Letter for October 2018

October sees us celebrating harvest (and everyone at St Peter’s is welcome to the St Anne’s harvest supper on Saturday 13th October at 6.30pm!), which is many people’s favourite festival of the church year.  It’s a relatively recent addition to the church calendar, being a Victorian invention.  The inventors of the harvest festival were drawing on the Old  Testament festival of ‘first fruits’, and perhaps also on the Mediaeval feast of ‘Lammas’ (a corruption of ‘Loaf-Mass’), which was celebrated near the first of August, at the wheat harvest, when the first grains of the year were milled into flour, baked into bread, and brought to church for a blessing.  But the Victorians decided to celebrate harvest in the autumn, as fruit and vegetables put forth a last abundance before everything slows down for winter.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been almost overwhelmed by the productivity of the vicarage garden – especially by the wonderful and slightly terrifying bounty of plums.  Many jars of jam have been made, although I didn’t entirely manage to keep up with the tree’s production – it would have been nearly a full time job to do so!  But I felt a responsibility to make as much use as I could of the fruit which God’s had blessed me with. It’s a blessing, but there were moments when I wasn’t sure I wanted that blessing!

God gives us abundantly of his love, in our creation and in our redemption and in the presence of his Spirit among us.  I wonder, how often do we stop to dwell on this?  And how do we respond?  Of course, God’s grace is a free gift – but it demands a response from us too, not because we need to earn God’s love, but because we shouldn’t waste the grace and love poured out on us.  Sometimes, we might perhaps feel slightly overwhelmed by this.  But God does not over-burden us – he calls us to live lives of faithful love, sharing that love with others.  We’re called to bear the fruits of love and holiness – and it’s in doing that, that God’s gift to us come to its full harvest of joy.

This month will also see the launch of a six week study course that we’re inviting people from across the benefice to participate in, called “Lifting the Lid.” It aims to equip churches to support people affected by mental health issues.  It’s being held in Outwood church on Tuesday evenings.  (Tuesday evenings at St Mary Magdalene church, Outwood at 7.30pm) 

As many of us have become increasingly aware, there are lots of people known to us who are going through hard times mentally; it’s my prayer that this course will help us to offer a little bit of support. It’s not just an us and them thing – some of us have dealt with or are dealing with the issue for ourselves, and this course should give us all a bit more insight into positive ways the church can make a difference.  Blessings,

Rev Joanne Kershaw, Priest at St Anne’s, Wrenthorpe

 

Sun 28th Oct – Memorial Service

Sunday 28th October, 4pm

On Sunday 28th October at 4pm there will be a Memorial Service at St Peter’s Church for anyone suffering from bereavement.

It will be an opportunity to remember and pray for friends and family who have died recently or in the past, and for ourselves, who are facing feelings of loss, sadness and grief.  An invitation is not required for this service, please just come along.

 

Tue 16th Oct – Harvest Lunch at St Peter’s Church

Tuesday 16th October, 12.30pm—2pm

Everyone, young and old, is warmly invited to St Peter’s Church on Tuesday 16th October for a Harvest Lunch prepared by church members and the Community Café.

The meal will include a hot home-cooked meal, followed by a fruit pudding, and tea and coffee. As in previous years, the tables will be set out very nicely in the hall and the children of St Peter’s school will be coming along to sing. The lunch is free of charge, although donations can be made if wished.

Advert for our new vicar online now

The advert for a new vicar for Stanley (the full title is : Vicar of the United Benefice of Outwood, Stanley and Wrenthorpe and Priest-in-Charge of St Paul Alverthorpe) is online now, here you can see the role description and person specification.

There are also copies of the four parish brochures giving an indication of the types of churches and activities they support in their communities.

Please continue to pray for all the churches, the clergy in the benefice, their PCC’s and the community as a whole as we look to a successful appointment of this role.

Here is a link directly to our parish brochure for Stanley.

Full advert here

Note: The advert has now been removed from the Diocese website as the date for applications has passed

Film Club – September 2018

Friday evening, 14th September 7:30pm

‘The Time of their Lives’ (2017)

Determined to gate-crash her ex-lover’s funeral on glamorous French hideaway Ile-de-Re, former Hollywood siren Helen (Joan Collins) escapes her London retirement home with the help of Priscilla (Pauline Collins), a repressed English housewife stuck in a bad marriage. Pooling their limited resources, they hit the road together by coach,  ferry, car and foot in a race to get to the funeral on time, becoming   entangled in a love triangle with a reclusive Italian millionaire (Franco Nero) along the way.  On this unforgettable journey, they find true friendship in one another – and have the time of their lives.  Poignant at times but with warm and gentle humour, the inspired casting of Collins and Collins make this a must-see film.

Doors open 7pm, film start 7.30pm

Free admission, tea & coffee; bring your own popcorn!

time-of-their-lives

Letter for September 2018

For those of you who haven’t met me, I’m Jonathan, the parish priest responsible for St Mary Magdalene’s Outwood, and an associate priest in the benefice of Outwood, Stanley and Wrenthorpe.  Over the next few months, the three churches in the team and St Paul’s Alverthorpe will be working more closely together as we look forward to appointing a new lead vicar in the future. Ministers across the team have begun meeting together, and over the next few months, you’ll see more of me, my wife Jo, and the readers from St Anne’s, while your ministers will be preaching in Outwood and Wrenthorpe on different Sundays running up to Christmas.

Change can be difficult. As we go through the next few months, work more closely and welcome a new lead vicar, there will be changes.  But we have confidence in the fact that the God we worship does not change. That might sound like a Sunday school saying that you’ve heard many times before.  But for the early Christians, it was a new idea: the Greek and Roman gods were worshipped because they corresponded to Greek ideas of perfection, which meant following the limits of nature   perfectly.  God in the Old Testament is the creator of all things, and guides the destinies of nations, but it also never actually says he doesn’t change.

But for Christians, especially as they reflected on what it meant to worship God “who is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tim 6.16), God was not just superior kind of being, which was perfect, unlike us.  He was different – a creator, rather than a creature, so not subject to the limits of time, or any other limit. This vision of God still inspires us today: a God who holds everything, even time and space in his hands, and who is himself unlimited, is a God who is above every situation we might face, and also a God we will always want to know more about. Gregory of Nyssa, one of the early Christian mystics, wrote that a god like this would always satisfy us:

This is truly the vision of God: never to be satisfied in our desire to see him. But by looking at what we do see, we must always rekindle our desire to see more. So there can be no limit interrupting our growth in  ascending to God, because there is no limit to the Good, and our desire  for the Good is not ended by being satisfied.

So as the changes ring around us, take confidence: God stays the same, and he always calls us towards him.  Every blessing,

Father Jonathan Bish, Priest at St Mary Magdalene, Outwood

Film Club – August 2018

Friday evening, 10th August 7:30pm

‘Peter Rabbit’ (2018)

In Peter Rabbit, the mischievous and adventurous hero who has captivated generations of readers now takes on the starring role of his own contemporary comedy.  In the film, Peter’s feud with Mr  McGregor (Domhnall Gleeson) escalates to greater heights than ever before as their fight to gain control of McGregor’s coveted vegetable garden and the affections of the warm-hearted animal lover who lives next door (Rose Byrne) extends to the Lake District and London. James Corden voices the character of Peter with playful spirit and wild charm, with Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, and Daisy Ridley performing the voice roles of the triplets, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail.  Based on the familiar and cherished tale by Beatrix Potter, this was a recent family blockbuster in cinemas.

Doors open 7pm, film start 7.30pm

Free admission, tea & coffee; bring your own popcorn!

peter-rabbit-movie-2018-animated-film1