Happy Easter! Together this lent we have travelled with Jesus through the wilderness and the road he walked to Jerusalem. We have watched and prayed as Christ suffered and was crucified. We have discovered the empty tomb and met Jesus on Easter Sunday. Now the journey goes on through the Easter season.

The wonder of that journey is one that we may struggle to fully understand. Yet we know the ending of the story, one of Resurrection and Ascension and Pentecost. The disciples did not, even though Jesus gave them plenty of clues in the time before the events of the first Easter.

Jesus said:

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”

If Jesus is the seed, then we here today are a part of the fruit. We may confess boldly that Jesus died and rose for us, and in the simplest sense, it means this: That unless Jesus as the seed had fallen into the ground and died then there would be no resurrection and no Church. The death of Jesus was not just a historical accident, tragic in its inevitability, but through the resurrection becomes the turning point of God’s plan in history.

That pattern of death and new life reaches out beyond that moment in history. It is seen in the blood of the martyrs, in the sacrifice of countless individuals. It stands in stark contrast to the obsession with self that sometimes dominates our culture.

Jesus says:

“Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

The world life does not just mean a biological process, but rather who we are. Today we might talk about our lifestyle, and Jesus says we must be willing to let it go to have the fullness of eternal life. Sacrifice and loss are essential in following Jesus.

That pattern of death and new life goes beyond us as individuals. It applies to whole movements in the church. Throughout history, different expressions of church have grown up and withered away. This is hard for all of us.

The catholic tradition, which originally established All Saints, that was so successful in the Church of England that many parishes that embraced it began to view themselves as Middle of the Road, is waning. Not the faith and spirituality, but rather the lifestyle. Not so much the what and why of what we do, but the how. As a movement we have to let go of some of the externals we cherished, allow them to fall into the ground and die so something new may be born.

For me the reality of this came home a few years ago, as I discovered that those who shared my passion for people falling in love with Jesus were people that worshipped in a very different way to me. I had to abandon some prejudices and anger. I went back to the spiritual desire of those who first longed for catholic renewal in the Church of England. Then to be catholic – or apostolical as they called it - meant personal daily prayer, a focus on the Eucharist and an openness to the work of God in peoples lives. It was a simpler time - much of the richness of our tradition at All Saints would have been considered far too ‘Continental’!

But that richness is one thing that still has much to offer people searching for Jesus today. That heart for God present among us in sign and symbol is as vital as ever. I am committed to both.

Yet the challenge remains. What that we do as a church needs to fall into the ground and die that we may bear much fruit? What within us as followers of Jesus has to fall into the ground and die that we may know the fullness of new life?

As we celebrate together the Easter season let our hearts be open to God to hear the answers that together we may be filled with resurrection life.

God Bless,

Fr. Eddie

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Since Ash Wednesday we have spent the period of Lent in prayer and reflection. Our mood then swung from the deep agony we felt at the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday to the joy of his resurrection on Easter Day, and we are probably feeling drained.

Jesus had gone into death with the power of life and could not be held there. He broke out into a new kind of life which was never going to end. The offer of forgiveness and eternal life is there for each one of us

In St.John’s Gospel chapter 20 we see how Jesus stood among the gathered disciples and announced “Peace be with you.” Jesus breathed on his disciples and said receive the Holy Spirit - he had to do this physically so they would believe and the Holy Spirit is still with us to-day and assures us of communion with God.

Sometimes we get weighed down with problems which overcome us and just like candles with wicks which get too soaked in oil and will not burn – we flicker and waver and drift away from the light of Christ. This can easily happen as the year progresses. After over 2000 years that promise is still with us – God is with us – the tomb was empty – through Christ we have been put right with God.

At Easter tide surely our faith should be stronger than any other time in the year, we need to hold onto that throughout the coming year.

Keeping the light of the risen Christ alive in our hearts shining brightly in our lives – lighting our paths: Psalm 119 v 105. “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” But we must continually keep our path alive with God through prayer – through faith that the Holy Spirit of God is continually with us – do not allow it to become saturated with doubts – like the candle flickering and wavering in oil.

In the book of Revelation to John we are asked to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches in the first century. God is saying the same thing to the churches in this century. We must share with others what God has shared with us – (As St.Francis said “not only in words but in our actions”) we have all been given a gift by God which he expects us to share with others.

To-day our hearts should be alight with the knowledge of the presence of the Holy Spirit. The church is the creation of the Holy Spirit – not the building - but a group of believers who owe their spiritual life to Him so let us open ourselves to the Holy Spirit – and allow Him to direct our lives – Open our hearts to the gift of God’s Grace which he gives freely to each one of us. May we know the joy of leading others through the door of salvation and out through the doors of service.

To-day we are alive with the Holy Spirit let us keep our hearts alive to Him in the year ahead. I wish you all a Holy Easter tide and God’s Blessings on the year ahead.

Wendy Simpson

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Dear Friends

When we gather to worship on Sunday we are in a way taking part in two different services.

The first is the Ministry of the Word: A welcome, a reflection on our sins, the reading of Scripture and the proclaiming of the Gospel, Sermon, Creed and prayers.

The second part is the Ministry of the Sacrament where are focus switches to the table and the offering of bread and wine, Christ’s Body and blood.

In the early church the first part of the service would have been open to all, and very close to the services in the synagogue that Jesus was a part of. The second part of the service would have been more private - those who were not yet baptised would have left before the bread and wine were offered. Being baptised wasn’t a case of booking a service either. Baptisms frequently happened at Easter and adult candidates would undergo forty days of prayer, fasting and preparation before they became full members of the church. This discipline was eventually adopted by all Christians and became the season we now celebrate, Lent.

At the hinge of the first and second parts of the service we now have the peace, rooted in Paul’s and Peter’s commands to “Greet one another with a Holy Kiss of Love”. It may seem to be a disruptive break in our worship, but then so would have been the leaving of the unbaptised in the earliest church. The children come back in, we move around and greet one another, sharing Christ’s Peace.

And it is the Peace of God that we share.

New Zealand Anglican Priest Bosco Peter’s writes:

“The Peace is part of worship …To seek out our friends and ignore the stranger or visitor or the one with whom we really need to seek reconciliation is to miss the point of the Peace. The Peace anticipates the coming kingdom … it is the Peace which should shape the atmosphere of morning tea after church, rather than the atmosphere of … morning tea being that which shapes the way we relate at the Peace.”

Jean Lebon lays down a challenge:

“It (the Sign of Peace) is a point where one sees whether the liturgy holds together. If the congregation has not really been welded together during the course of the Mass, then it is useless and inappropriate to perform this action.”

None of this is a criticism of how we share the Peace at All Saints! Rather it is a reminder of why we share the Peace with one another. And not just one another. At the end of the service we ‘Go in Peace’ – taking all that we have shared out into the wider world. Bringing God’s peace and the joy of our Christian family to our friends, family and neighbours.

So Peace be with you this Lent,

Much Love,

Fr. Eddie

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Dear Friends,

All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.
1 Cor 12:27

This month I want to say two simple words – Thank you.

Thank you to all the people who volunteer at All Saints and contribute to our life together. People who volunteer in different ways, some practical, some spiritual, many that are both. Churches run on volunteers and they are frequently not easy to replace when for whatever reason they are no longer able to continue their service.

Service is a good word for volunteers. We may think of the servers as those who robe and assist at the altar during Holy Communion. We may think of ‘The Service’ as what we gather for on Sunday (or during the week). Both are related to worship. When we volunteer at church it is a part of our worship – our offering to God. And like all of our worship volunteering not only is a gift to God but enriches each of us spiritually.

http://www.cartoonchurch.com/

So do we have enough volunteers at All Saints? Well I have never known a Vicar who said that we had enough Volunteers! At All Saints we do pretty well however. Many congregations struggle, especially for the more spiritual roles such as serving, welcoming, hospitality, interceding or leading children’s work. There are many other areas of church life where we are well served too – after 16 months I still feel I am only exploring the tip of the iceberg of who does what! Whilst we would always welcome more people in these areas I am very impressed by the quantity (and quality) of those who give of themselves in these roles.

However where we struggle a little is in volunteers for some of the more one off practical things that need doing - working parties for example! There are a number of things that need special attention through this year. One is the impression we give at the entrances of the Church – our car park entrance is in good condition, but many people walk through the vicarage driveway. Another is the impression we give from the front of our hall, which is beginning to look a little tired. Those of us on the Mission Action Group have been thinking about these and other areas as we look towards the future.

Volunteering should never be about compulsion but vocation. Vocation means every one of us being who God has called us to be - it is not just about the ministry team! God has called each of us to a rich and rewarding life with him as part of his family the church. The Bible speaks of how we are one body with many parts – each with an essential role to play. If you would like some help reflecting on what your part may be in the body of the church then please drop me a line – I will be glad to talk and pray with you.

So here’s to the volunteers in all aspects of All Saints life. Every single one is valued and appreciated.



God bless,
Eddie

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Dear Friends,

Happy New Year!

In the New Year it is traditional to take a thoughtful look at ourselves and where we are – even who we are. I was reminded of this early December when I had to fill in a form describing the worshiping tradition and spirituality of the parish. Like many of these things the form soon descended into ‘Christianese’!

One option was Central – or ‘Middle of the Road’. Every Parish I have ever worshiped in thought it was ‘Middle of the Road’. Unfortunately the ‘Middle of the Road’ is always moving about - and there is a lot about us at All Saints that is not ‘Middle of the Road’. We have votive candles, incense, a robed choir, processions, servers, statues of saints, Stations of the Cross, and our main Sunday service is always Holy Communion. Not only do we have these things but we inhabit them - they are a part of how we pray, how we live and how we worship. We are not ‘Middle of the Road’.

So perhaps we are High Church - well this wasn't even an option! High always seems to come with a following ‘and Dry’ and All Saints is anything but dry. There is an infectious enthusiasm to our worship and family life, evidenced in how we share the peace, greet one another and wave flags. I know a few folks in a Matins congregation who would consider us rather Happy Clappy!

http://www.cartoonchurch.com/

Happy Clappy was also not on the list, but Charismatic was. You may associate Charismatic with Evangelical teaching and loud worship bands. Yet in Anglicanism the Charismatic started in churches much like All Saints and spread through places of pilgrimage like Walsingham. Archbishop Ramsey was a great supporter of the movement too. At All Saints we have an openness to the Spirit, especially expressed in prayer ministry and the laying on of hands, and in some of the more modern hymns, chants and songs we sing.

Inclusive was also (sadly) not on the list. At All Saints we have an openness to all people and their ministry irrespective of their gender or who they have fallen in love with. Fr. Jeffry John is an inspiration to many of us too. Last year Fr. Jeffrey visited All Saints with other ordained men and women who are members of the Society of Catholic Priests - he would describe himself as Anglo-Catholic.

As would I.

I am an Anglican Catholic, which ddoesn'tmean I am secretly a Roman Catholic, any more than an Anglican Evangelical is secretly a Baptist Evangelical. What it does mean is that I see Anglicanism as part of a great family of spirituality that includes Lutherans, Wesleyans, Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Middle and Far Eastern Christians. Catholic to me is a broad inclusive term that speaks of spirituality and depth. It sums up the richness of sign, symbol and sacrament we treasure at All Saints, and our welcome to all.

And so I put Catholic. And to reflect our openness to the work of the Spirit among us in action, prayer and song I went for … Contemporary Catholic.

Which doesn't really matter that much – forget the label, it was only for a form! But I hope the process of getting there reminds us of what is so special and unique at All Saints, as individuals and as a worshiping congregation. We bring together different paths and experiences into a community rooted in a precious history, centred on breaking of bread and sharing of wine as we offer our all to God. This New Year, may we all grow into the fullness of what God has called us to be.

With love.


Fr. Eddie

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For Christians Christmas is about the journey that God makes. God comes to us.

Rather than us as human beings reaching out to try and touch God, God reaches out and touches us amid the mess and dirt of human life. Among the animals Jesus is born and laid in a manger.

And it means this. God understands; God understands what it is to be human, to grow up, to feel sad, happy, lonely, and insecure, to feel pleasure and joy. And in that understanding we can meet with God. We can encounter God just as Mary and Joseph, Shepherds and Magi did 2000 years ago.

My prayer for you this Christmas is this. That you encounter God. Be it in the singing of carols, the gathering of family and friends, the sharing of food and presents, or in worship in Church. For this is the simple meaning of Christmas.

God is with us and we can know him. We can share Life with God.

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Dear Friends,

Firstly – thank you for the past year. All Saints is a fantastic church and I feel privileged to be part of the family. It is exciting to be celebrating our second Christmas together.

Christmas is a time of myths and miracles. Some of the myths we willingly embrace – like Santa Claus or St. Nicholas. 

Detail: The Life & Miracles of Saint Nicholas
Artist: Alexander Boguslawski

St. Nicholas was a real person, although it is hard to verify many of the stories about him. However the meaning behind them speaks to us still today. Nicholas lived in the fourth century, and from a young age was very pious, fasting every Wednesday and Friday as was the practice of the early church. Having lost his wealthy Christian parents he was brought up by his uncle, who encouraged him in his vocation as he became a Reader and later a Priest and a Bishop. He is known as Nicholas the Wonderworker, having many miracles attributed to his name, and is a patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, thieves, students and of course children.

On one occasion he is recorded saving a group of children from a cannibalistic butcher, who had salted them in barrels to be sold as meat, but St. Nicholas caught the butcher and restored the children to life. The most famous story revolves around three girls for whom their poor father could not afford a dowry, and so they were threatened with being forced into prostitution. Nicholas provided the poor man with enough money for a dowry for the girls, a purse of gold for each child delivered through an open window. A later legend suggests he dropped the gold down the chimney where it fell into the daughters stockings they had hung up to dry by the fire – although chimneys did not exist in 4th Century Lycia where Nicholas lived!

Nicholas then was a preserver of childhood innocence, something we value at Christmas especially, and something that seems to have been eroded in our culture. Nicholas reminds us however that there have always been those who would use their power to abuse the trust of young people, and as a whole society we have a responsibility to educate and protect our youngest and most vulnerable members. The actions of a few however must not cause us to live in fear - there are many modern day St. Nicholas’ helping our children: teachers, youth workers, uniformed organisations, charities and social workers as well of course as parents and families - we should be thankful for all they do.

In one version of the legend of the three girl’s dowry, our saint is caught by the father, who asks him why he is giving the money in secret. The response is natural and obvious; Nicholas wished the glory and praise to go to God and not to him. Nicholas may be at the heart of our Christmas celebrations in the form of Santa, but he would not want our attention to linger on him. He devoted his life to Christ and would want us to do the same.

The Christ-Mass is a very special time for Christians; we celebrate not the myth but the miracle of Christ - God with us in the flesh. We do so through the Mass, the offering of bread and wine in which Jesus promised he would be truly present with us until he returns. It is a deep and powerful wonder that is worked among us when we gather at this feast, be it at midnight or on Christmas morning. We should come to Holy Communion as we always come, prepared and anticipating an encounter with God as we join with Angels, Archangels, St. Nicholas and all the saints in heavenly worship.

May you and your families have a blessed Christmas, filled with the joy of the Christ Child and the presence of the Holy Spirit to the glory of the Father.

Eddie

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Dear Friends,

Autumns colours are already giving way to winter’s as the mists hang heavy over street and field. We are passing through remembrance-tide, celebrating All Souls, All Saints, and Remembrance. Advent and preparations for celebrating the Christ-Mass beckon. The year may seem to be vanishing before our eyes!

Yet in that space the Church celebrates an unlikely season as our liturgical year draws to its close. We remember Christ the King.

Image: nighthawk101stock

Kingship is a strange idea to our modern western minds. Our monarchy is valued and celebrated but we are aware that ultimate authority does not rest with our hereditary monarch. We tend to consider other nations with ruling dynasties to be dictatorships with the assumption that they are seldom benign.



Christ’s Kingdom is different, a fulfilment of the Kingdom of David. David was a shepherd boy, who I am sure you remember defeated the mightiest military force of his time (Goliath) with five smooth stones. When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of heaven he does not speak of courts and hierarchy but of the lowliest being brought up to the highest places, of the first being last and the last being first. Following on from the teaching of the Old Testament, the writer of the book of Hebrews confirms that within this new Kingdom we are all part of a royal priesthood. At baptism I always anoint the new member of the family of God with oil as sign and symbol, just as the Queen was anointed at her coronation. Jesus’ Kingdom includes rather than excludes. It reaches out to the streets and draws in the lost and homeless. It confronts the principalities and powers of this world with the smooth stones of service and love.

The stones that David used were washed by the living waters of a river. Later the cloud that broke the drought in Israel in the time of Elijah was ‘a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand’, suggesting a fivefold shape as much as a size. The ministries of the church are described as fivefold by St. Paul as he speaks of the episcopal ministry of apostles, the diaconal ministry of prophets and evangelists, and the priestly ministry of pastors and teachers. Where the church has hierarchy it is anchored in these small things, watered by the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps this Kingdom season we too can find 5 small things to change how we engage with the world and bring in Christ’s Kingdom? We may not all be apostles but we certainly have oversight over our own households and buying choices, how can we do so in a way that honours those less fortunate? We may not all be prophets and evangelists but can we speak out on areas of injustice and share the love of Christ with others? We may not all be pastors and teachers, but can we give more time to caring for others and teaching them by example the best way to live their lives?

Then with confidence we can pray together the words of the Lord’s Prayer, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

God bless,

Eddie

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Dear Friends,

When was the last time you went to Mass?

The answer is of course probably last Sunday or, one of the midweek services at All Saints. We don’t tend to use the word Mass very often, but most of us go to a service named Mass at least once a year – at Christ- Mass for Midnight Mass.

The different words we use for Holy Communion have different meanings and origins.



We might talk about the Lord’s Supper which reminds us that we are sharing a meal. St Paul writing to the Corinthians admonished them however:

When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk.

The Corinthian practice was to celebrate the Lord’s Supper as part of a meal, a ‘bring and share’ if you like. However it was clear that there was more bringing than sharing going on! We can’t assume that all early celebrations of the Eucharist were informal – the Last Supper itself was part of a very ritual meal. However the language of Eucharist as a shared feast, both now and pointing towards the heavenly banquet is part of our worship and liturgy.

We might use the term Holy Communion. Again to the Corinthians Paul writes:

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

Communion speaks of being made one body with Christ, of the real presence of Christ in bread and wine, of holy intimacy with God. God does not force intimacy upon us, but in the Eucharist it is always available - God is reaching out to us in Jesus. The danger is that Communion can become a private devotion, Communion must be shared with one another as well as God.

At All Saints we refer to our main service as the Eucharist. This again comes from Paul

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me".

Eucharist means ‘Thanksgiving’ and this was the term used by many of the early Christian writers. When we gather at the table we give thanks to God for all he is and has done especially in Jesus. ‘Eucharist’ suggests far more than just saying ‘Thank you for the bread & wine’, it suggests a full prayer of Thanksgiving just as we use. In the early church these Thanksgivings would have had space for extempore prayers and have lasted far longer than the shorter Eucharistic prayers we use today – be warned!

Another term was also used by early Christian writers was the Offering. The Eucharist was understood not just as a supper, not just as intimacy with God, not just as thanksgiving, but as a sacrifice. Not that we need to re-sacrifice Jesus every Eucharist, but that at the table we participate in that sacrifice. This is most explicit in John’s Gospel where the story of the last supper doesn’t involve the ‘words of institution’ (‘This is my … Do this’) over bread and wine, but the images of bread and wine, body and blood encompass the whole of the crucifixion.

Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot … Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips … One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.

For John what happened at Holy Communion was what happened at the crucifixion. The use of the term Offering by early writers also suggests that that they understood Jesus’s words ‘Do this in remembrance of me’ to mean ‘Offer this as a memorial offering of me’ although Greek scholars don’t all agree!

So what then of Mass, the term that many Lutherans and Catholics use on a regular basis, and Anglicans use less often – sometimes only at midnight? Mass comes from the conclusion of the service in Latin ‘Ite, missa est’ (‘Go; it is the dismissal’). Mass refers to the mission God gives us at every Eucharist, to take the Good News and share it with the world in word and action. The Mass then is a starting point rather than an ending point in our Christian lives. We express the term Mass as we ‘Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord’.

It is no wonder that in the Eastern Church avoids all these terms and simply call the Eucharist ‘The Holy Mysteries’ as one word cannot encompass all that God does for us at every Mass! All of these terms are found in our liturgy, so why not prayerfully listen for the words ‘Supper’, ‘Communion’, ‘Thanks’, ‘Offer’ and ‘Send/Go’ at your next Eucharist?

God bless,

Fr. Eddie

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Dear Friends,

After this the Lord appointed 72 others. He sent them out two by two ahead of him. They went to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is huge, but the workers are few. So ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field.
Luke 10:1-2

I have to say the last 8 months since I arrived at All Saints have been very busy. As a Christian community we have achieved so much, and I am delighted to be a part of the All Saints family. There is a buzz at All Saints, and it has been noticed further afield in the Diocese too. Recent events celebrating Sue’s Licensing, and Bishop Alan’s visit to bless our roof have underlined the huge range of people involved making All Saints so vibrant.

The work and changes that I have arrived in the midst of have raised questions about what happens next! In the short term we need look at our organ and supporting our choir and musicians, building on our warm welcome and invitation to new people, and how to best care for members of the congregation and community. In the medium term we need to think about how to provide a Christian presence for the whole parish of Leavesden. Longer term people have lots of different ideas about how to make best use of our fantastic hall and how best to seat people in Church. In all of this we need to hear the voice of God – and that is not something I can do alone, just as Jesus shared his ministry with the 12 and the 72.



Having spoken with the wardens and PCC what I would like to do is form action groups working on three areas. These groups will be open to anyone with an interest and heart for that area, who is willing to get involved. The groups are ultimately accountable to the ‘Vicar and PCC’, and coming along is likely to get your initials next to an ‘Action Point’ at the end of the meeting!

The first area is Worship. This group will be meeting together to reflect on our worship and the way the space in church is best used for worship. Both practical and spiritual the group will be a place to think about regular services and to contribute to them. It may be involved in planning special services too. The layout of the church building over the coming years will also be considered.

The second area is Mission. All Saints has remained a healthy and lively church over the years by sharing the Christian Faith with others and by serving the community around it. Mission can mean a simple invitation to a neighbour, or it can mean helping our neighbours in need. This group will also look at how we welcome new people to church and follow up on our many weddings and baptisms.

The third area is Pastoral. When a church is as successful as All Saints pastoral care of the whole congregation becomes more challenging. However we are blessed with a gifted group of people who can provide pastoral care. This group will meet to consider how best to reflect the pastoral needs of different groups and ensure that no one falls through the gaps.

A number of people have already expressed interest in these different areas, and if you are interested then please speak to a member of the ministry team or a warden. I am committed to all three areas of church life but am excited about sharing ministry as Jesus shared his with the 72.

Fr. Eddie

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“But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor misfortune. So I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to my father David, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name.’”
1 King 5:4-5

Dear Friends

According to the bible king Solomon’s temple took 7 years to build and involved thousands of labourers. Up to that point worship of god in ancient Israel had been in a tabernacle or tent. Which makes All Saints’ brief time meeting in the parish centre seem very civilised!

There are elements of the temple that we might recognise in our own church buildings.



Outside there was an Altar, and with it a ‘sea’ 15ft in diameter in which the priests washed themselves, just as we are all washed in baptism. Inside in the sanctuary the bread of the presence was kept, just as we reserve consecrated bread as a focus of prayer and for communion of the sick. Here too in the sanctuary was an altar to burn incense, also a part of our worship today.

In the holy of holies beyond the sanctuary there was the ark which contained the first scroll of the law, a jar of manna which had fed the Israelites in the wilderness, and Aaron’s priestly rod. Christians have seen all these items as pointing towards Jesus, who is the living word, the bread of heaven, and our great high priest. And so in Christian thought Mary has been seen as the ark of the new covenant, so she too has an important place in our churches.

This brings us to what is so different about our worship to Solomon’s temple. In the old covenant only the high priest would enter the holy of holies to make a blood offering. Now through sharing in Holy Communion we not only enter the holy of holies, but all become living arks carrying Jesus out into the world, just as Mary did.

Reading the book of Revelation we find a heavenly temple greater than Solomon’s. The signs and symbols of Solomon’s temple are seen in John’s vision of heavenly worship, but all together in one sacred space. It has to be said that many church buildings built through the centuries have tended towards the shape of Solomon’s temple with its exclusive areas, rather than the open temple found in heaven!

It is my hope and prayer that as we return to our historic building for worship that we seek to shape the building around heavenly worship. Maintaining the richness of sign, symbol and sacrament, that are not only part of All Saints’ tradition but rooted in scripture, and doing so in a way that is open and inclusive to all.

God bless,

Eddie

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It has been a real privilege to journey through Passiontide and Easter together, and now we look towards Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and God willing, our first service back in the Church building.

In this season our hearts and minds are turned towards closeness with God. Thomas, who although he doubted was the only one to place his hand in Christ’s wounds. The disciples who recognised Jesus in the breaking of bread on the road to Emmaus. The sheep who know the Good Shepherd’s voice. Jesus’ plea “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” And his promise of the Spirit, the comforter.

Through the history of the Church people have had profound experiences of holy intimacy. But there is none who could have been as close to Jesus as Mary his mother, who is described in the bible as having been highly favoured by God – full of His grace. As the mother of Jesus she carried God within her, and the Holy Spirit filled her.


Saint Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan, a Catholic Priest, who volunteered to die in the place of a stranger in the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. He wrote passionately of Mary’s relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Among creatures made in God's image, the union brought about by married love is the most intimate of all. In a much more precise, more interior, more essential manner, the Holy Spirit lives in the soul of the Immaculata (Mary), in the depths of her very being.

In Luke’s Gospel we read of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist:

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Mary had such a closeness to God that at her greeting others were filled with the Holy Spirit! Which is one reason that Mary has always been recognised by the church as an inspiration to all Christians. In her perfect humanity and her profound spirituality.

Julian of Norwich is one of the best known English Medieval Mystics. Julian wrote of her ‘Revelations of Divine Love’, speaking of God’s love with joy and compassion when much of the world around her was suffering. In the time of the peasant revolts and the Black Death she wrote:

For all humanity that shall be saved by the sweet Incarnation and blissful Passion of Christ, all is the personhood of Christ: for He is the Head and we are His members.

As St. Paul wrote about Christ being the head and us being the body of the church, Julian understood this not just in terms of a command structure but as a wholeness. We are then as close to, as much a part of Christ, as our own body parts are as close to, as much a part of us.

As we celebrate this Easter season let us then long for a closer walk with God.

Holy and Divine Spirit!
Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Your Spouse,
bring the fullness of your gifts into our hearts.
Comforted and strengthened by you,
may we live according to your will and die praising your infinite mercy.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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As passiontide approaches I share a reflection for the coming days.

His father was a carpenter. Not that carpenters, know each other, certainly not from Jerusalem to that rural backwater. But I knew of the family. Generations of carpenters, not from the backwaters but from Bethlehem. A proud family, a good family, and with connections to merchants that traded to the ends of the earth. Craftsman, good work.

His mother, well she was young when she married I hear. From a family with good connections too, relatives who served in the temple.

It must have been a shock to his father, not the events that took place in which I had a part, but his son not following the family trade. Closer to his mother perhaps. A very different apprenticeship training to be a Rabbi. And the desert too - they say he spent time with John, that strange teacher whom Herod had beheaded.



It must have shaped him all the same, just as a carpenters shapes the wood. The asking of questions, the learning of the law and all the teachings of the rabbi’s that had gone before. There is plenty to learn as a carpenter’s apprentice, but the Rabbi’s they have to be able to speak the words of Moses and the prophets off by heart.

All that shaping, that working, ended in a terrible way.

He had made quite a stir of course, going through the regions, visiting Jerusalem. They say he healed the sick, spoke words of life. But I never heard him.

I did see him though, coming into the city, riding a donkey. Crowds around him, shouting, praising, waiving branches. His disciples were with him, and he was with them - Not distant from them like some Rabbi’s. He had the care a carpenter would have for his apprentices. He had a carpenters look about him too, it’s hard to explain, a keenness of eye.

And as I stood at the back of the crowd our eyes met, just for a moment. Like the acknowledgement between two craftsman.

Thing is times have been hard. I may be a carpenter but the work I have been doing is nothing like the work of His family. And so when the work came up I took it. I know what we all think of the Romans, but we needed to money. A simple job, no craft or great skill. Rough wood hewn and shaped, two parts one up and one across. And then they take them, make a condemned man carry them and nail the man to them, standing them upright to die.

When I saw him, when our eyes met I had no idea what would follow, of the arrest, of the crowd turning against him. But they took him, they crucified the son of a carpenter, nailed him to the wood that I had crudely shaped.

Perhaps it was because our eyes had met that for the first time I went to the place where the work of my hands was turned to execution. I saw from a way off what only the women would see close up. They were there, with the Romans. His mother and some others.

The men were further away. Some mocked. Others were quieter, I recognised them. Some had been his followers.

I cannot bring myself to say much more about his last hour. There was pain, pain that I was in part responsible for. But something else. It was a death, but not like any other. When a carpenter looks at a block of wood we can see all the things it can become. As He died it was like that, somehow it was like every death – that has been and could be. Like death itself was dying.

Afterwards some said he was a prophet. Some said he was the messiah. Others said that he couldn’t be. That no messiah could come from the rural backwaters. But I knew of His family. Generations of carpenters, not from the backwaters but from Bethlehem. The City of David. The City of the Messiah.

I found his disciples, asked the questions.

I no longer do the work I did.

The wood of death is behind me.

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I shall let you into a secret. Lent is my favourite season of the church year. Being a natural extrovert I need structured space to explore my shadow side – to reflect, consider and to fast. I wonder what we understand by fasting. Do we think of going without food for 40 days and 40 nights, or do we start a little smaller?

Fasting has always been part of the Christian life, the ‘Teaching of the Twelve’, a Christian book from the first century, states:

“Let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on Mondays and Thursdays, but rather fast on Wednesdays and Fridays.”

Did the early Christians go without food two days a week? No, the nature of such fasting would have been like Daniel’s fast, who refrained from meat, wine and rich foods for 21 days. It was a partial fast, common to Judaism in the first century, and it was also part of the early Christian’s pattern of rhythm of life.

And yes, it bears remarkable similarities to a popular diet at the moment. 5:2 fasting seems to have both physical and spiritual benefits!

I suspect that when writers in the New Testament talk about fasting in general terms this is what they mean, going without luxuries and rich food, but on a regular basis, as part of every Christian’s pattern and rhythm of life and worship. Jesus doesn’t say if you fast, but rather when - So fasting is for all of us – little and often.

The bible also speaks of deeper fasts, of Paul’s three day fast after his conversion, of Mordechai's and the Persian Jews fasting for three days in the book of Esther. Then deeper still - what of Moses’ two forty day fasts, and of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness? Jesus’ fast in the wilderness was not part of a regular pattern of prayer; he was led, driven even, by the Spirit into the wilderness. A deeper fast must always be led by the Spirit. If we feel called to such a wilderness fast we discuss it with others of spirituality maturity and discernment.

Yet even when we fast in smaller ways it is still a reflection of that great wilderness fast. The wilderness, a place of emptiness, a place of repentance, a place of wandering, a place of temptation and trial - when we fast we eat a little of the wilderness. When we fast we create an emptiness within ourselves that is physical but also spiritual.

In the Hebrew Scriptures the word that we translate heart is more literally ‘The inward parts of the belly’. Our innermost being, spirit and soul are described in terms of organs that can be filled, that can be empty, and that can hunger. When we fast we feel that hunger, that lack of something we long for, we eat of the wilderness. When we offer our physical hunger to God, God takes that and in return can refill our spiritual emptiness.

In Luke we read that Jesus returned from the wilderness “in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside” (Luke 4:14)

When we take on general fasting as a regular pattern, when we are led by the Spirit to a deeper fast, when we fast during lent, God will meet with us and fill us in a deeper way. As we explore the call to fasting this Lent may we be open to Him, ready to be filled.

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