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church : revd jo's letter : february 2008 added 15/02/08 By the time this edition of Glenside News drops through your door, the bulbs will be well above ground, and Christmas a dim and distant memory. But since we had a bumper issue in December, this is my first opportunity to thank a lot of people; first of all, the 27 Christmas tree providers, who produced such lovely and imaginative Christmas trees for our festival. (If you would like your tree back, please call and fetch it!) The church looked lovely, and I hope you managed to come and see them. We have learnt a lot from this initial venture and I hope that next year’s will be even bigger and much better. I have had a number of fully justified complaints about the cold, but with the price of heating oil, it would have cost £120 minimum to heat the church, and we just don’t have the money to do this. Fund raising will occupy us in a big way this year; further information to follow. Then a very big thank you to everyone who decorated our four churches so beautifully for our Christmas services. Careby, in particular, relies on just one or two helpers. Is there anyone who would be willing to join them for the major festivals (Christmas and Easter) and to take a turn at arranging altar flowers during the year? If so, please let me know. In a different context, thank you to Angela and her splendidly attired team, who provided the Christmas dinner in Castle Bytham, and to Jo Hammond and her team for the children’s party in Little Bytham. Both events bring enormous pleasure to those who attend, and do so much to cement the bonds of community in our villages. And so to church matters. Easter falls early this year (it hasn’t been this early since 1930, in fact,) and so as soon as we have celebrated Epiphany, we shall be into Lent. We have a short said Communion at 7pm on each of the Wednesdays in Lent, and these have been well supported over the last two years, so why not join us for that half hour each week as a way of keeping Lent? The first one will be on Ash Wednesday at Careby. During Lent we have an evening service in churches around the Deanery on Sundays at 6.00. This year the theme is ‘The God of Surprises,’ and we shall be exploring a variety of worship styles from the traditional to the modern. The service on Mothering Sunday, March 2nd. will be at Careby. Details of venues for the other Sundays will be in all the churches. Giving the clergy a free hand to put on innovative worship can lead to all sorts of surprises. It was a major part of my theological training, where small groups had to lead worship on a daily basis. It became highly competitive and ever more extreme. I remember one evening entitled ‘The Christian Life-Cycle’ where a wheelbarrow of compost was placed in the centre of the chapel, but tipped over onto the floor, and autumn leaves were blown with hair-driers from all four corners, while the group, who were not the slimmest of potential clergy, performed a dance. I regret to say that the principal had to order a halt to Evening Worship because the entire student body was laughing so much. The nuns who cared for the Chapel were none too pleased about the compost and leaves, either. So my particular ‘surprise’ will have to be a bit more restrained. You will note that there is no Family Service on Mothering Sunday. I have given this a lot of thought, but the service for last two years has been very poorly supported, and it really seems pointless to provide a service that people don’t want. I suppose it’s further evidence of the fact that we live in an increasingly consumerist age, where the card producers and flower growers score hands down over the churches. With every good wish Jo |
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