16/01/2010 by admin.

  The subject of church unity is for ever in the news but it was only in the nineteenth century that the matter became an issue when the various missionary societies realised that they were treading on each other’s toes in the mission field.  The matter was dealt with at the time by a gentlemen’s agreement not to trespass on each other’s domain.  After the last war, however, a more positive approach was made with the setting up of the World Council of Churches (1948) and the creation of the Church of South India (1947).  Already there had been other moves such as the amalgamation of all the various Methodist Churches (1932) and the formation of the United Reformed Church (1972) by amalgamating the Congregational Church and the Presbyterian Church - and not forgetting Taizé (1940 –1952).  These efforts have been truly amazing.  

However at a local level in towns like Fleet all this did not seem to reduce the number of church denominations ‘on offer’.  Efforts have been made locally, for churches to work together in such ventures as Christian Aid, Churches Together, the Good Friday Procession of Witness and combined talks and Bible studies all of which can be seen as a way forward to providing a united front against general religious apathy and rampant secularism.  But is this the only way to progress towards unity?

 I personally feel that it is only scratching the surface of a problem that goes much deeper, the problem being that the events of the past have not been generally understood and fully appreciated.  As the saying goes “What happened then matters now”*.  We are all coming from differing starting points and traditions and until we fully understand this then unity can only be at surface level.  

Whenever there has been ‘reform’ two things tend to emerge, namely something of value can often later be found amongst what has been discarded and secondly those left behind who continue in the old ways form a separate group or sect.  Take just two examples from history and over-simplify them.  The first is the Great Schism in 1054 when the Western Church broke away from the Eastern Church.  What the Catholic Church lost was seeing Christ in Majesty with an emphasis on the risen Lord in the resurrection, the importance of ritual, gesture, icons and mystery and learning how to survive as a persecuted church in a land under an alien government with an alternative religion.  On the other hand what the Orthodox Church failed to gain was the unity of a church under one pope, the rituals and imagery of the suffering of Christ at the Passion, the fostering of creative thinking by saints like St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas (who synthesised the thinking of the Neo-Platonists with the traditional Christian gospel) and the Renaissance.  Another example nearer home is the Reformation itself. Here the reformed churches left behind the idea of the importance of sacraments, the strength of a united church under one figurehead, the tradition of using images and music as an aid to worship.  What the Catholic church denied itself was the use of the Bible in the vernacular as a teaching aid, the freedom of thought by the laity and the greater participation in the services by those in the congregation like hymn singing.  Admittedly there was much that was left behind that was wrong but over the course of time many of these imbalances were rectified. Protestants seem to have forgotten the extent of the reforms that were initiated in the Council of Trent.  

This is a gross over-simplification, but I think it shows that some of what is discarded in reform can be of value and that what reformers see as an impediment to reunification could be worth preserving if understood in context.  Christianity is essentially an eastern religion with its roots in eastern tradition as we can see in the (Orthodox) practice of praying when prostrated – something which the Islamic faith has preserved.   The way forward therefore must surely be for us all to understand the history and background of other Christian traditions and see them for what they are.   Once having done this it might be possible to see more clearly how we as Christians should react to other faiths which today is becoming as great an issue as unity within the church at home.

 *History Today 

Richard Dexter 

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16/01/2010 by admin.

  …And this is the last word!

 We have been watching the debate in the Parish Magazines of recent months with interest, and the Ministry Team have discussed the issue at length.  We realize that there are, as is so often the case in things like this, good arguments to be had in both directions.  The original idea was born out of somebody asking the question why Eucharistic Assistants had to be robed.  The question came in the context of our being short of assistants and that a number of people had said that they would be prepared to do it if they didn’t have to robe.  And the answer is, of course, that they don’t have to be.  Even in our own Cathedral, we have attended a number of Eucharists where non-robed Eucharistic Assistants have been used.  In many Anglican churches (including those with traditions of robed choirs and servers) Eucharistic Assistants often don’t robe.  And in the Roman Catholic Church (often regarded as a step ahead of the Anglican Church in terms of formality) it became the norm many years ago that their Assistants are not robed. 

As with many things in life there is an argument to made in favour of both – robing and not robing. We understand that the use of liturgical robes can be a powerful symbol, drawing people closer to the “otherness” and mystery of especially the Eucharistic celebration. There is, of course, also an argument to be made for the “symbolism of non-robing chalice assistants”. They, by virtue of their baptism symbolize to the whole congregation that we all, by virtue of our baptism (and not only through ordination) have a share in the Priesthood of Christ. This is called the priesthood of all believers.

 So the bottom line is that there simply is no right or wrong in this question, but just personal preferences based on equally valid theological reasons. We have therefore decided that there will be occasions, in both our churches, when the Eucharistic Assistants will not be robed, and there will be many occasions when they are, and we hope that members of the congregations will support those who are offering to be part of this ancient and important role.  The  Debate has been long, but we believe this is now the time to draw a line under the issue, and to move forward lovingly.

Roy, Andreas and the members of the Parish Ministry Team  

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16/01/2010 by admin.

By Reverend Jennifer Jane Sistig (assistant non-stipendiary curate in the benefice of Fleet) 

At Ss Philip and James Church on Advent Sunday last year I spoke about the impact of HIV/AIDS in South Africa as part of our ‘Gift Sunday’ programme.  While that Sunday was dedicated to the support of an organisation called ACTS I was able to speak from my own experience of living and ministering in South Africa.  I mentioned my previous involvement in the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust (HACT) and since then our parish council has decided to establish a relationship with them in order to support their work on a regular basis.

From March 2005 until July 2008 I served as a trustee of HACT by virtue of my position as Rector (Incumbent) of the Parish of Holy Trinity, Hillcrest.  While that position enabled me to learn about the organization, it was only in 2007 that I personally discovered the power of their work to save and transform lives.  That realisation is best described in the story of three people, but I could not do them justice in a short publication.  Instead, let me provide you with some basic information.

Hillcrest is a town in the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal about half-way between Durban and South Africa.  It was a rural village until recently and is best known for its schools and its status as the home town of Alan Paton, author of Cry the Beloved Country and other works.  The parish of Hillcrest was established in the late 1970’s thanks in part to Paton, who as a Synod representative moved to have Hillcrest established as a multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-congregational parish composed of a white suburb and several ‘townships’ (black villages within the Zulu reservation of the Valley of 1000 Hills.)

Kwa-Zulu Natal is known to have the highest incidence of HIV worldwide.  By the time I left Hillcrest in 2008 the HIV infection rate within the population of the parish was about 46%. Andreas (who was the curate) spent almost every Saturday burying people.  The 2007 statistics released about one of the ‘townships’ in the parish known as Embo showed that the incidence of HIV amongst women who had used their government ante-natal services was 75%.

It is in this context that HACT does its work.  It was established as a joint venture between the Methodist and Anglican church and is now the longest running HIV/AIDS NGO in South Africa.  Their work, which they view as a ministry, saves lives.   This is their description of themselves:

The Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust is a faith-based ministry that has grown to become a multi-faceted HIV/AIDS project.  This ministry attempts to address the impact of the devastating HIV/AIDS pandemic in a practical and holistic way.  The mission of the organisation is and always has been to show unconditional love to all infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in a practical way.  

Their programmes include home-based care, respite care, education and awareness, counselling, feeding schemes, a school fee fund, a craft income-generation programme (Woza Moya which means ‘Come Spirit’) and a horticulture project.  This year one of the trees in the Christmas tree festival has been decorated with ‘little travellers’ made by Woza Moya’s beaders.

Your support has the power to keep people alive.  Please pray for them, and if you would like to learn more about them please visit their website: http://www.hillaids.org.za/   A huge thank you to everyone who supported our gift day in aid of Hillcrest Aids Centre. We have raised £1532 73 so far and more is still coming in. If you missed it, it is still not too late to drop a contribution off with a warden or to Charlotte at the parish office!

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29/11/2009 by admin.

On Advent Sunday which, by a happy chance, falls on a fifth Sunday this year we shall be worshipping together at P&J.  We shall be delighted to welcome Iona Community member Alison Adam who will be helping to lead us in our worship. And so it seemed an ideal opportunity to support the work of the community and its Growing Hope Appeal with our gift day offering.  In another article you can read about Alison’s work and the exciting event happening in the afternoon.  The following has been extracted from the Iona Community website.

Hope thrives on hospitality

On Iona, the Community is now entering the last stage of its Growing Hope Appeal which will underpin the £1 million already raised and invested firstly in the development the Camas Centre on Mull during 2007 - where the Iona Community works with disadvantaged and marginalised youngsters - and secondly in 2009 the completion of a new Welcome Centre, incorporating the Community’s shop, on the Island of Iona where the Community is now able to offer information, resources and exhibitions to island visitors about the Community’s life and concerns, on Iona and beyond.

We are now seeking contributions towards a capital project estimated at £350,000 to provide living space for 5 staff members, essential for our ministry of hospitality to guests staying at the Community’s residential centres on Iona and day visitors to the island. This project takes place within the context of an initiative, in which the Community is involved along with a number of public and local organisations are involved, to co-ordinate the promotion of Iona to potential visitors. The current project to develop and improve accommodation for Community’s staff will thus contribute significantly to the securing of jobs, which in any rural community is essential to sustain the economy of this remote island and to enable the presentation and interpretation of an important world renowned tourist and pilgrim destination. 

The project will see accommodation being provided in a newly constructed extension to the rear of the Community’s Founder George MacLeod’s landmark island house “Dunsmeorach” situated on the roadside leading to the ancient Abbey.  

Nearly £100,000 has already been raised or pledged for this final phase of the Appeal and with your support and financial contribution you will be helping to realise our aim and see the project’s completion by 2010.

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28/11/2009 by admin.

One of the conundrums of the Christian faith – given that its core belief is that Jesus was mortal and that He was born and died – is that the actual dates of His birth and death are surrounded by uncertainty.  In spite of there being so many clues and prompts it has not been possible to say with any conviction when actually it was that the two greatest events of His life took place.  

The problem lies in our sources because the only contemporary accounts we have are to be found in the New Testament and in particular the Gospels.  These, though, were written between 30 to 50 years after the crucifixion and, in the case of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), by authors who in all probability never knew Christ in the flesh.  Moreover many of the clues as to dates are gleaned from seemingly throw-away remarks on which we have tended to place far too much emphasis.  And bearing in mind that the Nativity would have taken place over 30 years before the Passion one can understand why factual details could be misremembered.  

  There are, though, other reasons.  At the time the gospels were written it was not thought important to celebrate or even remember a birthday.  The early Church Father, Origen, once said in AD245 that it would be sinful to keep the birthday of Jesus ‘as if He were a King Pharaoh’.  But a more important reason is that when the birth narrative was written it was with the emphasis that his birth (and death) were the fulfilments of the prophesies in the Old Testament. Thus we are told that the nativity was to be in Bethlehem, an ox and ass were to witness the birth, that there were to be kings bearing gifts, all of which are quotes from the Old Testament; and as for the star -???.   Even the reported acclamation of the angels was an echo of Old Testament poetry.   

There are, fortunately, more trustworthy clues and it is possible to make a guess that the year BC6 or BC4 was the most likely date. But here again we run into difficulties because our Common Era  year-dating was only devised in AD525 when the monk Dionysius Exiguus was asked by the Pope to calibrate a system of dates based on Christ’s birth; unfortunately from the evidence available to him then he not only miscalculated and omitted the year ‘zero’ but he failed to differentiate between the date of conception and that of birth.  

With regard to ascertaining the specific day of the birth there are even greater problems because one assumes that shepherds would not be in fields watching over  their flocks by night on an eastern Mediterranean hillside in mid-December for it would be far too cold. So in the absence of any reliable evidence we have to rely on ancient tradition which in this case we know plays us false.  It was the custom in late Roman times to believe that a hero’s death took place on the anniversary of his conception or birth. So as Our Lord’s death was around the time of the Passover it was assumed that the Annunciation was about the time of the vernal equinox and thus the birth would be sometime in December.  Furthermore when the Christian calendar was being established it had to be centred on the variable date of the Passover which in turn affected the dates of the other feasts throughout the year.  This caused problems when trying to work out the dates of other festivals such as that of John the Baptist’s conception (Zechariah being struck dumb in the temple) and his birth which was six months before Our Lord’s for there are only twelve months in the year to place them all in.   

So far as Christmas was concerned in the fourth century, when Christianity became the ‘official’ religion of the Roman Empire, it was deemed expedient to replace a celebration of the birth of a Roman sun god which was held at the winter solstice on 25 December with the celebration of Christmas which happened to be at about the same time.  

On reflection can a theological point be made from all this uncertainty?  After all Our Lord left no manuscript, relic or mortal remains for us to venerate - and it is not for the want of the faithful trying to find them.  As Jesus told Thomas ‘You have believed because you have seen; blessed are those who believe and who have not seen’.  In his teaching He always made a point of testing our faith by not giving us a physical or concrete aid but by just giving us His word passed down to us by others and by our finding out through our own experience of knowing him on His terms.  Richard Dexter  

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28/11/2009 by admin.

 The word Christingle means the Christ-light.  And the tradition of Christingle goes back a very long way.  It began way back in 1747, when a pastor of a church in Germany, a John de Watteville, wanted to help his congregation understand about God’s love for the world. And so he came up with the Christingle.  It became popular within Germany and soon other churches in other countries began to use it. Today the Christingle has been adopted by The Children’s Society as a way of reminding the churches in this country of their responsibility before God for the well-being of our nation’s children.

The Christingle is an orange which has a red ribbon around it. Also mounted in the orange are four cocktail sticks, each carrying some sweets. The orange represents the world, and the sweets remind us of all the good gifts that God has given us in Creation.  We enjoy these gifts every day of our lives. 

Think of all things that you enjoy in this beautiful world of ours – God has given these things to us because He loves us. 

On top of the Christingle there is a candle.  This stands for Jesus, the Light of the World.  God sent him into the world to light our way back to God.

So – we have the world, the gifts of creation, and the light of Christ to show us the truth. 

But there is one more thing to notice about the Christingle – the red ribbon.

It stands for the blood of Christ.  He came into the world not just to visit us, but for a purpose: to die in order to take the pain and the sin of the world upon himself.

This means that when you do something wrong to someone, and you feel bad about it, you can go to God and know that you are forgiven.

So – the orange, the sweets, the candle and the red ribbon.  A Christingle to remind us of what Jesus did in coming to earth over 2000 years ago.

A Christingle service will be held at Ss Philip & James on Sunday 13 December at 4.30 pm 

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26/11/2009 by admin.

Since Youth Group has been running for a while know, we thought we should tell you all about what we have been doing! We started off this term by officially naming the group. It is now called ID – which stands for Ignite Diversity. The name speaks for itself really; all of us have our own identity and we are all different! When we come together every Thursday we ‘ignite our diversity’! 

At least once a term we go out for an activity together. Last term we went canoeing, but this time we went Doughnutting in Aldershot. For those of you who don’t know, Doughnutting is a sport in which you sit in a big rubber doughnut and slide down a dry ski slope. Obviously we had great fun and hope to make it an annual event – (PLEASE Andreas?!).  

Since our Doughnutting trip we have been up to almost everything! From personalising (or terrorising) our room in the church hall with our wall paintings, to carving pumpkins and waving sparklers! Each week brings something different to do, and more fun to have! As well as getting to know each other and enjoying fun activities, each week we discuss a story in the bible or share our opinions on current issues in the world. Everyone of us has strong opinions so we all learn something new every Thursday, even if it’s just about each other!  

ID is a great place to go every week after a hard day of work at school. It is entertaining and relaxing – now made even more relaxing with our new bean bags! Hopefully now you have an idea of what is going on if ever you see or hear us wreaking havoc in the Church Hall on a Thursday evening! 

Martha Woodhams 

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22/11/2009 by admin.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the Love in a box scheme this year. We have been able to send 78 boxes to children in need abroad.

You will all be aware that the first Sunday in December has traditionally been a ‘Toy Service’ in the parish.  Our gifts were given to the Local Authority to give to children in need locally.  The last two years, however, it has been very difficult to donate the toys.  Last year we were specifically asked not to deliver any toys.

This year the PCC thought they would like to take a slightly different approach and look at giving via The Mustard Seed Relief Missions Charity.  The charity operates the ‘Love in a Box’ scheme.  This sends gift wrapped shoe boxes with various gift items in them to children in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine.  You can take a look at their website at http://www.msrm.org.uk.  I would like to encourage you all to pick up a leaflet and consider making up a box. 

If you feel unable to make one up on your own, maybe you could partner up with someone.  Or if you belong to one of the many groups or teams within the church, perhaps your group could consider making up a box or two between them.  The charity is quite specific about the contents of the box and how it should be presented.  This is to do with the sensitive nature of some of the experiences of the children, and also for an easier passage through customs.  The leaflet does explain everything very clearly.  The collection date we have been given is at the end of November, so we are going to make Sunday 22 November the ‘Love in a Box’ collection day in both churches.  

 Claire Holt 

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15/11/2009 by admin.

1. J.S Bach                        Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for Organ, BWV 565
   
2. Dire Straights                On Every Street
   
3. Herbert Groenemeyer     Ich Hab Dich Lieb (Live)
   
4. Toten Hosen Unplugged  Das Mädchen aus Rottweil (Unplugged)
   
5. Hubert Von Goisern        Weit, Weit Weg
   
6. Les Miserables                Who Am I?
   
7. Sting                               I Was Brought To My Senses
   
8. G F Handel            Handel: Messiah, He Trusted In God That He Would Deliver Him
   

His Luxury - A bottle of single malt

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14/11/2009 by admin.

Major General Tim Cross (retired) talked on the subject of terrorism at SS Philip & James Church on Saturday, 14th November 2009. 

This is a recording of his talk - click to download or play each track

Questions and Answers

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