PARISH OF SOUTHMINSTER MAGAZINE OF THE CHURCH OF ST LEONARD See Pages 8-9 NOVEMBER 2020 With God, nothing is impossible Matthew 19 :26 3 Reflection ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ….. Rev. Ken Dunstan 6 The Gardener ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. Brenda Sheppard 8 “It’s still Me!” ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. …A new Jenny Pratt LLM 10 Churches opening again - latest news Prayer for Southminster 11 Rotas, Flower Arranging, A notice about our offerings to God 12-13 Services in November for St Leonard's and Steeple churches 14 Steve Pillinger writes about his Christian Fiction Book Award 15 Weekday activities at St Leonard’s Services for Tillingham, Dengie, Bradwell and St Lawrence 16 My Journey to Confirmation …. A Testimony from Abby Willcox 18 ‘St Leonard’s Together Apart’ Facebook group …….. Karen Flack 19 Second Attempts ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ….. ...Chris Martin 20 AMOS .. an update about the Charity’s current work .... Dunstans 22 Operation Christmas Child: Shoebox Appeal 2020 24 Who are we? … Details of our normal Church family life. An Extra Note NOTE FROM THE Archbishop Stephen Cottrell was enthroned at EDITOR : York Minster on Sunday 18th October. Some of us were able to watch the service on line. Articles for the It was good to hear his particular message to December the Church, referring to the story of a young magazine by woman who is not a believer but attends Sunday Nov. 15th Church because she feels loved, accepted and please, to Kath safe. By belonging we can be changed to be the beautiful person we are meant to be. Let Dunstan. the giving and receiving of the love of Jesus New contributors rebuild hope and challenge divisions caused will be welcome . by injustice, oppression and self-centredness. 2 Reflection We’re approaching New Year’s Day. No – not 1 st January; New Year’s Day is on 29 th November this year, and it changes every year. Welcome to the Church’s Year, when, on Advent Sunday we look forward to Christ’s return. The Gospel readings move from Matthew to Mark and we begin the process of following the life and ministry of Jesus until Trinity Sunday (30 th May 2021). Then the readings speak to us of how Jesus’ disciples live in the world. A clergyman I once served under spoke of “the interminable Sundays after Trinity.” They take up nearly half the year! That period has been shortened, introducing two new seasons. We have just had the “Creation Season” from 1 st September to 4 th October, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi. Now, the Kingdom Season runs from All Saints Day to the Feast of Christ the King on 22 nd November this year. The Church’s Year aims to direct our thoughts. It’s good to know that disciples world-wide are reading much the same Scriptures and exploring similar ideas, problems and aspirations at the same time as ourselves. The idea of the ‘Kingdom’ Season is itself a bit of a problem. Matthew 25 foretells the Last Judgement. The judge is not the Father, but Christ himself. Our fate depends on whether we served Christ in the shape of the hungry and thirsty, the prisoners, the poor and homeless and the immigrant and refugee. But for much of the Gospels, although Jesus often behaved as if he was in charge, he lived as Paul described him to the Philippians: “Though he was in the form of God, (he) did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:6-8) Many modern 3 “worship songs” emphasise words like “glory”, “majesty” and “power”. We mustn’t deny the importance of these things. The early Church Fathers of Jesus described him as the winner of a cosmic battle which the powers of darkness thought they had won when Jesus died, only to find that he invaded Hell itself (Ephesians 4:8-10). However, Jesus’ Easter victory over death and evil was hard-won, achieved only because Jesus’ unfailing obedience to the Father took him to the Cross. That’s the sort of King we follow. How, then, do we follow Jesus, the Servant King? Sometimes Jesus said things that strike me as a little odd. John’s Gospel (ch 15v15) reads, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” However, he had just said (v 14), “You are my friends if you do what I command you .” So we can be intimate with Jesus, we can learn from him more of God’s purposes for us, for our loved ones and our world as he speaks to his friends through Scripture and through the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, He is in charge, not us. There are three particular commands to heed. First, the command to love. We are to love God, “with heart, soul, mind and strength,” to love our neighbour, (including our enemies), as ourselves, and to love one another. Loving in the New Testament isn’t about feelings or preferences. It’s about actions . John wrote, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18) 4 We face a whole spectrum of crises needing our attention. I’ll mention three. First , our neighbours in our Partner Dioceses in Kenya are suffering from climate change. Weather is erratic. Increasingly long droughts are punctuated by violent, destructive floods . Marsabit featured in Bishop Stephen’s Lent Appeals; one bought a bowser to take water to thirsty villagers. Second , hotter seas expand and sea level rise threatens our neighbours in Bangladesh. “By 2050, with a projected 50 cm rise in sea level , Bangladesh may lose approximately 11% of its land, affecting an estimated 15 million people.” (Environmental Justice Foundation ) Do we love our neighbour to the extent of changing our habits in whether, how far and how often we fly? What sort of vehicle we drive? How we insulate and heat our homes? Third , our neighbours include thousands who fled conflict in Syria with only what they could carry. Does our love for God extend to loving refugees, including those who have left everything they had for the perilous journey across the Mediterranean (and, perhaps later, the English Channel,) seeking safety? We also have many English people sleeping rough, cared for by Crisis and in this area by Chelmsford CHESS. Jesus told us that we should be feeding the hungry. The local Food Pantry does this but needs active support especially during the current pandemic. Can our active love support the helpers? According to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus left us with two further commands. “Make disciples” and, “teach them to obey all that I have commanded you.” And in His love, our Servant King added, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Ken 5 The Gardener This year I have had the joy of helping Viv Perry in her garden whilst her husband Bob has been in hospital. We have worked alongside her lady gardener who, like us, loves the garden and finds a real sense of God’s presence there. I have often heard the gardener singing and also quietly praying whilst working. It is amazing how Bob has planted the garden over the years so that there are flowers and colour all the time. It is now a time for cutting back and pruning some plants and bushes ready for the Winter. Viv and I are always consulting her gardener as to what should be done so we don’t cut or prune too much!!! Talking of pruning, Jesus in John 15:1 states that He is the true vine and God His Father is the gardener. The vine is frequently used in the Old Testament as a symbol of Israel and when this imagery is used Israel is often shown as lacking in some way. Jesus, however, is the true vine and lacks nothing. He goes on to say “I am the vine and you are the branches and my father cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit” He prunes so it will be even more fruitful. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches and no branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can we bear fruit unless we remain in Jesus. When we accept Jesus into our lives and want to be fruitful for Him, we know that He will show us the parts of our lives that need pruning, so that by His Spirit new life can grow in us and we are able to show the fruits of the Spirit to others - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 6 v22-23). Let us reflect on what we can prune in our own lives so that we can grow more fruitful for our Lord and to be His witness in this world.