May 2009

From The Vicar | Love One Another | 150th Anniversary | Pictorial Exhibition | Annual Meetings | Alpha Course

Fifty Year a Priest | Methodist building | From the Registers | Calendar

Confessions | Stamps | Evensong | Summer Fair

From The Vicar
I am writing on budget day when we are all shaking in our shoes about what the taxman is going to take from us over the coming year to get everyone out of our current problems. Although we celebrated St George's Day this morning in church, it is not easy to feel particularly proud locally or nationally right now. Nor is it enough to blame our leaders and the bankers for the financial blues. When the going was good, did any of us protest that reckless borrowing will always end in tears? People marched about the fox-hunting ban, the war in Iraq and the G20 summit. Tamil protesters are very active right now in Parliament Square about the war in Sri Lanka. Did we protest over years of lavish spending that stored trouble for the future, which has now arrived. No, because we benefitted at the time and our human weakness led us to enjoy the good times and not to count the cost. It is a salutary lesson for us all and I fear the greater pain has still to come.

But we did also celebrate Easter in April. The penitential disciplines of Lent and Holy Week are quite appropriate to the times, calling us to recognise how we have failed in the past, but it ends with the joyous celebration of the risen Christ. Humans get things wrong but through faith we can shed the burden of past mistakes and work towards a better, more just future, all the wiser for our experiences. And that is something to celebrate - that we have the chance to try again and get it right. Through the process of failure and redemption along the way, we also learn about ourselves and our relationship with God, and how to make it stronger.

Love One Another

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12)"

Since 1965 the Royal Air Force's Aerobatic Team - the Red Arrows - have completed over 4,000 displays. If you've seen them, you'll know that the breathtaking precision of their manoeuvres is an excellent antidote to thinking the world is full of bungling idiots. They are part of a tradition of highly skilled airmen and -women, whose proficiency and poise in high-risk situations is a good reminder of what human beings, given the right training and experience, are capable of.

Indeed, it is sixty-six years to the day since another group carried out an airborne feat of amazing precision and boldness during World War II. The attacks on German dams on 17th May 1943 used a specially developed "bouncing bomb". The dams had been identified as prime targets for the Allied Forces, but the technical problems were thought to make it impossible, until engineer Barnes Wallis invented a drum-shaped bomb capable of spinning and skimming on the surface of water. An accurate drop could bypass the dam's protection, but to pull this off from a height of only 60 feet, while flying at 240 miles per hour, required the bang-on precision and nerves of steel shown by members of Number 617 Squadron - or the Dambusters, as they're better known.

Jesus says something which is both astonishing and moving in John's Gospel: "I do not call you servants any longer. but I have called you friends." But something else he says might take us aback: "You are my friends if you do what I command you." Now we don't tend to think of friends as issuing rules, and we don't think of friendship as dependent upon keeping them. So let's think about the Red Arrows again for a moment. To get to that level of precision and skill takes years of training - and of course training requires obedience. So with such high stakes you can bet that fighter and aerobatic pilots take obedience extremely seriously - because they know their lives depend upon it. Of course we're fine, down here on terra firma. Since we don't have earth spinning towards us at hundreds of miles an hour, we don't have to obey commands in order to save our lives. Or do we?

Throughout the Gospels Jesus spells it out with stark warnings and parables - the slave who fails to use his talents, the wicked vineyard tenants, the unproductive fig tree - they all end up cast out of heaven because they disobeyed God's commandments. So in fact our eternal lives also depend upon obedience - the stakes could hardly be higher. And it would be a poor friend who didn't do anything in his power to save our lives - even if that meant laying down the law.

One problem we, in our modern, individualistic age, have is that we confuse obedience with spineless submission. But it depends who we're obeying and why. We don't think of the Red Arrows as being spineless in obeying orders during training or manoeuvres. We admire them for their dedication and discipline and understand that, when it's a matter of life and death, obedience is essential.

Another problem is that we tend to think it's dull to be obedient. The answer to this dilemma can be found in 1 John. We hear that God's commandments are "not burdensome", and get a tantalising glimpse of obedience leading to faith which, in turn, leads to victory.

A third problem is that we don't think we're very good at obedience, so we give up before we've tried. What's at the root of this crisis of confidence? Perhaps it's because obedience involves a deep faith commitment. Søren Kierkegaard said: "It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey." The deeper we go into the Christian life, the more we find that faith and obedience are inextricably intertwined. Because obedience is not a sideline to faith, but a key element of it - it is no less, in fact, than faith in action.

Obedience is not simply saying "yes" to everything, but making a deeper commitment to live in faith and, above all, to obey Jesus' commandment to love one another. It's a skill like any other. In order for it to work for us as individuals we have to make it our own, incorporate it into the very fabric of our lives, and that takes training. But as our eternal lives depend on it, the stakes could hardly be higher.

FIFTY YEARS A PRIEST
John Fowles came as a deacon to serve his Title with The Revd Hedley J. Vallins at St Jude’s in 1958. As is usual, he was ordained Priest a year later in our Centenary year. The ordination conducted by Bishop Ivor Watkins took place on Trinity Sunday, 24th May 1959 in the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity in Guildford High Street. (The Cathedral was consecrated in 1961).

An account of the proceedings was written for the parish magazine by Miss Pat Jenkins, a member of the PCC and worker for St Jude’s who was a Senior Lecturer and that year appointed Vice-Principal of Royal Holloway College.

Three years later John and Pat were married at St Jude’s on the snowiest day of the century. They then moved to Wood Street village near Guildford where they stayed for five years in order to see through the building of the new Church of St Alban.

40 years ago they moved to the populous parish of St Mary, Chessington in the gift of Merton College. The Vicar was also Chaplain to Chessington Zoo and the Joint Services Rehabilitation Unit, both within the parish.

In 1977 Bishop David Brown inducted John to the pleasant flourishing Parish of Horsell which has two daughter churches as well as the ancient parish church of St Mary. During their time there, St Thomas’ Church became the base for a flourishing Play Group and St Andrew’s, with its surrounding field, was sold, making it possible to add a meeting room, kitchen and cloakroom to the Parish Church and to give a large sum of money for the building of a new St Andrew’s Church on Goldsworth Park, part of the parish of Horsell, which became the largest private estate in Europe at the time.

Bishop Michael Adie asked John to become Rural Dean of Woking and invited him to become an honorary Canon of our Cathedral in Guildford.

On retirement, Pat and John came back to Englefield Green.

The Vicar has invited John to preside at the Parish Communion (9.30am) on Sunday 24th May as an act of thanksgiving on the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination and he hopes many of us will be able to join him.

CONFESSIONS
Following a request which came out of discussions at the Alpha course, Mark wishes it to be known that he is available to hear confessions by arrangement.

EVENSONG
There is a service of Evensong according to the Book of Common Prayer in St Jude's Church at 6.30pm on the second Sunday of each month. In April this will be on Easter Day (12th). Although Evensong in larger establishments with big choirs can leave the congregation with little to do except listen, here in Englefield Green we have three or even four hymns and the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis to sing as well as join in with the said passages. The congregation is small but regular and it would be so good if more people came along to ensure that this old traditional service can continue to be conducted in our Church.

150th ANNIVERSARY
On 28th October 2009, St Jude's Church will be 150 years old. To celebrate this anniversary throughout 2009, there will be regular events of many kinds. The celebrations have been launched with a special calendar featuring some spectacular photographs of places of significance in and around Englefield Green. These calendars which will make excellent Christmas presents for family and friends, are available for you buy at £6 each from the Church. We now also have celebration mugs on sale.

Details of the concerts recitals may be found on a link from the home page.

PICTORIAL EXHIBITIONS
As from Saturday 31st January, there will be pictorial exhibitions at St Jude's on Saturday afternoons, with reproductions of documents and historic images illustrating events and personalities in the life of the church and the parish over the past 150 years. These will change from time to time during the year. Some of them may need the help of the public in identifying people shown in them, so we hope for your contributions!

SUMMER FAIR - CHANGE OF DATE
The Summer Fair 2009 will take place on the grass around the Church on Saturday 18th July. The change of date is because a wedding has been booked on Saturday 11th July. Following the planning meeting for the Summer Fair (last Thursday) Sue Kensey will be asking you to follow to organise/assist on the various stalls. At this point the most important volunteer is someone to take on the Grand Draw.

ANNUAL MEETINGS
At the Annual Vestry Meeting on Sunday 26th April, Brian Summers and Louise Bunce were elected Churchwardens. At the Annual Parochial Church Meeting which followed, Guy Bunce, Liz Hopkins and Andrew Sheer were elected to the Church Council.

ALPHA COURSE
Following a successful Alpha course, which offered teaching on the basics of the Christian faith, we are offering an additional 6 week course entitled 'God is closer than you think'. This is available to everybody regardless of whether you attended 'Alpha'. Each session will involve watching a 15 minute DVD talk followed by time for informal discussion over coffee and cake in small groups. The course begins on Tuesday 12th May and there are two session times: 2pm at 12 Larksfield and 7.30pm in St Jude's Church. For more information and to book a place phone Roy on 435602.

STAMPS
Rita Berry on 433560 would be pleased to hear from anyone who collects stamps for a charity.

METHODIST BUILDING
Please note that the Methodist Church in Victoria Street is now called The Village Centre.

FROM THE REGISTERS

Holy Baptism:
(12th April) Nicole Whiteford.

Funerals:
(21st April) Ronald Butterfield.

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CALENDAR FOR MAY 2009

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