At Christmas, our attention is focused on the birth of Jesus in a Bethlehem cave. It was completely unexpected. The star, which the wise men followed, did not stop at a royal palace, but at a stable used for sheltering animals. Perhaps we are amazed and surprised that God should come to us as a helpless and dependent child, of poor parents far from home, who were soon to become refugees in Egypt? Perhaps we are disappointed because in our search for God we tend to look for the spectacular rather than the ordinary? We should not be. The Christmas story tells us that God is to be found right before our eyes in every day places – in the people and situations that perhaps we take for granted. By choosing to be born in such a humble and desolate place, away from the public eye, and away from the world’s palaces and riches, God turns our worldly understanding of the spectacular, of celebrity and success, upside down. God gives us a clear message about the need to see Grace and goodness among the very poorest people, and in most desolate and ordinary places. This is good news. The first to share with Mary and Joseph the joy of the birth of God’s Son were country people, shepherds guarding their flocks by night on nearby hills. Their presence at the birth was the assurance that God was accessible to ordinary people carrying out their everyday work.

Our celebration of Christmas is more than a remembrance of the happenings in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago. It is a reminder that God loves us so much that he sent his only Son to be with us, to show us the ways of God, and to journey with us in our lives.  That night, a new-born child became our living link with God.

Christmas focuses not only on what Jesus did by making his home with us, but on what we must do also, for it reveals that we are part of God’s family. This means that we should reverence each human life, and that raises tough questions about our treatment of other people. As Christmas approaches, we are invited, once again, to celebrate God who makes himself known to us.  The simplicity of it challenges us to rid ourselves of falseness and pretense, and to recognize, in the new-born child, a Saviour who will show us a new life with glorious possibilities. We need to be a part of the story ourselves, and we need to rediscover the joy and wonder of the Christmas message. God comes to us to show us how to live and how to love.  Our life, all human life, is part of this story; it is the story of God’s care and concern, and of involvement with the world in which we live.  As God’s Son, Jesus comes into all the complexities of human living and shows us that, through his birth, life, death, and resurrection, we can all share in this new life. Life can be different, and life can be changed. St John, speaking about the birth of Jesus at the beginning of his Gospel, says this: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” As we celebrate the love of God seen in the Christ-child this Christmas season, may we all come to know the good news of the Christmas story and be transformed by it.

May the joy, peace and love of this season be yours.

Chris Hardwick

Farewell

The 6^th October (Harvest Festival in Tavistock) brings to a close Steve Martin’s curacy with us in the Benefice. Steve will be presiding and preaching at the 9.45 am Eucharist in Tavistock Church. This is a Benefice service (there will be no services at Brentor or Gulworthy that day so that all who wish to come are able to do so). Following the service, a lunch will be held for Steve, Caroline, Henry and John in the Parish Centre, during which we will be able to express our thanks to them all, and to Steve and for his ministry as Curate among us. We will miss them all very much indeed. Steve will take up his new post as Rector of the Holyford Mission Community and Priest-in-Charge of Northleigh on the 20^th November at a service to be conducted by Bishop Jackie in Colyton Church at 7.30 pm. Everyone is welcome and a coach will be leaving Tavistock at 5.15 pm on the 20^th November (details in our churches, cost £7 return) for those who would like to go. We are delighted for Steve and Caroline, Henry and John, as they enter this next stage of their lives. We wish them well and surround them with our love and prayers. May God continue to bless them.

All Saints’ Day

An advance notice for your diaries: On Sunday 3^rd November, the first Sunday of November, special services will be held in the Benefice. The first will be a commemoration of “All Saints” at 9.45 am in Tavistock and Christ Church, Brentor, and at 11.15 am in Gulworthy. The period around All Saints’ Day focuses our thoughts towards “the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins and the life everlasting. The prayer for All Saints’ Day affirms that God has knit together his elect “into one communion and fellowship”.

Commemoration of the Faithful Departed

The second will be a commemoration of the faithful departed. “All Souls Day” is the completion of All Saints; it acknowledges human sadness and grief at the loss of our loved ones. Together these two days proclaim the message: “Death is not the end. The saints in heaven were the saints on earth, and death was the door from our earth to their heaven. So it shall be for us.” This is the Christian hope and it is founded in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. On Friday 1^st November a service of reflections and readings will be held at Christ Church Brentor for All Souls, and on the evening of the 3^rd November I am planning a Benefice Service also as a Special Act of Remembrance for all those who have been recently bereaved or who would like to remember a loved one from years past. This service to commemorate the faithful departed will be held at Tavistock Church at 6 pm. During this service we will remember those who have died by name and candles will be lit as a symbol of hope. The service will be simple and include a performance of the Fauré Requiem. I hope that many individuals and families will want to be present for one or both of these acts of Remembrance and Thanksgiving.

With my love and prayers.

Chris Hardwick

We are told that life begins at 40. That’s very good news, although, of course, in these terms I’m still considered to be in my infancy. So hopefully there’s much more of this life still to come.

But when does life begin? I think this is a very complicated question for Christians. It’s complicated because Christians have always believed that there is a human life before point of birth, though quite when is a matter of disagreement. So we wrestle with all sorts of the questions about how ‘unborn’ life should be treated. But it’s complicated, too, because Christians have also always believed that there is another birth after birth. There is a clear message in the New Testament that every human life requires a new beginning, a moment when life truly begins.

On Sunday 15th September 2019, we celebrate the feast of our patron St Eustachius, the patron of our Church. Tavistock Parish Church is over seven hundred years old. It is a place of prayer and worship – a place where life can be transformed. St. Eustachius, and the early church, present us with another way of understanding how life begins in Christian terms.

The vast majority of churches in the Church of England are dedicated to one or more people. Most are dedicated to a single ‘patron saint’, such as Saint Peter or the Virgin Mary, or one of the persons of God, such as Holy Trinity, Christ Church, or The Good Shepherd. Others commemorate Christian events, for example, the Ascension of Jesus. All churches are dedicated to God, but by the fourth century it was common practice to dedicate a Christian place of worship to one or more “patron” saints. No single set of rules governed the choice of patron saint for a church, but existing and historical dedications show a pattern, which suggest how patrons were often chosen. In terms of numbers of dedications, the most popular saints chosen show the influence of Rome on the history of English Christianity, and also that major characters from Scripture were also selected, with the most popular being St Mary, St Peter, St Michael, St Andrew, and St Paul.

Our patron saint is St. Eustachius. It was a vision that converted him to Christianity. We know the story well. He was a Roman general called Placidus, who converted to Christianity after having seen a vision of a stag with a crucifix lodged between its antlers. At his baptism, he took the name Eustace, which literally means  “steadfast”, only for the members of his family, and his wealth, to be taken from him in a series of disasters. Despite many trials, and much suffering, he remained faithful and gained the reputation of being a “Job” of the Christian tradition. He and his remaining family are thought to have been martyred, on the instruction of the Emperor Hadrian, in the early second century.

When St Eustachius clearly saw the cross of Christ, it was a moment of insight, a moment of conversion, a moment when new life began. It was, without parallel, an absolute turning point in his life, signified by a radical change in his attitude towards Jesus Christ and his followers.

For some people the Christian life begins at a decisive moment, a moment that changes everything. But for most of us, I think, there are moments, when we are given, by grace, some insight into God’s great plan for us, – perhaps a word spoken to us by someone else, perhaps that inner sense that we are being prompted or called to do a particular thing, perhaps a growing awareness and understanding of God’s great love for the world, of God’s kingdom of justice, peace and joy, that is being revealed around us.

The Patronal Festival Service begins at 9.45 am on the 15th September in the church of St Eustachius, Tavistock. The president and preacher will be the Bishop of Exeter, the Rt. Revd Robert Atwell, and everyone is very welcome to the service. Afterwards, there will be a “bring and share” lunch in the Parish Centre to celebrate the Patronal Festival.  Again, everyone is welcome.  Nearer the time, there will be a sign-up sheet at the back of Church to offer help with the catering arrangements’ if you are able to do so. In the evening, at 6pm, Festival Choral Evensong will be a sung in Church.

On the 15th September, we give thanks for St Eustachius who, despite many difficulties in his life, remained faithful and steadfast, and who shows us all how life begins, again and again, in the company of the one whom, when we follow him and place our trust in him, is life itself, Jesus Christ.

With my love and prayers,

Chris Hardwick

On the 15^th August, the Church celebrates the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Feast of the Assumption sets before us the final act of Mary, the young Jewish girl from Nazareth, who gave Jesus to the world, and was spared death. A messenger from the Lord announced that she was to be the bearer of the Son of God to the world, and her response was: “Let it be according to your word.” We are inclined to forget that Mary had little idea of what faced her when she responded to God’s call. It was with faith and trust, but with little knowledge, that she kept going, seeking to discover the hand of God in what was happening around her. Mary’s natural obedience to God and reverence for his word showed her worthy to be the bearer of “the word made flesh.” As a woman with a human heart and human personality, she experienced all aspects of everyday life – its joys and its pains. We know of Mary’s journey to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was expecting a baby, and we know of her presence at the Cross. From Jesus’s birth to his death, Mary is present.  In Mary we see the fullness of response we are asked to make to God in our lives. She recognized the greatness of God working through her: “The Almighty has done great things for me…” Her Assumption into heaven should inspire us to see the worth of making every effort to live life as fully as we can in obedience to God’s word, for Mary is a living symbol of what God calls us to be. As we journey on our own pilgrimage, Mary’s ministry of “presence” has much to teach us, as she points us forward to where we hope to be.

Almighty God, who looked upon the lowliness of the Blessed Virgin Mary and chose her to be the mother of your only Son: grant that we who are redeemed by his blood may share with her in the glory of your eternal Kingdom: through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

With my love and prayers,

Chris Hardwick

The churches of our Benefice are members of “TACT”, Tavistock Area Christians Together. TACT is involved in a wide range of initiates and projects from churches of different denominations to enhance fellowship, worship and outreach in our area. A recent initiative has been the launch of “ROC Tavistock” (Redeeming Our Communities) following a “ROC” conversation held in Tavistock Town Hall in June last year. Through this initiative new links are being formed between our churches and the voluntary sector to extend further God’s care for the people around us. We are part of four groups which meet every six weeks looking to set up small projects to address the following issues:

1. Youth & Digital Safety;
2. Loneliness and Isolation;
3. Mental Health & Addictions;
4. Communications and

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you a few of the other initiatives we are also involved in:

Street Pastors

During 2018 patrol teams went out on 68 nights of the year to meet a very real need amongst those out and about in the night-time economy. Patrols engaged with more than 1,500 people and also gave out 120 pairs of flip-flops. Daytime patrols also go out in teams of 2 each Friday lunchtime.

School Pastors and Catalyst

School Pastors visit Tavistock College each Wednesday lunchtime during term time. At present we have a team of 8 School Pastors and 10 Prayer Pastors. Catalyst youth workers also work in the College and a number of other schools throughout the week.

TASTE AND SEE

Taste and See is Christian outreach for ladies in the form of supper events. The aim is to provide an opportunity to invite friends/family/colleagues to an ‘easy-to-access’ Christian event. Numbers for the events typically range from 60 to 70 ladies.

PENTECOST PARTY IN THE PARK

After the torrential rain of the 2017 the 2018 “Pentecost Party in the Park”, event took place on a beautiful summer day. It was a wonderful opportunity to share the Christian message.

RISEN – EASTER MONDAY CELEBRATION

The “Risen” event has been taking place in Tavistock Town Hall every Easter Monday for the last seven years. It is an evening enjoyed by many Christians from our local area. The aim is to make the evening welcoming & comfortable for all, regardless of church background or none. Worship is led by a choir drawn from local churches and it is always an encouraging and uplifting evening. Another “Risen” event is being planned for this coming Easter Monday evening.

IGNATIAN PRAYER GROUP

The Ignatian Prayer Group is now in its sixth year and meets in Tavistock. The aim is to encourage contemplative prayer in the style of St. Ignatius. The group welcomes new people and the dates can be found on the TACT website and our pew sheets.

OPEN THE BOOK

“Open the Book” is a nation-wide initiative by the Bible Society, encouraging local churches to present dramatized Bible stories to primary schools. We are fortunate in the Tavistock area that many of the local schools welcome contributions from “Open the Book” teams to Key Stage 1 & 2 assemblies. The dramatized stories are mostly taken from the “Lion Storyteller Bible” with a fully scripted introduction, conclusion and short prayer published by the Bible Society. At present Open the Book teams visit the following schools:

• Tavistock Primary School (TMC and St Eustachius) St Peters Primary & St Rumons Infants Schools (St Eustachius)
• Whitchurch Primary School (St Andrews)
• Gulworthy Primary School (St Paul’s, Gulworthy)
• Mary Tavy Primary School (TMC and Mary Tavy Methodist Chapel)
• Princetown Primary School (Rock Methodist Church)

HEALING ROOMS AND COSTA HEALING

Monday evening “Healing Rooms” in the Society of Friends Meeting House in Bedford car park has been running for 5 years. In Costa, on each Tuesday morning, prayers for healing are also said. Everyone is welcome. This is an initiative that Costa is open to in their cafes nationally.

DATA  (DEBT ADVICE TAVISTOCK AREA)

DATA (Debt Advice, Tavistock Area) has been running for just over 6 years. It is a charity supported by TACT providing completely free advice to anyone in need, helping local people with debt management, debt relief orders, bankruptcy, dealing with creditors and bailiffs. The charity is affiliated to the Christian debt advice group Community Money Advice (CMA).

TAVISTOCK FOOD BANK

TACT oversee the work of the Tavistock Food Bank. From September 2017 to August 2018, 426 vouchers were given, 631 adults and 362 children were fed. The Foodbank is currently in need of the following items: small bags of sugar, tinned meat, jars of pasta sauce, deodorant, washing powder/tablets, and larger sized nappies. There are Food Bank drop-off points at both Co-ops in Tavistock, and Tesco and Morrisons.

TAVIPRAISE, TAVIPRAYER AND PRAYER IN THE SQUARE

TaviPraise – an evening of contemporary worship led by different TACT groups in different church locations on the first Thursday of most months.

TaviPrayer – a meeting held monthly for prayer for TACT projects and particular needs.

Prayer in the Square – held on the third Saturday of most months in Bedford Square. An opportunity to talk to people and offer prayer.

Please pray for the work of TACT and for all those we seek to serve.

With my love and prayers

Chris Hardwick