October 2014

October 2, 2014

Parish service pattern

Following my arrival in the parish it has been important to have a period of observation and reflection as I get used to the way the parish runs and the issues it faces. One particular focus for my attention has been the pattern of worship and the deployment of clergy across the churches, especially on Sundays. It is not the right time yet for me to comment in detail on the content of our worship, but I have felt the need to look at how my colleagues and I are deployed on Sundays.

Let me explain the current commitment to the parish of each of my colleagues, and how those come together in planning our Sunday worship.

Jeremy’s primary Sunday role is as the minister of St John’s Church. His role however is defined as 50% minister of St John’s Church and 50% leader and coordinator of mission in the parish. I think it is appropriate that Jeremy therefore is seen for two out of four Sunday morning at St John’s Church, and works across the parish on the other Sundays of the month.
Last summer Marion moved from being a curate in training to being an Associate Priest. She is free to choose the amount of time she offers to the parish. After discussion and agreement with me, Marion has agreed to work three Sundays out of four each month, alongside her many other commitments at St Peter’s Church and outside the parish.

I was extremely delighted that John Dudley agreed to be part of our clergy team in a more formal way earlier this year. Many of us have been used to John’s ministry, more regularly at St John’s Church and especially through the interregnum across all the churches. Like Marion, John is an Associate Priest who chooses the amount of time he wishes to offer to the parish. I have agreed with John that he will initially be part of our worship plan on the fourth Sunday of every month, and we will review this again this autumn, when John’s commitments elsewhere reduce.

I was conscious when I arrived that the question of who had pastoral responsibility for St Margaret’s Church was left unanswered. Previously St Margaret’s Church had had a priest looking after them, then had a period when different clergy attended each week. The parish had also tried to recruit a self-supporting minister (SSM) to have responsibility for St Margaret’s Church, but failed in this recruitment. I am not convinced that trying to recruit an SSM again is likely to be successful. Neither do I think it is the right use of clergy resources in the wider deanery or diocese. So I have concluded not to pursue that strategy. The question of who has oversight of St Margaret’s Church therefore arises, and the straightforward answer is simple – I do! If I am the minister of both St Peter’s Church and St Margaret’s Church equally then I will be at their main Sunday worship equally each month. Clearly this is a departure from the pattern my predecessor adopted, but I think it is fair to both churches that they understand clearly my responsibilities and relationship with them.

I have therefore negotiated with my colleagues the following Sunday rota, which implements the availability I describe above:

This rota is the starting point for allocating our clergy on Sundays for any one month. Inevitably unavailability due to holidays, sickness or special services will mean that on some weeks we are not able to follow this pattern.

I do hope this article helps you to understand which clergy person to expect on any given Sunday in the parish, and how we share out our responsibilities amongst us.

Mike Smith, Rector

Church House Lift

I’m delighted to tell you that the new lift in Church House is now available for public use. This means that the first floor hall is at last accessible to people in wheelchairs, people with walking frames and mothers with pushchairs. Please spread the word!

Nigel Smith, Chairman, Church House Leadership Team

In the picture, Mary Tucker, CHLT secretary, and Bill Vincent, a long-time member of the Church House team, are at the controls of the new lift.

Parochial Church Council

The Parochial Church Council (PCC) meets four times a year to discuss parish and church matters. The committee is made up of stipendiary clergy, churchwardens, Deanery Synod representatives and lay members of each church plus the parish treasurer and a secretary.

At the most recent PCC meeting, held at St John’s Church in September, the PCC heard from several members of that church about developments there and challenges they face; children’s work is flourishing, church numbers are growing slowly but steadily, the 3Cs cafe is a popular local venue, the vegetable garden in the churchyard is in production but the roof is in need of fixing and the forthcoming quinquennial inspection will tell them just how bad it is.

The PCC also discussed several updated policies which will appear on the parish website in due course. The Mission Action Plan (MAP) is firmly back on the agenda with the Church Leadership Teams (CLTs) having done some work recently on updating the current plan and with more work to come for a yet to be formed Mission Action Team who will be looking at where we are going with our mission work and how we want to get there.

Every meeting hears updates on finance, Safeguarding, Health & Safety, parish properties and the discussions at Deanery Synod. The December meeting will be held at Church House when the PCC will discuss, amongst other matters, changes at Church House and the 2015 budget and Parish Share.

Caroline Smith, PCC Secretary

Jeremy’s Jottings

‘Come ye thankful people come,
Raise the song of harvest home’

These are familiar words from a well-known harvest hymn, aren’t they? But are they true? Are we really thankful for the harvest, or do we take it for granted? And what does harvest mean to us anyway, in a world in which we are used to receiving fruit and vegetables both in and out of season due to goods being transported across the world?

One of the great pleasures for me this year has been the development of the St John’s community garden, a place in which members of the church and our uniformed groups have come together to share in the task of planting seeds, watering them, seeing them grow and eventually harvesting the produce of runner beans, radishes, spring onions, courgettes, kale (and there are still potatoes, carrots, squash and strawberries yet to come!).

Some of the Gosbrook Garden Growers (the 3 G’s) pictured with Bishop Andrew at the opening and blessing of the community garden in June

But, of course, most of us rely on fruit and vegetables grown across the world at other times too and so the sense of ‘harvest’ for us can perhaps be downgraded as a result. So I would like to suggest this year that we also think in our celebrations about those who harvest crops for us in other parts of the globe, often in extremely difficult situations, and that we give thanks to God for them too. One way we can do that is by supporting Christian Aid’s harvest appeal for farmers in Burundi And don’t forget we have the opportunity, as usual, to support the homeless in our own community through our donations of tinned goods for the Churches in Reading Drop In Centre (CIRDIC).

So let’s take this opportunity to celebrate and give thanks to God for the harvest this year (whenever it happens) both in our own country and abroad. A great way of doing that as a parish is not only through our harvest worship but also through our harvest barn dance at St John’s on Friday 10 October between 6.30-10pm (see details elsewhere). And as we do that, let’s remember those less fortunate than ourselves, both here and overseas, and do what we can to support them.

Jeremy Tear, Community Priest

Season of Remembrance

“No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind” (John Donne, 1572-1631)

We will soon be entering the season of remembering. Formally listed in our church’s liturgy as the season “From All Saints to Advent”, it is perhaps one of the more underplayed times of our church year.

During this season we are invited to ponder on our common humanity, that no-one is an island as John Donne reminds us. In a world that easily fragments into individualism and narrow nationalism, it is good to have a time of year when we are invited to stop, remember and give thanks.

All Saints day, shortly followed by All Souls day, have their focus on those who have gone before us, and the grace of God which is powerfully at work amongst us, redeeming all creation. None of us is an island – we all influence one another and leave our humanity. Our services will once again this year give us an opportunity to praise God for his saints – those who have influenced our own journey of faith and leave their mark on the Church. We have a more intimate opportunity to remember those we have personally lost to God in death through our All Souls services. The tone of these services is however not downbeat – in the midst of death we Christians proclaim that God’s redemption fulfils all things in Christ. All those who pass through death, by the grace of God are offered life in all eternity.

Shortly after All Saints and All Souls comes Remembrance Sunday, closely followed by Remembrance Day itself on November 11th. There was a time when many began to ask how long we could go on holding ceremonies at war memorials and in churches when veterans were ageing and those with a living memory of war dying off. But the last few years have seen a significant resurgence of interest in, and commitment to, Remembrance Sunday. This day has memory as its theme, both corporate and individual, as we confront issues of war and peace, loss and self-gift, memory and forgetting. As Donne reminds us, the death of anyone diminishes me, so we rightfully gather to remember the fallen and recommit ourselves to peace.

But this season of remembrance is also a time for remembering, or putting back together and understanding the whole. As Christians we stand with a great cloud of witnesses throughout history as part of the body of Christ. In commemorating those saints of God, all the departed and those who lay down their lives in war, we also re-establish in our minds and hearts that all humanity are part of the creation of God, whom God wills to be one family. Our faith teaches us that it is in Christ that we are all one, all part of the one body. In him we are remembered for all time.

So our season of remembering therefore helpfully ends on the final Sunday of the church year, with the feast of Christ the King. As our church year started with the hope of the coming Messiah, so we end with celebrating the universal Sovereignty of Christ. The long journey of the church year has come and gone, and we proclaim that Christ rules in our hearts and over all creation. None of us is an island – in Christ we are all one.

Mike Smith, Rector