Parish Magazine of Earls Colne & White Colne
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The Parish Magazine of Earls Colne & White Colne Bluebells in Chalkney Woods may 2021 I am writing this letter immediately after Easter and reflecting on the challenge of Jesus and the challenges that lie ahead for us. The month of May includes three significant dates: Ascension Day, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, all of which are a challenge. On Ascension Day the reading tells us that Jesus said to his disciples: "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1.8) We are promised the Holy Spirit but are then expected to use it to be a witness to Jesus. We celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the poet Malcolm Guite captured the feeling of joy and release in his sonnet for Pentecost when he wrote: "Today we feel the wind beneath our wings" 1 The first disciples were so overwhelmed by the wonderful feelings of joy and liberation that they literally shouted the message of joy in Jesus in every language. That is the call that comes down the years to us. In the list of services, the day after Pentecost has the note that ordinary time resumes and we mark that the following Sunday, Trinity Sunday. The word 'ordinary' caused me to reflect on the last year that has been anything but 'ordinary' and significant challenges are still with us in 2021. The word 'ordinary' is defined as regular, commonplace, not exceptional but our life at this time does not look like these definitions. Many great acts of kindness and care have taken place over this last year and these have helped to balance the difficulties that many have experienced; and communities need the time and support to regain a balance even though the grief will live on. 1 Taken from "Sounding the Seasons" by Malcolm Guite and available to read and hear on the internet. www.colnechurches.com 3 Most of us bear the scars of the last year: loneliness with the isolation, bereavement and not being able to share the grief, financial loss and more. We need to share the healing ourselves and to support those around during the healing process. I find strength in the words of Julian of Norwich when she wrote: God did not say "You will not be tempted, you will not be burdened" but he said "you will not be overcome." We have the strength and expectation to overcome what has happened and to look with confidence to the future. The future does not look like being 'ordinary', in the sense of what has gone before - and perhaps never will - so we will need to adjust to a new 'ordinary', whatever that looks like. Whatever happens we know that we stand on the rock that is Jesus Christ and may we take heart from the words of Malcolm Guite when he said about the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: "Today we feel the wind beneath our wings" May we know that to be true every day. Hugh After writing this letter, the death has been announced of His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. The Duke's devotion to his wife and his royal duties has been an inspiration; and the founding of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, sixty five years ago, which has equipped young people from all communities to build the skills, confidence, and resilience they need to make the most out of life remains a powerful legacy of a remarkable man. May he rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen. 4 www.colnechurches.com Sun 2nd 10.00 am Earls Colne # 10.00 am Colne Engaine 10.30 am White Colne Wed 5th 9.30 am Earls Colne Sun 9th 10.00 am Earls Colne # 10.00 am Colne Engaine Wed 12th 9.30 am Colne Engaine Sun 16th 10.00 am Earls Colne # 10.00 am Colne Engaine 4.00 am White Colne 6.30 pm Earls Colne Wed 19th 9.30 am Earls Colne Sun 23rd 10.00 am Earls Colne # 10.00 am Colne Engaine Wed 26th 9.30 am Earls Colne Sun 30th 10.00 am Online # - service also Live Streamed with Zoom and Facebook and later uploaded onto YouTube In addition to these services is available via Facebook and YouTube on Mondays and Saturday Kath’s family would like to extend their sincere thanks to all of Mum’s many friends and acquaintances who sent such kind messages of condolence and came out onto to the snowy streets to wave her off on her last journey through the village. It was quite overwhelming! Enormous thanks also to the many people who donated in Mum’s memory to The Mission to Seafarers. The amazing sum of £1780.00 was raised. Many thanks, Libby Stone www.colnechurches.com 5 Building on Revd Hugh’s quotation from Malcolm Guite’s sonnet for Pentecost (see ‘The Letter for May’ p.3), Revd Mark writes: The month of May this year is a packed month. On the 17th we hope that Step Three of the Government Roadmap will see us, amongst other things, able to go back inside our pubs and restaurants; we hope that good weather will bless the two bank holidays on Mondays 3rd and 31st May; Sunday 30th sees the church celebrate the Holy Trinity and the Sunday before we celebrate the very birth of the Church at Pentecost. This first Pentecost recorded in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles saw the disciples changed as they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They went from people knowing that our Lord was Risen to people empowered to take that news across the known world. The poet Malcolm Guite in his sonnet for Pentecost ‘Our Mother-Tongue is Love’ in his book ‘Sounding the Seasons’, makes a connection between the four elements of air, water, fire and earth and how the Bible talks about the presence of the Holy Spirit: Today we feel the wind beneath our wings Today the hidden fountain flows and plays Today the church draws breath at last and sings As every flame becomes a Tongue of praise. This is the feast of fire, air, and water Poured out and breathed and kindled into earth. The earth herself awakens to her maker And is translated out of death to birth. The right words come today in their right order And every word spells freedom and release Today the gospel crosses every border All tongues are loosened by the Prince of Peace Today the lost are found in His translation. Whose mother-tongue is Love, in every nation. And here’s what Malcolm has to say about his sonnet: “I was very struck by the way Scripture expresses the presence of the Holy Spirit through the three most dynamic of the four elements, the air, (a mighty rushing wind, but also the breath of the 6 www.colnechurches.com spirit) water, (the waters of baptism, the river of life, the fountain springing up to eternal life promised by Jesus) and of course fire, the tongues of flame at Pentecost. Three out of four ain’t bad, but I was wondering, where is the fourth? Where is earth? And then I realised that we ourselves are earth, the ‘Adam’ made of the red clay, and we become living beings, fully alive, when the Holy Spirit, clothed in the three other elements comes upon us and becomes a part of who we are.” May I encourage you this month to reflect on how the presence of God can be found within you. If you would like to respond to God’s love for you through being baptised (Christened) or you would like your children to be baptised please do get in touch – Revd Mark ([email protected] or phone 01787 220347) a. refuse stones used as fillings for old walls b. a strange unexplained noise c. a person who constantly complains a. looking faint or sick b. being exhausted by the heat c. well-fed, filled to repletion a. to pry or ferret about b. to stagger like a drunken person c. to snare or entrap ******************* c. to crowd together or swarm a. to disarrange or upset b. a cure for hiccups www.colnechurches.com 7 Earls Colne Heritage Museum Disorder in the Cloister You might expect that a medieval monastery would have been an oasis of tranquility but, in 1303, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Winchelsey, had to travel to Earls Colne to settle a long-running dispute. Colne Priory had been founded by Aubrey de Vere, the grandfather of the First Earl of Oxford, as an annexe or “cell” of the Benedictine abbey at Abingdon in Berkshire. The monks of the Priory complained that the mother abbey was taking all their best novices and sending them instead monks whose behaviour was in need of correction. The Archbishop upheld their complaint and instructed the abbey not to send monks to Earls Colne unless they were: “suitable, peaceful, honest and sufficiently instructed in their service. It seems dishonest and contrary to justice that the cell of Colne should take the name of prison and be set aside for the punishment of delinquents.” That seemed to settle the dispute, but the Archbishop went on to take the monks of Earls Colne to task for several lapses in their behaviour which he had noticed during his visit. Among other things, they were instructed not to take away the left-overs from meals for snacks in the dormitory; to observe the rule of silence “better than has been the practice”; and to have their accounts properly audited each year.