The Priory and Parish Church of St James, Deeping
Scripture readings for Sunday
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In the hymn, "A man there lived in Galilee," there is a line in the verse about the Ascension which reads, "A man there reigns in glory now, divine yet human still." It brings home that the Lord who was born at Bethlehem did not give up his humanity when exalted to heaven. Jesus is Lord, as we say, but he is also human.
What we celebrate at Christmas is a birthday, and it is a birthday which is also a sign that God lives perpetually among his people and allows his people, sinners that they are, to share in his divinity. Thus the celebration is properly made not just on 25th December but daily! The Incarnation is permanent, eternal, though demonstrated in history in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Indeed, St Mark does not find it necessary to speak of Jesus' birth in order to present the Good News and begins his account with Jesus' baptism, as does St John.
So remember every day that God participates in our lives and invites us to participate in his, and, remembering the chorus of another hymn, "Thou didst leave thy throne and thy kingly crown when thou camest to earth for me," daily invite Jesus into your life to transform you into his likeness as his kingdom grows on earth.
6th, 2nd of Advent
10am: Isaiah 11: 1-10; Matthew 3: 1-12
13th, 3rd of Advent
Family Eucharist with Baptism
10am: Isaiah 35: 1-10; Matthew 11: 2-11
20th, 4th of Advent
10am: Isaiah 7: 10-16; Matthew 1: 18-25
Christmas:
11.30pm: Isaiah 52: 7-10; John 1: 1-14
10am: Titus 3: 4-7; Luke 2: 8-20
27th, John, Apostle and Evangelist
10am: 1 John 1; John 21: 19b-25
3rd January, The Epiphany
10am: Ephesians 3: 1-10; Matthew 2: 1-12
This year's Christingle Service will be held on Sunday 6th December at 3pm. Please bring wrapped gifts for both children and teenagers to the service.
Donations will be forwarded to aid the work of The Children's Society
Many thanks to those who continue to supply used stamps for missions.
World Outreach report an income of £4,043 from this source during 1997. This was used to assist projects in 27 countries, details are available if required.
Please save the stamps from your Christmas mail and leave a good margin of envelope if possible. the stamp box is at the back of the church, or if more convenient, stamps may be left at 11 Broadgate Lane.
Thank you very much.
Sometimes Church life seems to be all about raising money. We hold Spring Fairs, Autumn Fairs, and Rose & Sweet Pea Shows, we sponsor bicycle rides, we sell off produce from Harvest Festival, we buy tickets for this and tickets for that - and week by week, or whenever we go to Church on a Sunday, we put our offering in the collection plate, or in a little blue envelope, or via a banker's order - and if we are particularly financially sophisticated we covenant our gift as well. It seems to be never-ending.
The reality, of course, is that the expenditure is never ending as well. We have a large and beautiful building to insure and maintain throughout the year, as well as occasionally being required to carry out major works such as the repairs to the chancel roof. We have to heat and light it and provide all the things needed to run services. We have all the administrative costs of running the parish and the Vicar's office. We should be able to put money aside for charitable giving. And we have to pay our Quota to the Diocese. This last item is often the largest, and certainly the most controversial - but in fact we get virtually all the money straight back in the form of our own vicar. His stipend, his pension, his training and his house are all funded through the Diocese.
When expenditure exceeds income - which it has for the last few years -something has to give. We have stopped charitable giving almost entirely and we have progressively reduced our payment of Quota. In effect we have been subsidised to an increasing extent by the rest of the Church and by those charities to whom we would otherwise have contributed.
Against this background, Mark and the PCC decided to act: and one cold winter's evening a special open meeting was addressed by Keith Bourne, a diocesan officer who helps parishes with fund-raising. I made the mistake of being almost the only non - PCC member to attend and shortly afterwards found myself appointed as Local Co-ordinator of the Parish Funding Programme. We - that is to say Simon Marshall and I - began by staring at each other one evening with almost no idea of what we should do. We gradually recruited more help -eventually we had about ten members of the Steering Committee - and Keith Bourne began to whip us into shape. Keith is an extraordinary individual. He has lots of experience of this kind of programme and has developed a system which really does work. But above all, he believes in what he is doing and enthuses everybody around him. Slowly the "it can't be done" feeling turned into "we can do it"!
You know most of the rest of the story. We contacted nearly 350 families in Deeping St James who had contact with the Church. Bet Washbrooke and her Social Team personally turned those initial contacts into nearly 150 acceptances to our social events. The supper (addressed by the Bishop of Grantham and myself) and the lunch (the Diocesan Secretary and Sally Sharp) were happy occasions, full of friendship and a willingness to listen to what could be achieved if we set our minds to it. The catering, by Margaret Flegg and Niccy Fisher, was magnificent and was on a larger scale than anything we had organised before in the Church Hall.
Alison Warrick now moved into action organising the Response Team. This relatively small number of people (about 20 of us) has visited not just those who came to the social occasions, but everybody on the original list. Theirs has been a difficult job - but look at the result. As we go to print, the planned giving has just about doubled (from nearly £15,000 pa to nearly £30,000 pa) and the number of covenants has increased dramatically, giving us the benefit of additional income from the Inland Revenue. And we haven't finished yet. Money continues to be pledged and covenanted and a final total is unlikely to be known until mid-December. We set an exceptionally ambitious target - £37,000 pa - and we will probably fall short of this figure, but despite that the programme has been a resounding success.
There has also been an enormous pastoral spin-off The large number of personal visits has re-established contact with many people in Deeping St James who for one reason or another had lost contact with the Church. A number of individual pastoral needs has been identified, and Mark is following these up as quickly has he can. It is clear that simply by going out into the community and talking to people, albeit about money, a lot of good things have been achieved. Inevitably a few people have had objections to the programme, but the overwhelming reaction has been positive and generous. My thanks go to all of you for your support - and especially to Bet and Alison and their teams for their hard work and commitment.
The issue of money will never entirely go away, but I think when we give thanks on Advent Sunday, we can be delighted with the progress we have made.
WILL BE HELD ON 5TH DECEMBER IN THE LEISURE CENTRE AT 7PM
featuring and The Combined Choirs of the Deepings Junior Schools
Tickets £9 (concessions £6), available from Deeping Travel and the Leisure Centre
For seven years the Grimethorpe Colliery Band and the choirs of our four primary schools have delighted us in early December.
The schools are now under so much pressure that they do not feel able to continue - at least in the present way.
Isabella Roberts has co-ordinated the whole but now does not want to continue. Therefore, unless someone volunteers to continue, this concert will be the last.
If anyone is willing to consider forming a small committee to continue this venture please contact Isabella on Market Deeping 343150 or John Worthington on Market Deeping 343860 as soon as possible.
I gave to Hope a watch of mine: but he
An anchor gave to me.
Then an old prayer book I did present:
And he an optick sent.
With that I gave a viall full of tears:
But he a few green eares.
Ah Loyterer! I'll no more, no more I'll bring
I did expect a ring.
That's a poem I come back to again and again, particularly during the season of Advent, when Christians consider the place of Hope in their faith and life. Herbert never actually tells us what he's hoping for, and Hope's answers are both brief and uninformative. Each gift, however, is a symbol charged with many meanings. The watch is a broad hint. Time marches on, says the poet, and surely something is due to him. Hope does not respond, but gives an anchor in return, presumably to indicate that the poet is not to expect much movement, but will at least be safe through the storms of life. But, says Herbert, I've kept at my prayers - here's my old prayer book to prove it! Hope sends him a telescope. The poet should look to the future for any answer to his prayers. Herbert is distressed. He's really worked at faith and even shed some tears. Hope, at least, offers the prospect of a harvest, but when it comes the harvest is a small one -only a few green ears after all the toil and uncertainty. It's the last straw and Herbert loses patience with Hope. Then the truth comes out. He'd really expected something tangible, promises and commitment - like the exchange of rings in marriage...
And here is, perhaps a clue. Perhaps the gifts are really lovers' gifts. Perhaps Herbert is seeking to woo Hope in courtship. Perhaps he is seeking to bury his life in union with Christ? We do not know. What we do know is that Herbert's contemporaries would have understood the significance of these strange emblems and taken them in their stride. John Donne, poet and Dean of St. Paul's used two of these self-same tokens when he lost the power to write just before his death. He sent to Herbert and other friends seal-rings on which were engraved the figure of Christ crucified on an anchor.
As we look to our Hope - the gift of our Saviour at Christmas it's important to remind ourselves that, for the Christian, Hope is not simply optimism. It's not just cheerfulness, believing that something will turn up or that next year will be better than this. No. Hope is a much sterner and grander thing. Hope is about the reality of a God not exhausted in our human environment, not confined by our imagining, yet One who comes to us in a little child.
Of the Father's love begotten
ere the worlds began to be
he is Alpha and Omega
he the source the ending he
of the things that are, that have been
and that future years shall see
evermore and evermore.
Many people have been kind enough to talk to me about the article I wrote for the October edition of the magazine. You may recall, it was about a naturist service I was asked to lead.
Following on from that, I thought it would be a good idea to collect 'people's prayers' and make them available in some way. When I talked to Dave from the magazine team about this, he suggested that a prayer could be published each month in the magazine. This would reach a far wider audience than the booklet in church I had been considering.
So to start the ball rolling, here is the prayer that I wrote for that service. It was inspired by a contemplation during a Quiet Day at Edenham I do hope that others will share their prayers, and perhaps also give a little background as to why they were written.
From the need to always be right.... Please free us, Lord.
From the impulse to wound others with our words.... Please free us, Lord.
From the desire to dominate or manipulate others.... Please free us, Lord.
From arrogance and self- aggrandisement.... Please free us, Lord.
From intolerance and hardness of heart........ Please free us, Lord.
From hypocrisy and self-centredness.... Please free us, Lord.
From insensitivity and aggression.... Please free us, Lord.
From guilt and remorse.... Please free us, Lord.
From our most secret fears.... Please free us, Lord.
For Jesus' sake. Amen.
In these times, when our generosity is so often evoked by numerous deserving causes, an unsolicited gift is not only unexpected, but also doubly welcome.
So we were delighted when our good neighbour Clive Hankers (he is literally a stone's throw away form the church) offered and provided a variety of delicious rolls from The Old Bakery for our recent Thursday evening buffet.
Many thanks, Clive.
Envelopes for 1999 will be available in church shortly after Christmas. It would be a great help if they can be collected from church or perhaps you may be able to arrange for someone to collect them for you.
If you would like a set of envelopes or further information, please contact the Vicar, Simon Marshall or Peter Wilde.
If you would like to receive the sacrament at Christmas but are unable though infirmity to come to church, please let either the Vicar or Sonia Marshall know as soon as possible.
If you wish to make a confession prior to Christmas please contact the Vicar who will be glad to make arrangements.
The Church Coffee Group will be holding their Advent Coffee Morning on Thursday 3rd December in the Church Hall between 10 am and 11.30 am.
There will be various stalls and attractions.
ALL ARE VERY WELCOME
If you are disposing of any kitchen (or other) cupboards, Bill Flegg would be grateful of first refusal on them. he is attempting to improve the storage in the small room adjacent to the kitchen in the church hall.
to Margaret Flegg: A large, round, flat bottomed basket with handle. This was sold in error with produce at the Harvest Festival Auction. Thank you.
To Vicar's Letter for December
We welcome into the Lord's family:
18th
We Congratulate:
17th
Back issues are available on line as follows:
November 1997;
December 1997;
January 1998;
February 1998;
March 1998;
April 1998;
May 1998;
June 1998;
July 1998;
August 1998;
September 1998;
October 1998;
November 1998.