FROM THE REGISTERS

Funeral. 29th March. Leake, St Mary. Ernie Harrison, 70. He died unexpectedly while in hospital. Our best wishes to Cath and their family.

Wedding Saturday 14th April. Holy Trinity, Boltby. Debbie Thompson and Ian Blackhall, both of Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe.

The Ascension

The middle light of the East Window at Boltby Holy Trinity depicts the Ascension with rather a startling sky blue background to the figure. I seem to know of more roof bosses depicting the Ascension than I do main windows. Luke ends his gospel with the story and begins Acts with the same event. How do we view this event? 

We need to start by assessing resurrection as the two go hand in hand in order to lift us to a spiritual truth. In John's gospel Jesus warns Mary Magdalene to let go, not to cling to him. In other words, He is on his way up - do not drag him down to our level. We say this because we bear in mind that the natural reaction of many in Biblical times, on encountering majesty, was to grovel. The responsive act was descriptive of the attitude of mind and how people expressed themselves. The words used in scripture again and again help create a pictorial image in the mind of awe and wonder, reducing us to our knees. (Some criticize Common Worship for not encouraging enough humility, but "Let Us Pray" before the Prayer of Humble Access can suffice very readily.) So rather than pull Christ down to our level we must raise ourselves with Him. Again, the BCP Collects echo this spiritual truth.

Resurrection prompts us to find new life. Spring and new life is about reaching out and up. However, resurrection needs a little more spiritual lift, otherwise we are stuck with Jesus merely going about us as before but in a different dimension. The Ascension provides this spiritual encounter whereby Jesus Christ is once more lifted from us but in glory rather than on the gory Cross. The danger of being tied to some physical aspect of Jesus is removed and instead we are encouraged to get up and to raise ourselves heavenwards, having experienced through resurrection and Eastertide "the letting go".

In turn the Ascension, being a symbolic 40 days after Easter, is a landmark or turning point on the way to Pentecost, 50 days after Easter and the Feast of the First Fruits. Bowed down we can hardly be spirit-filled and express the spirit. The Ascension is rather eclipsed as a festival by the drudgery of the working week and latterly for many years it has become absorbed into half-term as far as schools and the education cycle go. As a result we lose the impact of the Ascension and cease to use it as a necessary spiritual landmark. It marks victory over death, the triumph of hope and the reminder that the memorial we need is conducting ourselves and our worship in memory of our Lord and Saviour. Memorials are often static, solid, earthbound. We, the Church, are called to be living stones perpetuating Christ alive. The Ascension reminds us that we have a direction in which to go and a direction from which Christ will come again to us from above.
May the Ascension lift you in the direction of God .....

The Maundy Thursday Walk, 12th April

To date we have raised £250 plus. One never could really wish for a change from the traditional walk "over the moors", in aid of Tim's Fund, but the variation this year made a pleasant change.
So 15 of us walked the local lanes and these, so often travelled by car, revealed unexpectedly pleasant vistas, and not just of the rubbish in the hedgerows! It is hoped that the efforts of the walkers themselves revealed more pleasant vistas to the carborne passers-by.
The religious instruction was plentiful but also revealing. Ed. Henrietta Goggs tells me that her youngest son Don, currently serving with 9th/12th Royal Lancers, was running the London Marathon (April 21st) and had £4000 sponsorship so far. On the whole Christian Aid have made a mark in Afghanistan so we are able to get things done. Most of their work is concentrated on day-to-day necessities, food and basic health. T.H.

See also extract from Christian Aid magazine.

Severe Weather hits drought-stricken Afghanistan Heavy snows and freezing temperatures have exacerbated the plight of a million Afghans already coping with their country's worst drought in 20 years and the aftermath of civil war. The drought has forced many people to leave their homes in search of food and refuge. Around the city of Herat, 80,000 Afghans are now in camps which have few amenities. More than 100 children froze to death in the first week of cold weather.

Emergency relief has taken a long time to reach Afghanistan. Alison Kelly, Head of the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia Team at Christian Aid, commented: "These deaths were entirely predictable, and preventable had the international community not chosen to ignore the warnings of impending disaster". The UN has warned that unless sufficient aid money reaches Afghanistan, the crisis in the country could worsen by next year.

As part of its ongoing work in Afghanistan, Christian Aid has been assisting people affected by the drought over the past year. Working with Afghanaid and the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Assistance, Christian Aid has provided seeds, tools and food for work in the remote province of Ghor, with emergency funding from the European Community Hu-manitarian Organisation. When the winter snows melt and the region is accessible, a new project, to help villages hit by the drought, will begin. (See last report in October 2000 H.P.M.)

"Our" Universe and Us
4. Genesis and genesis
Ch. 2.4 - 14

The opening verses of this passage give a very fair description of what it was like in the months of May, June and July in the part of Southern India we knew best. No plants or crops, no work in the fields. Although a change in the weather might begin with a shower, only when the sky in the North East was filled with great rolling grey storm clouds, and the humid heat became unbearable, did something rather more productive than a mist explode from the skies. This, paradoxically, was the North West monsoon, which, for some reason that I've forgotten, did a meander before reaching Telengana. There was a dried up river that came to life then and joined the mighty rivers Kistna and Godavari on the way to the sea. The older generation of Indian leaders who had founded Dornatal had planted trees for shade primarily; but there were also some mangoes and papayas which fruited in the hot weather. And with the rain, ploughing and sowing began. The essential factor that had originally drawn them to this area was the discovery, by soundings, that an underground stream flowed all year. This ensured that the well, 40ft. in diameter, would always provide their needs and more.

This ancient tradition of creation speaks not of things we do not know, but of the marvels of simple human experience. "This is how we experience it - someone, we believe the almighty power we call God, brought this cycle of events into being." And this Maker whom we call God is mankind's maker too: we become 'dust' when we die. This is our common experience, and God has not left us unguided, about our use of time and need for finding our individual way of obedience.

Of the rivers listed at the end of this passage, the Tigris and Euphrates are known by name: the other two seem to have had their day and little evidence of them has survived. And this down-to-earth account lists the mineral wealth of the area as it was then: Bdellium is thought to be a gum resin something like the myrrh we know of from the Gospel story .... MIRIAM HANSON