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News from the Three Valleys team Dear Friends Seen on a church door: “This is the Gate of Heaven, enter ye by this door.” Below which was written – “This door is kept locked because of the draught.” Sometimes unintended irony can say a lot about the church. One of the things I find difficult to do is to write these church paragraphs for the magazine and it is my turn again this month. It must be my Lenten Penance (except that I believe Lent is a time for preparation more than a time of sorrow). I find it hard because we are writing these articles to a very wide spectrum of opinion and expectation. Some want a sermon that moves them, some expect a sermon that is irrelevant to their lives and are happy to be confirmed in that view, whilst some are just mildly interested in what we have to say but do not want anything too “heavy”. Judging by the feedback I have received, strangely for this supposedly secular society, it appears that most people do read our articles and would miss them if they did not appear. I think that the Christian message is largely misunderstood. Often people think it’s about rules and dos and don’ts, but it’s not. It is about joy, happiness and the fact that everything can be made all right with God through his Son Jesus Christ. Every church service should have the elements of a party about it. Evidence suggests that the Early Church services, from about 80AD or so, were really quite lively and far from
modern conceptions of worship. In fact, the first disciples gave every appearance of being drunk after receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and St. Peter did not deny the possibility but simply countered the accusation by saying it was really too early in the morning. People go to church quite simply because God asks them to and because when they do, he puts something back into their lives which makes those lives better, stronger, easier, more fulfilling and happier. Yours Tony Gilbert Rector Three Valleys Benefice & Rural Dean of Sherborne
News from Yetminster Methodist Church I am writing this as Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday loom but, by the time you read it, we will be well into Lent. Lent is the period of 40 days that precede Good Friday and Easter Sunday, for me the most important dates in the Christian year. I once did a talk about the real meaning of Christmas being Easter. Jesus was born that he might die, which 55
