SAINT MATTHEW’S WILLESDEN PARISH
LETTER
OCTOBER 2014.
My Dear Friends,
It has been my idle hope, ever since I began writing these letters
nineteen months ago, that one day somebody would say to me ‘wouldn’t it be a
good idea to have a parish magazine’, closely followed by the words ‘and I will
edit it’. This has never quite happened, but a number of people have suggested
that they would like a magazine and that, if there were one, they would write
for it and help edit it. Good. A parish magazine there shall be, hopefully we
will have a very high quality one published twice a year, in Christmastide and
Eastertide. It is my experience that monthly magazines quickly run out of steam
and end up being filled with articles copied and pasted from other sites and
people lose interest quickly. A quality, twice yearly one with colour
photographs, printed on quality paper and sold at a modes cost (a pound, for
example) is more likely to appeal to us and to people outside the parish. As
ever, these things take a team effort and I hope that you will think of ways to
contribute, we are happy to include pictures of church activities, round ups of
local news, for example from a local society or charity you are involved in,
restaurant reviews, recipes (with a photo) and many other things besides. If
you have an idea, talk to me.
Now that the summer is well
behind us and autumn has set in, we have a little time for quiet introspection
before November and the round of planning for Christmas begins in earnest. We
need to think very carefully about our buildings, which are in a poor state of
repair, years of weather has buffeted our north elevation and the brickwork and
pointing are very poor indeed. This is major work and well beyond our budget,
but we will have to find a way around this. We must in all things keep our
minds fixed on growth and remain positive in our outlook, the Gospel that we
preach and try to live up to is one wherein light penetrated even the bleakest
situation and our buildings state of repair is as nothing compared to the cross
of Christ which He invites us to share with Him. We rejoice in so many things –
our close friendship with our local churches both in our own Church of England
and ecumenically, with other denominations. We look forward to the annual Ecumenical
Advent Service on Sunday the 30th of November at 4.15 pm in St
Michael’s Stonebridge and we pray for Fr Jason Rendell who we saw installed at
a jubilant Mass in St Andrew’s Kingsbury only a little while ago. In this
Harvest month we also look forward to our schools coming to share in our
celebrations and we praise the creator of all things for His bounteous
blessings upon us as we prepare for the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ,
that heavenly child, who I am reminded of each time I hear the beautiful sound
of a baby or child crying or playing in church. Never ever think that I mind
the noise of children, it is a joy to me and it should be to us all.
When you read this
newsletter, I will be away in Cyprus, walking from the place where St Paul was
scourged in Paphos up Mount Olympus, the mythical home of the Greek gods, and
over the other side to the tomb of Saint Barnabas. This latter half of the
journey is uncertain though as the North of Cyprus, which is an internationally
unrecognised Turkish colony, is currently worrying the international community
with the Islamic terrorism in the Middle East and is seen as a potential
foothold for organisations promoting terror. It is within this backdrop of
extremism and hatred that we must live our lives at this present time,
unfortunately, remembering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross and the
darkness that seemed to engulf the world at that moment, recalling always the
bright light and hope of the resurrection three days later.
It is a very great joy
for us to have close associations with local schools and of course John Keble
was founded by Sisters from Kilburn, whose Monastic Community now live in Ham,
near Richmond, in South London and are indeed scattered all over the world. We
owe a great debt to those men and women who, responding to Gods certain call in
an uncertain time, offer themselves to Him in an act of pure love, to serve Him
and to pray for us all for the rest of their days as monks and nuns. Priests
are also called to a life of service to God and of loving His word and encouraging
others to keep His commandments. It is a profoundly counter cultural life and
so often the elements of sacrifice, self-giving, forgiveness and hope are
diametrically opposed to the prevailing world and its love of self, power,
money and privilege. It is to this certain but invisible life that we are
called and priests, monks and nuns, deacons, readers, home visitors and any
servant of the church are called by God but always, always, always through
other people recognising that call and encouraging them on. Have you felt that
call? Do you know someone who you could encourage to hear it? If so, encourage
them! A call to ministry may take years, maybe decades, to develop. I remember
that I knew I would be a priest from being about 12 years old, maybe younger,
but the call takes a long, long time to develop and it takes a lot of
encouragement from others and courage from yourself along the way. So pray for
priests and monks and nuns, pray for deacons and parish visitors and lay
workers, they are not chosen by me, they are chosen by God and it is for you to
recognise the call in others as much as it is for me to nurture it, or indeed
to encourage people to other callings if it seems wise so to do. Remember. ‘you
have not chosen me, I have chosen you’ and that realisation is one which will
change us into who we are called to be. It is not comfortable and it is never
casual, not a ‘I thought I’d like to do this now’, but more a ‘I have a burning
call to do this, and I am willing to risk everything to follow it’. Think, pray
and act, for yourself or for someone you know, maybe they are just waiting,
nervously, for someone to say ‘have you thought about being a lay minister, or a
parish reader, or to take communion to the sick’. What a beautiful privilege
(but not a right) that is.
Well, my friends, next
time I write it will be November, that happy month wherein we wait through the
darkness of Remembrance Sunday and All Souls for the light of Christ the King
and the purple and the yearning of Advent. Pray through it, embrace the cold,
allow it to sharpen your mind to guide your soul in the way of justice, mercy,
truth and peace and never cease to pray, for us all, our parish, our schools,
our Bishops, our world and for me, for without your prayers and support I can
do very little. I pray for you all each day and offer Mass for our parish every
Sunday with the intention of all your needs and hopes. We must pray for each
other and support each other and help to build up the Kingdom of God together.
One day I will be gone and maybe nobody will remind us all to love each other,
but the day will come when we stand before the Lord and our lives will be
weighed up and a hard heart weighs much more than love.
With my love in
Christ and prayers as always,
