Benefice Newsletter for Sunday 7th November – Third Sunday before Advent

Message from our Curate in Charge,
The Revd James Marston

From the celebrations of All Saints, we turn our attention to a period of reflection as we mark All Souls this week and Remembrance Sunday later this month. This week, in my message, I include my reflection at this week’s service as we remembered the loved.

Let us pray
Support us, O Lord,
all the day long of this troublesome life,
until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes,
the busy world is hushed,
the fever of life is over
and our work is done.
Then, Lord, in your mercy grant us a safe lodging,
a holy rest, and peace at the last;
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

I think this is perhaps one of the greatest of prayers. It is said at one of the most poignant parts of the funeral service – the final prayer said not for the person we have just said goodbye to but for those of us left behind. Written by Cardinal John Henry Newman, I think it distils into a few powerful words the hope found in the Christian faith – the hope of a holy rest and peace at the last with the God of love.

I feel the last two years for many of us has been a time of uncertainty, change and loss. Loss of freedom, loss of confidence, loss of certainties, and loss, for some, of loved ones.

All Souls is as much a time to remember as a moment in which to rest in God’s love. God knows your heart. God does know how you feel. 

And as we lament, reflect, and remember in the stillness of our hearts, I am constantly reminded, how in difficult times, relying on God, turning to the consolation of our faith – however fragile that may sometimes be – and remembering the hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the comfort of God’s love for each and every one of us can help and support us all through this troublesome life.

May you find consolation in God’s love, may you find refuge and strength in the light of God’s presence, and may all souls, all our loved ones we remember tonight, rest in peace and rise in glory.

Amen

Candles from the Remembering the Loved service on 2^nd November

 

Collect
Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

First Reading
Jonah 3.1-5, 10
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, ‘Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.’ So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’ And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

Second Reading
Hebrews 9.24-end
For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgement, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Gospel Reading
Mark 1.14-20
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’  As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Sermon by The Revd James Marston
Preached at Aldeburgh on October 27^th, 2021
All Saints’ Day

May I speak in the name of the living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

As some of you know for my master’s degree in theology I studied Dorothy Day, a woman who, even in her lifetime, was touted as a saint.

Day was the founder of the catholic worker movement, a peace activist, a prisoner of conscience, a devout roman catholic, a journalist, a political and prophetic voice who challenged the church to which she belonged, a woman who fed the poor and housed the homeless, a champion of social justice and an exemplar of radical Christianity.

Dorothy Day lived her life according to the manifesto of the Sermon on the Mount.

She was an extraordinary woman and a hard act to follow, but Dorothy Day was also human, she was awkward, sarcastic, impatient and, as I read her letters and diaries, could be, on occasion, somewhat blunt, kurt and downright rude.

As her progress to sainthood continues, and she is now deemed a servant of God in the Roman Catholic Church, I suspect she would be utterly appalled at being sucked into the powerful patriarchy she challenged and to which she proved such a thorn in the side. She didn’t like the idea of sainthood famously remarking she didn’t wish to be dismissed so easily.

What Dorothy meant was she was no submissive lady of virginal virtue, no mere friend of God, no saccharine drenched devotional Christian. Dorothy Day acted, did, and followed Jesus in a way that upset almost everyone she encountered.

St Lawrence, the patron saint of Knodishall, was a second century roman, a deacon in the church, who defied the emperor and was martyred, roasted alive on a grid iron according to legend. A man whose faith compelled him to speak and act.

St Mary, a popular patron saint of many Suffolk medieval churches, was the overarching witness of the Christian faith, the woman chosen by God to bear his son and witness Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection.

The patron saint of fishmongers as well as Scotland, St Andrew, was a simple fisherman, a brother of St Peter, and one of the first apostles called by Jesus. A martyr whose experience of Jesus and the resurrection compelled him to die on an upside down cross.

And St Peter and St Paul, fathers of the church who witnessed first-hand, and in different ways, the risen Christ. St Paul. The rather laborious theologian and letter writer, St Peter the famous denier of Jesus and yet also a man who helped found his church and went to his death for his Lord.

All these men and women were humans compelled by their faith to be who they were. To do extraordinary things in the name of their faith.

We do not worship the saints. We may ask them to intercede for us, but the communion of saints is not the object of our worship or praise. Instead, they all point us towards God and, I think, learning about them, allowing ourselves to be inspired by them points us towards the holiest part of ourselves, the place in our hearts where we allow God in.

With a patron saint for each church in our benefice we are also reminded of the distinct character and attributes of our worshipping communities.

The passions, traditions, and missions of each of our churches are slightly different. Indeed, I often wonder as I preside at each if they may even reflect in some ways the characters and personalities of the patron saints themselves.

Nuanced though they may be, the differences in each need not and are not diluted nor diffused by Church of England structure or incumbent’s whim. On the contrary I would suggest each and every church in our benefice has much to offer its own parish and community.

Nonetheless, we must not lose sight of that which binds us together, that which brings Dorothy Day, Lawrence the deacon, Mary the virgin, Andrew the fisherman, and Peter and Paul, into communion – the faith we and they share.

And that is a faith that demands not only that we love our neighbour but that we pull on the same rope, pull together, as we are doing, in times of uncertainty or change.

My challenge to you as a benefice, as people of four separate and one combined worshipping community, is to be inspired by your patron saint and the faith they held; to follow his or her example as best you can. To speak out, to care for others, to ask questions, to learn, to retell the story, to be prophetic, to challenge injustice, and to follow Christ in all you do.

It is an old adage but together we are greater than the sum of our parts – Peter, Paul, Lawrence, Andrew, Mary and Dorothy all knew this and that is why we can make the effort to celebrate them, and the churches of which they are patron, and all that our benefice churches are, and can be, and will be, together.

Amen

Post Communion
God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Texts from Coventry Cathedral’s Tablets of the Word Part Eight by John Giles Fear not I am the first and the last I am alive for evermore amen And have the keys of hell and death       Revelation 1.18  How does the Christian story end? On the Cross? Certainly not. Christianity proclaims a victory, of Christ risen, ascended and glorified. If you look up “Christ in Majesty – images” on Google, you will find pages of representations in art, mosaics, stained glass, and sculpture. Somewhere in that glorious procession you will come across Graham Sutherland’s great tapestry of Christ in Majesty which hangs from seventy feet high behind the altar in Coventry Cathedral and relates to the last verse in this series (see the words above) Unlike the other verses from The Tablets of the Word, the saying above comes not from the gospels, but from the Book of Revelation. The book appears to have been written by a Jewish Christian called John, sometimes called John the Elder (to distinguish him from the Apostle John) for seven churches in what is now western Turkey, inland from Ephesus. All the churches were under the threat of persecution by the Roman Emperors Nero (54 – 68 AD) and Domitian (81 – 96 AD), in whose later time the book probably found its present form. John was in prison on the island of Patmos thirty miles off the Turkish coast. He writes with an almost episcopal concern for his readers, but there is no evidence of his being ordained, let alone a bishop. His is a lay voice. The battle between good and evil for him was clear cut. He sees “war in heaven”, surely a contradiction in terms, yet true to experience – Michael and his angels are fighting against the dragon and his angels. He opens his message with a vision of the glorified Christ speaking the words above. He urges his readers to remain faithful, assuring them of ultimate victory in his promise of a new heaven and a new earth. Meanwhile the threat of persecution was real. There had been and would continue to be martyrs, Christians who died for their faith. The martyrs gained a special recognition in the life and worship of the church. The Te Deum tells of “the noble army of martyrs” who join their praises to those of the Apostles and Prophets. In the mosaics of Ravenna, the martyrs are shown with palm branches in their hands. Stephen the Deacon (Acts ch.7) had been the first martyr. Peter, Paul, and Andrew, not unknown to our Benefice, would follow not many years later. Lawrence, deacon and patron saint of Knodishall, arrested for not handing over his church’s treasures, would die in 258 AD, saying “the jewels of the church are the lives of the poor” – reminding us of Archbishop Helder Camara’s words: “When I give bread to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no bread, they call me a communist.” We today in the west are faced not so much by persecution as by indifference if not scorn. It is very hard to imagine the challenge faced by churches called upon to recognise the divinity of emperors with their gods. But then the Book of Revelation was not written for comfortable western Christians. It was written for those who, at the time, and in the centuries that would follow, would face death for loyalty to Christ.  It must also be said that the church’s own history contains much that is lamentable – with wars of religion; putting down of so-called heresies; witch-hunting; burnings; the Inquisition etc. The Book of Revelation itself exhibits in places a thirst for revenge far from the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. Yet behind all is the higher example and authority of Christ in Majesty. “Fear not” he says, echoing his words to the disciples caught out in the storm. “I am the first and the last – the Alpha and the Omega”: I am the beginning of the search for love and meaning in our universe, and I am also the fulfilment and final answer to such questions.  Judgement and justice, hell, and death, are finally and only judged themselves in relation to the Cross, where Christ carries the weight of the world’s cruelty and evil. In the light of the cross, and by the teaching of Jesus in his lifetime, grace and forgiveness, mercy, and love, turn out to be supreme. Forgiveness, reconciliation, fresh starts are possible. We don’t have to kill our enemies. Ending this series, that was surely the conviction driving Provost Howard to give the Tablets of the Word such prominence in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral. As Advent approaches, we prepare ourselves to hear that story all over again. Next week – Sunday 14th November Remembrance Day

NOTICES

Church of England and Diocese Online Worship There are many online services you can view from the Church of England and our cathedral. Here are some links below. Church of England website https://www.churchofengland.org/ prayer-and-worship/church-online/weekly-online-services Church of England Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ thechurchofengland/ Church of England YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCLecK8GovYoaYzIgyOElKZg St Edmundsbury Cathedral Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/stedscathedral

Weekly Benefice Newsletter If you would like something added to the weekly newsletter that is relevant to the Benefice, please do let Claire know and we will do our best to include it the following week.

Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays The Pilgrims worship together every Wednesday. You are all more than welcome to join them via Zoom.   The worship starts at 6.30pm (Zoom call opens from 6.10pm) and the call is then left open after the worship time for people to catch up.  The worship is about 30 minutes long.  We have a different worship sheet each week which goes out on a Monday ahead of the Wednesday.   People are welcome to email pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com  to receive a copy or be added to our mailing list and for Zoom links. Zoom Quiz night: Saturday 27th November.   Please email Sue and Richard if you can provide a round: pilgrimstogether473@gmail.com

Food Banks at the East of England Co-op Foodbanks provide a valuable service to those in need in our communities. The Aldeburgh Co-op and Solar in Leiston are doing a grand job in collecting food donations, which are collected regularly and distributed. So please look out for the various collection baskets. The Trussel Trust Organisation Food banks in our network have seen an increase in the number of food parcels given out over the last year due to Coronavirus, so any donations are much appreciated. You can find out which items your local food bank is most in need of by entering your postcode here – https://www.trusselltrust.org/give-food/

Christmas Cards have Arrived You will find a great festive selection of Christmas cards  (inc hand made by Titch Driscoll) at the visitors’ corner at Aldeburgh Parish Church. Do pop in and have a look. A huge thank you to Titch for all her efforts in making the visitors’ corner look so welcoming.