Well it's been some time since I posted on the blog, perhaps tomorrow I'll post something about that. Today I was moved by the snow to think of St Thomas Aquinas' speculation on whether Christ should have been born in the winter or not.

This is the sort of speculation that is often assumed to be rather silly. Do we really need to wonder whether it was wise timing on God's behalf to choose a winter birth for Christ?

(Astute readers will notice that I give some credence to the view that Christ actually was born on 25th December.) However St Thomas' speculation revolves around something rather important. Much of the current revisionist theological debate about gender, whether in relation to Holy Orders, or sexual ethics seem to assume that the timing of the Lord's birth was rather poor, given how much better informed we are today. I think this argument needs to be examined carefully. Obviously I am not trying to argue that we need to simply remain within the Jewish culture of two millennia ago, but we also need to be careful not to assume that that culture is irrelevant to us today. God chose the moment in history for Jesus to become incarnate - and he doesn't make mistakes.

None of this I suspect was on my stepdaughter's mind when she was building a snowman today!

Over to St Thomas....

St iii. 35

Article 8. Whether Christ was born at a fitting time?

Objection 1. It would seem that Christ was not born at a fitting time. Because Christ came in order to restore liberty to His own. But He was born at a time of subjection--namely, when the whole world, as it were, tributary to Augustus, was being enrolled, at his command as Luke relates (2:1). Therefore it seems that Christ was not born at a fitting time.

Objection 2. Further, the promises concerning the coming of Christ were not made to the Gentiles; according to Romans 9:4: "To whom belong . . . the promises." But Christ was born during the reign of a foreigner, as appears from Matthew 2:1: "When Jesus was born in the days of King Herod." Therefore it seems that He was not born at a fitting time.

Objection 3. Further, the time of Christ's presence on earth is compared to the day, because He is the "Light of the world"; wherefore He says Himself (John 9:4): "I must work the works of Him that sent Me, whilst it is day." But in summer the days are longer than in winter. Therefore, since He was born in the depth of winter, eight days before the Kalends of January, it seems that He was not born at a fitting time.

On the contrary, It is written (Galatians 4:4): "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law."

I answer that, There is this difference between Christ and other men, that, whereas they are born subject to the restrictions of time, Christ, as Lord and Maker of all time, chose a time in which to be born, just as He chose a mother and a birthplace. And since "what is of God is well ordered" and becomingly arranged, it follows that Christ was born at a most fitting time.

Reply to Objection 1. Christ came in order to bring us back from a state of bondage to a state of liberty. And therefore, as He took our mortal nature in order to restore us to life, so, as Bede says (Super Luc. ii, 4,5), "He deigned to take flesh at such a time that, shortly after His birth, He would be enrolled in Caesar's census, and thus submit Himself to bondage for the sake of our liberty."

Moreover, at that time, when the whole world lived under one ruler, peace abounded on the earth. Therefore it was a fitting time for the birth of Christ, for "He is our peace, who hath made both one," as it is written (Ephesians 2:14). Wherefore Jerome says on Isaiah 2:4: "If we search the page of ancient history, we shall find that throughout the whole world there was discord until the twenty-eighth year of Augustus Caesar: but when our Lord was born, all war ceased"; according to Isaiah 2:4: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation."

Again, it was fitting that Christ should be born while the world was governed by one ruler, because "He came to gather His own [Vulgate: 'the children of God'] together in one" (John 11:52), that there might be "one fold and one shepherd" (John 10:16).

Reply to Objection 2. Christ wished to be born during the reign of a foreigner, that the prophecy of Jacob might be fulfilled (Genesis 49:10): "The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till He come that is to be sent." Because, as Chrysostom says (Hom. ii in Matth. [Opus Imperf., falsely ascribed to Chrysostom), as long as the Jewish "people was governed by Jewish kings, however wicked, prophets were sent for their healing. But now that the Law of God is under the power of a wicked king, Christ is born; because a grave and hopeless disease demanded a more skilful physician."

Reply to Objection 3. As says the author of the book De Qq. Nov. et Vet. Test., "Christ wished to be born, when the light of day begins to increase in length," so as to show that He came in order that man might come nearer to the Divine Light, according to Luke 1:79: "To enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death."

In like manner He chose to be born in the rough winter season, that He might begin from then to suffer in body for us.

Rector on the roof

Those of you who come to the Church cleaning days will know that I don't like being up ladders. I couldn't, however, miss the opportunity of the scaffolding being up at the moment while we are carrying out the roof repairs to the Church. So, after a short ladder climb, I got to see a part of the church I haven't been able to view before. Once again I reflected on how fortunate we were in the way the newer part of the church blends into the old. I also rather like these gorgeous curved skylight covers - although the roofers were less impressed with their practicality! I know that sometimes we feel that maintaining a church burdensome, but we are fortunate in having had relatively few problems with our church, which in the main is of course not that old, despite there being norman parts and saxon remains. Pray that it may continue to be so! Also spare a thought for your churchwardens who have spent a lot of time at the church over the last few days.

Star Wars

Those of you who know me well will know that I am quite a science fiction fan. Unfortunately much science fiction creates a future in which religion is not taken seriously. There are interesting exceptions, such as Babylon 5, and the mystical overtones of Star Wars, but the religious themes explored by them are far removed from Christianity much of the time.

So I rather like this Star Wars parody which you can find here.

St Peter's Festival

Due to unforeseen circumstances the St Peter's music festival is not going to be able to make a full fledged launch this year. 

However we are still going to be having our Gilbert and Sullivan evening on Saturday 5th July, thanks to the hard work of our Director of Music Anthony Roberts.

We will also be holding a Choral Evensong service on the previous weekend for the feast of St Peter and St Paul - which is of course our patronal festival. This service will take place in the afternoon early evening, probably 4.30 p.m. Sunday 29th June. Our good friends from S. George's will be coming.

It is one of those happy weekends when the St Peter's Day actually falls on the Sunday and will be my 8th anniversary at St Peter's, my 11th anniversary as a priest, and my 12th anniversary as a deacon!

In fellowship with our brothers and sisters from S. George's who are beginning a special year of celebrating the life and witness of St Paul, we will also remember St Paul - who usually gets forgotten because it is St Peter who is our patron!

The CHoir have already started practicing so make sure these dates are in your diaries!

Caritas 2008

As part of our preparation for Caritas we have been asked to prepare a twenty word aspiration, as well as pictures of our church building, church family, and our parish. 

Our aspiration, agreed by the PCC, is that we become more deeply a church where: “All are made welcome, the gospel is proclaimed, and we are drawn ever more deeply into the life of Christ.”

I hope that most of you will have picked up one of the leaflets about the Caritas celebration and though about whether you can come. It should be a good and fun day of encouragement, gathering together with other Christians from across the Diocese. If you haven't already, please do think about whether you can come.

APCM Sermon 2008

I know that many people were not able to attend the APCM because of childcare commitments, or got caught out because of the holidays!

So I'm posting my sermon for the meeting, and hope that members of the congregation will take the time to both read it and take up its challenge for the coming year.

Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.

At the PCC recently we have been discussing our mission priorities. It is only 3 years since our Growing a Healthy Church exercise, and we are still being guided by our conclusions on that day that we need to be working to develop our spirituality and be a Church which clearly puts God at the heart of everything we do.

But that is a general aspiration, and this discussion was about trying to focus our energies over the coming year in response to a suggestion from the Diocese. This suggested three aspects to mission – Attending to God, Building Community, Commending God’s love for the world. We looked at what we were already planning practically and how they might fit into these categories. It’s an ongoing discussion and the new PCC will have to take on the task of thinking this through further with me.

What was clear from our discussion is that as with all these schemes it is a useful exercise to concentrate on improving one thing at a time. You may remember from Growing a Healthy Church the advice to concentrate on doing a few things well. Yet at the same these priorities are part of the same thing.

As individual Christians and as a church family we have three interwoven parts of our Christian lives; knowing, living, and proclaiming.

Knowing the faith is both about our personal relationship with God, and knowing the content of our faith.

Living the faith is living out in our own lives and as a community the implications of that faith. 

Proclaiming the faith is about sharing our Christian lives with others, both in the specifics of encouraging others to know the Lord Jesus, and in the love and care for our neighbour which he demands from us.

You can see at once how these three are related. Clearly one of our priorities at St Peter’s is to share our faith with others, to encourage others to join our church family and to grow our church.

As you know we are using the Credo course again as a way of giving us something to invite others to. We were one of the parishes in the Diocese who experimented with Back to Church Sunday last year and are looking forward to using it again this year supported by some Diocese wide advertising. These are some of the structured practical things that we can do as a church to help encourage others to come and join us, or to become more involved.

Yet clearly we cannot effectively proclaim, share our Christian faith with others if we are not committed to living it clearly ourselves. The most effective way to evangelise is to live such a distinctive and clearly committed Christian life that other people are interested and encouraged by your witness to find out what makes this so important to you. This is true whether you are sharing your faith with a work colleague or your children.

One of the many encouraging things that has happened this year is the effort in the Children’s Liturgy to make provision for our children over the school holiday periods, this is a very important and symbolic move. I quite understand that our children’s liturgy leaders, who do a sterling job, are often on holiday and need time in church themselves. Yet if we have no provision for our children at these times, what are we saying? Are we not encouraging a view of church that it is indeed like school, something that is only a part time commitment, and one you grow out of. It was precisely for that reason that we began to stop talking about Sunday School and talk instead about the Children’s liturgy. If we want others to respond to our invitation to join us as Christians we have to show them that we are serious about what we are inviting them to. That it matters to us.

I am very interested in some of the research that shows that how committed we are to our celebration of the Eucharist plays a big part in whether we provide a community in which others find this service a good place to meet God, as it should be.

And how can we live our faith effectively if we do not know what the faith is ourselves. How can we share our faith if we do not know what we are sharing.

As many of you will know my girlfriend is a Roman Catholic, and with her little girl we regularly attend a Saturday evening mass so that she can fulfil her obligations as a catholic and still attend St Peter’s as well. It has given me a new level of respect for all of those of you struggling to help your children through the service, as there is usually no children’s provision on a Saturday evening. At the same time it also makes it very clear how much you need to be connected yourself to what is going on in order to communicate it to others.

What I really want each of us to do this year is to reflect upon what we as individuals are doing to grow in our Christian faith. It is perfectly possible to come to church faithfully every Sunday, listen attentively to the readings and the sermon, reflect upon them and grow in our life with God. However many of us aren’t able to do that. If you are helping with the Children’s Liturgy or looking after children you won’t have the luxury of even being able to listen easily to the readings and sermon. So I want each of us to reflect on what we are doing to grow closer to God.

Maybe you are the sort of person who gets on best beavering away on your own. Check out the resources as we slowly add them to the parish library, or come and ask me for suggestions.

I suspect that most of us however are not cut out for self study. I really want to encourage you to think about joining in some of the groups we organise. There are the Credo courses, Bible study groups, especially at Advent and Lent, and many other opportunities. I have been leading the Following Jesus course at Church house this year and it has been very helpful. It is not demanding, other than a commitment of an evening a week during term time. It involves getting to know the Bible better and seeing how it connects with what the rest of our Christian and Church life. I really can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone who has been confirmed. This is a very good course, and there will be another one beginning in September.

As always, within the constraints of time I am always happy to take suggestions as to what we could be doing better or differently in the provision of groups and other support to help us grow in our faith.

By doing these things we will, both as individuals and as a church, be able to respond better to the challenge that we heard in the first letter of Peter.

Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.

Because it is together that we make up the church – and our lives are shaped in this way then when we invite or welcome new members to our family they will see a church in which God is known and our faith lived out and proclaimed.

As always be assured that you are all daily in my prayers – and I ask you to remember me in yours.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Easter in the snow

Caister Retreat

The poor blog has been a bit neglected in April! Here are some pictures from the Caister Retreat/Conference I went to a couple of weeks ago. Included are pictures of my training incumbent Fr Roger, Canon Martin Warner who welcomed us at St Paul's, and two showing you how to create a lovely chapel out of a holiday camp dance hall! 

The retreat/conference is an interesting mix. It is organized by Bishop Lindsay who is the area Bishop of Horsham in our Diocese, and incidentally the Bishop who ordained me to the priesthood. There is a regular pattern of worship, bible studies, seminars, keynote addresses, and special themed acts of evening worship - and that's before you get on to the chance to socialize in the Bar of an evening. At first sight it seems a somewhat riotous mix - how do you marry a retreat and a conference? The idea that most of us probably have of a retreat is of a silent one in a monastery, coming together only to pray, eat, and hear some addresses. A conference is a more active affair. Yet if the conference is a spiritual one then the retreat and the conference have the same goal - to encourage and feed us in our spiritual lives.

I have come back armed with CDs of talks - all of which can be borrowed  - and some of which will be passed around the PCC. There was for instance a talk about how to make the most of the  Back to Church Sunday initiative. Fr Martin also gave a really excellent talk on the resurrection  and Mary. I also made a new friend - another priest from the Diocese who likes to talk theology!

But for me the heart of the retreat - and what in the end made it for me more of a retreat than a conference - was the hour of meditation in front of the Blessed Sacrament which lay at the heart of each day. It was great to be able to attend worship which I wasn't having to lead, and to hear somebody else's sermon. But that encouragement to simply be with God was most rewarding. But, an hour! What do you do for an hour? I find that for me the thing to do is to break it down.

First I said midday prayer. Then I prayed silently, prostrating myself on the ground before the presence of God with us in the sacrament. Then I did some spiritual reading, a few pages at a time of Pope Benedict's letter God is Love, which is a lovely meditation on this theme. (It's available free on the internet here.) Then I prayed the rosary. This is when I found that just as I was beginning to think of the people I wanted to pray for at this point the hour had proved to be too short, as there were the hymns and blessing that make the final act of adoration. For that encouragement to prayer alone the retreat was worthwhile. Why not come along on the next retreat or pilgrimage we organize as a parish?

Holy Week Pictures

There haven't been any posts recently as I've been away quite a bit, but I've now uploaded pictures for most of the Holy Week entries - so its worth going back and looking at the technicolour version of the blog.