Dear Friends,    As I was preparing for the      season of Lent I came upon a ‘Charlie Brown’ cartoon which has little Linus, looking very forlorn, asking Lucy, ‘Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?’  Lucy looking very self-righteous replies: ‘I just think I have the knack for seeing other people’s faults’.  Linus turns indignant; ‘What about your own faults?’ he asks. ‘I have a knack for overlooking them’ answers Lucy.

Well, we have now entered the forty days of Lent and by church tradition we are challenged to spend the period in self-examination and self-denial.  The aim being that the forty days are sufficiently long enough to help us change all but the most deeply rooted habits. It is like spiritual aerobics where the Christian tones up on their spiritual life.

Lent can be thought of in negative terms if it is about ‘giving things up’ and no doubt there will be aspects of our lives which need close inspection.  Time spent with God and reflecting on our lives are always rich and fruitful.  Lent is a time to hear and believe that God loves us, and then spend at least forty days attempting to find out what that means. Jesus was sent into the desert to face his temptations straight after his   baptism in the river Jordan.  It was just after being baptized by John that a voice was heard from God that said to Jesus ‘you are my Son, with whom I am well pleased’.  For Jesus he knew he was truly the Son of God and loved by his Father. When Jesus heard God’s words, he set out to a place of quiet and solitude, the desert, so that he could think and pray about them.

At the heart of the Christian story is the belief that God made the world and everything in it out of love.  Jesus came to live and die for us so that we can understand God’s words to him as being meant for us too ‘You are my beloved daughters and sons; you give me pleasure’.

Going into the desert isn’t an option for most of us, but perhaps we can make a little time during Lent to try think about what our lives are for. And that might mean giving up, at least for a bit, some of the things that distract us, so that we can focus better on the essentials of what life is all about and our place in God’s marvellous world.

 May your Lent devotions help you experience God’s love for you in a deeper and more profound way.

Rev Glenn Coggins,

Vicar of  the United Benefice of Stanley, Outwood and Wrenthorpe and Alverthorpe.

For me one of the most moving feasts in the Church’s calendar is   Candlemas on the 2nd February every year.  It arrives forty days after the birth of Jesus but is not as well known as Christmas and Easter.   Candlemas tells the story of Jesus being presented in the Temple by Mary and Joseph to God the Father and shown to his people.  The Law stated that every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord.  In the Temple at the time were two people, Simeon and Anna, who were elderly and were waiting to see Jesus the new born child.  God had revealed to Simeon that he would not die before he saw baby Jesus and when he saw Jesus he swept him up in his arms and praised God saying this words….

Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace

          your word has been fulfilled

My own eyes have seen the salvation

          which you have prepared in the sight of every people

A light to reveal you to the nations

          and the glory of you people Israel.    Luke 2:29-32

Not only did Simeon recognize Jesus as the light of the world but  also spoke of the life of Jesus to come of how he was to face not only   glory but also pain.  Later on in the passage, Anna—who was a widow and had never left the Temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying—also thanked God for Jesus and spoke about his life to come.

There is so much in the meeting of Jesus and Simeon and Anna that speaks to us today.  They are both known as the ‘quiet in the land’ – going about their daily lives in prayer and quiet watchfulness for God at work in the world.  They watched patiently in humble faithful expectation for   Jesus and although they had both known sorrow they had not grown bitter and never gave up hope.  It also was a meeting of both young and old and the part they played in God’s plans.  The witness and life of Simeon and Anna show to us there’s no retirement in God’s eyes!

The feast of Candlemas is very much a turning point in the Church year as we take one last look back at the birth of Jesus and now turn to face Lent and the events of Holy Week. and Easter. It is very much a bitter sweet turning point as we will soon begin our journey into forty days of Lent and spend time reflecting on our own lives.  Join us at St Peter’s on Ash Wednesday, 26th February, at 7:30pm when we gather to start our Lenten observance and in the meantime let’s pray that we too may recognize  Jesus, the light of the world in our lives and the life of the world.

Rev Glenn Coggins,

Vicar of  the United Benefice of Stanley, Outwood and Wrenthorpe and Alverthorpe.

Dear friends,  one of the joys of being a Vicar is baptising babies and even though I have baptised many over the years, I have never lost the     wonder and joy of holding new life and sharing in a family’s thanksgiving to God for the gift of their child.  Very often those being baptised are very young and it is very moving to think of the life that lies ahead for the child.  In a fast changing world it is hard to imagine what the world will look like in ten never mind eighty years time!  I also wonder about the world we are handing over to our children and our children’s children.  In many ways we are blessed with a far better quality of life than our grandparents but in other ways we take the world for granted.  You only have to think of climate change and the issues around plastic we face as a world.

On Remembrance Sunday 10th November we shall again pause as a country to give thanks and remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.  Looking back I am sure all those involved in war were hoping and praying that the loss of life, sacrifice and horror would lead to a new world order and peace.  Sadly, this has never been the case and wars and unrest in some place or another across the globe are never far from our television screens.

Wars have continued to rage in one form or another since the two great wars and blood stains the books that chart the course of human history.  When one watches the news or reads a newspaper it would be so easy to think ‘what can I do? or ‘what impact can my life and  actions have on the world stage?

There’s a lovely story of two little boys walking along a beach after a storm and the beach is covered in thousands of stranded starfish They are overwhelmed by the numbers of starfish and do not know what to do until one of the boys picks up a starfish and throws it into the sea.  The other boy remarks ‘you’ll never make a difference? whilst peering at the thousands left on the beach and then the other boy replies ‘well, I just made a difference to that one!’

No matter how insignificant we may feel on the world stage we can all play a part with God’s help in building a better world.  This can be through prayer and being available to help and support those who cross our paths.

On Remembrance Sunday, on 10th November at 10am,  we will hold a service of Remembrance with Holy Communion at St Peter’s and during our time together there will be the opportunity to walk to the War Memorial in the old churchyard to read the names out of those who paid the ultimate    sacrifice.  On Remembrance Sunday we not only look back at the past but pledge ourselves to build a better world.  Please do consider joining us at any services and social events over November.    

I leave you with the prayer ‘Commitment to Peace’ which we will say together on Remembrance Service:

Let us pledge ourselves today to live as good neighbours,

to honour the past, to care for all who are in need,

and to live at peace among ourselves and with all people.

Lord God, Father of all,

We pledge ourselves

To serve you and this neighbourhood,

To bring relief to all those who are in need,

and comfort to the sad, lonely and distressed;

Keep us ever mindful of the struggles

and achievements of former generations,

and of this place where we make our home,

now, and in the days to come.  Amen.

Take care and God Bless,

Glenn

Vicar of Stanley, Outwood and Wrenthorpe, and Priest in charge of St Paul’s Alverthorpe

Dear Friends,

You do not need me to tell you that Brexit has dominated our political life as a nation for well over three years now.  Looking back to when the referendum took place in June 2016 there was a real sense that things would be done and dusted in a comparatively short time. How wrong that has turned out and as time has passed and deadlines have come and gone the rhetoric and debates and language surrounding Brexit has taken a turn for the worse.  However and whenever the country leaves the European Union, we will be faced with serious  challenges to what it now means to be British together.  There are many different political views on political priorities and actions.  The key is how we agree to disagree and move forward as a nation loving one another and working for unity.

In the meantime as we journey towards the 31st October, we bring before God the questions and the challenges currently facing the UK.  We remember the burden our parliamentary representatives carry especially in the light of the death of Jo Cox, a local MP and the strong views being expressed in some quarters. 

I would like to leave you with Archbishop Justin Welby’s comment: ‘Join me in praying for MPs their families and staff, across all parties at this difficult time, especially those who face unacceptable abuse and intimidation.  We must model good disagreement in our debates, and show respect and support for those in public service’

I offer this prayer produced by the Church of England at this time for your own personal prayers:

A Prayer for the Nation

God of hope,
in these times of change,
unite our nation,
and guide our leaders with your wisdom.
Give us courage to overcome our fears,
and help us to build a future
in which all may prosper and share.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Rev Glenn Coggins:  Vicar of Stanley, Outwood and Wrenthorpe, and Priest in charge of St Paul’s, Alverthorpe.

Dear Friends, it is lovely to have finally arrived and start to settle into life here in Outwood, Stanley, Wrenthorpe and Alverthorpe.  First of all a big thankyou for your warm welcome to Angela and myself and for your support at my licensing service in early June.  We are both thrilled and excited to be here at this stage in the life of the benefice and look forward to sharing our lives and ‘getting to know people’ over the coming months and years.

We have not moved far, in fact from just over the M1 after serving nearly thirteen years at St Michael’s in East Ardsley.  Over the years though I have moved extensively around the country for both work and church life.  My roots are in Royston near Barnsley where my father was a miner until the pit closed in 1968.  We then moved to south Leeds and it was from there that I went onto university where I met Angela and we married and lived in South Manchester throughout the 80s. 

A call to the ministry came about in the mid 80’s which took  several years to come to fruition and involved us living in Poole in Dorset. It was from Poole that I went to train for the ministry in Durham in the mid 90’s. Ministry then took us to Wiltshire followed by eight years in the Cambridgeshire fens before arriving in East Ardsley in 2006. During this time our twins Beth and Sam arrived on the scene.

Over the long hot Sundays of summer, our readings from Acts bring the early Church to life and how the disciples  lives were transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit to go out and share the good news of Jesus across the known world. At the end of the day God’s people are always a journeying people, a pilgrim people.  Our faith journey is one of movement be it spiritually and/or physically as we discover more of God’s blessings for us and his church as we step out in faith.  We are people on the move: the Holy Spirit calls us to share God’s love in a hurting world and be a church family that welcomes all and be a place where one can ‘Find God, Find Friends and Find Yourself’.

Angela and myself look forward to meeting you and sharing in your lives as we too journey together and follow in Jesus’ footsteps and discover more of God’s love and blessings.  God Bless.

Rev Glenn Coggins:  Vicar of Stanley, Outwood and Wrenthorpe, and Priest in charge of St Paul’s, Alverthorpe.

For Christmas we have the build-up of Advent, and Easter Day is preceded by Holy Week.  But when it comes to Whit Sunday, it just arrives!  Yet Pentecost is all about the birth of the Christian church and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Surely, that is something to get excited about!

For forty days following our Lord’s resurrection, Jesus appeared to His followers and taught them about the Kingdom of God.  Just before His ascension into Heaven, Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Spirit.

Ten days after His ascension, it was the Feast of Pentecost and this was a significant festival for the Jews.  It was an annual occasion for    people to assemble in the Holy City.  The day marked the time when the barley harvest officially ended.  This feast day was characterised by religious ceremonies and the offering of sacrifices.  No work was done. It was a day of thanksgiving.  A time to remember deliverance from Egypt and God’s mercy and reconciliation with His covenant people.

On the day of Pentecost, the followers of Jesus met together in an upper room. Its location was probably on Mount Zion to the west of Jerusalem.  The site can be visited although it’s not the Upper Room. It’s an ancient building dating from the 14th century and built on the site of a church destroyed by the Persians seven centuries earlier.  But the first floor chamber is large with old paving stones, surrounded by stone pillars and arches.  According to tradition, this is where Jesus ate the ‘Last Supper’ and His followers received the Holy Spirit.

On Whit Sunday we would do well to remember why the Holy Spirit was sent to us. We are given power to live God’s way:

– to lead us into the things God has prepared for us;

– to worship and glorify Him;

– to enable us to pray;

– to lead us into truth;

– to give us a desire to share the love of Christ with others and to help us trust God for all our needs.

This Pentecost may our prayer be for God’s Spirit to transform us, for the gentleness of His Spirit to lead us, and for the gifts of His Spirit to equip us.                            By Lester Amann writing in parishpump.co.uk s

Easter is now a distant memory for many.  Kids are back at school, parents are back at work and the world goes on, except it doesn’t for 300+ people who lost their lives in Sri Lanka.

Easter is a time for Christians to   celebrate.  It is a time when we remember that death is no longer a barrier to us.  Christ died on the cross and rose again so that we could live forever.  This is what makes Easter a joy and time to celebrate.  

A colleague of mine posted on Facebook on Easter Sunday  morning “He is risen – and the world changed for good”.  A moment that was meant to reflect the joy of the risen Christ.  We were in a good mood and joyful until the news hit us full on.  Celebration turns into shock and the shock turns in to anger and frustration.  Why do some people feel that the way they believe is the only way and that all who have a different opinion, are not only wrong, but deserving of death because of it?  On a day when the people of Sri Lanka were celebrating the Christian message of faith and resurrection (or simply enjoying a holiday in the sun) the lives of thousands of people are changed forever.  Those who lost a loved one during the bombings know only pain and suffering.  Those who escaped the destruction feel blessed for a moment and then begin to share the pain of others.  The rest of the world acts with outrage and anger and justifiably so.

The very reason why Jesus gave his life on the cross was so that the world could know change and change that was good.  Many people lost their lives on Easter Sunday; many more lives are now changed; but God is still at the centre even during death and destruction.  It can be hard for people to believe when such atrocities happen: how can there be a God when he allows things like this?  But we all know the truth: God isn’t part of the cause of suffering but is with all who suffer. Why people do what they do is hard to fathom but God is always the same today, tomorrow and forever.

By Rev David Teece, St Peter’s church 

You may have heard the news that we will soon be welcoming our new vicar to Stanley.  The Rev Glenn Coggins has been appointed as vicar of Stanley, Outwood and Wrenthorpe and priest in charge of Alverthorpe.  Rev Coggins is currently based in East Ardsley and will be licensed as lead vicar for our United Benefice at a service at St Paul’s, Alverthorpe on Thursday 6th June.

Since Bill retired a year ago, St Peter’s church has been in what is known as period of interregnum.  Interregnum is the term used to describe the period before a new vicar is appointed to fill a vacancy. During an interregnum, the administration of the parish is the responsibility of the churchwardens.

Thankfully we have a fantastic team at St Peter’s that we have been able to call on for help.  Huge thanks go to Rev David Teece and our two readers Vicky Wilson and David Greenwood-Haigh, who have done a marvellous job of keeping the Church services going!  As part of a United Benefice we have also been able to draw on help from     Father Jonathan Bish from Outwood and Rev Jo Kershaw from    Wrenthorpe, so thanks also to them.

During the interregnum the churchwardens are required to ensure the vicarage and any other property of the benefice is looked after. With the PCC we have been in regular discussion with the Diocese of Leeds (of which Wakefield is now part) about the sale of the vicarage. The building is not in a great state structurally and due to the high cost of repairs the Diocese has taken the decision to sell the property.  We as a church do not get any proceeds from the sale but there is a       commitment to buy another Vicarage in Stanley.  As a PCC we feel that this is very important and will continue to push for this.

So as we continue through Lent to Easter this year it really feels like we are building up to a big celebration in the Church; celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Day and looking forward to the   arrival of Glenn in June.  We would love you to join us this Easter and you will find full details of our Easter services this magazine.

By Jason Plant, Church Warden, St Peter’s church

How will you remember March 2019? For some people it will be a birth, a marriage or a death. For others it will be redundancy or a new job, an illness or a recovery, a falling out or a reconciliation. Or even the holiday of a lifetime.

The question of Brexit will be foremost in the minds of many people. Will we or won’t we leave; will there be another referendum or not; will we leave with a deal or just walk away; what changes will there be or will there be any at all. It is all very uncertain, and as I write in mid-February, nothing is very clear.

Uncertainty is part of life. One of the most difficult things in life is not to know what is coming; what is going to happen. Unpredictability can sometimes be enjoyable but usually it leads to stress. A study reported in 2016 found that most people would rather know for certain that they were going to get an electric shock than not be able to predict it. A team from University College London, invited people into a laboratory to play a computer game. Snakes were hiding under rocks and when someone found a snake they got a painful shock in their hand. A computer model estimated each person’s level of uncertainty for each choice made, as over time, they could predict which rocks were likely to hide a snake. Their stress level was also measured by looking at pupil response and also the amount of perspiration produced.

The study found that participants were most stressed when they were more uncertain about the situation than when they were certain about either thing happening. The conclusion was that people feel better about knowing what is coming, even if it is painful, rather than not knowing.

March marks the beginning of Lent, the forty days before Easter in the Christian calendar. It is a season of reflection and preparation before Easter, but it is also a season of  CERTAINTY that Jesus died, rose and lives again to give us peace, joy and hope.

By Vicky Wilson, Reader, St Peter’s church

“Should I stay or should I go?” (The Clash).  Since the Referendum in June 2016, we have seen families, our nation and Parliament divided by different opinions over Europe. But—as   written in a statement by CofE Bishops in December 2018—”at the heart of the Christian message is Jesus’ command to love our   neighbour. This includes those with whom we agree and disagree: at home, in Europe and further afield.”

As we celebrate St Valentine’s Day this month, how can we conduct this debate in a loving way? The Apostle Peter reminds us: ‘Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honour the emperor.’ (1 Peter 2:17).

Respect everyone: However much we may disagree with another people’s perspective, we should respect them as people. This applies even if they don’t respect our views!

Love the church: among the family of believers there should be an even greater respect for each other!0 The way we treat each other not only reveals the depth of our love; it will also cause people to glorify God and want to be part of the family.

Fear God: we must demonstrate our allegiance to God by   putting Him first and following His leading. Of course, this doesn’t stop Christians from having different opinions to each other.

Honour those in authority: we are called to honour those who are in authority over us ‘for the Lord’s sake’. Even when we disagree with their decisions and actions, we should keep our respect and not speak ill of them.

Peter is calling us to live with the freedom to make up our own mind on Europe, while listening to what others say. ‘A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a         perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.’ (Martin Luther).

Rev Paul Hardingham writing in parishpump.co.uk