December 2020 ~ February 2021 A Merry Christmas & a Very Happy New Year www.walesbychurches.org Rector’s letter December 2020 Dear friends As we draw to the end of another In writing articles like this, I always of Christmas, now approaching rapidly. strengthened him and helped him show year, we will I suspect, each and reflect on the words I penned last year As I write this letter it’s Advent Sunday, he understood the problems of the every one of us, reflect and look and sometimes, just occasionally, a few the start of the Advent season. Advent world ... so that small baby was not back at 2020 and what it meant to prophetic words pop up: is a season of expectation leading us so small after all ... and, as we know into that other time of great joy, the changed the world! us. It was a year we could never Last year I wrote - ‘[Relationships] have imagined … 2020 a year that coming of the Christ child. In Jesus we whether through blood ties, or In this edition of the Wolds Witness, are brought together, for our love and has changed our lives in so many church family or the family of a we look back on some of the things we care for each other is key to a Christian ways … 2020 a year that has caused village community, are important have done to get us through as Church. understanding of the world. But it is, I so much suffering through loss in underpinning the love we show Everything we have done is to grow and would suggest, more fundamental than and grief … 2020 has changed to our fellow human beings. Our continue to develop our faith. As new that. It is key to what underpins our permanently the fabric of our world is difficult and desperate faces appear and we continue to adapt humanity too, the quality that binds us society and the way we live our lives in so many places, so we should to new ways to worship, new ways together as communities … and Jesus now. find Joy in every place where to minister I am confident that we will is the ultimate symbol of that love and It’s very easy, at this time, to look back people come together in a secure our future. bonding. and see only the negative effects of common cause for the common Let this year be a year when we reflect the COVID19 pandemic. There were, good.’ As we now walk through Advent on what we were, what we have of course, so many. However, woven towards Christmas we know this I have seen and found great Joy in become and what we want ourselves to into the darkness have been those year will be different. There will be no many of the communities that form part be in the future. amazing chinks of light…. those chinks great Carol Services this year, a lack of our wide church family, and across all of goodness and neighbourliness. of Nativity plays in our churches and Years like this thankfully, don’t come the villages I minister to. schools. When we are in churches along very often. However when they We have demonstrated to all that we We are not extraordinary people living in or groups our numbers are greatly do, let us use them, and learn from are not just the 21st century greedy special places, but normal people living reduced. And yes we can all complain them, and grow more as forward materialist consumers, history might in normal communities. Just passing about it and shout it’s not fair! Yet in the thinking Christ-like people. have labelled us. We are a people who through an extraordinary times. Yet in midst of our Christmas let us not forget can look after each other, putting others As Jesus Christ our saviour did, let us this extraordinary crisis we have each what we are really celebrating ... before ourselves. Not just family and now, in our time, change the world too! found great personal joy in just serving friends either! Many have supported ... a small baby coming into the world our fellow human beings, helping those Wishing you all a Very Happy, Safe & their extended communities, people in very difficult circumstance, with no who cannot help themselves. I can’t Peaceful Christmas they may not have known before. Is it friends or family to help the mother imagine the joy and relief felt by those in the wartime spirit? Or just the goodness and father. A small baby coming into our villages who realised they were not that is inherent in each and every one of the world to offer a new way to be alone. us, just buried by the pressures of our and to live. A small baby who was lives before the pandemic. Foremost in the minds of many at this not restricted by the lack of things time is of course the great celebration in his early childhood, if anything it page 2 page 3 I think you’re very brave! “I think you’re very brave!” Probably Tealby had been our home during the isn’t the ideal response to have time I was working in the Chaplaincy when, as a clergywoman, you tell at Grimsby hospital, and it’s been a your Bishop what your plans are for real delight to return here, back to my the next few years! roots in the Lincolnshire Wolds. We have an interesting garden, complete But I suppose it isn’t a recognised with labyrinth! And the new addition ‘clergy path’ to start researching church of a summerhouse (or ‘shed’ as our life, and applying to do a PhD in your neighbours call it!) will be really useful 60s! My experience of different types of next year, when I’m hoping we can ministry - hospital chaplaincy, running become part of the Quiet Garden a busy parish and Deanery, as well as movement, with days of peace, being a spiritual director, and retreat contemplation and reflection hosted in and quiet day leader, has given me a Tealby. real interest in how people see their local church and their own walk with I hope to be able to tell you more about God, and how important it is to them. my research in the near future, and When rural ministry changes, as the am looking forward to welcoming new areas priests are called to minister friends and old to Shepherd’s Hill soon! over get bigger and bigger, this also Revd Annabel Barber becomes something of real importance to everyone involved with their local As a ministry team we are very church. much looking forward to welcoming Revd Annabel as part of the You can’t always take time to prepare team. Annabel will be licensed as in advance for a change of career. Associate Priest to the Benefice Ministering during Covid left me very of Walesby and the Benefice of little time for anything else, so I finished Barkwith at the Tealby Evening working in my parish of Waddington at Service on Sunday 20th December. the end of September and moved back The Archdeacon of Stow and into our house in Tealby. Then I began Lindsey, the Ven. Mark Steadman to make my PhD proposal a reality, will be preaching and licensing and finally submitted it at the end of Annabel to her new ministry. November. Fr Chris page 4 page 5 WHY? Because God was nudging me When talking about the training study: lent courses were particularly remarkable people has been rewarding years - and theologically - there is still Martin, Janine and I are taking at enjoyable, but always wanted to beyond words. I still feel, as I did the so much that we don’t know. Usually Lincoln School of Theology, one of know, and do, more. My main focus, first time I met them, that they all have by about 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon the first questions we are asked is on a weekly basis, for Bible study more to offer than I. But I know we offer I feel that I am fighting the urge to say “what do you do?” By the end of was preparing to lead the Morning each other support, encouragement, “Please Sir/Madam, my brain is full!” Service or preparing a reflection for the comradeship. We laugh, learn and pray the academic year we will have: We really miss the fellowship of our Tuesday communion. Matters reached together, and with the whole Lincoln • Written Essays totalling 15000 words fellow students. Although we all have a head when I was introduced to The School of Theology family. • Undertaken over 800 hours of different backgrounds and occupations, Homilies Project, a resource prepared private study Writing essays is not as easy as I we all have a common purpose at LST, for parishes where “a licensed and • Spent 19 Saturdays at Edward King remember, bookshelves and credit to train as Readers or Ministers and we theologically trained leader,” or a Reader House in Lincoln, latterly via online cards are both groaning with the piles really bonded as a natural self-support lectures and tutorials or Priest is not available. There were two of unexpected reading material, having group last year. We are also expected to • Learned an alarming number of new choices: to follow the provided text or to re-assess the whole way you practise ‘do’ much more in supporting worship 4 syllable words (Theologians never Reader training. I chose to investigate your religion is not easy or pleasant.
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