Baptisms

1st May St Mary, Leake. Zara Sharpe, infant daughter of Graham and Leena of Knayton. Service taken by Reverend Liz Hoare.

8th May St Mary, Leake. Daisy Wesson, infant daughter of Tom and Zoe, of Thirlby. Service taken by Reverend Liz Hoare.

Wedding

May 1st. St Felix, Felixkirk. Claire Blenkinsopp, daughter of Mr and Mrs David Blenkinsopp of Great Ayton, and Ian Ellison. They live in Over Silton. He is a Facilities Manager and she is a manageress for Orange Telecom.

Because of seasons and deadlines I find that I start the writing of this issue of the parish magazine at Ascension, and finishing it at Whitsun. Depending on the date of Easter, I've usually been away for these festivals, or it has been school half-term. Both need some explanation.

Ascension is the occasion when we say farewell to, rather than lay to rest, the body of Christ. All heresies err by overstating or dwelling too much on the nature of Christ's humanity to the detriment of his divinity, or vice versa. The Christian festivals try to keep a balance and a perspective on his nature. The recent Da Vinci Code, for instance, picks up an old and common heresy about his humanity and marriage, etc., to Mary Magdalene. Such thoughts, as only they can be however hard a book about it may be sold, do nothing to enhance our faith or understanding. This is partly because they set out to factualise the abstract side of our faith. Faith without acceptance of the impossible stops being faith, for therein lies the foundation of our faith. Theology and our faith need the Ascension to put Christ's body beyond our reach. In so doing, we are no longer earthbound, or tied to a body, but are freed to receive Spirit. The body confines Jesus to one place in one time, but freed from the body the Spirit that so filled Christ is released and outpoured. We become the vessels to contain Spirit. The earthly footsteps come to a halt (literally if you ascend the Mount of Olives!), and the body is no more earthbound (otherwise we would quarrel over its possession or bits of bone). The release of Spirit enables the Church to embrace and embody it - and us to be more complete as people.

To embrace Christ in the Spiritual dimension we have to reach up and beyond, as the Collect for Ascension suggests. We do not have a body to pull down to us - see what Jesus says to Mary Magdalene, John 20 v.17: "Do not cling to me ………..". Rather we have to open up and be possessed, just as Christ opened up and ascended beyond our earthly reach. He seems to evaporate! Spirit is like the wind, a movement, a force, invisible but a presence we can feel. The Ascension spaces and fills this gap. Jesus moves on to the Father, invisible yet a presence, which presence reaches back to surround us in Spirit and fill us as Spirit. The sacraments are particular channels of this filling and feeding us.

The challenge of the Ascension is that its apparent emptiness, being difficult to grasp, means our faith, our belief, our understanding, our grasp of truth, are not empty or in vain. Rather it enlivens and invigorates our prayer life, purely because it embodies the abstract side of our religion and we, the Church, become the body of Christ on earth.

So we turn to Whitsun - White Sunday because white was worn for baptism - or Pentecost (50 days after Easter or the old Passover). Jesus calls the Spirit the Counsellor or Comforter in his discourse in John's Gospel (John 6 v.63, 14 v.15-24), and the nature of giving counsel or comfort is that someone is moved and someone else is moved to help them accordingly. Prayers in church are also about people moving to move others in need - but above all it is a fact that we do go to church and we do feel better, more complete. It is a process of nurture, where sacraments and Spirit come together. The Spirit will disturb us to help others who are disturbed ……

Wind and Spirit are the same word, Breath if you like. So the process of tongues of fire at Pentecost completes the Christian creation process. God breathed the breath of life into Adam (earth - the same word) in Genesis, and Jesus breathed on his disciples. John 20 v.19ff.: "Receive Holy Spirit". It is an Alpha and Omega process, and we are sent out to preach and spread God's Word, Jesus Christ. As Jesus says in the gospels: "Beware the anti-Christ, those who say here is the Christ or there". Such seducers are dangerous and we need to weigh them up. Worse still when all sorts of evil and warfare are preached in God's name. (A spirit of dialogue, trust and understanding is the mark of inter-faith.) Yet good things do happen in places as a result of people becoming spirit-filled ……………….

So how do we best recognise Spirit in our lives, or attune ourselves to an awareness? To me, the Spirit is about movement, God causing things to come together as well, Genesis 1 v.2. It is the same spirit of creativity. If you take any of the arts there is movement: the visual arts, to be good, need to suggest movement, and at the very least move us. Books, plays, poetry all move us. These are feelings with which we can identify. When it comes to helping and encouraging others, the bottom line is to get people to engage their minds so that they engage with Holy Spirit. Like at the traffic lights, the person in front will not move off until that person has engaged brain to engage gear. The traffic lights might change by then! And as the Church, being people of spirit we must be prepared to move on, not become dead wood or moribund by tradition without testing its better strengths and values. So, post the busy festival season, drink deeply from the well of living water and be, not drunk (Acts 2 v.18), but Spirit-filled.

The magazine of the parishes of Boltby, Borrowby, Cowesby, Felixkirk, Kepwick, Kirby Knowle, Knayton, Leake & "The Siltons". Also circulated in Upsall, Thirlby & Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe.
The Vicar in charge is Rev.Toddy Hoare,
The Vicarage, Moor Road, Knayton, THIRSK, YO7 4AZ Tel: 01845 537277
Contributions always welcome, deadline 2nd Monday in the month
Editor Curtiss Cottage, South Kilvington, Thirsk 01845 522739