Team Letter
The Guild of Friends of St. Lawrence's Church
Poem: Life in the Garden
Afternoon Teas and Coffees
Team Letter
Dear all
One of the house groups at St. John's has recently been following a Church Times study guide looking at the Trinity. I went to a recent meeting, having suitably prepared myself by a quick bit of reading, to answer questions on various aspects of the Church and the history of its belief in the Trinity. The one thing I couldn't give a quick and easy answer to was, of course, "What is the Trinity?" Preachers dread finding themselves down on the preaching rota for Trinity Sunday, for who can adequately explain the nature of the Trinity. In our Christian faith we learn that God is one yet revealed as three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Try explaining that to a non-Christian in a way that makes sense.
We begin our services by declaring that what we are about to do is "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" and perhaps we are so familiar with that phrase that we don't often think more deeply about it. We fall into the trap of thinking that we know exactly what our Triune God is and is like. Yet the three persons of the Trinity have been represented in many different ways.
The most famous representation is probably that by the Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev who painted an icon of the trinity around 1410. Many of you will know it. We looked at the icon at our house group meeting. It is an icon depicting the three angelic visitors who come and dine with Abraham and Sarah. In Genesis,
it is clear that the three visitors are not angels, but divine. They are traditionally believed to be an Old Testament depiction of the Trinity. The icon fascinates because it presents us with an image of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - that in Western Christian art and thought we are unaccustomed to.
Christians in different contexts will find a variety of ways to describe the nature of the Trinity or even aspects of the Trinity that make sense to them. I have on the wall in my study an unusual crucifix, given to Anne-Marie and I by a priest friend when he prepared us for marriage. Behind the usual figure of the crucified Christ is another figure with outstretched arms, oustretched around Jesus. It is a figure which rather takes you by surprise when you first notice it. It is God the Father, almost never depicted in religious art, of course, and so it is a very unusual depiction of God. At the feet of Jesus is a dove, representing the Holy Spirit.
Another unusual depiction of God the Holy Spirit is found in the Celtic Christian tradition, which employs the use of a wild goose as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, rather than the dove with which we are more familiar. What interests me about the depiction of the Holy Spirit as a wild goose, rather than as a dove, is its inability to be tamed. The wild goose will fly wherever it chooses no matter what control humans may try to use exert over it. Such is the nature of the God we worship. Sometimes encountering new or different images of God help us to grow in our understanding of the nature of God.
One expression of the nature of God with which we are all very familiar is the Lord's Prayer. So, I leave you this month with an alternative version of the Lord's Prayer which will, I suspect, be new to most if not all of you. It comes from the Prayer Book of the Anglican Church in Australia and New Zealand. Try using it this month. Some of you will find it helpful, others may not like it at all. If you are one of the latter bear with it - it has, I think, the ability to give us a picture of God that will enhance our praying of the traditional and loved version of the Lord's Prayer.
Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and for ever. Amen.
Yours in Christ,
Father Jerry
The Guild of Friends of St. Lawrence's Church
We were pleased that this year Father Duncan was able to conduct the annual ecumenical service to celebrate the Feast of St Lawrence. The service took the form of a Celtic Evening Prayer and the music group Free Spirit led our singing of songs with familiar Celtic tunes.
Before reading to us St. Augustine of Hippo's sermon on St. Lawrence, Fr. Duncan gave us potted highlights of St. Lawrence's life ending with a snippet of information that possibly nobody in the congregation had heard before. St. Lawrence is the Patron Saint of several occupations but Fr. Duncan had discovered that the list also included that of comedians. This was apparently because St. Lawrence had joked, while being roasted alive on a grid iron, that he should be turned over to do the other side!
The service ended with us all singing the lovely Celtic Blessing:
May the road rise with you;
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
May the rain fall soft upon your fields.
Until we meet again may God hold you
in the hollow of his hand.
The final Guided Tour of St Lawrence's for 2010 is at 3pm on 13th September.
Elaine Williams
Poem: Life in the Garden
Sitting in the garden
To enjoy the summer sun,
We like to watch our local birds,
See butterflies have fun,
Bees hunting for nectar
On all the flowering plants,
Maybe a pair of dragonflies
Doing a courtship dance.
But there are other creatures
That we don't like quite as much,
Crawly things and creepy things,
Things we wouldn't touch,
Just take a look around you,
And you'll find all sorts of bugs,
Those pretty spotted ladybirds,
But ugly, slimy slugs.
Spiders, beetles, centipedes,
Earwigs, ants so small,
And little armoured woodlice
Which curl up in a ball.
Snails visit very frequently
And eat our plants and veg,
And lots of tiny insects
Are living in the hedge.
As for worms, not often seen
For they're deep down in the soil,
We accept them readily
For they do useful toil.
Some creatures feed on others,
Such food keeps them alive,
Hedgehogs eat up worms and slugs
In order to survive.
Our garden world in miniature
Has so much to amaze,
So many mini-beasts to see
Who live in different ways.
And God created all of them
With a purpose for each one,
Their homes are in our gardens,
And when their work is done,
Others will come to take their place,
And the garden life goes on.
Irene Schofield
Afternoon Teas and Coffees