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, and 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, shepherd’s 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 call 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.

Please come and celebrate the closeness of God with us in any of the Churches of the Benefice. Everyone is very welcome. Details of all the services are printed in this magazine.

Confirmation 2019

Look ahead, I want to encourage both adults and young people who would like to explore the possibility of being Confirmed in 2019 to get in touch with me over the coming weeks please. The Confirmation service will be held on Sunday, 23^rd June.

May the joy, peace and love of the Advent-Christmas season be yours.

Chris Hardwick

Remembrance Sunday

In this centenary year of the ending of the First World War, services will be held on Sunday, 11th November at 9.30 am at Tavistock Parish Church and at 10.50 am at the War Memorial in Bedford Square, during which an Act of Remembrance will take place. I hope as many people as are able to do so will gather to be part of these acts of worship and remembrance, and to observe two minutes silence. The services will be offered on behalf of the whole community for all who have died for their country in war. Members of the British Legion and all ex-service men and women will be very welcome and are warmly invited to attend. The church bells will be rung at 12.30 pm and at 2.30 pm to commemorate the cessation of hostilities and fighting. At 2.30 pm the bells will also be ringing to mark the 700^th Anniversary of Tavistock Parish Church. Commemorative services will take place at the War Memorials in Gulworthy at 10.50 am, and at Brentor at 10.50 am. In the evening, a service to mark the cessation of fighting will be held at St Michael de Rupe, during which a beacon will be lit. Please gather on Brent Tor at 6.30 pm.

Benefice Away-Day

Our Benefice Away-day will be held this year on Tuesday 27 November at Buckfast Abbey. Please put the date in your diary. The day will be led by the Venerable John Reed. Further details will be published in our churches and everyone is welcome. Please sign up.

St Andrew

The 30th November is St Andrew’s Day. St Andrew’s Day is the traditional day on which to pray for missionaries and mission, and to encourage vocations to missionary work.

Mission is a word which we are often hesitant about. Perhaps this is because we tend to begin with ourselves. We think how large the task is, how small and how few we are. The temptation is to shrink back from the task of mission, paralysed by a sort of fear. But mission is something which is not primarily about ourselves; it is about God. It is God who is doing the mission, for it is God who does the sending out – it is his mission, not ours. God has sent his Son into the world and he has sent his Holy Spirit. God sends us now in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit to do his will. All mission belongs to God, and therefore, in our thinking, planning, and doing of mission, we must always begin with God; for our mission is part of God’s mission. Our part in that mission must arise out of prayer and our discernment of God’s will and purpose for us as individuals and as part of the worldwide Church of God. Only then do we get mission in the right perspective. It is not so much about what we do, but rather about what God is doing, and what he can do in and through us.

Andrew’s encounter with Jesus awakened him to new awareness of life. Meeting Jesus gave him a new purpose and a new direction (St Matthew’s Gospel Chapter 4, verses18-22). He shared this new purpose and direction with his brother, Simon. Andrew’s story is one of new hope, for individuals and for the world.

When we think about mission, it’s important to begin by asking: “What is it that God is already doing around us?” “What are the opportunities and the good things already happening that we should build on and develop?” Then, we must ask ourselves: “What is not happening?” “What needs to be done?” “What gifts, strengths and vision has God given to me, and to the others, who are the church in this place, to fulfil his will?” “How best can I use my time, talents and money to help others?” With these questions in mind, our priority then will be to develop and use the opportunities and gifts we have been given to the full – responsibly, generously, and in love. One of our main responsibilities is to recognise the resources which God has given us to use in his name. As we think of St Andrew let us be encouraged to embrace more fully this task of mission which is God’s work, in and through each one of us.

With my love and prayers.

Chris Hardwick

From the Vicarage

Thank you …

Thank you to everyone from our churches for the tremendous amount of hard work that went in to making Judith Blowey’s Ordination and First Eucharist such moving and very special occasions. With our 700^th Anniversary celebrations in Tavistock, September was a very busy month for many people and I thank each and everyone for making these unique and special occasions so memorable.  Thank you one and all.

My thanks also to everyone from our churches for our Harvest celebrations.  It has been good to see so many come together for our services, Harvest meals, the auction of produce, and times of fun and fellowship, all focused on our thanksgiving for Harvest.

Bible Sunday

On the 28^th October two services will be held in Tavistock for Bible Sunday, 9.45 am and 6.00 pm. In the evening we will be joined by the Companions of the Melanesian Brotherhood and also members of Tavistock Area Christians Together. Please support these services if you are able to do so.

Commemoration of the Faithful Departed/All Souls’

“Jesus says: Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as        

            the world gives, give I unto you. Do not let your hearts be troubled,       

            neither let them be afraid.”

As I write this letter preparations are being made within our Benefice to remember those within our families and community who have died during the last twelve months. Sadness and grief can affect us in many ways and I would like to share with you words that I have always found to be very helpful. Mother Teresa says:

“Death is going home. Very often as we live, so we die. Death is nothing but a continuation of life, the completion of life: the surrendering of the human body. But the heart and the soul live for ever. They do not die. Every religion has got eternity; another life. This life is not the end: people who believe it is, fear death. If it were properly explained that death was nothing but going home to God, then there would be no fear.”

Although I am writing for the October magazine, I would like to use this opportunity to give advance notice of two services which are only a matter of a few weeks away, and which come at the very beginning of November. I am writing about these services now, so that there is time to let everyone know about them.

“All Souls Day” acknowledges human sadness and grief at the loss of our loved ones, and proclaims the message: “Death is not the end”. Just as 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 the 2nd November, I am planning two services as a Special Act of Remembrance in Tavistock for all those who have been recently bereaved or who would like to remember a loved one from years past. These services to commemorate the faithful departed will be held at Tavistock Parish Church at 12.30 pm and 7.30 pm. During each service we will remember those who have died by name and candles will be lit as a symbol of hope. The services will be simple and, in the evening, will include well-known hymns.  At Christ Church Brentor, a service of reflection and readings will be held at 7.00 pm and, again, names will be remembered and candles lit.

I hope that many individuals and families will be able to come to these acts of remembrance and thanksgiving.

With my love and prayers.

Chris Hardwick

Patronal Festival

On Sunday 16th September, the patron saint of Tavistock Parish Church, St.Eustachius, will be will be celebrated. A patronal festival Eucharist will be held at 9.45 am and a festival Evensong at 6 pm. Our Church is named after a Roman general who became a Christian in the second century. It is thought that whilst hunting a stag near Rome he saw a vision of a crucifix lodged between the stag’s antlers and was immediately converted to Christianity. Eustachius’s name before his conversion was Placidus. He refused to sacrifice to heathen gods and died a martyr to his faith; he remained steadfast and faithful to his new found faith.

Ordination of Judith Blowey 

September will see a number of new priests and deacons being ordained in the diocese. It is always very exciting and humbling to be involved with ordinations when those who have been exploring, and sometimes struggling, with their sense of vocation for many years take an important step on the journey of discipleship. It is also hugely encouraging to see new ministry emerge alongside the existing ministry and encouragement of others.

We are, of course, all disciples. I am always greatly encouraged by the number of those who offer themselves for ministry, whatever form that takes. The exploration, discovery, and nurturing of new gifts and abilities to further God’s work is something which we should all celebrate and rejoice in.

Please pray for all being ordained this September, and from our own Diocese and Benefice for Judith Blowey to be ordained priest in Exeter Cathedral on Saturday, 29th September. Full details of our own plans to celebrate Judith’s new ministry are contained within this magazine but please do come to Judith’s first celebration of the Eucharist which will be on Sunday, 30th September at 9.45 am in Tavistock Parish Church. Everyone is welcome.

With my love and prayers.

Chris Hardwick

On Sunday, 5th August, the BBC will be broadcasting Sunday Worship from Tavistock to mark the Feast of the Transfiguration (6^th August). The Exon Singers, with Conductor & Artistic Director Joseph Judge, Festival Organist Josef Laming and the FIGO Ensemble, will sing movements from Schubert’s Mass in G. The service will be broadcast at 8.10 am on BBC Radio 4.

The feast of the Transfiguration is a hugely mysterious event recorded in the New Testament. Jesus took Peter, James and John to a mountain.  The Gospels do not say which mountain. Christian tradition has usually named Mount Tabor, although Mount Carmel and Mount Hermon have been mentioned as possibilities.

Matthew, Mark and Luke use slightly different phrases to tell the same story. In St. Matthew’s account: “He was transfigured: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as light.” St.Mark says: “his clothes became dazzling white”, while St.Luke says: “his clothing became brilliant as lightning.” All three, in their slightly different ways, agree that Jesus was enveloped in a heavenly light as he was seen with Moses and Elijah.  Peter, James and John are witnesses to this light.  Peter, assumes he should do something.  He rushes to build three tents and Luke comments: “He did not know what he was saying.” James and John – the John who was to write so movingly about Jesus as the “true light” – say and do nothing. Suddenly a cloud passes over the scene and from the shadow they hear the voice of the Father saying: “This is my Son, the Beloved.”

The images of light and darkness are so common to us that we often take them for granted: “I have seen the light” or “I was kept in the dark”, and yet they remain instantaneous and powerful images.

The Church Fathers frequently meditated on the themes of light and darkness: saying: “light is the beauty of God”, or speaking of light as “a ray of the Divinity”. In John Henry Newman’s poem “The Dream of Gerontius”, the soul of Gerontius is brought before God.  For a split second Gerontius sees God as he is.  The light shows up the things of which Gerontius is ashamed with dazzling clarity.  Another poet, John Donne, wrote of the light of heaven in these words:

“Into that gate they shall enter, and in that house they shall dwell,

where there shall be no darkness or dazzling, but one equal light;

no noise nor silence, but one equal music;

no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession; no ends nor beginnings,

but one equal eternity in the habitations of thy glory and dominion”

In the Transfiguration it is this truth, the new “glory of God”, “the one equal Light” which is revealed to us.

With my love and prayers.                                        Chris Hardwick