Lillington Parish Magazine St Mary Magdalene's Church
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Lillington Parish Magazine St Mary Magdalene’s Church DECEMBER 2018 1 FROM THE VICAR Dear Friends, In the run up to Christmas last year I read that the average household expects to spend £174 on food and drink for December 25th alone. Over the course of our lives it is estimated that we will each spend around £54,000 on Christmas! People prepare for Christmas in different ways but the trend towards consumerism seems to be ever on the increase. Christmas is certainly a time for giving presents, after all it has its origins in God giving us Jesus. God’s gift to us is himself. But God’s present to us is not something that we can measure financially and it isn’t something that is gift wrapped with lots of glitter and glitz. Each year the decorations and the displays seem to come a little earlier and the survey certainly suggested that each year we spend more and more on purchasing Christmas. When God gave himself to us in Jesus he could have done it in the most spectacular and glorious way. Had he come according to earthly standards the cash registers would have been ringing well in advance. God’s ways, however, are so often different from our own. Yet while they are often different they are, nevertheless, perfectly in tune with our needs. And our need is not so much presents but presence. The incarnation is the gift of God’s presence, Emmanuel – God with us. It’s not always possible to be with our friends and loved ones at Christmas. And sometimes a gift or a card can help bridge this gap. But sometimes we can be misled into believing presents are a substitute for our presence. Yet it is the latter that can make all the difference as the real Christmas story reminds us. At Christmas we see God giving himself to us. Let’s hope that the next survey of spending at Christmas finds that actually we are spending more time with each other, giving ourselves more freely to each other and giving our presence to those we love. When the baby that came at Christmas grew up one of the last things he said to his followers was: “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” William Smith 2 WARDEN’S WORDS On a recent visit to Norwich I stood before the very large and impressive Debenhams store in the centre and contemplated the vulnerability of even the most solid looking buildings and institutions in this time of austerity and Brexit insecurity. Later, walking around Norwich I noted that many of the over fifty medieval churches in the city had long since ceased to operate as churches, some closing to services hundreds of years ago. Many had been ingeniously converted to furniture sales rooms, cafes, or were providing venues for events such as beer and craft festivals. The difference between a large department store and a church, however, is that a church houses or has housed a community of worshippers with a particular identity. Their buildings survive because the citizens of Norwich recognize that they incorporate vital elements of the history of the city. There are, for instance, churches used by Dutch immigrants dealing in cloth, and by French speaking Huguenots. They have gradually been absorbed into the wider life of the city, but the names and the buildings are a visible testimony to the rich and varied past of Norwich. Back in Lillington and looking at our own church a question arises. Do we really need to preserve an old church building in order to bear witness to the teaching of Jesus? It cannot be essential as the very earliest Christian worship took place in converts’ houses. But the existence of an old church like ours adds an extra dimension to our lives as Christians here by connecting us to at least a thousand years of worship on the site and to all that has happened in and around Lillington over those years. How many Christmases have been celebrated with how much excitement and rejoicing? How many carols have been sung and in what versions? How often have our bells tolled to express celebration or mourning? An old church provides a unique focal point for remembrance as we have just seen. Unlike a department store it is an ongoing community of the dead and the living 3 who have looked for and still look for a better future based not on more material goods but on the love of God and of one another. The impact of that worshipping community on the surrounding area over the years is incalculable and now is perhaps a good time to consider what it might mean if it were to disappear. Imagine St Mary Magdalene closed for worship and converted to a bric-à-brac store open nine until five except on Sundays. Clearly for members of the congregation it would represent a huge loss, but the sense of loss and of a gap in our midst would probably extend to a surprisingly large number of our fellow Lillingtonians. Godfrey Carr Welcome to our new Tower Captain The Bell Ringers are pleased to announce that their new Tower Captain, after the retirement of Richard Taulbut, is Barbara Howes. The ringers and the whole congregation wish her well in the post. CROWN ROUTES is the name for the latest Voluntary Group, funded by Warwick District Council, to provide services in Lillington. One of the new projects it is running is a drop-in café at Acorn Court, Stockton Grove (off Pound Lane), Lillington. It is open three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 10am-1.30 pm. You are invited to drop-in and enjoy a chat, tea, coffee, snacks or a light lunch. All are very welcome. We look forward to seeing you. 4 CHARITY OF THE MONTH Alan Wright writes: The Advent charity for this year is, once more, Friends of the Holy Land, an organisation based locally in Kenilworth. Who they are and the work that they do is summarised in the following words from their website: In 2007 a group of returning pilgrims were so moved by the plight of Holy Land Christians they wanted to make an immediate improvement to their lives, to demonstrate their Christian family had not forgotten them. The result was ‘Friends of the Holy Land’ (FHL), launched by Michael Whelan and with the personal support of the Archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nichols, now Cardinal, Archbishop of Westminster. FHL works closely with churches in the UK and in the Holy Land. Its work is ecumenical and has the backing and blessing of Anglican and Catholic Bishops in England, Wales, and Scotland. FHL is apolitical; it doesn’t campaign, not even for peace; leaving that to other better qualified organisations. Instead, FHL focuses on encouraging Christians to remain in the land of their birth by supporting them to build resilient and self-sufficient communities, in what can often be a challenging environment. FHL fund a mixture of sustainable and immediate relief work in the West Bank, Gaza, Israel and Jordan. Many international agencies are active in the Holy Land supporting major initiatives. FHL concentrates instead on smaller, sustainable work. FHL has a team of locally based lay and clerical professionals who identify and verify each case. Please give generously –as always – to this work of sustaining Christians in the Holy Land. Thank you. 5 CROSSWORD 23 Vine hen (anag.) (Jonah 1:2) (7) 24 Precious stone decorating the twelfth foundation of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:20) (8) 25 ‘Will you keep to the old path that evil men have — ?’ (Job 22:15) (4) Down 1 ‘Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with — — ’ (Numbers 20:11) (3,5) 2 ‘You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “ — — murder”’ (Matthew 5:21) Across (2,3) 1 ‘How long will you — your face 4 One of Paul’s many hardships from me?’ (Psalm 13:1) (4) endured as a servant of God (2 3 ‘Let us, then, go to him outside Corinthians 6:5) (13) the camp, bearing the — he bore’ 5 ‘We ourselves, who have the (Hebrews 13:13) (8) firstfruits of the Spirit, — inwardly’ 9 Posh sin (anag.) (Romans 8:15) (Romans 8:23) (5) (7) 6 Changed (Daniel 6:8) (7) 10 Solemn pledges (Matthew 7 ‘My yoke is — and my burden is 5:33) (5) light’ (Matthew 11:30) (4) 11 Italian term for full orchestra 8 Recoil (Revelation 12:11) (6) (5) 13 ‘O Lord, you have — me and 12 ‘For he who avenges blood you know me’ (Psalm 139:1) (8) remembers; he does not — the 15 ‘ — to me the joy of your cry of the afflicted’ (Psalm 9:12) salvation’ (Psalm 51:12) (7) (6) 16 Express sorrow (Isaiah 16:7) 14 Prescience (1 Peter 1:2) (13) (6) 17 Where a Hindu holy man lives 18 ‘Then he said to Thomas, “ — (6) out your hand and put it into my 19 ‘If he found any... who side”’ (John 20:27) (5) belonged to the Way, whether — 20 ‘God has said, “ — will I leave — women, he might take them as you; — will I forsake you”’ prisoners’ (Acts 9:3) (3, 2) (Hebrews 13:5) (5) 22 Fragrance (2 Corinthians 2:15) 21 Son of Onam and brother of (5) Shammai (1 Chronicles 2:28) (4) Solution on page 8 6 REVERSE ADVENT CALENDAR 2018 We are supporting the Leamington Night Shelter and our local Lillington branch of the Leamington and Warwick Food Bank.