Category: Thought for the Week

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

This coming Sunday, 25^th May, is Rogation Sunday. Historically this was a very popular festival. It probably has its origins in a Roman fertility festival, when the fields were blessed for a good harvest. This continued in the Christian version, where there would be a procession from the church, stopping to bless the fields in the parish as well as to ensure that all boundaries were in their right place. Alas, the popularity of the festival was less due to the pious prayers of  the parishioners and more to the amount of alcohol that was consumed; walking the bounds is thirsty work. Factor in the excitement when it was suspected that the neighbouring parish had pinched some land, which needed to be settled with fists, and perhaps it is not surprising that the church and civil authorities supressed the festival where they could. There has been something of a revival and some parishes now observe a more sober version of the custom.

Whilst I have never done a rogation walk from church, I like the idea of taking worshippers out of the church building into the outside world. At its best, the rogation walk is a symbol of how the parish church is there for the whole community, whatever their faith. The walking of the bounds shows that we pray and care for all who live or work within them. It is real expression of the claim of the Church of England, that we have a presence, through the parish, in every community in the country. I pray this may continue to be the case.

Rev David Poyner

Gregory Dix was a priest, a monk and a historian, remembered by the Church of England. His particular passion was the development of the service of Holy Communion, the Eucharist, where the church gathers together to take consecrated bread and wine as instructed by Jesus, in remembrance of him and because they represent his body and blood. Although he died in 1951 and modern scholars might take issue with some of his views, he is justly famous for his reflection on Jesus’s command to his disciples, spoken the evening before Good Friday. I first came across his words in 1979; they continue to move me.

“[Jesus told his disciples to celebrate Holy Communion]. Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance, for every conceivable human need from infancy and before it to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacle of earthly greatness to the refuge of fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth. Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church; …. for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old woman afraid to die; ….  while the lions roared in the nearby amphitheatre; on the beach at Dunkirk; while the hiss of scythes in the thick June grass came faintly through the windows of the church; tremulously, by an old monk on the fiftieth anniversary of his vows; furtively, by an exiled bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp near Murmansk… —one could fill many pages with the reasons why men have done this, and not tell a hundredth part of them. And best of all, week by week and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of Christendom, the pastors have done this just to make the plebs sancta Dei—the holy common people of God.”

Rev David Poyner

My sisters and brothers in Christ in the Roman Catholic Church know how to put on a spectacle. Pope-making shows this in all its splendour. The cardinals are locked into the Sistine Chapel, the decision is conveyed by a plume of white smoke and the first words that are spoken are in Latin, by a man dressed as a Roman senator. Contrast that with the committee which has been meeting since the start of the year to appoint a new Archbishop of Canterbury.  The cardinals were locked in the Sistine Chapel so that they could better discern the will of God. I’m never quite sure how that works; I am always aware that the Divine will has first to penetrate my own flawed mind. But there is a wonderful line on the BBC website about the process; how  the cardinals were to consider “not just what the institution and Catholic believers needed, but also what humanity needed at a difficult juncture, with war and division the backdrop”. I love the breath of that vision. The Church of God is for all people, believers and non-believers. I know nothing about Pope Leo, Robert Prevost, beyond what I have read this morning but my own prayer is that he, like Francis, will speak truth and hope to all.

Rev David Poyner

Thought for the week is currently on holiday in the Outer Hebides. It is a wild landscape: rough moorland, rugged coasts, sweeping beaches. A few years ago, on a similar trip when I was feeling especially pious  I recall staring at the rock forms as I walked over a beach between two islands  wondering what God was saying to me. Perhaps it would be a profound message about Exodus, crossing the waters of life? On retrospect, I think what God was actually saying to me was that I was on holiday and to lighten up a bit. So I have no profound meditations to offer, just a feeling that the next time I have to deal with an irritating memo from a senior member of clergy, I will be better able to do this because of a week away not doing anything. God moves in a mysterious way.

Rev David Poyner

Give thanks for the life of Pope Francis, for his humility and leadership. Pray for all who mourn him as friend.

Pray for all those who seek to reform the church, to make it more truly Christ-like. Remember the cardinals who are meeting to select a successor for Francis; pray also for the committee who are working to appoint the next Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Pray for peace in the world, especially the negotiations about Ukraine; ask that there may be a just settlement.

Pray for the Christians of Sri Lanka, ranked 61st in the list of countries where Christians suffer persecution and discrimination. Give thanks for the work of Open Doors as it supports the persecuted church.

Like many, I was surprised by the suddenness of the death of Pope Francis, just a day after his public appearance in St Peters and a  meeting with the US vice-president. I did however think that dying the day after the Church celebrates the resurrection of Jesus and the triumph over the grave was in itself, a strong message of hope. The death of Francis has deeply affected many and its widespread reporting, together with the speculation about his successor, sends a  message that religion is still powerful. I liked Francis. I admired the intellect of his predecessor, Benedict, less his conservative instincts. Francis seemed to me to be a natural reformer; a man in pursuit of a vision of how the church should be. I think Francis’s church was not about power and authority; one of our own Anglcan bishops, Guli Francis-Dehqani has spoken of how it is rarely at its best when it is in that position. Instead Francis wanted the church to show to those around it the love that God shows to us. And he lived this in his own life of humility. He was once asked to describe himself; he replied “a sinner”.

Rev David Poyner

I am writing this on Good Friday morning. Later today, at a service at Chelmarsh, probably alone at Billingsley, I will stand before a cross, I will read the story of the crucifixion from one of the Gospels and I will cover the cross in a shroud. Then, on EasterSunday morning, I will remove the shroud as I read the story of how the women who followed Jesus found the tomb empty. There are two stories bound up in Easter and its cross. Our story is with the people who feature in it; some faithful but despairing like the women, some discovering unwelcome truths about themselves like the disciples who fled, Judas who betrayed Jesus. The cross confronts us with all the elements that make us the people we are; some admirable, some not. But the other story is that of the cross itself, or rather the person who was nailed to it. Jesus was a man but Jesus was also God. God’s story is, that knowing full well the complex people we are, he comes to meet us and through death and resurrection, he shows us that we can become the people we should be. The Good Friday cross carrying Jesus speaks of challenge to us, the shrouded Easter Saturday cross speaks of mystery to us, the empty Easter Sunday cross speaks of hope and new life. 

Rev David Poyner

As we enter Holy Week, vicars throughout the land will be focusing on how to bring the Easter message to anyone they come across, to explain the significance of Good Friday and Easter Sunday to believers and nonbelievers alike. I am going for a rather different approach. This Sunday (13th), in the first of our monthly 6pm Sunday evening events, on Palm Sunday, we will be celebrating the Easter Bunny. Spoiler alert; as far as I can see, the Easter Bunny has never had any connection with Easter, but to learn more, you will need to come on Sunday… But if you can’t make the service, my advice would be to make the most of the fine weather and go for a walk, or just sit out in the countryside, even just your back garden and enjoy the time. Believers can try too hard to be holy. You might spot some real bunnies, who I am sure will be equally clueless as to how they got dragged into Easter. But as you enjoy your walk, or your sitting and let your mind wander, you might just feel uplifted, free of everyday distraction. And in that time when you are taken out of yourself, whether in the company of rabbits or not, you may just become aware of what I call God. 

Rev David Poyner