St Mary's, Highley

The Stones Cry Out

Attendances at Billingsley and Glazeley are looking good, a near doubling of attendance at Glazeley over the last 18 months and a trebling at the 8am Billingsley communion. The actual numbers are perhaps less impressive; around 12 people at Glazeley and 6 at Billingsley, but I like to dwell on the positives.

Perhaps just as significant is what has happened to visitor numbers, at least at Billingsley, which we keep open in spite of thefts. In February we had 15 distinct names in the visitor book, more than double the congregation over that month. Now this is probably exceptional and I doubt we will see those numbers sustained, but it does demonstrate the power of a building to attract people who I suspect would never attend a service. Reading the comments in the book it is clear that those who came were grateful to find the building and many commented on the atmosphere of peace and tranquillity that they found. At least to a degree, I think these people experienced something spiritual in their visit, a sense of what I would call the presence of God.

Jesus, on his entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, was rebuked by the religious authorities who were fearful of the clamour of his supporters. He replied that even if his followers were silenced, the stones themselves along the road would cry out their praises of him. Perhaps that is exactly what the stones of our ancient churches do.

Rev David Poyner

Ash Wednesday

We have just had Ash Wednesday, the less celebrated sibling of Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday is about eating pancakes, Ash Wednesday is payback day, at least in what was once popular imagination; the start of 40 days of self-denial. Traditionally, it is marked in churches by “ashing”; the priest marks the foreheads of those attending services with ashes. These are meant to be produced by burning palm crosses from the previous year; I may be unique in the Church of England in using laboratory-grade charcoal…. It does not seem to change the mood of the service, which is very reflective. As each person is daubed, the priest repeats the words, “From dust you came, to dust you return”. It is a sharp reminder of our mortality. In a recent Thought for the Day, Canon Angela Tilby made the point that it is also a reminder of our shared humanity; no matter how high or low, our bodies came from (effectively) nothing and will end as nothing. The Ash Wednesday service and the whole of Lent is about giving us space to reflect on this; a time to ponder our own spirituality, however that word is understood, and how it fits big questions of belonging and purpose. The Ash Wednesdayservice gives its own answers to these questions; the ashes are daubed in the form of a cross. Our beginning is in the love of God; the cross gives us confidence that the same love will be there for us at our end.

Rev David Poyner

St Valentine

This past week has seen St Valentine’s Day, 14th February. The historical Valentine is a very shadowy figure. Lurking behind the legends may be a Christian priest who was executed for his faith in 269AD, during one the periodic persecutions launched by the Roman Empire. The association with loving couples is tenuous, probably arising from a story that Valentine restored the sight of the daughter of the magistrate who first arrested him. The magistrate then converted to Christianity and freed Valentine, who was soon rearrested and this time executed. However, before his death he sent a letter to the young woman whose sight he had restored, to the eternal gratitude of greeting card makers two millennia later. Another tradition has him marrying Christian couples so that the husbands would avoid serving in the Roman army; those more versed in Roman history than myself may be able to comment on the plausibility of this.

There is some irony in the timing of Valentine’s Day this year, as the Church of England continues to agonise over relationships between couples. Perhaps it has value in being an occasion when we can celebrate emotional and physical attraction between two individuals that is based on lasting love and not lust, where both draw from the relationship.

Rev David Poyner

For Turkey and Syria

Good Lord, Comfort all those who are victims of the earthquake in Syria and Turkey.
Be their rock when the earth refuses to stand still, and shelter them under your wings when homes no longer exist.
Embrace in your arms those who died so suddenly when the quake struck.
Console the hearts of those who mourn, and ease the pain of bodies on the brink of death. Amen.

Rev David Poyner