From the Registers

Burials
2nd February Leake St. Mary. Molly Maddock, 91. A long-time resident of Knayton - and a great friend of many

Sometimes when looking at art or sculpture it is clear that the artist is not in control. The subject, or the material, or the artist's treatment of it, has run away with the creator. Sometimes we may feel that God is not in control either, or we may feel that we are not in control. One of the things I observed as a curate was how often the P.C.C. in question would debate something, find the obvious before them, and vote for exactly the opposite! It was as if they, or some of them, had to retain control. Ever since, I have realised - and we have our round of P.C.C.s and A.G.M.s during the coming Easter period - that when it comes to the P.C.C. and matters of faith we are not in Control, but must give God room to be in control and so bend our wills to His will. 

Jesus' cry on the Cross, echoing the dereliction of Psalm 22, suggests also that control seemed to have been wrested from him. Man had taken over, Man wanted his way, and the Son of Man would pay the price. Even to the very last, with someone who seemed in control of the very elements and with all in subjection to him - as we have been considering the manifestation of Jesus' power during the period between Epiphany and Lent - He was suddenly at a loss and totally dependent on the Will of the Father. Even Jesus had to trust because he could not be sure how the Will of the Father would work out, nor indeed what the personal cost and pain would be of letting go.

Of such is the mystery rather than the nightmare of vocation at one level, but also is the truth behind our faith. To release control means we have to trust. If we can let ourselves trust we can begin to enjoy the ride. How many of us doubt a strange driver to begin with? Resurrection means we have to let go - Jesus did not want Mary Magdalene to cling to him, to drag him down. Instead we must deepen our faith and trust so that in the aftermath of Lent exploration, and new life at Easter, we can raise ourselves to a higher plane - as echoed in the Ascension. 

Have an uplifting Easter

T.H.

So ran the newspaper headline, just after Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor had spoken to a gathering of Roman Catholic priests at Leeds. 

'The extent to which Christianity informed modern culture and intellectual life has been hugely diminished,' he said. 'It does seem in Britain that Christianity, as a sort of backdrop to people's lives and moral decisions - and to the Government and the social life of the country - has now been almost vanquished.' His analysis of Britain's spiritual decline echoed the Archbishop of Canterbury who last year declared that Britain is a country where 'tacit atheism prevails.' The Cardinal went on: 'There is indifference to Christian values. You see a quite demoralised society, one where the only good is what I want, the only rights are my own, and the only life with any meaning or value is the life I want for myself.'

I don't know where the Cardinal and the Archbishop get their information from, or on what they base their opinions. Are they counting back-sides in pews? Are they looking at the numbers of people being baptised or married? Are they getting out into 'the market place' and listening to the man/woman in the street, or are they merely listening to what their professional advisers tell them? Are they making their judgments based on the kinds of TV programmes being transmitted these days? Is there a rational basis for their views - or is it merely a case of our spiritual leaders trotting out Col. Blimp's opinion that 'the country is going to the dogs' and that 'fings ain't what they used to be, in the good old days'? 

All down the ages you can read examples of how religious leaders thought the Church of the time was in a state of terminal decay. I was looking through some of my old books, prior to some redecorating .......... One was a second-hand copy I had acquired when my theological college was conducting a similar pruning exercise. It was a biography of Robert Grosseteste ('big-head'!) who was Bishop of Lincoln; he died Oct.9th, 1253. The biography was written in 1930 and the last chapter includes these lines: 'In 1830 it was freely prophesied that the Church and Monarchy of England would both in a few years be extinct. Below the futile foliage of luxury and pomp men looked for the fruits of simplicity, sincerity and energy; and men looked in vain. "Why cumbereth it the ground?" they asked, and prepared to cut it down. A little old lady in a bonnet saved the monarchy by being herself.' 

The chapter goes on to say that 'the Church of England, with its inherited estates and traditional pomp, was asleep. The souls of men, as in Grosseteste's time, were neglected. The denizens of the growing slums and uninspected factories neither expected nor received any assistance from the bewigged occupants of episcopal palaces.' The book attributes the first beginning of a revived vitality for the Church to the Oxford movement.

'Earnest men, learned and devout, lived simple lives and built magnificent churches. They and the sisterhoods saved the Church of England.' The book's author draws a comparison between the church authorities of the 19th century and Bishop Grosseteste 700 years earlier: 'Typically English in nature, they both knew that unless the ordinary Englishman can plainly recognise that the Church is doing Christ's work in the world, he will cease to support it.' 

So I would take leave to doubt what Cardinal Murphy O'Connor had to say about the demise of Christianity. Things are no different now from what they used to be. People of my sort of generation and the Cardinal's will always look back to some kind of golden age, when the churches were full and people lived God-fearing lives. It was never so. Yes, of course, there is today a joint-smoking and a booze-ridden culture. Yes, there is sexual laxity and dubious morality in public affairs. Yes, young people will turn to cult and fringe religions in their search for the meaning of life. But there is no slavery, there are no public or private hangings, class warfare is dead and religious hypocrisy is no more. Have you ever known an age where charitable work is at such a peak as it is now? Have previous generations had their Samaritans or their hospice movements or their Christian Aid? Has there ever been such an aware-ness of international and national homelessness and poverty and deprivation as there is today? Have the churches ever been so full today as they are with people whose religion matters to them, and who are not there out of social habit or a desire to be noticed? All this is undergirded and enabled by any welcoming church where the worship is thoughtful and sincere, vibrant and Spirit-filled - and I suspect there are more such church communities than critics, including the Archbishops, might think.

 Agreed, not everything in the garden is lovely, by any means. But it is too easy to denigrate our culture and our church and to ignore the facts. Agreed, too, that when people look at the Church and cannot see Christ's work being done then they are entitled to scoff at or ignore us.

But let's hope that when the Cardinal and the Archbishop next come to pronounce on the Church and modern society they are prepared to celebrate what positive, joyful, heart-warming and sacrificial work is being done in the name of Christ and not just to decry what is negative and destructive.

From the parish magazine of a church in Knaresborough (very slightly edited) and kindly submitted by Roger Kingdon. All comment welcome! (Incidentally, the same mag. reminds us that the Samaritans were founded only as recently as 1953 - the year that TV finally "got off the ground".) PPS - newspaper reports w/e 8th Feb. show that church attendances have risen!

CANCER - An Appeal!
Dear Fellow Christians - RELAX! I am not asking you for a donation - but if you do, it will be very much appreciated! The Lord loves a cheer-ful giver ....... no doubt you will have seen the reports in the D&S Times for a flexible ureteroscope for The Friarage Hospital. The Rev.Ted Spiller - yes, we have heard him preach in Hillside! - was Vicar of Thorntons and Otterington up to his retirement a year ago. He had his first operation for cancer in 1996; he is now up to his eighth - all at South Cleveland Hospital.

So this appeal is for such an instrument, costing £4,500, for The Friarage ... donations can be sent to Mr Hindmarsh, consultant urologist at The Friarage, or direct to Mr Spiller at Carlton House, Topcliffe Road, THIRSK, YO7 1RL. Cheques should be made payable to: "Scope for the Friarage". 
(By Feb.1st, £1,000 had been raised!)

Good God! Lent discussion group - next meeting is on Feb.27th.
Amusement was derived at the specification for a new vicar (P.2, Lecture 1). Here is the specification for new vicar at St.Pauls Beckenham, inducted on Jan.22nd: "a superman who is excellent with children, who visted every home in the parish at least twice a year, who encouraged those of us getting on in years (yet appealed to "young marrieds"), who was not averse to knocking back a pint at the local, worked an eight-day week but was a good "family man", kept up theological studies, was a good administrator, supported Man.United (?) and, of course, was an inspiring preacher - so long as the sermons were no more than 15min.!