Author: svbenefice

This is adapted from a piece written by Maggie Ritchie, our benefice secretary.

Today, our world is full of scattering: families uprooted by war,  communities displaced by conflict or climate events, people forced to move for work, safety, or survival, social fragmentation that leaves many feeling spiritually scattered. However, God’s mission is not tied to stability. He works through movement, disruption, and change. Sometimes the very places we never expected to be — geographically or emotionally — become the places where  God uses us most.

Today, boundaries are being crossed constantly: migration brings new neighbours from every corner of the world, technology connects us with people we’ve never met, churches welcome worshippers from dozens of nations, communities are becoming beautifully diverse.

In the New Testament the gospel is at its strongest when it crosses borders. It thrives in unfamiliar places. It grows when we welcome those who are different. It shines when we step outside our comfort zones. We are called to embrace difference. To see diversity not as a threat but as a gift. To recognise that God’s Spirit is already moving in cultures, languages, and communities far beyond our own. The Holy Spirit does not reinforce human divisions. He breaks them down. He builds bridges where society builds walls. He draws people  together who would never normally stand side by side.In a world that encourages us to choose sides, we are called to be bridge‑builders. To show that the church is at its best when it is united, diverse yet deeply connected.

Rev David Poyner

Vicars are meant to be people of prayer. I offer to pray for people; it can seem very inadequate but it is often all I can do. The problem is that I am not very good at it. I take some comfort from the poet RS Thomas (who I recently wrote about). Thomas found his prayers were often met by silence but he realised that God was in the silence. His poem “Folk Tale” explores this. I too, just occasionally see the movement of the curtain.

Prayers like gravel
flung at the sky’s
window, hoping to attract
the loved one’s
attention. But without
visible plaits to let
down for the believer
to climb up, to what purpose open
that far casement? I would
have refrained long since
but that peering once
through my locked fingers
I thought that I detected
the movement of a curtain. 

Rev David Poyner

Another week, another holiday… This time it was a couple of days between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, with a splendid walk on Monday over Wild Boar Fell, using the Settle to Carlisle Railway. I would like to say that I spent the day in prayer and praise, thanking God for the majesty of his creation, but I didn’t. For the most part I wasn’t thinking of anything, beyond where to put my feet and the anticipation of the views from the ridge. That is often the way when I am walking; no great thoughts, just being in the moment. It is a kind of mental emptying; some Christians are suspicious of this, worried about what thoughts might come in to fill the space. I have come to realise that it is an important part of my spiritual discipline. The emptying, the living just in the moment, is a way that I can recharge. I still vividly recall a sermon from over 40 years ago given by the late Rev Pat Brock, my vicar when I was living briefly in London. He was speaking of the process of emptying and letting go and ended his sermon by taking a wine bottle and turning it upside down, to make sure it was really empty. His parting line was “unless we really empty ourselves, we leave no room for God to refill us”.

Rev David Poyner

The Lord Crewe Arms is a pub in the village of Blanchland, in Northumberland. I have friends there, so I visit the pub from time to time. There was an abbey at Blanchland; one of the bars of the pub is in a crypt from one of the monastery buildings. Every time I go in I am much taken by two pottery monks. One is stern, holding a plaque with the words “Drink is the enemy”. The other monk looks a much merrier fellow; he has a pint of beer in one hand and a plaque on the other. On it is written “Love your enemy”….. I am sure if I tried hard enough I could get a sermon out of that, but at the end of a blistering hot week, I am happy just to smile at the humour and enjoy a pint of beer.

Rev David Poyner

I have just come back from a short break to Aberdaron, on the Llyn Peninsula in Wales. It was the parish of R.S. Thomas, a priest but also a poet whose work I love. The door of the church on the sea front was open and the only sound was of the waves. In front of me was a copy of his poem, “The Other” and I was moved to tears.

There are nights that are so still
that I can hear the small owl
calling
far off and a fox barking
miles away. It is then that I lie
in the lean hours awake listening
to the swell born somewhere in
the Atlantic
rising and falling, rising and
falling
wave on wave on the long shore
by the village that is without
light
and companionless. And the
thought comes
of that other being who is
awake, too,
letting our prayers break on him,
not like this for a few hours,
but for days, years, for eternity.

Rev David Poyner

Video assisted refereeing, or VAR, is a topic the provokes strong opinions amongst followers of football. It uses video and computers in an effort to eliminate refereeing errors. Many people in this country started to call for it after a World Cup game in 201o against Germany when England were denied a goal because the referee did not realise the ball had crossed the line. What they perhaps did not realise is that it takes time to do a VAR check; it is not unusual now to have to wait several minutes to know whether a goal should stand. I hate VAR and would gladly see it abolished. I am pleased to report that the Bishop of Manchester has joined me in condemning it as sinful and offence against God and Man (Utd). Sort of… It was in a Thought for the Day and the point he was making was making mistakes is part of being human and we need to accept that. As a scientist, I can hardly condemn technology; wise use of it makes our lives much better, be it doing my research or writing a sermon. However, we must be careful that it does not detract from our own humanity. In the case of football, it is accepting that disputed decisions are part of the game; the instant joy (or despair) is what makes it compelling to watch. Perhaps there are even lessons that ultimately we as humans cannot take the role of God in a quest for perfection. England did have a goal wrongly disallowed which VAR would have prevented, but they only scored it because of a foul in the build up, which VAR would not have spotted.

Rev David Poyner

High in the roof of Highley Church is a wooden carving of a face of a bearded man, his mouth open. He is the nearest we have in any of our local churches to a representation of the “Green Man”, a symbol that was very popular in Medieval times and who has recently undergone something of a revival. In classic carvings, the individual has leafy stems growing out of his mouth, leading to the idea that he was a representation of the spirit of the forest or, more generally, of nature itself. Today the Green Man has been adopted by many as a symbol of the “Green movement”. Some have seen him as a survivor of pre-Christian religion, venerated by country people when the local priest or Bishop was not watching. This idea has particular appeal to modern pagans. There are some problems with this version of events. The surviving carvings are largely in churches; not only is it necessary to assume the local priest did not see them, but neither did the higher clergy who regularly inspected all churches to ensure that they were in order. As far as I know, there is not a single case in a church court about a Green Man. I suspect the carvings were regarded simply as the medieval equivalent of wall-paper, decoration with no pagan associations. And finally, the penny seems to be dropping amongst the modern equivalent of the medieval church courts. The Chancellor (the chief judge) of the Diocese of Gloucester has accepted that the Green Man is not a pagan symbol and can be used on memorials in his diocese. Perhaps it is time to knock the cobwebs of our local Green Man.

Rev David Poyner

I am sometimes greeted with surprise when people find that I am a vicar and also a scientist. Around 20 years ago, some prominent scientists did try to take on religion but their arguments soon faded, not least because they often attacked ideas of God that few people of faith hold. When I attend scientific meetings to give talks or present data, I always wear my clerical collar. I rarely get a second glance, although some people have thanked me for openly displaying my faith, most recently at a meeting where I spoke in Zurich. Science and faith should not be in conflict if they remember they are asking different questions. Science is a way of looking at the natural world and understanding how it works. It cannot say much useful about the existence and nature of God, because God is above and beyond the natural world. Scientific methods do not work when we encounter the spiritual; that is when we must listen to our souls as they respond to mystery.

Rev David Poyner

And so another football season draws to it close, this Sunday (24th) with the last round of games of the Premiership. Some matters have been decided, but not all; glory or dejection still await the supporters of Spurs and West Ham, Bournemouth and Brighton. I am basking in Manchester Utd finishing 3^rd and qualifying for the Champion’s League (despite playing awful football until the manager was replaced); Aston Villa finally wining a trophy after a 30 year hiatus, Kidderminster Harriers getting promotion. Who knows what glory awaits with World Cup in June/July? And yet, come August, none of it will matter as a new season starts with probable misery and dejection at the end. That is the glory of sport; it can uplift, it can give memories that will not fade, but ultimately, none of the results actually matter. It is all a game and there will always be another coming up. But for followers of sport such as myself, what does matter is the camaraderie and the spirit, the ability to applaud excellence whenever I see it. Perhaps in this there is something close to the generous spirit of the Kingdom of God?

Rev David Poyner

Today (Friday) is St Matthias’s Day. Who?…. He is one of the many one-hit wonders of the Bible; elected by the remaining disciples to take the place of Judas who betrayed Jesus, never mentioned again. For obvious reasons, the Church does not have a St Judas’s Day, but Judas features as much in this day as Matthias. He is described as the “betrayer Judas” in the prayer used by the Church of England for today as we ask God to preserve us from “false apostles”. He gets short shrift in the Gospels; he was in charge of the money for the disciples but is accused of being a thief by John. It is undeniable that he was the disciple who betrayed Jesus. Although he took money for his services to the authorities, Judas was then overcome with remorse; Matthew preserves a tradition that he hung himself. It is hard to know what Jesus made of him; the Gospel writers had to rely on the memories of his other disciples, whose recollections would have been coloured by the act of betrayal and its consequences. Jesus was well aware of what Judas intended to do and did not stop him. I can only speculate as to what his feelings might have been, but perhaps there was some understanding of the confused, even tortured, workings of Judas’s mind. At the point of betrayal, Jesus called Judas “comrade”; the Greek word can mean a friend but could also be ironic. Be that as it may, he did not call him “betrayer”. Orthodox belief has Jesus descending to Hell after his death, to release those who had died before he came but now would chose to follow him. I am one of those who like to think that, during that time, Jesus particularly sought out his tormented friend Judas, to bring him redemption.

Rev David Poyner