Bewl Water Sponsored Walk

10 people and 6 dogs successfully circumnavigated Bewl Water on Saturday. The people walked 13 miles around the water; the dogs must have walked at least 45, and quite a lot of that was in the water!
A great time was had by all, and we were delighted to be met at the end by Hilary, Jill, Barbara and Helen who had brought cake and tea to replace the calories we had burnt off... Thank you!
Pictures below...

Believe it or not, Molly the dog started the walk with an immaculate bouffant coiffure - never mind, Molly, a bath and a blow-dry should put you back to rights...!

We survived the Youth Group "Sleep"over...

We survived another "Sleep"over in the vicarage garden to celebrate our Patronal Festival. If you had been there you would understand why the "sleep" in the title is in inverted commas...not a lot of it in evidence!

Someone had the bright idea of building a human pyramid - the process was not as easy as the end result implies...

The morning after the night before. But some of the children seemed still to have enough energy for a water fight! The same could not be said for the leaders! Many thanks to my right-hand woman, Nicky Harvey, for her energy and enthusiasm (and her tents, borrowed from Seal Cubs!)

The new Bishop of Rochester

It has been announced today that the new Bishop of Rochester is to be the Rt Revd. James Langstaff, who is currently Bishop of Lynn, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Norwich. I am sure we will all want to pray for him and wish him well as he and his wife make the move to Rochester.


You can read more about him here, and I have pasted the letter he sent to the clergy below.

"Dear Brothers and Sisters
By the time you read this letter, it will have been announced that I am to be your new diocesan bishop. I am very conscious of the privilege and responsibility of this calling and am writing to you today as much as anything to for ask your prayers as I prepare to join you later in the year. I know that you will also continue in your prayers for Bishop Brian and other members of diocesan staff as they carry additional responsibilities until my arrival.

You will find some information about me and my family in the press release on the Diocese of Rochester web-site. A very brief summary is that I was ordained deacon in 1981 and have spent about 20 of the subsequent years in parish ministry, mainly in the Diocese of Birmingham in both inner urban and suburban settings; I have been Bishop of Lynn since 2004. Within the Diocese of Norwich I have had a particular interest in and oversight of the church’s engagement with social and community concerns; this overlaps with a long-standing involvement in social and affordable
housing. For the last few years I have chaired Housing Justice, which is the national ecumenical voice on homelessness and housing issues.

At heart I remain a parish priest and believe that our commitment to expressing the church’s pastoral, prayerful and missionary presence in each community or neighbourhood is a particular gift that the Church of England brings to our nation. I have also come to value greatly the expression of Christian presence which is embodied in chaplaincies and other ministries within a variety of institutional and other settings. Such effective Christian presence can take many forms,and I am very keen to foster both traditional and innovative expressions of that presence.

I will have a huge amount to learn as I come to the Diocese of Rochester in relation both to church life and the community more widely. In the early months I will need to do a great deal of listening and learning. Most important will be getting to know people within and beyond the churches, and in particular I look forward to early opportunities for meeting the clergy, lay ministers and lay leaders across the Diocese. I trust that we will soon come to know and respect one another, as we also grow in our shared commitment to God in Christ and our desire to spread abroad the good news of his generous love.

Our two children, Alasdair and Helen, are both adult and live elsewhere, but Bridget and I very much look forward to moving to Rochester and making our home among you.
With my prayers and good wishes,
+
James, Bishop of Lynn"

Coming up...

VArious notices about events coming up.

Patronal Festival
Next weekend we celebrate the feast of St Peter and St Paul with a special Eucharist in the morning, a Strawberry Tea in the afternoon (4-6pm in the Vicarage Garden, £5 adults, £2.50 children), and a Festival Choral Evensong at 6.30pm. Everyone is welcome!

THE PETER AND PAUL PROJECT BLOG is coming along nicely – quite a few greetings have come in. The youth group have been helping to prepare a display for the back of church for the Patronal Festival so that those without access to the internet can read the greetings too. http://peterandpaulproject.blogspot.com/2010/04/whats-it-all-about.html


AN EVENING WITH RUTH DE BARROS – Thursday July 15th 7.30pm
· At Alverstone, Woodland Rise, Sevenoaks, TN15 0HY
· Ruth is our mission partner with USPG in the Amazon. Come and hear her talk about her work as we share a barbeque.
· No set price – please give whatever donation you can for the work of USPG
· Please sign the list in church if you want to come or email me.
Ruth and Saulo’s latest newsletter is here. http://www.sealpeterandpaul.com/100609_De_Barros_Newsletter.pdf


Maggie Fox asks for any unwanted gifts that can be sold at the Coffee Morning on July 3 at 17 Zambra Way to be left at the back of church.
She also wants to remind people about the Sponsored Walk around Bewl Water on Saturday July 17. Sponsor forms are available in church .

Miscellany

This is the content of the latest email miscellany I sent out. If you would like to receive these occasional roundups of news and information straight into your inbox, please send me an email with "Subscribe" in the subject line.
The Peter and Paul project. I have just launched a project in preparation for our Patronal Festival at the end of June (Sunday June 27th – the feast day of St Peter and St Paul is actually June 29th, but we celebrate it on the nearest Sunday). I thought it would be fun to try to contact and exchange greetings with as many other churches dedicated to St Peter and St Paul as I can find - I really only want churches that are dedicated to BOTH saints together, not one or the other!
There are 17 such churches in this Diocese alone, and many others elsewhere. It was a very popular dedication, probably because St Peter and St Paul are the joint Patron Saints of Rome - both were martyred in Rome, according to legend.
With the help of our young people’s group, I have set up a blog where people from P & P churches can leave greetings, and sent emails to about 30 or so which I found by googling. You can see it here http://peterandpaulproject.blogspot.com// . Within an hour of setting up the blog earlier this week I had my first message, from the vicar of St P & P Blandford Forum. This is where Philip’s father lives, so it was especially nice that they were first! Since then I have had eight more messages – the most distant being from Australia. I have just been interviewed for the Diocesan Link about the project, so I am hoping this will give us some more publicity!
If you know of or come across any P & P churches, do pass the details to me – it is better to do it this way, rather than contacting them yourselves, otherwise there may be some churches which will be bombarded with emails! I do need an email address for them – if I have to do this by snail mail it will be very cumbersome and expensive, but if churches want to post me a greeting I am very happy to enter it in the blog for them
***I have contacted all the P &P churches in Rochester Diocese.****

I am hoping to display the greetings at the Patronal Festival, with a map showing where they have come from. We’ll also be praying for our sister churches, who will also be celebrating that day.
This month’s parish newsletter is now available. You can read it online here http://www.sealpeterandpaul.com/maymag10.pdf.

As you will see I have focussed on Christian Aid in this month’s front page letter. I am hoping that Sally Thompson, our Christian Aid organiser, will be back today from Australia, where she has been stranded by the Icelandic volcano, to pick up the reins of the preparation for Christian Aid week, but to help her out, if you normally collect for this please would you sign up on the sheet at the back of church to say that you will be willing to do so again – if you haven’t collected before you would be equally welcome to sign up to do so this year.

On a sad note, I am sure that many of you are aware that Mrs. Edna Stent died last week. Her funeral will take place on Friday May 7th at 2 pm in church. All are welcome, and if any of the choir are available it would be good to have a lead with the singing. Our prayers are with Edgar, her husband, Rodney, her son, and Rosemary Clary, her daughter.

Nicky Harvey also asks our prayers this weekend for Seal Cubs, who are away on their first camp together. The weekend weather does not look promising, and the prospect of a large number of damp Cubs in a soggy field is somewhat daunting… Please pray for that they will be safe, and have fun despite the challenges!

The Peter and Paul Project

I have just launched a project to try to contact as many other churches dedicated to St Peter and St Paul in time for our Patronal Festival on June 27th. Our young people helped me to put a blog together (which is why it is bright pink and luminous green....!) and I have included some of their comments about the church on the page "About us".
As you will see, we already have a few comments from other churches, and I am hoping we will get many more. I'm planning to print them out, with a map showing where the churches are, and pray for our sister churches during the Patronal Festival service.
If you know of any churches dedicated to St Peter and St Paul - not one or the other, but both jointly - please let me know, and, if I can, I'll contact them (It would be better to do this through me, to avoid churches being bombarded by emails!). PLEASE NOTE, I have already contacted all the other St Peter and Paul's in Rochester Diocese (there are 17, including ourselves) so please don't send me links to them!

I wonder how far our greetings will travel, and what we will discover of the great diversity of the people of God in the next couple of months.
Here's the link to the blog again. http://peterandpaulproject.blogspot.com/

Election Hustings

Churches Together in Sevenoaks and District have organised an Election Hustings, where all the candidates for Sevenoaks will speak and answer questions.

It will be at St John's United Reformed Church on Sunday May 2nd at 8pm.
Anyone is welcome. If  you have a question you would like to submit to the candidates for them to answer on the day, you can do so via the Churches Together website.

Crucifixes and "persecution"

The letter below appeared in the Church Times this week. It seems to me to be a very useful and helpful comment on the current alarms, expressed in some sections of the Church and the media, about recent cases where Christians in the UK have alleged that they are being "persecuted" when they are not allowed to wear signs of their faith with their uniforms at work. As Jesus says, people will know we are his disciples by our love, not by our jewellery...

From Canon Charles Jenkin
Sir, — While I sympathise with Shirley Chaplin’s distress at being required to remove her crucifix by her employer (News, 9 April), her resistance is fundamentally mis­placed and very far from a genuine upholding of Christian faith. I wonder how sound her teachers and advisers are.

Jesus is absolutely clear in the Gospels: Christians are to be known for their loving and self-denying service, not their religious zeal, and this is how the world will know they are God’s children. We are warned that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom, but those who do the true will of God (Matthew 7.21). Hence, Christians will go the extra mile and turn the other cheek (Matthew 5.39, 41). They find no need for outward forms of piety, but pray in secret (Matthew 6.5, 6). They are taught that the greatest among them are those who are willing to be the slaves of all (Mark 9.35).

Jesus went on to be the greatest example of this teaching in his death on the Cross. Moreover, he revealed such loving, self-denying service as the true character of God, revolutionising worldly ideas of the Divine. When Jesus calls his followers to take up their cross, this is what he means (Mark 8.34). Christians are called to make an exhibition of their faith, not by their fervent religiosity (like the Pharisees), nor simply by personal loyalty to Jesus, but by the quality of their loving, self-denying service.

In the wider context of the marginalisation of Christians in the UK (real or supposed), this is a perspective of fundamental importance. Christians are called to serve God’s world in the particular way of Jesus, which is the true way of God, rather than simply promoting themselves or their faith communities in his name.

Other religions may find particular clothing or symbols or privileges to be of vital importance. But Christians are called to a different way, and to trust God for the outcome; for this is the Easter promise.
Charles Jenkin

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! Christ is risen!
We were delighted to be baptising Reuben this morning. He slept through most of the service, only waking up when the water hit his head (and not for long then!). The rest of the congregation seemed to manage to stay awake, however, and we sang, lit candles, and celebrated.

 Here are some photos of the church decorated for Easter. Thank you to the band of flower arrangers who came along yesterday to do such good work.

Good Friday pictures

We had a marvellous Good Friday morning Messy Church with over 35 children - a riot of paint, glue and glitter. Thank you to all who helped. (and to Tanya for most of the pictures - the blurry ones are mine!)
A quick gear change transformed the church into a still oasis of reflection (no chance of that when the children were there!) with various focuses for prayer around the building, most of which will stay up through the Easter weekend. These included an invitation to think about what you saw when you looked in the mirror, and how you felt about it; Jesus' death and resurrection held up a mirror to those around him making them see themselves more clearly or in different ways. Then there was a display which explored caterpillars and butterflies, symbols of transformation and resurrection; what changes do we need to see in ourselves and our world? Material linked to the story of the penitent thief helped us things about the things we have done wrong and how we deal with them. This also included prayer requests from young men in Rochester Young Offenders Institute, gathered for us by their chaplain. Finally there was a display inviting us to think about tears, those we shed and those we are unable to shed, why we shed them and God's response to them. These displays were enhanced by contributions from the children in the morning, some of which you can see in the pictures.

Confirmation

Four candidates from Seal went to be confirmed at St Paulinus in Crayford on Palm Sunday evening.
It was a stirring service - the church was packed, and there were about 35 candidates plus families, friends and supporters from the congregations of the churches represented. There was a huge spread of ages, from young people to pensioners - the vast majority were adults, a sign of the change in the pattern of people joining the church over recent decades. This was a definite choice on the part of the candidates, many of whom had come to the church (or come back to it) later in life.
It was a great joy to be there, and, as you can see from the (slightly blurry!) photo, the candidates - Max, Jessie, Charles and Rebecca enjoyed it too.

April Magazine letter

I hope I’m not speaking too soon, but it seems to me that spring has finally arrived (cue snowstorm…)
The seemingly endless winter we have just endured has drawn to a close at last. Temperatures have risen, the daffodils are opening, I have some frogspawn in my pond and the birds are singing fit to bust in the vicarage garden.

A recent article on the BBC website suggested that the prolonged cold spell could mean that spring will be more spectacular than usual. Because everything has been on hold, waiting for warmer weather, we can expect a riot of blossom and an explosion of insects, birds and animals feeding and bearing young. Matthew Oates, the National Trust's conservation advisor, who was quoted in the article, said "The daffodils will be at their peak and there will be the first flush of green on the trees. We've all been entombed through the snowy winter, and need a decent Easter this year - regardless of which species we are."

I was struck by the way his words echoed the Christian story we tell at this time. Christ is, quite literally entombed, not in winter but in a grave cut from the rock. There is no life and nothing to hope for anymore as far as his friends can see. And yet, says the story, from this tomb came life, not just for Jesus, but for his followers too. They were propelled out into the world to bear his message of love, life and a new beginning to anyone who wanted to hear it. The early Christian communities experienced that love as they gathered together in radical new communities. It didn’t matter what your race, gender or background was; anyone who wanted to could walk in the way of Christ and be part of this new movement. It was heady stuff for people who had perhaps never been treated with dignity or respect; slaves, the poor and women were prominent in those early churches. “Life in all its fullness” it was called in the Gospel of John (John 10.10), because that’s how Jesus’ first followers experienced it. No wonder they were excited about it. Who wouldn’t be?

That message of life – life lived to the full, life lived well and lovingly, - is still at the heart of Christian faith. We don’t always achieve that fullness of life; selfishness and fear get in the way, causing us to set boundaries around God’s love, to create rules where he wants us to proclaim freedom, but as Easter comes around again we are reminded that this is God’s desire for us. He wants us to find, to live and to help others to live lives that are full of joy and hope. That is why Easter Sunday is really the beginning of the story, not the end, as we find out what it means to be really alive. “We've all been entombed through the snowy winter, and need a decent Easter this year - regardless of which species we are" as Matthew Oates said. Amen to that!

Holy Week and Easter at Seal

HOLY WEEK
AND EASTER
March 28 – April 4 2010

More details here

MON – SAT (EXCEPT THURS)
8 pm     Compline
(Night Prayer lasting about 20 minutes)    

MAUNDY THURSDAY
8 pm     Holy Communion ending with Tenebrae


GOOD FRIDAY      

10 -11.30am  Messy Church for Good Friday.See below.

12 – 8 pm    Reflective opportunities.

2.30 - 3pm   Good Friday service.

8 pm  Compline


EASTER SUNDAY   
10 am      Parish Communion & Baptism

6.30 pm   Easter Evensong, with special music from the choir

MESSY CHURCH FOR
GOOD FRIDAY
Children’s craft morning
Activities to help us think about
Good Friday and Easter

10 - 11.30 am
2nd April

In church, finishing with a short, informal act of worship
All ages welcome, but no unaccompanied children please.

"Why can't we all just get along?"

This month's front page letter from the parish magazine:

“Why can’t we all just get along?”

Those who have chosen to join my Lent group this year, which is called “Poles Apart?”, are thinking about the tensions which divide us from each other. As I look at the wider church at the moment it seems to me that it’s a subject which is very timely (though perhaps, sadly, it is always timely!) There are a number of issues in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, which are coming to a head at this time; debates about gay clergy and the ordination of women bishops, for example. National issues divide us too; sex education in schools, the right to wear symbols of faith to work, assisted dying, whether state-funded faith schools should select pupils on the basis of religious belief. Arguments rage on these issues not only between Christians and non-Christians, but between Christians themselves as well. The media often misses the fact that Christian views on these issues are sometimes deeply divided.

Here in Sevenoaks, of course, we’ve had our own, home-grown furore recently, following the widely reported views of clergy at St Nicholas Church that wives should submit to their husbands. It won’t surprise anyone who knows me to hear that I don’t think this is a healthy pattern for 21st Century marriage, and many people have expressed similar misgivings to me. As I listened to the sermon which sparked the debate on St Nicholas’ website I was especially concerned about the effect this message might have on women (and their children) who are in abusive marriages. One in four women experiences domestic abuse in the course of her lifetime, and a recent Church of England report highlighted the way in which theology which told them to submit to their husbands could contribute to this abuse1.
As you may know I wrote a leaflet outlining my position on these issues for the congregation at Seal, in response to the widespread disquiet I had picked up. (There are still some copies in church, and it can also be downloaded from our church website.) I didn’t take the decision to enter this particular fray lightly, however. I am not a naturally disputatious person and, like many others, often find myself wondering, “Why can’t we all just get along?” Disagreement, though, is an inevitable part of being human. We are all different, with different experiences which inform and shape us, and this will inevitably lead to tension from time to time. The choice which faces us is whether we see our differences solely as problems or whether they can also be gifts, bringing us a wider perspective as we engage with those who hold opposing views. What matters, in the end isn’t whether we disagree – we are bound to sometimes - but how we disagree.
Lent, of course, is a period of preparation for Holy Week and Easter, when we hear again the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. He gives us the supreme example of someone who stood up for – and died for - what he believed in, the infinite worth and dignity of the women, men and children who he encountered struggling and suffering around him. Again and again we see him in the Gospels responding to human need, even if it meant breaking the rules of his faith. He healed on the Sabbath, touched the untouchables of his society, acted in ways which sometimes profoundly shocked others. When he spoke out, it wasn’t to score points or assert his own cleverness or power, however, but because these vulnerable people needed him to. I can’t tell you what you should think or do about the contentious issues which divide us – that is for each of us to work out for ourselves - but it does seem to me that our starting point should be that same concern for the real, flesh and blood people around us, both those with whom we are arguing and those whose lives are made or marred by our decisions.
(Responding To Domestic Abuse - www.cofe.anglican.org/info/papers/domesticabuse.pdf)
Anne Le Bas

Millionaire gives away fortune which made him miserable

A story to inspire? or challenge? - at least to make us think, as we prepare for Lent.

Epiphany Snow 2010

January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany, brought heavy snow.Hilary and  Patrick Coffey captured some wonderful snowy views of Seal from the church tower as they took down the flag which had been flying over Christmas.

It's amazing what you can see from up there - there's even a glimpse of the parish priest and her long suffering husband clearing the snow from the church path...
Thank you to Hilary and Patrick for the pictures (and for "flying the flag" for us!)

Christmas Story

Thank you to all who have worked to make Christmas such a blessed time at Seal Church this year.

The story which I told in our Christmas Morning service - the Christmas Branch - can be found on the church website. Click on the link on the right hand side of the page.

Christmas at Seal

What's on for Christmas at Seal Church?

SUNDAY 20 DEC
10 am All Age worship with an angelic theme
NO Matins this morning
6.30 pm Traditional Carol Service

CHRISTMAS EVE
4pm Crib Service
11.30 pm Midnight Mass (Carols from 11pm)

CHRISTMAS DAY
10 am All Age Communion

And here's a picture of a festive visitor to the vicarage patio...

(Don't worry - there's no pheasant on the menu for Christmas Day in the Le Bas household!)

And a picture of Seal Church hall pretending to be a Swiss chalet...

Women Bishops and the Apostolic Consititution

Earlier in the year I was interviewed, along with other Christians in Sevenoaks, by a BBC online reporter about the controversies surrounding the consecration of women bishops. The same reporter has now done a follow-up piece in the wake of two recent developments in this discussion, the report of the Revision committee looking at the legislation which would be needed for women to be bishops, and the Pope's offer (the Apostolic Constitution) to create an "ordinariate" for Anglicans wishing to become Roman Catholic but keep elements of their Anglican heritage.
The follow up report is here, in case you are interested.