We're delighted but not surprised to have achieved the highest rating.
Many congratulations to Emily and her team for their hard work.
Following our first food hygiene inspection since re-opening, which took place last month, we've just received our result and certificate. We're delighted but not surprised to have achieved the highest rating. Many congratulations to Emily and her team for their hard work.
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Having trouble sleeping? Excellent! Come and join our friendly team on NightLight! More seriously, this evening we celebrated our fifth anniversary (attained in April) with an impromptu party, during which the anecdotes flowed as freely as the excellent tea, coffee, home-made sausage rolls, potato wedges and cake (all supplied by the coffee shop). Clearly the NightLight volunteers enjoy the experience of standing outside in the dead of night, serving hot drinks to passers-by irrespective of the weather and the lack of sleep. It certainly gives us plenty to talk about! We considered how things are going, reflecting both on the enormous appreciation we receive and on the reduced footfall in the town compared with Friday nights when we started. We noted the significance of staffing the project ecumenically - it really challenges public perceptions of the Church. (Those attending tonight came from no fewer than 8 congregations.) We discussed whether we're running at the most effective time, noting that the recent change to open and close half-an-hour earlier than previously has been positive. We decided to experiment with even earlier times during July and August, when the town is normally much quieter. And we resolved to cover, subject to resources, up to three forthcoming nights which are expected to be particularly busy, in addition to Fridays. Our programme will be as follows: Fridays in June: 11pm - 3am (14th and 21st are expected to be busy). Monday 24 June and Thursday 27 June: 11pm - 1.30am (we've been asked if we can cover these two nights). Fridays during July and August: 10pm - 2am, with a review of times towards the end of August. Thursday 15 August: 10pm - 1am ('A' level results) Currently we rely on around 20 active volunteers and another 10 or so occasional helpers. We'd welcome additional volunteers: come along one evening to see what we do. If you'd like to join up, you need to be a regular member of your church and to be recommended by your vicar or minister. Donations of money or supplies to NightLight are always welcome. Supplies should be Fair Trade: tea, coffee, hot chocolate (the sort which is made with hot water) and sugar. They can be brought into church during opening hours or handed over on any night when we're operational. Money is used to purchase supplies, cups, kitchen rolls, bin bags, etc, and to put towards repairs and replacements. Currently we aim to add a laminated surface to the trolley counter (or, failing that, to repaint it), and we'd also like to design and fit a roof to keep the rain off. Money can be given through the website here or brought into church in a marked envelope during opening hours. We have a strict policy never to accept funds at night - not least to safeguard the security of our volunteers. Of course, we prayed together too - as we do at the start and end of every NightLight session. We gave thanks for the past five years and for all those whose lives have been touched by NightLight. We prayed for the project and the team; for clubbers; for those working at night, including those upholding law and order; for the homeless and vulnerable; for the life of our town. And then, as we cleared up, we just couldn't resist a few more anecdotes. After all, which insomniac would ever rather go home for a good night's sleep?! 'I've seen the Bishop and now I know what a crook looks like.' So said Bishop John during his sermon - but tonight's Confirmation service was anything but flippant. Twenty-three candidates from various churches made their commitment to be disciples and followers of Jesus Christ during the service at All Saints' Bedworth. Ruth, Thomas and Jack from our own All Saints' were among them. The church was full and the atmosphere was expectant, welcoming and supportive. The deep-pile carpet, band and lyrics, and informal approach hinted at a rather different tradition to our own - but the sense of unity and prayerfulness, of shared commitment and shared prayer were profound. The extended sharing of the Peace and the warm conversations over refreshments afterwards spoke of a meeting together of the People of God. Bishop John reminded us early in the service of St Augustine's words: 'Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless 'til they find their rest in you.' He reminded us again of those words during his sermon. He preached on the Gospel reading, Luke 12.32-37 - 'Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom...' He likened the words to Brighton rock: 'Fear not', or 'Do not be anxious', are words which run throughout Scripture; the images of the sheep and the shepherd do so too. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the one who brings us the peace which the world cannot give. He longs to give us his kingdom, a sharing of heaven on earth. 'Your faith will grow when you live in it', he said. 'It will wither if you sit on it.' The candidates gathered around the Font to articulate formally their decision to follow Christ and to profess their faith in the words of the Creed. They were then sprinkled very liberally with holy water. Subsequently, time was taken over each candidate as they were anointed and then Confirmed with the laying-on of hands. The service, of course, is the easy bit: a highlight, with a strong awareness of the support and prayers of the community of faith. Greater challenges follow, as they do for us all: to live out the faith hour by hour and day by day, even when doing so cuts across our preferences or makes us feel isolated or counter-cultural. So we pray for the candidates and for us all, 'May God, who has given us the desire to follow Christ, give us strength to continue in the Way.' Amen. This book, first published in Dutch in 1860, changed the world. Written by a former civil servant following his resignation from a post in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), it reshaped both public opinion and Government policies, inspired freedom fighters in many parts of the world, and ultimately killed colonialism. The book is called 'Max Havelaar; or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company' - a title which is neither snappy nor inspiring. But such was its importance, it was translated into 34 languages, reaching English in 1868, and a film version was produced in 1976. The author, Eduard Dekker (1820-1887), had become increasingly concerned and outspoken about the abuses he'd witnessed resulting from the colonial system. The policies of a remote government were having a devastating effect on the peasant farmers of Java and Sumatra, resulting in considerable poverty and widespread starvation. Two policies in particular came under the spotlight. One was the demand that each farmer should produce a quota of crops valuable to Europeans, which were to be traded - crops such as coffee and sugar. These were produced at the expense of crops such as rice, on which the subsistence farmers depended. The result was a shortage of food across the rural population. At the same time, tax collectors, paid by commission, sought to maximise their own income by enforcing the tax regime as harshly as possible. Any money available to buy scarce food was soon redirected to the colonial power and its agents. Dekker was threatened with dismissal for speaking out. In response, he resigned and returned to the Netherlands, where he wrote and published this book under the pseudonym Multatuli - meaning 'I have borne much'. In response to the book and the public outcry it provoked, the Dutch Government introduced a policy of providing education to selected colonial subjects, who thereby gained the ability and confidence to establish a nationalist movement and, in 1945, independence. Max Havelaar is claimed to be 'the book that killed colonialism.' Meanwhile the educated elite of other European countries were also reading the book, gradually becoming aware that the price of their affluent lifestyles was the suffering and exploitation of people elsewhere in the world. The slowly changing perceptions, coupled with decolonisation in Indonesia, fuelled the ending of the era of colonialism more generally. Tomorrow at All Saints' we celebrate World Fairtrade Day. Please drop in! The Fairtrade movement arises out of the recognition that the producers of commodities we take for granted - coffee, tea, bananas, and many more - are all too often exploited in order to maximise the profits further up the distribution chain. Fairtrade guarantees a fair minimum price to farmers and in addition pays into a fund for the development of their communities, in order to alleviate poverty, give fair access to markets, and facilitate sustainable development. In other words, it's about justice - not so much in terms of the one-off righting of a wrong, but in terms of making the world a more just place for those who are currently disadvantaged. Justice for the poor and sustainable development are also at the heart of the work of Christian Aid - important to remember as Christian Aid Week begins on Sunday with its nationwide door-to-door collection and various sponsored events. Please give generously! Back to Fairtrade: the concept began in the Netherlands. In 1988, the first Fairtrade coffee was launched. Its brand name? Max Havelaar. Read the book! And more importantly, do whatever lies in your power to change the world for the better. All Saints' Church and our Café Within will be hosting Leamington's celebration of Fairtrade this Saturday 11th May, and everyone's invited! Leamington Spa will be celebrating World Fairtrade Day for the first time with a lunch and entertainment to launch the Town’s newly revised Fairtrade directory of shops, cafes, hotels and faith & community groups that provide Fairtrade to the local community. During the day there will be stalls and children’s activities outside or inside, depending on the weather, at All Saints' Parish Church between 11.30 am and 3.00 pm. All are welcome to come and join in the fun! At 12.45 pm the new directory will be launched by Anna Misterka of the Fairtrade Foundation and Councillor Judith Clarke, (Deputy Mayor of Royal Leamington Spa). A special Fairtrade lunch will be provided for invited guests by the Café Within at the church. The café will be open as normal to the general public serving refreshments with a Fairtrade theme. Guests will include representatives of Fairtrade sellers and campaigners, Town Councillors, and representatives of local community groups. Saturday 11th May 2013, 11:30 - 3:00pm at All Saints' Church, Victoria Terrace, Leamington Spa CV31 1AA. For more information, see http://leamingtonspatowncouncil.gov.uk/news/World-Fairtrade-Day-11th-May.aspx We're looking forward to Monday's organ recital by Greg Morris. Greg is organist at the Temple Church, London, and also has a link with us as the son of the Revs Geoff and Anne Morris. The reeds and topmost notes of the organ were definitely not sounding as they should last Sunday. So the organ tuner is here at the moment to prepare the instrument for Monday. Greg's programme will be of English music including Orb & Sceptre by William Walton, Miniature Suite by Ireland, and works by Purcell and Whitlock. The recital is part of the Leamington Festival weekend. The recital commences at 11.00am and will last for about an hour. I've just been admiring this amazing new painting of our neighbourhood by Adrian Sykes. The painting was a commission, and Adrian came to All Saints' a few months ago to climb the bell-tower and take some of the photos he used to construct it. I was glad of the invitation to view the finished item, and very interested to see it. One of the fascinating things about it is the incorporation of certain easily recognisable features of the town - including the church - whilst subtly changing the perspective and locations. The result is a work which is really rather entrancing; a fresh way of perceiving familiar places and landmarks, and relating them to one another. In the book English Passengers by Matthew Kneale, the Aboriginal character Peevay records his childhood rootedness in the ancestral landscape of Tasmania. Peevay was familiar with the routes and landmarks of the tribal area; but more significantly, he learned to interpret them in accordance with the traditional shared understanding of his people. His sense of belonging, meaning and identity developed as he grew up nourished by the legends and beliefs of his tribe: “Little by little I began to recollect places where we went, till I knew those hills and mountains and even where the world stopped. Slowly slowly I could solve some of those puzzles to confound. Tartoyen…told us stories - secret stories that I will not say even now…Also he told us who was in those rocks and mountains and stars, and how they went there. Until, by and by, I could hear stories as we walked across the world, and divine how it got so, till I knew world as if he was some family fellow of mine.” Our world-view may differ considerably, but we still construct our sense of belonging through particular places - not only those of general interest, such as the church, but also others which may have little if any meaning to the public at large but which matter to us. Our own home, of course; a gateway here, a tree there, a place on the riverbank or in the park, somewhere we go to school or to work. The meanings accrue through memories, through specific experiences and through growing familiarity; and just as in the painting above, we construct our own individual perspective on the world - our own 'secret stories' by which we interpret our neighbourhood. Something similar happens as we grow in Christian faith. We share the key truths, the general features which, like the church, the River Leam, the Parade, the Jephson Gardens in the painting, may vary in their prominence and precise relation to one another. We develop a familiarity with other landmarks - particular Bible stories, characters, or verses, for example - maybe because they resonate with our circumstances, or perhaps because of a memorable sermon, painting or stained-glass window. Favourite hymns, the lives and examples of faithful, loving people, and our own spiritual experiences flesh out the details. We learn to fill in the shadows too, when we encounter more difficult times such as illness, bereavement or conflict. Little by little, we construct a picture, an overarching story or meta-narrative, a world-view which gives meaning to our life and enables us to hold our faith together. Yes, our perspectives may differ; some of the details may be hazy or inaccurate; perhaps we're missing some of the features which others would consider essential and including what others would overlook. But as we journey through the Christian year and through the challenges and triumphs of our lives, we find our sense of belonging, meaning and identity increasingly in the faith we seek to live out. And so to an abstract question. What would it look like if you were to paint, not your personal landscape of the town, but your construction of the faith? What would be the most prominent aspects, what else would be included, and how would it all hold together? What might be missing which others would see as essential? And what might God call you to change: in terms of prominence and priority; in terms of what is there and what isn't; in terms of the details which are lacking and the perspectives which need correction? The Parochial Church Council (PCC) have been discussing several ways in which we might engage our congregation and visitors in the issues and challenges of running a church like All Saints', especially with a large repair bill looming in the near the future.
Over the past few months, we have increased the information in the weekly service sheets, to keep the congregation abreast of some of the changes proposed, and we are now planning to publish regular PCC updates to this website. The updates will appear in a separate blog, "PCC journal". We will also aim to keep the Repairs page up-to-date. We hope that this will allow parishioners and visitors alike to find out more about All Saints' and its future. We are very keen to hear from anyone with ideas or views about the future of All Saints' and we're planning a more formal consultation of congregation members, visitors and the local community in the near future. Easter at last, after a long, over-busy, and very cold Lent. The morning Festal Eucharist was a fitting celebration. The music was superb; thanks especially to Francesca for her lovely solo, David on the organ, and Julian as Director. It was a particular joy to have two-year-old Henry up in the chancel with us, listening keenly to the music and occasionally joining in very softly. (However, the words to the Agnus Dei are not normally 'Miaow, miaow'!) The Easter Anthems was particularly moving, and several people subsequently commented on the setting and the way it was sung. Psalm 150 sung as a recessional was also greatly appreciated. Chocolate eggs and champagne, tea and biscuits, coffee and lovely cake followed the service and it was good that some of our visitors stayed on for this. What a shame that so many of our regulars, including most of the students, were not in town to worship and celebrate with us. Festal Evensong was another memorable occasion (despite my attempts to lead the wrong set of versicles and responses). Sheppard's setting of 'Ye choirs of new Jerusalem' was tackled with appropriate verve and confidence, and the finale was Britten's setting of the Te Deum. Thanks to Eleanor W for another lovely solo, to Sean on the organ, and again to Julian. Easter Day closed with a real organ showpiece - presaging what's in store tomorrow in Sean's organ recital, perhaps. Thanks to everyone who has worked so hard over the past term and the past week - not only the musicians, but also the servers, flower arrangers, those who keep the church clean and tidy, Annabel in the office, the bell-ringers, my ordained colleagues, those involved behind the scenes in administration, financial and practical tasks - and of course Emily and helpers in the coffee shop. Our resources both financial and in terms of people are very slender compared to the size of the building and the expectations of those who come, and it's a great credit to the church (in the sense of 'the people of God' in this place) that so much is achieved, and to such a standard. After tomorrow's organ recital, we take things quietly. Little will be done in the next few days as we enjoy the festive period and rest for a while from church duties. Next Sunday will be much quieter; the choir has a break, and members of Holy Trinity Church will join us for the main morning service. Then the focus will move to the preparations for the Annual Meeting towards the end of the month. At Evensong I read these verses by George Herbert; they're worth a closer look: RIse heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise Without delayes, Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise With him mayst rise: That, as his death calcined thee to dust, His life may make thee gold, and much more, just. Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part With all thy art. The crosse taught all wood to resound his name, Who bore the same. His stretched sinews taught all strings what key Is best to celebrate this most high day. Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song Pleasant and long: Or, since all musick is but three parts vied And multiplied, O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part, And make up our defects with his sweet art. Reflections are fascinating. I took this photo at the Cathedral on Thursday, from the porch or portico which links the ruined Cathedral to the new one. The ruins represent the desolation and destruction of Good Friday whilst the new Cathedral represents Easter - but the porch in between represents today, Holy Saturday, or Easter Eve. Today we stand, as it were, in that porch. We're facing Easter but we haven't quite arrived there yet. We catch slightly incoherent glimpses of what its life may be - the community of faith, the glory, the beauty, the saints and angels - but we're not yet inside; we're still in the cold. And we also see that the place of Easter reflects the ruins of Good Friday and the life of the world of every day. Today the body of Jesus lies in the tomb. But it isn't just any tomb. The Gospel writers are unanimous in noting that the tomb was a new one, never used before. That small detail speaks volumes. Look through the Old Testament, and you'll see how important the place of burial was for the people of Israel. For example, Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah to serve as a burial place (Genesis 23) for his wife Sarah. Others buried there included Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Leah and Jacob. The kings - including Rehoboam, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Jehoash, Amaziah, Azariah, and Jotham - were buried with their ancestors, whilst others 'slept with their fathers', which probably means the same. The young widow Ruth (1.17) vowed to die and be buried in the same place as her mother-in-law Naomi, in the context of pledging loyalty to her. Joseph asked for his bones to be taken back from Egypt for burial in the land of Israel (Genesis 50.25). Indeed, Egypt was a place of 'no graves' - ironically, given that the Israelites may have been involved in building the Pyramids - signifying no permanent belonging: “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? … It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14:11f) Meanwhile, except in the case of Elijah who was taken up into heaven, non-burial was considered to be a very serious fate; see for example Isaiah 14.18-20. Burial signifies belonging; belonging to a place, but more important, belonging to a family. Just as Abraham purchased a new tomb, signifying a break with the past and the founding of a new family, so too with Jesus Christ. And St Paul reminds us that in our baptism, we're buried with Christ: in sharing his new tomb, we also become members of his new family for eternity. Tomorrow we shall proclaim that Christ is risen, and because he is risen, so too are we. Our own resurrection is both now and not yet; now in that we glimpse the Kingdom and taste the first-fruits of God's love and forgiveness for us, his children; not yet, in that our redemption and that of the world, whilst fully assured, remain to be fulfilled. So whilst it's right for us to be identified as Easter people, we also remain people of Holy Saturday; people with one foot in the grave - the grave of Jesus; looking forward to our fuller entry into the life of Easter. Lord Jesus Christ, who on this day lay in the tomb and so hallowed the grave to be a bed of hope for all who trust in you: give us such sorrow for our sins, which were the cause of your Passion, that when our bodies lie in the dust our souls may live with you where you are alive and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen |
All Saints' Church, Leamington Spa
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