1 December 2011

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”  And he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.  That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”  So I went forth, and finding the hand of God, trod gladly into the night.  And he led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

These words by Minnie Haskins, dear to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and famously used by George VI in his Christmas broadcast in the poignant year of 1939, are often recited at the end of the calendar year.  They are even more relevant at the end of one church year, and the beginning of the next  -  I write precisely at this time  -  the days following the feast of Christ the King which close one church year, before the new church year begins on Advent Sunday, 27 November.

The month of November is one that encourages us to remember . . .

We begin with All Saints’ Day – a celebration of those men and women whose lives, it is said, afford us the opportunity to glimpse heaven in our midst. In remembering these saints we can be inspired and encouraged on our own Christian journey.

On All Souls' Day we remember our loved ones who have died; the long list of names which is read in our churches reminds us of those who have gone before us, not only from our own families, but also from the Church family.

Soon after we might well find ourselves recalling the words of an old nursery rhyme : ‘Remember, remember the 5th of November : gunpowder, treason and plot’.

In 1605, Guy Fawkes was caught in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament with several dozen barrels of gunpowder and subsequently tried by Judge Popham as a traitor with his co-conspirators for plotting against the government and afterwards executed; the death sentence given to him reflected the serious nature of the crime of treason.

While many may recall Guy Fawkes, I wonder how many remember the name of Lancelot Andrewes? Interestingly, during the year following Fawkes’ execution, it became an annual custom for the King and Parliament to commission a special sermon to commemorate the event and it was Lancelot Andrewes who delivered the first of many ‘Gunpowder Plot Sermons’ – a practice that, together with the nursery rhyme, ensured that this particular crime would never be forgotten!

1 October 2011

Two years ago in this parish magazine, I was delighted to introduce Sue Tucker and Wendy Roderick as lay readers for our parishes  -  Sue transferring to our parishes after many years’ service elsewhere, and Wendy being licensed as a lay reader for the first time.  Like with buses, after waiting for a while, two came along at once!  Or to put it more scripturally, Jesus in the gospels liked to send out disciples in pairs (Mark 6.7, Luke 10.1).

 So I’m equally delighted, two years on, to be introducing to you two more lay readers  -  Sally and Christopher Pancheri  -  who are beginning their ministry in our parishes.  Their vocation has arisen from Brent Tor, where they live, but they will be ministering principally in Tavistock and Gulworthy as well as Brent Tor; so they are something of a ‘gift’ from Brent Tor to Tavistock and Gulworthy and indeed the wider church.