Sunday 30 June 2013

13th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Today Father Martin presided at the Parish Mass and Father Mervyn read the Gospel, preached and concelebrated. In his sermon Father Mervyn focussed on “vocation”. He stressed how God took us as we are and used us and our talents and abilities to promote his kingdom in the world. He reminded us that at this time of year people are being ordained to the Sacred Priesthood and the Diaconate. We should pray for them as they take up their God-given vocation. But we also need to be aware that God calls people to serve him in other spheres as well as the ordained ministry. At the end of the service Father Mervyn gave everyone present a Prayer Card about vocations.

Marjorie celebrating her birthday on Friday provided cake for our after Mass refreshments. Frequently people celebrating birthdays buy us cake and we reward them (reward?) by singing “A Happy Birthday”.

Yesterday’s Saturday Shop took £175.

Sunday 23 June 2013

12th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

The church was packed for Mass today; Father Mervyn presided at the Parish Mass and Father Martin read the Gospel, preached and concelebrated. Our Intercessions were led by Ann.  In his sermon Father Martin mentioned the recent death, in Italy, of James Gandolfini of the TV series The Sopranos whose character in the series had inspired fear. He then went to explain why pork was a forbidden meat because it was considered unclean. In the Holy Land which is often very hot pork would go bad very quickly so it was a small step from it being considered unclean to pork being considered evil. So when Jesus healed the possessed man he sent the demons into the herd of pigs thus evil was sent to evil ridding the local people of two evils. The healed man proclaimed how Jesus had saved him and we must do the same proclaiming how much Jesus has done for us. Our Sunday School resumed this morning after closing for Half Term.

Yesterday’s Saturday Shop took £136

REMINDER

Wednesday 26th June 7.00 p.m. Mass followed by a Meeting of the PCC

Monday 1st July Mass 7.30 p.m. followed by a meeting of the Social Committee

YEAR OF FAITH

YEAR OF FAITH

SOLEMN PONTIFICAL MASS

Saturday 20th August St. Alban’s Cathedral 12 noon with the Bishop of Richborough.

Book you coach seat with Father Mervyn  asap

Sunday 16 June 2013

11th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Today Father Martin presided at the Parish Mass whilst Father Mervyn played the organ as our organist was away; he also preached. In his sermon Father Mervyn talked about the inhospitality of the Pharisee who had invited Jesus to his house for a meal. He didn’t provide the usual water for the washing of feet whereas the woman who acknowledged her sinfulness had bathed his feet with her tears, dried them with her hair and then anointed him. The Pharisee had judged the woman but had failed to acknowledge his own sinfulness. We have to be very careful before we stand in judgement on people as we could so easily get it wrong.

Yesterday’s Saturday Shop took £178.

THE ROSARY

Tuesday 18th June at 7.30 p.m.

Wednesday 16th July at 7.30 p.m.

ROSARIES ARE AVAILABLE TO LOAN FOR THE EVENING IF YOU DON’T HAVE YOUR OWN

Thursday 13 June 2013

In the Month of June–from The Pioneer

400 years ago: on 29th Jun 1613 that the original Globe Theatre in London was destroyed by fire.

175 years ago: on 28th Jun 1838 that the Coronation of Queen Victoria took place.

150 years ago: on 7th Jun 1863 that Franz Gruber, Austrian organist and composer, best known for composing the Christmas carol ‘Silent Night’, died.

75 years ago: on 9th Jun 1938 that London’s Trooping the Colour ceremony was televised for the first time.

65 years ago: on 24th Jun 1948 that the Soviet Union began a blockade of Berlin, cutting off all routes between West Germany and West Berlin. The Allies launched a massive airlift.

60 years ago: on 2nd Jun 1953 that the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place at Westminster Abbey, London.

50 years ago: on 5th Jun 1963 that the British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, resigned after it was revealed he had lied to the House of Commons about his affair with Christine Keeler.

Also 50 years: on 26th Jun 1963 that US President John Kennedy visited West Berlin and made his famous declaration ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ (I am a Berliner) to demonstrate the USA’s support.

15 years ago: on 1st Jun 1998 that the European Central Bank was established in Frankfurt, Germany.

10 years ago: on 26th Jun 2003, that Sir Denis Thatcher, British businessman, husband of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, died.

Tuesday 11 June 2013

Father Martin’s letter in the June edition of “The Pioneer”–the Magazine of St. Augustine’s, Rush Green

We Believe!!

Doubtless elsewhere in this edition of ‘The Pioneer’ there is an article about last month’s Baptism and Confirmation Service, as part of the course that they have been on with me Alice, Jill, Daniel and Duncan have looked at the Creeds including the Nicene Creed that we use each and every Sunday. After one of our sessions and as I was just putting a few things away in church I found myself reflecting upon the meaning of the words in this modern era and especially on the phrase "We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church ", this is the claim, after all, that we all make each time we join together to say the Creed.

The Church of which we are members is apostolic, and it is prophetic, quite simply because it has, as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "apostles and prophets for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone." The Apostles were missionaries, witnesses to his own ministry and teaching, and witnesses, too, of his Resurrection, whom Jesus chose and subsequently sent out to make disciples of all the nations.

We are the descendants and successors of those Apostles. Ours is the responsibility to continue, as a Church, their mission.

The Apostles made disciples by their preaching of the Good News of Jesus and by their example of living, as far as they possibly could, the way of life of Jesus. They also appointed their own successors, Bishops or Elders of the Church, so that the teaching of Jesus could be, was, and still is, preserved.

For two thousand years the teaching has continued. The Church, left by Jesus to those eleven remaining Apostles, has flourished and grown so that it now covers the world and has hundreds of millions of members. But as it has grown, so it has changed. It has many times fallen into sin and error. The Good News of its founder has been too often ignored and the Church has become the plaything of men rather than the instrument of God it should be.

If we believe in the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church then it is our task and our duty as its twenty first century missionaries once more to listen to the words of Jesus as passed down to us by and through his Apostles and their successors. We must listen again to the wisdom of the Church's early Fathers. We must pay heed to the Scriptures and to the Church's Tradition.

Organisations such as the SSC or Forward in Faith or Reform are neither fundamentalist nor indeed trapped in a time warp, but they do believe that we must return to the basic truths of faith, to the Word of God made known through Jesus rather than continue, as so many in the church are doing, in the belief that present-day, scientific, materialistic Man has all the answers and knows best, and that the Bible and the Apostles were simply of their time and largely unrelated to us and our own lives now.

It is a mistake, frequently made, by those of the more Liberal tendencies to try and marginalize organizations such as the SSC or Reform or Forward in Faith by saying that they are ‘one issue’ or ‘fundamentalist’. It is true that they and their members have chosen to take a stand on certain issues of the faith, as they understand it to have been handed down by the Lord and that because a certain point captures the media’s attention it appears that this is there only reason for being, but such is not true. Their true aim in every case is the preaching and teaching of the truth of the faith as revealed in Holy Scripture for the salvation of mankind.

Jesus healed the sick, made the lame walk, the deaf hear and the blind see. He told his Apostles and disciples to do the same - and they did, but in his name and not in theirs. He invited them, as he invites us, to share in his life of service, to take up our cross as he took up his.

The teaching of the Apostles comes as a package, which in itself is unattractive to the prevailing culture of rights over responsibility. People are being encouraged to pick and choose which bits of the faith they will accept and which bits they will reject or ignore; This cannot be right for it breaks with the very concept of the statement ‘We believe’. A recent study speaks of 'bespoke religion', wherein we create our own faith to suit us at anyone particular moment. But is that faith in anything but ourselves? Does God exist in that, other than as a product of our own creation and imagination? God, it would seem, no longer created us, but we created God.

Both Fr. Mervyn and I are members of the some of the organisations mentioned earlier, we believe in the truth of Jesus Christ and thus we believe in the apostolic Church and in the Apostles as the messengers and missionaries of Our Lord. It is to the teaching of Jesus, handed down to us by them that we must return and in which we, and the world, may rejoice.

The concept advanced in many parts of the Liberal Church that we must accept our brothers and sisters in every respect and not judge them or ask them to change their ways is fundamentally wrong. Yes we should love all people and respect them as His creation, but to be a follower of Christ is to embrace his teaching and follow it totally, not to ignore the hard bits or the bits that get in the way of our own hedonistic or perhaps perverted pleasures. The way is not easy and we cannot make it so! If it was then everyone would be saved without effort and the bible clearly tells us this is not the case.

The book of Revelation tells us how the Beast will lead many astray and how he will place his mark upon them, it also tells us how those who refuse to follow the beast and renounce God will be persecuted and tortured. These are the Saints who have laid down their lives for the true faith; they are to be the first to be raised from the dead, whilst those bearing the mark of the beast will be consigned to the fiery furnace for all time.

To make the statement "We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church " is to accept that we are different, that we live in this world and that yet that we are not of this world, but of the kingdom of heaven. That we accept, embrace and indeed actively promote the laws of the country we live in providing they do not contravene the laws of God. As the early church father Diognetus wrote “Any Christian is free to share his neighbour’s table but never his marriage bed.” He continues “They show love to all men – and all men persecute them. They are misunderstood and condemned; yet by suffering death they are quickened into life.” Meaning the heavenly Kingdom

The secular world and those who would chase numbers in Church and pounds in collections are not interested in hearing of things that stand in the way of the ‘Do as I please culture’ For them the statement "We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church " has no place, they want to say at the end of the statement, ‘So long as I can do what I want, when I want, where I want and with whom I want’

I put it to you that if we are truly his followers then we must not desert the true faith and we must not surrender it into the hands of those who would use it for there own ends. Those of us who were at Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham on the late May Bank Holiday Monday heard the Archbishop of York challenge them to shout out as loudly as possible ‘I’m for Jesus’. The noise of the several thousand pilgrims was truly inspiring to be a part of and reminded me that in the pursuit of the true faith there can be No Desertion and No Surrender.

May God be with you,

Fr. Martin

Sunday 9 June 2013

10th WEEK OF THE YEAR

Today Father Martin presided at the Parish Mass and preached. Father Mervyn presided at S. Andrew’s, North Weald today which is still in an interregnum. In his sermon Father Martin reminded us that there are two commandments in which we are told that we must love God and love our neighbour. This mean we must care for each other and for other people. Elijah showed his care by confirming that neither oil or grain would ever run out and especially by restoring to life to the widow’s son who had died. Jesus had restored to life the widow of Nain’s son when, full of compassion, he had seen the woman’s grief at the death of her only son. As Jesus had taught us we must love our neighbour and care for them. We must reflect his love to the world.

YESTERDAY’S SATURDAY SHOP TOOK £165

DATE TO NOTE

Monday 11th June Mass will be at 7.15 p.m. tonight

Tuesday 18th June THE ROSARY at 7.30 p.m.

YEAR OF FAITH

YEAR OF FAITH

SOLEMN PONTIFICAL MASS

Saturday 20th August St. Alban’s Cathedral 12 noon with the Bishop of Richborough.

Book you coach seat with Father Mervyn asap £15 per head.

Sunday 2 June 2013

9th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Today Father Mervyn presided at the Parish Mass and Father Martin read the Gospel, led the Intercessions and preached. As we kept Corpus Christi on Thursday we kept today as the 9th Sunday of the year.  We had wondered if our attendance might be down today following the numbers who had supported the wonderful Pontifical Mass with Holy Baptism and Confirmation on the Feast of the Visitation on Friday but we needn’t have worried - our numbers were as normal despite several being away on holiday.

In his sermon, Father Martin used the text from the Gospel: “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.” He pointed out that the Centurion was possible a sympathiser of the Jewish religion and had been responsible for building the Synagogue. He realised his unworthiness and we should all realise how unworthy we all are. During the service we gave thanks for the life and example of Queen Elizabeth whose Coronation and anointing as our Queen took place 60 years ago today at Westminster Abbey.

YESTERDAY’S SATURDAY SHOP TOOK £186
LAST WEEK’S SATURDAY SHOP TAKINGS HAVE BEEN ENHANCED BY THE SUBSEQUENT SALE OF RAGS ETC.  AMOUNTING TO £244.55
DATE TO NOTE
Tuesday 18th June THE ROSARY at 7.30 p.m.
CHRISTIAN AID COLLECTION
The final amount raised came to £424.98. Many thanks to Veronica who organised and co-ordinated the collection.

Saturday 1 June 2013

HOLY BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION

confirmation_symbol

Yesterday evening Bishop Norman, Bishop of Richborough Baptised Daniel and Confirmed Daniel, Jill, Alice, Duncan and Oliver. Please keep them in your prayers as they enter this new phase in their Christian life. After the Concelebrated Pontifical Mass we adjourned to the hall for a reception.

Father Martin Howse SSC, Father Mervyn Jennings SSC and Father Robert Beakin SSC joined Bishop Norman SSC to concelebrate the Mass.