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My mother, Margaret Castle, died peacefully on Wednesday 12th July 2023 at Willow Gardens Care Home, Yateley. Her funeral is on Wednesday 2nd August at 11.30 am in St Michael's Church, and all are welcome - no specific dress code required (the family won't be in black). If you can't join us in person, you are welcome to watch the service live on YouTube: just click on this link to access the service. You can find it in advance and bookmark it (or save it as a favourite) so you can come back to it later. A big thank you to Rupert Cremer-Evans who has set up this page and will be operating the live-stream on the day.
After the service, we'll be having a light buffet for anyone who'd like to attend at Hampshire Lakes, Hammond Way, Yateley, GU46 7AG. You can find it on Google Maps here. This will take place in the Bistro - just ask at Reception. Many people have asked how I am and given their condolences. Thank you for your kindness. Anyone who would like to give a donation in honour of Margaret is asked to visit my JustGiving page to donate to one of her favourite charities. Thank you! In her sermon on Pentecost Sunday, Rev Jane Kraft talked about change. As we emerge from the current Covid-19 crisis, she said, “in many ways life will be different from the way it was before. They are calling it the new normal.”
Change can inspire both fear and excitement, depending on how we view the change in question, and how confident we feel about adjusting to it. The Covid lockdown was forced upon us, but we have seen individuals and companies responding in many creative ways: factories re-purposed to produce ventilators, home-made masks and other PPE, neighbours shopping for those who are self-isolating, and clergy learning new skills in broadcasting technology! Other spin-offs include reduced pollution from traffic, industry and air travel, nature has had a brief respite from some harmful human activities, and people re-connecting with God and/or with church in new ways. So what could the “new normal” be like for us as individuals, as a local church, as a country, and globally? Jane observed in her sermon that in the Bible, “whenever God’s Spirit acts, things change”. If we hoist our sails to the wind of the Holy Spirit, where might he drive us? What kind of “new normal” would we like to create? I would like to invite all of us to reflect on the past few months, and to listen to God as we pray about how life might be in the near, medium and more distant future. One area that desperately needs change is our stewardship of the environment. As a church we can do practical things like using more eco-friendly cleaning products, and keeping areas of the churchyard free for wildlife (see June newsletter). But we also need to change some of our thinking, e.g. about walking or cycling instead of driving, switching to electric vehicles, considering the environmental impact of our lifestyle and travel. Our Sunday live-streamed worship services have reached people who wouldn’t otherwise have attended church. How can we use technology in the future to reach those who still won’t be able to get to our church building for whatever reason, or people who find it hard to attend a house group because of childcare or other issues? The lockdown prompted us to set up regular pastoral contact with people by phone. It would be great if we can make pastoral care for all members of our church community part of the “new normal” – and extend this to neighbours and the wider community in our town. With change comes challenge. We may have to let go of some things in order to embrace others. Our church income has been severely hit by the lockdown. St Paul, reflecting on his own experiences of shortage and of plenty told the Philippians that “my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). The PCC would love to hear from everyone reading this about your experiences of the Covid lockdown, and about your hopes and worries for the future. Please reflect, pray and discuss with others how God might be leading us to carry out his mission as we respond to changes in the world and seek to create a “new normal” that will reflect the values of God’s kingdom. Please send your comments to me, the churchwardens or another PCC member, or leave a comment below. Let’s face the future with hope and with confidence in our God whose love is unending and whose resources are infinite. Too busy! That’s my excuse for not writing a blog entry yesterday as I said I would. There are so many interesting talks, meetings etc going on here, you could go from one to another. And I’ve had some parish work to catch up on too!
One of the great things about Spring Harvest is that it aims to cater for all ages and all sorts of people. The Big Start is a short, fun all-age service at the beginning of the day (9.00 am). Then there are groups for kids and a Bible Study for adults – not a group thing but a talk. And there are many different opportunities to get involved with prayer, too, using different styles of prayer. But in case you think of prayer as a kind of optional extra to life, or something that is mainly about changing the way you think about the world rather than something that miraculously changes events, the story Pete Greig told yesterday about a member of his church may make you think again. You will remember the terrorist attack on Westminster Bridge in April 2017, in which 5 people were killed and over 50 injured. Pete’s church member, called Jonathan, left his home especially early on 14th August last year, and having arrived at Westminster where he was due to attend a meeting later in the morning, he felt God telling him to pray against another terrorist attack. This was around 6.30 in the morning. He walked around the streets near the houses of Parliament for about an hour praying against terrorism. At 7.30, while he was drinking coffee in a café, a car deliberately swerved into some cyclists and pedestrians. The BBC report of the event (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45180120) says that the driver of the car had been driving around the same streets where Jonathan had been praying at the same time. Fortunately, this time only 3 people were slightly injured. Moreover, while Jonathan was prayer-walking the streets of Westminster, his wife, not knowing what he was doing, had felt moved to pray for his safety. The point I took away was that I need to be ready for God to prompt me to pray, because you never know when your prayers could make a life-changing difference to the lives of others. And at this time of political turmoil, division and uncertainty in our country, is it not possible that God is calling on Christians to devote ourselves to prayer, both individually and corporately, so that good may triumph over evil, love over hatred and peace over division? Or are we too busy to pray?  5 children, a teenager and 13 adults make up the St Michael’s “delegation” to this annual Christian conference at Butlin’s, Minehead. Yesterday’s rain is over and the sun is now shining on us as we explore the Butlin’s facilities, Spring Harvest worship, kids’ groups and most importantly, this year’s theme: Prayer Unlimited.
We all know how important prayer is to the Christian life, and we all experience varying degrees of inadequacy, and varying amounts of hope and doubt as we try to make prayer central to our lives. So far we’ve had a great mixture of inspiration and encouragement at Spring Harvest. Last night Pastor Agu Irukwu, originally from Nigeria, talked about Elijah, his faith and also his weakness, and called us to consider if we would be part of an “Elijah generation” who will pray earnestly and persistently and “give the Lord no rest”(Isaiah 62:6-7) until we see a spiritual awakening in our nation. In this morning’s Bible teaching on Matthew 6:5-8 Pete Greig helped us to see that Jesus was saying prayer should be simple, real and persistent. He spoke movingly of how he had spoken angrily to God when his wife was about undergo a dangerous operation for a brain tumour, telling God that it was not OK for him to take her, and reminded us of Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah and the psalmists complaining to God and saying how they felt about their situation. This afternoon he dealt with the issue of unanswered prayer, looking at Jesus’ suffering in Gethsemane (Mark 14:32f) and on the Cross. In Gethsemane, Jesus trusts God’s love as his Father (“Abba”) and his power “All things are possible to you”, but still prays that God will take away his cup of suffering. God does not answer that prayer, but Jesus accepts God’s will and through this the world is saved. In the same way, suffering and experiencing God’s absence can be part of his purpose to help us grow. “You can never learn faithfulness until your heart is broken”, said Pete Greig. More tomorrow! … Parish clergy usually take a week off after Christmas. The Sunday after the Christmas just gone my wife called in to the church to drop something off, and mentioned that she and I were going to a service at a different church that morning. “That’s a bit of a busman’s holiday”, commented someone.
An interesting comment: perhaps after all the services I’d taken part in over Christmas I ought to take a Sunday off going to church? In fact, we went to St George’s Church in Owlsmoor and had a great time of worship with them, and the sermon stimulated some interesting thoughts. What we would have missed by staying at home! To me, being in church on a Sunday is just like eating and taking exercise – it’s just part of life. I need the spiritual input just as much as I need physical nourishment and exercise, and it’s great to meet with my brothers and sisters in Christ who worship in another location. The great thing about going to another church, which we always do when we’re on holiday, is that my wife and I can sit together and just worship, rather than having to lead or preach. That’s a real holiday treat!  The book of Acts records that when Paul arrived in Athens, alone, he found the proliferation of pagan worship distressing (Acts 17:16). The Acropolis rises up over the city with the huge Parthenon (temple of the goddess Athena) dominating the skyline. In addition to his usual practice of proclaiming Jesus in the synagogue, Paul debates with Greek philosophers, whose approach to truth might have seemed to offer some common ground and a more promising avenue for debate than an argument about the myths of popular Greek religion.  Paul's hearers are clearly fascinated with his message, and take him to the Areopagus (see photo above), a place for debating. It's not as I had imagined it - a rocky hillock, not a building at all. In his speech (briefly summarised in Acts 17:22-31), Paul uses his knowledge of Greek philosophy and poetry to present the gospel within the thought-forms of his hearers - an increasingly important strategy for the church today, as we find ourselves living within a culture shaped by ideas and values from many sources. However, as Paul discovers (17:32-34), it takes more than intellectual arguments to win people to the Christian faith!
 To what lengths would you go in order to have some quiet time with God? Yesterday we visited a monastery and a convent in the Meteora area near Kalambaka. The area is mountainous, and full of rocky outposts like this, with monasteries perched on top. Some now have a road or at least a path leading to them, but originally monks and supplies were winched up or down in a basket or net.
The guide book explained the goal of such isolation: "The true aim of the Orthodox life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. The monk does nothing other than this. He lives in a constant effort to draw closer to God". While most of us aren't called to the monastic life, I suspect that a little more dedicated time with God every day would do us all good. The efforts we need to make to achieve this are, by comparison, not so great after all!  Acts 17 tells us that Paul and Silas had a rough time in Thessalonica, their next stop after Philippi. Paul's attempts to persuade the worshippers at the synagogue certainly resulted in a number of new Christians, but also generated so much hostility that after a few months some of the Jews stirred up a riot, resulting in the arrest of some new believers and the need for Paul & Silas to make a quick departure to Berea, some 70 km away (where I am writing this). A few months later, Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians, expressing his joy that these Christians were still keeping their new-found faith in spite of the hardships they were enduring.
Persecution continued to be the experience of the Church on and off over the next 270 years. The picture shows the place (then a prison) where one Demetrios was killed, now under the church dedicated to him in Thessalonica. It is humbling to stand at the spot where one fellow-believer's martyrdom inspired others to hold on to Christ in the face of continuing persecution, which only ended with the next Emperor, Constantine. I hope that in some way my own witness will enable others to keep the faith whatever their own hardships. The key is to keep close to Jesus Christ, who will not fail us or forsake us.  Today we took the short journey (by coach) from Kavala (the ancient port of Neapolis where Paul and Silas landed in Madedonia) to Philippi. This photo shows riverside near the probable spot where they met Lydia and the other women who were gathered for prayer (Acts 16:13-15). Lydia listened to Paul and became a Christian. Our pilgrimage group renewed our baptismal vows at the spot where she would have been baptised.  It was not long after this that Paul and Silas were set upon by a rabble raised by the owners of a slave-girl whom Paul had delivered from a spirit of fortune-telling (Acts 16:16-39). They were dragged to the Forum, the large marketplace in the centre of the city (in the foreground right) and brought before the magistrates who had them beaten with rods and thrown in jail. It was important to me to walk on the same pavement where Paul walked, but you need to use your imagination to transform these ancient ruins into the bustling city centre full of people where this scene took place. Perhaps it's easier to imagine it when you read of Christians today being falsely accused of blasphemy in Pakistan and threatened by crowds baying for their blood (see the Barnabas Fund website for such stories). Acts16:35 shows that the magistrates only intended to keep Paul and Silas incarcerated for a night. We need to pray for our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate.
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AuthorRev John Castle has been Rector of St Michael & All Angels Church in Sandhurst, Berks since October 2004. Categories |
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