Newsletter: December, 2005

Unexpected

"Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’” (Luke 1.34)

In Lewis Carroll’s weird and wonderful tale, Through the Looking-Glass, the heroine, Alice, has a surreal and somewhat exasperating encounter with the White Queen “There’s no use trying,” says Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!”

We don’t know whether the angel visited Mary before breakfast or not, but it certainly seems that she was presented with a series of impossible things to believe that would surely have defeated even the White Queen. Not only did she have to get her head around the presence of an angel, she also had to deal with the shock that the angel brought her, a woman, a message directly from God. In Bible times, it was almost unheard of for God to speak to a woman directly, rather than through her husband, or a prophet, priest, or leader. Mary somehow had to come to terms with the news that her son was to be a king, even though her fiancé’s trade was that of a carpenter. She had to take on board that this king would lead his people to freedom in a land where kings held uneasy peace with the Roman occupiers, and freedom fighters met with early deaths. And not only that, she had to come to understand that he would reign for ever - something that not even King David managed to do. To top it all she has to understand that all this will happen because she will conceive a child of God, by the Holy Spirit.

It is really no wonder at all that Mary was troubled by this news. What is even more remarkable is that she seems able to believe it. Her response shows her to have that remarkable gift - the gift of being able to dream of a better future in the face of the realities of the present.

That present would have been a harsh one. Mary lived in a world where women were part of an underclass that included, to name but a few, children, disabled people, the poor and the sick. These people were sidelined in law, overworked, abused and neglected. In those times, everyone lived with the insecurity, death and fear that were part of living under the Roman occupation. Disease, accident and poverty were always just around the corner. It was all a long, long way from the glory days of Abraham, Moses and David. In the face of all these difficulties and disappointments, with the daily grind of survival and everyday life, it would have been so easy to see God’s promise of salvation as nothing more than a far-fetched dream. But this ordinary young woman meets an angel and believes six impossible things (maybe they were before breakfast). She has the courage and audacity to dream of a world of equality, where God speaks directly to everyone, where there is peace and stability and a sense of having done things right before God. And because Mary is able to imagine a better future, she opens up the possibility of a change to the realities of her present.

As Christians, we all have to believe six impossible things before breakfast, whether it is that we could live in a world where everyone has enough to eat, or that is free from war, or where the meek do indeed inherit the earth, or whether it be that God can love us, despite all our faults, that we can do something amazing, or that we can be happy with our lives. It would be so easy to see these things as hopeless fantasies, but Mary’s example shows us that without the courage to believe in impossible dreams, we will never have the chance of seeing them come true.

This is not to say that problems disappear simply because we imagine them to, but that unless we are able to imagine a better future - even one that seems impossible - we will never be able to change the present. How it all works out may be quite different from what we expect - surely Mary never imagined that things would turn out the way they did - but we can be sure that by God’s grace, it will change, and we will be part of it. It’s just a matter of those six impossible things.

NEWS IN BRIEF
It was good to welcome the Royal British Legion members to St Jude’s again on Remembrance Sunday and we are pleased to pass on £155.03 being the collection at the service for the “Poppy Appeal”.

We were also pleased to hold the Service of Remembrance on behalf of F. Harrison & Son for the bereaved over the last year. This service raised over £400 which has been sent to the White Lodge Centre.

The Coffee Morning at the Methodist Church on 5th November (together with donations) raised £200 for the Earthquake Appeal and about £100 worth of fairly traded goods were sold.

VICAR’S RETIREMENT
The Revd Lorna C. Smith, Vicar of St Jude’s for over eight years, retired with effect from 31st October 2005. We celebrated with her on 29th October at Afternoon Tea where many of her parishioners turned up to wish her well. We are grateful to Mrs Vera Long and her helpers who provided such a spread.

Lorna celebrated her last Eucharist as Vicar of the parish on Sunday 30th October at 9.30am. We were delighted to present her with a cheque for just over £1200 as a token of our gratitude for her time with us in Englefield Green. Many thanks to all of you who gave your contributions towards this magnificent sum.

CHRISTMAS MARKET
Our Christmas Market held on Saturday 19th November at St Jude’s School in Bagshot Road raised £700 for USPG. We are very grateful to the school for letting us use their premises and to all those who helped and came along to support the event.

THE CHURCH CLOCK
You may have noticed that St Jude’s Church clock chimed just for a few days recently. This is because we made it do so for 11.00am on Remembrance Sunday and it struggled on for about a week. We have now obtained approval from the Diocesan Advisory Committee for the work needed to overhaul the whole mechanism including the automatic winding gear. We now need to apply for the official Faculty and then can go ahead with the work which will cost about £1400. One or two people have kindly donated some money towards this and we would be very grateful if anyone else felt able to help with this bill. Donations may be sent to the Churchwardens c/o 11 Willson Road, Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey TW20 0QB.

ST JOHN’S, BEAUMONT
We offer our prayers and condolences to St John’s, Beaumont situated in our parish on Priest Hill on the sad loss of their Headmaster, Mr Dermot Gogarty, who was killed in a car accident on the M3 last week.

WANTED — A GOOD HOME
We have a pair of wrought iron gates each measuring 131cm wide x 89cm high. Anyone interested should contact the parish office on 434254 (evenings) — a donation to the Parish Centre Appeal would be welcomed.

CHARITY CHRISTMAS CARDS
It’s that time of year again! There will be Cards for Good Causes at the Multi Charity Christmas Card Shop at Cordes Hall, High Street, Sunninghill from 27th October to 17th December — opening hours as follows: Monday–Friday 10.00am–4.00pm and Saturday 10.00am –1.00pm. You may shop on-line at www.cardsforcharity.co.uk. All charities receive at least 81p in every £1 from their card sales, out of which they have to pay for the production and distribution of their cards and any applicable VAT.

SATURDAY AFTERNOONS
As you may know, we keep St Jude’s Church open for visitors each Saturday afternoon between 2.00 and 4.00pm. To do this safely and adequately requires at least 3 people at all times. To keep this running, we must have a rota of people who would take a turn — obviously the more offers we have, the less often each one would have to do. If you can help with this, say, once every two months, please contact the Churchwardens (telephone numbers are shown above) or by email to saturdays@stjudeschurch.info. Your help would be appreciated.

FROM THE REGISTERS
Holy Baptism in Guildford Cathedral:
(31st October) Edward George Kidson

Confirmation in Guildford Cathedral:
(31st October) Victoria Alice Edwards, Edward George Kidson, Melissa Joanne Saunders.

Funerals:
(11th November) Vera Lucille Anderson.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

BISHOPSGATE EVANGELICAL CHURCH
Bishopsgate Evangelical Church informs us that they will hold Carols by Candlelight on Sunday 18th December at 7.00pm. This will be led by The Revd Andrew Taylor and will be followed by refreshments. Andrew will also lead a Christmas Day Morning Service at 10.30am.

CAROL SINGING
Carol Singing will be on Friday 23rd December. We meet at St Jude's Church at 7.00pm, sing for a couple of hours and end up with mince pies and mulled wine. All welcome.

CALENDAR FOR DECEMBER 2005