Issue Number 416 June 2015 Vive La Différence
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Issue Number 416 June 2015 Vive la différence ‘There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble. A clean sweep will be made.’ This was Winston Churchill’s summary of the agreement at the Potsdam Conference in 1945 that redrew the OUR MISSION boundaries of Europe. Fourteen million German speaking civilians, A community seeking to live well with God, who had lived for centuries across Eastern Europe, were forcibly ex- gathered around Jesus Christ in prayer and fellowship, pelled from their ancestral homelands. Two million of them died dur- and committed to welcome, worship and witness. ing the westward migrations. The survivors arrived, destitute and be- The Church Office wildered, in a post-war Germany whose population did not under- Bolton Abbey, Skipton BD23 6AL stand their strange dialects and resented the extra demands they 01756 710238 made on scarce resources. These refugees – mainly old men, women, [email protected] and children – paid a high price for the barbarity of the defeated Nazi The Rector regime. The Allied victory in Europe presaged, for them, the loss of The Rectory, Bolton Abbey, Skipton BD23 6AL everything they had known. 01756 710326 [email protected] Churchill’s observation that mixed populations cause ‘endless trouble’ Website is a bleak and pessimistic analysis of the human capacity for accom- www.boltonpriory.church modating difference. Sadly it is an analysis that, in our own time, Rwandan Tutsis, Bosnian Muslims, and Iraqi Christians (among many others) would probably share: suspicion of ‘the other’ begets persecu- SUNDAY tion; expulsion or, worse, genocide follow. 0800 Holy Communion 0915 Liquid Family Worship First Sunday of month The witness of our scriptures, too, reveals something of the struggle 1030 Sung Eucharist between those who are willing to embrace difference and those who resist it: the Jewish widow Naomi and her Moabite daughter-in-law 1830 Evening Prayer (said) Summer months Ruth chose to define themselves, not by their racial difference but by 1630 Evening Prayer (said) Winter months a love and loyalty forged through marriage and shared bereavement; WEDNESDAY on the other hand, in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah we find harsh 1000 Holy Communion and unequivocal condemnation of those Jews who have married for- eigners (including Moabites). For Christians, however, such struggles 1845 Choir Practice find their resolution in Jesus Christ. Ignoring the conventions of his faith, Jesus spoke with non-Jewish women and Roman soldiers; he All regular services are according to the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), expanded his listeners’ understanding of the concept of neighbour by except for the Family service, an informal service for young and old. telling the story of the Good (even though foreign) Samaritan; and WEDDINGS and BAPTISMS: By arrangement via the Church Office. through his Holy Spirit he set the Gospel free to be preached to Jew and Gentile, slave and free, women and men. In Christ, pessimism continue the process of decluttering the building, giving a much never has the last word. needed home to a number of items essential to the smooth running of the church that had previously not had one. I am grateful to Val and Paul Middleton for organising the With my very best wishes, information boards that are now in the Tower. They reinforce for our visitors, both a sense of the Priory as a living church, and our commitment to welcome, worship, and witness. And finally, I was touched to learn that a parishioner had RECTOR’S NOTES enquired after my health following the item in last month’s magazine in which the Rector informed his flock that he had As noted last month, Jonathan Cain will be ordained deacon in been told to go away for several weeks to recover from illness. I Ripon Cathedral on Saturday 04 July at 15.00 to serve as Curate have prayerfully passed the enquiry on to the Revd James in our parish. The Priory’s clergy and reader team will be there MacNabb (Rector 1903 – 1917) who is gratified that his in force, and there will be plenty of room in the Cathedral for magazine material from May 1915 is still being read. members of the congregation and parish who would like to sup- port Jonathan and his family. The clash with the first perfor- FROM THE PARISH REGISTERS mance of the Mystery Play could not have been foreseen, but there is another performance of the Mystery Play the following HOLY BAPTISM day, Sunday 05 July, which will also be Jonathan’s first Sunday in 19 April Elodie May Monahan the parish. Please continue to hold Jonathan in your prayers, FUNERAL SERVICE along with his wife Rebecca and their sons Arthur, Nicholas, Bill, 17 April Renee Boothman and Charlie. 28 April James Bradshaw Frost Through the good offices of Andrew Hartley, the Priory has ac- quired a new chalice, and we have now received the necessary permissions from the Diocesan Advisory Committee for its regu- APRIL FIGURES lar use on a Sunday. The PCC is grateful to the Friends of Bolton The average weekly attendance at all Sunday services Priory for funding the purchase of the chalice, which was for- in April was 149. There were 54 attendees at the April mally dedicated for use on Whitsunday. monthly Liquid Service. The average weekly receipts to the Priory in March were £1855. The PCC is also grateful to the Friends for funding the purchase of some new Bibles which have been placed in church for the use of our many thousands of visitors. The Bibles they replace JULY MAGAZINE DEADLINE have been put on the table in the north aisle and are free to a Please may we have any copy for the July magazine by good home. 14 June sent either to the Editor or to the Church Office? Many of you will already have noticed the splendid new cup- board in the north store. Its introduction has enabled us to PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL – 26 February 2015 lambs were less than a day old but seemed completely unfazed by We welcomed back our re-elected members: our two churchwardens, the adoring crowds. When we went into the tower for the blessing Matt Hey and Paul Middleton and members Andy Carr, Barry Cody, the Rector invited the children to name the animals. They chose George for the male lamb and Mary for the other. This one turned Anna Hartley, Michael Heatley and Keith Simpson. We were also pleased to welcome two new members: Elaine Adams-Lambert and out to be male too but the lamb didn’t seem to care. The ewe was named Lily. In the subsequent prayer of blessing they were all Peter Lambert. We also congratulated our two new Deputy Churchwardens, Jean Crawford and Norman Stubbs, on their election. mentioned by name, which was surprisingly touching. Perhaps the greatest achievement of this service was the fact that it united all our You will have noticed that things we have been dreaming of for a long congregations as there were representatives from every service: 8 time are becoming reality. We have beautiful new toilets and you will am, Liquid Worship, 10.30 and Evensong. If you missed this joyful be pleased to know that the toilets near the Boyle Room are going to occasion cross your fingers and hope that the Rector repeats it next have a make-over. The cupboards in the north store have given us the year. opportunity to tidy away the things we use regularly but also the chance to clear out a lot of old clutter that we no longer need. We Liz Higgins, PCC Secretary even have a new flag flying over the Priory. Easter Day fell on the first Sunday of the month this year which MAGAZINE ARCHIVES meant that for once we had the family service joining in the 100 YEARS AGO JUNE 1915 celebrations. As the weather was fine the children enjoyed an Easter Parish Notes The Rector is deriving much benefit from his change in egg hunt in the ruins. It would be good to be able to repeat this even the South. He hopes to take the services again on June 6th and to re- if it meant having an extra family service. sume his work in the parish. He is much obliged for the numerous Our Rector excels at writing services for special occasions and we kind enquiries from many of the parishioners during his recent illness. benefited from this during Holy Week when he had arranged The War This sad cloud still hangs over the world and our national additional short evening services in addition to the usual longer ones. anxieties and sorrows at the loss of so many of our brave soldiers is It gave everyone an opportunity to find some time when they could much increased by the cruel and wicked methods of the Germans and come to church. their allies, methods which can only be called cold calculated murder. The Blessing and Thanksgiving for the Lambs, though only twenty These things naturally rouse our bitter anger and wrath; but do not minutes long, had been meticulously prepared, to the extent of let us be carried away into expressing our feelings by mob violence, changing one line of ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ to read ‘the new which can only bring disgrace upon us as a nation. Rather let our lambs in the meadows’. Andy and Lucy Carr and Matt Hey gave us a anguish and wrath find its just and fitting expression in trying to do master class in how to look after animals in church.