Author: guestuser

Clean tin cans for Ark

The Ark is in need of some clean tin cans for an upcoming craft on 23rd October. The best type of tins are those with a pull off lid so they aren’t sharp! If you have any to spare, please could you leave them in the bin at the back of Church between now and then? Thank you

Light Party 2016

Excitement is building as the countdown is on for our upcoming family Light Party being held at Busbridge Church on Monday 31st October between 4-6pm. Children and adults should sign up before the party. If you are interested in coming along, please email amy.johnston@bhcgodalming.org or fill in the signup sheet at the back of Church with the number of people in your group and any dietary requirements we need to be aware of.  Hope to see many of you there to enjoy celebrating Jesus, the Light of the world in lots of fun and creative ways!

Shedvent

There are a few slots remaining for Shedvent – it would be great if we could open every evening during Advent again this year. To reserve a date or find out more, email shedvent@bhcgodalming.org.

Ever considered playing the organ?

If you would be interested in playing or learning to play the organ whether you have experience or not, it would be great to hear from you. Experience playing the piano is desirable but not necessary. For more information please get in touch with Michael Johnston (michael.johnston@bhcgodalming.org or 421267).

Jingle & Mingle: Christmas Craft Spectacular

Wednesday 23rd November, Clock Barn Farm, 7.30pm – 10.00pm. A wonderful, social evening for the ladies and a great way to get into the Christmas spirit…find your inner Kirsty Allsopp and start crafting! This is one of the easiest events for you to invite non-church friends along to, so start thinking now about who you can invite. Your £5 ticket includes a range of simple Christmas crafts plus there are limited spaces for specialty activities such as wreath making, which will have an extra cost associated with it – details of these ‘add ons’ and prices to follow next week. This is an event that you MUST book for and last year was a sell-out. We need help with this event – if you would like to put your name forward to help with clearing up after the event please let us know – we’re willing to offer you a FREE £5 entry ticket to come along if you help (limited spaces). To book your ticket(s) email karen.kinder@bhcgodalming.org.

Coffee Plus

All parents and carers are invited for coffee, tea, croissants and chat on 20th October (and every 3rd Thurs of the month during term time). Meet 9.00am in Busbridge Church Centre, with an optional time of prayer for the local schools at 9.30am. Everyone welcome, including pre-school children.

On Monday of this week our PCC voted unanimously to bring about the first phase of our long-imagined project to provide new facilities for ministry. A team of amazing people have prepared a detailed scheme to complete the purchase of the existing Busbridge Rectory and convert it for church use. The plan has drawn on feedback from various groups and sought to prioritise delivery of spaces and facilities that meet immediate needs whilst listening carefully to those who have expressed concerns.

Bishop Michael Baughen shared with us an image of walking around a mountain path: we can only see to the next bend in the path and although we know there may be an end goal further beyond, we believe God is calling us to focus on that which is before us.

You as worshippers at Busbridge and Hambledon churches have contributed the funds to make this possible. Thank you! There will be plenty of opportunities to get involved practically over the next few months.  Prayer, planning and fund raising will continue to be important. Do please keep praying!

This is a truly exciting moment: in the race before us and after much preparation, we are out of the starting blocks and aiming to have new facilities ready as part of our 150th celebrations next year.  Hallelujah!

Dear member of God’s family of Busbridge&Hambledon church,

We are living in a period of momentous change in the UK. Whether you voted ‘Leave’, ‘Remain’ or were one of the 28% who did not vote, we are all in a new place. We’re in this place together.

We could liken it to being in the pages of a new chapter of a book. We could close the book, shut down and do our own thing but then no-one would be able to read the book. We could try and rub our names off the page in a form of denial but it would no longer be a book to read. We could rearrange the words on the page to suit ourselves but we would be left with little meaning to anything.

Others with values and attitudes which have little to do with Christianity seem to have begun to write their own chapters and rearrange the words on pages to fill the gaps created by uncertainty (See Lev 19:34). This is a concerning outcome of the referendum.

The result has come and gone. That revealed by it begins a new national chapter: a chapter in which we are a nation self-divided in so many ways. Division is not the same as distinctiveness. Distinctiveness is where something is recognised, honoured and respected, and often acknowledges a higher power which brings ultimate unity (1 Cor 12). Division is where there are sides. Division has the power to descend into acrimony, personal-gain seeking, xenophobia, racism and the releasing of destructive spiritual forces (Mark 3:27).

Our first reaction last week was probably to do a quick ‘personal check’: the sort of thing that first responders do when they reach an injured person and check a body for signs that things are ok or safe. How is my family over all of this? What does job security look like? How secure is our income? What is happening to the mortgage? You’ll have done this naturally whatever your opinions on the EU because it is a human response to a significant change.

The ‘personal check question’ as Christians in the area around Godalming is this: what does this significant new chapter mean for us? How has it ignited and ‘proved’ your faith in new ways? A large part of the answer is about Busbridge Central.

Busbridge Central is not simply about a building. It has never been. It is about the place and purpose of the Church of Christ, God’s family and our call as a Christian community in this locality. It is about humbling ourselves to follow the Lord. Busbridge Central is about the values and virtues of a Christian faith which has confidence in the Gospel, bringing generations together to understand how we all belong to one another, equipping Christians for a clear and distinctive presence in the area, region and nation and offering an alternative to the emptiness of self-interested secularism[1].

We do not need to be locked into a new chapter of a book written by others. We can be part of shaping and writing it under God’s guidance, because the Christian faith has permeated this nation for two millennia. The first record of Christianity in the UK is in the late 2nd Century AD and if you look at the windows facing the doors into Busbridge Church, you will see an image of Queen Bertha, who was instrumental in the re-introduction of Christianity to England in the C6th, and of Tuesley church, witness to the Christian presence in our locality throughout the last millenia. Christianity has shaped the UK at the deepest level[2].

Despite this, Christianity (and organised religion) has had a bad press in the past couple of decades. However, for Christian’s truth is not found in good press, punchy headlines or popular votes: it is found in our behaviour built on solid beliefs. It is time to show our metal: that, whatever our vote last week, we will be united and we will demonstrate a way of doing things that does not descend into blame or anger, xenophobia, aggression, disunity, or vitriol. We stand for something distinctive which has served the UK well.

In the light of recent events, Busbridge Central, whatever it is, where-ever it is, how-ever the ministry flows from it is formed, is a matter of utmost urgency. Godalming and its people from every creed, nationality and background needs practical expressions of God’s love, care and grace like never before. If we are not to be the ointment of healing that binds people together then who is?

The family of God here is being called to a ministry which invites all of us everyone to participate in new ways. This will take us into unknown territory just as the recent referendum has. As we approach next week’s gift day (10th July), please be reassured that we are not asking anyone to be so stretched financially that they lose sleep at night. If you have an overwhelming desire to give financially but your circumstances are simply not equal to the desire then your task from God is to pray that God’s answers will come from the most unlikely of places.

Our call is to be that which the Bible calls ‘a letter from Christ written not with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God’ (1 Cor 3:3). We are to show others that we have a confidence which is not based on creating false certainties, fostering division or fanning the flames of blame. Our security is centred on Christ and it is in times of change and uncertainty that our confidence is both ‘proved’ and shows through to others (2 Cor 3:4). The call of this church has not altered. We are to love God, make disciples and transform communities and this will lead to a changed nation. The difference is that we are living this call in new times, a new chapter and a renewed sense of direction and purpose.                                                                                             

Simon Taylor

[1]   See www.bhcgodalming.org/church-congregations-qa/

[2]For more on early Christianity in the UK see: www.biblehub.com/library/browne/the_christian_church_in_these_islands_before_the_coming_of_augustine/lecture_ii_early_mentions_of.htm

In the Garden, God with us
In the desert, God with us
In the tent, God with us
In the battle, God with us
In exile, God with us
In fear, God with us
In praise, God with us
In the silence, God with us
In the waiting, God with us
In Jesus, God with us
at Pentecost …God in us!

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be,
world without end.

Amen.

We all keep lists. Some of us write them down. Others have them stored in their heads. Lists are important. The Austrian neuroscientist Walter Kintsch has spent a lifetime exploring how we acquire knowledge and experiences, the mechanisms people employ for this and how lists are crucial in enabling us make sense of the situations we encounter. Next time you make a list remember you are entering the world of neuroscience.

In the last Bridge magazine I opened a survey of useless lists that people have kept. Looking at the results it seems that people enjoy doing things that appear to have few life-changing uses. I can understand why someone getting a train to the City needs to memorise the timetable, but do I need to know every Wimbledon tennis winner? A friend of mine seems to think that this is entirely normal behaviour and cannot fathom why others do not join him in memorising the winner, their opponent and the set-difference.

Perhaps the lists we make can teach us something? When I was an undergraduate studying Geography a lecturer of the time was a leading proponent of ‘behavioural geography’. This is the view that people rarely do that which is the most economic, maximised financial return or number crunching possibility. Life is more nuanced than that. Life is like list-making: it needs making sense of in nuanced ways.

The lecturer would tell the story of his family climbing a hill (it is what geographers do – take their families on hill walks). They could take the ‘economic’ route straight up to the top. It would get them there quickly with minimal expenditure of effort. The return down the hill would be even quicker so would allow for efficient use of time. This would maximise effective use of every moment of the day.

How many of you have gone straight up a hill?

He asked his study group ‘how many of you have gone straight up a hill, especially if you have a bunch of children around you?’ The answer was that none of us had. We would meander, stop to look at something to one side, detour without realising it as we talked, walk fast then wander slowly.

The lesson I learnt? Life is more than economics, numbers, values, efficiency or maximised use of time and is far more about how we live our lives and what we bring to the World. My lecturer would ask a second question: ‘do you climb hills alone, or with others?’ Walking alone is quicker but we belong together and bring value to one another – even in our detours and seemingly useless moments of life.

What does the useless lists survey of recent weeks tell us? Very few people have kept a list of when they cut the grass. Most respondents kept a list which they knew was completely useless.

What sort of lists do people keep? Here’s a sample of responses:

• Horse-results 
• Car mileage when filling up at the petrol station
• Photos used in calendars  
• Hair cutting regime 
• Date of the first cut of rhubarb each season 
• Record of tomato growing

As we look at the World around us there seem to be a huge number of lists forming. They aren’t about cutting grass or the date of tomato growth. They are about who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’. Are they on ‘my’ list? The lists that I refer to are about people, purpose and identity.

• Lists of refugees and lists of migrants
• Lists of EU countries and lists of countries not in the EU
• Lists of reasons to be in the EU and lists of reasons not to be in the EU
• Lists of hours of overtime worked and lists of those who, apparently, refuse to work
• Lists of GDP and lists of cost-savings Lists of who is ‘acceptable’ in our lives and lists of people we find unacceptable
• Lists of what we want our own ordered worlds to be like and lists of what would disorder them and throw us off-beam

The list of all lists?

There is one list that trumps all others. It is the most fundamental list that gives meaning to everything else: “do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Jesus, Luke 10:20

When I realise that my name is in the Book of Life, stored in heaven and the page is ready for opening on my arrival I am offered something. I am given the freedom to take a marker pen to the lists I have been creating and which have locked me in. Lists that were precious and precarious become irrelevant, adapted or I find that they can be started afresh.

Who I am, who is ‘in’ or ‘out’ in my list, what it means to have an ordered personal world… all my lists take on a different meaning and purpose because I find my name written in red on a list written by Jesus Christ.

I am on His list

The following films all have something in common: Greed (1924) Bitter Victory (1967) Ice Cold in Alex (1958) The Good, Bad & Ugly (1966) Walkabout (1971)

Two are war films. Two are about the American West. They are set in three different continents. Four have famous male leads with only one with a famous female. So what’s the answer? Here’s a clue from the theme of Walkabout (1971):

What do all the films have in common? They are all set in deserts.

‘The way of the desert’ is a theme which is being explored at the church through the lead up to Easter. In the distant past Christians called ‘The Desert Fathers’ lived a nomadic life in the area around the south of Egypt. These Fathers were sought out by people for their wisdom and desert ways which helped them focus on God.

I wonder where we look today for such wisdom and connection to God? The desert is usually seen as somewhere negative, an arid time in our lives and a place of emptiness. It is though in those moments that, when all is stripped back, we find ourselves looking at events like Easter with a different type of focus.

One thing I have noticed about films which are set in deserts is that there is usually a moment in the film where the lead character gets lost. They end up walking alone and they all seem to do the same thing. In a situation where there are no compass bearings and few landmarks they all seem to walk in circles. I assumed that this was simply a director’s film-making device to show that lost people in deserts go round in circles. How wrong I was.

The reason for walking in circles in deserts is to do with something called ‘loopy paths’ as the changing sense of what a straight path looks like. “With every step, a small deviation is likely added to a person’s cognitive sense of what’s straight, and these deviations accumulate to send that individual veering around in ever tighter circles as time goes on.” The impact is that people will “curve around in loops as tight as 20 metres in diameter, all the while believing they are walking in straight lines.” www.livescience.com/33431-why-humans-walk-circles.html

The journal Experimental Brain Research (July 2011) suggests that the vestibular (balance- maintaining) and propioceptive (body awareness) systems which usually combine to enable spatial updating are affected. This leads to an inner ear malfunction in the absence of visual clues.

The article points out that “For most of us, the subtle leftward or rightward bias of our sense of direction would only rear its head if we were trying to find our way through a dense forest, or, perhaps, blindfolded by pirates and made to walk the plank”.

But what if our lives are spiritual deserts? What if we are living life as if Easter Sunday has almost no meaning? What if the deepest reality is spiritual and we are ignoring the waypoints and landmarks? I’d suggest that the danger is that we end up going through life walking in 66 degree circles. Old patterns reinforced, we may fail to see changes that are possible, our focus may become on the next desert moment rather than the straight path.

The Old Testament puts it like this:

“Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. Psalm 25:4. 

I am told that if you stare at this picture you will see something profound. The more you stare the more you see a face. The face you see is meant to be the face of Jesus. Really?

The problem is that I cannot see the face. I’ve stared at it, turned it upside down and tried glancing sideways then quickly turning back to look. Perhaps I’m trying to catch him out so that I get to see the face when he thinks I am not looking? If you see a face then great but this is one optical illusion that doesn’t work for me.

As we enter the New Year I have no idea what it will behold for anyone. As I write this article I do so on 17th November 2015 and unpleasant images from across the Channel are lurking in the periphery of my mind. It brings back other images. That’s what happens: what we could see gets clouded with so much, so many issues, memories and experiences.

The images that came back to me were from Guildford when I was at the bottom of the Friary Centre. Ten minutes earlier a car had gone out of control and mounted the pavement amongst many shoppers. I’m not a medic or in the emergency services. What does a vicar do in that situation? I didn’t even look like a vicar! I was tempted to duck away as all I was doing was a bit of shopping.

Something stirred in my soul though. What if someone there – perhaps a member of the emergency services, maybe one of the relatives who were gathering, or perhaps someone else, needed someone to listen? What if people were dying? My first response to my own thoughts was that everything was covered and who wants a vicar nowadays when there are so many professionals out there? No-one believes in God so how would a vicar help with an end of life situation?

It was difficult to ignore those thoughts but the more I thought about it I realised that I was really thinking about me: what did others think of me and did I really want to be in an uncomfortable situation? But it wasn’t me and my sensibilities which mattered.

What can we offer in situations that are beyond us? I go back to the picture of the face. I hope that in hard situations what people see in others is something of God because in the Christian faith this is common humanity that unites: all were created by God. It is bound to be hard to see this because we are as human and far from perfect as anyone else. It may even be almost invisible until it is caught like a glance at an unexpected moment. Often this is when the spark of faith is kindled: to ask questions which usually initially lead to more questions. It is like a true face being revealed.

In the late 1980s there was a terrible fire in the middle of a public event. Some will recall it. A friend of mine was a young vicar in the town and was asked to go to the location to see if any help could be offered. He wondered what he could do but he went; along with a Catholic priest. They were astounded by what they found. The moment they put their collars on people began to approach them. These people did not want to argue about theology or faith, discuss the finer points of religion or whether churches should have pews in them or not. They probably would not have described themselves as particularly religious. Why would this happen? Because when there are no more answers left the human spirit – the Soul – is destined to seek eternal answers. The answer in Jesus is “greater love has no-one than he lay down his life for another.” It is a way that the World rarely considers or knows and it is not a way for the faint-hearted. It is though about a face which, in my book, has changed everything.

As we head into 2016 I pray that Christ will be seen in your life and mine.

Simon Taylor