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What a joy it was to welcome the Year 6 leavers from Sharow Primary School and Nursery on 15th July. Bells were rung, poems written, quiz questions answered and chocolate eaten! This will definitely become an annual evert. I must thank everyone involved who helped with the activities and for members of Wonderful Wednesday, with whom we shared the church. We also had the Old Duffers visiting on 28th July. They told stories of times gone by and successfully rang a Quarter Peal on the simulator. 45 minutes of continuous ringing. What a great idea it was to ensure all 8 bells could be rung by visitors and for our Wednesday morning practices. On 15th August we have the Ladies Guild of Change Ringers visiting, again using the simulator. I asked Dawn, the organizer, to let me know about the Ladies Guild.
The Ladies Guild of Change Ringers exists to encourage women ringers to achieve their full potential in a friendly, supportive and developmental environment. We are a national organisation with members across the country, from Hampshire to Lancashire, and many places in between. But not yet Yorkshire!! We have therefore organised a ringing day for women ringers and are delighted to be ringing at Sharow on the afternoon of 15th August. The main purpose of the day is to get women ringers together to learn about the Guild and ring in a supportive and developmental environment. The ringers at Sharow tower are always highly supportive and welcoming and this make such a big difference. We are ringing at Kirtlington in the morning and are grateful to both towers for hosting us. On Friday 28th August from 11.00am till 12.30pm, Cambridge University Guild will be ringing a Quarter Peal, so expect to hear some very good ringing. John who is organising the visit wrote: The Cambridge University Guild was established in 1879, and rings regularly around the towers in Cambridge, as well as having an annual summer tour, which this year is coming to North Yorkshire. We were delighted to ring for the wedding on 18thAugust and pleased to be able to toll the bell for a funeral on 24th. I was asked recently how much we have raised for Sharow Bells Restoration and how much the project will cost. 5 of the bells are being sponsored by individuals or groups and we have money in the bank ring fenced in a restricted Sharow PCC fund. This totals about £60,000. The total cost of the project is about £260,000. As we are still awaiting the report from the Civil Engineers, final drawings and cost from the Architect and Taylor’s the bell specialists, we don’t have a total figure. Unfortunately, our application to Historic England was not successful. On 21st July, we had a meeting with Nicola Bell, no relation to David, who will help us evaluate the project as part of National Heritage Lottery Funding. She advised that we apply for and gain the Diocese Full Faculty approval before applying for NHLF, so that is now our priority. In the meantime, Sharow Ringers continue to ring for Sunday Service, and practice on a Monday evening and Wednesday morning. We welcome ringers old and new to improve their ringing and join us in the joy of ringing the bells. Special mention this month must go to Greg, who has rung rounds and call changes on 6 bells for the first time. On Saturday 12th September 10am till 2pm, as part of National Heritage Open Days, there’s an ideal opportunity to take part in bellringing activities, with visits up the tower from 10am till 1pm, bell related activities and refreshments in church till 2pm. Of course, cake will be eaten! I’m very excited that I’ll be attempting my fist Quarter Peal from 1pm to 2pm. The tower will be closed during that time, but the activities in church will still be happening. For more information, please contact Bridget Taylor-Connor 07752981346 [email protected] https://justgiving.com/campaign/appealforapeal
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A Sermon from Reverend David
"Come to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens ... take my yoke upon you." I could have done with a yoke when I had a Sabbatical 20 years ago and spent a week drystone-walling. On the first morning I had to carry bucket loads of pebbles to fill between the two outer walls. It was raining, there were clouds of midges and within minutes my hands and arms were aching. How was I going to survive a week of this?! Actually I had a great week but for that first chore a yoke would certainly have helped. With one I could have carried those buckets much further or for much longer - taking the weight on my shoulders rather than through my hands and arms. The Hebrew prophets knew all about yokes. And they used the image in four ways.Picturing four different sorts of loads in their buckets. 1. They used it as an image of enslavement - either of domination by a foreign power or of exile. Just as the oxen were yoked to the plough and under the control of the farmer, so their nation was often oppressed, under the yoke, of a foreign empire. 2. Sometimes the image is used for how the rich and powerful within Israel laid the burden of injustice on the shoulders of the poor and vulnerable. As Isaiah puts it: "Is not this the fast that I choose, to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke." 3. The third way the yoke is used is to illustrate the burden of a person or nation's sin, "weighing on the neck and sapping the strength" as it says in Lamentations. 4. And finally, the yoke is linked to the idea of serving God, or refusing to do so. As Jeremiah puts it: "you broke our yoke, you burst your bonds, you said "I will not serve". But that yoke could also be embraced gladly as a healthy, life-giving discipline. So when Jesus talks about yokes, his hearers might have had those different meanings in mind. Some of them would have thought of the yoke of Rome's imperial rule weighing heavily upon them. Some of them would have thought of the injustice that was rife in their society - such as the division between the uber-rich landowners and the struggling peasants. Burdens that were added to by the Pharisees' countless religious regulations - laws that often shut out ordinary working people. And doubtless Jesus' hearers would have thought of their own sins - "weighing on the neck and sapping the strength", their burden of guilt or shame or regret. Jumping forward to St Paul, writing to the Christians in Rome, in a passage of striking honesty, we see that his burden, the yoke he was labouring under was his own self; wrestling with the contradictions and conflicts of his own personality. Of course, he doesn't have the benefit of modern psychology and so we may find some of the ways he puts things unhelpful. So we probably wouldn't want to say "it is not me that does all the bad stuff but sin within me", nor would we want to put it in terms a clash between the will and the flesh. But having said that, like Paul, we are aware of the struggle we face trying to do what our best selves want to do. We are sometimes ruled by deeper energies that overpower our good intentions. Sometimes we wish we could be free of those things But our passions are part of our good, God-given nature. It is just that they have become misdirected and corrupted by our egos. The poet and artist William Blake recognised this but said the answer was not to reject those passions. Instead he said that we needed to: "Seek the form of heaven with the energies of hell". In other words, we need our deep, sometimes unruly energies, but we need to harness and direct them properly - to yoke them so to speak - because that's where we'll find the drive to work for God's kingdom. Paul recognises this inner struggle and feels it deeply. It is his great burden: that something in him gets in the way of his desire to be faithful to God. "O wretched man that I am" he says. Perhaps Jesus' hearers wouldn't have put it so strongly but I guess their sins "weighed on the neck and sapped their strength." Jesus looks at them and knows all this, and issues one of the great invitations in the Bible: "Come to me." ONe that is at the heart of the gospel. Whether you struggle under the burdens that the system or the powerful in society - lay on you. Or whether your burden is more inward and personal - the worries, the depression, the fears, the regrets you find it hard to face or live with. Or perhaps it's the burden of family or work, or illness or age Whatever your burden, whatever is in your bucket - come to me, says Jesus. I may not always take away your problems. But I invite you to accept my yoke - the yoke of obedience - and let me guide and direct your life. But I won't impose the yoke - I invite you to take it, to choose it freely for yourself. Because it still has a weight - it isn't always easy - at times it may even mean carrying a cross. But somewhere inside you, God willing, you will recognise that it fits; that for all the cost of discipleship there is an even greater blessing. And one more thing. I will help you carry it. Because this yoke is not for one ox but a pair - I will share your burdens, walking alongside you every step of the journey. For my way is about sharing the burdens of others. And a burden shared, as they say... Yes, there will be a lot of things to learn along the way, lots of ups and downs, but it starts with a simple invitation: Come to me, know yourself loved, and take my yoke upon you. A sermon from Reverend David
When did you last welcome God into your home? The story of Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre has inspired great works of art. Jenny and Isaw one by Chagal while we were on holiday in France. Following a long tradition he paints the three visitors as angels. Actually the writer only says they are three men. But there is a mysterious ambiguity because the story also says that this is the appearance of the Lord. And when Abraham first speaks he says "My Lord" but then the reply is: "They said". It isn't surprising that early Christians saw this as hinting at the Trinity - the one God in three persons. But it is also a sign that, in the Bible, God often comes to people through intermediaries - bridging the gap between the infinite, unknowable realm and people's everyday experience. We tend to think of these as angels, although in the bible they are usually just described as "men". So to welcome three visitors, who came to bring a blessing from God, was the same as welcoming God. And the same point is made in the gospel reading. It comes at the end of chapter of instructions to the first disciples as they are sent out into the world to carry out and carry on Jesus' message and work. And Jesus says: those who welcome you welcome me. What he probably meant was that they were his representatives. So that if they were treated with honour and respect, then honour and respect was being shown to the one who sent them. However, after the resurrection, the early Christians believed that Christ was actually present and at work within them by his Spirit. And so Jesus' words took on new meaning. And they recalled him saying "When you fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, cared for the sick and visited those in prison - you did it to me," They realised that his presence wasn't limited to themselves but was there in all those in need who crossed their path or who they went out of their way to help. And, like the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, they remembered stories like Abraham and his visitors and believed that in offering hospitality, they were often "entertaining angels unawares". So when did you last welcome God or Jesus into your home? I believe Jenny and I had the privilege of doing that when we lived in Leeds, where we were fortunate to be part of a network of ordinary people who offered a bed for the night to destitute asylum seekers. In the context of their troubles it seemed precious little - rather like offering a cup of cold water in the burning heat of Palestine. Often it left us feeling inadequate and frustrated that we couldn't do more. Though just occasionally we saw something of the difference it made. I'll never forget one man. When I greeted him at the door with a smile his face was totally blank. He seemed so traumatised that he couldn't even smile back. We showed him to his room and then we ate our meal together. We had been told he had no English, so there wasn't any conversation except that I offered him a banana, saying the word, and he replied with his own word for it. And then he went to bed. That was it. In the morning, as he was about to leave, I was upstairs when I heard him ask Jenny for, "Baba". (Father) I came down to say goodbye and he gave me a hug and then walked up the drive smiling and waving goodbye. It felt like all we had done was offer him the equivalent of a cup of cold water in the midst of his troubles. But we saw the difference it had made to him and that was our reward. If Jesus is right, then we welcome him in all those who enter our homes - be they friends, family or strangers. But of course hospitality isn't just something we practice at home. It's core to our life as a Christian community here. And it is an attitude we can take into all our relationships and experiences. It is about living with less fear of the unknown. And being open to, and welcoming, the presence of God all our experiences and encounters. Another way we can welcome God into our home is through prayer. In Judaism, so much of the faith is lived out not at Synagogue but in the home - the daily rituals and weekly shabbat prayers. And a simple way that Jenny and I have found we can consciously invite God in is by saying grace at the evening meal table. We haven't always done that but over the years we have found it a helpful way to be mindful of God; to give thanks but also to look back over the day, or think of others. I know that might be awkward for some of us if our partners are unsure about faith. But for most of us it can be so simple, even if we have rather got out of the way of it, or only do it when the vicar comes round! But I want to finish back with Abraham and his visitors and a famous religious icon, painted by a Russian man called Andrei Rublev about 600 years ago. And although it shows Abraham's three visitors as angels, for him it was a painting of the Trinity. And you will see that he has removed Abraham and Sarah from the picture. Instead the three figures are sitting around the table and the front is open - as if we are looking in. It is as if the roles have been reversed. Now Abraham and Sarah - or rather ourselves - are no longer the hosts but the guests. Having welcomed the Lord into our lives, we are now invited into the banquet of God's love. Let's just spend a few quiet moments looking at this, remembering that God comes to us in so many ways and let's be open to whatever he may wish to say to us today. The origins of the tradition of a bride carrying flowers at her wedding dates back to the Ancient Greeks and Romans. In ancient Greece, brides carried aromatic herbs and flowers to symbolize fidelity, happiness, and fertility, essential elements for a successful marriage. The ancient Romans started to carry and wear floral garlands to their weddings as a symbol of new beginnings. The earliest bridal bouquets of the Middle Ages were made up of pungent herbs and spices; these aromatic bouquets were believed to ward off evil spirits and ensure a prosperous future for the newlyweds. Dill was especially common, as it was not only thought to drive away negative energy, but it was also known as the herb of lust! During the Elizabethan era, small arrangements became a bridal must-have and posies were created to give as favours.Fashionable brides began wearing flowers nestled in their hair.  The bridal bouquet as we know it today made its appearance in Britain in the 19th century, when Queen Victoria held a small posy of flowers at her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840. This was the time of the "language of flowers', and brides began to choose blooms based on the meanings behind the flowers. Roses which signify love, and peonies representing happiness and ambition became popular. As a result, bouquets became closely associated with sentimental romance. Catherine (the Princess of Wales), when she married Prince William included 'sweet william' flowers in her bouquet as a nod to her groom  The bouquet has become an important part of the modern wedding, albeit more of an accessory. Flowers are more likely to be chosen for their colour, shape and fragrance rather than their meaning. None-the-less, whether the bride realises it or not, they do symbolise the joy and happiness of the day. The very act of holding a bouquet is said to signify the transition into a new chapter of life; and it is thought to act as a focal point enhancing the bride's beauty and radiance as she walks down the aisle.  Some brides keep the tradition of tossing their bouquet away; throwing it over their head for a single female guest to catch, in the hope that it will signify that they will be the next one to get married. This tradition began during the Middle Ages, when it was considered good luck to touch or take parts of the bride's dress. In the 14th century the tradition evolved into tossing the bouquet now seen as a symbol of good luck (and possibly to stop the bride from being interfered with!).  My bouquet, some 56 years later, is all shrivelled-up, crisp and dry in a box in the loft (the drying process intended to keep it looking colourful and intact, unfortunately, didn't work!). Maybe I should have thrown it over my head instead, for someone else to enjoy.  -Denise |
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