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From the Rector - Godly Play
Over the three days of Monday 25th to
Wednesday 27th April a Godly Play course was
held in St Faith’s Church House. The large room above
the Havant Nursery, next to our Parish Office, once
known as the Minor Hall, now hosts not only the studios
of ‘Talking News’, but also a redecorated and
refurbished room for the Sunday Club dedicated for Godly
Play use. New shelves and cupboards have been bought
for the room, so it was good to see it used by the group
of 14 people, from all over the country, involved with
the course. We enjoyed the course greatly, not least
because our improved facilities were so good, and were
excellently catered for by Susan and her faithful
helpers (many thanks to Jenny, Peggy, Sheila, Sara and
all). As we look forward to the redecoration of the
Church Hall with its improved facilities, we can see
something of its potential to provide an excellent venue
for an increased range of more events like this.
The course was led by the Revd. Peter Privett and Alison
Seamen and was attended by Fr Charles, Penny, Fiona and
Deborah (our Sunday Club Leaders), Carmen (who leads the
Women’s Group) and myself from St Faith’s, along with
representatives from the Diocese (including Ben Mizen,
Youth Officer, Revd. Peter Lippiett, Spirituality
Advisor and Revd. Anne Leonard, Vicar of Hayling, St
Peter & St Andrew), Youth Officers from Liverpool and
Chester, a children’s club leader from Petersfield, a
Methodist minister in training and a Head Teacher.
Monday and Tuesday ran from 9am to 9pm, so we certainly
received intense training. But it was very worthwhile.
So what is Godly Play? Essentially it is a way of
relating certain stories from the Bible or about the
Church to a group of children (or adults) and then
allowing space and time for them to wonder what the
story meant to them. Rather than dragging the
participants to a pre-set conclusion, they are invited
to reflect upon what they have seen and heard, through
carefully set questions. In this way the participants
are gradually drawn into a wondering about the nature of
God and how we perceive God. In one session, for
example, we heard the parable of the mustard seed, but
the teller not only related the story in word but also
mapped out a picture before us. The seed grew into a
tree and the birds came to nest in it. As we were led
into the wondering section we explored whom the man that
sowed the seed was, and what the tree might have
represented to us. The power of the group enabled a
rich deepening of the spiritual truths conveyed by the
parable in the hearts of the participants. Furthermore
through the use of craft activities the participants
have the opportunity to explore in their own way their
meaning of the story.
There are some strict rules about the way Godly Play is
conducted. The participants only enter the Godly Play
room when they are ready, and again the storyteller only
begins when everyone is still and ready. S/he then asks
the participants to notice from where in the room s/he
is going to fetch today’s story. Not only does each
story have a specific pack but resides in a fixed
location in the room, so that later the children can go
back and play with the story on their own if they want
to. While the story is being related the leader does
not have eye contact with the participants, but focuses
on the visual images that go with it. Only during the
wondering does the storyteller look at the children.
The text of the story and the questions are set and
deviation from this text is not encouraged, although it
is stressed that each person needs to lead according to
their own unique style or way of doing it. These texts,
which were developed in the States by their creator,
Jerome Berryman, have been refined over thirty years of
working with children.
At each session there is also time for the Great Feast,
reflecting the communion amongst those present.
Although perhaps consisting only of a biscuit and water,
children are especially fond of this time and relish the
sense of occasion a feast provides. As such we can see
the elements of the Eucharist in these sessions, but it
has to be said they are perhaps more powerful than many
of our church services! This has given me food for
thought, I can assure you.
Godly Play provides not only a rich spiritual resource
for children but for all of us. Those of us who were on
the course are now working to further resource the room
(we need to invest in other kit to fully stock the room)
and on building a programme for the room’s usage. We
will make opportunity for various groups, of adults and
children, to be able to use the room. We should also
like to see it as a resource for the Diocese and other
local churches to train leaders and to hold taster
events. You can see that this much appreciated and
powerful tool can benefit a wide variety of people and
provide a rich ministerial focus from the parish. And
don’t worry if you are concerned about getting up the
flight of stairs to experience Godly Play – plans are
afoot to bring it to a level near you soon! So when we
can make it available please come along and see it, so
you can appreciate its value. In the mean time please
pray for the planning group of Fiona Hedley, Susan
Gibbons, Fr Charles Keay, Deborah Creasy, Carmen Stuart,
Penny Britt and myself as we work through these
challenges.
David
About The Parish
Looking back at the Second World War, people today
wonder how it was possible for the Nazi Party of Adolf
Hitler to gain control of Germany and to unleash the
Holocaust on the Jewish Nation. Why did the Catholic
and Protestant Churches stand by while the Jewish Church
in Germany was persecuted in the 1930s? Why did the
German people put Hitler in power and give him fanatical
support throughout the Second World War? Certainly one
factor was the appalling burden placed on Germany by the
savage terms of the peace treaty which ended the First
World War. It destroyed the economic fabric of the
country and was a major contribution to the unstable
society which produced the Nazis. However, throughout
it all, the Churches failed to give a lead. Yet an
event occurred in Berlin in 1943 which demonstrated what
could have been done if they had taken a stand against
the rising Nazi Party.
After the catastrophic defeat of the German Army at
Stalingrad, the SS and Gestapo became recklessly vicious
in dealing with the German population at home.
Throughout the early years of the war, thousands of Jews
were allowed to live freely in Berlin, while doing
essential work for the war effort. In February 1943,
this all changed and the Gestapo rounded up the last ten
thousand Jews in Berlin. Of these, two thousand,
virtually all men, were held in a facility in
Rosenstrasse. They all had non-Jewish spouses and when
news spread, hundreds of German wives gathered outside
the prison to demonstrate, chanting "Give back our
husbands!" The SS drove them off with great
brutality and threatened to fire on them. But they just
regrouped and advanced again in a phalanx, confronting
the lines of armed SS with great bravery. This
continued, day and night, for a whole week, with the
non-Jewish wives standing their ground for their Jewish
husbands. These wonderful women won a remarkable
victory because the SS gave in and released the two
thousand captives. This must rank with all the many
acts of heroism during the war and remember, these women
were German.
No such demonstration occurred in Rome and there was no
protest from the Churches, when the Germans rounded up
all Jews living in the City outside of the Vatican and
sent them by train to the gas chambers. In France, the
French police acted with great efficiency and vigour in
rounding up the Jews of Paris, again without protest
from the Churches. The distinguished historian of the
period, J P Stern wrote, "It seems without any doubt,
that if the Churches had opposed the killing and the
persecution of the Jews, as they opposed the killing of
the congenitally insane and the sick, there would have
been no Final Solution."
Yet there were many instances of individual church members showing
exceptional bravery in standing up to the Nazis. In
Bavaria in April 1941, the Bavarian minister of
education, Adolf Wagner, ordered the banning of
crucifixes and all Christian hymns and prayers in
schools. In what was described as the "Mothers'
Revolt", huge numbers of mothers massed outside
every school in Bavaria threatening to remove their
children unless the order was rescinded. Wagner
capitulated and the order was withdrawn! Returning to
the brave wives of Berlin, the incident was related in a
book by another historian of the period, Nathan Stolzfus.
The title of the book says it all - "Resistance of
the Heart".
Roger Bryant
The Gift of Love
Sometimes a writer in a simple story reveals more about
human relationships and behaviour than a weighty tome by
an erudite professor of philosophy. One of my favourite
short stories is “The Gift of the Magi” by
O.Henry (penname of William Sidney Porter, an American
writer who died in 1910).
In brief, and as I remember it, the story concerns a
devoted, but impecunious, young couple living in a
rundown apartment block in New York. Della, the wife
has beautiful brown hair which, let down, reaches below
her waist. It’s husband Jim’s pride and joy to look
with eyes of love at Della with her beautiful hair; the
other treasure in his life is the handsome gold watch
given to him by his father. The time is Christmas Eve
and Della, who wishes desperately to buy a present for
Jim, is counting her meagre savings from house keeping
money – it amounts to one dollar eighty seven cents.
Della makes up her mind and goes to a hairdresser on
Broadway and sells her lustrous locks for twenty
dollars. Next, she goes to a nearby jeweller’s shop and
adding one dollar to her bounty, buys a platinum fob
chain for Jim to display on this prized watch. Back
home in the apartment Della looks in the mirror and
wonders what Jim will think and say when he sees her
cropped like an urchin.
Jim arrives home from the office where he is a lowly
clerk on the first rung of the business ladder. He
looks at Della with an expression she can’t make out,
not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval – he simply
stares at her with this peculiar expression on his
face. Della says, “Don’t look that way darling, I
sold my hair because I couldn’t bear to let Christmas go
by without giving you a present, I’ve bought a beautiful
present for you”. Jim comes out of his trance,
takes a package from his overcoat pocket and hands it to
Della. She tears off the wrapping, opens the box within
and gives a scream of joy and delight which changes
quickly, almost to a sob. For there lie a set of
beautiful pure tortoiseshell combs with jewelled rims –
combs she had long coveted as she gazed at them in the
shop window – a perfect adornment for her vanished
hair. “My hair grows fast, Jim” she says, then
“Oh, you haven’t seen your present yet!” She
hands him the platinum fob chain saying, “This will
look dandy on your watch, you’ll show it off a dozen
times a day”. Jim says, “Della, let’s put our
presents away for a while, they’re too nice to use now.
I sold my watch to buy your combs”. They embrace,
they will put their presents away for now, their time
will come.
They had given each other the greatest gift of all – the
gift of love.
With acknowledgement, thanks and
apologies to O.Henry. J.B
(Do you have any memories of a story
that you have read and would like to share it with our
readers? - then please give them to the Editor)
The Boyhood of Jesus
The Bible tells us very little about the boyhood of
Jesus. In fact only two Gospels, Matthew and Luke, tell
us of His birth. Mention is made of Him, thought to be
at the age of twelve, leaving his parents and returning
to the Temple in Jerusalem, where they found Him talking
to the Elders. Otherwise, we know nothing of His
boyhood and, indeed, little of His family. I remember
that in my late teens, I was surprised to learn that
Jesus had siblings and of these we really only know of
His brother James. However, the early Church had
written (apocryphal) accounts of the family and boyhood
of Jesus, some of which were contemporary with the
Gospels.
In early times, most people could not read but they were
familiar with tales which had been handed down from
generation to generation. Peter Appleby and I had a
teacher, named Ashton-Caine, who was in his late 60s
soon after the Second World War. He once said that as a
very young man, he had met a very old lady, who, as a
small child, had been presented at court to Napoleon
Bonaparte. The period from this lady to the two of us
spanned almost 200 years, so it is not surprising that
stories could be passed down the centuries. So what
did the early Church know of the family of Jesus?
The apocryphal texts tell us that the parents of the
Blessed Mother Mary, and therefore the grandparents of
Jesus, were Joachim, who owned vast flocks of sheep in
the hill country of Jericho, and Anne, whose family
owned great estates close to Mount Carmel on the
seaboard of Galilee. The couple lived wealthily, but
piously, in Jerusalem, and were great benefactors of the
Temple. The texts have it, that Joachim was banned from
the Temple for failing to have an offspring and in his
humiliation, he blamed Anne and left her to return to
the hill country, where he stayed for 40 days. During
this time, an angel awoke him from sleep with the news
that the Almighty would grant him fatherhood.
Simultaneously, an angel appeared to the shamed and
distressed Anne, saying "Anne, Anne the Lord has
heard your prayer. You shall conceive and bear, and
your offspring shall be spoken of in the whole world."
Joachim returned home and Anne conceived. The 20 years
barrenness of Anne ended with the wondrous birth of
Mary, foretold by angels as the bearer of exceptional
destiny.
At the age of 3, Mary was taken in great ceremony to the
Temple, where she was to remain in the Temple School
until she attained womanhood. In biblical times, this
would have been between the ages of 12 and 14, at which
time most girls married. Anne and Joachim now leave the
scene and the Chief Priest is described as taking full
parental control of Mary. When she attains the age of
12, some accounts say 14, an angel appears telling the
Chief Priest to call single men to come with staves to
the Temple, so that the Lord could miraculously indicate
"to whom his wife Mary shall be". A dove
descends on the stave of Joseph, the carpenter, and the
Chief Priest says to him, "Joseph, to you has fallen
the good fortune to receive the virgin of the Lord; take
her under your care." The texts tell us that an
astounded and reticent Joseph pleads his seniority and
his inappropriateness as the husband of so young a
bride. But he recognises that he must obey the will of
God. According to the accounts in the East, Mary goes
to the house of Joseph in the company of five virgins,
Rebecca, Zipporah, Suzanna, Abigail and Cael, who are to
remain with her until her marriage. As we will see next
month, this version was not accepted in the West.
Roger Bryant
Historic Churches
Trust Sponsored Bike Ride & Walk
The Sponsored Ride & Walk this year is on Saturday the
10th September from 10am-6pm. The guidelines
are all as last year. Sponsor Forms and details will be
available from me later. Please keep this date free.
Audrey Currie
Correspondence Column
The following are extracts from an
exchange of letters.
Dear June Bennett,
I am enclosing three pictures of Rear Admiral Motton’s
grave in Warblington cemetery. The inscriptions are:
IN DEAR MEMORY OF MY HUSBAND FREDERICK GEORGE MOTTON
PAYMASTER REAR ADMIRAL C.B.E DIED MARCH 3RD
1935, AGED 63
LORD IN THY MERCY GRANT TO US
AND THOSE WE LOVE HOLY REST AND PEACE AT THE LAST
ALSO ETHEL HIS BELOVED WIFE DIED
MAY 9TH 1962, AGED 80 R.I.P
I have looked through our magazines that we hold from
1930-1935 but cannot find any mention of Frederick
George Motton. Also, there are very few of the
congregation that were around at that time. However,
now that I know his wife died in 1962 I shall see
whether anybody knew her.
I have enclosed a copy of the May edition of our
magazine where I print your letter.
Yours sincerely,
Colin Carter
Dear Colin Carter
How very kind of you to go to so much trouble and to
take such beautiful photographs. It was also very
thoughtful of you to type out the two inscriptions.
These three photographs, with the one of Frederick as a
young Naval Officer, will certainly enhance the chapter
on his life in my fourth journal.
I was delighted to receive the May issue of your Parish
Magazine. The V-E Day WWII Memories certainly brought
back memories for me. I was training at Guy’s Hospital
during the V2’s but on the 8th May I and some
other Nurses who were off duty went to Trafalgar Square
for the celebrations. Sadly I only found later that a
dear friend – a Pilot in the Fleet Air Arm – on the 6th
May failed to land on his Aircraft Carrier after
returning from a flight over Rangoon. His mother never
got over the shock.
I agree with Margaret Galt you certainly put together a
very interesting Parish Magazine. Your funds I feel
deserve the enclosed.
Yours very sincerely,
June Bennett
(If anyone remembers Ethel Motton please let me know.
June Bennett’s generous donation has been put in the
“Magazine Fund”.)
News from Nottingham
The number of churches to have experienced my saxophone
playing doubled when I played the sax for the main
college communion service a few Thursdays ago (Thursday
evenings here are like Sundays in church). As many of
the congregation knew the story behind my sax, they were
smiling at me and egging me on. Playing with a loud
band was just great and I loved it.
Mondays here are devoted to spirituality and the
“formation” (non-academic) aspect of our training.
One Monday, we had a whole Quiet Day, led by the former
Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, who was really
inspiring. On other Mondays, we have had a choice of
sessions on different forms of spirituality: Ignatian,
Celtic, icons and some more unusual things. We are
encouraged to experiment with different ways of being
with God, so as to develop a spirituality that will
sustain us through the future. I helped one of the
tutors lead a series on the spirituality of hymns. It’s
remarkable how much of our theology we get from singing
hymns, without necessarily noticing what we are
learning. For many people (myself included), hymns are
among the most powerful means of worship, but how often
do we actually sit down with a hymn, read it carefully
and ask ourselves whether or not we agree with what it
says?
Since half term, we have been studying Christology. I
had no idea what that was: it’s the study of exactly who
Jesus was and is. In the early centuries of
Christianity, there was a lot of argument about this,
particularly over how Jesus could be both fully God and
fully human. One of the ways we can tell what early
Christians believed is by looking at the liturgies they
used for baptism and Eucharist, which are very similar
to those we still use, though occasionally crucially
different. Grappling with the various theories and
heresies (theories which were rejected) in the early
church is, as our tutor said, like nailing jelly to the
wall and makes you question everything you thought you
believed. I’m just about emerging through the fog,
which is just as well, as we have an exam on Christology
at the beginning of next term.
On a less head-spinning level, we have also been
studying methods in mission and evangelism, which has
been great fun. We had a whole morning with a couple
who have set up a church in a brand new housing estate
near Northampton. They have been there about three
years, and by totally immersing themselves in this new
community have shaped how the community has formed.
Their “church” includes mother and baby groups,
Alpha type groups and kids’ clubs, as well as a variety
of activities on Sundays. They are an example of the
“fresh expressions of church” described in the
Church of England’s report Mission Shaped Church
– through which the church is growing and which are
likely to be increasingly important in the future.
So inspired have I been by this mission course that I
found myself one afternoon in the centre of Nottingham
with two friends and a video camera, making a film for a
seminar. Having read all the statistics about growing
numbers of “the unchurched” and why people don’t
go to church, we decided to put it to the test. So we
asked people to tell us the reasons why they don’t go to
church. People were very happy to talk to us: many had
been to church as children and then stopped; most
thought “church” equals Sunday services and
nothing else; surprisingly few said “boring” or
“irrelevant”, but they all had a negative
perception of church; no one could suggest anything that
might make church more appealing; all were very tolerant
and thought church was fine for people who were into
that sort of thing; some were clearly spiritual and were
exploring various faiths, though usually not
Christianity; no one was remotely hostile. It was
fascinating and it underlined how much the church has to
offer, but how far it has to go in changing people’s
perceptions of what it is.
Continuing our work with the hospital chaplaincy team at
the Queen’s Medical Centre on Sundays, we had a guided
tour of the A&E department – which, with 400 admissions
a day (all to be processed within four hours), claims to
be the busiest in Europe; we also visited intensive care
and the neonatal unit for sick babies. The staff who
met us was all passionate about their work and we felt
privileged to meet them. We also spent an afternoon
with the multi-faith bereavement centre, which cares for
bereaved families. We visited the chapel of rest,
mortuary and post-mortem room and were impressed at how
professional and caring everything was, including the
fact that we did not see any dead people, because that
would have been inappropriate. Our work at the hospital
has now finished and has given us a real insight into
the immensely valuable work done by hospital chaplains
of all faiths.
A social highlight of the term was the College Revue one
Saturday evening in the local village hall. As you
would imagine, many of us here are extroverts, so there
was no shortage of acts. My fellowship group did a
sketch on “Church Hopping” – the church visits
that we did in our first term. And another group of us
had a lot of fun making (in advance) a “Big Brother
Theological College” video, featuring us. It’s
scary how quickly we have become used to things which we
now consider quite normal, but which other people would
find bizarre, so there was plenty to poke fun at.
I’m writing this on the last day of term, with the sun
streaming in through the window and a suitcase waiting
to be packed. I have thoroughly enjoyed this second
term. A peculiar feature of being an ordinand is that
Holy Week and Easter are rest times – something that I
suspect will never happen again.
Rachel Phillips
(is the niece of Alan Hakim)
From the Editor
Last month Beryl and I took a short break to Scotland
and visited the Isles of Mull and Iona. Iona has been a
place of Christian worship for more than 1,400 years.
St. Columba fled to Iona from Ireland in the year 563
and established a monastery. The conversion of most of
Scotland and Northern England to Christianity followed.
It is the centre of Celtic Christianity and there are
articles in “Faith Matters” in the October 2003
edition (Celtic Christianity) and in the January 2004
edition (The Celtic Church).
Tobermory is on the Isle of Mull and those of you with
young children will know that the television programme “Balamory”,
with all the brightly coloured houses, is filmed from
there. Colin Carter
Congratulations
to Charles Chase who celebrated his 95th
birthday on 12th May. Charles was the owner
of “The Ship Inn” at Langstone and
attended St. Nicholas Chapel for many, many years.
Youth Club
The St Faith’s Youth Club has
now been running since January 2005 and is proving to be
a great success. We get an average of between 15 and 20
children between the ages of 9 and 15. Most are part of
the congregation but we are always delighted to get some
children from outside St Faith’s.
The children named the club the
‘Young Believers Club’. A little prescriptive
you may think but its not putting anyone off and we
think it quite fetching.
While our new club may lag a
little in order, organisation and structure, it makes up
for it in fun, freedom of expression and creativity.
The children unwind and get a chance to express
themselves. And we play games that are so fresh; they
almost seem to have been invented there and then.
That’s because they are. Not really. Well maybe a
little.
We are developing the activities
as we move on and are planning to include plenty of new
features including sailing and team sports. And while
there hasn’t been a formal programme of religious based
activities, we do try to include discussion and debate
with the support of our clergy.
A number of St Faith’s alumni
are involved including Rosemary Thomas, Victoria Smith,
Fiona Hedley, Simon Creasy, Barry Hudson and Anne Fluck.
We also have regular support and involvement from David
Gibbons and Charles Keay.
The club runs fortnightly from 6
to 7.30pm on Sunday evenings in the Hall. For
information contact me, Martin Poliszczuk
on 9247 6001.
Local Choirs Combine for War Anniversary
Two choirs from Portsmouth and two from Southampton
are joining together on Sunday June 26th to
present a performance of Benjamin Britten's "War
Requiem" in Portsmouth Guildhall. Portsmouth is
represented by the Portsmouth Festival Choir and the
Portsmouth Youth Choir and Southampton by the
Southampton Philharmonic Choir and the Southampton
University Phil. The choirs will be accompanied by the
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, with international
soloists Katarina Leitgeibe (soprano), Justin Lavender
(tenor) and Paval Baransky (baritone). This concert is
being presented in association with The Royal British
Legion, who will be making a collection for their work.
The War Requiem is acknowledged to be one of the
greatest choral works of the twentieth century and
combines the words of the Latin Mass with poems by
Wilfred Owen, who wrote very movingly of his experiences
in the trenches during the First World War. Benjamin
Britten wrote it for a first performance in the newly
rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in 1962.
David Gibson, Musical Director of Southampton
Philharmonic Choir, who will be conducting the concert
says "With 100 professional musicians in two separate
orchestras, four choirs and two organs this is certain
to be an exhilarating sound and a truly memorable
occasion - a fitting tribute to all those who fought on
our behalf in the Second World War and a clear signal of
our determination to promote peace and goodwill in the
twenty-first century”.
The concert is being supported by awards from the
Lottery for All Programme, the Britten-Pears Foundation
and Hampshire County Council. Tickets can be obtained
from Portsmouth Guildhall Box Office on 023 9282 4355.
The concert starts at the early time of 7.00pm.
Havant During World War II
To mark the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War II
we are having an exhibition in church 1st-5th
July 2005 about Havant during the war. We are looking
for anything connected with Havant during the war years
- your memories, photographs, memorabilia from school
days, evacuees, the Home Guard, Air Raid Wardens, the
hospital, weddings, the armed forces, the camps,
factories, buildings taken over by the War Department,
the VE & VJ street parties, HMS Havant - in fact
anything you might like to share with us. If you can
help us in anyway please call Sandra Haggan 023
9245 5161
1940s Evening with The
Langstone Swing Band
This will be held in the Church Hall on Saturday 2
July commencing at 7.30pm. There will be a cold supper
(rationing you know!). Please dress in 1940s style.
The Christian Church Today - A Liberal Point of View
The Christian Religion claims to offer the opportunity for a
more completely fulfilled earthly life, said to be
followed by eternal bliss in the presence of the
Creator, made available through the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Sin is seen as
being inevitable, because of mans’ historic fall from
grace, both in some distant golden era of innocence, and
throughout the succeeding generations. Guilt is, however
now absolved and forgiven by the unfailing sacrifice
made in and through the temporal life, death and
resurrection of the Creator, in the person of Jesus
Christ. The traditional interpretation of this Atonement
however, would insist the gifts of forgiveness,
fulfilment and eternal bliss, so freely given by the
Creator, remain on offer exclusively, and more
importantly, conditionally, only to those who profess an
orthodox Christian creed, and engage in acts of
sacramental Christian worship that emphasise the endemic
sinfulness of mankind rather than the grace of the God.
To
many in this land, this tradition, and by default this
religion has become untenable, and worse, irrelevant.
Perhaps it is time for a new tradition, even a review of
the Christian Gospel?
Universal truths will ultimately be
found to be exactly that, whether or not one has the
opportunity or ability to know value or understand them.
Yet to claim possession of such knowledge is at best
unwise, unless one has extraordinary power or authority.
Such power and authority was indeed claimed by the man
Jesus, and is acknowledged by his followers; it is this
that identifies Him as Messiah, rather than prophet.
Faith
is the proclamation and acceptance of assumed basic
theological and philosophical statements, speculations
that as yet, may or may not be proven in scientific
terms.
Whilst such statements are built upon the assumption of
divine inspiration and that they will be proven right,
in or beyond the fullness of time, they must also
be seen as the rational offerings of fallible men and
women.
Ongoing scientific research will inevitably call into
question many well loved Christian paradigms and myths,
used through the ages. The defence and continued use of
many such ancient myths, models AND customs, may often
owe more to nostalgia than the rejection of a more
enlightened or rational religion; where such myths and
models remain unchallenged, the religion risk of
becoming superstitious folklore.
Both science and religion seek universal truths, science
principally by observation and logical deduction,
religion by placing the results of such research in the
context of a supernatural creator. Both must remain
contemporary. Our behaviour, including the application
of science through technology, needs be constrained by a
theology and philosophy expressed in terms compatible
with, and understood by, those who seek to understand
the wonders and needs of God’s creation, not restricted
to terms and phrases retained primarily to meet the
emotional needs and comfort of those who would teach and
preach.
Original sin
is not our inheritance of guilt, but our predisposition
to respond to genetic impulse, or pressure of
circumstance, without due cognisance of the Creator, or
regard for mankind.
Repentance,
in the full meaning of the word, means “to look
again”, and “to change ones mind”. It is the
willingness to accept the need for change, not only in
our behaviour, but also in our understanding, that is so
important to spiritual growth. Remorse and contrition
may result from this inward reflection, but they are
mere by products, not the main event.
Atonement,
in the Christian context, is a three party state,
involving you, your brother or sister, and your creator,
made possible by the cross, where Jesus performed the
act of conciliation: this was no gift of
appeasement to an offended supernatural power, but
rather an act of mediation through which mankind has
been, and continues to be assured of the loving,
fatherly, nature and purpose of its’ creator.
It was and is and will be here, on the cross, that God
and man becomes ‘as one’. The Christ is not
only delivering the word of God, He is carrying forward
the whole creative process!
Here is to be found and demonstrated the ultimate in
self-sacrifice to ones’ creator, and to ones’ fellow
beings.
This gift, so graciously given, must be made known and
better understood by all to be unconditional,
and applicable to everyone. There is simply no way
of escaping from the love of the Creator!
This ennoblement of mankind to the status of
’children of the Creator’ may yet remain unknown to
some, rejected by others and beyond the comprehension of
most, and yet, if true, there it stands.
Reconciliation
may often be required between brothers and sisters, but
we cannot be reconciled to God as separation from Him
has already become impossible
Perhaps this is the new “Good News
Gospel”, the ultimate “Universal Truth”, the
“New Tradition”.
Mankind has been given both the ability, and
the responsibility to evolve spiritually, not by its
own feeble efforts alone, but with and through the grace
and will of its Creator ‘Pelagius and Augustine
brought together!’
The potential for Change
Those fortunate enough to be made aware of this
Universal Truth, that is, the Church of Christ, are
doubtless obliged to respond by admitting their
continuing fallibility and weakness, and seeking further
assistance and guidance from their Creator. This they
must do, for themselves and on behalf of their brothers
and sisters, perhaps emphasising their redemption a
little less, and their spiritual evolution a great deal
more; but above all, they must give true and joyful
thanks for all they have
received.
Those, both inside and outside the church ,appearing to
ignore or failing to respond to the gifts, are not
however to be considered disqualified from them ,for
that decision must rest entirely with the giver; but
rather, we with them are to be seen as even more
obviously dependent upon the grace of the Creator.
Perhaps it is the degree or magnitude of this our
dependence upon that grace that will at last become
known to each one of us at our time of judgement.
Toward The Future
We will all inevitably continue to be seen to fail in
our responsibilities, through ignorance, arrogance and
our own fallibility, yet separation from our Creator
remains impossible.
We remain individually and corporately obliged to
acknowledge our debt of thanks to our Creator; to make
known the Universal Truth of His unremitting love for
every one of his children, by attempting to place the
welfare of others at the centre of our lives, and by
reconciling our differences where ever, and when ever
they occur.
It is perhaps our obligation to continue to try, (rather
than to succeed,) that is so imperative. We must, above
all be seen to be celebrating and enjoying to the
full our privileges and humanity, ever mindful of
our unique position as Children of God.
Throughout our endeavours and celebrations, we must
never forget we have been assured of continuing support,
growth and enlightenment through the supernatural powers
of the Holy Spirit. To spurn the opportunity and
responsibility for continuing growth and further
enlightenment is perhaps the greatest sin of all.
Meanwhile, that small part of the church to which
we belong, would perhaps do well to be seen to be
prepared to “look again,” at its traditions, and
at times be prepared to “change its’ mind” both
in its’ delivery of what it perceives to be the word of
God and in its’ response to the needs of the community.
Ivan Morley
Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart
don’t know how to laugh either.
(Golda Meir)
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