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Fr. Yenda's Monthly Letters 2007 January 2007 My dear people of St Mary’s. Well, Christmass has come and gone, we have by now finished the turkey sandwiches, the wine has probably run out and the gin not far behind it, and if there are any kids in the parish who still have Christmass present toys that haven’t yet got broken then we are probably doing very well! All that we have to do now is to think about those New Year’s Resolutions and also to see how many minutes after Big Ben has chimed that they actually remain unbroken! The New Year always brings with it some semblance of hope and some semblance of worry. After all, none of us know what the New Year will hold in store for us, and none of us know how good a year it will be…think back to the Queen and her ‘annus horribilis’ from a few years back, and if it can go wrong for her, then the same can happen for the rest of us!! However, if we look back over the years we will have had bad years and we will have had good years, but on the whole things tend in the main to pan out rather evenly…and even in the bad years there are usually times when there have been bits that were actually ok – that old saying about the cloud and the silver lining, of course. If I look back on the past year, it has actually been quite an interesting one in several ways. In Church we have had another good year with lots happening, and after two years it is almost as if I have been here for about 20 – in a good way, I hasten to add! Yet it has also been an interesting year in that there are so many people whom I have seen or been in contact with that I hadn’t seen for many, many years. I regained contact with an aunt I hadn’t seen for about 15 years – and even went to her 60th birthday party! I saw my father after about 17 years, and also a mate I hadn’t seen for a similar amount of time too. We wonder why we lose contact with people, but in fact it can happen so easily, especially as we move around from place to place, make more and more acquaintances, and then lose touch as we again move on. In all these instances the catching up has been very interesting and very rewarding. In Church we kick off the New Year with one of the greatest festivals, that of the Epiphany which takes place on January 7th this year with the 9:30 Solemn Eucharist as usual. On the Feast of the Epiphany the service includes the Blessing of chalk and the Proclamation of the Date of Easter and the moveable feasts for 2007. The chalk is then used to mark the door posts of our houses with the names of the three kings (Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar) and the year. The date of Easter always moves and as a result some of the feasts of the year do too, hence the dates are solemnly proclaimed at Epiphany which is early in the year so we know what is happening in the year later on. So, there we are, the New Year starts, and I very much hope that for all of us in Sundon it will be a very happy and good one! As always it remains my very great joy and privilege to serve as your Parish Priest, Fr . Yenda. February 2007 My dear people of St Mary’s, I remember about a year back on a certain long running soap, that there was a row taking place in the back room of the Rover’s Return. As it got ‘interesting’, someone in the bar had the bad sense to strike up a conversation. That marvellous character, Blanche Hunt was quick to pipe up, ‘Shut up, we’re missing it!!’ They do say that if you keep your ear to the ground, then it is amazing what you hear, and it is often good to take notice. The same can be said of what you read on the internet when you decide to book a cheap holiday! So, ‘this is the worst hotel I have ever stayed in’, the
review said, as I was setting about booking 5 days in Mallorca – very much on
the cheap, I might add. Given that I like big cities a holiday on a small island
with only one city – no matter how short – was not really going to be the best
idea. But reading the reviews of the hotels, I merely though, ‘how bad can the
hotel really be, and surely the reviewer merely had some kind of axe to grind’. So not only was it a surprise to me when I arrived in the hotel to be demanded of payment straight away before I had even seen the room, let alone slept in it, but also that within a very short space of time, I was wondering what on earth I had let myself in for, and how accurate that particular view was beginning to look! A dodgy television reception was the result of an aerial which had no connection on the end that goes into the wall, the guest before me had left some clothes and shoes in the top drawer of the wardrobe contraption, and there, before me, running across the room at a speed of knots was none other than the biggest cockroach I had ever seen…there again it was the first I had ever seen! I duly (and I might add carefully) took both the offending insect and the tv aerial to the reception, and was given a new aerial (nicked, I might add, from the unoccupied room next door)! A day or so later, I went to reception and the lady – who was the manager – did not speak English…she did, however, cough to the fact that she spoke French…this is where a couple of trips to Belgium, as well as having paid attention in school French lessons proved useful. I presented her with a second cockroach, and explained that the shower had packed up. She would send a man to look at the shower, showed me the can of insecticide for the cockroach, and demanded, quite forcefully I might add, that the cockroach was normal! So he might have been, but I didn’t particularly want to have to share my room with him! Very often now we see programmes about how people have had ‘holidays from hell’, and what I describe really is nothing more than a slight inconvenience. But for someone making an important or once in a lifetime trip, this kind of thing when it is taken to extremes where hotels are infested with vermin, and nothing works and the food is inedible etc etc, then it is a very serious thing, and can have a devastating effect on the people concerned. This is largely because on the one hand we now travel abroad far more than we ever did before, but moreover, with the pressures that there are on us these days, with the stress of work, the cost of living, the cost of keeping a roof over our heads and so forth, holidays are no longer so much a nice luxury, but are rather a necessity. That ‘getting away from it all’ is as much a medicinal contribution to our lives as that innocent glass of milk stout once was. More and more, we need a ‘break from it all’. As it happened, I did actually have quite a pleasant time in Mallorca, and Palma did give me some sights, and there were some nice train and bus trips to see different places, so really the paltry standard of the hotel was not the end of the world. It did, however, make me realise just how important holidays are to us now, and particularly as we prepare to start Lent with Ash Wednesday being early enough to be in the middle of this month, that many of us will already be thinking about short breaks for the Easter holidays. Lent, of course, when it comes upon us, sets itself out to be a pretty morbid time of year, but it doesn’t have to be. There is a beauty in the solemn hymns, and as usual there will be the annual Lent Course, and extra services as well. Lent gives us the chance to prepare ourselves for the glories of Easter, not in some ways dissimilar to all the stress of planning a holiday before you actually arrive at the destination. Good planning for a holiday can very often lead to a good and refreshing holiday, doing it last minute on the internet and avoiding the advice of a former traveller can, in some cases, mean a holiday which is less than perfect. So, when Lent comes, let’s make the most of it. Let’s enjoy the experience it gives us, let’s consider seriously in advance what we can give up or take on as part of our Lenten discipline this year. Let’s see how what we do actually prepares us for the great Feast of the Resurrection at Easter. As always it remains my continued joy and privilege to serve as your parish priest, Fr Yenda March 2007 My dear people of St Mary’s, This month is an interesting one, as we have that jolly old season of Lent – of course, I say that rather tongue in cheek as Lent is, in fact, far from a cheery time of year, and as the days turn into weeks, more and more we miss those things we have given up! Those of us who have given up chocolate will be almost ready to eat the telly when the Cadbury’s advert comes on before Corrie, and those of us who have packed up sugar in tea and coffee will probably be drinking far more orange juice! It is also a good time of year to pack up smoking, although we seem to hear about anti-smoking policies all year round now. But never fear, because the sacrifices we make in Lent often pay dividends later on. Its not unusual that the giving up of something during Lent often means that we can do without it permanently – after all, I used to take three sugars in my coffee years back, now I take none; just because I packed up taking sugar in coffee one Lent. Many people find similar things happen. And just think about all those extra pounds we might loose during Lent as well! In the middle of Lent, in Week 4, we have Mothering Sunday which is a refreshing change from the rigours of Lent. It is a time when the church is again more cheery than it is at any other time during the season, and we give thanks for mothers and celebrate with the children as they present daffodils to their mothers and grandmothers in church. Towards the end of Lent we come to Holy Week, and at the end of Holy Week we have the Triduum of Our Lord’s Passion. Holy week begins with Palm Sunday which is the day when we remember Our Lord being taken into Jerusalem. Maundy Thursday sees the beginning of the Triduum, with the Solemn Eucharist of the Lord’s Supper, where we re-enact that first Eucharistic sacrifice at which Our Lord Himself instituted that great service, and commanded that we continue to do so. Maundy Thursday is also the day when the Chrism Mass is held, when the Bishop of the Diocese gathers his clergy together with him in the Cathedral for the blessing of oils. There are three oils which are blessed; one for Baptism (the oil of the catechumen), the one for confirmation and ordination (the oil of chrism) and one for the sick (the oil of the infirm). It is a time when we remember that although each church has its own congregation and priest, all priests in the diocese work by means of a license which we receive from the Bishop of the Diocese. The Bishop of the Diocese is at the heart of the life of the Church of England in this part of the country, and each priest who stands at the altar does so as the Diocesan bishop’s representative; after all in the early church it was custom that the Bishop was the celebrant at the altar, but in a diocese of modern proportions, it would be pretty much impossible for the bishop of St Albans to be in every church on every Sunday! Hence his clergy stand at the altar on his behalf, and with the authority given them by the license which he gives to us. The service in the Cathedral on Maundy Thursday helps us to remember the importance that the Bishop of the Diocese plays in our own churches. So, with Lent in full swing, how do I endeavour to say something cheery or find some part of Lent that can lift our spirits? Well, Lent isn’t only about giving things up – we can, in fact, take things on if we so choose. There is no reason why we shouldn’t try and do some devotional reading, or see if there are any good works we might be able to do to help those around us. We might find that in some way Lent does help us to come closer to God. Most of all, it isn’t just a case of giving up things we like to make ourselves miserable! It is simply a time when we try to make sacrifices in order that we can show our love to God, and open our hearts to the riches that He has for us. So, I wish you a very holy season of Lent, you don’t need to be miserable for the whole of the 6 weeks – and I hope you won’t be! As ever it remains my enormous joy and privilege to serve as your parish priest, With all good wishes Fr Yenda April 2007 My dear people of St Mary’s, This month is rather a busy one, not least of all because we have Eastertide, which gives us all the great festivities of Easter Saturday night, with the blessing of the New Fire, from which we light the Paschal Candle, the Exultet (the great Easter Proclamation) is sung, and the first offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist is solemnised at 8:00pm. Then on Easter Sunday we have the great joy of the Procession and the rejoicing in Christ’s Resurrection as the Eucharist is solemnised on this great feast. As always, Easter continues for a number of weeks, but I always think we come back to a measure of ‘ordinariness’ on the Sunday following Easter day, which is, interestingly enough, called ‘Quasimodo Sunday’. No, this is nothing to do with the Hunchback of Notre Dame, it is the name taken from the words of the Introit, ‘Quasi modo geniti infantes’, which translated from the Latin reads, ‘as new born babes’. Rather appropriate, given that we all share in that great joy of the Resurrection and we are all celebrating that great feast anew, as we do every year. On April 23rd, we have the solemnity of S George. It always seems rather a shame to me that most churches don’t really do much for S George, unless of course, he is their Patronal Dedication. Yet I doubt that there are many churches in Wales who don’t keep a feast for S David, nor churches in Scotland who don’t keep a feast of S Andrew…so, let’s push the boat out, and have a good feast for S George, patron of our own land. On the one hand, it might seem a little unusual for a church dedicated to S Mary to keep a feast of S George, but actually, it makes perfect sense, after all, we are the Church of England in this parish, so what better reason to celebrate our national saint. I often think about how it is that each of us ends up in different churches and traditions over the years, and have come to the conclusion that very often God simply puts us where He actually wants us to be. There are many people in various churches who seem to complain about which ever denomination they are part of, but yet they stay where they are! I often think that deep down there is a great feeling of affection for the churches to which we belong, and that affection is so very important as it does aid in our worship and in our prayer life. It is clear that the differences between different church traditions has, over the years, become less noticeable, and very often there are far greater differences between different churches of the same denomination, than there are between churches of different denominations. I have always felt that the Church of England does, in England, what the Church is there to do, and should be doing; had I been born in another country in Europe, it would have been likely that I may have been part of a different church tradition. Yet for whatever reason, this is where God has put me, and it is in the Church of England that he has intended me to serve as a priest, and if it’s ok by Him, then it’s ok by me – after all I could never see myself being anywhere else! The beauty of the Church of England, I always think, is its diversity. For example, there are churches where the worship is led by clergy in secular clothes, guitars are played, hands may be raised, and choruses sung. There are others where the services are conducted with incense, music, vestments and so forth, just as we do here at Sundon. Then there are also churches where the worship treads more of a middle ground. There is a danger of course that if we have a particular preference, that we might want our style to be the one which takes over everywhere else! But that would be a disaster, because the wide variety of church tradition and practices does mean that there is something for everybody. That is far more important, and actually precious, than we might at first appreciate. Luton as a town has about every kind of Anglican church you could hope to find – and this means that people are able to find the worship which suits them, even if they do have to travel some distance to find it. It comes down, really, to an amount of tolerance. Tolerance I always think, is very much a part of our English culture. S George, our Patron, who won victory over the dragon, so legend tells us, is patron of a country where there has always been that great sense of fair play, and sense of fairness. Given this, there is, perhaps, even greater reason to celebrate the feast of our national saint, which we shall do this year at 8pm on April 23rd, when we will be joined by Fr Jim Westcott, the Vicar of St Chad’s in Haggerston, London, who has kindly agreed to preach for us that evening. I wish you a very happy Easter – yes, go mad on the chocolate eggs – and I wish you also a very happy feast of our national saint as well!
As always it
remains my fervent joy and With all good wishes Fr Yenda May 2007 My dear people of St Mary’s, I recently made the discovery of a marvellous piece of Chinese music. It is a concerto for piano and orchestra (well, that is the normal kind of music that interests me!) and is called the ‘Yellow River Piano Concerto’. It is a delightful piece, full of nice tunes, and much of the piano part is very complex and difficult. But this piece has an almost unbelievable story behind it. During the period of the Cultural Revolution, all forms of Western art – both visual and aural – were severely frowned upon. The piano was held in severe disgust, and hundreds if not thousands of fine pianos were smashed and destroyed. Concert pianists were no longer able to make a living, and those who were gifted in the art of teaching the instrument were not only out of work, they were also hounded by former students as a kind of enemy of the political system. Looking back it seems so preposterous as to have been untrue; if only that was the case – preposterous it was, but true, alas, it was also. A particular pianist decided that he needed to save his livelihood in whatever way he could. He took his piano onto the streets, and for weeks played Chinese songs that were approved by the government, making the piano fit into the kind of political society that they were in. A committee was permitted to write a piano concerto, and the Yellow River Piano Concerto was the result. For the years of the Cultural Revolution, no western music was permitted to be performed in China, and if you were a Chinese Concert Pianist, you were only allowed to perform this one piece. Yes, I have enjoyed listening to it in the car, and in the house, but imagine it being the only piece of music of that style you could hear…again, it is nonsense, but it was the case. In recent years, Chinese pianists have become recognised as amongst some of the greatest in the world; and to what extent there had been talent lying waste during the Cultural Revolution can only be assumed and mourned. So many talents were left at best unrecognised, and at worst discouraged and persecuted. You could, surely, go so far as to say that when God creates talent, politicians have a duty to ensure that great talent is neither discouraged, or ignored. Before I go any further, don’t worry, this is not going to be a political letter – I am, after all, your priest, not a politician! Yet it does have to be said that part and parcel of being a priest is having a pastoral heart – and a pastoral heart like any other heart, should find it very uncomfortable to sit back turn a blind eye when things are not as they should be. Education in our country is perhaps one of the most vital things we have. The future of our country depends upon how our children and youngsters are educated. How many young people have been dissuaded from going to university in recent years because they fear the financial implications. It is no longer just the cost of living as a student and the cost of buying books. On top of that there is also now the cost of the actual tuition fees – and all this with no government grant. Students who come from families where there is little financial support are at an immediate disadvantage. In 2007, I just wonder how we have come to this. I just wonder what the future holds, because if it means that fewer and fewer of our children and young people are able to be educated to the fullest of their own talents and abilities, in the course of time we will all suffer, and the country will see the loss of great potential. What has this got to do with me?! After all, like I said, I am a priest, not a politician! Well it really comes to those wonderful words we read in the scriptures, when Our Lord reminds us that no one puts a light under a tub. They put it on the table where it shines, and where everyone in the house can benefit from its light. We remember that Christ is the light of the world, and this is reflected when a lighted candle it given to the child at a Baptism. That child then shows the light of Christ in their lives – and when I am privileged to baptise children, I am always aware of the hopes and responsibilities that the families have of them; how they look at the cute and tiny baby and see the future that is held in their arms. That gift of hope is something which Our Lord considered vital, and actually it is an important part of our Christian witness to see that hope and potential are realised for the generations which will come after us.
As always it
remains my greatest joy and With all good wishes, Fr Yenda June 2007 My dear people of St Mary’s, I usually stay fairly clear of church controversy in the magazine, but this month I want to take a look at one of the problems that the church has created for itself, and to look at its implications. Don’t worry, it is nothing too exciting, so you can continue to drink your tea whilst you read this without spilling it! We often hear that there is a great shortage of priests, and that the church has to find ways of dealing with this lack of staff…understandably…perhaps… In the good old days, the Vicar was the Vicar. He had the freehold. In his church he could do pretty much what he wished and short of being sent to gaol for some terrible crime, could not be removed from his office until he died. And yes, there are examples of vicars being so elderly that they did indeed lead a bride into church for her wedding whilst reciting the opening words of the funeral service!! After around 1973 the freehold and its rights would come to an end when the vicar reached then age of 70, when he would have to retire, come what may. Until that time, again, he could not be removed from his office, and furthermore his parish could not be amalgamated in anyway with anywhere else unless he was of an agreeable mind. In recent years, the freehold, which gives clergy the rights and securities that they need in their role, has been seriously eroded, and along with that two things have happened. One is that lots of parishes have had to share a vicar – that is understandable given the fact that it is no longer possible to fund a priest in every parish; especially if the parish is a very small one. Secondly, and by far more worrying is the amalgamating of parishes where there is not one priest looking after two parishes, but three priests looking after three parishes and none of them with the freehold. This has become known as ‘Team ministry’. These set ups do not work; and into the bargain, the clergy employed in them do not have the freehold! In a Team there is always a Team Rector, who has the overall responsibility, and there are then Team Vicars who have the rights of tenure in their own parts of the Team, (provided that they are specifically licensed to a specific part of the Team) but only for the duration that they are given, i.e. 5 or 7 years. They are in fact all equal, and a Team Vicar is not a curate to the Team Rector. However, these arrangements always end up only being as good as the people in them, and very often it is just like its used to be in Communist Russia, ‘they are all equal, but some are more equal than others’!! There are invariably vacancies in Teams. As a general rule of thumb, clergy don’t want to work in them! Clergy are very individual animals, and that is quite understandable. A parish priest gets to know his own congregation, his own community and the needs and cares of the community in which he lives and serves. In a Team ministry very often there are times when different clergy take services in different churches, very often the Team Rector will demand his right to conduct services in churches in the team other than his usual one (regardless of whether or not the Team Vicar and congregation want him there!) and worst of all the atrocious nonsense that on some Sundays all the congregations are forced by power of the Team Rector go to one church and all the other churches in the team are closed! So much for those who have no transport or are too infirm to travel the distance to the other side of town! It may sound very nice in theory, but in practice stability is eroded, and very often the various traditions of the different churches in the team are compromised immeasurably. A priest said to me a number of years ago, ‘if you put two churches together, one’s high, one’s low, they both suffer!” It is very true, and indeed in the set up of Team ministries this is multiplied several fold. Worst of all, the clergy in these Team set ups no longer have the security of tenure until they are 70. When their time is up they have to find a new job, otherwise they loose both their house as well as their wage. Saying that, clergy do now have employment rights as from last December, but that still does not give the ‘feeling’ of security which the freehold allows. Given that there are invariably vacancies in Teams, it is not uncommon to see a Team Rector or Team Vicar struggling to work three parishes alone because there are no staff willing to join the set up! If the parishes were given their own individual status again, with a priest working one or two of the parishes, the vacancies would be filled over night. Teams are of course the very worse scenario for any parish, and it has to be remembered that no parish can be forced into a team (or any other pastoral set up) without their agreement, and certainly not without the agreement of the priest who is there at the time. In Luton there is currently a ‘Review’ of the churches going on…one was written and has now been thrown out, and the Deanery of Luton (all the Luton parishes) are in the process of writing a fresh review. At the present moment the idea seems to be an idea of ‘grouping’ different parishes together. Groupings are again flawed – I know of a town about half an hours drive away from here where a group set up is in operation. For some places groups work well in that each church is independent, and the good thing about it is that each of the clergy is independent, retains his freehold and works his own patch. It falls down when there are occasions when the whole town is expected to meet in one church for a particular day, and it is expected that no one else will hold their own service on such occasions, (although there is of course, no legal precedent to prevent them from doing so). Our parish here in Sundon is at the present time a moderately small parish – a population of 8,000 or so, but in the not to distant future, there will be a large number of houses built within our parish boundaries, and our population will soar. Sundon already has a large number of occasional offices (weddings, funerals, and baptisms) so that also adds to our strength as an independent parish. Our parish also has very distinct communities, and a very distinct geographical area; it is still very much an area where the parish priest can do his work in a fairly traditional way; and the number of people I meet day by day on the streets of this parish is more valuable than I could ever have imagined before I arrived here. The stability of a priest in his own community at in his own church every Sunday pays dividends, and certainly for this parish it is essential. To be fair to the review committee, there has been no mention of any ‘Teams’, and I am hopeful that they will be sensible enough to ensure that whatever happens they don’t attempt anything that unsatisfactory for the people of this town. Whatever happens, I shall endeavour to ensure that Sundon will remain an independent parish in its own right for as long as my health and strength allow. Equally importantly though I want to state quite clearly and categorically that under no circumstances whatsoever, will any other member of the clergy conduct any services in St Mary’s Church Sundon except at my own express invitation – and that will be such a rare event as to be as good never actually happening! If in the course of time it becomes essential that I do have to take on another parish as well as my own given the lack of clergy workforce numbers or lack of money to pay us, then that is a different matter; but under no circumstances whatever will Sundon be grouped into any kind of conglomeration whilst my health and strength remain in tact…(and I am still, albeit marginally, in my 30s!!). If you haven’t spilled your tea well done! I shall endeavour to write on a lighter subject next month!
As ever it remains my immense joy and enormous privilege With all good wishes Fr Yenda July 2007 My dear people of St Mary’s, Well, summer time, and the end of this month marks an event which for some people is a joy and for others is a terrible inconvenience! The School Summer Holidays! The kids can’t wait! Six weeks with no homework, no school rules, no detentions, no being placed in the naughty corner, and worst of all, according to my 5 year old nephew, no having your name written in big letters and stuck on the window for ‘being noisy’! But for many parents, mothers especially, there will be six weeks of irritation, chaos, lack of patience, and that desperate wish to know what on earth to do with the kids for all that time! Holidays can be fun…going away is wonderful if you can find somewhere you fancy going to. But there is a problem around this time of year. Two important factors coincide; firstly the school gates close, and almost to the minute, the price of flights, hotels, camping sites, zoos, theme parks, and everything else imaginable that would entertain or at least pacify children, rockets up in price. The effect is that those of us who can afford the inflated prices will moan and just go and make use of them anyway, those of us who can’t afford the inflated prices stay at home, get more and more irritated by the children, and they get more and more….and….more…and…more…bored!! I have felt for a very long time that the inflation of prices during the school holidays is actually quite immoral. It actually makes the gulf between those who have and those who have not particularly more significant, and in our society we simply cannot afford for that gulf to become any greater. For many parents, children are a gift which they enjoy; but for many having children is a challenge they have to rise to day in day out, as their lives and their purse take so much of the joy that having children should have given them. Certainly in the 1980s we had very much a culture of ‘every man for himself’, innumerable council houses were sold, pretty much none of them were replaced, house prices rocketed, and those people who couldn’t afford to keep up their mortgage repayments fell through the net. Twenty odd years on, to what degree have we recovered? I am sure that many of us have, but there will be many of us who still suffer the effects of those years in very real and very painful ways. Party politics is a very difficult thing really for a priest to get involved in…it is controversial; there are as many people as say you should shout loudly about what is politically right and wrong, as there are who say that you should keep quiet and never say a word! What is best? Well, really if we look at the Holy Gospels, we very rarely see Our Lord sitting quietly saying nothing…and even when he isn’t saying much, he is doing something to indicate what He thinks! Of course I could quote chapter and verse of examples where building up wealth at the expense of others is challenged, and others could quote me chapter and verse in quite the reverse. There needs, perhaps, to be a kind of ‘via media’ a middle way (that is the great beauty of the Church of England, a via media between the different traditions that we have). I am always certain, in all this, that one of the most precious things we have in this parish is that great sense of community both in the village and on Sundon Park. That sense of community where people do care for others, people do watch out for others, people do the odd favour for people and expect nothing in return. For all the challenges and problems of the six weeks that the children are under their parents feet, how much more bearable will those days be if we all keep an eye and an ear out for ways we can support each other – perhaps even more than ever – and see if we can help each other to enjoy those weeks almost as much as the children will!
As ever it remains
my fervent joy and tremendous All good wishes Fr Yenda September 2007 My dear people of St Mary’s This month sees the three year mark of my time here – yes it does seem quick, and I remember vividly the day I first entered St Mary’s Church, saw the screen, and was taken by the delightful building, and enjoyed meeting some of the people. Very kindly, the Bishop offered me the job here and I was very happy to accept. Thank God that I did, for these have been three very happy years indeed. What adds to the joy of a parish is first and foremost its people; and not solely the people in the congregation, but the people the priest will come across day in and day out as he goes round the parish. I am able to chat to so many people in the street as they walk their dogs or do their shopping; I am welcomed into people’s homes as I fulfil my priestly role in the parish, and the kindness, support and generosity I have received since I came here have been superlative and I am more grateful than I can say. I always remember my training incumbent (the vicar who taught me the job, if you like!), Fr Miller, saying to me one day when I was getting rather concerned about church politics, ‘Yenda, man, all you need to do is just love your folk!’ These words have always stayed with me, and fortunately here I have been able to do this with little difficulty – Sundon people are easy to love! So, three years is not a long time, and a priest who has been in a parish three years should still be relatively fresh in his work and his approach…if I have become stale, that is for people to tell me! But one thing that I always feel I have failed to do is enough visiting. Life today is perhaps more transitory than it once was, and it is certainly far busier. How many households now have someone in all day; and the old idea of the wife doing the washing on a Monday is long since gone. How does anyone know when people are in, and how does anyone know whether it is convenient for me to call on people? This is where the readers of this magazine can be of some practical help. From time to time there will be people who would like me to call on them – and it doesn’t necessarily need to be for the general reasons for calling the vicar round, such as weddings, baptisms or funerals. So very often people do have a need to chat, to ask questions or even just to pass the time of day over a cuppa. Our society now runs very much along the lines of ‘so and so is busy, you can’t just call him round for such and such!’ But the truth is of course, that you can! One of the important parts of my role here is in fact that I get to know the people of my parish as well as I can; the more people invite me to call on them, the better and quicker I will know more and more people. I always think that for people who aren’t used to going to church, the initial step across the door of the church can be quite daunting; even though when they actually get inside they rather like it! I often wonder just how many people would find that initial visit to church easier if they did know the vicar beforehand. So, three years in, and we’re still going strong and I am constantly thankful to God for putting me to work here; a parish which suits me well, and where I am blessed with wonderful people. Just to make sure that everyone knows I am still going strong, festivals are still in full swing at this time of year. Hot on the heels of the Patronal Festival last month is the September Festival on 8th September at 3pm. The preacher that day will be Fr Charles Card-Reynolds who is Vicar of St Bartholomew Stamford Hill where I did a placement as a student, and he is also former Curate of Holy Trinity, Reading – (that is to churches what Shakespeare is to the theatre, and what caviar is to food!!) It will be lovely to welcome Fr Card-Reynolds to Sundon this month, and as always I do hope that a good number of our folk will come along, and bring new folk with them too! As ever it remains my sincerest joy to continue to serve as your parish priest With all good wishes Fr Yenda October 2007 My dear people of St Mary’s I wanted this month to take a look at Baptism; and how it enriches the life of the parish. If we look at the form of service for Baptisms, one of the most important elements of the service are the promises which the parents and godparents make on behalf of the child. The child, who is normally a baby, cannot of course answer for themselves; hence they have these representatives to make their promises on their behalf. At the age of around eleven, we come to Confirmation when the promises made on our behalf by our godparents at our baptism are confirmed by ourselves before the bishop. This rite of initiation then enables us to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion. The promises which parents and godparents make are made before God in His Church. One of the first questions asked is this: - Will you by your example, help him/her, to take their place within the life and worship of Christ’s Church?’ I have yet to have a Baptism where the parents and godparents reply with a ‘no’! One would have expected, therefore, that in the three years that I have served in this parish, that there would be a good 20 or so children who are now brought to church by their parents and godparents every Sunday. I fear that this is not the case, despite the fact that each and every one of these families have clearly promised to do so. This is not a complaint. It is merely an observation. The church in this parish has been here for 800 years. Quite a period of time and quite an enormous chunk of history too. Over the years it will have had times when it will have flourished, and times when it wont have. Yet throughout all the centuries, it has continued its work. It has survived because people have gone to it. If people only came to church on the occasion of their baptisms, or weddings or funerals, then I don’t recon it would have lasted for 8 years, let alone 800! By means of new families requesting baptism, they do bring new life into the work, witness and worship of the church, but if they are absent up until the baptism and again after it, then how seriously do they actually take those promises which they make at baptism? One does have to ask. In many parishes baptism will only be administered by the parish priest if
the family make a point of attending church regularly for a fixed period of
time. I have never liked this method, but I can see good reason for it. It does
equate the family with regular churchgoing, and it does mean that when the
family make the promise to bring the child up 'within the life and worship of
Christ’s Church', they know clearly what that promise means. We do have quite a number of baptisms in our parish during the course of the year, and this is a very great joy and a very great blessing. But what an even greater blessing it would be if those families were to think seriously about how very valuable they would be as regular worshiping members of the congregation.
As ever it remains
my very great joy and privilege to serve as your parish priest. November 2007 My dear People of St Mary’s, November is here already, and I am beginning to wonder if there is anything I can write about the month of All Souls that I haven’t actually written already over the past three years! People often seem to imagine that funerals are the most miserable part of a priest’s work – how can anyone enjoy something which is that sad and miserable – etc. etc.! Of course when I explain that funerals are far from that, people are rather intrigued, but as it happens, they can be the least sombre occasions one comes across. I often think that funerals are intrinsically sad times, so my job is not to make them any more sad; quite the reverse, I always see my role as one in leading a celebration of the life of the person who has died. Funerals are, after all, an opportunity to celebrate someone’s life, what they have meant to those around them, and how they have touched and influenced their nearest and dearest. Of course, every funeral is different because the circumstances of death are always different; and sometimes when there has been a particularly difficult or tragic death, no one really knows how people will feel on the day. In all situations though, there is that sense of us not having any control over what has happened – death, just like life, is something which God alone controls. There are but a few words which I always draw on when I think about funerals, and they are from the Preface of Christian Death in the Missal, ‘Lord for your faithful people, life is changed, not ended. When the dwelling of our earthly body lies in death, we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven’. Wonderful words (in fact, one of the few real gems that came out of the 1962 missal!) and these words sum up so clearly what we actually believe about death in the Christian understanding. However much we may grieve at the death of a loved one – and grieving is not only a natural and expected process, it is a very important and very valuable one – we do ultimately know that the faithful departed go to be with God, and to live with Him in glory. Not a case of dying and that’s it; rather a case of dying into a new life where God gives us peace and a life which is everlasting. In November, we have two important occasions, firstly there is All Souls Day which is the day when we read out the names of all the faithful departed for which we want to pray, and we offer the Holy Sacrifice for them and for the repose of their souls, knowing that in the glory of God they find a place of refreshment, light and peace. Secondly in November there is Remembrance Sunday when we remember and pray for the souls of all those who gave their lives in times of War. At this time we hold in our hearts those service men and women who are currently risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan; we hold them and their families in our hearts and minds, just as we hold in our loving prayers those who have served there and made that ultimate sacrifice. It is a very poignant and moving time of year; and I never fail to be moved when I stand at the War memorial in the village alongside old soldiers and those who have experienced times of war and have lived through those years. I know we often moan about the world we live in, we often moan about the country, even about our town! But if we think for a moment of what it would be like if those courageous men and women who either returned injured or who died, our lives would for sure now be very different. Different for the worse too. In November there is a chance we shall feel an amount of sadness; and that is only natural when we remember those we love but see no longer. But we also have that feeling of rejoicing with the faithful departed in the life which they now live with God; and in celebrating all that they have meant to us, and all that they have given us, we remember actually, what God is doing for them, in the gift of eternal life. As ever it remains my continual joy and privilege to serve as your Parish Priest.. With all good wishes Fr Yenda December 2007 My dear People of St Mary’s, There is, in the North East, a wonderful little phrase which is used almost all the time by people for different situations and whatever. ‘ Never in the world! ’ or, to put it in more regular context, ‘ ee man, never in the world, man! ’ This quaint little phrase is used to indicate something either unusual, or something almost unbelievable, although often very simple, such as a good reduction in the price of something. It can of course be something more major, such as the end of the year coming faster than we might have realised. When I looked at the calendar and saw that I am now writing the last letter of 2007, I quite truthfully said, ‘ never in the world! ’ because it seems impossible that this year has gone SO quickly! They say as you get older the years do go quicker but this year has been almost extraordinary in the speed it has gone. Perhaps the fact that Easter was a little later this year, although not terribly so, the weather has been so changeable with us wearing coats in June and July and almost wearing short sleeved shirts in September and October. It all adds to the confusion and very soon we end up at the end of the year almost without realising it. So, December brings both Advent and Christmass – two very special times of year and actually two very different times of year. Advent is, as I always say, my favourite time of the year. The bright purple in church which we use for three of the four Sundays, the delightful hymns, and that sense of hope and expectation – it ’ s all there in Advent. Of course, the sense of hope and promise in Advent is that is leads us to Christmasstide. It is the time of year when the church seems to fall slightly behind general society, when the shops seem to celebrate the feast long before Advent has started and by the time we celebrate Christmass, the shops are stocking ready for Easter! Shops of course make their biggest sales during the period running up to Christmass, and people who work in shops have the most stressful time of the year! It isn ’ t all mistletoe and plain sailing for everyone at this time of year, perhaps especially for those who work in shops! In church we have the opportunity to be free from the hiatus of the market place and church gives us a place of calm reflection during Advent as we prepare ourselves for Christmass and what it really does mean. Advent gives us that time of preparation – preparation for Our Lord ’ s Incarnation when He chose to take human flesh, to be born as man, and to live on earth just as you and I do. It is something we look forward to every year, and the Midnight Mass is, in all churches, one of the high points of the liturgical year. After Advent when the church is kept somewhat subdued in its purple, when Christmass comes we push the boat out with flowers, and all manner of decoration. The joy we have at Christmass is reflected in the decorations we have as well as in the celebratory ethos of the services. Advent of course is equally a joyful time of year, but joyful in a different way. In Advent we are hopeful and we are optimistic about the future… we are looking forward to the Incarnation at Christmasstide. As S Mary our Patron was looking forward to the birth of her child, we too look forward to His birth. I do wish you all a very happy, holy and blessed Christmass, and I do look forward to welcoming you to the services we have at S Mary ’ s over the Christmass period, as well as throughout this and the coming year.
As ever it remains my great joy and immense |
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