Letter From The Vicarage - May 2012

Dear Friends,

On the 17th May we are celebrating Ascension Day.  It is regarded as one of the important festivals in the Church’s year, but I think it is probably the least observed.  That is probably because we don’t really understand it.

First of all it marks the end of the Easter Season.  It rounds off the Easter Story by describing that Jesus returns to the Father in Heaven.  His mission on earth has been accomplished.  He has shown us as a human being what God is like so far as our finite minds can comprehend that.

In an age when they believed that heaven was literally above the earth, then it made sense to them to describe the event as Jesus ascending upwards into heaven

We use spatial terms still when we want to say that someone achieves something.  We say of a child that he or she goes up to the next class. 

We say of a person who has just heard about a promotion at work or has just got married that he or she is on cloud nine.  We talk about someone being on a high

Secondly, the story of the Ascension reassures us that Jesus is Lord and that he reigns.  Again this may seem a somewhat old fashioned way of speaking, but essentially what it means is that Jesus’ values hold sway or have sovereignty in the world.

We look up to Jesus – again a spatial metaphor.  We find this way of speaking so descriptive.  We try and emulate him or try to be like him because we believe that God’s love and as part of that, the way of sacrifice and service, is the most important way of living our lives.  That is why the Feast of the Ascension is so important and why we ought to observe it.

With all good wishes,

Geoffrey



From the Parish Registers
          

Christenings

Henry Jack Harrison at Cookley - 1st April
Daisy Annabelle Baylet and Matthew Winsper at Cookley - 7th April
Charlie Adam Jones and Cassie Jayne Jones at Wolverley – 14th April
Ruby Emma Garrish at Cookley - 21st April 
William Alfred Manning at Wolverley - 22nd April 

Weddings

Sean Roberts and Lydia Rowles at Wolverley -13th April 
Benjamin Green and Rebecca Cannon at Wolverley -21st April
David Garrish and Emma Green at Cookley -21st April

Funerals

Peter Fellows at Wolverley - 16th April
Joan Chadwick at Wyre Forest Crematorium -17th April
Tom Burkett at Wolverley - 24th April 
John Fereday at Cookley -1st May 

Letter From The Vicarage - April 2012

Dear Friends,

WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote    
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,

So begins one of the finest works in English Literature, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.  In modern English it might be translated somewhat prosaically:

When April with his sweet showers
Has pierced to the root the drought of March…

There is something rather wholesome about the month of April with its gentle showers and warm sunshine bringing everything to life.  It is a real springtime of the year when the deadness of winter blossoms forth.  It’s surprising that the opening speaks of the drought of March.  March has traditionally been associated with wind and rain, but this year the summer has seemed to come early and temperatures have soared.   Evidence of Global Warming we say.  It maybe, but perhaps there have been times in history when weather didn’t follow the traditional patterns.

The Pilgrims on their way to worship at the shrine of Thomas a Beckett in Canterbury entertain themselves by each telling two stories.  Some of them are ribald, even by modern standards, but others are moral tales.  They tend to poke fun at the Church and other highly regarded institutions. 
There is an irreverence which we have to learn to deal with before we can see the truth below the surface.  They have a serious point to make.

This is true of much humour.  Jokes can make us laugh, but sometimes we make many a serious point in jest.

We can say things in funny stories which we can’t say in straightforward language.

The stories of the New Testament, though not funny or humorous are often saying things which straightforward language is incapable of saying.

A composer played a piece of music he had written for a friend.  His friend asked what it meant.  The composer turned to the piano and played it again.  In other words, it is what it is, you can’t explain it in words.  A famous artist said that if he could say something in words, he wouldn’t paint.

Perhaps this is something of what the Resurrection of Jesus is all about.  We can’t translate it into words.  We have to accept it as it is.  It speaks to us about new life, the death of death and gives us hope for the future.  And it does this at the springtime of year, when April’s sweet showers strike at root of March’s drought.

With every blessing this Easter time.

Geoffrey


From the Parish Registers          

Blessing of Matrimony

Colin and Jean Jones at St. Peter’s Cookley 10th March

Funerals

Raymond John Hutton (Stourport) at Wyre Forest Crematorium 6th March
Ronald Rey (Wolverley) at Wolverley Church
and Wyre Forest Crematorium on 7th March
Dorothy Coley (Halesowen) at Stourbridge Crematorium 21st March
Philip Stanford (Wolverley) on 11th April