to be concerned, we are perhaps aligning ourselves with their suffering and to identify ourselves with the purposes of God. On the side of the goodness of God.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Beware of Theurgy, attempting through the prayer to change the actions of God. Wearing God down with the number or volume of our prayer.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">In prayer, God is there for me - and I am there for God.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Book of Common Prayer. It would be a good thing to look at the words, what they mean. They are full of rich meaning and are always Trinitarian in nature.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The Lords Prayer and Creeds can be useful tools to prayer. Their meaning and importance to our spiritual lives can often change over time as we age and experience new perspectives on life.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Intention and feeling are important in prayer.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Familiarity with a text can help people overcome embarrassment when praying in public, especially in small groups.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">When we pray to God we are addressing the creator and redeemer of all that there is. It can appear like madness to present our frailty to the very heart of God.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Prayer can be an essential part of working out a solution.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Prayer can sometimes be an acknowledgement of our failures and sins; an easing of the burden on our lives.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Except the mystery of faith, be open to the guidance of God. It is never wrong to ask a question.</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For something that appears to be straightforward at first, there are a huge range of materials and techniques available to help us draw closer to God in prayer. People are all different and it is perhaps important to remember to "Pray as we can - and not as we can't". Finding something that we feel comfortable with now, but being open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which will help to keep our prayer fresh and alive to God.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-9180042506655182232017-03-02T21:58:00.003+00:002017-03-02T22:01:45.805+00:00Book Group - What We See We Value.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTz8dmCimavWg2XArTNF7TKPC4PyF6T7mhxvD8cdAqZGqKN0xoBMtGbBLxBLTKeJ0a14kFZDNw_YQM-2S9oF2vueoPbwvGUrPejiI05VPQozUxHIKn6z8j2FKzXWkwylXe9ZfgH5YvCmXU/s1600/Giotto_-_Scrovegni_-_-25-_-_Raising_of_Lazarus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTz8dmCimavWg2XArTNF7TKPC4PyF6T7mhxvD8cdAqZGqKN0xoBMtGbBLxBLTKeJ0a14kFZDNw_YQM-2S9oF2vueoPbwvGUrPejiI05VPQozUxHIKn6z8j2FKzXWkwylXe9ZfgH5YvCmXU/s320/Giotto_-_Scrovegni_-_-25-_-_Raising_of_Lazarus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The book group met in the Chapel at St Chad's. The discussion ranged far and wide; I have listed here a few of the main points that were raised:</span></div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Money has power and it often has power over us.</span></li>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mammon is more than just money. It also has power over people, nations, companies and appears to influence the electronic age considerably.</span></li>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Governor of the Bank of England has been pictured reading Archbishop Justin's book whilst commuting on the tube. </span></li>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">What we see we value. This can be both positive and negative.</span></li>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Raising of Lazarus - Is this a story that turns the reader off, is it too unbelievable to be taken seriously?</span></li>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">If we value something we can't obtain, then we devalue ourselves.</span></li>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">See with different eyes. Learn to look through the eye's of Jesus, beyond the visible, beyond just things.</span></li>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Children live in a world of attainment and the pressure to be something more.</span></li>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">People are almost addicted to retail, it is often seen as a quick fix to life's problems. It's like a drug. Consumerism has huge power over our live's.</span></li>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It's important not to make money equal to God.</span></li>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Have we lost our moral compass? What kind of society do we want to be?</span></li>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Love of money. What is mine, is mine!</span></li>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">We value what is visible and what is confident.</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Towards the end of the session, our focus turned from the wider effects of Mammon on society and we considered the effects of God's over generosity on our live's as individuals. One or two told stories where God's glory and grace had touched their hearts in ways that brought hope and joy. Where gifts of money had arrived unexpectedly to solve financial problems to the penny! Another spoke of a bleak situation in prison, where the sight of a Golden Oriole perched high in a tree top, had spoken of God's creative love in ways that sustained and healed beyond all imagination. </span></div>
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Even in the darkest places of our lives, God's glory can fill our hearts.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-66369651246069908882017-02-28T21:00:00.000+00:002017-02-28T21:00:59.011+00:00Ash Wednesday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUfXJ-KHn_N-fLsgvHKJNnCqTKwt7ufDFD9PQakczLet8zCmFuPgWtEkZMRma07iVC9kOZr43JsDHDOW4KcqnrZpCVq3nb1GsSNn2rH6xdywEVxFUo7nJIjmOpw5uE9Agc4oCKXnLrA_Jf/s1600/HolyLent.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUfXJ-KHn_N-fLsgvHKJNnCqTKwt7ufDFD9PQakczLet8zCmFuPgWtEkZMRma07iVC9kOZr43JsDHDOW4KcqnrZpCVq3nb1GsSNn2rH6xdywEVxFUo7nJIjmOpw5uE9Agc4oCKXnLrA_Jf/s400/HolyLent.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ash Wednesday opens the season of Lent. It is the starting point of a period of reflection, penitence, fasting and alms giving leading up to the celebration of Easter Sunday. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">During the Ash Wednesday service we are invited to kneel before the Alter and have the sign of the cross marked on our foreheads, with ash that has been made from last years palm crosses. As the Priest 'imposes' the ashes we are reminded of our mortality and sinful nature, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return". </span><span style="font-size: large;">It is an opportunity to acknowledge our frailty before God, to remember our reliance on him for our very existence and to pray for his forgiveness.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="xx" colspan="2" style="height: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Almighty and everlasting God,<br />you hate nothing that you have made<br />and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:<br />create and make in us new and contrite hearts<br />that we, worthily lamenting our sins<br />and acknowledging our wretchedness,<br />may receive from you, the God of all mercy,<br />perfect remission and forgiveness;<br />through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,<br />who is alive and reigns with you,<br />in the unity of the Holy Spirit,<br />one God, now and for ever.<br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Ash Wednesday services will be held at 10.30am and 7.30pm at St Chad's </span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-41208446053841757882017-02-27T19:21:00.000+00:002017-02-27T23:03:10.218+00:00Book Group - Week One<h2>
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What We See We Value</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgosy4-_m8Pa_8kXoqUgG8lNvkQ3PZsgE3xqeQj08slb3P1u5L5DhLBIr3vjSPMB5m49oCipxB18vwX5QpI9Jx9iv3aXNIIgHiL5QJ_kTBIxMisvVpcK747pSbqb5n9GPVU1YX4nQ87XPsI/s1600/eyes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgosy4-_m8Pa_8kXoqUgG8lNvkQ3PZsgE3xqeQj08slb3P1u5L5DhLBIr3vjSPMB5m49oCipxB18vwX5QpI9Jx9iv3aXNIIgHiL5QJ_kTBIxMisvVpcK747pSbqb5n9GPVU1YX4nQ87XPsI/s200/eyes.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">The Book Group meets for the first time this Wednesday, after the 10.30am Ash Wednesday Eucharist. We will be looking at the Introduction and Chapter 1, 'What We See We Value'. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Archbishop Justin states in the introduction that this chapter:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> '...deals with our inbuilt tendency to value what we see. We look at one of Jesus' most significant miracles, the account of the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11, and how it enables his sisters to see the world through God's eyes. It calls for reflection on what we look for, and how we know it when we see it. The pearl merchant was searching, and when he saw a pearl of great value he knew what it was, and what he needed to do in response. Are we able to become like him?'<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ghnNHpDMBakb9nWXSsbhfEVOvRjU2rBgchUh4A1PkBBLRH3Uf7AJR3M6KnI1IWZEEi8tbgyI4cZndnAM6o_d9XYd4XLE029uiDKHI-mrMciOW3LV6CcViBbfdUfRVHWU4iOa-M-1KRjb/s1600/value-620-320.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ghnNHpDMBakb9nWXSsbhfEVOvRjU2rBgchUh4A1PkBBLRH3Uf7AJR3M6KnI1IWZEEi8tbgyI4cZndnAM6o_d9XYd4XLE029uiDKHI-mrMciOW3LV6CcViBbfdUfRVHWU4iOa-M-1KRjb/s400/value-620-320.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">We are given a number of questions in the chapter to think about and reflect on. Some of these relate to the communities that we are a part of and others to our daily lives. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Details of the Book Group can be found <a href="http://stchadschurchshrewsbury.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-book-group.html" target="_blank">here.</a> If you can't make the group in 'reality' please join us 'virtually' by keeping an eye on the blog and sharing your thoughts below. </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-80319982548339936922017-02-25T22:24:00.004+00:002017-02-25T22:26:41.944+00:00Study Group - Week One<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Once A Week</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As we move through Lent, we shall be looking at a number of issues from a Christian point of view, questions which are difficult and therefore likely to be controversial. With such a programme ahead of us, it seems wise to begin on spiritual rather than simply moral ground, so that we can first perceive more clearly who we are and what characterises us as people of faith, before we consider choices involving attitude and behaviour where our views may well, legitimately, be somewhat diverse.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKfnCvJl6cuXdzwl2SkDJn_TWJrBTvwZpYZ1zumALmXhIO5iVPGcDYLQJx47BkC-EqvCS1qbEou3QONEmhvYFRqcMVwb863JZmF-RqIydWywda8CWduV5VKlmIF630hmDhoQAC9aZMSon/s1600/Duerer-Prayer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKfnCvJl6cuXdzwl2SkDJn_TWJrBTvwZpYZ1zumALmXhIO5iVPGcDYLQJx47BkC-EqvCS1qbEou3QONEmhvYFRqcMVwb863JZmF-RqIydWywda8CWduV5VKlmIF630hmDhoQAC9aZMSon/s400/Duerer-Prayer.jpg" width="272" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">It is no secret that many practising Muslims are puzzled or even shocked by the fact that many westerners claim to be Christian, but do not seem to pray regularly; even more surprising to them is the realisation that many who go to church quite frequently are not otherwise firmly committed to prayer, whilst they themselves are praying many times each day and keeping the seasons of their religious year. These half-active Christian people seem to acknowledge their faith and address God only once a week. What should we be saying and doing about prayer?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We can discuss in our group problems we have in maintaining regular prayer or difficulties we feel with particular kinds of prayer. We can say what works well for us or is especially precious; just for now I would like to offer a short survey, so we can think about the subject more comprehensively, and, hopefully, with some balance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The beginning of prayer is surely worship, or adoration as it often used to be called. In worship we acknowledge before God, indeed to God, our heartfelt recognition of his greatness, his otherness, his unswerving goodness and power which are never wearied or weakened by the trivial factors that so often render us ineffective. We are here bowing before the majesty of God, his holiness, his glory. The Sanctus and Benedictus in the Eucharist express this movement of the soul perfectly. It is the sentiment of the Gloria and the Te Deum and these liturgical words can often form the heart of our own private prayers of worship. Worship, in this sense, must always come first, precisely because God himself comes first.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDZzdGUQd8bSyyoWvtJioJ8__6wgH6yMgiPdujUepdMq3Zmnnfmp0yvLtYJQEoqx7NATjo4ObOqR1OJiwVgeFS30J5MnQKVo3WbySfL-JJJdIR_kEH6D7Jr0M3vIO6nvqbAtIuAaV5nkbn/s1600/candle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDZzdGUQd8bSyyoWvtJioJ8__6wgH6yMgiPdujUepdMq3Zmnnfmp0yvLtYJQEoqx7NATjo4ObOqR1OJiwVgeFS30J5MnQKVo3WbySfL-JJJdIR_kEH6D7Jr0M3vIO6nvqbAtIuAaV5nkbn/s1600/candle.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the classic perception of Isaiah, once we are aware of the majesty of God we become uncomfortably conscious of our own weaknesses and faults. There have been times in Christian history </span><span style="font-size: large;">when religious inclination has moved too far towards self-accusation and boundless guilt; now is not that time, and we need to be honest and informed about our own habitual faults and follies as well as our particularly wilful individual acts. We need to intend to follow a better way, to follow Our Lord’s example and confess what we have done wrong. We can do this in our own hearts, as long as we do not simply let ourselves off all the time. We can bring our penitence to a focus in the General Confession of most acts of worship, or we can confess before a priest and seek counsel about our future living.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSQVlAJfo7W9ZzRSEYrXxqBmriL2JCef18cChIdsy04IbXi65plnnQEaoxVl1iYwnyHBtf2dJ_XIL-bgHNd_J_OApZf0P9th66l99pDQzzmAwH2uMWqSsiBLTPAUPEfhHQWkrihmrgSfXk/s1600/Rosary01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSQVlAJfo7W9ZzRSEYrXxqBmriL2JCef18cChIdsy04IbXi65plnnQEaoxVl1iYwnyHBtf2dJ_XIL-bgHNd_J_OApZf0P9th66l99pDQzzmAwH2uMWqSsiBLTPAUPEfhHQWkrihmrgSfXk/s320/Rosary01.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">We live in times when many people are very keen on what they might acquire and what advantages they might secure for themselves, but the Christian way has always been to look rather towards the very many good things we already have in friendships, family, security and essential provisions for life. For all the good things we benefit from, we give thanks to God. It is good to do so in the moment we receive anything good, or become aware of it. We should equally give thanks for our faith, for the gift of salvation and eternal life, for the support and encouragement we receive from others in the faith.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is traditional wisdom that only when we have prayed the previous three kinds prayer should we move to intercession. It is something of a temptation to ask just that bit too freely; when we have worshipped, confessed and given thanks, it is to be hoped that our thoughts and aspirations will have been a little refined by our previous prayers. We should then be able to ask as we ought.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In this short survey we have said little about the form of our prayer. We might use prayers written by others, our own compositions as they form in our mind, the words of liturgy, or no words at all. There is a world of silent contemplation open to us and a further world of meditation before God, perhaps based on a passage from, or an incident in, Holy Scripture, or on an aspect of our own experience; or on these two strands brought together. Some of the deepest prayers, like the celebrated Jesus Prayer, are brief, profound and made strong by repetition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">At the end of this first session you will be given the opportunity to borrow a book offering a regular pattern of prayer, an office of one tradition or another. I hope there will be enough variety for everyone to take home and use for a week something attractive to them. Each week we will exchange books. If, at the end, members of the group have found a particular tradition, Celtic, Latin, Anglican, Ecumenical, or some other, helpful, then perhaps they will buy a book of that kind and continue fruitfully in that direction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We could say a great deal more, but that ‘more’ belongs to our discussion. Please come ready, in modesty, to tell your own story, ask questions, advance ideas and exchange experience. It is on the foundation of prayer that the Christian Church has always flourished. It is a great treasure for us to share. Floreat St Alkmund’s, St Chad’s and St Mary’s.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fr Alan Fell</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For further information on the Study Group click <a href="http://stchadschurchshrewsbury.blogspot.co.uk/p/thursday-discussion-group.html" target="_blank">here.</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-37319734784957487482017-02-21T14:48:00.000+00:002017-02-21T14:48:20.654+00:00Prayer Apps<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Church Of England has recently developed a number of smartphone/tablet app's that have been designed to make it far more convenient to spend time drawing closer to God in prayer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv3QEXTgLgCy_0TXIxvH3YyhuBLeNMwxMN62yc9-TO2hm6WyxsXD_YM-lKA7USXi0MCrica2G-iu2Lgch-7oFkqBxc0ghi_RkW8ew5qFfQ76p_kTjS3U6nEcAjvZYRK2S65pVX6FKMu9XY/s1600/Menas-jesus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv3QEXTgLgCy_0TXIxvH3YyhuBLeNMwxMN62yc9-TO2hm6WyxsXD_YM-lKA7USXi0MCrica2G-iu2Lgch-7oFkqBxc0ghi_RkW8ew5qFfQ76p_kTjS3U6nEcAjvZYRK2S65pVX6FKMu9XY/s320/Menas-jesus.jpg" width="320" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Liturgy, collects, readings, reflections and even biographical information on celebrated Saints, can now all be available through your smartphone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Following a set pattern of prayer and devotion that runs alongside that of your Church can be extremely valuable. You get the sense that you are praying along with the whole Body of Christ, even as you travel on the train or wait in the car on the school run.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">To take a look at what's available from Church House Publishing, click <a href="https://www.chpublishing.co.uk/apps" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123233962298472212.post-83207471863843551342017-02-17T16:33:00.000+00:002017-02-17T16:35:01.998+00:00The Opportunity of Lent<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">The season of Lent is the period from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. It is a time of preparation for the feast of Easter Day, when we celebrate Christ's resurrection from death on the cross.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> During this time of preparation, we have the opportunity as individuals and as a community to grow closer to God. To become more aware of our relationship with Him and his active presence in our lives. Remembering that he is with us always but often our lives are so busy we tend to forget. The season of Lent is both an opportunity and a challenge to focus on strengthening that relationship with God. To love Him with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind.</span><br />
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