Christian Aid Week in May

The Magazine of The South Wye Hereford and South Wye Rural Parishes May 2019 Volume 3 Issue 4 Price 50p Hello and Welcome I hope that you had a lovely Easter and a chance to enjoy the wonderful weather that greeted us over the Bank Holiday weekend. I’m afraid that I didn’t do anything more energetic than doze in the sun, but the warmth and sunshine were very welcome. It made a difference to lots of our services and Easter events across our Churches too - Easter egg hunts are easier in the sunshine! There’s barely time to look back to Holy Week, because May is a busy month, both in Church and in the wider world. We will have at least one chance to exercise our democratic right to vote this month and it is to be hoped that we find ourselves able to disagree with one another without becoming more divided as a society. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s initiative to encourage churches to promote unity and encourage open, respectful conversation over refreshments has been much vilified, but anything that we, as Christians, can do to model respectful disagreement must be welcomed. .” In his letter on page 3, Bishop Alistair explores the need for of Christians - “Easter People”- to work for the common good, especially in a fractured society. The 5th of May is Godparents Sunday - there’s more information on pages 15 and 16 about how you can be involved, praying for your Godchildren and your Godparents. We will also be remembering Christian Aid Week in May. Please consider putting a donation into the envelope with this magazine and return it to church or to the Office at 89 Ross Road. The article on page 17 reminds us of the importance of the work of Christian Aid. Ascension Day falls on 30th May. This festival is sometimes neglected (perhaps because it is always a Thursday) and deserves to have a bigger place in our church life. Following Christ’s Ascension, God’s primary means of working in the world is now through us. He commissions for this task at Ascension and equips us at Pentecost. We are called to make disciples, starting in our workplaces, families and communities. Teresa of Avila said “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which He looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which He blesses all the world.” Anne Contents Hello and Welcome 1 A Message from the Bishop of Ludlow 3 South Wye Rural: St Andrews Dinedor 4 South Wye Rural: St David’s Little Dewchurch 5,6 South Wye Hereford 7 South Wye Hereford - St Martin’s Ross Road 8,9 Memories of Richard Green 10 South Wye Hereford - St Peter’s Bullinghope 11 St Martin’s May Diary 12,13 News from The Missioners 14 Godparents Sunday 15,16 Christian Aid Week 17,18 Coffee Time 19,20 Acts of Kindness 21 For Our Prayers 22 Hereford Cathedral Diary 23,24 St Michael’s Hospice 25 Advertising 27-36 Sunday Services 37 Meet the Team 38 Copy for the June issue of Aspiration should be sent to the Team Office by 15th April to: [email protected] The magazine will be published on May 24th. 2 Letter from the Bishop of Ludlow Perhaps one of the most common opening lines when we meet someone is: ‘Hello, how are you? We British, being the reticent people we are, will most probably reply with a: ‘Fine thank you.’ It is a common reply whatever is going on in our lives at that moment. ‘How are you?’ is nevertheless an important question. How are we as a society and as a nation at this moment in time? Given our recent history; the ‘How are you?’ question I think touches quite deep. Certainly, when looking back over several decades, I find it quite hard to remember a time when that sense of insecurity and being generally unsettled were so prominent and palpable in society. The political squabbles of Brexit have left many of us with a profound feeling of dismay. Factional and individual interests seem constantly to trump and overrule what many of us had taken for granted, namely a good sense of British pragmatism and common sense. There is a real fear that whoever shouts loudest or pushes hardest will get their way. A few years ago, when studying ethical approaches to making good decisions, those teaching me pointed out the importance of balancing the rights of the individual with perspectives that looked carefully at what might be for the overall good of society. The good of the many is to be an essential part of what is required. Perhaps it is an obvious thing to say but not everyone can have everything they want. A healthy society requires attentiveness to the overall good of its members especially the powerless, voiceless and marginalised. A society that is ill at ease can very easily become a society where anger broods. I share, with others the deep concern at the rise in knife crime. Those on the social margins, often in dysfunctional families and lacking resources are prone to enter gangs where their longing for identity comes linked to crime and violence. Alice Thomson writing recently in the Times wrote…Violence is not a craze, it’s a symptom showing these children need care and consideration. There’s an African saying, ‘If a child doesn’t feel part of a village they will burn it down for heat.” Of course, we cannot excuse or overlook violence. The question is to how best to address it with lasting solutions. To the young everything can look precarious and fractious. As Christians we have a long heritage of emphasising and working for the common good. The Old Testament longing for shalom and wellbeing overflow into the New Testament ethics of Christ’s kingly rule and reign. As Easter people we believe that death, destruction and evil do not have the last word. Ours are the values of love and hope and ours is the season to make a difference. +Alistair 3 Benefice St Andrews of South Wye Rural Dinedor Services in May 12th May Easter 4 9:30am Holy Communion 26th May Easter 6 9:30am Holy Communion Dinedor with Holme Lacy Church Annual Jumble Sale Saturday May 11th 2019 At St Martins Church 12-2pm Tea/coffee and Biscuits. Offers of help and Jumble (can be collected) Contact Joyce 01432 356240 Or 07801292393. This is for Dinedor church funds 4 Services in May Sunday 5th May Easter 3 11:00am Morning Prayer Sunday 12th May Easter 4 11:00am Holy Communion Sunday 19th May Easter 5 11:00am Holy Communion from the Book of Common Prayer Sunday 26th May Easter 6 11:00am Holy Communion Little Dewchurch School Peter Houghton and I were pleased to join the Year 5 children for Experience Easter at St Martin’s with the Revd. Anne. The children listened well and took part and so were able to tell the story back at school. Their Service at St David’s on the last day of term also told the story in songs and readings and was well attended by proud parents and friends. Refreshments followed in the village hall with the children and adults together when Peter had the unenviable task of judging the Easter Garden competition! A new venture called Bible Explorers begins on 29th April and I will take an Assembly on 6th May. Irene Goodman 5 A RIGHT ROYAL MESS AT LITTLE DEWCHURCH Messy Church at Little Dewchurch has now been going for almost 18 months, with about 30 people coming each month. On April 10th, we held our Easter special, and, for the first time, decided to include Holy Communion as part of the afternoon. Since we do not have an incumbent at present , it was good that the Archdeacon, the Ven. Derek Chedzey, had expressed a wish to join us, so we asked him to officiate. The afternoon started, as usual, in the village hall, but then things got more interesting, because Sheila Bell turned up with one of her donkeys. Everyone was given a palm cross and followed the donkey down to St. David’s Church, singing ‘Hosanna’, just as those crowds did in Jerusalem almost 2000 years ago. Once we got to the Church, there was a treasure hunt, painting eggs Bulgarian- style and egg-rolling before we started the service. It included a confession time when people wrote ‘Sorry’ prayers on to paper shapes cut out as crosses, then pinning them to a large wooden cross. There was a very tangible sense of people recognising the presence of God, even with several of the children being quite excited by being somewhere quite different from usual. Let the Archdeacon have the last word!:-”A really big thank you to the brilliant team at Little Dewchurch who invited me to their Messy Church event this afternoon. With over 50 adults and children plus a donkey it was a brilliant and fun occasion. We even managed a Messy Communion service which I had the privilege of celebrating.. If only everything an Archdeacon does could be this much fun and promote the Gospel !” 6 Hereford South Wye I walked past a Hereford coffee shop on Maundy Thursday, which has one of those ‘cutsie philosophy’ blackboards outside. You know the kind of thing “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy coffee.” That day’s message, though was more arresting – “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” Banksy.

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