Monthly Letter from the Ministry Team
| OCTOBER’S LETTER FROM THE MINISTRY TEAM Why go to church? A church attendee wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper complaining that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. “I’ve gone for 30 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them. So I think I’m wasting my time and the vicars are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.” This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: “I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!” Remember church is not the building but the people. People come to join with others to find spiritual nourishment, trying to make sense of their lives today and have fun doing it. Church is not a club for members only but a God given opportunity to journey together – from the age of 1 day upwards. As we journey together at this time of the year, what is one of the things we are celebrating and remembering? Living where we do, we are reminded of the changes that we see around us in our gardens and countryside. The leaves are beginning to turn from green to the wonderful colours of autumn and conkers and acorns fall to the ground. We celebrate and remember the beauty of creation. By the time you read this the fields around us will have been harvested for their crops and straw and hay baled. Apples and other fruits will have been picked, packed and distributed. Many farmers too will have begun planting their winter crops. All these things remind us of the abundance that God gives us if we care for and work the land sensibly. At our Harvest Festivals we give thanks to all those who have grown and harvested our crops and for all that has been produced for us to eat. The culmination of the agricultural year. One of the traditional hymns sung around Harvest time is ‘We plough the fields and scatter’. The refrain for this hymn is, ‘All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above; Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord, for all his love’. It reminds us that God has given us all that we have because He loves us, and we should thank God for that. Not only that, but what we have isn’t really ours but God’s. Harvest is a lovely example of why we go to church. We journey together and are reminded of God’s love for us all and share his blessings around the community. Revd Canon John Chambers |