May 2010

VICAR: The Revd. Martin Fredriksen Tel: 694109

PARISH OFFICE (Mondays to Fridays 9.30am - Noon) Tel: 697641

FROM THE VICAR : Clergy are told to have a few days off after Christmas and Easter, and then a longer period for the summer holidays. Parish commitments, when there are no assistant clergy make it difficult to organise and it is very easy to give up – but this is to the detriment of both sides. We become stale, and our parishioners end up with second-class pastoral care.

For us, this Easter it was different and for a rare occasion in my life, I managed to plan things well in advance and off we went, to stay with some old friends in France. Never in our wildest imaginations would we have thought that our return would be badly hampered by an erupting volcano in Iceland! But our disruption was minimal, by comparison with thousands of others and I am grateful for those who worked hard to cover parish duties on my behalf.

There is a parable told by Jesus, of the man who talked to himself and made great plans of all the things that he was going to do – only to find that God had other ideas for him.

We are so used to everything running a breakneck speed in the world, that we become disoriented when something goes wrong. One newspaper columnist, who is a lawyer, wrote that the erupting volcano was considered by many to be an ‘act of God’ – but he claimed that this designation was simply a ‘cop out’ on behalf of insurance companies to avoid having to pay out and really has no legal status.

If anything, all these natural phenomena are clear indications that Creation was not simply a one-off, but a truly dynamic involvement of God in his Universe. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and the like are constant reminders of our Creator and are all part of the Master's Plan.

Perhaps then, we should not be so organised in doing things our own way, but have the courage to commend everything to God – after all, he alone knows where it is all going to end. Or is this just another cop-out for those of us who like to potter on in our own little chaotic and disorganised world?

Martin Fredriksen.