The
death of HM The Queen has rightly dominated our lives in recent weeks with
numerous images that will indeed last with us for years to
come. I hope you felt that the churches in your villages enabled you
to give thanks and mourn for the loss of our Queen. We offered you a
range of services to engage with, books of condolence to sign and open times
for private prayer and reflection. The Bells, Books and Bagpipes were all
seemingly well-liked by those that contacted me.
What
image of this historic period will remain with you? For me, an
image that will continue with me is the rainbow -a vibrant rainbow riding above
both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle and up into the clouds. The rainbow
spoke to me of God’s love and covenant with us all. Ever since the
days of Noah in the Bible, a rainbow has been interpreted as a sign of God’s
blessing on the world that he made and loves. That rainbow reminds me that as
Christians we believe that God loves and cares for all the people of the world,
regardless of race, gender, religion or where they live. Seeing a rainbow still
prompts me not only to rejoice in the beauty of God’s creation, as we come to
the end of Creationtide and Harvest, but also to pray that the people around us
may come to appreciate God’s love for themselves. This is crucial as we begin
the journey towards remembrance in November and, before that, our annual
opportunity to support those that we have helped through our funeral ministry
and to give thanks for the lives and memories of all those that we still love
but see no more as we gather at Madresfield Church for our All-Souls service at
the end of October.
We
have a refreshed church website now for our parishes. It’s not being accessed
too much at the moment, but it remains there as a repository of information. It
also hosts our parishes’ calendar of events. Supported by the fortnightly news
sheet , Old Hills Headlines, and social media ( Facebook, Twitter and
Nextdoor), notice boards , answerphone messages on the vicarage phone and of
course, word of mouth these are our ways of communicating with you – and these
will be ever so more important as our parish based magazines sadly plan for
closure by the end of the year( note The Grapevine for homes in GMN
parish has just printed its last edition, Powick and Callow End’s Voice of
the Villages will cease after the Christmas edition – apologies for the
lateness of this edition too, btw). When the website refresh was commissioned,
I noticed that all the photographs of the church we had on the old website
featured buildings with closed doors or covered in dust sheets or showed
limited numbers attending. That may be fine if your interest is in church
architecture, but your churches are primarily about people not buildings. We
have to work hard to counter the popular perception that a church is an austere
forbidding building that is kept locked most of the week. That myth was
dispelled by the very well attended and commented upon Heritage Open Days last
month at Powick and Guarlford. The associated Scarecrow festival across
all our villages and at the Maize Maze was welcomed too: well done to those
that won a prize. In fact, our rich tapestry of stories about our villages and
churches were enhanced by such open days so I do hope we will do so again next
year. Sadly, there were a couple of negative comments – I think inspired by
some unnecessary mischief making- but the positive comments outshone the
doomsayers by a country mile.
As
a consequence of our open days, and with grateful thanks to our wedding couples
and baptism families, we now have some photos of the churches with an open
door, and with people who openly show that they enjoy the experience of coming
into their church and seeking and worshipping God. By posting these
online too demonstrates that your church is still active- seeking out God’s
will and joining in. We will soon add other photos of what people might expect when
they come into the church. Not just the beautiful stained-glass windows and
church furnishings, but above all people worshipping God and enjoying the love,
friendship and fellowship which are the marks of God’s people. We
are far from being museums to the past – we are alive and kicking and will
remain so with your support and encouragement. Every blessing – Rev
Gary