Page 73 - Phonebox Magazine May 2009

Churches Together in Newport Pagnell
Moderator’s Letter Church’s own ‘credit crunch’
RINGERS MAKE HISTORY
History was made at the Parish Church on Palm Sunday evening when a quarter peal of Bob Minor was rung – the first since the new ringing platform was built. The 1260 changes were conducted by tower captain Doug Hird who rang the sixth bell. Other members of the band (all from Newport Pagnell) were: Treble Loretta Ramsay, 2 Mike Lowndes, 3 NIck Read, 4 Rachel Stacy, 5 Scott Ayers.
EASTER SERVICES
Almost 100 people attended the open air service on Newport Pagnell's Market Hill on Good Friday, most having walked in procession from the Parish Church. All denominations in the town took part and the singing was led by musicians from the Baptist Church. Hot Cross buns were distributed to passers-by. Easter was well celebrated with good congregations at all six churches. Services included an early morning celebration outside the Baptist Church and an impressive Service of Light on Saturday evening at the Parish Church.
LENT LUNCHES RAISE OVER £1,000
Lent Lunches at Newport Pagnell's United Reformed Church this year brought in a profit of £1071.32 for Christian Aid. Organiser Jennifer Mazzone has thanked all the helpers and those who donated home made soup on the six Fridays. "There was a great community spirit," she said,"and it was pleasing to see people enjoying the social occasion."
FAREWELL SUPPER
Brooklands Club at Newport Pagnell is shortly to be demolished as part of a redevelopment scheme. As a last fund- raising effort a Farewell Supper is being held at the club on the evening of May 2. Tickets for a four-course meal with entertainment cost £15 each. While the club is being rebuilt the old folk members are finding a temporary home at the Royal British Legion Club.
JUST a couple of weeks ago I was visiting a theological college - as a member of an ecumenical inspection team. As the inspection team's report has not yet gone to print, I shan't tell you where exactly it was or what conclusions we came to! However, in many ways it was for me a fascinating experience. As part of the inspection procedure we had to engage with a large number of people across a very busy college community - teaching staff, admin staff, students, trustees. But undoubtedly the people who were the busiest of all were the members of the inspection team ourselves! We had what was in every way a punishing schedule, and spent our time, from the minute we got up to the minute late in the night when we finally collapsed into bed, rushing from meeting to lecture, and from interview to seminar - and if I dare admit it, rushing also into prayers! And on one of the occasions when I did have a moment to reflect - stuck in a traffic jam going between interviews - it seemed to me that we inspectors were encapsulating, in a way clear for all to see, something of the driven, manic, fragmented postmodern culture of which we are all a part, which is mirrored so much in our church lives.
But are we right to say that all this manic activity is just part and parcel of modern day life and that's just how it is? Of course there are 'good' reasons, particular to us, for all our manic activity. We might account for it by saying that we are living through the consequences of the church's very own 'credit crunch': there's a lack of funding, so we are rushing around trying to make up for it; there is a lack of humanpower or a dearth of vocations so there are extra pressures on us to make up the shortfall; there are many new things we need to get going and so many old things that need to be kept going. I would be very interested to know how many of you would articulate it. But it's as if we are all somehow frightened to stop, as if we believed that we are judged as human beings by the sum of what we do, and that if we drive ourselves to an early grave that will prove that we were true servants of God.
If we live as though the measure of our lives is only the sum of what we do, then we have understood things awry. 'It is by grace that you are saved, through faith, it is not your own doing.' says the letter to the Ephesians. 'It is God's gift, not a reward for work done.' Of course we know this. We can all sing 'Amazing Grace' off by heart, we have been taught that works will not save, that the law cannot save us because it only reveals our shortcomings, and that
we are dependent on the grace of God in Christ. But it can take a whole lifetime, maybe even more, to actually believe it. And we have trouble believing it, because as the years have gone by, we have accumulated within ourselves hosts of expectations we feel we have to live up to - expectations that have been heaped upon us by our upbringing, by our schooling, by the workplace, by society in general. And we live our lives desperately trying to live up to these images of perfection that we have internalised. We become our own strictest inspectors! We rush around trying to be the perfect mother who never loses their temper and whose children grow up to be models of good behaviour, the lovely husband, the dutiful son, the fantastic employee, the star boss who keeps the business afloat even when companies all around are going into administration. And while some expectations can serve to motivate us, all too often a huge weight of expectations can stress us out, create a frenzy of activity or a paralysis of fear, and we end up either totally exhausted when we meet the expectations or ridden with guilt when we fail. To receive the grace of God as the gift that God offers to us in Christ is to be humble. It is costly, but it is transforming. It is to relinquish the unrealistic expectations we keep hidden in the cupboards of our hearts and know that we cannot live up to them. It is to show the strict inspector that we carry within us the door. And as we open the door to let the inspector out, we invite God in, and begin to grasp who we truly are - 'God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus' not for the life of the deeds which we designed for ourselves, but 'for the life of good deeds which God designed for us.'
I am always very inspired to read, during Holy Week, the account of the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem. In the midst of
a frenzied city so caught up with itself that it doesn't realise it is putting the Son of God himself to death, these women remain faithful, choosing to be still and to watch from a distance (Mk. 15:41). Theirs is a costly choice. But theirs also is the joy of hearing the Easter message at the empty tomb: He is not here. He has been raised!
Mary Cotes
Phonebox Magazine 73
Welcome to our Sunday Services
ANGLICAN
Parish Church, High Street 8am Holy Communion 9.30am Sung Eucharist creche and Sunday School 6pm Evensong and Sermon St Luke’s, Wolverton Road 11am Family Communion
BAPTIST
Lovat Hall, Silver Street
Rev Paul Rosier 616286 10.30am Family Worship with creche, Sunday School
CATHOLIC
St Bede’s, High Street Rev James Evans 671342 6.30pm Mass (Saturday), 9am Mass
METHODIST CHURCH
High Street 10.30am Service with creche
UNITED REFORMED
High Street
10.30am Family Worship