Author: svbenefice

Earlier this month, reports appeared of an attack on a Roman Catholic church in Gaza. In response, this is the statement was issued by all the church leaders in Jerusalem including Archbishop Naoum, head of the Anglican Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.

“We, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, join together in profound solidarity with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the people sheltering in Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza, as we bear witness to the heinous attack by the Israeli Army on the church compound there on Thursday morning, July 17, 2025. This attack not only caused damage to the Church complex, but also left three dead and ten wounded-with even the parish priest, Fr Gabriel Romanelli, being among the injured.

In unyielding unity, we strongly denounce this crime. Houses of worship are sacred spaces that should be kept safe. They are also protected under international law. Targeting a church that houses approximately 600 refugees, including children with special needs, is a violation of these laws. It is also an affront to human dignity, a trampling upon the sanctity of human life, and the desecration of a holy site.

We, the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, call upon world leaders and United Nations agencies to work towards an immediate ceasefire in Gaza that leads to an end of this war. We also implore them to guarantee the protection of all religious and humanitarian sites, and to provide for the relief of the starving masses throughout the Gaza Strip.

Our prayers and support remain steadfast, calling for justice, peace, and the cessation of the suffering that has descended upon the people of Gaza.”

Rev David Poyner

The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St Mary’s Highley wishes to inform the community that, following a recent safety inspection of the churchyard, several headstones have been identified as unstable. In line with diocesan guidance and in the interest of public safety, these headstones have been carefully laid flat.

We fully understand that this may cause distress, especially to those with loved ones buried in the churchyard. Please accept our sincere apologies for any upset this has caused. While the action was taken with safety in mind, we acknowledge that the village should have been informed beforehand. We are taking steps to ensure that future actions will be clearly communicated in advance.

To help identify the affected graves

• Red tape will be placed on each headstone requiring attention.
• A full list of names on these headstones will be made available soon on our church website and noticeboard.

If one of these headstones belongs to your family or someone you know, we kindly ask that you contact a qualified stonemason to assess and carry out any necessary repairs.

We are grateful for your patience, understanding, and continued support as we work to maintain a safe, respectful, and dignified environment for all who visit the churchyard.

For any questions or concerns, please contact:

Carl Hinkinson (Churchwarden)

Email: chinkinson4@gmail.com

Mobile: 07722 031585

With every blessing,
The PCC of St Mary’s Church, Highley

Caring for God’s Acre is an organisation that manages churchyards for wildlife.  They help us at Billingsley; four times a year they come and cut back the grass and other vegetation with a scythe. This is a very traditional way of maintaining churchyards; once the vicar would have claimed the grass to make hay. It also promotes wildlife; flowers, birds and insects. How to look after churchyards is something that sharply divides opinion. At another of our churches, Glazeley, it is managed as a lawn with the grass closely cropped and immaculate flower beds. Neither style is right or wrong; Billingsley is aimed at wildlife, but Glazeley is preferred by many visitors, especially those with relatives buried in the churchyard. At Billingsley, we have now extended the area we mow to try and get a better balance. However it is managed, the churchyard is a sacred space where people can sit, stare and, whether they acknowledge it or not, be in the presence of God.  It is no accident that in the creation poem in Genesis 2, God is creates a garden where he walks in, to meet Adam and Eve, representing humanity. That is exactly what takes place in churchyards, God’s Acre.

Rev David Poyner

Last Saturday I went to Hereford Cathedral; a colleague was being ordained priest and I was there to support her. It was seven years since I was ordained deacon, six years since I was made priest, all in the same cathedral. I wasn’t really sure how I would react; this was the first ordination I had been to since my own. I robed and processed with the other clergy and then waited, to see if I would feel anything. The short answer was not much to start with. The singing was good, I think the sermon would have been good but I wasn’t properly listening to it. My fault, not that of the preacher. Then, suddenly it changed. There was movement, the people to be ordained came forward and the Bishop read the “ordination charge”; if you like, the job description for a vicar. It is lengthy and not for the faint-hearted. I remembered my own feeling when I was standing; inadequacy. But then the Bishop is up front; “you cannot bear this charge alone; pray for the Holy Spirit” and I realised I was fighting back my own emotion, just as I had been when I was ordained. After that it was a whirl as the service rapidly moved to the Bishop laying his hands on the head of each candidate, the moment of ordination. My colleague told be afterwards that, out of the blue, that is when the tears came to her; I told her exactly the same had happened to me. I’m not sure if there is any big message in all of this. All I can say is that I was moved and I felt humbled; I hope as I go about my work today as a vicar, I carry those feelings with me.

Rev David Poyner

Did you watch Rod Stewart at Glastonbury last week; still in his 80s, still doing what some call singing? Or there is the Oasis reunion concert this weekend in Cardiff, 30 years on, still making music, probably still falling out with each other backstage. I didn’t watch Glastonbury and I will not be listening to Oasis; my idea of good music is Anglican plainsong. But something I have come to appreciate is passion in others for music. A few years ago I was in a pub in Nottingham; a guitarist was playing. His music meant nothing to me, but I was captivated by the man himself, totally at one with his guitar, living and moving with the sounds he was making. I suspect, at that moment, nothing else mattered for him but his music. So I suspect with the big stars who simply can’t stop performing; somewhere in the mix is the sheer joy of what they are doing. I rather doubt whether my pub guitarist, Rod Stewart or the Gallagher brothers are big on organised religion. However I suspect when they perform, living for their music, they experience something spiritual that takes them from the mundane and points to the higher glory that I call God.

Rev David Poyner

It is often easy to feel sympathy for someone, to recognise that they are in distress and feel sorry for them. Empathy goes beyond this; it is an attempt to (mentally) enter into their world and to share in their pain. It is a relatively recent word, first found in English in 1908 and being a translation of a technical term being used by German psychologists. However the deep sharing of another’s feelings is surely much older. It is perhaps something we need to be careful with; I try to avoid telling people I know how they feel, as it is unlikely that I fully know all the nuances of their feelings. I sometimes worry that it is used as a form of virtue signalling; the person declaring themselves as empathetic really just wants those around them to know what a considerate person they are. But those reservations aside, the ability to use our imagination to try and enter into another person’s broken life can help us understand their situation, even if all we can do is to sit in silence with them. At the heart of the Christian message is that God not only has sympathy, he/she has (uniquely?) real empathy through coming into our world through Jesus, both fully God and fully human. The carol, Once in Royal David’s City, written in 1848, has the lines “And He feeleth for our sadness, And He shareth in our gladness”. Perhaps had it been written a century later, the words would have been slightly different, to make it clear God completely feels and shares both in our sadness and our gladness. There are times when I think I can only worship a God who is truly empathetic with us.

Rev David Poyner

The summer solstice, the longest day, is upon us.  Midsummer Day has always been celebrated; we are holding a concert in Glazeley Church as well a local history exhibition, as part of our festivities to mark 150 years since the church was rebuilt. In pagan times, Midsummer Day had particular significance for those who worshiped a sky or an earth god. Memories of the pagan significance were probably long lost following the conversion of this country to Christianity, but what was remembered was that the day was one to mark with a celebration. 

As far as I know, the Christian calendar is silent about Midsummer’s day; we have no special service. But, by coincidence, the New Testament reading appointed for it is Jesus’s teaching on worry and in this he uses a very appropriate nature image; “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these”. Perhaps that is a sufficient thought for the day.

Rev David Poyner

On Thursday, just as I was on the point of giving up, I went out into my garden at 11pm and there I saw it; the “strawberry moon”, which I had read about on the BBC news website. It is full moon that stays very low in the sky; as such it appears larger than usual and also has a red/orange glow. It is rare, the next time it will happen will be in 20 years time. It was spectacular; when I first glanced it, obscured by a tree, I thought it was an orange street light. Of course, being a vicar, I thought not of strawberries but of the Bible verses which speak of the moon being turned to blood, a sign of coming judgement from God. Now, I know that is not the explanation; the event is a consequence of the orbit of the moon and earth and way reflected light behaves when it is scattered by dust in the earth’s atmosphere. It is not a sign sent by God. And yet, there was something spiritual about the sight; it was beautiful and it was moving. I am tempted to say that where there is beauty, there is also God but God is present alongside us everywhere, including what is dark and ugly. Perhaps it is better to say that beauty, natural or manmade, can point us to God, who is ultimate beauty, the joy of our desiring.

Rev David Poyner

This Sunday, 8^th June, the church celebrates Pentecost, or Whit Sunday to give it its traditional name. It celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit. In Christian belief, Jesus warned his disciples that he would be leaving them as he returned to Heaven, but he would send his spirit/the Holy Spirit/the comforter/advocate, depending on which passage from the Bible you read and how you translate the Greek. And again, depending on which account you read, he himself breathed the spirit on them, or it came as tongues of fire when the disciples were alone in a room in Jerusalem. Either way, the results were dramatic; eleven confused and timorous disciples and accompanying women became inspired witnesses to the teaching of Jesus, accepting persecution and even death for the cause of their risen Lord.

The marks of the Holy Spirit in Christians today are as varied as the New Testament accounts of him/her. Some claim supernatural powers in the name of the Spirit. I do not deny the reality of any persons experience but that is not what I know. Instead I have a different story, one I share with John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, but also a Church of England vicar like myself. He spoke of how he flet his heart “strangely warmed within him”. And, in my better moments, at prayer, in or out of church,  simply living my life, I also know that feeling. That is what I call the Holy Spirit.

Rev David Poyner

A couple of weeks ago, I was at a service in one of the smallest of our local churches. Given the size of the village, I thought the congregation of five was quite respectable. Interestingly, it turned out that only two of us were actually Anglicans; one was from another denomination, two followed another faith. The Church of England is the established church of England. This means that, through the parish system, it is present in every community. The vicar is there for all in the community, the parish church is open to all regardless of their faith, or lack of it. It seems to me that one mark of a vibrant local church is that they provide a space and a service where those who are not members of the Church of England find it worth their while to come and simply be, in the presence of the God who they may call by many different names. We are open to all.

Rev David Poyner