Newsletter 2016_01

'Redesdale Rites'

Church of England in Elsdon, Otterburn, Horsley & Byrness

9 January 2016

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Apologies for the lack of newsletter last week. I was going down with a chest infection but am hopefully recovering now, so belated good wishes for peace, health and happiness in 2016

I know it's perhaps a bit soon to mention this but Easter is early this year which means Lent begins on 10 February (Ash Wednesday). On Monday evenings during Lent I am  running a series of  learning sessions entitled ‘Conversations around The Lord's Prayer’ . Further details in the February Edition of ‘The Meeting of the Waters’*

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The services this Sunday (‘Baptism of Christ’) are:

9.00 am - Parish Communion at Holy Trinity, Horsley

11.00 am  BCP Communion at St Cuthbert’s Elsdon

The bible readings are: Isaiah 43.1-7,  Acts 8.14-17 and Luke 3.15-17,21,22

Also, having taken a break during December our Taize Evening Prayer and Meditation service begins again at 6.00 pm (Sunday), in the church room at St John's Otterburn.  Taize worship has a very simple form and provides a time for singing, readings, quiet meditation and prayer. All welcome.

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There will be a service of Communion at St John the Evangelist, Otterburn on Wednesday (13th)  at 10.00 am, followed by Communion at Rede House at 10.45 am

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At St John’s Otterburn on Saturday afternoon (16th) at 4.00 pm there will be a wedding rehearsal for Dale Quincey and Emma Nicholson. We pray for them this week as they prepare for their marriage.

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Next Sunday’s services  (17th January)  are:

9.00 am Parish Communion at St Francis, Byrness  and

11.00 am Parish Communion at St John’s Otterburn

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity runs from 18th to 25th January. More than ever it is important for all the Christian denominations to stand, pray and work together against the evil in the world.

Best wishes

Peter

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*The Lord's Prayer or Our Father has been used for 2000 years around the world by millions of people.  There probably isn't a moment, day or night, when there isn't someone on earth praying the Lord’s Prayer. There probably isn't a language on earth that doesn't contain a version of the Lord’s Prayer.  You can pray this prayer when you are full of joy. You can pray it in the ordinary days. It's used at baptism services and weddings. It's recited at sea; it comes to mind when faced with danger, or when other words won't come; it strengthens the dying and comforts the bereaved. It was once a secret prayer taught to those preparing for baptism into a persecuted faith but now is available for all. It is a political prayer, a healing prayer, a subversive prayer, a prayer of transformation.

A Homily for Christmas - the Prairie Chicken and the Eagle

Read John 1.1-14

A Native American warrior was rushing through the forest. He saw a fallen egg on the grass and placed it in the first nest he came across. He had placed an eagle's egg in a prairie hen's nest. One day when the hatched chickens were busy doing what a prairie-bird family does best - hopping, pecking, squawking - a magnificent eagle swooped across the sky. The young eagle was filled with a sudden, aching longing.

Immediately reprimanded by the mother hen for time-wasting and day-dreaming, the growing eagle-in-disguise dutifully continued to scratch the dry earth. But, the story goes, no matter what suspicion, ridicule or indoctrination the prairie chicken continued to endure from that day on, she could never forget that moment when her heart in hiding stirred for another life.

As we stand around the crib something stirs inside us too. We look at the baby and sense an echo of heaven in ourselves.

We look at the baby who will soon enjoy and endure the delights and dangers of being truly human, who will grow up and later suffer in a darkness from which a great light will shine.

We kneel near the baby and an awareness of our own undreamt-of destiny awakens in us. We sense a beckoning horizon as yet invisible and uncertain. We are like people trying to remember the dream from which we have just awoken.

"Peace on earth," we sing, but a strange disturbance bothers our hearts. "All is calm, all is bright," we faithfully carol, while a restlessness continues to grow within us.

It is sometimes said that Christmas is for children.  

Yes, that’s true of course.

Yet Christmas is for all people of all ages, whether of faith or not.

When we say it's for children what I think we mean is that it somehow sounds an echo from our own childhood, from a time of hope-ful innocence.

A time before we forget from where we came, before we became wise in our own eyes and considered such things childish.

Most of us are like the prairie chicken in our story.

We are haunted by the sense that we are something more yet continue to keep busy with what we do best - the human equivalent of hopping, pecking and squawking.

Christmas, at its best -

and I’m not talking about the partying or the shopping -

Christmas, at its best -

stirs a memory of a dream,

from which we woke long ago.

A dream which gave us a vision of how we might fly on eagles wings.

Our gospel reading was from St John. The symbol for St John is the eagle.

Matthew and Luke focus our eyes on the earthly Christ child in the crib. John lifts our eyes to what is going on in the heavenly sphere. Jesus inhabits both worlds. As the Orthodox Christian reminds us - Christ became human so that humanity might become divine.

John's Message

The gospel reading for the third Sunday of Advent tells of the people flocking to John the Baptist and of how he tells them to change their lives rather than rely on their heritage.

Power connection

The sun shone brightly through the sanctuary window at St John's this morning, which was just as well. Yesterday's storm had damaged the mains connection so we had no electricity. We all huddled at the front for a shorter service. The homily just had to be about reconnecting to the source of our spiritual power through Jesus and  the gospel reading was about John the Baptist calling upon his hearers to prepare to reconnect with God by repenting of the sins which break the connection. To put it another way, in Advent we prepare to reconnect with Jesus through whom flows the loving and healing energy of God. 

Advent hope

The children of St John's Otters have helped to produce this display reminding us of Advent.

Harvest

The children and teachers  of Otterburn First School walked up to St John's church and were joined by parents to celebrate harvest thanksgiving through drama, prayers and songs. Items were donated and will be added to other produce for the church Harvest Festival on Sunday. Food items will go to The People's Kitchen in Newcastle. 

Blessing of Animals

A group of parishioners and their pets assembled at St Francis Church in Byrness on the afternoon of Synday 4th October (The Feast of St Francis) for our annual service of blessing of animals. 

The stunning altar frontal for St Francis was made by local people. (We don't normally leave it out for fear the church mouse might find an alternative use for the material!)