COMMUNITY MAGAZINE FLEET, GEDNEY, HOLBEACH ST MARKS and HOLBEACH HURN 2019 No. 422 February 2019 Parish Contacts The Rural Dean Revd. Rosamund Seal 01406 424989 [email protected] Authorised Lay Ministers Ms. Maggie Ball 01406 490384 Mr. David Smith 01406 363388 Churchwardens: Fleet Peter Graper 01406 423803 [email protected] Geoff De Roux 07826 843611 [email protected] Holbeach Hurn Mr. David Baker 01406 362420 Mrs. Kay Jenkinson 01406 424428 Gedney Mr. William Webb 01406 363673 Mrs. Jill Duffey 01406 365586 Holbeach St. Marks Doris Johnson 01406 701250 Nick Worth 01406 701459 2 Useful Community Contacts The Pilgrim Hospital ………………………….. 01205 364 801 Queen Elizabeth Hospital …………………… 01553 613 613 Holbeach Hospital ……………………………… 01406 422 283 Johnson Community Hospital Spalding.. 01775 652 000 Peterborough City Hospital…………………. 01733 678000 Long Sutton Medical Centre ………………..01406 362 081 Boots Chemist Long Sutton ………………… 01406 362 331 Samaritans ………………………………………… 08457 90 90 90 National Rail Enquiries ………………………. 0845 748 495 Registrar Long Sutton ………………………… 01522 782 244 M. P. John Hayes ………………………………… 01775 711 534 NHS Direct …………………………………………..0845 46 47 Cllr Nick Worth …………………………………….07866 415688 South Holland Parish Volunteer Car Service (Mon - Fri 09:00 - 12:00 / 13:00 - 16:30)Call Sharon: 01406 366820 or 07834 634336 3 MAGAZINE EDITOR: MARKY ELSOM [email protected] Copy for the magazine should be with Mark by 18th of the previous month, marked Mid Elloe Magazine. ADVERTISING EDITOR: GILL GRAPER [email protected] 01406 423803 4 SEE US ON THE WEB The Magazine and details of services will be put on the new church website every month so please do check there for details of what is going on in your Parish and in the Benefice. Fleet: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/14562/ Gedney: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/14564/ Holbeach Hurn: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/14569/ Holbeach St Marks: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/14564/ For all enquiries about Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals please contact the Deanery Administrator, Caz Dennis, on 01406 423460 (office hours Mon- Thurs 9.00-1.00) For urgent pastoral issues please contact the Rural Dean – Rosamund Seal – 01406 424989 For all other enquiries please contact the churchwardens - details are in the Mid Elloe Community magazine. 5 SPEECH GIVEN BY BISHOP CHRISTOPHER IN THE BREXIT DEBATE My Lords, I am honoured to speak after the Noble Baroness, Boothroyd. I wish to say something about my context and then consider what a bishop might usefully add to this debate. Lincolnshire is one of the parts of the United Kingdom which voted most emphati- cally in favour of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU with 66% voting to leave. I have thought hard about why that should be the case. There are the obvious reasons – the tip of the iceberg. Nationally these would be described in terms of sovereignty and immigration. We who live and work in rural Lincolnshire are prisoners of our geography (the countryside comprises a series of sparsely-populated settlements disconnected from each other where you learn to fend for yourself) but we are also heavily influ- enced by our history in which, over the centuries, external forces have sought to take control of our land and laws – sometimes against our best interests. People have come to: • demand money with menaces, • to conquer, • to trade, • to work • and, in more recent years, to seek refuge and a better life for their families. Sometimes we have fought back – occasionally wehave grumbled, but most of the time, as a generous people, we have gone with the flow of all this and adapted. But then there is what lies below the surface: an international rise in populism playing on fear, with its accompanying narrative of the purity of what it means (in our case), to be British. There is also a naïve view of democracy as plebiscite – ‘the people have spoken’. You don’t need to be a polling expert to understand that people vote in elections and referenda for a variety of reasons: some noble, some flawed. We in Westminster are under intense scrutiny. The questionsin the lanes of Lin- colnshire (and I was in in a fen village near Holbeach last Sunday) appear to be why is it taking ‘them in London’ so long to sort this out and from some, why can’t we explore some kind of compromise to get it done? 6 what can a bishop from Lincolnshire add? I have heard almost all the speeches in this debate and I am grateful for their differ- ing perspectives. I have heard quite a lot of rhetorical certainty when we really know that the situation is extraordinarily complicated. Over the years the church has learned and is learning, sometimes quite painfully,to manage diversity and it does so by recognising the compromised nation of our in- stitution. I hope the most reverend primates will forgive me if I say that, this side of heaven, the church is not perfect. One former member of your Lordship’s House knew Lincolnshire well. Michael Ramsey, 100th archbishop of Canterbury began his ministry there. Ramsey was a brave and challenging thinker and spoke out clearly against injustice, including homophobia and apartheid; but in those early years in Lincolnshire he counselled the Church of England to understand itself much more carefully as a compromised body. He wrote: (The Church of England’s) credentials are its incompleteness, with tension and travail in its soul. It is clumsy and untidy; it baffles neatness and logic... for it is sent not to commend itself as “the best type of Christianity” but by its very brokenness to point to the universal Church wherein all have died. The Church of England has always had to manage diversity and still needs to do so. Whatever happens over the next few weeks and months – and no one really knows what it is going to happen -- I suggest, as a nation, we need to recognise that we are profoundly divided and need to manage diversity better – with respect and hu- mility. My Lords, the Regret Motion as worded does present problems for those Members of your Lordships House who might agree with the sentiments about a no deal Brexit, but are less inclined to dismiss the Government’s Withdrawal Agreement in the absence of any worked-through alternative, or indeed any alternative model of Brexit that might not also have the effects the Motion describes. For that reason, your Lordships should not be too surprised if they see members of this bench exercising their democratic rights in either lobby, or choosing to abstain, if and when the Motion is put to a Division. The people of the United Kingdom are a mixed bunch – we are in this together and we need to remember and practise the art of compromise in order to be the best nation we can be. 7 Mid-Elloe Worship Rota March 2019 MARCH FLEET GEDNEY HOLBEACH HOLBEACH HURN ST MARKS Sunday 3rd 9.00 a.m. 11.00 a.m. Sung Eucha- Morning rist Prayer ASH 7.30 p.m. WEDNESDAY Communion 6th March with Ashing Sunday 10th 9.00 a.m. 11.00 a.m. 11.00 Sung Eucha- Sung Eu- Morning rist charist Prayer Sunday 17th 9.00 a.m. 11.00 11.00 a.m. Matins Morning Sung Eucha- Prayer rist Sunday 24th 11.00 9.00 a.m. Morning Sung Eucha- Prayer rist Sunday 31st 11.00 a.m. Mothering Sunday - Benefice service During Lent ( from 13th March) there will be a Compline ser- vice at Fleet on Wednesday evenings 7.30 p.m. 8 The cracks are where the light gets in The other day I was very cross with myself for getting a parking ticket. I know why it happened – I hadn’t looked at the sign and I just assumed there wouldn’t be parking restrictions on a Sunday morning. But it really happened because I was preoccupied and rushing. I had too many things to do and not enough time to do everything. The parking ticket was a signal to me that cracks were appearing in my carefully constructed life. For St Peter it was a cockerel that was the signal that things were going terribly wrong. As we approach Easter we remember the story of how Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus was arrested at night and Peter followed after him, but then lost his nerve and pretended he didn’t know him. When the cockerel crowed, Peter re- membered Jesus telling him this would happen and Peter broke down and wept. Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) in his song ‘Anthem’ famously writes that ‘There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’. When cracks appear in our lives they often signal a time when light can emerge. Peter is usually described as the disciple who denied Jesus three times, but Peter’s failure and brokenness is not the end of his story. The light got into Peter’s story because of what he remembered in the darkest place and what he learned. When the cockerel crowed he remembered that Jesus knew him well enough to know that he would let him down. But it wasn’t the only thing Peter remembered. Peter remembered that Jesus predicted that he would suffer and die – it wasn’t all his fault. Peter remembered the time when Jesus rescued him from drowning in Lake Galilee and pulled him through. Peter remembered that at the Last Supper Jesus had also told him that he had prayed for him, that his faith would not fail. After a long dark night the cockerel reminded Peter he had let Jesus down but it also heralded the break of day.