May 2009
VICAR: The Revd. Martin Fredriksen Tel: 694109
PARISH OFFICE (Mondays to Fridays 9.30am - Noon) Tel: 697641
FROM THE VICAR: The congregations over Holy Week and Easter have been amazing – even to the extent that we had to have extra chairs for the Sung Eucharist on Easter Day itself. Other Churches also reported increases in numbers.
The current economic climate has made many of us think seriously about our priorities and some of those things that we have relied heavily upon in the past, have proved to be unreliable and transient. I have always felt that for a faith to be of any use, it has to be one that addresses all the ups and downs of life – the 'feelgood times' as well as times of tragedy and utter misery.
The Christian faith has a Jesus who has experienced all this before us and is able to sympathise with us in our strengths as well as in our weaknesses.
Jesus did not come to entertain us, but to show us what God is really like – to love us, to heal us and to redeem us. He showed us how to love one another (which is not necessarily the same as likingone another!) to have a care and concern for one another, and to live together in peace and harmony.
Looking at the Church today, what a mess it is in! - internal squabbles and at times, a very un-Christian treatment of one another, both inside and outside of the Christian family. Some worship may be little more than entertainment with a religious flavour and the Gospel may be watered down so as not to challenge, offend or break the modern strait-jacket of political correctness.
It wasn’t being a nice man with a few interesting things to say that took Jesus to the Cross – he challenged the values and the religious hypocrisy of the society to which he came. The challenge still remains, as vibrant as ever.
The Cross was, for Jesus, the way to Resurrection and eternal Glory. The Church must not, for one moment, seek to avoid any of it – since by doing that, it is toying with our eternal souls. It must boldly proclaim and practise a 'faith for all seasons' which through trials and tribulations, will lead to the glory that is to be revealed in us.
Martin Fredriksen.
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