The Rock
Magazine for the Parish of Tettenhall Regis
August 2014
Sunday ServiceS at St. Michael’S 8am 10.30am 6.30pm
Holy Communion (last Sunday 1662) Parish Communion Evensong
Sunday ServiceS at chriSt the King 9am 10am 10am 6.30pm
(1st only) Holy Communion (1st only) Family Service – no Communion Family Eucharist (3rd) Healing Service
Sunday ServiceS at St. Paul’S
10.30am
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday
8.30am 9.15am 8.30am 9.30am 10.30am 8.30am
Worship together with Holy Communion Children’s groups most weeks.
WeeKday ServiceS
Morning prayer at St. Michael’s Eucharist at St. Michael’s Morning prayer at Christ the King Eucharist at Christ the King Eucharist at St. Michael’s Morning prayer at St. Michael’s
The parish online
St Michael’s:
www.stmichaels-church.org.uk www.facebook.com/stmichaelstettenhall
St Paul’s:
saintpaulspendeford.wordpress.com
Messy Church: www.facebook.com/messychurchtettenhallregis 2
In Someone Else’s Shoes The war is lived out in the lives of very human characters on all sides – an imaginative exercise in empathy. I certainly felt my understanding was enlarged. It’s a recommended read.
On Newsnight on 28 July, Professor Simon Baren Cohen was interviewed on the subject of empathy. His book “Zero Degrees of Empathy. A New Theory of Human Cruelty” had apparently attracted political interest. Much of the conflict and cruelty in the world arises from an inability or unwillingness of one person or group to imagine the effects of their actions on the other, or to put themselves in the shoes of those whom their actions affect. In other words the failure to empathise.
Empathy is important as we consider all sorts of issues in our lives. When we are thinking about ethical issues, like gay marriage, or assisted dying, or political of immigrants, can we put ourselves in the shoes of those who are affected directly? It won’t give us the answer but it will certainly make our decision making more informed. The same is true in our everyday relationships with family members, neighbours and colleagues.
This apparent lack of empathy is well in the rhetoric surrounding the crisis in Gaza. War and conflict can be both a consequence and a cause of the failure of empathy - the unwillingness and the inability to see or imagine the situation or the motivation of those on the other side, to see the enemy as an object rather than human. Contrast this with the empathy between Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk which enabled the end of apartheid.
I have found that praying day by day with the Psalms helps me to put myself in the shoes of others. So often the Psalm I am reading doesn’t express my own experience of life or my feelings but it puts me in the shoes of someone else, and I can imagine people in the world in similar situations – so my prayers are joined with theirs.
As we remember the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War we are aware, after the event, of its tragic consequences. I recently read a novel by Ken Follett, “Fall of Giants.” The book takes us into the lives of Welsh miners and mine owning aristocrats, of Russian peasants and German diplomats, of American journalists, immigrants and politicians in the build up to war.
By sharing our humanity, its joys, its sorrows, God, in Jesus Christ, has put himself in our shoes. We can put our trust in a God who knows and understands us and has reconciled us to himself. If we can empathise with others the world will be a better place. Richard Reeve
background of real events and decisions. 3
Cradle Roll Party Liz, who will be leaving us in September, was given flowers to thank her for all her help in the organisation of the parties during the past years.
The Annual Cradle Roll Party for all those who have been baptised as infants at our three churches during the past four years took place on Wednesday 23 July at Christ the King.
Thank you to everyone who helped to make the party so successful.
The weather was perfect and the children were able to enjoy playing outside before coming into Church to listen to the story of Jesus and the Fishermen.
To the Cradle Roll team spearheaded by Chris, for Dawn and her team for organising the activities and for Liz in her valued input which we shall all miss.
This was followed by activities and singing before the lovely picnic tea provided by the loyal band of Cradle Roll visitors.
Stella Salt If you know of any children who were baptised in our churches in recent years but have now move house we would be pleased to hear from you so that we can try and keep in touch with them. [01902 764887]
The children were given a story book about Jesus the Fisherman to take home with them.
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Wedding of James & Esther be married at Christ the King under its new licence to hold weddings.
Photos by Martin Walker.
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Bible Class - July 2014 The Bible Class meets every fortnight on Friday morning, at 10 o’clock in Church Cottage.
Below are a few quotations we discussed, taken from the Good News Bible:
We begin our meetings with a reading of a Psalm and the following is taken from Psalm 16.
“Life is useless, like chasing the wind” 2.24 “The best thing a man can do is to eat and drink and enjoy what he has earned.” 5.10 “If you love money you will never be satisfied, if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is useless. The richer you are.the more mouths you must feed.” 7.4 “Someone who is always thinking about happiness is a fool. A wise person thinks about death.” 7.19 ”Wisdom does more for a person than 10 rulers can do for a city.” 10.19 “Feasting makes you happy and wine cheers you up, but you can’t have either without money.” 1.14
“I praise the Lord because he guides me, and in the night my conscience warns me.” This month we have been reading the reading the Historical books of the Old Testament and before going on to the New Testament, we decided to read some of the short books to be found in the Old Testament. Familiar stories, such as Ruth and Esther, before reading Joel and now Ecclesiastes. Our progress through this book has been slow because we’ve found so much to discuss and so much relevance to our lives today.
Discussion at coffee time concerned the topic of Women Bishops and more on Assisted Suicides. The next meeting is on Friday August 15th. We meet every fortnight at 10 o’clock in Church Cottage and we welcome new people to join us.
The book contains the thoughts of “the Philosopher” who concludes that “ Life is useless”.
Mary Sims
Children’s Society Collecting Boxes If you have a collecting box for the Children’s Society, they will be collected from the back of Christ the King church, during September. If you have questions or would like a box, please contact Margaret Perry 7
More Laughter! I much enjoyed Liz Rathbone`s article on laughter. I thoroughly agreed with it all. It reminded me of something I wrote while a Prisoner of War in Germany in 1944. We were each given a log book. It was issued by the Y.M.C.A. and was called “A friends who I had made while in captivity. The following is the opening paragraph:
“These next few pages contain the names of those who made life bearable during these months. Many of them I have lived with in such proximity that I know their every trick and turn, but all alike had one great quality. They were never without a laugh. A situation never arose the funny side of which they did not see.. We all laughed our way through life.”. Bob King Keeping with the theme of laughter, a cartoon from Dave Walker, available at CartoonChurch.com, and originally appeared in the Church Times.
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Poet’s Corner Eleanor Farjeon was a good choice: born into a literary and musical family, by 1931, she was a well-known children’s author. Many children would have read her ‘Nursery Rhymes of London Town’. Adults would have known her as a journalist, broadcaster and some would
If you go to assembly at St Michael’s school, you are likely to hear rows of children singing enthusiastically in praise of a world made up of different cultures, different faiths, different ways to be Christian. The daily act of worship reflecting our society and our age. If you had been at St Michael’s assembly in 1931, you might have heard children singing a new hymn from a new hymn book. The hymn book was Songs of Praise, then in its second edition, and the new hymn was ‘Morning Has Broken’.
socialist poets of her day. ‘Morning Has Broken’ is set in an easy to imagine Garden of Eden, where nature springs completely formed in the creator’s footsteps. Eleanor Farjeon titled her poem, ‘A Morning Song (for the
This hymn also reflected a new age. An age where some of the old certainties had been swept away by war, where social inequality and poverty were
of the Book of Genesis. The poem celebrates the potential of each day with images of daybreak, birdsong, rainfall and sunlight. The blackbird seems to be the embodiment of all blackbirds; rainfall, conventionally a symbol of sadness, is life-enhancing, necessary for growth and sweetness.
In 1925, Percy Dearmer, Martin Shaw and Ralph Vaughan Williams produced wanted hymns that were less ‘high church’, more relevant, especially to children. Many Education Authorities adopted the new hymnal and it became so popular, that even more new hymns were called for. Percy Dearmer, whose influence on church music can still be seen in our current hymnal, commissioned a hymn ‘to give thanks for each day.’
Above all, it gives us something to do: every day we can praise and give thanks for a world that is always renewed and where every day is a new start – both constant and ever-changing. Technically, the poem appears simple, but it has some unexpected rhymes and unusual metrical patterns, wellsuited to the tune’s lilt.
He chose an old Gaelic tune, ‘Bunesson’ and asked the poet Eleanor Farjeon to write words, which were to be ‘about
‘Morning Has Broken’ was a favourite in schools for many years and although a new century calls for new school songs,
Christian.’ 10
not surprisingly, it is still a favourite for weddings and it was one of the requests recently at St Michael’s Big Welcome Songs of Praise.
Finally, some readers will remember Cat Stevens’ 1972 version: you can hear it on You Tube, where it still sounds fresh and uplifting. Jane Seabourne
Editorial The Rock magazine has been in its new format for coming up to a year. Have the changes been successful? What has been lost and what has been gained? The adverts have gone, as has the insert; is this a good thing, or not? How could we improve it further? Are there more local events, both inside and outside the churches, that we don’t know about? Is there something you’d like to see included?
Have your say Let us know what you think, by contacting the editorial group, either via me (01902 741028), or by emailing therock@tettenhallregis.com Better still, come to the next meeting of The Rock Editorial Group, on Tuesday 26 August, 7.30pm, at Church Cottage. Simon Douglas 11
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Thought for the Day – Professor Mona Siddiqui 24 July 2014. Available from http://www. bbc.co.uk/programmes/p023hl33
such groups move onto their next target.
Over the last few days I’ve been watching the excitement as thousands of visitors arrive in Glasgow for the commonwealth games; it’s a celebration of hospitality and diversity. But the contrast with what’s been going on in another city, Mosul in Iraq, couldn’t be greater. The violence there has meant a gradual exodus of Christians from their homes but over the weekend the militant group ISIS gave them an ultimatum – convert to Islam or face death. Most of the Christians fled by the Saturday deadline becoming refugees in nearby Kurdish towns.
All this is being done in the Month of Ramadhan, sacred and observed by millions and coming to an end this weekend as Muslims prepare to celebrate Eid. But at a time when hundreds have lost their lives in conflicts around the world including areas where Muslims are killing Muslims, how do we celebrate? These are not distant wars, they touch our lives in all kinds of ways, often dividing our relatively peaceful societies here in the UK. At a time when Islam and extremism are conflated in the minds of many, how can we instil hope that religious faith can bring out the best in us as well as the worst? The Qur’an says God will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.’ At the very least this demands that we show courage and care for the flourishing of others as well as our own.
The Chaldean patriarch Louis Sako said in a moving statement `that the fraternal life between Muslims and Christians had together built a civilisation and history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians.’ Some families talk of returning one day to their homes and churches, others speak sadly that no longer will the call of the minaret and the sound of the church bells be heard together in this city. Surely the Christian presence and that of other persecuted minorities guarantees the Muslims too a better life and it seems to me that the loss of Christian communities should be seen as a scandal to the Muslim conscience. This kind of vicious extremism knows no boundaries and if Muslims and governments don’t speak out then it’s only a matter of time before
Whoever lives next door to us is our neighbour and we have duties of hospitality towards them whether it’s in the ravaged city of Mosul where people are being driven out or at the celebrations in Glasgow. Kindness and friendship or violence and discrimination, either way the impact runs deep. When Eid arrives we should be thankful for the freedom to worship in our cities across the UK even as we remember and pray for those who are being denied this very right. 13
Parish Calendar for August 2014 Sunday 3 August July
Seventh Sunday after trinity Isaiah 55.1-5, Psalm 145.8-9,15-22, Romans 9.1-5, Matthew 14.13-2
Monday 4 August Tuesday 5 August
Sunday 10 August
St. Michael’s Stewardship & Finance, Church Cottage 7.30pm – Big Welcome 2015 Planning (all welcome), Church 7.30pm –
Cottage
eighth Sunday after trinity 1 Kings 19.9-18, Psalm 85.8-13, Romans 10.5-15, Matthew 14.22-33
Sunday 17 August
ninth Sunday after trinity Isaiah 56.1,6-8, Psalm 67, Romans 11.1-2a,29-32, Matthew 15.10-28
Sunday 24 August
BartholeMeW Isaiah 43.8-13, Psalm 145.1-7, Acts 5.12-16, Luke 22.24-30
Monday 25 August Tuesday 26 August
Sunday 31 August
Magazine Copy Deadline, to therock@tettenhallregis.com 7.30pm – The Rock Editorial Group (all welcome), Church –
Cottage
eleventh Sunday after trinity Jeremiah 15.15-21, Psalm 26.1-8, Romans 12.9-21, Matthew 16.21-28
Monday 1 September
7.30pm – Cottage
Tuesday 2 September
7.30pm –
Friday 5 September Sunday 7 September
, Church
St. Michael’s District Church Council, Church Cottage 7.30-9pm – Youth Space
tWelfth Sunday after trinity Ezekiel 33.7-11, Psalm 119.33-40, Romans 13.8-14, Matthew 18.15-20 from 4pm –
St. Michael’s Youth Team BBQ, Church Cottage
Upcoming events Wednesday 10 September
7.00pm – Encounter followed by… 8.00pm –
Commitment Service, Christ the King,
PCC, Christ the King
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From the registers… It is a wonderful privilege to share in the special occasion of baptisms and weddings in our churches. If you have photos from the event, we would love to include them in the magazine or on our webiste. Send them to therock@tettenhallregis.com or share them on our Facebook page.
Baptisms S T. MiC h a E l’S 6
George Shaw
Weddings S T. MiC h a E l’S 12
Philip Harvey & Kate Richardson
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Richard Thorpe & Charlotte Averill Michael Lloyd & Gina Milton
C hRiS T T h E K in G 26
James Kusi Sarpong & Esther Oman
Funerals S T. MiC h a E l’S 4
Jean Swanwick
28
Vernon Crofts
31
Mervyn Rowe
C hRiS T T h E K in G 21
Roger Jones
22
Stanley Rogers
BUShBU RY C RE M aToRiU M 4
Violet Bradley
Tyrone Russell 9
Stanley Rhodes
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Marjory Rosumnyi
25
Veronica Brown
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PariSh inforMation PaRiSh oFFiCE, Church Cottage, Church Road, Wolverhampton, WV6 9AJ tettenhallregis@gmail.com | 01902 751622
ClERGY Rev’d. Richard Reeve . . . . . . . . . . . 742801 Rev’d. Liz Rathbone . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562469 Rev’d. Jim Perry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562133 Rev’d. Patrick Bryan . . . . . . . . . . . . 689550 REaDERS Mrs. Stella Salt . . . . . . . . . . . 07426 838314 Mr. John Vickers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651790 Mrs. Dot Clayton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780920 Mr. Keith Whitehouse . . . . . . . . . . 831135
Rev’d. Simon Douglas . . . . . . . . . . 741028 Rev’d. Allen Roberts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765741 Rev’d. Jack Lloyd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765612 Rev’d. Ruth Brooker . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399644 Mr. Peter Rowley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751762 Mrs. Christine May . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397031 Mr. Marcus Woodhouse . . . . . . . 759379
PaRiSh WaRDEnS Mr. Cyril Randles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758797
Mrs. Dawn Parsons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822390
ST. MiChaEl DiSTRiCT WaRDEnS Mrs. Roberta Evans . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751444
Mrs. Paula Timmins. . . . . 07782 512013
ChRiST ThE KinG DiSTRiCT WaRDEnS Mr. Ivor Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753960 ST. PaUl DiSTRiCT WaRDEnS Mr. Eddie Baker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829040
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753433
Mrs. Joan Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785844
MaGazinE ConTaCTS St. Paul’s Mrs. Sue Ellick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578822 Christ the King St. Michael’s Subscription & Distribution
Mr. Martin Bristow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833411 CurrenTly vACAnT Mrs. Elaine Dovydatis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757775
The September edition of the Rock will be available on Sunday 31st August. All contributions by Monday 25th August to therock@tettenhallregis.com The views and opinions in the magazine are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the clergy, editor or PCC. The electronic version of the magazine is sent via email 12 times a year, at no cost. To subscribe go to: http://stmichaels-church.org.uk/rock/ A paper copy is available, costing £3 a year for 12 copies. Speak to one of the contacts.