church letter

I’ve been asked if I might contribute the occasional pastoral letter to the Walbury Beacon Benefice during the interregnum. When I agreed to do one of these letters, I didn’t realise that this would be the first one since the departure of your Rector Annette at the end of last month. I see she offered a poignant and moving letter for the September. Strangely, I hadn’t considered any of the significance of this, but some of you will know that I used to live in Kintbury and became a non-stipendiary minister serving my curacy within the Benefice. In 2006, 20 years ago I was priested and celebrated my first Eucharist in Saint Mary’s on Sunday 24th September. A significant anniversary for me.

After a visit to Battle Abbey earlier this year and with thoughts of the Norman Conquest and Bayeux tapestry in mind I purchased a fascinating little book entitled “Winters in the World - a journey through the Anglo-Saxon year”, by Eleanor Parker. As I read it, I hadn’t appreciated that it would be primarily about the way the seasons were interpreted from a Christian perspective by the Anglo-Saxons in the years before the Norman conquest. Many of the traditions survived and some still endure today albeit in different forms one such is a revival Lammas, which you celebrated in August this year with Annette.

But perhaps the most striking thing to me was the importance of the seasons. Winter and the hardship it brings was the most central to Anglo-Saxon thought, though of course Summer was marked too, bringing with it, light and growth. The cycle of the seasons is not something new to us. It is something with which we are familiar. However, we can’t quite think of them in the same way inhabitants of these islands before the Conquest might have. For them winter meant a time of struggling, lack of food, the cold, and the absence of light for much of the day. Apart from fire, they had not the creature comforts to shut out the harshness of the season. Thus the Winter became a time to reflect on mortality. The seasons were truly linked with the presence of God. To some extent we have lost the sense of how life was governed by the pattern of the seasons. In the same way, although we celebrate the harvest, we hardly associate the gathering of the grain with the bread on the shelves in our supermarkets.

And this greater awareness of the cycle of the seasons in the Anglo-Saxon mind was not so much a simple observation of the weather but it called for an investigation of the soul. We are formed by the seasons. We perhaps need to reflect upon which season mirrors our spiritual well-being. That is not simply to say as we become older we approach the winter of our lives but perhaps even in our latter years we may feel stirring of joy like the spring. Conversely the anxiety of youth may reflect a sense of winter time. It does no harm to stop and reflect and ask the question of yourself - in which season does my spirit dwell?. As Eleanor Parker notes paradox the Anglo-Saxon poets saw was that although the cycle of the seasons does not change, we do.

“The revolving cycle finds us each at a different moment in the story of our own lives; the unfolding events of history changes but the seasons do not change. Every year, the familiar sites, words and stories of the passing seasons will bring forth new fruit for us because every year we bring different things to them and take different things away. So, year by year, the cycle may give meaning to the passing of our own brief days, and we may become like the winter-weathered sage, fyrngearum frod; “wise with bygone years”.

Perhaps not just as individuals we change and learn, but also as a group of parishes, a Benefice. Although it is 20 years since I was active in the Benefice, I know it has suffered its difficulties. In her letter for September Annette wrote, “We are entrusted with a season and, in time, we hand it on”. My sense is that although the days are beginning to lengthen the Benefice itself is not in its Winter Time. I pray that although Annette has left, there is something of spring in the air and as she says in her August letter, “As one season ends, another begins, and throughout it all God remains faithful.”

It is for you in prayerful discernment to reflect on the season in which you find yourselves and the season to which you are to be lead.

The Rev Jonathan Meyer

PRAYERS FOR TODAY
1    Shine on us, O Son of God, with grace unfailing, granting us the gift of wisdom, the power of faith and the endurance of hope. Amen.
Ethiopian Orthodox

2    "I thank Thee, Lord, today
For Thy unfailing presence Along life's rugged way.
Guide me, O blest Redeemer,
Teach me to do Thy will,
And Thine own perfect purpose In me each day fulfill."
Avis Christiansen

3   "God grant you the light of Christmas, which is faith;
the warmth of Christmas, which is purity;
the righteousness of Christmas, which is justice;
the belief in Christmas, which is truth;
the all of Christmas, which is Christ."
Wilda English

4    The Lord’s Prayer – Gnostic Order of Christ Version:
O Giver of All Life, Who Is in Heaven and in Earth,
In Whom We Live, Move, And Have Our Being,
Holy Is Thy Name,
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done in Earth, as it Is in Heaven.
Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread, And Forgive Us Our Trespasses
As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us.
Keep Us from Temptation, Keep Us Ever Mindful of Thee.
For Thine Is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory,
Forever and Ever. Amen.

Church Contacts

Benefice Administrator: Tamara Laing, part-time at the Benefice Office Email: wbboffice@gmail.com 07359 327072.

Churchwardens:
Inkpen: Charlotte Bampfylde (tel. 669285), email: inkpenchurch@outlook.com.
Combe: Tina Fiertz (tel. 668529), Katherine Astor (katherine@kirby-house.co.uk).

If you would like to make a donation towards the running of Inkpen Church, please go to the Parish Giving Scheme on www.parishgiving.org.uk Enter Inkpen in the search box, then click on Find your Church. Click on Give Now beside Inkpen St Michael All Angels and then on Regular Giving or One-off Gift (we pay a 1.5% transaction cost for one-off gifts so Regular Giving is preferable). Your gifts are enhanced by having tax refunded through Gift Aid.

Inkpen graveyards on-line

For anyone wishing to view the details of Inkpen's graveyards, including burial details, grave stone inscriptions and the location of the graves, please click here.  Inkpen Burial, Marriage, Baptism and Birth records covering the period 1607 to 1837 can be found on the Inkpen history website, here.

NEWS FROM ST. MICHAEL'S

The Church was beautifully decorated for the Harvest Festival service on 20th September. Many people had brought gifts of fruit, vegetables and other foods which were brought up to the altar by the few children present who also read prayers. The food was all taken to the Newbury Soup Kitchen by Meg where it was gratefully received.

Following the departure of Annette Shannon, we are now in a period known as an Interregnum while we go through the process of recruiting a new Rector for the Benefice. This is a wonderful opportunity for the right candidate offering a number of challenges with 6 Churches set in the most beautiful countryside of rural West Berkshire.

The process can take at least six months, and our Ministry Team are working very hard so that we can continue to deliver the usual services. This normally consists of an evening Compline on the first Sunday (at 4pm from 1st November), an early 8.30am spoken Holy Communion on the second Sunday and a morning Parish Communion at 9.45 on the third Sunday of each month which is very often a Family Service for the main Church Festivals and other celebrations.

Remembrance Service 8th November 9.45
Looking forward to November, an early reminder that Remembrance Sunday is on the 8th with our service starting at 9.45. This means there will be no 8.30 Holy Communion in November.

DONATING TO INKPEN CHURCH
If you would like to make a donation towards the running of Inkpen Church please go to the Parish Giving Scheme on www.parishgiving.org.uk Enter Inkpen in the search box, then click on Find your Church. Click on Give Now beside Inkpen St Michael All Angels and then on Regular Giving or One-off Gift (we pay a 1.5% transaction cost for one-off gifts so Regular Giving is preferable). Your gifts are enhanced by having tax refunded through Gift Aid.

church services FOR INKPEN, COMBE and West Woodhay

Other Services in the Benefice are on the Website which is www.walburybeaconbenefice.org.uk

INKPEN
Sunday 4th October - There will be no Compline
Sunday 11th October - Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) at 8.30am
Sunday 18th October – Holy Communion at 9.45am

Sunday 1st November - Compline at 4pm
Sunday 8th November - REMEMBRANCE SERVICE at 9.45am
Sunday 15th November - Parish Communion at 9.45am
Sunday 29th November - Compline at 4pm

CHURCH SERVICES AT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN HUNGERFORD

Our Lady of Lourdes, Priory Road, Hungerford RG17 0AF Parish Priest - Fr Zbigniew Budyn 01635 40332
Sunday Mass - every Sunday at 9.00am
Weekday Mass - every Wednesday at 10.00am

BAPTISM ANNOUNCEMENT

OBITUARIES

A victorian view - now and then

The images of St. Michael's past and present are shown here