The links to our worship this week are below.
Best wishes
Anne Le BasSUNDAY WORSHIP online - July 26: Trinity 7Morning Worship Podcast Morning Worship Service sheet Morning hymn wordsEvensong Podcast Evensong Service sheet Evensong hymn WordsSunday worship in the church building
10 am Morning worship in church
Please note that the C of E now strongly advises worshippers to wear face coverings in the church building, although it is not mandatory.
4pm Outdoor Church in the churchyard
(by the War Memorial)
Seal Church Zoom meetings this week:
Zoffee – Sunday chat at 11 am, hosted this week and next by Jess and Jonathan Heeb. If the link doesn't work, enter the meeting ID and password instead!https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84425806938?pwd=aUdxcmlleUVXUW55dTg2anlLMlRuZz09Meeting ID: 844 2580 6938
Passcode: 807082
No Wednesday Church, Children's Choir or Choir zooms this week or next.
Trinity 7Today’s Gospel reading is the one set for the feast of St James (on July 25). As Kevin mentions in his sermon, St James is particularly connected with the town of Santiago (St James, in Spanish) de Compostela, in the Northern Spanish province of Galicia, where a shrine to him was founded in the ninth century. It is said that in 813 a shepherd saw a bright start shining on a particular spot on a field, and that the remains of St James was found there. How did they know it was St James? According to legend (and there are a lot of legends about St James!) the coffin in which he was buried was decorated with scallop shells, the symbol of St James, who was one of the first fishermen called by Jesus. In fact many Roman coffins were decorated with shells, so the chances are that this is what had been found, but why let the facts get in the way of a good story!
How did St James, a Galilean fisherman, come to be in Spain? According to some of those legends, he had come to Northern Spain to preach the Gospel, without much success, early after the Ascension of Jesus, when the Apostles were sent out across the world with the good news. When he returned to Jerusalem, he was arrested and beheaded by Herod. (Acts 12.1 – this bit at least is Biblical!) Then the legends take over again, saying that his friends retrieved his body, and put it on a rudderless ship, entrusting its destination to God. It landed on the northern coast of Spain, wafted by the winds and guided by angels. There James’ friends asked the local ruler, Queen Lupa, if it could be buried, saying that they hoped he would be more welcome in death than he had been in life. She had the coffin put on a cart pulled by two unguided oxen, and said that wherever they stopped the body could be buried. Over the centuries, though, the place of burial was forgotten, until the shepherd rediscovered it.
Believe the stories or not, the shrine became one of the most important pilgrimage destinations, especially when it became impossible for pilgrims to get to Jerusalem.
Pilgrims walked – and still do- from every corner of Europe and beyond, on what became known as the Camino de Santiago, the way to Santiago. Pilgrims wore a scallop shell, the symbol of St James, to show that they were on this special journey – the main routes to Santiago are still marked with a shell symbol.
Eventually the shell became the symbol of pilgrimage generally, and also often of baptism – shells or shell-shaped scoops are often used to pour the water – since baptism is the first step on our pilgrimage through life.
Pilgrims in art are often shown wearing a shell, and it also featured in church architecture and furniture, especially on pilgrim routes – which brings us to Seal Church.
Our church was on one of the pilgrim routes to Canterbury, and we can still s
ee evidence of that in the crosses etched into the first pillar you come to when you enter the church. But we have another reminder of pilgrimage in a more surprising place. The side table at the front of the church was made out of the remains of the medieval rood screen, which had stretched across the front of the church. When it was taken down, like many rood screens, after the Reformation, it was made into a piece of furniture, which remained in the family of the people who had made it for hundreds of years until, in 1947, it was presented to the church, where it has remained ever since. If you look carefully at the carving on it you will see scallop shells…
I wonder if that Galilean fisherman, brutally killed around 44 AD, could ever have imagined that his life would be remembered in so many ways, and have been the inspiration for so much prayerful travel?
Have you ever been on a pilgrimage – official or unofficial? Are there places which feel special to you for some reason, where you feel closer to God.
wn with a mixture of wheat, which he wants, and weeds – darnel or tares – which he definitely doesn’t. No one notices until harvest is near, because both plants look alike until their seeds ripen. Only then do the darker seeds of the tares show up among the wheat. But the master doesn’t blame the slaves who sowed and tended the fields, nor does he seek revenge on the “enemy” who he thinks must have sown these seeds. Instead he tells his workers to wait for the harvest time. Uprooting the weeds will destroy the wheat with it. It can sound like a grim story – but it’s actually the opposite, a story of God’s gracious and generous love which doesn’t want to lose anything good.
In Matthias Stom’s depiction, from 1640, the dramatic lighting highlights the moment of choice, when Solomon suggests that the child should be cut in two… One mother instantly says that the child should be given to the other woman to prevent this happening. Intriguingly, the story doesn’t actually make it clear whether she is his biological mother, but she is certainly the one who cares about him, and that’s enough for Solomon – she is the one who is given the child.
