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Dulverton & Brushford Parish Magazine April 2021 More Meadows & Wilder Churchyards (pages 19-21) 1 Who’s Who at Your Church RECTOR DIRECTORS OF MUSIC RevdPost Andrew Vacant Thomas Brushford: Position Vacant The Vicarage, High Street Dulverton: Gary Cooper 07419 212354 Dulverton TA22 9DW 01398 323018 [email protected] BELLRINGING ASSOCIATE VICAR Tower Captain for Brushford: RevdPost Paul Vacant Kingdom Roger Routledge 322995 The Vicarage, Brompton Regis Deputy Tower Captain Brushford: ASSISTANT Dulverton CURATE TA22 9NL 01398 371572 Michael Hamilton 324313 [email protected] Revd Martin Collett 324211 Tower Captain for Dulverton: [email protected] Anne Markwick 323823 LICENSED READERS SAFEGUARDING (Benefice) Louise Southgate 341553 Steve Ford 323016 [email protected] Jane Rees 371128 Jane Rees 371128 [email protected] [email protected] VERGER (Dulverton) CHURCH WARDENS Roz Roberts 323349 Brompton Regis - vacant Withiel Florey: The Dulverton Parish Office Mr Edward Luxton and 1 Church Walk, Dulverton, TA22 9ER Mrs Sylvia Luxton 323289 Tel: 01398 323028 Dulverton: E: [email protected] Steve Ford 323016 Ed Thomson 323623 www.dulvertonbenefice.org.uk Skilgate: The magazine is available on the website - Ian Trusler 331753 see above Upton: ALL material for inclusion in the next edition David Wood 371240 Brushford of the magazine is to be sent to: Frances Nicholson 01398 341502 [email protected]. [email protected] NB: no diary listings at present. Photo: Priddy churchyard Deadlines are: 17th of the month for (courtesy SWT) See page 19 the following month Advertisement rates Annual Rate ¼ page portrait 59mm wide x 92mm deep 75.00 ½ page landscape 123mm wide x 92mm deep 120.00 For advertising queries please contact Full page 123mm wide x 186mm deep 250.00 email: advertisingdulvertonparishmag@ Rate for 6 issues ¼ page portrait 59mm wide x 92mm deep 42.00 gmail.com ½ page landscape 123mm wide x 92mm deep 66.00 Full page 123mm wide x 186mm deep 138.00 Artwork: Preferred formats are Rate for 3 issues PNG,JPEG or embedded PDF. ¼ page portrait 59mm wide x 92mm deep 23.00 Artwork can be arranged at extra ½ page landscape 123mm wide x 92mm deep 37.00 cost if required. Full page 123mm wide x 186mm deep 76.00 Rate for 1 issue Payment: Payment is due on the ¼ page portrait 59mm wide x 92mm deep 9.00 date specified, which is usually the ½ page landscape 123mm wide x 92mm deep 14.00 deadline for the next issue. Full page 123mm wide x 186mm deep 28.00 2 A word from the climax of the procession, he was flogged Letter from the and then executed: all done very publicly, Curate.Assistant Curate so that the world would see clearly what happens to anyone raising a fist against Rome. Thus, the Jews found themselves with one more dead Messiah. Another followed, in 135 AD: Simon bar Kochba, Dear Friends who suffered a similar fate. Imagine the scene back in Judah. A few Early in April, on Easter Day, we will be of Simon bar Giora followers escaped celebrating the resurrection of Jesus with their lives and are hiding in a cave. Christ. The mystery of the empty tomb As they sit there, wondering why it had has given rise to a number of theories all gone so wrong and where was God trying to rationalise why it was empty, in all this mess; why hadn’t he come and what happened to the body. One to Israel’s aid as he had done before so theory says that the disciples stole the many times, as the scriptures testify? So, body and buried it somewhere else; there they sit beaten, broken, wondering another says that Jesus wasn’t actually how they can get back to their families, dead but unconscious, and that he later and somehow avoid identification by the regained consciousness in the tomb and Roman authorities as rebels. Then one of somehow escaped. If either of these them says, ‘I really believe that Simon was ideas are true, it is as St Paul states: ‘…if the Messiah!’ our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the The others would have looked at him in world.’ absolute astonishment. ‘Are you mad? He’s dead, he’s gone - it’s all over. Get a So, did he rise from the dead? grip! We’ll be lucky to get out of this alive.’ I am going to take a slightly different look However, he carries on, saying: ‘Yes, at the resurrection story, by telling you Simon was the Messiah! We should Simon bar Giora about a man call . He was launch a movement which proclaims him the chief leader of the Jewish rebellion as such; that God’s anointed has been in that culminated in the destruction of the our midst. I’ve had a vision of Simon being Temple in 70 AD. He was regarded by with me and I have had a wonderful, Jews at the time as a possible Messiah, heart-warming experience as I thought and seemed to be everything they were about his death.’ looking for in this role: a talented military leader who had won some minor battles The others look at him and fall silent, with Roman soldiers, and who had also shaking their heads sorrowfully, thrown the Romans out of Jerusalem. concerned that their friend in all the So, he gathered a large following as the trauma of recent events has clearly lost rebellion grew in strength. However, his mind. Rome was mustering her forces: General We now turn to Jesus’s disciples cowering Titus marched at the head of a sizeable in the upper room, in not too dissimilar army en route for Israel. It was only a a predicament. The disciples are broken- matter of time before the rebellion would hearted: all their hopes and dreams be brutally put down. Simon bar Giora shattered, further aggravated by some had the misfortune of being taken alive of the women inventing tales about their and transported to Rome, where he held Master being alive. ‘What total rubbish! a prominent position in the triumphal It’s over, he’s dead, he’s gone. God help procession through Rome. As part of the us!’ 3 So, why was this story different? After thousands of followers. Yet what was the all, here were two groups suffering the crucial difference? I believe the only one same trauma over a dead leader. Well, that really matters is that while Simon bar for a start, Simon bar Giora was just part Giora is dead and buried, and remains so; of the tragic history of the Jewish people Jesus bar Joseph - by the power of God - in the Roman Empire; while Jesus bar rose from the dead on the third day, and Joseph became the head of a movement is alive today. that changed the world, and which, some 2000 years later, has hundreds of Christ is risen, Alleluia, he is risen indeed! Letter from the Right Reverend Ruth Worsley Bishop of Taunton Hope for a better future This month of April begins on Maundy Thursday, the day when we remember the last meal Jesus shared together with his friends before he was arrested and crucified. It was the meal that has become so significant in the life of the Church, where bread was broken and a cup of wine passed round, coming to symbolise for us the brokenness of the body of Christ. The sacrifice he made for love of us. Many of us will hopefully celebrate something of the Easter feast this weekend although restrictions continue And yet in the bleakness of this first for a while longer. We may not yet be weekend of April, which takes us into the able to gather in larger groups of family darkness of the tomb on Holy Saturday, and friends but perhaps we can glimpse we remember that hope is not cheaply what is to come? bought. It is not mere optimism, but rather something, though fragile, that is This has always been the story of the stronger than death. Church, to point to what ‘is’ but which may not yet be fully realised. During this As some of us break our fast this Easter pandemic there has been a need for hope and share the bread and wine of the amongst such bleakness and now as the Eucharistic feast, may we know both the vaccine is shared and the signs of life cost of such love and the hope that it appear in the world around us, we begin offers. to see what might again be possible. To Easter blessings! hope for a better future. +Ruth 4 A message from Bishop Nigel Bishop Peter announces retirement The Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Rt Revd Peter Hancock, is to take early retirement on medical grounds as he continues his recovery from treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia. Bishop Peter, 65, has been bishop of the diocese for seven years, from 2014. For four of those years, he was the Church of England’s lead bishop for safeguarding and represented the Church of England at the three hearings of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby paid tribute today to Bishop Peter, saying “his commitment to changing the culture and shining a light in dark places was an inspiration to us all”. Bishop Peter has been receiving treatment for leukaemia since last August. In a letter to the diocese today he wrote that while he had been hoping to return to work before long, his hospital consultant has said he will need to spend many months recovering and will initially be unable to lead services in public, use public transport or go into indoor public spaces.