The Church of England in Compton Valence, Dorchester, West Stafford, Winterborne Monkton, Winterborne St Martin (Martinstown), Winterbourne Abbas & Winterbourne Steepleton
I have appreciated over the last few months having a little extra time to read and one of the books I have been challenged by has been ‘Accompaniment, Community and Nature’* by one of our local clergy, the Revd Canon Jonathan Herbert.
It is easy to think of Christian Community as a rather exclusive thing, with its own rules and rhythms known only to those who belong there. Far from it, writes Jonathan, as he describes some of his own experiences of communities of hope and welcome, including two in our diocese – Pilsdon and Hilfield.
Ten years ago I led a team of workplace chaplains in Cambridgeshire and regularly visited the staff at Cambridge Crown Courts. On several occasions I took round the Courts a group of local ordinands. I asked them to visit staff and defendants with their families who sat outside the courts anxiously waiting to be called in. When reporting back they were asked to answer a short question, “Where is God in all this”. There were many responses such as “Christ was suffering with them”.
After the great celebration of Easter Day, the Church calendar carries on through the seven weeks of the Easter season to Pentecost, each Sunday gospel witnessing to the experience of the first disciples of the risen Lord, through the Ascension to St Luke’s story of the gift of the Spirit. Together, the disciples are gifted with the resurrection appearances, with his ascension into heaven, and with the Spirit.
I often wonder how Jesus felt as he entered Jerusalem at the beginning of what we call Holy Week.
He was met by triumphant crowds who saw him as the person who was to save his nation from domination by the Romans. Yet as the week went on we saw a man who shrugged off the adulation of the crowds, spent time with his friends, sought refuge outside the city for peace and respite and then gave the Passover meal with his closest a new and everlasting meaning. It did not end there as he was tried and in some people’s eyes found guilty and cruelly executed.
Following the announcement by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York on 17th March 2020, we regret to inform you that all regular church services are cancelled until further notice. This does not affect arrangements for weddings and funerals, for which the ministers involved should be consulted directly. - UPDATE: Weddings are also now affected, please contact the minister.
*** Latest advice on Coronavirus, updated 12th March 2020 ***
All Church of England clergy have now received the following guidance:
It is our view, in light of the continued increase of Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom, that it is now necessary to suspend the administration of the chalice as well as physical contact during the sharing of the peace, blessing or "laying on of hands".
This year Salisbury celebrates one of the most remarkable stories of medieval England. It’s the story of the Cathedral that moved.
In 1220 the consecration stones of a new Cathedral were laid and anointed, only 2.5 miles from the site of the existing Cathedral. Bishop Richard Poore and his clergy had determined that the hilltop of OId Sarum was no longer an appropriate place for their foundation. So, with breath- taking audacity, they moved it to the plain below, where five rivers meet, and where it has stood ever since.
Some years ago we went to the BBC Gardeners World exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham. We drove there and back without any problems, guided every mile of the way by Christopher, the disembodied but very polite voice of the Satnav on my mobile phone. Perfect, precise directions led us through unfamiliar territory and navigated us successfully around complex junctions that offered a multitude of possibilities for taking the wrong direction. Finally, when we arrived at our destination, Christopher announced, “There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
