SVB
Outlook June 2020 - July 2020
The magazine of the churches of The Sodbury Vale Benefice: Chipping Sodbury, Old Sodbury, www.svbcofe.org.uk Little Sodbury and Horton. 1 1
Our Team
The Rector
Assistant Priest
The Revd. Canon David Bowers 01454 313159, rector@svbcofe.org.uk
The Revd. David Powe 01454 777745
Day off Monday
Churchwardens St John’s, Chipping Sodbury
St James’, Horton
Joy Gibson 01454 319288
Tina Hildick-Smith 01454 320380
Paul Jones-Williams 01454 324970
Richard Needs 01454 329890
St Adeline’s, Little Sodbury
St John’s, Old Sodbury
Linda Hurst 01454 319183
Vacancy Safeguarding Nominated Person
Administrators
Hannah Saunders 07515 915976
Michelle Jenkins, Trish Gailey and helpers
Hcsaunders.hone@talk21.com
Advertising
Contact Hannah if you have a concern about suspected abuse of a child or a vulnerable adult
Volunteer required
Published by The Sodbury Vale Benefice, Church Office, St John’s Church Centre, Wickwar Road, Chipping Sodbury, BS37 6BQ, 01454 325160, sodburyvalebenefice@gmail.com, Open in school term time, Mon - Tue - Thu mornings 9.00 - 12.00. Editor - Michael Stephenson outlook@svbcofe.org.uk
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A Word from David Dear Friends What strange times we have been living through over these last few months! Since March we have had to learn a new vocabulary, with terms such as “lockdown”, “furloughing” and “social distancing” becoming part of our everyday conversations. We have experienced physical separation from family and friends and patiently endured long queues to do our supermarket shopping. Sadly, many people in our country and around the world have experienced illness and bereavement as the virus has spread.
“We have reminded ourselves as Christians that nothing at all in this life can separate us from his love.”
“May you know God’s love and blessing as we live through these challenging days.” David Bowers
However, out of the sadness and difficulties, there have been some more positive signs in our communities. There has been a real sense of neighbourliness and willingness to help those who are especially vulnerable. We have also seen a new sense of gratitude for those who work in the NHS and care sector, as well as those who have continued to provide our essential services. In church life we have had to learn new ways of coming together through the internet and we have been reminded that our faith is not dependent on buildings - even though it will be good to be able to meet in them again! And, of course, we have reminded ourselves as Christians that in all the uncertainties and challenges of life, we can put our trust in the love and grace of God, which is solid and unchanging. As the Bible reminds us, nothing at all in this life can separate us from his love. One group that has been significantly affected in our parishes by the Covid-19 situation is our children and there has been a partnership between teachers and parents in providing home schooling for those unable to go to school. We have decided to devote this edition of Outlook to the children of our local church schools and communities and to see some of what they have been doing over the last couple of months. We are very grateful to all the children who have sent contributions and we hope you enjoy seeing their work. 3
Children’s prayers
Dear God, Please help the NHS protect us from covid-19 and we pray for you to protect our families, our foes and friends. We pray you could help those in need. From Elyse McMurray xx
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Perseverance and Straw Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. […] Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. James 1:2-4, 12 Did you know that the Book of James only mentions Christ by name twice? For this reason – and several others – Martin Luther, the great reformation theologian, questioned the place of the book in Scripture. He dubbed it an ‘epistle of straw, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the Gospel about it’. Well, no offence Martin, but I would beg to differ. The book of James is deeply relevant for such a time as this and packed full of teaching that reflects the heart of Jesus, aligning with how we see him act and hear him teach in the gospels. Indeed, this passage alone feels like an expansion of Matthew 5:10, 12 –‘blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. […] Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’ Jesus’ own words, his wise teaching, are echoed here by James. Even so, like straw, it is hard to swallow. This book is full of bold statements and big challenges – especially to our world today. Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds?! Really, James? I’d rather not. I’d rather sulk and hide in my duvet fort, thank you very much. And yet there it is – James is clear that trials lead to perseverance, perseverance leads to maturity and, eventually, the crown of life. Which is, I would argue, much better than a duvet fort. And this joy isn’t supposed to be a simple happiness, a keep-on-smiling-life-is-great attitude, but instead a deep, settled contentment that God is good, and we can trust in him. The Book of James has a lot to say to us – pandemic or no pandemic, lockdown or no lockdown. We all need perseverance and spiritual maturity. And we certainly all need to be reminded that God is good, and we can trust in him. If nothing else, that is what the Book of James will encourage us to do. Even from our duvet fort. Source - London Institute for Contemporary Neil Goddard Christianity www.licc.org.uk. 5
“The brilliant NHS” by Austin Wiltshire The brilliant NHS Try their very best. They help us, they care for us In every single way. Schools closed down, It made people frown. I miss my friends, I miss running around. Since the world got less busy, The flowers grew pretty. Children made rainbows To stick in their windows.
Church Quiz At which of our four churches was this picture taken?
It gives us all hope. Keep washing with soap. Fingers crossed the time will soon be here And we can all hug and cheer.
Answer in the next issue
The picture in the last issue was from St Adeline’s, Little Sodbury
Rose Kinsey age 5 wrote this as an extension to some work on the Very Hungry Caterpillar. The Blackbird. Once upon a time a blackbird lived in a tree. He was really hungry. Yesterday he ate 2 worms and he made a nest. Today he ate two cherries. Tomorrow he will eat 3 apples, the next day he stayed inside. The end.
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VE Day Celebrations around the benefice
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With thanks to Fiona Grant - Self isolating bird club From the Diocesan Facebook page
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Lockdown for the children of Old Sodbury C of E Primary School
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More Children’s Prayers Rainbow R
Rainbows are special to me.
A
As they are colourful.
I
I like that they shimmer.
N
No – one can ever see a rainbow like that.
B
Beautiful. Beautiful.
O
Outside is the place I want to be.
W
We will win.
By Imogen Wiltshire (Age 6)
Little Tiger who made me I am stripy as can be Little Monkey who made me I am cheeky as can be Little Spider who made me I am scary as can be
Dear Lord Thank you for all the things that make us happy in these difficult times
Little wolf who made me I am hungry as can be
Lovely country walks; Time spent with our families; Cycling along country lanes; Birds singing; Baking cakes; Talking with our neighbours; Face timing with friends; Cuddling my rabbit; Playing board games;
Who did make us all? by Leo Roche
Thank you Lord for all those people helping others in the community and for their generosity. We pray for those who are working hard to keep us safe Amen By Katie Turner
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Betty Hales DJ
Banging the ‘drum’ for the NHS
Will and Nancy Parsons and family support the NHS
These pictures are of stones that the children of Old Sodbury have decorated and been hiding around the village. It’s been lovely for the children to have something to look forward to and find on their daily walks. 11
The Gray’s granddaughters Rebekah and Rachel in California with their lockdown pictures
By Summer aged 4
By Lily Grace aged 8
By Alfie Friendship poster by Eva Chew (7)
Phoebe (7) and Poppy (4) with their springtime pictures
Zoe Chew (reception) Supporting Doctors
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More Than Rational This year it was discovered that the oldest material on Earth is much older than Earth itself. The Murchison meteorite landed in Australia in the 1960s and contains grains of stardust that are 7.5 billion years old. To help you wrap your head around that number, the Sun is 4.6 billion years old, so this material comes from outside our solar system. Such large scales are impossible to fully grasp. For the Christian these numbers remind us of God’s greatness. Who else could make a universe as vast and old as ours? Psalm 139:17-18 says: ‘How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand? When I awake, I am still with you.’ I’m not sure that King David had stardust in mind when he wrote these lines, but he was definitely thinking about big numbers. Today, science can add fuel to our worship. The Jesuit physicist and philosopher Enrico Cantore wrote about things that we cannot fully comprehend. To him, mystery is what happens when we try to wrap our minds around something like the Murchison meteorite. In his experience, the mysteries of God are based on something rational, but they stretch our comprehension to the limit. He described this as ‘the dazzling light of this exceeding intelligibility’. By embracing belief in God, Christians are not being irrational but accepting that which goes way, way beyond the finite nature of our minds. Jesus was a man who demonstrated the love and wisdom of God – that I can begin to understand. But at the same time he was also God, whose death and resurrection will one day result in creation itself being ‘liberated from its bondage to decay’ (Romans 8:21). Most people are capable of feeling a sense of awe when experiences begin with – but then go way beyond – the completely rational: the wonder of a new-born baby who shares your own DNA; that feeling of having a new lease of life when you recover from a serious illness; the sensation of transcendence that can take hold of you when you enter a cathedral. What would happen if we could hold onto our moments of awe? Would these experiences change us, enabling us to ask different questions, change our priorities, or be willing to step beyond the mundane into more extraordinary ways of living? Ruth Bancewicz Source - London Institute for Contemporary [Church Engagement Director, The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge]
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Christianity www.licc.org.uk.
Feeding the 5,000 aims to: 1. Feed people in need over the duration of the Covid-19 crisis with delicious, locally cooked, nutritious food. Food that can supplement basic food parcels and other support. 2. Support or, if necessary, create a series of community kitchens that will be able to continue to serve their communities after the crisis period ends. This means that the people who have been served delivered ready-meals are able, after the crisis has passed, to start to come together to eat together as a gathered community. This project builds on the expertise and model developed by The Long Table in Stroud. The Long Table is part of the Grace Network, a Christian social enterprise based in Brimscombe. They bring people together through food and run a bakery, kitchen, shop and a dining space where they provide home-cooked, nutritious meals. In response to the coronavirus crisis they quickly adapted their services to cook and deliver delicious, healthy meals to those self-isolating and most in need in the Stroud district. Being part of the Diocese of Gloucester , we (Bishop Rachel and the Gloucester Diocesan Board of Finance) joined forces so together we are able to provide this service across the diocese. The Long Table currently work with local foodbanks, churches, schools and statutory agencies to find who needs and wants our meals. Those who can pay do, and those who can’t, receive them free. We commission local, not-for-profit kitchens to cook meals for an agreed price per unit paid for by Feeding the 5,000. Menus, dietary constraints, labelling and branding are all provided by The Long Table. Local voluntary groups and worshipping communities pick up the food from a local kitchen and deliver it to diners. We hope that as restrictions permit this delivery network will start to become a more permanent network of support for local people. For more details and how to donate look at the diocesan webs site https://www.gloucester.anglican.org/2020/feeding-the-5000/ 14
With thanks to the Gloucester Diocese facebook page
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Lockdown, Exile, and Working from Home Last week, my housemate’s computer crashed an average of 16 times per day. This includes at least three times when the IT guy from her company was trying to fix it remotely. More than once, she declared ‘if only I was in the office this would be sorted so much quicker!’ She’s not wrong – and I’m sure that over the past few weeks, broken computer or not, many of us have had an ‘if only!’ moment, hankering for ‘the way things were’. When it comes to home working, we are perhaps beginning to feel the strain. If our job is usually people-facing and highly interactive, we may feel that we are not being able to use our gifts and talents as much as we did previously. If our job is usually in a quiet, focused office, we may loathe the myriad distractions that working from home brings. We may be heavy-laden with childcare needs, other obligations, or failing technology. Change is hard. It is particularly hard when you did not ask for it, and when it happens very suddenly. To find yourself in an entirely different situation or set up from where you were before, with very little warning, is a ‘sink or swim’ kind of moment. And I don’t know about you, but right now I feel like a toddler in a swimming pool who has just had someone confiscate their armbands. In the Bible, we read of several people who find themselves in similar ‘sink or swim’ moments – moments where everything has changed very suddenly in a way they did not ask for or expect. One such example of this comes in the first few chapters of the book of Daniel. The King of Babylon besieges Jerusalem. Daniel, along with a handful of other young men, is taken into 3 years of training to be a part of the king’s service. Exile is not a pandemic, but Daniel’s situation bears a certain similarity to our lived experience today: a complete lack of control, a change of job and location, alienation from friends/family. Daniel, just as we are, was probably feeling scared, anxious, and tempted to dwell in the imaginary world of ‘if only…’. And yet, what Daniel does is completely counter to anything he probably either wanted to do or was expected to do. He drew his boundaries (1:8), he prayed and 16
trusted God (2:18), and then used his God-given gifts (1:17) to bless those around him (2:24-45) and to work for the good of the city to which he had been carried in exile (Jeremiah 29:7). Perhaps today you feel like this pandemic has carried you into exile – away from loved ones, from routine, from security, from good health. What we see from the story of Daniel is that exile – whatever form it may take – does not mean God is not present. It does not mean that our gifts and skills are rendered useless, and we should go into hibernation. It just offers us a chance to readjust our perspective, set our boundaries, pray, and trust God. To take our God-given gifts into a new situation and offer them as a blessing to those around us. To seek the good of the place – house, neighbourhood, remoteworking community – to which we have been carried into ‘exile’.
Life as a balloon…. By William Kinsey age 11 Alright, let's get started first off, I'm a balloon now you might not realise (since I don't have a face) but I actually am alive!
Now don't freak out because you and your friend have popped millions of balloons, because only helium balloons are actually alive, wait what's that you're saying ,I’m about to be let go! Pfffft don't be daft my owner likes me to much to let me go wait, what's happening, aaahhhhh you were right, oh no I’m losing connec... Alright sorry for leaving you hanging there but it's quite hard to get connection in space, oh right I must have been cut off while I said that part wow So today, may the God of Daniel give you I'm quite silly for speaking to myself for the wisdom to draw boundaries well, around a week ,but seriously it's real the patience and the gifts to deal with a boring up in space anyway to give you a new environment, and a deep joy as you summary so I first saw the Moon then serve others in new ways. May we learn around a day later I saw Mars and I just to pray and to trust God – his goodness want to say Mars has even worse and his character – no matter the world connection than earth then on Friday, or in which we find ourselves. was it Wednesday, I saw Jupiter! so yes at the moment I think I’ll try and stay Source - London Institute for Contemporary still considering this spot is perfect Christianity www.licc.org.uk. connection. Wait is that an asteroid!! aaaaaaaahhhh.... POP!!
1 Pheasant 2 Curlew 3 Corn bunting 4 Nightingale 5 Spoonbill 6 Kittiwake
7 Toucan 8 Kingfisher 9 Nightjar 10 Waxwing 11 Nuthatch 12 Magpie
Answers to Name That Bird 17
Time for a Haircut? I have been reading about Women of the Bible. Last week was about Delilah and Samson where hair plays a key role in the story. I thought this very topical (it’s amazing how God speaks at the most appropriate times!) at a time when all but non essential services have stopped which includes hairdressing. After ?????? many weeks of lockdown I’m sure many of us are in need of a haircut. I was pondering on this when I read about devious Delilah cutting Samson’s hair - Judges chapter 16. In the bible there are lots of references to hair, it can be a sign of beauty but also of pride. Inner beauty produced by the fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and selfcontrol, will outshine a new haircut anyday. A thought to hold onto when you look into the mirror to comb your hair: A cheerful smile and an encouraging word is a good witness for Jesus and will be remembered long after smart haircut. Karen Hunter Book ‘Women of the Bible’ by Ann Spangler and Jean E. Syswerda
Recreating the Classics with Sam and Tom The picture is “Two boys singing” painted in 1626 by the Dutch painter Frans Hals(15801666) , well know for his painting of the Laughing Cavalier
Copy Deadline Please send all copy for the AugustSeptember issue to the Church Office by Monday July 13 Front Cover: Crab apple tree in bloom at Starvale Farm Photo by Michael Stephenson 18
Children supporting the NHS
Pictures by the Watts’ grandchildren
By Alfie Lenthall (10)
Pictures by Dan Aged 9
Tom and his NHS Poster
Nurse under a rainbow by Daisy Kemp (3)
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Find Your Way Find your way from A to B or vice versa, or even the other way round!
A
B
This magazine is brought to you Free by the four churches of the Sodbury Vale Benefice. If you would like to make a small donation towards printing costs which are 65p a copy that would be most welcome. Thank you. 20