THREE PARISHES NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2015 The Benefice Letter Dear Friends British values are under threat! They are being challenged from two quarters: the growth of ISIS and the political direction of the European Union. When I was at school in the 1950s British values were relatively simple. We had recently been on the winning side in the Second World War and a new monstrous ‘other’ had emerged – the Soviet Union. We regularly sang Hearts of Oak, composed in 1760 in celebration of naval victories in the Seven Years War. ‘We’ll fight and we’ll conquer again and again!’ This year we celebrate the anniversaries of two more victories: Waterloo (19th June, 1815) and Agincourt (25th October, 1415). On September 12th, the Albert Hall will resound to the words of the famous patriotic songs: Rule Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory (‘Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set!’) Are we unique in defining our national identity in terms of military victories? I don’t think so. The words of the French La Marseillaise are much more bloodthirsty than our National Anthem. In the United States, the current crop of potential candidates (twelve as I write) for the Republican nomination for the Presidential election of 2016 are engaged in a competition to prove how ‘American’ they are by advocating new military interventions. The most recent entry, Donald Trump, has extended the targets beyond the usual Middle Eastern states by promising to ‘defeat’ China and to build a wall along the border between the USA and Mexico (and to make the Mexicans pay for it). I wouldn’t go as far as Samuel Johnson in describing patriotism as ‘the last refuge of a scoundrel’, but I would suggest that the ‘values’ of a nation need to be broader than a celebration of, for example, thrashing the French. There are also other questions. In what way do British Values differ from those of other nations? And a deeper question: are they fundamentally any different from Human Values? Space does not allow me to provide answers here (even if I could!). However, there are two authorities worth consulting, one new the other old. On May 24th, Pope Francis issued his second Encyclical, Laudato Si - May God be praised! It should prove an embarrassment to those Republican candidates who are Catholic. You can read it at www.w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/html. The other is a sermon preached early in his ministry by a young teacher in first-century Palestine. It is reported in chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Matthew’s gospel. Happy reading! Peter Davies Parish Registers SALTFORD Baptisms 4th July Martha Amy Dorothy Bodman 5th July James Andrew Perriman Marriage 27th June Emma Caroline Harding and Mark John Page Funerals 15th June Esme Doreen Turtle 22nd June Gwendoline Parker NEWTON ST LOE Baptism 12th July Rebecca Amy Marguerite Evans Parish Roundabout Everyone is welcome at the Celebration for a New Ministry of The Revd Daile Wilshere as Rector of The Benefice of Saltford with Corston and Newton St Loe by The Right Reverend Peter Hancock Bishop of Bath and Wells and The Venerable Andy Piggott, Archdeacon of Bath in Holy Trinity Church Newton St Loe on Sunday 9th August 2015 at 6.30pm Holy Communion at Home or a Visit: If anyone is unable to get to church and would like either Holy Communion at Home or just a visit, please contact the Parish Office. Copydate for the next newsletter is 7th August at the latest. Please deliver all copy to the Parish Office. If you produce it on a computer it would be a great help if you would please email it to: [email protected] Transport: for transport to a service in the benefice, please ring the Parish Office. The Less Able: if anyone needs assistance to fully share in a church service please ring the Parish Office. Paul, Daile, Rachel & Rebecca Invite you to an Open House at the Rectory On Saturday 15th August 2015 12.00-8.00pm All are welcome to pop in, say hello, ask your questions and meet us informally over homemade cakes baked by Rebecca & Rachel. ☩ St Mary’s Saltford www.stmaryssaltford.org.uk The Parish Office, St Mary’s Church Hall, High St., Saltford, BS31 3EL Tel: 01225 872275 Email: [email protected] Churchwardens: Dave Faulkner 01225 874133 John Norris 01225 872750 Circle of Friends : There will be no meeting in August and September’s meeting will be on Thursday 10th September because there is a theatre visit on the first Thursday. Hilary Smedley 873179 Theatre Trips : THE BODYGUARD at the Bristol Hippodrome on Thursday 21st January 2016 at 2.30pm. Tickets are priced at £25.00 to be paid for, please, by 15th October 2015 Contact Olive Wilkinson on 873965 for further details Coffeeshop: this is now on Friday Mornings at the Hinton Close meeting room from 10.00am to 11.30am. Evening Praise – there is no Evening Praise Service in the month of August MEN’S CURRY NIGHT with guest speaker Simon Barnes, CEO of Send a Cow Friday 2nd October @ 7.30pm - St Mary's Church Hall ‘From milk to manure to manna! - Is permanent change in Africa achievable and worth it?’ Autumn will soon be on its way, so what could be better to warm you up than a curry with friends? There will be a selection of delicious, home cooked curries to choose from, including vegetarian. Our ‘After Curry’ speaker will be Simon Barnes, CEO of Newton St Loe based charity Send a Cow. Formed in 1988 by a group of West Country farmers, Send a Cow helps African farmers grow enough food to feed their families, sell produce and develop small businesses that last. Inspired by Christian values, Send a Cow provides training, livestock, seeds and ongoing support; helping families to make the most of the land and resources they already have. Prior to his leadership of Send a Cow, Simon served as Executive Vice President at the American Bible Society. He was also Senior Vice President and Director of Advisory Services for Geneva Global Limited, an organisation supporting individuals making life- changing philanthropic investments. An ordained Anglican priest, born in Essex, he has recently returned with his wife and family to live in the South West of England after 25 years in the US. Do come along and don’t forget to invite a friend! Tickets £5.00 available from: Robin Dixon 01225 359014 Nigel Taylor 01225 874905 Dave Faulkner 01225 874133 Ian Freemantle 0117 9090496 ☩ All Saints, Corston www.allsaintscorston.org.uk Parish Office Tel:01225 872275 Churchwardens: Jane Jones 01225 873475 Liz Acton 01225 873955 Daile’s First Service at Corston As mentioned last month, our new Rector will be licensed by the Bishop of Bath & Wells at Newton St Loe on the 9th August at 6.30pm. Members of all three parishes are welcome at this service but Daile’s first service at Corston will be on Sunday 16th August. This will be at 4.00pm and will be followed by a cream tea. The service will be a fairly informal Songs of Praise with participation by various organisations within the church and we hope Daile will give a short address. It would be good to have a full church. Please note there will be no Family Service on 16th August Bible Study. Our Bible study evenings will recommence in the autumn. Please make a note of the dates and put them in your diaries! The proposed dates are September 10th and 24th and October 8th 15th and 22nd. These are fairly informal but fascinating evenings. We would love to see more people there so a warm welcome awaits you if you feel these evenings would be of interest to you. Just contact Peter and Angela LeRoy – or just turn up! We meet at 7.30pm for light refreshments followed by Bible Study from 8.00pm to 9.00pm. “A Haunt of Ancient Peace” (Tennyson) Our parish churches are there for everyone – not, as most people assume, just for those who attend the services. In our anxieties about the latter it is easy to overlook the former. We forget that coming in to a church, for whatever reason, is an important preliminary to joining in its worship. Our churches have on offer a pearl of great price which everyone needs but we totally fail to notice it. It is peace. We live in an increasingly noisy and stressful society thanks to our propensity to misuse every good gift that comes our way. Travel is easy so our roads are fast approaching gridlock and aircraft queue at our airports polluting the atmosphere while they travel nowhere. Communication is easy so we communicate incessantly - just look at our grandchildren using social media. Those of us who worked on computers in the 1950s thought that they would bring an age of leisure. Instead they enable us to work twice as hard at any hour of the day or night. So doctors’ surgeries are full of people with stress-related problems. First of all we need to keep our churches open. It only involves locking up anything of value. Then we need to advertise the fact that they offer a haven of peace from the noisy world that is open to all (atheist or believer). We should leave material for meditation or prayer easily accessible but not force it upon anyone. Many will prefer to sit and soak themselves in the peace which passes all understanding. Understanding may come later.