Fr. Yenda's Monthly Letters 2004

November 2004

My dear folk of St. Mary’s;

November is an interesting month because it seems to be full of extremes! The weather has by now supposedly turned cold, although with current weather trends nothing is guaranteed! People are busy already shopping for the festival I shall have to write about in the next magazine (!!), and in church we seem to move from one sense of joyful celebration to those which have more than a hint of pathos.

November kicks off in great spirit with All Saints’ Day on the 1st.. We shall keep the feast at the Solemn Parish Eucharist on Sunday 31st. All Saints’ is a particular favourite of mine, partly because I served my Title at All Saints’ in South Shields, and I was also ordained in that particular church. It always seems wonderful to have a day when we can give thanks for and celebrate all the saints — and, of course, sing with gusto that wonderful hymn, ‘for all the saints, who from their labours rest…’

November 2nd. Is All Souls day. This day we remember all the faithful departed. For some of us that day may be particularly poignant, we may have more recent names to add to the list this year. ...there may be people whom we have loved and who have gone before us some time back now, and still the loss is great. All Souls enables us to give thanks for the lives of our dearly departed loved ones, to remember them, and to celebrate what they have meant to us. In the knowledge that the departed rise to eternal glory to live with God, in the joy of Our lord’s Resurrection we hold in our hearts on that day a special sense of love and care for those who are bereaved.

And of course, later in the month there is Remembrance Sunday. We remember with love and with thanks those who gave their lives in times of war. For someone of my generation, the concept of war was made more real this year wondering if my brother who is in the Army might have been sent to Iraq. Mercifully he wasn’t. But it does serve to remind us of those who did go to war both in 1914 and in 1939, and who did not return.

All these years on it might to some seem remote, a long time back. In one sense it is, but in another it remains as relevant today as it always has. For the benefits which those brave men and women won for us all those years ago have not lessened with the passage of time; and for those who have mourned their loss , their grief remains, and our prayers on that important day are to their benefit also.

Towards the end of November we find that Ordinary time gives way to Advent.

There is a great joy in Advent; a great sense of hope. I often say that Advent is my favourite time of the year — and it is a fitting way to conclude November. We will have shared the joy of All Saints’, the pathos of All Souls, the marked respect and sadness of Remembrance Sunday, and we end with the joy of Advent — that time in the church calendar when we start a fresh new year.

With all good wishes,

December 2004

This is the time of year when the general public seem to think that the clergy go to work!! Little jokes are heard from Land’s End to John O-Groats about the local Vicar having to build himself up for Christmas!!

It is also the time of year when we have the great joy of welcoming many people through the doors of our beautiful little church as we all give thanks to God for the birth of Our Blessed lord Jesus Christ .

We hear so much now about Christmas being secularised — ‘no one remembers the true meaning of Christmass’…’It’s all about spend, spend, spend, and no one bothers with the religious side of it!’….and so on and so forth!

Perhaps in one sense that is true, but in another, there is clear evidence that that is not entirely the case. Because on the one hand, we do enjoy the Christmass dinner, the giving and receiving of presents … just as we don’t like the crowded shops, we get irritated when all the children’s toys are broken by Boxing Day, and we all dread the credit card bill that comes in in January!!

But then look at the fruits. It is the one time of year when we do get more people in church for worship: and for that we give thanks, because this time of year which we worry about being secular still brings people to church to celebrate that great and wonderful event of Our Lord’s birth. We sing the joyful carols, we exchange cards and there is a joy about us all.

The fact that the commercial side of Christmass is particularly strong now, could still reflect on the religious side….if it were’t for the actual celebration of Our Lord’s birth, we would not have the national and inter national festivities and so forth.

The thing is that we can look at most things in life and see negative or positive… and this is no different. The fact that we welcome so many and varied people to worship with us over the Christmass period can only be a great joy to us… and I do very earnestly feel that in all we do in our worship God does Hiss wonderful work….and who’s to know how many of the people we welcome at this time of year may at some time become regular faces amongst us? That, of course, leave to God — but Christmas does give many people and added incentive to take part in the worshipping life of the local Christian community — and with the very great beauty of our ancient church, we have an added gift to share.

I wish you all a very happy and blessed feast of Our Lord’s Nativity.

With every good wish,

Father Yenda